The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-01-03 00:00:00

BIRKENHEAD.

BEF,RE REV. R. M. PSILDEN, AND R. BRYANS, ESQ.
FALSE PRETENCES.—John George Rowe, who stood
remanded until this day on a charge of obtaining six
barrels of plaster of Paris by means of fal'e pretences,
was again brought up, and from the evidence which was
now fully gone into, it appeared that the prisoner wrote
an order in the name of a Mr. Fisher, which he gave to a
lad in the employ of Mr. Houghton, at Higher Tranmere,
desiring him to go to Mr. Scarratt, a cement manufacturer,
of Tranmere, with the order, upon which he would
receive six barrels of plaster of Paris. which he was to
say he had to take to Mr. Fisher's, a builder and joiner at
Birkenhead. The lad accordingly did as the prisoner
told him, and got the cement. On hit way to Birkenhead,
he met the prisoner, who said he had got a fresh order,
and instead of taking the cement to Mr. Fisher's, he was
to take it to Tranmere slip, which he accordingly did,
the prisoner receiving the barrels there himself. Mr,
Robert Skakelady, a publican residing at Liverpool,
stated that he was making alterations in his house, and
that on the 27th ult., the prisoner, whom he knew, came
and asked for an order for some cement, and he received
one for six barrels of plaster of Paris ; that on the
following Tuesday the prisoner brought the plaster, and
he ( witness) paid him £1 17s for it, and received a
receipt. Mr. Fisher proved that the order was not in his
handwriting, and Mr. Scarratt also proved that he would
not have given the cement upon the order had he not
known Mr. Fisher to be a respectable tradesman, and
believed the order to be in his handwriting, and also that
the lad's statement was true. The prisoner declined
saying anything, and was folly committed.

DISHONEST SERVANT.—Robert Jones, in the employ of
Mr. Wainwright, a large cattle s lesman, at Chorltou
near Chester, was charged with stealing two calves, the
property of his master. Mr. Wainwright stated that the
prisoner had been in his employ, off and on, for the last two
years, and that on Wednesday morning last he instructed
the prisoner to take-two sides of beet, a quantity of off d, and
two live calves to his brother, a butcher, residing in
Liverpool, at the same time giving him 5s 61 to pay his
expenses on the road. The prisoner having, accordingly,
put the calves, beef, and offal into the shandry, started for
Birkenhead, with directions to meet his master at the
Mollington station at seven o'clock the same evening. The
prisoner, however, did not keep the appintment, and Mr.
Wainwright heard nothing of the prisoner, horse and
shandry, calves, &c., until about one o'clock yesterday
morning, when his horse and shandry was brought to his
premises—the poor horse with all the appearance of not
having been fed since it left the stable ; accordingly he
(Mr. W.) immediately proceeded to Birkenhead, and when
he got to the police station, he there found his two calves,
which had been sold and slaughtered. He had since ascer-
tained that his brother had got the beef, which he had
found at the Tranmere slip, but nothing could be heard
of the offal. Mr. M'Coy and Mr. Thomas, two butchers
of Birkenhead market stated that on Wednrsiay evening
(the same day the prisoner left his master's house), the
prisoner came to them in the market and asked it they
would purchase two calves, upon which they went outside
and saw two in a shandry, which they agreed to purchase,
Mr. Thomas giving 163 for one,and Mr. M'Coy 15s for the
other. The prisoner was quite sober at the time, and as he
(Mr. Thomas) had known him some time befOre he did
not ask any questions. The prisoner, who said he was in
drink and did /IA know what ha was about, was then com-
mitted for trial.

TUB OUT AND Our TlllEF.—john Sweeney dicta
Harewood, a short account of whose doings appeared in our
impression of Thursday, was again brought uo on the charge
of having broken into the stable of John S. De Wolfe, Eeq,
at Clifton Park, and the at ticles stolen therefrom, viz, a rug,
four brushes, a pair of clogs, a shirt, a neck tie, and a pair
of trousers, were fully identified by Mr. De Wolfe's groom.
The property was found at the boarding house of Francis
Ormsby,lo, Dickenson street, Liverpool, where the prisoner
had been lodging. The prisoner told Mr. Or ashy that he
was in the employ of Mr. Bowman, in London road. The
prisoner was also committed on this charge.

A CURIOUS QuEsrrorg.—Though, in consequence of the
accession of Lord Drumlanrig to the marquisate of Qoeens-
berry, it is probable that a vacancy will arise in the repre-
sentation of tha county of Dumfries, this is by no means
certain, as the Point has never been decided whether a
Scottish peer can sit in the House of Commons. Previous
to tha passing of the Refurm Act the eldest sons of Scottish
peers were excluded from that house, and we understand
that since that period no eldest son of a Scottish peer has
succeeded to the title while representing a constituency in
the House of Commons until the present instance, so that
the case of the Marquis of Queensberry is without pace.
dent. It is certainly highly desirable' that a question in-
teresting of itself, and of considerable importance in Scot-
land, should be settled definitively, and we are glad to learn
th..t Lord Queensberry intends taking the proper steps to
have the doubt, which has arisen in his own person,
cleared up. The proper mode of doing this has not vet
been ascertained; we believe that the advice of the
Speaker of the House of Commons will be asked, and of
course to his opinion great weight must be attached, but
so far as is known at present, it is very probable that
the course to be pursued will be for Lord Queensberry
to present himself on the meeting of parliament in Feb-
ruary, by which act the question of privilege will be
raised and debated, no doubt with the attention and
learning which have always been bestowed on similar
question by the British parliament.—Dumfries Courier.