The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-12 00:00:00

LAW INTELLIGENCE.—This Day,

call on the soldiers. I shall discharge Woodhouse, but I
shall call on the others—more particularly the magistrate—
to find one bail each, in the sum of £lO, to keep the peace
and be of good behaviour for six months.
Bail was tendered and accepted.

SHERIFFS' COURT.

A NOVEL POINT IN LAW OF EAD.TNERSIIII".-BANNISTER

V. FAIRLIE.

This was an action to recover balance of an account for
cornchandlery goods supplied. Mr. Thos. Angell appeared
for plaintiff, and Mr. Rusken representing defendant.
It appeared that a person named Gibbons lived at a house
at Clapham, and defendant went to stop there. Gibbons be-
came involved, and made an assignment, and it was en-
deavoured to he shown that Fairlie had been a partner, but
Mr. Fairlie himself said he was only a lodger. Mr. Angell
called for a cheque which had been signed by defendant,
and made payable to plaintiff,and defendant admitted that he
had a monthly account with Mr. Gibbons. That was to say
that when bills came in they were cast up, and defendant
paid half.
His Honour said that upon this defendant was liable. If
he had agreed for a certain sum every month, it would
have been a different thing, but he was interested to the
extent of one half, and this made him liable for the whole.
Verdict for plaintiff.
BAD FISH AT BILLINGSGATE AGAIN.

In a case which occurred here to-day, a long dispute
arose about bad fish, and his honour remarked that he had
been trying for a long time past to get the name of the men
who sent up the bad fish. The salesmen would not give up
those names, and the public occasionally suffered through
the easy consciences of some of the retailers. It was sworn
that the fish was bad, and whenever this was proved the
Court would give the plaintiffs verdicts. In the present
instance, there was conclusive evidence as to the fish being
bad, and the plaintiff would have a verdict for the full
amount with costs.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE,--This day.

BOW-STREET.

William Evans was again placed before Mr Vaughan,
charged with obtaining a coat and trousers from Mr Mer-
rifield, tailor, Strand, by false representations.
It will be recollected that the prisoner led Mr Merrifield
to believe that he hold a Government appointment in the
Transport Department of the Admiralty, and in order to
give additional strength to his representations he took Mr
Merrifield's shopman to Somerset House, where he went
into an office which he represented as his, and there he
signed an I 0 U for the amount in his brother's name, ho
being the person holding the appointment, and not the
prisoner. Upon Mr Merrifield applying for payment the
brother denied all knowledge of the I 0 U, and the prisoner
was given into custody. There were various other charges
against the prisoner on the first occasion of his being brought
up, but they were all withdrawn, and the prisoner was
remanded for the attendance of his brother. On the second
occasion that the prisoner was placed at the bar an applica-
tion was made to Mr Vaughan to discharge the prisoner,
as Mr Merrifield did not wish to press the charge ; but in
consequence of the brother not being in attendance Mr
Vaughan refused to accede to such a proposition, and again
remanded the prisoner. This morning he was again placed
at the bar, when
Mr Wontner (who appeared for the prisoner) reminded
the magistrate of the application of Mr Merrifield to with-
draw the charge against the prisoner.
Mr Vaughan—ls the brother here?
Police-constable F 100—N, your worship.
Mr Vaughan—Why is he not here ?
Police-constable—l do riot know, your worship. I have
been to his lodgings.
Mr Vaughan—ls Mr Merrifield in court ? [Mr Merrifield
having entered the witness box, the magistrate continued]
—You have expressed a wish that the present proceedings
should not go on. Upon what grounds do you make the
application ?
Mr Merrifield—The young man has been three weeks
in prison, your worship, and 1 think he has been suffi-
ciently punished.
Mr Vaughan—Have you been paid, or have you received
any promise of payment ?

Mr Merrifield—No, sir.
Mr Vaughan—Then there has been no sort of compro-
mise in the matter. Is there any person in court who can
speak to the prisoner's previous character ?
Mr George Evans said—l am the prisoner's uncle, and
have known him from childhood, and I have had ample
opportunity of observing the actions of the prisoner. Up
to the present charge his character has been irreproachable,
and when that became known it created the utmost astonish-
ment amongst them.
Mr Vaughan—To what do you attribute his present
position ?
Mr Evans—To bad associates and bad company. If his
brother had come forward I believe there would appear to
be extenuating circumstances—
Mr Wontner— Don't go into that now.
Mr Vaughan—lt was stated on the last examination that
if the prisoner was discharged his friends would undertake
that he should be sent abroad. _ _

Mr Evans—That promise will be performed. The rela-
tives of the prisoner have made a subscription in his
behalf, and their great desire was that the prisoner should
be sent abroad in order that he might get rid of his bad

companions.
Mr Vaughan—Prisoner, I have very grave doubts with
respect to your case, but after careful consideration I
have came to the conclusion that, consistently with my
duty, I may discharge you instead of committing you
for trial. I place much weight on the recommendation
of the prosecutor, but your case not being a felony, al-
though very close upon it, the magistrate has a larger
discretion ; and considering that you have already been
three weeks in prison, and that your friends will send
you away from this country, I shall order you to be
discharged. I do hope that for the future you will en-
deavour, by your good conduct, to atone in some degree
for the disgrace you have brought upon your family.
You are now discharged.
Prisoner—Before I leave the court I wish to say that I
never intended to defraud Mr Merrifield.

r_RE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 12, 1864.

CITY SEWERS COMMISSION,

Yesterday a meeting was hTld at the Guildhall of the City
Commissioners ct Sewers, Deputy Do Jersey in the chair.

THE GAS QUESTION.
The following report from the special committee upon gas
was read and adopted :
" We, whose names are hereunto set, your special com-
mittee on gas, to whom it was on the 14th of June last re-
ferred to consider a motion of that date—' That the citizens
of London have for a long time been suffering from an in-
sufficient supply of gee, and that supply being under the
superintendence committee, they be appointed for the pur-
pose of ascertaining the cause of such insufficiency, with
power to make such investigation and take such steps as
may appear desirable, with a view to its improvement, both
in quality and quantity, and to insu-e to the consumer more
power end permanent light ;' and having had our attention
directs 1 to the various eomplaints which have been made
from time to time cf insufficiency of light from the public
lamps where the carburetter is fixed in the lantern, end to
the shadow cent by such carburetters round the base of
such lamps, after consulting with the chemical examiner
and gas engineer thereupon, we have decided to recommend
to your hon. Court that on the termination of the present
contract with the Co operating Company on Ist Feb. next,
I the use of the carburetter, so far as regards those lamps where
it is placed in the lente.n, be discontinued.
" With regard to the very difficult question as to the ex-
cessive amount of sulphur found in the gas supplied to the
City,we are advised by the chymical examiner of gas, that,
in the event of your hon. Court desiring to take any pro-
ceedings to put in force the provisiors of the act of Parlia-
ment in reference thereto, it is expedient that you should
have the beet opinion you can get on the subject, and he
recommends that Mr liawksley, the gas engineer, be re-
tained for such purpose and to advise as to the best mode of
reducing the amount of sulphur in gas, so that such opinion
be had at a cost not to exceed 20 guineas, and we recommend
that he be retained for that purpose accordingly, and that it
be referred back to us to obtain 'he same."
Dr LETHEBY reported that the average illuminating
power of the gas supplied to the City during the week had
been above the recr4rement of the Act of Parliament, but
that on six occesions out of 17 in the case of the Chartered
Gas Company it had been below the standard, and that once
in seven in the case of the Great Central Company it had
also been below. The average power of the City Company's
gas had been equal to 13.17 candles, whereas that of
the Chartered and Great Central had not been 121 candles.
The amount of sulphur in the Chy and Chartered had ave-
raged 19.3 grans, but that of the Great Central had been
21.1 grains, and on every occasion the latter gas had con-
tained more sulphur than was sanctioned by the act.
Mr CHAPLIN gave no'.:ce that when next the gas ques-
tion came before the Court he would submit the following
motion :—" That it be referred to the Special Gas Commit-
tee to confer with the gas companies in the City of London
with the view of obtaining a reduction of the price of gas to
that which was charged by the various companies from and
after the passing of the act of the Great Central Gas Com-
pany to the passing of the Metropolis Gas Act, and in the
event of the committee failing to obtain such reduction to
consider and report as to the advisability of applying to
Parliament for powers to obtain the same, and to secure to
the citiz,ns 'he advantages they formerly possessed in re-
spect of the gas supply, and such other powers as may be
otherwise beneficial."
THE MEDICAL OFFICER'S REPORT.

The following report was read from the medical officer of
health :—" The iuspechrs' retu- a which are before you re-
late,tp 265 houses that have .been inspected during the

•-•
week, and I submit a list of 62 places for sanit.iry improve-
ment. The markets and slaughter- houses have been duly
inspected,and the officers have condemned 2,3601 b of meat
as most unfit for huree-t food ; 9701 b were disused, 5761 b
were putrid, end 8141 b were from enimals that had died
from disease. It consisted of 9 sheep, 5 pigs, 10 quarters of
beef, 20 joints of meat, and 42 head of game and poultry.
" The mortality returns for the week are a little above
the average for the corresponding week of the last 9 years.
Last week the number of deaths was 59, whereas the average
numb-r is 51; 28, or nearly half of the deaths, were among
children of less than five years of age, and 8 were among
persons of 60 and upwards. The chief causes of death are as
follows :—Phthhis, 5 --mesenteric disease, 10—pneumonia,
3—bronchitis, 2—whooping-cough, I—diphtheria, 3—SCP::
let lever, d—measles, I—and 3 from infantile diarrhcei."