The Sun.
London, England, 1862-03-04 00:00:00

the deceased had been guilty of a want of proper fe-lt, and should therefore send .him before another
ti ibunal to be punished as his serious offence de-
prudence, yet, if they thought that the prisoner had
been guilty of negligence which had caused the served.
\
death of the deceased, the deceased's negligence The
would not be an excuse for that of the prisoner ;it at the ensuing Surrey sessions.
might, however, have been a reason for the prisoner 1
supposing that there was no one in the position in I
which the deceased was at the time. There did not
appear to be any reason to suppose that there was
any intention on the part of the prisoner to move
the engine, whith at the time was standing on a
turn-table ; nor was it likely that a man acquainted
with the management of the engine, as he was,
would be playing tricks with it. There was con-
flicting evidence as to wheOer the act of opening
and closing the regulator was one of negligence,
and it was for the jury to say whether the prisoner
had been culpably negligent or not.
The jury immediately returned a verdict of not
guilty.

THE LONDON FBEIGHT MARKET.

(From the Circular of Seymour, Peacock, and Co.)
The position of the Freight Market is more favourable to
the- h•hipping interest than at any period since the close of
the R ussian war.
Throughout the long trades freights are very remune-
rove, a nd although fluctuations may be expected at the
Eastern.
Forts, our shipowners entertain great faith in a
continuance. '
of prosperity.
The
i mnhe;
-ement arises in some measure from the de-
crease ,mpetition of American shipping, but more
the reaction which naturally succeeds a
irro
especially from'
long period of deyre, ssion.
tv,eeks the demand for shipping pro-
Daring the last few
perty has become un:tsuaily active, and in addition to the
purchase of a large nuntber of second-hand ships, our ship-
building firms have recoive,i numerous orders, especially
for iron ships. The increaset.l value of shipping property
affords the best evidence of the belief that the present im-
provement in freights is likely to' prove permanent.
But in considering the position of the Freight Market,
it is as well perhaps not to be over sanguine. The advimee
in freights at Bombay may not continue after the pressure
to export cotton befo; e the close of the season is over. At
Calcutta the Freight Market has been influenced by the
anticipated rupture between this country and America, and
that market may also saffer from the altered aspect of
affairs; again, it must be borne in mind that the timber
trade promises but little entlo uragement for our shipping
during the coming season, the stocks of timber being ex-
cessive, and the demand for km. 11 importations languid in

MIDLAND CIRCUIT—NORTHAMPTON, MARCH 3.
HANCOCK V. SAUNDERS.—BItEACH OF PROMISE
OF MARRIAGE.
Mr. O'Brien and Mr. Beasley were for the plain-
tiff; Mr. Macaulay, Q.C., defended.
The plaintiff is the daughter of a respecOble pub
lican at Glopthorpe, near Oundle, her age 28.
Defendant is the son of a farmer, and is gamekeeper
to the Earl Of Cardigan.
The plaintiff's mother proved sbe had known
defendant from his boyhood, that ho and her
daughter went to school together. In 1859 his
attentions became particular to the plaintiff, and
he asked the father if he might have his daughter
Ann. He asked also for £2OO as her fortune.
The father said " He did not know anything about
that at present." Defendant said to plaintiff,
" Never mind, I will marry you with nothing, and
when you are my wife I can save £5O a-year under
Cardigan." Defendant made her daughter presents,
he provided a wedding cake, and gave her daughter
some wild ducks. Plaintiff showed her a light
dress, and said it was to be her wedding dress.
Subsequently it turned out plaintiff was in the
family way, and witness told defendant it was high
time they were married. Defendant said he had
intended to marry her daughter, but he would not
then, and she said, then he must pay for it. He
said, "If the lot fell upon him he must pay for it."
A child was born last September.
A sister of plaintiff proved defendant said to her
in June, 1860, he would make her sister his wife;
that the day was fixed, the 31st of August, plain-
tiff's birthday ; that they were to be married in
London, at St. George's, Hanover-square.
Thomas Baker, assistant gamekeeper to Saun-
ders, proved that Frederick Saunders offered him
£4 if he would go up and swear falsely against Miss
Haneock, that he had seen her with some one else.
Never had seen her with anybody else.
Mr. Macaulay, for defendant, called no witnesses,
I but complained that the form of the action had not
been seduction, when both parties could have been
heard. After the evidence given he could not deny
the promise.
Verdict for plaintiff—Damages £6O.

COUN7RI 211.4R.K1i'l S.

►,

COLCHESTER—MARCH 1.
To-day a small supply of wheat, and late prices made.
Fine barley maintains its price, but in scarcer supply;
inferior sorts rather lower. Beans and peas were saleable
at last week's rates.
Wheat, white ..54,5 68s Beans, Mazagan..36s 40s
red 46s f 348 middle & small.4os 44s
Barley . 36s 42s Peas, white 38s 40s
Oats

CHELMSFORD—FEB. 28-
A very dull market to-day, and little bus iness doing—
even the best samples were rather lower ; infe.rior is down
in price. Spring corn slow, at late rates.
Wheat, old white 28s 59s Peas, Partridge....37s 413
new, 47s 66s White 395 455
old red.... 275 Ms Boiling .. 41s 475
new 52s 62s Dun 36s 403
Barley 30s 39s Ditto new —s —l3
Chevalier ..30s 42s Beans, Tick, old ..35s 41a
Grinding .24s 32s new..3ss 41a
Ma1t..... 618 67s Harrow Ticks —378 435
Chevalier . 64s 69s new..37s 42a
Oats 23s 30s Mazagan .......32s 35a

POLICE INTELLIGENC E.—March 3.

LAMBETH.—TORTURE OF A CHlLD.—William
Fry, a jobbing carpenter, who had been taken on a
warrant, was placed at the bar before Mr. Elliott
on a charge of torturing a child.
Mr. Clifford, the relieving officer of Camberwell
parish, said that on Friday afternoon last a poor
little boy of eleven years of age, very thinly clad
for such a time of year, and in a state of great ex-
haustion, was brought to him to the workhouse, and
on examining him he was quite shocked at finding
an iron manacle weighing upwards of two pounds,
made fast to his right instep. It consisted of a thick
iron belt, secured at both ends with a strong bolt
and screws, and attached to this bolt was passed the
end of an S hook, of sufficient strength to control
an elephant. On questioning the boy he said that
for at least ten months he had been compelled to
wear this formidable shackle, and that it was by
the merest accident he was enabled to get at a
chopper, by which he had managed to release him-
self from the block to which it had been made fast,
and then escaped from the house of his father. So
secure was the manacle he (Mr. Clifford) had at-
tempted to describe, and which he produced for his
worship's inspection, that he had to go to a black-
smith's shop to get it off; and after it was removed,
and the poor boy attempted to walk without it, he
could scarcely do so. He bent backward and for-
ward several times before he could move from the
smith's anvil. On examining that part of the right
leg round which the iron belt had been placed, he
found it much wasted, and apparently bent, and
very different from the left leg. His whole frame
also appeared emaciated, so much so that it was per-
fectly apparent the poor little fellow had been
grossly neglected, and had not had sufficient food ;
and in proof of this, on placing him in the scale he
only weighed 361bs. The poor little fellow
seemed in the greatest terror of being taken
back to his father, and, crying piteously,
begged of him (Mr. Clifford) not to do so. On
Friday night the prisoner called on him, and he
then told him he must attend before a magis-
trate at this court to answer the charge of assault-
ing his son. The prisoner, however, said he
should not attend unless compelled, and he (Mr.
Clifford), in consequence, applied for and obtained
a warrant for his apprehension.
Mr. Clifford here placed on the table in front of
the bench the manacle spoken of, and the block to
which it had been attached, the latter being found
in the washhouse from which the poor child had
made his escape, and both weighing nearly twelve
pounds. The exhibition of these extraordinary and
formidable implements of torture applied to a mere
child, created a perfect feeling of astonishment and
disgust.
John Purdy stated that on Friday afternoon last
he was at work in a nursery ground adjoining
Woodbine-cottage, the residence of the prisoner,
and saw the little boy come through the hedge with
the irons attached to his left leg. He told him
he had just released himself from a block, and he
(witness) took him to the next police-station.
Mr. Rogers, a retired mariner, residing next door
to the prisoner, said that for the last nine or ten
months he had frequently seen the boy in the yard
of his father's house dragging the log produced
about, and carrying pails of water into the house.
He was generally lightly clad, and did not appear
near the size now that he did 12 months ago.
Harriet Coggins, who also lives next door to the
prisoner, deposed to the same facts, and added that
she had frequently seen prisoner's children locked
up in the washhouse, and had on many occasions
given them food, as they complained of not having
had enough to eat.
Edward Mark Fry, a poor emaciated little fellow,
who was clothed in the workhouse dress, was here
examined by Mr. Elliott respecting the nature of
an oath, and having answered with much intelli-
gence, he was sworn, and said he was 11 years old,
and that his father's family consisted of a sister
older than himself, a brother younger, and a step-
-1 mother. He had been to school, but it was so long
since that he forgot the time. Towards the latter
end of the winter before last it was that his father
first put the irons on his leg and made them fast to
the block, and the irons remained on from that
time until Friday last, when he by chance got hold
of a chopper and chopped away until the staple
came out, and he made his escape.
Mr. Elliott—What was the cause of the irons
being put on ?
Witness—Because my little brother and myself
spent a halfpenny I found under the grate in the
back parlour.
Mr. Elliott—l suppose the irons hurt your leg
very much ?
Witness—Yes, sir, it did at first very much, but
not so much ;Then I got used to it; it used to hurt
me much to drag the log after me.
Mr. Elliott—What was done at night; was the
log taken off ?
Witness—At first I used to sleep on an old coat
and trousers in the washhouse, and at that time
father used to take the log and make the iron fast
by a lock to a staple in the floor, close to the place
where I lay. In the morning he unlocked it again,
and fastened an iron to the block again ; but for the
last 11 months I think it has not been off at all. I
had to carry it upstairs every night, and down in
the morning.
Mr. Elliott—What ! and always sleep with it on ?
Witness—Yes, sir, it was always on.
This question and answer produced a perfect burst
of indignation from all parts of the court. The wit-
ness here repeated the manner of his escape, and
said a gentleman had just taken him to the station-
house, and he was sent from there to the workhouse.
In answer to further questions, the poor child
said that neither himself nor his little brother was
allowed to take meals with his father and mother-
in-law, but his sister was sometimes. They were
locked in the washhouse, and were allowed a small
quantity of meat on Sundays, but on other days
they had nothing but dry bread and a few potatoes,
but not enough.
Policeman 31 P said he apprehended the prisoner
on the day before on a warrant, and on telling him
the nature of the charge he replied, "Here's a pretty
mess I'm in for merely correcting a boy. Had I let
him run about the streets he would have been in a
reformatory." He also said that there were two
others asbad as this boy was, and that he could
not keep his tools from them.
The prisoner in reply to the charge, said that
before he began to " correct" the boy, he was con-
nected with a gang of thieves who infested the
neighbourhood; but this the boy denied.
Mr. Elliott observed that he could not trust him-
self to speak of the conduct of the prisoner as he

?,13,--MAncir 1.
ish wheat, and sold readily at
ced demand, and unaltered in
ill. Rather more inquiry for

the extreme.
The American cotton trade is
a dead letter, and from pre-
sent appearances there will be no employment for the largo
amount of tonnage usually eng,9L-ed in the service. We
may accordingly look for a large a ccession of shipping in
the long trades as the spring advanc, and hence the ne-
cessity for caution in speculating upon the maintenance of
high freights.
The most important feature in our mat ket since the issue
of our last circular is the recoramencememt of chartering on
account of the Peruvian Government for guano from the
Chinchas to the United Kingdom. The 6.4ers for procur-
ing shipping have been placed exclusively- in our hands,
and we have already chartered a considet abl o portion of the
tonnage required.