The Sun.
London, England, 1862-06-24 00:00:00

COURT OF COMMON PLEAS.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.—June 24.

MARLBOROUGH-STREET.—Hypolite Rey-
nand, a Portuguese merchant, was brought before
Mr. Tyrwhitt for final examination, charged with
having indecently assaulted and exposed himself to
two children named Ann Bland and Elizabeth Pearl,
Mr. Edward Lewis was for the prisoner. •
At the former examination the following evidence
was tendered :
Ann Bland, aged 11 years, went into Kensington-
gardens with another girl about the same age.
While skipping in the broad walk the prisoner,
who w
as on one of the seats reading, called to them,
and said in broken English he would give them 4s.
if they would come and sit beside him. The pri-
soner, to make his meaning more intelligible, held
up four fingers. The prisoner removed some dis-
tance from the public walk to a tree, and then he
called the girls to him again. Thcy went, and
then, according to Ann Bland's statement, the pp-
soner committed one at least of the offences with
which he was charged. The statement of Eliza
Pearl went to convict him of both. As soon as the
girls released themselves they ran to the north walk
and told a park-keeper what had occurred. He
went back with them, and they pointed out the
prisoner, who was sitting on a seat, as the person
who had assaulted them. The park-keeper went
towards the prisoner, whe, seeing them approach,
got up and walked away. The keeper followed and
took him into custody.
Mr. Lewis cross-examined both the little girls,
and having elicited some discrepancies in their
depositions, he made a. strong appeal to the bench,
urging the improbability of a person of the re-
spectability of the prisoner, who had come over
here on business connected with the Exhibition,
conducting himself in the way described.
Mr. Fontaine, a silk merchant, of Golden-square,
spoke to the respectability of the prisoner, and his
belief that he was incapable of misconducting him-
self in the way described.
Mr. Tyrwhitt said there were undoubtedly some
discrepancies between the evidence of the two chil-
dren—but had they told their story in the same
words the suspicion of collusion would have been
warranted. He would carefully consider the evi-
dence before he gave his decision, and for that pur-
pose would remand the prisoner on light bail for a
week.

Yesterday_Mr. Tyrwhitt said he had fully consi-,
dered the evidence, and giving all the weight to the
discrepancies in it that he ought to do, he had come
to the conclusion that the case was one for the de-
cision of a jury or for conviction.

Mr. Lew-is hoped the magistrate would send the
ease to a jury.
Mr. Tyrwhitt said he would convict
and sentence
the prisoner to three months'
imprisonment.
iwhogueldgaginiveet thethe pereinsovnieetrietela e
if opportunity of appeal-
thought fit.
ewisseagideiweeitthdue respect to the courts,
constable
conviction.
he Mr.s
h o E
should. L
appeal
Joseph Barber, 0 59, the the
whose case
appeared in the Papers of
with assaulting Mrs. M yesterday, was charged
street. argaret La ivrence, of Silver-
The particulars
dare nearly the same as those
which have
already appeared.
The complainant,
in Silver-street, , who keeps a greengrocer's shop
rang at the bell of a neighbour who
had offered to
bour was
accustomed
go to market with her. This n eigh-
who werestomed to be rung up by the police,
paid
a small sum for the service. The
defendant,fancying the complainant was interfer-
ing with his perquisites, assaulted her, and, after a
good deal of resistance, took her to the station-house,
and charged her with assaulting and obstructing
him in his duty. On the way the complainant
dropped her pocket with. £3 108. in gold, and when
restored to her by the police £1 was gone. The
defendant was the constable who returned her
pocket, and who bad seen her on previous mornings
ring at the same bell.
The defendant said he heard some one ring a boll
and walk away, and thinking it was some improper
person who bad done this he went forward, and wa3
attacked violently,and his faceand hands scratched.
ale knew nothinm about the money said to have
been in the compr ainant's pocket.
Mr. Tyrwhitt was sorry such a case should come
before ilill2. The PLO Were r,' 11
buuda Y a well-regu.

the plaintiff, was brought' from the Queen's Bench
Office, and examined with reference to the charge
of forging the plaintiff's signature to the wages
book, as alleged by the ph tintiff. She also wrote her
name on a piece of paper in court, and the three
were submitted to the eorcsideration of the jury,
together with the name ss written by the defen-
dant in the book when she entered his service.
Inspector Howard, who w as sent for, deposed to
the defendant coming to the station on the 2d of
December for assistance.

The learned Counsel having i.lthlressed the jury,
The Lord Chief Justice summcd up.
The jury returned a verdict for the defendant.

(Sittings at Nisi Prius in Middlesex. Before Lord
Chief Justice Erie and a Special Jury.)
BEHRENS AND OTHERS V. ALLEN-LIBEL.

This was an action to recover damages for two
libels published in the Manchester Guardian, and
the defendant, in addition to "not guilty," pleaded
that the alleged libels were true in substance and in
fact.
Mr. Sergeant Slice, Mr. Edward James, Mr. Pope,
and Mr. Butler Rigby appeared for the plaintiffs;
and Mr. Bovil;, Mr. Hawkins, and Mr. J. A. Russell
were for the defendant.
The case for the plaintiffs was that they were
merchants and commission agents, in business at
Bradford and Manchester, and the firm consisted of
four brothers, who were natives of Hamburg, but
who had been established for 29 years at Bradford
and for 22 years at Manchester. They were in the
habit of sending silk, linen, and cotton goods to all
parts of the world, and their annual returns were
about £400,000. Messrs. Dalton Brothers were the
sons of a gentleman who was formerly in business
very extensively as a printer of cotton goods,
but who had retired, and was supposed to possess
great wealth. The course of the trade of the
sons was to purchase grey cloths, and to get
them bleached and printed according to their own
designs. In June, 1860, the firm became Daltons
and Heap, and their credit was untarnished until
they failed for £78,000. An examination took place
in the Bankruptcy Court, and on the 17th October,
1861, there appeared in the Manchester Guardian
the first libel now complained of. (The article re'-
ferred to statements made in the Bankruptcy Court
that the bankrupts had bought grey cloth goods,
and sold them a few days afterwards at a conside-
rable reduction to Messrs. Behrens, and after stating
the circumstances, said, Such is the disclosure to
which we wish to call attention as having been
made in these proceedings. It' exhibits no isolated
case of making a good bargain,' such as necessity
on one side and ready money on the other often
bring about, without leaving any reflection upon
the parties, but points to a regular and systematic
course of transactions which, though probably be-
yond the reach of the criminal law, were clearly
inconsistent with honest trading. We have a firm'
of calico printers purchasing grey cloths on credit,
and selling them at a loss for cash, and we have an
agent always ready to accommodate them by pur-
chasing. The question may yet be raised whether
the latter cannot be made to restore the goods
obtained in this way from a house evidently on the
high road to bankruptcy; but it is plain enough
that it was his instrumentality which allowed the
rotten business to go on. And just as the Fagins
of a lower rank in the social scale are justly visited
with severer reprobation than the Artful Dodgers
whom they train and encourage, so here we con-
ceive the commercial community may properly
show its blame of the practices acknowledged by
the Messrs. Behrens. Can it not, we should ask,
find some praclical means of giving expression to
its displeasure ? The Jockey Club can exclude a
black sheep from Newmarket, and we believe some
of the societies of London merchants, holding their
exchanges at the various coffeehouses, cau keep their
places of resort free from company they do not like.
May not their example be imitated with advantage
to the respectabilityof the Manchester Exchange ?
We throw out the hint as one method of punishing
offences against the ordinary rules of trade such as
those we have been here considering.") After this
publication the plaintiffs offered their books for
examination by Mr. Williams, who wrote commer-
cial articles for the paper, upon the condition that
if he were satisfied that the transactions were cor-
rect, the editor should state this and express regret
for his error. This offer was not accepted, but Mr.
Behrens was told that any letter he wrote in expla-
nation would be inserted in the paper; and he did
in fact write two letters which were published in
the paper. The plaintiffs also offered to have the
circumstances investigated by the Chamber of Com.
merce, and they further advertised, complaining of
the false and calumnious charge made against them
and challenging investigation. Another meeting
took place in bankruptcy, and on the 24th October
the second libel was published. (This consisted of
a comment upon the later circumstances, and the
writer in substance adhered to what had been said
before, refused to retract or apologise, and said that
the plaintiffs might appeal to the law.)
A vast mass of evidence was laid before the jury,
principally upon the question whether there was or
not any impropriety in the dealings of the plaintiffs
with Messrs. Daltons and Heap, and the case occu-
pied three entire days.
The jury, after considering the matter for a short
time, found a verdict for the plaintiffs—damages,
£l,OOO.