The Sun.
London, England, 1839-01-02 00:00:00

CHORAL HARMONIC SOCIETY.

The third concert for the present season of the above So-
ciety took place last night at the Hanover-square Rooms.
Both in point of selection and performance it proved superior
to many former concerts of the Society, but was not equal in
the latter respect to the first of the season. The Society,
however, is evidently progressing, and with a little more atten
tion at their weekly practices, we may expect a still
nearer advance towards perfection at their succeeding efforts.
The conceit opened with Paer's very pretty overture
" Agnese," played with spirit and correctness ; in Weber's
" Ruler of the Spirits," the orchestra was not so successful.
The tribute of an encore was nevertheless deservedly paid to the
composer. In the course of the evening several choruses were
sung, and accompanied remarkably well; amongst them were
" The many rend the skies" of Handel, and Mozart's " Questo
eit fin." A beautiful madrigal of Feata, " Down in a flowery
vale," was also well sung. The serenade from " William
Tell," " Fair as a bride," was not quite so correctly
given as at Covent garden Theatre. We missed se-
veral points in the instrumental accompaniments. The
singers were Miss Cooper, Miss Flower, Mr. Leffler, and
Mr. W. D. King. Miss Cooper has improved amazingly ;
she possesses a beautifully clear flexible voice, and uses it with
considerable judgment. In the characteristic song of Auber,
" I love her, how I love her l" accompanied by herself on the
pianoforte, she sang with exquisite feeling, and was enthusi-
astically encored. "Tu die accendi," Rossini, was also sung
by her in good taste, and in a very spirited style. Miss
Flower also had an encore in a very pretty ballad by Mortimer,
" Go, forget me l" Mr. Lefflor's " Lascia amor," of Handel,
was sang in a bold and masterly manner, and was much ad-
mired by the dilettanti present. Mr. W. D. King, in Pur-
cell's " Mad Tom," sang with much judgment and feeling,
and, except by Braham, we never heard this celebrated scene
given with half so much effect. Loder's " Three ages of love,"
sang by the same gentleman, we did not much admire. The
instrumental pieces were a Concerto on the oboe, played with
a beautifully mellow tone, and great neatness of execution by
Mr. Keating ; and a Duct Concertante, piano-forte and con-
certina, by Mr. Frederick Lyon and Mr. Sedgwick. It was
much applauded. The Concertina, however, is but a toy at last,
and more suited to the boudoir than the concert-room. The
concert concluded with Rossini's overture to " La Ceneri n-
tola," which as usual for the terminating piece was played to
nearly empty benches. The room was entirely filled with the
subscribers and their friends.

In the course of last week, the officers of po:ice here
discovered three of the swell mob, who are reported
to have been for some time plying their trade in Glasgow,
and apprehended them, when upon examination, one of
them turned out to be a returned convict named 'Macdonald,
the same fellow who so lately bothered the police of
Glasgow. He was very unwilling to recollect any of his
aliases. A number of skeleton keys and other implements
of robbery were found upon them.—Edinburgh Advertiser.
Two fashionably-dressed young men, named Brady,
were on Friday charged with having violently assaulted a
surgeon, named Johnston, residing at No. 4, Commercial-
terrace, Limehouse. It appeared that Mr. Johnston had
seduced a sister of the defendants', and being about to get
married had deserted her. On Wednesday the young lady
had introduced herself into the drawing-room with her in-
fant, and exposed her seducer before a large party of his
friends. On the following day she again visited the house,
when complainant sent his servant for a policeman to re-
move her. The servant, however, who swore that Mr.
Johnston had knocked down, kicked, and otherwise ill-
treated Miss Brady, instead of going for a policeman,
went and informed the Messrs. Brady of what she had seen,
and they returning to the house of complainant, inflicted
upon him a sound thrashing with a stick, but not, as they,
affirmed, till complainant had first struck them. The
young lady was called, and admitted she might have done
wrong. The sitting Magistrate (Mr. Norton) replied, that
if the complainant thought he could find a Magistrate to
punish a brother under the circumstances detailed he must
be very much mistaken indeed. He (Mr. Norton) for one
should not do so ; hut, in discharging them, he would re-
commend that neither of them should for the future go
near the complainant's house. The defendants, whose
feelings during the proceedings appeared to be dreadfully
excited, were then discharged. The charge was originally
the capital one of cutting and wounding, but Mr. Norton
finding nothing to justify so serious a charge, ordered the
defendants to be taken from the felons' bar and placed else-
where.

MONKEYANA.—In the Secondaries' Court on Fri-
day a person named Howard recovered 251. damages from
the owner of a monkey, whose appearance, uninvited in the
bed-room of complainant's wife, about four months ago, had
frightened the lady into fits, from the effects of which she
was still suffering, and was now under medical treatment.
By some means the animal had strayed from its master's
premises and got into Mr. Howard's house, and the first
glimpse which Mrs. Howard had caught of it, as she lay
ill in bed at the time, was while it was sitting on her
dressing-table fighting its own shadow in the looking-glass
and chattering vehemently. The usual evidence of injury,
and the amount of doctors' bilis having been adduced, it
was attempted to be shown in defence that the plaintiff
had been guilty of negligence in leaving his doors open
to the intruder. In the pleadings the monkey was termed
" mischievous, savage, and ferocious by nature ;" while
Mr. C. Phillips, for the defendant, contended that it was
a well-behaved brute ; it had been playing in Mr. Du-
crow's corps ever since the unfortunate visit, and during
that period had never misconducted itself in the least,
The offender was in the neighbourhood of the Cozirt, but
was not produced.

IMPORTANT QUESTION RESPECTING POOR
RATES.—A question of considerable importance is at the
present moment agitating many parishes throughout the
kingdom relative to the excusing, on the ground of poverty,
the payment of poor-rates. Since the passing of the new
Assessment Act, it is compulsory on all parochial officers
to introduce into their rate-books an assessment of all the
property within the parish, and as it must necessarily oc3ur
under those circumstances, that the names of many persons
are introduced who, from poverty, are unable to pay, it is
provided that the overseers, or other persons having the
care and management of the poor, shall from time to time
make out a list of such persons whom they may consider fit
objects to be relieved, and submit it to the local bench of
Magistrates for their approval and signature. In many
parishes it is the custom for the list to be made out at a
public vestry, and in other parishes the task has been per-
formed by the overseers solely. At Twickenham, in con-
sequence of there being considerable arrears on the books
in respect of rates made under the new system, a committee
of the parochial officers have been for some time sitting to
investigate the claims of the respective parties to be re-
lieved ; but we understand the Board of Guardians of tho
Brentford Union dispute their right to do. so, and coptowl
that the Poor Law Amendment Act having rewtoved the
4` care and maintenance of the poor" from the hands of the
overseers and parochial offiemN, and vested it the hands
of the Guardians, those boards alone have now the power
to recommend to the Magistrates. The same point has
been raised in other Unions, and in consequence the Vocis
Law
cormissignos have been applied to oil
,o.N e eet,
AttPl4lo-teneral on the
construction have taken the opinion of the
Ave quoted, Which has not yet
construction of the words
been tnaciP :tt which is said to be in favour cf that
laced pn them by the Guardian:), Rho.uld that be the ease,
will add greatly to the thttie,s of tbe variQua Wards,
it

„:

CRIMINAL COURT-(THIS DAY.)

OLD COURT.
THE FORGERY ON THE BANK AT TORONTO.

John Hannon was charged with having feloniously had in
his possession, on the 14:h September last, a copper-plate, with
an engraving for a promissory note, purporting to be of the
Upper Canada Bank, under the name and style of the Direc-
tors and Company of the Toronto Bank.

Mr. Bonict;l and Mr. DOANE appeared for the prosecution.
Mr. PRENDERGAST defended the prisoner.
Mr. BODKIN stated the nature of the case. The prisoner
had recently come from the Province of Upper Canada, and
on the 13th of August he presented himself at the shop of
Mr. Ilayes, engraver, Regent-street, and desired Mr. H. to
call upon him at Betty's Hotel. Mr. Hayes called accordingly,
and the prisoner then produced a genuine note of the Toronto
Bank, and ask( d Mr. Hayes to engrave him a fac simile,
which he air ed to do. the price fix ,d being fourteen gui-
ne is. The plate waa commenced, and in the course of the
work the prisoner frequently called at the shop of Mr. Hayes,
and seemed very anxious for its completion. In the course
of one of the conversations which took place, the prisoner
described himself as one of the members of the bank, and
said that Mr. Ridout and Mr. Proudfoot, whose names were
affixed to the note, were his partners. When the plate was
nearly completed, the prisoner asked Mr. Hayes if he could
engrave the names of Hawdon, Wright, and Hatch, of New
York, who appeared as the engravers of the genuine note.
Mr. Hayes refused, and said that if he wanted a name
engraver he would put his own name on the plate.
The prisoner said he would rather have the other
names, and offered an additional guinea to have it
done. Mr. Hayes, however, still refused, and the pri-
soner at last said that it was of no great consequence, as he
could get it done in America. The plate having been thus
far completed, was delivered to the prisoner on the 13th Sep-
tember, together with eighty impressions, which he had de-
sired Mr. Haves to take for him. During the progress of the
affair, the suspicions of Mr. Hayes bad been excited by the
request of the prisoner to have the names of the New
York engravers affixed to the plate, in consequence of
which he communicated with the agents of the Toronto
Bank in the city, and an arrangement was made by
the police to take the prisoner when he went for
the plate; but on receiving it he instantly disappeared, and got
away. Shortly after this he went with some other persons
into a brothel, where he lost the plate and the impressions,
and gave the person who kept the house into the charge of the
police fcr having robbed him. He, however, did not appear
at the police-office, and the woman was discharged. On the
18th September he again presented himself at the shop of Mr.
Hayes, stated that he had lost the plate and the notes, and
would trouble him to engrave another. He then presented
him with another genuine note, cutting off the names
of Mr. Ridout and Mr. Proudfoot, and also that of the en..
gravel sat the bottom of it. He desired the plate to be made as
much a fac simile as possible, and stated that he should have
some Montreal and other bank notes to engrave, and that
money would be no object. Mr. Hayes immediately com-
municated with the persons connected with the bank, and on
the 27th the prisoner was apprehended. In the meantime it
appeared that the prisoner had called on Mr. Martin, in Long-
acre, and asked him to engrave a fac simile of the lower part
of the note, which had been cut from that delivered to Mr.
Hayes stating himself to be Mr. Ridout, and that Mr. Proud-
foot was his partner. Of course, the plate could not be prc..
duced, it having been lost ; but one of the impressions from it
had been preserved by Mr. Hayes, which would be identified.
Witnesses were then called to substantiate the facts stated
by the Learned Counsel in his opening ; at the conclusion of
which,
Mr. PRENDERGAST took an objection to the form of the in-
dictment, which, he submitted, could not be sustained. The
charge was laid under the 18th section of the Act, which
regarded notes payable only in this country, and not notes
payable abroad. The 30th section, which extended the
forging or uttering to places abroad, left out the offences
punishable under the 18th section, and did not extend to pos..
session, the offonce now charged against tho prisoner.
After Mr. BODKIN had been heard in reply,
Mr. Justice BOSANQUET said the Court would revery° the
point for future argument, of which the prisoner would of
course have the benefit.
Mr. PRENDERGAST then addressed the Jury at some length
on behalf of the prisoner; after which the Learned Judge
summed up the evidence, and the Jury returned a verdict of
Guilty.

NEW COURT.
(Before Mr. CommoN SERGEANT. )
Caroline War I was indicted for stealing two duplicates,
two breast-pins, a chain, value 305., and a gold pencil-case,
va'ue 31., the property of Wm. Cochrane Williams.
The prisoner's defence was that she found the articles.
The Jury returned a verdict of Guilty, accompanied by an
earnest recommendation to mercy.
The Commotv SERGEANT sentenced the prisoner to thre e
months' imprisonment and hard labour.

_EAT ,ENTS.—The proceedings on this question
before Lord Moncrieff, as Lord Ordinary, terminated on
Thursday, when his Lordship ordered the Council on each
side to prepare cases, which are to be considered by the
Inner House, We understand the question will be
taken up and decided by the whole Court.—Edinburgh
Advertiser.

SIR W. GOSSETT.—Last week, as Sir William
was leaving his dressing-room and proceeding down stairs,
his foot slipped, and he was precipitated to the bottom with
such violence that his collar-bone was broken, and other-
wise slightly injured.

ANTI-CORN-LAW ASSOCIATION.—On Wednes-
day last a meeting was held at the Crown and Anchor Inn,
Belgrave-gate, when it was unanimously agreed thata,
Branch Society should be formed and a Committee chosen
for the purpose of forwarding the object of the Association.
During the evening a stranger from Nottingham amused
the meeting by several striking facts illustrative of the
baneful effect of the Corn-laws, which he, as an individual,
had experienced on the Continent. The gentleman's
name is Mr. Madder, the Patentee of a new and ingenious
improvement in the stocking-frame. He most earuestly
requested the men of Leicester to agitate for the abolition
of the iniquitous monopoly appropriately callecl 'by The Sun
the " Devil's Laws." [We are glad to S.:VI that the diffe-
rent Wards in the town are about, to form District or
Branch Societies. Every mar.';ufacturer, banker, mer-
chant, farmer, tradesman, anti artisan, should at once enroll
themselves in one of thr,im, all, except the Aristocrat and
great Landowner, being equally interested in the prompt
removal of an impost alike disgraceful to the Senate which
enacted it and to the people who have so long suffered it
to remain ori the Statute-book.]—Leicestershire Mercury.
It is our painful duty to record the death of Captain
Johnston, of Sands, under the following very melancholy
circumstances :—He had gone, on Friday, the 14th inst.,
to dine at Blair Castle, which is about a mile distant, and
not having returned by ten o'clock, which was considered
a late hour for him, being a person of very sober and re-
gular habits, his family became uneasy, and sent a mes-
s-nger to Blair to inquire into the cause of his detention.
The servant was there informed that Captain Johnston
had left for home at a quarter past nine o'clock. He ac-
cordingly returned to Sands and communicated the intel.
ligence, which produced great alarm, as the night had been
very hazy, and there were two very deep quarries near to
a by-path by which he usually came. His eldest son and
the servants having got lights, immediately went m search
of him, and, melancholy to relate, found him in on of the
quarries quite dead. He had fallen from a heigl:A of nearly
forty feet, and had alighted on his head, As Captain
Johnston was universally respected his tragical end has
produced a great sensation in the neighbourhood. He has
left behind him his lady and a fine family to deplore his
loss.—Edinburgh Courant.
On Sunday morning last a remarkable circumstance
occurred at Bradgate, near Rotherham. Whilst a boy was
passing over an old well, with a lighted candle, foul air
ignited, and com..lnicating to a barn close by,the property
of, Mr. James rirnarris, of Rotherham, ironfounder, destroyed
Iron) se",,nty to one hundred loads of wheat and other pro-
Per'.y, the whole of the value of from 2001. to 3001.--Liver-
pool Chronicle.

We are sorry to have to record an attempt to set fire
to the warehouse in Peat-lane of Messrs. Box and Harri-
son, manufacturers. It was fortunately unsuccessful, but
we regret to have to put on record an endeavour so much
exceeding in malignant villany any thing that has of 1a.,0
years taken place in this generally peaceable town. P. ap-
pears that the wife of a person employed in the bre:wery of
Mr. Banks, and who had to be up very early 0,0 Monday
morning, saw a light in the warehouse abtr:e mentioned,
about half-past eleven on Sunday night-, 'as she was sitting
up to call her husband. The cirnmstance naturally ex-
cited suspicion, as there were no men at work on the pre-
mises, and the alarm was given. On searching it was found
that a fire had beenk~,;ldled of peats in the watch-house,
near to two I,_:cge barrels, containing each of them above
90 gallons of oil. The fire had burnt off' all the hoops of
the barrel nearest to it, and some of the staves were much
blackened, and the flames had reached to a basket of wool
which had been placed on the top of the other. A very-
short time longer and the inflammable liquid would have
been poured out, and the whole premises would have• been
in a flame. The author of this act is at present undisco-
vered.—Kendal 111ercu 'y,
MEETING OP THE WORKING CLASSES.—The
largest meeting ever assembled in Exeter took place on
Tuetiday evening last, Dec. 18, 1838, at six o'clock. The
meeting was convened by the Buckfastleigh Working Men's.
Association, for the purpose of explaining more fully edeir
uhjects and principles. The meeting was intended. io have
taken place in the open air, in order to d€4.eat the machina-
tions of their opponents, who mustered strongly to oppose
them ; hut to their consternati-A and dismay the people
tlarched into the field. 110::.ited by the Buckfastleigh band
of music, accompanied by many belonging to the Ashburton
band, with different banners and emblems of the Working
Men's Association, " United we stand, divided we fair
a bundle of rods with a crown of laurel on it, " Unity
is strength," " Live by labour and be free," with a variety
of other appropriate tiags,—Devonshire Chronicle.