The Express.
London, England, 1858-04-19 00:00:00

LLMBETti.

Jaw Gordon, the keeper of the Coach and Horses beer-
house, Cold Harbour-lane, Brixton, appeared before Mr.
Elliott to answer to a summons charging him with keeping
and using a rat-pit, and causing. dog to be tortured, con-
trary to law.
From the evidence in the case It appeared that in conse-
quence of an advertisement in one of the sporting papas,
commencing " A rat-killing match," Police-constable Ham-
mond, 10, and Ager, 334, went to the house of the defend-
ant on the 6th instant, and found a number of mesons in a
part of the premises in which there was a rat-pit. The de-
fendant was in the pit et the time with a number of rats and
• dog, and turned out some of the former to the latter. The
dog killed several of the rats and then became quite =-
knotted, but by the encouragement of the defendant he killed
a few more. The animal appeared perfectly incapable of de-
straying any more of the rata, and was taken up in a state of
=teems exhaustion, and handed out of the pit, and its month
was observed to be very much bitten by the vermin it had
had to encounter.

In reply to the questions of the magistrate, the witnesses
said that fourpence was charged for admission to the place,
and that there were from forty to fifty persons there to wit-
nos the exhibition.

The defendant, in reply to the chugs, denied beeping the
P for public purposes, but merely to train a few little
" toys," or terriers, to rat-killing. He also denied that the
dog in eureka was in the exhausted state described, or
bitten in the month, for the best reason tiat there wee not a
sheik rat turned out to him which had a single tooth In its
bud.

He celled s witness named Jones, who said he was the
parson who had taken the dog out of the pit from the de-
fendant, and he swore that the bitch we. u lively, and
"more livelier," when she left the pit than when she
entered it.

Other ',Enemas were called, who spoke to the general
kinds= and humanity of the defendant and his wife • bat
Mr. Elliott pronounced such exhibitions as those described
as quite illegal, and offensive to humanity and common
&nutty, and convicted the defendant in a penalty of 40s. and
costa.

Tbs penalty was at mos paid.
_ _ THAMES.

Captain William Basor;;;;,&nsater of the ship Prince
Alfred, lying in the West India Import Dock, appeared to
=ewer a charge of assaulting a sailor-boy named James
Henry Welch, since deceased, on the high seas, on or about
the 20th of October last.

Yr. Charles Young, solicitor, conducted the prosecution;
Yr. J. G. Fletcher defended the locused.

The aptaiu and 11ro---Orhianiateswiee before the magic-
true on Friday to make " protests" for the Board of Trade
relating to the death of the boy, and in their declaration
staled that the boy having committed some offence, the cap-
tain took a small riding-whip, beat him, and lent him aloft,
as a punishment.
Mr. Young said the relatives of the deceased boy had taken
oat a summons for an assault only ; but be should be pre-
pared to show that the boy's death arose from the inhumanity
practised towards him. The boy made a statement in the
presence of three persona, and signed it. The statement wee
to the following effect :—That while the ship was at Manilla,
the captain, who had been on shore, called the boy into the
cabin, shut the doors, and asked him, in the presence of the
erst and second mates, and the doctor, if he could read, to
which be replied in the affirmative; and he was then com-
pelled to read a letter, after which be was smartly dogged
with a riding whip, end sent up to the mast-head. At that
time it was raining, and he had wounds on his back, which
all hands would prove.
Mr Belie saked if the case oould be completed that day
Mr. Young replied in the negative, on which
Mr. Belk intimated that he was going away for ten days on
scoottnt of ill-health, and that the cue had better be com-
menced and completed before Mr. Yardley.
The Inquiry was then adjourned until Tuesday.