The Express.
London, England, 1853-09-07 00:00:00

FRENCH POLICE CASES.

The Tribunal of Correctional Police on Saturday
tried a man named Omni for brutally assaulting seven
masons. The accused is a professional wrestler, and is
known by the name of the " Porte Saint Denis." He is
accustomed to make exhibitions of his skill in wrestling,
and of his great macular force, at fairs and in public-
houses. Some days ago he went to a public-house where
some masons were drinking, and offered to lay a wager of
four bottles of wine that he would lift four men. The
wager was accepted ; but of the four men who presented
themselves he let three fall. The masons demanded pay-
ment of the wager; he refused, on the pretext that the first
trial was not to be considered definitive. A quarrel ensued,
and he proceeded to attack the masons. One had four
teeth broken and his jaw dislocated ; another had his nose
broken; and a third had his eyes blackened; a fourth
was so hurt in the ankle that he has since walked lame;
a fifth was greatly hurt in the hand; a sixth received
dreadful kicks ; and a seventh got such a blow on the
bask of the head as to cause internal injuries. The
man's defence was, that he had been first attacked by the
masons. The Tribunal condemned him to six months'
imprisonment.
The police authorities have been recently exercising the
most rigid surveillance, in order to clear the capital of nu-
merous dangerous characters. Out of 1,500 who have been
interrogated, and whose papers were found not be regular,
207 have been detained in arrest, either for rupture of ban
or for not complying with the rules required by the surveil-
ance under which they had been placed.
An old man, apparently about 70 years of age, who had
lived for 28 years in a garret of the same house, No. 47.
Boulevart Montparnasse, was lately missed for a couple of
days, and the commissary of polies being informed of the
circumstance, had the door opened by a Inckemitb. The
old man was found lying dead on has hentinpparently car-
ried off by apoplexy. The filth of the garret was indescrib-
able, as, to all appearance, the piece had not been swept for
the whole time the old man had lived there. The mattress
on which the body lay feeling hard to the touch, was opened
and found to contain an extraordinary collection of heteroge-
neous articles—bones, razor-strops, old umbrellas, tool of va-
rious kinds, shovels, tongs, canes, several bags filled with old
nails, an immense number of buttons and other things. In
an old chest of drawers were found a sum of 70fr. and
different papers, amongst which some showed that the old
man received a pension from a relation in the country.
During the whole time that the old man lived in the garret,
he sedulously avoided speaking to any one in the neigh-
bourhood, and even went to a distance to buy his daily
supply of provisions.
On Saturday evening a thief managed to get into an
hotel in the Hue de Lille, and, breaking open the door of
an apartment occupied by the Count de Larochefoncault,
woo was absent, carried off a bag containing 1,000 fr.,
which had been placed in a secretary.
A ung journeyman decorative painter left Paris some
time back to pay a long visit to his parents, residing in a
village at no great distance from Paris. He there h.eame
acquainted with a workwoman named Octavio, sad . liaison
became established between them. They were accustomed
to meet every evening in a little wood closed with palings.
About ten evenings back at nine o'clack whilst they were
in the wood, they heard the noise of footsteps advancing
towards them, and saw a female, whom they
recognised as an inhabitant of the village, ad-
vance with a dark lantern and a bundle. Stop-
ping at no great distance from them, she pro-
ceeded to dig a hole; and to their horror they saw her de-
posit the body of a newly-born child in it. She then co-
vered the body with earth, and replaced the turf, which she
had removed with great precaution. When she had gone
away they left the wood, and they agreed not to say any-
thing of what they had seen. But the affair made each en
impression on the mind of the girl that she was seized with
a violent fever, and became delirious. In one of her at-
tacks, two days ago, she stated what she had witnessed.
Information was given to the authorities, and the woman
was questioned. She admitted that, living separate from
her husband, she had had intimate relations with an inha-
bitant of the village, the result of which was that she be-
came enceinte. She contrived to conceal her state from ber
neighbours, and delivered herself secretly. The child she
said was born alive, and she strangled it at once to prevent
its cries from reaching the ears of the neighbours. She
then concealed the body in a coal-bin, and kept it until the
exhalrtions from it became offensive ; whereupon she
buried it in the wood. She was taken into custody.—
Galignani.

CiAB LIME EXEMPT FROM Tom,.--i.An interesting
point was decided at the Worcester petty sessions on Tues.
day last. A tollgate keeper charged Mr. Payne, a farmer,
of Renwick, with refusing to pay toll on a load of gas lime.
The defence was that gas lime is a chemical manure, which
the statute expressly exempts; and, after a lengthened ex-
amination, and heari g scientific ►vidence, the magistrates
dismissed the charge, considering this description of htne to
be exempt—Birmingham Casette.
POLLING AT ELECTIONIL—It is enacted by a sta-
tute of the late session, that in future no polls shall be
taken at inns, hotels, public houses, Stc., or in any booth
or place communicating with such, unless by the consent
of all the candidates expressed in writing.