The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-22 00:00:00

MONDAY'

EVCNING,

through the cliff, the chalk from which has been I
brought out to form an embankment as a continua-
tion of the line in the direction of the town. This
embankment has been 100 feet in length, 60 in
width, and from 15 to 20 feet high, but now the
whole has been washed away. At about half-past
four this morning the liamsgate lifeboat went out
to a vessel (belonging to South Shields) which was
asbore on the Goodwin Sands. After much diffi
culty, the boat neared the vessel, and succeeded in
saving the lives of four out of the crew. The fifth
man was lost, having, we are informed, fallen into
the sea in endeavouring to jump from the vessel
to the lifeboat. But for the timely assistance of
the lifeboat the whole of the crew must have been
lost, The four who were saved were taken to
Dover, and the lifeboat arrived home this afternoon
at about 3 o'clock. As she entered the harbour,
the brave crew were hailed with a hearty cheer
from some hundreds of persons, who had assembled
on the pier. The damage clone in the harbour is
not extensive. There are, however, several small
craft sunk, and one or two broken.
SHIELDS, SATURDAY NIGHT.

To-night a telegraphic message came down to the
Tyne from Admiral Fitzroy, that dangerous winds
might be expected, and the night storm warnings
were hoisted. Coincident with the appearance of
the storm warnings, the wind which had been blow-
ing fresh all day from the N.N.W., got more round
to the north and eastward, and came on to blow a
fiercer gale. There is a heavy sea on the bar, and the
night is dark, with showers of sleet and snow. Twa
hours ago the alarm was given that a laden
schooner had run up the Herd sand, and the
South Shields lifeboat was immediately launched
and manned by the pilots. They gallantly
pulled her out into the heart of the sea, and have
just brought the crew of the stranded vessel ashore
amid the cheers of the people. The vessel is the
Isabella Grinley, with coals for Montrose. She left
Sunderland ou Wednesday last, and has been
knocking about in the North Sea ever since. The
storm seems to be increasing in violence, and the
wind appears to be getting more round to the east-
ward.

BOULOGNE, SUNDAY, 10.15 P.M.

The collier brig Sir William Pulteney, and two
others are on shore near here. The crews are saved.

CHARGE OF CONSPIRACY.

On Saturday George Ruxton, a shipowner, re-
siding at Liverpool, and James Birtie, the captain
and part owner of a merchant ship named the
James Brown, were placed at the bar of the Man.
sion-house justice-room, before the Lord Mayor,
charged with conspiring together to cheat and
defraud the Universal Marine Insurance Company,
in Cornhill of between £BOO and £9OO.

The prisoner Ruxton was recently tried and ac-
quitted on a similar charge at the Liverpool Assizes.
On leaving the court he was arrested on a fresh
accusation, under a warrant emanating from the
Mansion-house, and brought to London. The pri-
soner Bertie was apprehended on Monday last at
Falmouth, just as he had arrived there after a
voyage.

Mr. M'Culloch was counsel for the prosecution ;
the prisoner Ructon was defended by Mr. Sleigh;
and Birtie by Mr. Woutner, solicitor, of Bucklers-
bur,.

Mr. William Nicholas de Mattos, of 27, Leaden-
hall-street, merchant, was called. He said in No-
vember, 1860, he chartered the ship Joseph Howe,
belonging to the prisoner Ruston, for a voyage
from Cardiff to St. Paul de Loando, a Portuguese
port on the coast or Arica, with a full cargo of
coals, through Smith, Simpson, and Co., of George-
yard, Lombard-street, sbipbrokers, with liberty to
Knowles and Foster to ship 500 demi-johns (a kind
of bottle, so called), at a special rate of freight, for
his (witness's) own agent at the port of destination.
No one besides himself, as the charterer, would be
entitled to ship goods by the vessel as freight, stores
excepted.

Mr. Todd, a shipbuilder at Cardiff, and son of the
Portuguese Vice-Consul there, deposed that he
acted as the deputy of his father during his absence
in December, 1860. St. Paul de Loando was
what was called a Consular port, and it was requi-
site at such a place for the captain of a vessel
arriving there to produce a declaration showing the
whole of hi 3 cargo. The prisoner Birtie, as the
captain of the Joseph Howe, signed the manifest
produced, as well as a translation in Portuguese,
to which latter was appended a declaration by him
that he had no other goods ou board than those
mentioned in the manifest. The two bills of lading
now produced were shown to witness by the cap-
tain before the vessel, to enable him to make out
the manifest.

The two bills of lading referred to, and on which
the case of the prosecution mainly turned, were put
in—the suggestion on their part being that they
contained entries of goods, including beer and flour
in large quantities, perfumery, pickles, preserved
smheiaptpse'dby the
potatoes, geese, cross-cot saws, biscuits, &c.,
prisoner Ruaton, but of which it
was alleged little more than a tenth was actually
put on board the vessel, though the prisoner Rus-
ton had effected an insurance for £l,OOO on the
whole lot of the enumerated articles.

Mr. Alfred Tozer, of 35, Cornhill, Secretary to
the Universal Marine Insurance Company, proved
that on Dec. 29, 1860, two policies of insurance for
£5OO each were issued by the company in respect
of certain goods purporting to have been shipped
in the Joseph Howe. A claim was afterwards made
for the insurance upon an alleged total loss of the
ship and cargo, and on Jan. 25, 1861, the amount
(L 1,000) was paid by the company to Messrs.
Wardell, Frazer, and Co., on the production by them
of the bills of lading and a protest that the goods
mentioned in them were entirely lost with the ves-
sel. He added, in reply to Mr. Sleigh, that when
the insurance was effected he knew nothing what-
ever about Wardell and Frazer's prineipals in the
transaction ; but at the time it was paid he knew
for whom they were acting.
Evidence was given by people from Cardiff, em-
ployed about the ship when she was preparing for
sea, leading to the inference that of the articles enu-
merated in the two bills of lading not more than
about 100 casks of beer, a few barrels of flour, and
about 70 mats of potatoes were actually shipped.
It was also proved that Ruxton was at Cardiff on
the 24th of December, the day the vessel sailed.
Mr. James Ranford Wardell (Wardell, Frazer,
and Co.), ship insurance broker, Orel:thaw-house,
said the policies produced on the ship Joseph
Howe were effected by him through Heathcock
and Company. He had no communication what-
ever with the prisoner Ruxton with respect to
them, nor any conversation with bim at any time.
He saw him in company with Mrs. Heathcock when
the insurance was paid to the latter. Heathcock
and Ruxton came together, and the conversation
between witness and the former might or might not
have been heard by Ruxton. Witness received
£l,OOO, the full amount of the insurance, from the
company, and handed the money over to Heathcock
by check. He believed Ruxton was not present
when he did so. There were other insurances on
the ship effected by witness, and he collected them
all about the same time for Heathcock—viz., £1,500,
£l5O, and £675, besides the £l,OOO on the goods.
Two letters, written by the prisoner Ruston,
from London, to his son, at Liverpool, on the 13th
and 23d of January, 1861, were put in and read.
In the first the prisoner said he had received infor-
mation of the loss of the Joseph Howe, that she had
been struck by a heavy sea on the 2d of January
and had sprung a leak, and that the crew, who had
abandoned her, with nine feet of water in the hold,
had been taken up by a passing ship and brought
to London. He added that he was well insured,
there tieing £4,000 on the ship and freight, and
£l,OOO on goods, that Heathcock was getting his
papers ready as fast as he could, and that he expected
to receive £3,500 of the insurance on the following
Wednesday or Thursday. In the second letter Rus-
ton said he had received £1,500 of the money, that
he expected X 2,000 on the next day or Thursday, and
that on receiving the balance he would be off home

Thomas Smith, a detective police-officer at Liver-
pool, said he apprehended the prisoner Birtie at
Falmouth on Monday, on board of his own ship.
He told him as he did so that he was a police-officer,
and charged him with conspiring with Ruxton to