The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-04-17 00:00:00

THE POLICEMAN AND THE HUSBAND.

At the Mansion House, on Wednesday, John Bray was
earged with assault under the following extraextraordinarycircumstances : —Thomas Stevens, 17, City pohce, said
i
that on the previous evening he was on duty n Leadenhall
street, when the defendant, after abusing him in the
vilest language, struck him a violent blow, so that he
was compelled to take him into custody. Defendant :
It is all false, my lord ; 1 went up to ask him where
my wife was, when he seised me by the neck, and if
it had not been for the people I believe he would have
strangled me. I was obliged then to do something in
my own defence and I took hold of his collar. He has
broke up my home three times, and he knows it. Lord
Mayor : What made you ask him about your wife
Detendant : Because she is with him. He was caught
once at my house in Lambeth walk, two years ago, by
ray boy while I was from home, and he being up stairs
with my wife and his great coat hung up behind the door.
Lord Mayor : Is that boy here ? Defendant : No,
but I will fetch him in an hour. Ha told me
when I got home, that the " tall man," (the police-
man, standing over six feet) had been there. Lord Mayor,
to the prosecutor : Do you know his wife ? Prosecutor :
Yes, I know the young woman. She is not his wife, but
has been living with him, and keeping him by prostitution
for some years. I have known her these five years, but
I never was in his house at all. A woman, who was
passing through Leadenhall street at the time, deposed
that she saw the policeman leaving a lady with whom
he was talking, seize defendant by the collar, and drag
him along violently, • withmt any provocation. The
lady to whom the prosecutor was talking asked him
where her daughter was, when he told her to mind her
own business, as he knew nothing about it, upon which the
lady pulled out two likenesses, one being that of her
daughter, and the other that of the policeman himself, and
showed them to him. Emma Bray said she was the mother
of defendant's wife ; she was not present at the wedding, as
it took place in the country, but she bad no doubt
as to the fact of their being married, but she had taken
her papers away, and the • policeman knew it. In
reply to the Lord Mayor, the defendant said he was mar-
ried at Peterborough, while working on the Eastern
Counti=s Railway. Mrs Bray continued : I have fetched
my daughter away from the policeman twice within the
last six months, after he had taken her from home. He and
his wife lived together, but he was on duty at night, and
his wife used to go out as a prostitute. He persuaded my
daughter to swear her life against defendant, and said he
would pay the expenses, so that she might live with him.
He took her once to a Mrs. Russell's, a bad house,
and said he would keep her. She was to have
15s a week, and go out with the other girls. I went
to Mrs. Russell's to fetch her, when Mrs. Russell
said she wasn't [there ; but I threatened to get a search
warrant, and went up stairs after her, where
found my daughter, with her clothes, hid under the bed.
She told me the policeman was to allow her 15s a week,
but that she had never received anything from him.
Only lately he took her away again, and passed the night
with her at a Mrs. Clark's, where he went in plain clothes.
Lord Mayor : I cannot take all this as evidence. Tell us
about yesterday. Witness: The last time I found her she
gave me his portrait and hers. Here they are—(handing to
the Lord Mayor two sixpenny photographs) Defendant :
There are plenty of people who have seen him with my wife.
Lord Mayor : That is a question which I cannot go into.
The policeman has charged the defendant with an assault,
and as it appears to me that the assault was committed by
him, I shall therefore put the case into the hands of the
Commissioners of Police, and if it appears that the state-
ment he has made here is not true, proceedings will be
taken, and you will be sent for again. Prosecutor : I wish
to say something as to the character of these people.
Lord Mayor: Yon had better say nothing now. You will
have every opportunity with the commissioners. The
defendant was then discharged.

The Chamber of Commerce of Lyons has just offered
a premium of 6,000 francs to the person who shall dis-
cover a colouring matter uniting all the qualities of the
China green.

The whole of the Irish judges are now engaged on the
case of Butler v. Mountgarret, which has beakfrequently
noticed in the newspapers, and the decision in which will
decide the title to the Mountgarret peerage.
A woman named Ann Williams is in custody charged

with the murder of her infant at Darsley, near 133rkeleT,
Gloucestershire. The child was found in a coffin i❑ the

garden, the body being almost chopped to pieces
BANQUET TO LORD CUIEFJUSTICE CocxnuaN.--Saturday,
the 25th inst., is the day fixed for the banquet proposed
to be given to the Chief Justice of the Court of Common
Pleas, by the Chamber of Commerce of Southampton.
The borough members (\lessrs. Wi'cox and Weguelin)
and the representatives of the Southern division of the
county of Hants (Sir J. C. Jervoise anl the Hon. R.
Dutton) have received and accepted invi'ations. The
dinner will take place in the Council Chamber.

THE MISSING STE/04'411P 0 N EIDA. —The nix` mail
from Australia is due at the post office on Monday next,
(he 20th inst, when it is hoped some intelligence wiL be
received of the missing steam packet Oneid lt is believel
that there is yet no cause for positive alarm for, the safety

- .
of a ship so well equipped and so ably commanded. She
may have disabled her engines, or lost her masts, and the

gear have fouled her screw, which woeld take a consider•
able time to clear, especially in unsettled
_we3.tiler. It is

believed that we shall, erelong, hear of h-r having sal, ly
arrived at the Mauritius, for which port she would m ,st
probably bear up, if circumstances did not admit of her
continuing on the shorter, but far more unc?rtain, route
to her destination, or to Batavia.
THE FRENCH MARRIAGE LAWS.—A very curious case
was on Friday submitted to the Tribunal of Commerce.
Madame Legrand, widow of a manufacturer of works of art
in bronze, sold in 1854 to MM. Rolland and Putheaux the
manufactory which she bad carried on with her late
husband and by the deed of sale interdicted herself from
entering into partnership with any bronze manufactory at
Paris. Sometime after, Rolland and Putheaux learned
'tint she was engeged to be married to a manufacturer of
bronzes in Paris named Bonnotte, and they gave her for-
mal notice not to effect:the marriage, because it would be a
violation of her engagement not to embark in the bronze
trade. She disregarded the notice, and was in due time
married to Bonnotte. Yesterday Rolland and Putheaux
brought an action before the Tribunal of Commerce to
obtain from her 25,0001. as damages, for having, by the
marriage, violated her agreement with them. But the
tribunal decided that the marriage in itself was not a breech
of the agreement, and that it was not proved that Madame
Bonnotte had any interest, as a trader, in the business cf
her husband, and it accordingly dismissed the action with
cost s. —Galigreanz" s Messenger.
HUDDERSFIELD ELECTION AND MR. COBDEN.—We find

the following letter from Mr. Cobden to the chairman of
his elec 11,m committee in the Leeds Mercury :—" 11Iid-
horst, April 2, 1857,—My dear Sir, I seizi the first
moment after my return home to fulfil the agreeable duty
of tendering to you, and through you to my committee,
and a large body of the electors, my warmest thanks for
the support with which I was honoured during the lite
contester! election. The circumstances which preceded

the .1 Kaol ution of Parliament, and which imparted to it
L. 4
somewhat
the character of a surprise, precluded the
Jf
possibility of ;our making an accurate estimate
of the probable issue of a contest fur Hudders-
field, and my first step was, unavoidably, a
leap in the dark. No one can therefore be
fairly held responsible for a miscalaulation of the chances
of succe s, nor does the result of the election aff,rti any
criterion of the strength of parties for the future. I have
only to assure my friends that I have appreciated their
kind and courageous efforts all the more highly since I
have known that they were, from the first, embarked in
an adverse struggle. To the non electors who afforded
me all the support which the constitution allows them to
give, I beg to offer my warmest acknowledgments. And
with my best wishes for the prosperity and happiness of
all classes and parties in your borough, I remain, my
dear sir, faithfully yours, RICHARD COBDEN. WED.
Willans, Esq., Chairman of Committee."
THE KIDDERMINSTER OUTRAGE.--A subscription has
been made to defray the expense of prosecuting the ruffians
who were implicated in this outrage. A sum of £3OO has
been already subscribed for that purpose, in addition to
which we understand that Mr. A. Talbot, who took an
active part for the defeated candidate, has offered £5O.
Since our report on Wednesday last facts have transpired
which tend to confirm the suspicion then expressed, that
the outrage was premeditated, and that the diabolical
threats uttered before the outbreak were not the idle words
of election partizans, but an earnest and settled reso-
lution ruffians who had determined upon murder, and who
had made ample preparation for carrying out their intention
It was, indeed, providential that Mr. Lowe and his friends
found refuge at Woodfield, for some of the party must
inevitably have been killed had they attempted to reach the
Butts. The Battery is an elevated range of building
below which the Bewdley road runs through a deep cutting
in the rock. The houses are occupied by a very low class
of people. The causeway in front of these houses lies at a
great height above the road, and is fenced in by railings
Some hovels have been cut in the face of the rock below,
and the chimneys of these rise through the causeway above.
It is now ascertained that one of these chimneys had been
actually pulled down, and the bricks kept in readiness to
be hurled down upon the heads of Mr. Lowe and his party
as they passed underneath. Heaps of stones were piled on
the terrace, which, with the bricks, would have done
fearful execetien. Water was kept boiling, and sinister
expressions left but little doubt of the horrible use to
which it was to be put. Buckets .of filthy liquid had been
accumulated to be discharged on the passengers below.—
Wormier Chronicle.