Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-02-01 00:00:00

NORTHERN DAILY TIMES.

The latest edition. Just published. - Sent free per post for
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ments : 134, Duke-street, Liverpool ; 33, Ludgate-hill, and
110, Regent-street, Louden, Nog name and munber, Estab-
-lis►ed Vide diploma.

SELLING A RIFLE NOT DULY PROVED.

-- .
Mr. Robert Adams, of King William-street, gun-
maker, was_summoned.to appear at the Ma.nsion,Hou.se
Police-court, on Monday, for selling a gun, the barrel
!of which had 'not been duly proved according to the
requirements of the Gun-barrel Proof Act, 1855.--Mr.
Sergeant Payne appeared for the complainant, and Mr.
Robinson for the defendant.—The defendant pleaded
guilty.—Mr. Sergeant Payne : As the defendant admits
the offence the amount of penalty to be inflicted is the
point for consideration now, and this rests with your
lordship. The gun-barrel referred to in the information
burst when being .used by a member of the Victoria
Rifle Corps, Paddington ; but the rifle itself was
bought of Mr. Adams. He admits that the barrel was
not marked as having been proved, and that is the
extent of the offence with which he is charged. The
penalty, according to the act of Parliament, being
£2O, with a power of mitigation in your lordship. My
learned friend puts it upon the ground that this
rifle was sent out by mistake, under an impression that
it had been proved ; and if this were the only case the
offence would still be a serious one. But I understand
that directly after this accident happened Mr. Adams
collected up some other rifles which he had previously
sold, without bearing the proof-mark, and sent them at
once to be properly proved and marked. I do not
exactly know the number of these, but I will call a
witness who can prove it.—Mr. Robinson : I do not
wish to give you that trouble. I believe the number
was five or six,—The Lord Mayor: I should like to
hear that witness for my own satisfaction. Mr.
Serjeant Payne : Then I will call the proofmaster.—
Mr. Robinson : All the barrels bore the proof.—The
Lord Mayor: If the proofmaster will give me that fact
in evidence I am sure I shall be pleased to hear
it.;--Mr. aohn Spencer -: I am proofmaster of the Gun-
makers' _Company. .1 produce .the barrel of the rifle
which- 'bust, and which does not bear a proof-mark.
After that I ref2ivea twenty or thirty other rifles from
Mr. Adams to prove. They were complete, but I cannot
say whether they had been used or not.—The Lord
Mayor : Is it usual to receive the barrels for proof in
the 'first place before the rifles are finished ?—Witness :
'les.—The Lord Mayor : But those sent to you by Mr.
Adams were completed ?—Witness : Yes.—The Lord
Mayor : And the result of your proof ?—Witness : They
all stood the proof.—Mr. Sergeant Payne : The act of
parliament requires that the barrels should be proved
'first in the rough state ?—Witness : Yes.—Mr. Sergeant
'Payne : And they are tried a second time when the
'weipons are completely finished, to see whether they will
still stand the proof or not. The first trial being. more
severe than the second ?—Witness : Yes, that is the
system.—Mr. Robinson : I believe there were two
bullets in 'that barrel when the accident occurred.—
Witness: I do not know that; but there are bullets in
it now.—Mr. Robinson : Do you happen to know that
there is a way of loading rifles with powder first, then a
bullet, and then mere powder, and then another bullet ?
=Witness : Yes.—Mr. Robinson : I need hardly ask
you whether there is not great danger in this—in
ramming down the powder between the two bullets.
—Witness : I don't think there is any danger if
it is .p operly rammed down.—Mr. Robinson : But
suppose the first powder and bullet to be not first
rammed down.—Witness : I question whether the
powder would go off.—Mr. Serjeant Payne : I think
the defendant puts this in a very fair way in a
letter which he wrote to Mr. Hislop, in which he
admits that there could be no excuse for the rifle
not having been proved, exonerating the person using
'the Ale when it burst from all blame, and congratulated
him that the accident was attended with no serious
results. I will call Mr. Hislop.—Mr. W. Hislop,
watchmaker, St. John's-road : I recommended to Mr.
Gellatly to purchase a rifle of Mr. Adams, of whom I
and several of my friends had purchased rifles. These,
after the accident with Mr. Gellatly's rifle, were all
collected by Mr. Adams to be sent for proof, and were
• then sent back to us again.—Mr. Robinson said there
could be no question that the rifle barrel had burst, and
that it had been sold without being proved; but while
he admitted the great importance of the question, at a
time like the present, when rifles were so much in use,
he felt bound to submit, on behalf of the
defendant, that the occurrence was only one of
those accidents which no human foresight could pre-
vent. Mr. Adams was always particularly careful in
the directions which he gave to those in his employ
that his guns should be properly proved, and, in fact,
it, was absurd to suppose that hc,could have any motive
for neglect, since the charge, for proof was so trifling,
and-the penalties, pecuniary and moral, liable to be so
heavy for neglect. Mr. Adams had in his employ a'
foreman, a person named Clarke, who was previously at
Witton's, well known as a Government contractor, and
Clarke could only account for the sale of the rifles
without previous proof 'by sumsing that he thought
that the rifles were delivered to him, as was the custom
at Witton's, after proof. No one could regret the ac-
cident that had occurred to Mr. Gellatly's rifle more than
Mr. Adams himself, and it was an incontestible proof of
his care that he directly sent out and collected all the rifles 1
he had-recently sold, and had them proved; and it was a I
satisfaction to know that, without exception, they stood
thl proof. Even with regard to the particular rifle in
question, Mr. Adams stated that he had fired it himself
at least sixty times before Mr. Gellatly had it, and he be-
lieved
that but for the dangerous mode of loading which
had been adopted, by putting in two bullets, and which
subjected the barrel to as much explosive pressure
as three -or four ordinary charges, the barrel would
never have burst. Still, Mr. Adams had brought himself
within the act of Parliament by selling a rifle which
had not been properly proved, or did not bear the proof
mark ; but it was for the court to say, under the cir-
cumstances, whether the penalty might not with pro-
priety be mitigated to an almost nominal amount. The
Lord Mayor said the offence was undoubted—indeed, it
was admitted—and however it Might have occurred, he
felt it his duty to inflict a penalty which he hoped
might have the effect of preventing such neglect in
future. That guns should be properly proved before
sold was always most important, but it was doubly
important now, when so many new rifles were being
daily called into use, and he cono.ratulated the defendant
that no serious consequences had resulted from the
accident. .For the future, he had better look well after
the proving of his guns personally, as well as look after
his foreman, or other accidents might happen with a
more Serious issue. The ,full penalty. of such an act
was L2O, with a power of 'mitigation in the court; and
he-(the Lord Mayor) thought he should be failing in
his duty it heinflicted a lower penalty than £lO in the
present case, which amount the defendant Must pay.
Mr. Sergeant Payne then applied for costs; which were
fixed at £2 25., and paid by the defendant in addition
to the penalty. .
• -

•
CRICKETS., ANTS, COCKROACHES, OR BLACK BEETLES.—Their
effectual extermination by Greer's Patent Anti-Vermin Solution,
3d., (id., and Is., at the Anti-Vermin Office, 49, Brownlow-hill
It is a well-known maxim that " time is money "—the terms
are relative ; so to save one is to save the other. We save
both time, and economise patience, and present good tempers,
when we have a good PEN—a bad one upsets patience and
temper. Preserve all, then, by purchasing your steel pens and
other stationery at E. T. Hall's wholesale steel pen warehouse,
23, South John-street. John Gillott's, Thomas Lowe's, G. W.
Hughes, and other maker's, on sale at Is., per rms. Good
Pen Holders, 20. per dozen. ,

WITHDRAWAL Or THE SOIITHERN TRADE FROM NEW
Yosx.—The recent panic among city inerchatits en-
gaged in the Southern trade, and the ;remarks of the
Herald on the subject, have, as a matter of course,
stirred up the black .republican journals to the repi-
titioa of their old game—abusing the defendant's
counsel and maligning us. The poets of the Post
only have
ventured to bring facts into the argument.
But, however fine these rhymers may be- at versifi-
cation, statistics are 'not in their way. They 'claim
to have ascertained that the Southern custom has
not fallen off from the principal hotels ; and
they 'back up tbi4 • assertion with the state-
ments of the hotel keepers, who certainly would not be
liable to give their :establishments.a badname. Never-
theless, it appears, by the Poses own showing, that the
business of two of the largest hotels has fallen off when
compared with that of last- year at this time. And if 1
the factious and -treasonable' minority in Congress shoald
succeed in their attempts to forie John-Sherman, who
endorsed the infamous Helper book, into the
Speaker's chair, the wholesale merchants, retail
traders and hotel keepers will find next summer may
a good Southern customer's name missing from their
books. This is the truth, and it is idle to attempt to
conceal or deny it. Already, in several of the Southern
States, clubs have been established, the members, of
which pledge themselves to buy nothing from the North.
The proprietors of Southern watering places are pre-
paring for a good season, and have already commenced
issuing their circulars and advertisements. These are
significant signs of the times ; and if the agitation now
going on is not speedily arrested; matters will grow
worse, instead of better. The people will fix the re-
sponsibility where it belongs—on the party of Seward,
Sherman, Helper, Greely, and John Brown,—.Arew
Itik Herald.