The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-05-10 00:00:00

TO THE COMMISSIONERS OF TAXES,

Gentlemen, —I beg leave to submit to your indulgent con-
sideratio❑ a few remarks referring to the unfortunate position in
which lam placed. I shall not attempt to vindicate my con-
duct in point of law, for I know it to be in this respect
indefensible, and I am conscious that I have acted in direct
violation of it. But I feel anxious to offer such observations
as may possibly extenuate the gravamen of the charge brought
against me.
I havo collected, it is alleged, under the denomination of
land tax, a larger amount of money than the law has sanc-
tioned. This I admit, but I. must beg leave to refer to two
circumstances, of which one induced me to commence and the
other to continue the collection, though illegal. Several years
ago I incurred, in various ways, an expense of £9 or £lO in
defending an action brought against me for what was alleged to
be an illegal seizure for tha non-payment of taxes. I acted in
this matter under the advice of your clerks, Messrs.
Rowson and Cross, and also of Mr. Cottell, the surveyor.
Subsequently I brought the matter under their consideration
for the purpose of ascertaining in what way I was to be reim-
bursed the expenditure to which I had been subjected. The
answer to my enquiry was, that the only method sanctioned by
law was by laying an assessment upon the township of Everto❑
for this express purpose ; that they would allow me to make an
assessment, and procure the sanction of the commissioners to
authorise we to collect the amount claimed. I humbly solicit
your attention to this point. There were then in Everton
about 4,000 occupiers, and the few pounds charged i❑ the
duplicate would ❑ecessarily have to bo divided in due propor-
tions among the whole.

My predecessor, David Griffiths, had been a defaulter to the
Government, and a re-assessment, as it was termed, had been
laid upon the township, to cover the amount of his defalcation.
The labour and annoyance which this collection imposed upon
me far exceeded that of the regular collection of the taxes, and
the remembrance of it deterred me from the repetition of any
act resembling it. At a subsequent meeting in this office I
again introduced the subject, and intimated to Mr. Cross and
Mr. Easther, the surveyor, that I conceived a small addition
to the land tax for a few years would open a method by which
I might he reimbursed. Mr. Cross replied (and I well remem-
ber his words), "That plan, Mr. Hughes, is you
cannot increase the amount of land tax charged upotfEver.
ton. If you adopt it, it must be on your own responsibility ;
the commissioners cannot give their sanction to it." Mr.
Easther remarked—" I wish, Mr. Hughes, you had done it
without consulting us." In this originated the illegal or
fraudulent collection in question. I may add, that about
two years ago another action was brought against me under
circumstances somewhat similar, and altogether I have incurred
an exoenditure of £l2 or £l3.

1,4141 now, with your permission, advert to another subject
which had considerable influence in inducing me to proceed in
this illegal collection.
The number of dogs annually assessed by me in the town-
ship of Everton amounted, I believe, to nearly 550, and I
have usually collected not less than 99 per cent, of the duties.
I am unable fully to explain to the commissioners the immense
labour and incessant annoyance which the collection of these
duties imposed upon me. Nevertheless, I considered it my
duty to assess all persons who kept dogs, irrespective of their
circumstances in life ; if these were good they ought to pay;
if poor and unable to do so, they ought t) part with them.
I allude to this circumstance in order to have an opportunity
of stating that for several weeks each year I found it necessary
to employ a person, almost for the express purpose, in assisting
me in the collection of the duties charged upon dogs. A large
number of persons assessed would actually remove from their
abodes for the sole object of evading the payments, and these
I consider it my duty, if practicable, to discover. I may add,
that of the four townships under the superintendence of Mr,
Mayne, in Everton alone, nearly as many dogs were assessed
as the aggregate of the other three.

I shall- new advert to another subject, not for the purpose of
claiming merit or praise—for what merit can a person claim for
simply discharging his duty?—but because the unfortunate
position in which I am placed compels me to bring it under the
notice of the commissioners.

I was appointed to my office in the year 1847, and during
the whole period down to the present time I have never once
been censured by the commissioners, or by their clerks, the
Messrs. Rowson and Cross, or by any surveyor, whether Mr.
Cotten, Mr. Esther, or Mr. Malne. The absence of censure
I consider equivalent to an approval of my conduct. In fact,
I have frequently, both by Mr. Cottell and Mr. Easther, been
commended far my diligence and the unceasing energy and
industry with which I have discharged my important duties.
In the adjacent townships, now under the supervision of Mr.
Mayne, for several years, both the commissioners and the sur-
veyors were subjected to much annoyance by the misconduct
of the collectors. This sometimes proceeded from imbecility,
or inattention to the discharge of the duties of their offices, and
sometimes from embezzlement and defalcation. And oven my
predecessor, Mr. David Ciriffiths, collected from the township
of gverton, by means of false books, nearly Xl5O annually,
under the denomination of window duty, property tax, and
assessed taxes In general. These frauds were, as they were
discovered, reported by me to Mr. Cottell ; and I wilt' venture
to assert that since I have held my office everything liable
to assessment has been brought Nta elOge, as far at least as
my knowledge extended. In the past year, as Mr. Mayne
can attest, I have assessed 450 new houses and premises
-of various descriptions, rendered liable since April, 1855.
I may add that these assessments weie made beton the
investigation of the present unfortunate subject by the
overseers came to my knowlcidgo. 4tnd now, gentlemen,
I am shortly ahoßt to retire into the obscurity of private
life--'into that obscurity which I have for many years
ardently desired. My evil fate, or destiny, or my own
imprudence, has made me a tax gatherer, and in making me
one has brought me very largely into public notice, whilst
the wish of my heart has been expressed by the philosophical
poet wLen he remarks—
" Non male vixit, qui vivens morinsque
that he has not ill discharged the duties of life who, living and

In reference to the penalty, if the commissioners conceive it
imperative upon them to inflict one, I humbly trust that my
past services as assessor and collector will not be overlooked,
and induce them to reduce it to the smallest possible amount
( Signed) THO3IAS HUGHFS.
The commissioners then retired, and after some con-
sideration, returned into court.
Mr. Moss said : Mr. Hughes, it is with very great
pain the bench see a person of your education and
ability placed in the situation you are in. They are of
opinion that there are certainly six cases brought
against you, and proved against you, of illegally levying
money. They find you guilty of these charges, and
they cannot say how far beyond these it may have gone.
The bench, therefore, sentence you to the extreme
penalty of £4O.
The defendant said the money should be paid, and
asked if any other charge of a similar nature could be
brought against him.
Mr. Moss : We cannot enter into that; we have dis-
posed of the cases at present against you.
Defendant : I believe, sir, there is only one person in
the township of Everton who would, under any circum-
stances, come forward to re-open the charges. There
is one person, and that person is now in court.
Mr. Shaw : I have not paid any of the tax myself, if
he alludes to me, and therefore I cannot re-open the
case.

Defendant asked what time he would get to pay the
money.
Mr. Moss said he should be paid immediately.
Defendant : I am not able to pay it immediately,
unless I pay it out of the public money.
Mr. Moss : Have you any of the public money in your
hands?
Defendant : I have.

Finally, seven days' time was allowed to defendant
to pay the fine.
Mr. Shaw applied to be allowed to examine the
re-assessment of 1817, to ascertain whether he had been
rightly charged with a sum of £2 odd.
The court, however, declined to grant the application,
rot conceiving it would be of any advantage to re-open
a question so long out of date.
The proceedings then closed.

POLICE COURT.-YESTERDAY

(BEFORE MR. T. BOLTON.)

A FAST YOUNG MAN OF THE ARGYLE ROOMS.—George
Duke, who in exterior, was " highly respectable," was
brought up by detective officer Carlyle, on a charge of
having embezzled £lO7, the property of his employers,
Messrs. Adams and Sons, fruit merchants, 37, North
John-street. The officer said: The prisoner was a clerk
in the employment of Messrs. Adams, and the charge
against him was for embezzling £lO7 ; he (the officer) was
sent for by the firm, and in consequence of what he was
told, he proceeded to look for the prisoner. About half-
past ten on Thursday night, he went to Smith's Argyle
Rooms, in Newington, when he saw the prisoner in com-
pany with a prostitute, named Elizabeth Jones, where
they were dancing, and after they went through a " set,"
he arrested the prisoner; and on his person he gat a
gold watch and chain, and also some daguerreotype
likenesses, including one of himself, set in gold, and a
large one in a case, containing portaits of himself and
" Lizzy Jones." At this stage of the proceedings, Mr.
Bluck said he appeared for the prisoner, and said he had
no objection to consent to have depositions taken at once
and let. the prisoner go for trial. However, he did not
at present plead guilty, as on the trial there might arise
some legal objection to the charge of embezzlement. The
bench said there must be some evidence given, and Mr.
Mossford, the cashkeeper at Messrs. Adams, stated that
on the 17th of April, the prisoner had received £l-15 17s 61
from Messrs. Fletcher and Firth, and that he had only
accounted for £135 17s 6d. On the 9th of April he
received £ll I4s from Mr. John M`Cabe, fruit dealer,
John's Market, and for that he had not accounted at all.
On the 29th April, he received from Messrs. Fell and Co.
£33 10s, and had not accounted for it to the house. He
said there were several other cases against the prisoner.
but the magistrate said the three cases were quite enough
to send the prisoner for trial. Gentlemen belonging to
the three houses mentioned, were produced, and proved
having paid the prisoner the sums of money as stated.
He was then fully committed for trill at the sessions.
Carlyle stated the following facts : The prisoner's parents
are respectable, and he should have resided with them,
but instead of that he lived in a cottage at the cornea• of
St. Vincent-street with the woman Elizabeth Jones, and
both used to spend the greater portion of their evenings
at the Argyle Rooms. On Wednesday the prisoner
employed a " trap," and took several abandoned women,
frequenters of the Argyle Rooms, to the Chester races.
They had an expensive champagne dinner provided by
the prisoner, and attracted considerable attention on the
course, and also on the road home, not thinking (said the
officer), that his race would be cut so short. In the
cottage he found about £4O worth of property and money,
the former consisting of dresses and other things, which
the prisoner had purchased for the woman Jones. The
prisoner, when Carlyle arrested him, said he did not
think he had " fecked " so much money. Tile officer got
a small leather bag containing rings, pins, and other
jewellery, which the prisoner had purchased. The watch
and chain are worth over £3O. Two of the " young ladies "
who were at Chester with the prisoner attended in court,
and watched the case with apparent anxiety. The
prisoner is about 25 years old.

PUBLICANS' CASES

John Neville, of Adlington Street, was charger' for
Sunday trading, and the case being proved, he was fined
5s and costs. _ _ _ .

Margaret Brooks, Bailey Street, was charged for doing
business on Sunday at prohibited hours, and the case
being proved, a tine of 23 6d and costs was imposed.

BEERROUSE CASES

Michael Ryan, Carlton Street, was charged for doing
business on Sunday at prohibited hours. ' Fined 108 and
costs.
Joseph Cook, Adlington Street, was charged for selling
ale on Sunday morning. The defence was that the ale
was given out for sick persons. Fined is and is costs.
Peter Byrne, Atkinson Street, was charged far doing
business on Sunday morning. Acquitted.
James Taylor, of Vauxhall Road, was charged for
selling ale on Sunday morning. six men were found
drinking in the house. The defence was that the men
were lodgers, and this being proved, the ease was
dismissedL .

James U. Shaw, of Naylor Street, was charged for
selling ale on Sunday morning at ton o'clock. The defence
was that the persons found were lodgers. Dismissed.

John Waugh, Sussex Street, was charged for doing
business at illegal hours. Fined 5s and costs.
Patrick Burns, Glover Street, Park, was charged
with selling ale on Sunday morning. A woman was got
going out of the house with ale ill a Jug. Fined lOs and
costs.

Anne Whittaker, of the Potteries, Was charged with
doing business at prohibited hours. Acquitted.
William Corn, Roger Street, Windsor, tined 2s 6d and
'costs for Sunday trading
Jane Mulaney, R(
fined fis and costs

eniStreet, charged for a like offence,

Maria Sloan, Duncan Street, charged with a similiar
offence. Acquitted.
Henry Banigan, Harding Street, Windsor, for a like
offence. Fined £2 and costs.

(BEFORE MR. MANSFIELD.)
VIOLENT Assaum—Philip Neill, who had been
remanded on a charge of having committed a violent
assault on his wife, was brought up. It appeared that the
beating which the prisoner had given the poor woman was
of a very violent description, and that rupture had been
producied. He was in the habit of ill-treating her very
much. Mr. Mansfield instructed the medical gentleman
who attended the woman, to provide proper instruments
necessary for her state, and that he would see him paid.
lie remarked that from her state, there was hardly any
chance of her being able to support herself and children;
during the time for which he was about to, send the
brute of a husband to prison. He thanked God, there
were thousands of benevolent and most charitable per-
sons in Liverpool, and he did not know of a more deserv-
ing objea than this poor woman. For the present, he
would order the poor woman some small assistance, and
have her sent home in a car; he trusted her case would
attract attention. Ile then sentenced the prisoner to
pay a fine of 420, or in default, to be imprisoned for
Six months, and kept to hard labour. The decision
seemed to give satisfaction to all who heard it.

Tax OTTOMAN PLENIPOTENIARY.—His Excellency Aali
Pacha, first plenipotentiary from the Ottoman Porte at
the recent Congress accompanied by a very numerous
suite, arrived at Qiaridge's Hotel (late Mivart's) at a
late hour on Tuesday night, from Paris. The suite of the
Paella consists of no less than seventeen persons. His
Excellency contemplates a septo of some weeks in this
country.
Itussimi TQL&RATION.—Tho Warsaw journals state that
the re-opening of the English Protestant church in that
city has been authorised by the Russian Government.
THE MURDER or Miss Buil:A.—The Attorney-General
has refused to give his fiat for the bringing of a writ of
error in the case of the convict Dunne, convicted at the
last special commission of Cavan for inciting and hiring
others to murder the late Miss Hinds. The law v( ill,
therefore, take its course on the 16th instant, when the
two convicts left for execution, must expiate their hideous
erimet u .

WONDERFUL, DECISION !—ln a court situate not more
than a hundred miles from Birkenhead, and which is pre-
sided over by a " very able lawyer," a case came on and
was decided a few days ago, and the result has caused an
extraordinary amount of conversation amongst the "legal
world" in particular, and the public of Birkenhead in
general. The facts are these—A few days since a young
woman summoned a person before " his honour, the
judge," to show cause why an order for 2s 61 a week for
the support of his illegitimate child should not be issued
against him. The defence in the case was that the
defendant was not the father, but that one or two other
persons whom he named was the father of the " babby."
The woman admitted that she was improperly related to
the two men stated, but she strongly maintained that the
defendant was the father or the child. A dispute arose on
this point, and after some discussion his " honour "
decided on adjourning the case until the two me❑ men.
tioned could be brought forward and examined. This
was done, and the parties were accordingly brought for-
ward on a subsequent day. The case was heard de novo,
and it did transpire that the three persons had been
improperly conversant with the woman. The judge ap-
peared in doubt some time how to decide the case, but at
last he came to the following conclusion, which is said to
have given satisfaction to all partices concerned. He
ordered that each of the three men in question should pay
one shilling a week towards the support of the " infant."
The reason stated why all have been so pleased with the
decision is this—the mother gets 61 a week more than she
could have got from one person, and the other parties get
off for a shilling instead of hall'

TRADE REPOT

COTTON : The cc
dull and inanimate

the absence of any pressu

maintained the

at late rates

LIVERPOOL.

sales are reputed 47,490 hal
F pee u! ation, and 4,680 for expo

crown.

FRIDAY.

excepting

for the lower

ad Egyptian dal

, and steady, The weekly
of which 12,760 are on

This week. PricespaidlCurrt. Prices
Import] Sales. I Description. this week•l Mid. Fair.

_
d. d.l d. d.
6616
918100 SUpland
aI
ns Ida nd. - 751 t 0
00
36 12}
612116 18
381340
10450 Mobile - -41 6 7-16! 6 3.16 ei:
8:54 13793 New Orleans 42 to 72i 6 5.16 7
2921 4090 Brazil ---61 to 72; 65 • • 62
1870 Egyptian - -6/ to 9i 6i f3i
40 West India - 7i to 811 64 fif
42.13 9563 East India - 3 to 5.1; 44 4 11-16

22733 i 47490

61180
33930
1020
55050

SCOTCIi Pm IRON : Oar market for warrants closes at

75s to 759 3d, cash

Sucrau! The market has qeen rather quiet, but holders are
very firm ; the sales, howzver, are. confined to 2,200 bags
Paraiba, at 40s 6d per cwt.

MOLASSFS : 200 puns clayed Cuba are reported, at 18s 9d
per cwt from t''e quay.

Rum : No transactions have taken place.
COFFEE: At auction, 60 cases Malabar realised 655, and
270 half-bales Mocha 735; and by private, a small parcel St.
Domingo 51s per cwt.
TEA : The market is unchanged, with few sales.
BICE: There has been a fair business done, 1,365 bags and
1,000 pockets new Bengal having realised 119 9d to 123 3d,
750 bags old chiefly 103 91, and 900 bags yellow cargo 8s 3d
per cwt.