Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-08-28 00:00:00

ADULTERATED FLOUR.

Yesterday, at the Police-0f6..3e, before Messrs. Dixon and
Bolton, Mr. M.Gowan appeared to prefer a complaint
under the Public Health Act, and to ask f)r an order in
the terms of the act. Mr. Suowba.l was on the other
side.

Mr. M Gowan said : I have to trouble your worships
with an application under the Nuisances Removal Act
of 1855, and the 26 h section. He real the clause of the
act which relates to the expoeure for sale of unwhole-
some provisions, each as those enumerated, and of which
flour is one, and gives power to the officers of health to
seize, and, having seized it, to bring the article seized
and the parties so exposing for sale before the justices,
who may order the same to be destroyed, or so disposed
of as to prevent it from going into consumption as human
food. From the circumstances he would state, and
afterwards substantiate iu evidence, he would call on
them to make an order on Mr. Flynn, fl ur factor, of
Drury-lane, as would prevent the consumotiou as food
of a quantity of flour which he bad disposed of for food.

Mr. Fhnn: The flour is not mine, it is Mr. Roberts's.
Mr. MtGowan : Very good. Mr. Flynn says it is not
his. It is my duty to show- that, whoever is the owner, it
is unfit for human food, and to call on you to make such
an order as shall prevent it from being s) used.
Mr. M'Gowan then examined Edward Freney, inspec-
tor ander the He ilth Cmimittee, wh3 said that on
Saturday last, he proceeded to the premises of Mr.
Roberts' baker, in Union.street, and he there saw several
sacks of flour, numbered from Ito 5. They remained
there all day on Saturday, and on Monday morning he
visited the premises again, and saw the same flour st,ll
there. A spring cart came, on which they were loaded
and taken away. He followed the cart, which went to
Drury-lane, and hailed No. 4 loft in a warehouse there. It
was Mr. Flynn's loft. A man answered that the flour must
not go into the warehouse, and he was turnisg away the
cart when the inspector asked him where he was going with
the flour, and be seized it as not being fit for human food.
He took it to Cornwallis-street, where it remained still.
He was quite positive it was the same flour he saw in the
cart, and that was removed from Mr. Roberts's. He gave
a quantity from each sack to Mr. Roeere.
The inspector was cross-examined by Mr. Snowball as
to the connEetion of Mr. Flynn with the flour.
Mr. Roberts was examined, and stated that he was a
baker, living at 5, Unioa-street. He made a purchase
of a quantity of flour from Mr. Flynn; the flour was
sold as "sweet and sound." Mr. Flynn said the fi sur
was both, but was a little old, and that would be an
improvement if it were good flour. The flour was sent
home, and next morning he baked some and found it
very unfit. He went to Mr. Flynn and said it would
not suit, and ha must take it back. He replied ha would
endeavour to sell it, and subsequently he stated he had
s old It to Mr. Salt, whose brot!-ier was contractor for
bread to the Borough Gaol ; but the fl cur must not
go from his shop, fir it it were known he ha i rejected
it, no other person would take it. He said Mr. Salt's
brother had soma of the same flour previously. Mr.'
Flynn said he would scud a cart for it on Monday, and
a cart Caine, and the carter gave him a receipt fur the
flour.

To Mr. Snowball : He toli:me he came from Mr. Flynn.
His marks are on the bags.
To Mr. 11.1`Gowan : I made the sam2les of flour I
received from the inspector into bread with my own
hands. I did it in the proper manner, and I produce the
loaves baked thus made. (The witness here produced two
pan loaves of a must revolting substance, which, he said,
was the product. Mr. B don tasted, bat, we believe, did
not swallow any. The interior of the loaves were all
hollow.) I produce a portion cf a loaf made of other
flour in the same manner. (This bread appeared to be of
very good qua!ity.) Those loaves were all baked this
morning. _ _ _

Dr. ICluspratt was-examined, and said he had analysed
a speelmen of flour sent him, It was unfit for sale or
use. He did not find that it was adultered with any
foreign substance. _ _ _

To✓ Mr. Snowball : I don't know what it is good for ;
I don't know that it is good for anything ; certainly not
for food. It might be used as starch, or for sizing, or for
pigs.
Mr. Snowball] said Mr. Flynn never for one moment
desired to sell anything injurious. He bought flour to
sell again. Ho bought this flour in the ordinary way.
He sold some of it, and this remained. When the
purchaser objected, he sold it again, but Mr. Roberts was
to bear the risk. Of course, he may got bad flour ; any
one mil, get_it.
_lie did not. want to force it into con-
sumption. _ _

Mr. Roberts : He sold it to me to make bread.
Mr. Flynn : It was bought 153 under the market price.
Mr. Roberts : I paid 423 6d for it, and that was the
full price of the day for that quality as it was sold.
Mr• I\l:Gowan said unfortunately Mr. Flynn's case was
not the only one, although discovery happened to fall on
him. The most painful scenes were witnessed at the
Cornwallis-street offices. Parties brought bad flour there,
and bad bread made from flour purchased in various
places, and which should never have been allowed into
consumption. They complained with tears in their
eyes, and many of them with manifest signs of hunger,
of having such stuff imposed on theta ; arid in many cases
the young men in the flour shops had given the parties
mosey from their own pockets to purchase other
flour. That was a state of things that ought not to be.
There were very large quantities of such flour constantly
brought into Liverpool. It was applicable to many uses,
but not fit for food. The Health Committe was anxious
to prevent it from going into consumption, but they did
not know how they could ill it. The flour factors like Mr.
Flynn could help them, and every respectable flour factor
ought to do so. The appeals to the health officers were
painful beyond measure.
Mr. Snowball said there was no doubt that damaged
flour came to Liver/nol applicable to many purposes,
although not for human food. It was very good for cattle,
for instance.

Mr. M'Govvan : We have no desire to press on Mr.
Flynn ; if .he gives us a guarantee that this flour shall be
used as food for cattle, and not for human food, we shall
give it up.
Mr. Snowball: lie will give a guarantee that he will
not sell it for food, or to any person but a cattle dealer.
Ultimately, at the suggestion of Mr. Wybergh as to the
course the law required, it was arranged that the flour be
retained in Cornwallis-street for the present, and that the
defendant be again brought before the court, to make such
final order, as to penalties and otherwise, as the court may
deem right.

At LEWIS & COMPANY'S, Ranelagh.street.
BOYS are OL'YrIIED from the Ages of 6 to 20 Ye r

THOMAS FULLER BACON.—A local paper states that the
fate of Thomas Fuller Bacon, convicted et the last assizes
for Strfford, of administering to his mother, Aun Bann,
a quantity of arsenic, with intent to murder, has been de-
cided. The convict is to be kept in penal servitude for the
term of his natural life.

EXTRAORDINARY PRZSENCE OF MIND.— One day last
week (says the Sydney Morning Herald of April 29) Mr.
Hawthorn, junior, of Singleton, was out riding in the bush,
when seeing a kangaroo rat, he chased it until at last the
animal took refuge in the hollow limb of a tree. He im-
mediately thrust his hand into the hole to catch it, but as
quickly pulled it out, as something had bit his finger.
Upo❑ looking at his hand he saw a death adder clinging
to his finger. No time was to be lost, and Mr. Hawthorne,
with the utmost coolness and fortitude. immediately took
his penknife and cut his finger of. We learn that no
serious consequence beyond the loss of the finger has re-
sulted from the bite.

THE ASSASSINATION IN THE HAMPSILID-ROAD.—Llte
on Tuesday night, Gallo Beurenet.i, in the service of Mr.
Benetti, coffae-house-keeper, No. 17, Ad tm's-row, Hamp-
stead-road, who was stabbed in the abdomen, on Sunday
night last, by Cornelius Denny, an.l who was taken to the
University College Hospital, where he has been ever since,
expired, the medical gentlemen of the Institution having
done all in their power to prevent a fatal resul,. A few
hours previous to dissolution his wife was sent for, and on
her arrival the scene was most distressing. The unfor-
tunate man lingered in great agony, and died, as we have
stated, at a late hour in the evening. The deceased was a
Swiss in rather indigent circumstances, and his friends are
all similarly situated.

SERIOUS ACCIDENT AT BATHS IN LONDON.-0/1 Wed-
nesday evening, an inquest was held in the Board-room of
Middlesex Hospital, before Mr. Wakley, the coroner,
touching the death of John Ridgwell, aged forty, an
engineer, lately employed at St. Jams's Bath, which was
occasioned by an escape of steam into a boiler, in conse-
quence of the unprotected state of the valve attached
thereto. Three men suffered from the melancholy occur-
rence, which took place on the 22nd ultimo, a few days
subsequent to which James White, one of the sufferers,
died, upon whose body an inquest was held. Mr.
Jackson the house surgeon, described the nature of the
injuries the deceased received as most severe, and which
resulted in his death on Monday last. The coroner anim-
adverted is the strongest terms upon the gross neglect of
the company in not having a proper guard to the valve
•f the boiler; sod addressing the tattier of the deceased,
who is principal engineer at the establishment, observed,
that should another accident occur involving the loss of
life, be (the coroner) should consider it his duty to com-
mit him to Newgate for manslaughter. A verdict was
then returned of " Accidental death," with a recommenda-
tion to the proprietors of the baths to have a protection
round the valves of the boilers.

BOTH' CLOTHING MADE WITH GREAT TABTS,
At LIMN be COMPA.NY'Srliatm!lagh eireqt,