The Express.
London, England, 1857-08-22 00:00:00

THE POLICE COURTS.

TIIIS DAY.

MANSION-HOTSE.
Henry rntkins, • cab driver, was charged before Sir J.
Musgrove, by police constable J. Fisher, No. 672, with
furiou.ly driving his cab while in a state of intoxication.
The officer said that whilot on duty last night, in
Bishopegate-street, the prisoner, who was driving a cob at
• moat furioue rate, passed him. He called nut to him to
pull up, but the prisoner paid no attention, and continued his
courne till be nu against a heavy waggon, which impeded
his progress. !kestrel persons had hair-breadth escapes from
being run down by him.
The prisoner made no defence.
Sir J. Musgrove .aid he considered that the prisoner had
been guilty of the grossest misconduct, for he hail not only
risked his own life but had perilled the existence of
many passengers in the public streets and thorough-
fares. He did not think that any fine he could inflict
would be an adequate punishment for the offence proved
mildest the prisoner, and he should therefore sentence him
to 14 days' imprisonment.

MARLBOROUGH-STREET.
KORREKT AT THE PANTHEON, OXPOKE.BTREET.
This day, ANNe Taylor, a respectably dressed middle-aged
female was charged with stealing various articles from the
stalls at the Pantheon, Oxford-street.
Elizabeth Campion laid that elle was taking care of a stall
belonging to a young woman named Charlotte Whitney,
when, while she wee looking for an article she heard a hoop
fell from the voanter. She looked round, and saw the
pvianner going away. At the same moment she missed a
lady's morocco leather reticule. She followed the prisoner,
and mewled her of bevies taken it. She denied that she had,
but, on being pressed to produce it she gave it up.
Mr. Bo.don—What is the value of it

Complaimmt—Ten mbillinp and sixpence, sir.
The policeman who had the prisoner in custody produced
a pair of golealteA and a morocco box she had in her pos-
session which had been taken from other stalls.
The prisoner observed that the article was caught by her
shawl.

Thomas Brown, the porter, said that the manager of the
Pantheon wished the charge to be dealt with summarily.
Mr. Hendon wilted the prisoner if she wue guilty?
The prisoner replied that rho was innocent.
On which, Mr. Hendon observed that she must go for
trial.

After some consideration, The carne back and pleaded
guilty.
fthe was cent for Mx month' to the Rouse of Correction.
CLERKENWELL
ARTAIILT NT A CONSTAIILIi ON A OT.NTLTMAN•

One of the constables of the Great Nortbern----ZiWay, of
the name of Buckle, appeared before Mr.Tyrwhitt, in answer
to a RIIIIMOIM charging him with violently wanking Mr.
Barnet
George.
Barfield, • COIIIIMIRCiii traveller, residing at East

The complainant stated that on Monday Met he came
up with Ms wife from Barnet in the morning, and
baring some business to transact, his wife went into
the ladies' waiting-room. He was near the gateway,
when be began to look bark, upon which the defendant
said. "You have no business on the platform." He
replied that he could not leave, that he had just come
by the nein nod that he was waiting for a lady, whereupon
the defendant said he should pat him off. He replied that he
should not go away, when the defendant took hold of him
by. the enllar, and pushed him from the company', pre-
mores. When he said he (the complainant) should go he
poeitively refused to do so.
Mr. Howland said he saw the complainant inside the
gate, After convening with him feminine time the defendant
took hold ..f Mr. Barfield, and thrust him rudely from tho
company'. premites.
The defendant in reply to the charge said hie orders were
that when en excursion train was expected no person was
to be admitted on the platform in consequence of the nume-
rous robberies that had taken place. Ile saw Mr. Barfield
push by one of the policemen at the gate' and when be
told him he could not pass he turned hie hark to the wall,
refuted to say what he wanted, and dared him to touch him.
He then gently walked him outside the gate.
Kr. Wiliam., the inspector , said he was in the superin-
tendent's office when Mr. Barfield complained. He was then
asked whether he said anything to the constable about wait-
ing for a lady, when he replied in the negative.
Mr. Tyrwhitt, in discharging the ease, said it was a great
pity the complainant did not show his seamen ticket or say
ha was waiting for • lady.

Cotturrome.—The Poet-Laureate, Mr. A. Tenny-
son, is at present staying at Tent Lodge, where he will re-
wain about a month. We regret to hear that he in not at
the reseal time to very good health.—Kendal Mercury,

THE LATE LORD COVE TETV-A-f.

(From Caligann's Messenger.)

•
A strange case has just been tried before the Civil
Tribunal of the Seine, in which a poor woman named Batty,
with of a suedl farmer of the Gingule, was the plaintiff, ant{
M. Charles Seguin, yyurcksen of a portion of the pniperiy of
the Earl of Devon, duroased is Pant in 133.5, the defendent.
The eireumstancee which led to the suit were, according to
the plaintiffa counsel, the following :—Towarde the end of
the last entury a young Englishoin fled from hricountry and
took up Lie residence in the village of St. Chastely, in the
Gironde. This person wes at find known •inly by the
name of Thorium, but afterwards ho called himself the
citizen Courtenay, and was in reality, he afterwards
declered, no other than the Esel of Devon. When
the Terror burst over France, the meaner, being still at the
v.llege, WWI with several other persons arrested and impri•
seined in the convent of Demme. There he Lituself poised
elf as an Iriehrum, and never sunned his title. He, how-
ever, inspired a young woman sleeted Marguerite Titan with
an interest for him, and she not only supplied Lite with linen
and many delicacies, but in the end by her knowledge of the
persons in the country succeeded in procuring his liberation.
The young woman being well looking and of grid chorsvter
Courtney married her. Two children were born of this
union—one, a eon, who afterwards became a sailor, and who
lost his life at sea; end the other • girl, who in the COUCLAO
of thee married a farmer named Batty, and who is the plain-
tiff in the present amine. But going back to the time when
Courtenay and his wife were still united, it appears that after
the poem of Amiens, when great animosity was felt against
the English, the husband thought it advisable to leave
France, pruirdeiug to return when the times were calmer. He
promised to send money regularly to hit wife, and shortly
after his departureshe received a letter trots him, then in
America, announcing the transmission of 800 f. for her cup-
port ;_ that sum however, never nine to band, end the wife
was always and the impreeeion that the perigee to whom
it had horn entrusted had turned it to his (Asa
use. Year. rolled On and nothing more war beard
of the fugitive. The wife, after bringing up her
children humbly, at last elpirett, and the daughter married
as stated above. Thirty yearn after the departure of
Courtenav, the daughter received one day an anonymous
letter in Englieb, informiog her that her *lather was dead,
that he had left a large fortune, and that she certainly bed •
right to it, as being his only surviving child. Madame
Batty, conceiving the letter to he a hoax, win unwilling to
interfere, but the neighbour who had translated the letter
fur her urged Ler not to neglect a chance which might, in
the end. put her in possession of an independence. A sort of
agent, named Falempin, undertook to invest Tete the meter,
and even wrote to the English consul at Bonle tux
for information, but nothing CAWe of it. Nearly
ten yeses after, a person front I'arie having to
visit on business the part of the country in which
Madame Batty lived, heard of the story and thought it
worth white making an inquiry. Acoordingly, when he
returned to Paris he ascertained that the Earl oe Devon had
returned to England in ISIS, and, after taking possession of
his largo estate., had fixed his residence at Parts, in the Place
Vendome, where he had a splendidly forniehed hotel. In
Ifni he purchased the estate of Brinell, five leagues from
l'arie, on the road to Corbeil, and then seemed content to
live in the west retired manner, one part of the )e tr in Paris,
and the rest at his country seat. He MAW noon° but bin agent,
named Woods. and the two:daughters of that person. He at
het died, leaves; the greater portion of his property toWooda's
children, who, atuen,g other acts, sold Dimwit to M. Dellex
front whom it parsed afterwards into the hmde of M.
Seguin, the defendant in the present ease. When the person
who has heard in the country of Mine. Batty's claim com-
menced making his inquiries, all the, property left by the
diveased etrl bad been disposed of and nothing war available
but David. To recover that estate was consequently the
°lied of the present action. The whole can turned on the
one point—was Thomas Couetney who married Marguerite
Titan the same pert on as the Earl of Devon, who expired
in Paris. In support oftthe affirmative, the teemed
for the plaintiff declared that Courtenay, the fugitive,
at first called himself Thomas, but afterwards Wit-
ham, When euleepuently. he had gained more confidence
in the state of pnblie affairs in Franco, he added to his name
the title of earl, and a nate of hand was produced in court
for the aunt of 413 fr., dated the year X, signed Ly Courtney,
with his title added to the name. The writing of this docu-
ment was alleged to bear some eimilitude to that of
the holograph will of the deceased eel. In addi-
tion, for the plaintiff were produced letters from per-
sons who still lived, and who had had been prisoners
with Thomas Courtenity at the time of the Ter-
ror, declaring that he had in intimate conver-
sations asserted himself to be the Earl of Devon.
For the defendant, it was alleged that all the as-
*artists' relative to the residence of the Earl of I)evon in
Paris, his sube.equent death, and his leaving his property to
the children of Woods, were perfectly correct. But beyond
that point, the case of the plaintiff hod no foundation what-
ever. The Christian name of the earl was William, whereas
the other had not only called himself Theca., but signed
that name to the documents produced. In additem, when
Mine. Batty was about to be 'leveled, she had to
produce her certificate of birth, and in it she is declared
to be the daughter of Thomas Courtney, who had
biomel made at the moron the declaration of her birth,
declaring himself to be an Irishman. She also produced the
certificate of her father's decease; and if that document was
authentic, hew could any claim apply to the property of Lord
Courtney, who wan living many years afterwards ? The
only thing that appeared incentestible in the case was that
the plaintiff was cerhunly the daughter of Thomas Courtena
but not one particle of evidence was forthcoming to identi
that person with William Courtenay, the deceased ear
The court, after a short deliberation, declared that the
identity was not proved, and consequently tenanted the
plaintiff, condemning her to costs.

IIOW ARE TFORAWYS ROUSES TO BE BUILT

IN EDINBURGH?

Under this title, the Rey. Dr. Begg writes a letter
to the Lord Provost, in which he rays To build work-
men', boners with advantage, they must of course be built in
quantities. Land, plans, contracts, all can be goteleapea if got
wholesale, and if well aired, dry, comforteble, well situated
workmen's houaes could thus be erected and sold to each
workman at wholesale price, au immense object would be
gained. The property investment companies have been
extremely useful, especially to the elan above the
working men; but inasmuch as they have not, like
the English and Irish societies, done anything in the
way of buying land or building additional homes, they
Lave, by increasing the number of purchasers, only
raised the value of all the second-rate property at present in
existence. They have not an yet gone by any means to the
root of the mischief, nor can they ever du so upon the pre-
sent plan. They have been moot valuable in teaching and
encouraging frugality and forethought in many of our cili-
a/me, and in acting as a kind of bankers for managing the
money of their members; but their full utility and value
will only be discovered, as well as that of the savings banks,
when a scheme is set on foot for anneunding the whole city
with new clutters of comfortable and suitable houses, which
the people may have it in their power to buy by meant of the
existing machinery form-cumulating money. Now, what I pro-
pore is to raise a capital for this express purpose. Two friends
of mine have offered to advance 100/. each with this view;
I shell advent.° another; and if forty or fifty men in Edin-
burgh will do the aurae—in other words, if 4,000/. or 6,0001.
can be railed for this express purpose, I think I see how the
entire ground-floor of our society m,sh, in due time be ele-
vated above the present level of de ation. Let this money
be advanced upon the principle of limited liability, and let the
issue be tested and each subscriber be allowed to retire Ether*
j b any lees of funds at the end of the first, and of every sue-
csieding operation—let the funds be banded over to a com-
mittee of first-class men of skill arid experience—
let them begin by erectiog a number of houses upon the
most approved plan, say from forty to fifty, in the moat dense
neighbourhoods of working men—let them houses be cold to
the workmen in retail at cost price, after calculating all
expenses—let the men, by means of Ravings banks and in-
vestment companies, purchaese them—let the capital thus ex-
tricated, be again immediately removed to another locality,
and the same operation repeated ; and let this be done again
and again until the whole neceasitim of the working classes
of Edinburgh are supplied, or until they have learned the art
of combination for the aeromplishment of such an object as
to be independent of help."

A WATERSPOCT BELOW Qugar.c.—The Rev. L.
Proula, prim of St. Eleanor, county of hewer, writes to the
James! de ()xebec a very graphic description of a waterspout
which devastated hie parish, and of which be was an eye-
witness. A large and dark cloud was overhanging the plate
on Sunday forenoon, 18th July, when a noire as that of the
sea in a storm, gave warning of the approach of something
unusual. Soon the cloud seemed to buret, letting fall to-
wer& the earth a Ping train, somewhat in the shape of a
funnel, with the email end turned downwards. It revolved
rapidly, hissing like escaping steam, and swinging to and
fro, and imitating the contortions of a snake. When the
small end reached the ground it lifted and carried
away in its revolving impetus whatever it came in contact
with. Boards, timber, stones, and portions of houses were
whirled in the air and thrown at a distance with a fearful
report. Several houses were thus rimed to the ground. Ono
horse and three cows were drawn by the power of auction to
the waterspout, and after being raised high in the air, were
let gradually down; they escaped uninjured, and were only
covered with mud. Five carte were carried to • great height,
and thrown across some fields into the woods, being scusahed
by the fall. Large trees, such as maples, have been up-
rooted, and removed a distanoe of tire acres. This phe-
nomenon, although disastrous and awful, must, however,
have been a sublime sight, which it is granted to very few,
especially In Canada, ever to witness.
MAeTER WATERLOO; A somewhat curious case
isabout to be submitted to the Ci vil Tribunal of Amsterdam :
An inhabitant of that city presented himself on the 18th Jane
last at the office of the registry of births, and stated that
having had a child born that day, the annivereary of the
battle of Waterloo, he had given it the names of Peter Henry
Waterloo, and wished him to be so registered. The official
remarked that Waterloo was not a regular Christian name,
and that consequently it mug be eeneideeed as a surname i
he therefore declined to register thst name on the ground
that by Article 63 of the Datil Civil Code no one can
change or add to his surname without the authorisation of
the King. The Other of the child hes taken legal proceed-
ings to compel the registration of the names he has chosen,
and the decWon of the tribunal is looked, forward to wits
inbred.