The Express.
London, England, 1866-05-10 00:00:00

THE POLICE COURT&

MANSION-HOUSE.

Yesterday two well-dressed foreigners were placed at
the bar, before Alderman Sir R. W. Carden, on the charge
of defrauding divers individual.. The prisoners gave the
names of William Descoers, of 33, \rem-street, Lincoln's-
inn-fields, grocer, and the other described himself as being
Louis Beining, of 36, John-street, Tottenham-oonrt-road,
agent ; and the prisoners were charged with obtaining, by
false pretences, divers sums of money from M. Forst, a
French notary, and others.
Mr. Wontner, jun., appeared for the prosecution, which
he stated was undertaken by the French consul, and it
would appear that, the two prisoners had been con-
nected with two men who were already convicted,
and undergoing punishment for the frauds in
which they bad been participators. It would be
found that a well-concocted scheme of fraud bad
been partially and successfully carried out. So long
ago as the November Sessions of the Central Criminal
Court two men, named Jourdain and Barth, had been con-
victed of frauds of the same nature, and it would be
shown that the two prisoners were engaged in a continu-
anoe of the same nefarious traffic. Ile evidence of that
able officer, detective sergeant Foulger, established the
fact that the two prisoners had taken divers plains under
the pretence of conducting the professed business of conti-
nental and international express agent., and under that
announcement they had taken aloes in the neighbour-
hood of Lincoln's-inn-fields under the name of Lay
and Company. Another establishment was opened by
the prisoners in -street, Islington, under
the name of Dobly and mpany ; and a third concern
was opened under the form of 'Ay and Company. It was
shown that for those presumed offices of business no rent
had been paid, and that the prisoners received at each of
those establishments numerous foreign letters in reply to
those addressed abroad to the effect that they, as conti-
nental agents, had received valuable papers from Mel-
bourne, in Australia, which would be forwarded on receipt
of postage stamps to the amount claimed, namely,
17 francs 75 centimes. These stamps were remitted by
Mr. Foyer and the other parties, and when the prisoners
were taken into custody by Detective-officer Foulger, the
letters and the French postage stamps so remitted were
found upon them.
On this evidence the prisoners were remanded foraweek.

SUICIDE FROM THE CLIFTON SUSPENSION-BRIDGE.
—A profound sensation was produced yesterday morning
at Clifton (Bristol) and the Clifton Hotwells, in conse-
quence of its becoming known that Mr. George Green, •
gentleman of fortune sad • member of en old family of
Bristol merchan's, had committed suicide by throwing him-
self from the dizzy height of the Clifton Suspension-bridge,
on to the bed of the river Avon below. Mr. Green, who
resided at Peterhead, a fashionable watering:place abutting
on the Bristol Channel, on the Somersetshire side, pre-
muted himself at the toll-house of the bridge and took a
return ticket, for which he tendered a sixpenny p;ece. On
his change being offered to him he objected to halfpence,
and salmi for and received a fourpenny bit. He appeared
to be in a thoughtful mood, and was observed topress one
of his hands upon his head as if suffering some painful sen-
sation there. He then walked on to the bridge, and meet-
ing as he passed some gentlemen whom he knew in a
carriage, he was saluted by them and nodded • return
recognition. Almost immediately afterwards he placed
his hands upon the railings of the bridge, which are about
four feet high and jumped over. His body was observed
to twirl over and over as it descended, and then to fall
with a heavy thud upon the mud of the Avon, where the
tide had receded. The persons who beheld the fall mere
almost paralysed with fear, but an alarm being given, some
workmen engaged on the Peterhead Railway came to the
spot, and ropes being procured, the body was drawn on
shore and removed to the Angel Inn, Ashton, where it
awaits a coroner's in pest. The deceased was married.
THE FALL OF A BRIDGE AND LOSS OF SIX LIVES
AT CABSHALTON HILL.—An inquiry, lasting six hours, was
yesterday concluded by Mr. W. Carter, Surrey coroner, at
the Windsor Castle tavern, Carshalton, into the circum-
stances of the fall of an accommodation bridge over the
London and Sutton Extension of the South Coast Rail-
way on the 28th April, by which six labourers were buried
alive and killed. Mr. H. C. Gough, C.E., described the
construction of the bridge, which consisted of one
composedarch,
88 feet span, aid wee composed of brink set in cement and
mortar made of blue lies lime. It was commenced in
November last, and was finished at the end of December.
During its progress the weather was unfavourable,
and therefore the centring was not knocked away com-
pletely until the 18th April. He could not account for the
bridge falling. It was just possible that the rains had soft-
ened the mortar. The materials and workmen were good.
A labourer named James King said that the mortar was
bad, and that the materials he got to make it with were not
good. He was never allowed proper time to make the
mortar. He had not been discharged. Two witnesses,
however, deposed that James Kmg was always in trouble
for laziness and had been discharged. A man named
Marsh, a brother-in-law of one of the men killed by the
falling in of the arch on the 28th April, said that he had
been at work underneath it on the 27th, and had then
noticed that part of it was " all manner of shapes," and
he felt such fear that be asked to be put on another
job ; but he did not tell the sub-contractor or any one in
authority what he had seen. The Coroner asked the wit-
ness why he did not call attention to what he had seen when
he knew that others, and his own brother-in-law amongst
them, had to work under the bridge. The witness—lt
wan not my place to do so. The Coroner said that
workmen did themselves great injury by recklessly acting
on the principle that what was every man's business was
nobody's business. It was ascertained that no workmen
had been discharged, as was stated, for refusing to work
at the bridge before it fell. There was no keystone of chalk
let into the bridge. The whole structure was brickwork,
resting on chalk rock. The jury, after long deliberation,
returned • verdict, " That the deaths of the six deceased
men were accidentally caused by the giving way of the
bridge."
COMPULSORY VACCINATION.—Yesterday evening
a public meeting was held in the St. Luke's National
School-room, Nutford-place, Edgware-road, to protest
against the penal elutes of the Vaccination Bill, now re-
leered to • select committee of the House of Commons.
The meeting was addressed by J. Caplin, M.D., J. Morri-
son, R. R. Gibbs, and other gentlemen, and it was re-
solved to petition the House of Commons for the repeal of
the existing acts of parliament providing penalties for
the non-performance of vaccination, and that her Majesty
the Queen be memoralized to issue an inquiry into the
effects of vaccination on the public health.
THE CATTLE PLAOUE At-r.—A supplement to the
London Oavdte was published last evening containing an
order in council extending the operation of the provisions
of the Cattle Plague Act to the 30th June.
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