The Express.
London, England, 1866-12-17 00:00:00

THE POLICE COURTS.

WESTMINSTER.
Mr. James Alexander Mills, proprietor of the Castle
public-house, Great Chapel-rtteet, Westmnter, was
with a desperate assault upon Ann Macarthy,
whochel two most serious wounds on her head
ch fliarge
cted
with a huge knobbed bludgeon. In support of the
it was proved by the complainant and some witnesses that
she was at the defendants house on the 10th instan
them
t with
a ccetermonger, when some words occurred
between .
The defendant threatened to turn her out, when the cos-
when
termonger offered to take her out, and was doing so,
the defendant struck him on the head with the bludgeon,
and he ran out to get the police. The complainant was
following him, when the defendant struck her two or
three times with the bludgeon, and some of the blows were
inflicted while she was on the ground. She was con-
veyed to the hospital after she had suffered great loss of
blood.
It was shown, in the cross-examination by Mr. Smyth for
the defendant, that complainant had been repmtedly
at this court, and was a person of drunken and
edisahleudte habits.
The defence was that the complainant used most dis-
Efernntwilr_guntha:,sred
rewg:Ldetroedgout ofdthttlai whenb the
defendant took hold of her to eject her she and her two
companions repeatedly struck the landlord, the com-
plainant using a quart pot, with which she cut his nose.
Ile then called for his staff to defend himself, when she
threw herself down and pinned the calf of his leg with her
teeth. That ho struck her on the head upon her refusing
to leave go, and that upon her again seizing him he re-
peated the blow. Witnesses were called in rapport of this,
and it was shown that the staff was kept and used on such
. _

occasions.
Mr. Selfe, who would not permit a compromise, said
that nothing could justify the use of such a formidable
weapon by a very powerful man like the defendant while
in such a position. Unworthy as complainant was of all
sympathy, he must, for the sake of the public, mark his
aense of the use of such a murderous instrument by fining
him 201. He ought to commit him to prison without a
fine, but refrained from doing so, as it might be his ruin.
The money was paid.
WORSHIP-STREET.
William Underwood, a pale-faced, dejected-looking boy
of 14 years, was charged with stealing a pair of boots,
value Ns. lid., from the doorway of a shoemaker's shop in
the Whitechapel-road.
The charge was proved, and the prisoner had nothing
to say.
A careworn woman of middle age, who had been weep- I
ing aloud from the moment the lad was charged, ea-
claimed, " Oh! pray, sir, deal mercifully with him. If
he has done this thing it was from want, for his father, a
dock labourer, has not had a stroke of work during the
past month. Not any of us have tasted a bit of bread this
day yet. My poor boy has done no wrong before this that
I am aware of."
Mr. Ellison—Very well, I shall remand him, for I must
satisfactorily ascertain what his character is ; but if his
father likes to attend to bail him out he may. The pri-
soner stands remanded for a week, and (to the usher) let
this poor creature have a meal of victuals and a half -
crown.
The boy was locked up, and his mother sobbed her way
of court.

PLATING AT HIGHWAYMEN.—OR Saturday, Mr.
Richards, deputy-coroner, held an inquest, at the London
Hospital, on view of the body of James Thomas Baze,
aged 12 years, who was shot by a schoolfellow. John
Lawless, a little boy, said that at 7 o'clock on the evening
of Friday week a woman dropped three halfpence in the
gutter in Backchurch-lane. A little boy, named Purcell,
got a penny of it, and gave d. ceased a farthing orange. A
boy, named John Bridgen, who attended the same school,
came up with a large pistol and said, " If you don't give
me that orange I will blow your eye out !" Deceased said,
"No ; I have got to give other boys some." Bridgen said,
" If you don't I will blow your eye out," and in two or
three minutes he fired at him, and shot his eye out.
Deceased fell at once. Witness did not think Bdgen
really intended to shoot deceased, for they. used ton play
together, and were members of the same choir. John Brid-
gen, a lad 13 years of age, was cautioned in the usual
way. He stated that be was the son of a gunsmith living
at 19, Waggoner's-buildings, near the Commercial-road.
On the night previous to this occurrence the deceased
made him "Stand and deliver!" with a wooden pistol ;
witness, therefore, got an old pistol in his father's work-
shop, and thought he would frighten him. He bought a
halfpennyworth of powder at a shop kept by a Mr. Bradley,
and loaded the pistol, but put in no shot. When he met
the deceased he said, "Stand and deliver!" in the usual
way ; tho pistol went off, but witness thought that it could
not, for he believed that he had put it at half-cock. Wit-
ness Mid not see that he had an orange. The Rev. Mr. Scott
said that the occurrence all arose through the boys playing
at " Dick Turpin the Dashing Highwayman,' in conse-
quence of reading a vile romance of that name. The boy
Bridgen, he since learned, was going to have a play at
Christmas of Dick Turpin, and he and his playmates were
practising highway robbery of one another in sport, to get
their hands in. That mischievous kind of play was made
popular by the " penny gaffs "of the East-end. Mr. D.
Thorpe, house-surgeon, said that deceased was brought in
on the night of the 7th inst., with a gun-shot wound in the
eye. He died from his injuries on Wednesday last. The
coneuqsion from the discharge, close to the eye, had frac-
tured the skull. The jury returned a verdict, " That de-
ceased ,lied from the effects of a pistol-shot wound acci-
dentally inflicted on him by John Bridgen, and the jury
deprecate the practice of tradesmen selling gunpowder to
young boys without making any inquiry or mierciling any
caution."
DI,NIISAAL OF PROVOST 31ARSHAL RAMSAY. —The
unceremonious ignoring of the bill of indictment for
murder preferred against Provost blarishal Ramsay, at the
St. Thomas-in-the-East Circuit 'ourt, must by this time
be known to our readers in England. Ramsay has since
been dismissed, not simply from the police, in which he
held the appointment of inspector for the precinct of St.
Catherine, but from the puolic service. To Ranisay's
friends this is a cause of much disappointment, to the
"upper" awl the "governing and property" classes, it
appears an outrage towards as man who played such a con-
spicuous part on the side of "loyalty" during the late
" rebellion ;" to all right thinking and honest men, how-
ever, it appears, as it appeared to his Excellency the Go-
vernor, " inexpedient" that one whose name is so singe •
larly immortalised as is that of Ramsay in connexion with
' Morant Bay, should be retained in the public service.
This, as punishment for all that he has done, is little
enough ; but there are men who think it hard that even
' thus much should have been meted out to him.—Kingsten
' (Jamaica ) Morning Journal, Nov. 24.
THE CHURCH IN JAMLIC t. —There is something
significant of the future in church history in this colony,
manifest in a circular from the acting financial secretary
to the several clerks of the vestries throughout the island.
The parishes are henceforth to be relieved "of the expen-
diture heretofore incurred by them for ecclesiastical pur-
poses." Henceforth dissenters, Roman catholic', and
Jews who do not attend the State church are not to be
called upon to contribute of their means for the purposes
of that church. Is it too much to hope that the day is not
far distant when they shall be relieved of the glaring in-
justiee of having to support the church itself ? It is consi-
dered, and considered justly too, that " the congre-
gations attached to the several churches and chapels
of the island may with propriety and advantage be
called on to contribute the funds " for all objects of
church expenditure, except the repairs of the buildings.
Is this not simply fair? Have not the people of all other
creeds and denominations to provide and keep up their own
temples for the worship of God ? Have they not to meet
all the expenditure incidental thereto? Why, then,
should they contribute for the purposes of other chinches
in which they have no faith, and from which they derive
no benefit There is nothing like having a ' strong
government, guided by a firm hand." It is able to do
justice in matters which • liberal government would not
dare to broach. To all who are unconnected with the
established church the course determined on by the
government will give • comforting assurance of the
future.—Kingston (Jamaica) Morning Jawed, Nov. 24.
It ieunderstood (says the Sunday Gazette) that
prosecutions are forthwith to be commenced against the
incumbents of churches in the diocese of London in which
extreme ritualistic practices are observed, the prosecutions
to be undertaken by laymen, and to be in every way inde-
pendent of the Bishop of London, except that they will be
commenced in the consistorial court of his diocese. The
cases will be proceeded with under the Church Discipline
Act, and as the commissioners appointed by the bishop
will have no difficulty about proof of the matters sub-
mitted to their consideration, they will be sent by letters
of request to the Court of Arches. Whatever the deci-
sion of the Dean of the Court of Arches may be, there will,
as • matter of course, be an appeal to the Judicial Com-
mittee of the Privy Council, by which body it may be
hoped the disputed points may be set at rest.