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

THE SUN' LONDON, MON'DAY EVENING, DECEII3Ett 22, 1862.

visable to do so, or that good would grow out of it.
Mr. Dayton presumed that the expression of such
a wish would be but an offer of mediation in another
form.
M. Thouvenel said, if there were any word that
could express less than mediation, that word should
be used in its place. _ _

Mr. Dayton then asked M. Thouvenel, if his offer
or suggestion were refused, what would be the con-
sequence?
M. Thouvenel replied—Nothing. America and
France would remain friends. Re said the recog-
nition of the South would not follow the refusal by
America to accept mediation, but everything would
remain as before.

Mr. Dayton said that America would regard the
acknowledgment of the South as a form of inter-
vention.

M. Thouvenel assented, saying they did not
think of in any way intruding into American affairs,
or intervening in any form. Their intent would be
comprised in the expression of a wish to be useful,
if it could be done with the consent of both parties.
The Emperor was still disposed to act the part of
friend between North and South, if they should
mutually request, and nothing more, except that
the calamitous civil war had increased and
strengthened that wish on the Emperor's part.
Mr. Dayton, unofficially, informed M. Thouvenel
that such an offer, if ever made, would come to
nothing.

MEXICO.

NEW YORK, DEC. 11.

Advices received here from Vera Cruz to the lst
instant state that a large number of towns had de-
clared in favour of the French intervention. It was
said that Juarez intended posting himself at Tlas-
calla, to oppose the French advance on the capital
by way of Piedras Negras. If the French succeed
in capturing Puebla, the sluices which now contain
the waters of the lakes round Mexico were to be
opened, in order to flood the city. Marquez had
occupied Galchinda in the name of the French. The
latter had occupied Jalapa and Alvarado. ruarez
had issued a proclamation declaring that the penalty
of death wculd be inflicted on all who carried des-
patches to or from the French army.

All communication with the interior and the coast
was virtually cut off.
An attempt to get up a demonstration at Tlas-
calla in favour of Juarez resulted in the inhabitants
crying, "Viva lee Francais:'

SEVERE GALES.

-40-

DESTRUCTION OF SHIPPING AND LOSS
OF LIFE.

Since Friday night a terrific gale of wind has
swept over the metropolis, and caused considerable
damage to property on land and to the bhipping in
the river and docks. At the east end of the metro•
polis the house-top telegraph wires have, it is re-
ported, been in many places blown down, and the
communication temporarily suspended. No perso-
nal accidents of a severe nature have been reported
as far as the metropolis is concerned.
The same rembrk does not unfortunately apply
with regard to the shipping on the coast, as will be
seen by the following advices :
LIVERPOOL, SATURDAY.

Yesterday and to-day the weather has been very
stormy, both in and out side the port of Liverpool ;
and judging from the reports of the coasting steamers
the storm extended a long way down the Channel.
To-day intelligence was received here of the loss of
the schooner Effort, Captain Thomas, belonging to
Messrs. Nicholson Brothere, of this town. The tele-
gram from Lloyd's agent states that the Effort ran
on shore this morning in Penrhas Bay, where she
soon after broke up, and that the cargo was washing
on shore along the coast. Only one man was saved.
The Effort cleared at this port on the 13th inst. for
Lisbon, with six of a crew, under the command of
Captain Thomas.

SOUTHAMPTON, DEC. 21.

A heavy gale of wind has been blowing here,
chiefly from the north-west, with short intermis-
sions, for the last three days. The Channel Islands
mail packet, due Friday night, did not arrive here
until yesterday afternoon. The Havre packet, due
here yesterday morning, has not yet arrived.
GREAT YARMOUTH, DEC. 20, 8.30 A.M.

Throughout yesterday the gale continued with
little abatement, and during the night it raged with
renewed violence. A large number of vessels have
taken refuge in the roads, which afforded compara-
tively safe shelter, with the wind off shore. Some
which had drifted towards the Scroby Sands have
taken closer moorings under the land. Sever al
vessels have come in in various stages of distress,
and a large three-master, supposed to be a Yankee,
was towed through yesterday, disabled, from Lowes-
toft. Last night the crew of six hands of the brig
Moore, from Seaham for London, with 309 tons of
coals, were landed here by a fishing smack and
taken to the Sailors' Home, having been obliged to
abandon their vessel. She was dismasted off the
Dudgeon, and two fishing smacks bearing down
took her in tow ; but in consequence of the violence
of the wind, and the heavy sea running, the rope
parted, and she became unmanageable. As she had
8 feet of water in her hold, the crew were taken
off by one of the smacks, and it is believed that she
went down shortly afterwards. The prevalence of
the wind from N.W. for so long a period has
brought up one of the highest tides known in
Yarmouth for many years. The sea this morning is
up to the marine chive, and the quays are flooded
for several yards on both sides of the haven. Old
seamen here predicted rough weather from the bril-
liant apperance of the Aurora Borealis on Sunday
night.
KING'S LYNN, SUNDAY.

A severe gale has been blowing almost without
intermission since Friday, but without doing any
serious damage until this morning. The wind
brought a heavy tide with it this morning, under
the influence of which an important sea wall or
bank, which protects Mr. Bentinck's property
in Terrington Marsh, has given way, and exposed
a large district reclaimed from the sea year by year
for some years past to the ravages of the ocean.
Not much land is at present under water, and
efforts are being made to repair the breach before
the return of the tide to-night ; but it is stated that
the whole bank is in a very precarious state. One
of the banks recently made by Messrs. Peto in con-
nexion with the Norfolk Estuary works, and known
as the NV olverton bank, has also given way. At
Hunstanton, the terminus of the New Lynn and
Hunstanton Railway, the water has been quite
over the fine cliff, and the line of railway, which
runs close to the sea along the coast, is now sub.
merged between Hunstanton and Heacham. Some
serious shipping casualties are feared along the
coast.

Yesterday a French vessel was on shore about
ten miles below Lynn ; the crew were in the
rigging, but it was hoped they would be taken off.

RAMSGATE, SUNDAY EVENING.

The gale which prevailed during Saturday night
and this morning has been the cause of a conside-
rable destruction of property on the coast in the
vicinity of this town. The tide this morning was
higher than it has been known for the last 25 years
and the waves, like mountains of water, rolled in
with terrific violence. The famous Ramsgate sands
have not now their usual appearance, they are more
like an immense wreck, being strewn with huge
pieces of timber and lumps of chalk of various
dimensions_ In the vicinity of the sands are the
premises of Messrs. Strong and Barnes, boatwrights,
which consist of a large wooden structure, used as
a workshop, and what is called the boathailders'
yard, in front of which was erected a strong wooden
fencing, Although on an embankment, and some
distance from where the tide usually approaches, the
whole of the latter have been washed away; one side
of the building has been forced in,_and the foundation,
although solid chalk, has been completely under-
mined. A large wooden marquee, used by visitors
in the season, has als3 been partly destroyed. The
coast-gna.d station had a very narrow escape, and
it is feared the men and their families will have to
turn out before the night high tide. The wave
washed completely over the station, and the water
fell down the chimneys so as to prevent fires being
kept by the occupants. Even the Kent Coast Rail-
way Company have not escaped. For some time
past a tunnel has been in course of construction

through the cliff, the chalk from which has been
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, 50 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 Ramsgate lifeboat went out
to a vessel (belonging to South Shields) which was
ashore 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 cone 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 Shiehis 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
Isabell9. Grinley, with coals for Montrose. She left
Sunderland on 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 ituxton, 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 Ruston 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 Ruxton was defended by Mr. Sleigh;
and Birtie by Mr. Wontner, solicitor, of Bucklers-
bury.

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 of 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 Di ember, 1860. St. Paul de Loando was
what was oiled 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 his 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 ng other goods on 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
meats, potatoes, geese, cross-cut saws, biscuits, &c.,
shipped by the prisoner Ruxton, but of which it
was alleged little more than a tenth was actually
put on board the vessel, though the prisoner Rux-
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 Bowe.A claim was afterwards made
forthe Josephinsurance upon an alleged total loss of the
ship and cargo, and on Jan. 25, 1861, the amount
(£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 principals 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 Ruston was at Cardiff on
the 24th of December, the day the vessel sailed.
Mr. James Ranford Wardell (Wardell, Frazer,
and Co.), shin insurance broker. Gresham-h,,,,,,..
said the policies produced on the ship Joseph
Howe wore effected by him through Heathcock
and Company. He had no communication what-
ever with the prisoner Ruston with respect to
them, nor any conversation with him at any time.
He saw him in company with Mrs. Heathceck when
the insurance was paid to the latter. Heathcock
and Ruston came together, and the conversation
between witness and the former might or might not
have been heard by Ruston. Witness received
£l,OOO, the full amount of the insurance, from the
company, and handed the money over to Heathcock
by check. He believed Ruston 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 Laudon, 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 being £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 £2,000 on the next day or Thursday, and
that on receiving the balance be 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

defraud the underwriters by losing the Joseph
Howe. The prisoner said " Yes, she was lost,"
adding shortly afterwards, " I did a bad job in sign-
ing those blank bills of lading." Witness asked if
he had any papers in the ship connected with the
Joseph Howe. He replied he thought not, that he
destroyed them, bur witness could look for himself.
Witness brought the prisoner on shore to the office
of Messrs. Fox and Co., where the prisoner re-
ceived a letter addressed to him, and which he
opened and read, giving it afterwards to his wife
to read. She returned it to him, and he was going
towards the fire with it, when witness snatched it
out of his hand. Witness then read the letter,
and asked him if Ruston owed him that amount of
money for back wages. He said " No," and that
he never owed him a shilling in his life for back
wages. Witness had previously asked him what
the letter was about. The reply was that it was for
his wife.

By Mr. Wontner—When he apprehended the
prisoner Birtie witness did not tell him that he
would either be a prisoner or a witness, but he did
afterwards, and showed him a handbill relating to
the charge.
The letter, which was anonymous, was not read,
the Lord Mayor ruling that a man was not to be
answerable for a letter that might be addressed to
him, much less an anonymous one, which might be
designed as a trap for him.

On this evidence Mr. M'Culloch asked to have
the prisoners committed for trial. He added, in
reply to the Court, that the solicitors for the pro-
secution and himself had estimated that the value
of the goods actually put on board was about £l4O,
that £l,OOO had been received for insurance, and
that the company charged the prisoners with de-
frauding them of the difference, amounting to £B6O.
Mr. Sleigh and Mr. Wontner finding that it was
the intention of the Lord Mayor to send the pri-
soners for trial, forbore to address the Court in their
behalf, contenting himself with asking that they
should be liberated on bail.

The prisoners were then committed to Newgate
for trial, the Lord Mayor decidinglat the same time
to hold them to bail, themselves in £5OO each, and
two sureties in £250 each, alter giving the usual
notice.

EXTENSIVE AND SYSTEMATIC FRAUDS.

EXTRAORDINARY BILL IRANSACTIONS.

Ferdinand Arthur Newman, a foreigner, who
described himself as a merchant, trading in the
name of De Niemann and Co., at 48, Fenchurch-
street, was brought up before Alderman Besley, at
the Ghiildh:tll, on Saturday, charged with conspiring
with one Richard Pearson, late of 6, Noble-street,
to obtain goods to the value of about V.,300, under
false pretences, with intent to cheat and defraud
Mr. Jeremiah Walton, a woollen manufacturer, of
Bradford, in Yorkshire. There were several other
charges against the prisoner, and among the num-
ber two for forging endorsements w bills of exchange.
This case has been several times before the Court,
but the evidence has beer. of such a voluminous cha-
racter that we deemed it expedient to reserve our
report until the case assumed a more definite form,
in order that the extraordinary system disclosed
might be better understood.

Mr. Albtrt Turner was the solicitor engaged for
the prosecution, and Mr. Beard for the defence.

Mr. Walton said—My transactions with the pri-
soner and Pearson commenced on the 3d June last,
when the latter bought a quantity of goods, and
continued to buy from time to time, the terms being
cash at a month. About the middle of July he failed
in his payments, and his account wt s then £4OO. It
was at that time that he introduced the prisoner to
me as a gentleman with plenty of means, and who
he said owed him £5llO, The prisoner corroborated
Pearson's statement, and added that he had very
large remittances coming from Florence, and would
see me all right to whatever amount I trusted Pear-
son. In consequence of the prisoner's representa-
tions 1 let Pearson have other goods, to the amount
of £6OO, and after that i found great difficulty in
getting cash from Pearson. I pressed both him and
the prisoner for money, and at length got a cheque
for £lOO from Pearson, who was advised by the
prisoner to give it me, but on being presented it was
returned dishonoured. Pearson ultimately gave me
six bills of exchange, one of which for £l2O 14s. ;
bore an acceptance in the name of Auguste Lorck, of
Dunster-court, Mincing-lane. Three of the bills
were endorsed by the prisoner, and I asked him to
endorse the other three, but he refused to do so, be-
cause he believed I had been instrumental in pre-
venting him getting £625 worth of bills discounted
in Bradford. Pearson told me in the prisoner's pre-
sence that he received the bills from him (prisoner),
and tried apparently to induce him to endorse
them. The prisoner came with Pearson to select
the goods. The total amount of goods bought by
Pearson between the 3d of June and the 29th Aug..
is £1.329 17s. Bd, of which I have only been paid
£252 10s.

Anguste Lorck, a foreign ag,itt, who has disap-
peared from his office in Dunster-court since he was
examined, said—l know of no other person of my
name in Dunster-court. The acceptance to the bill
for £126 14s. is not in my handwriting, neither has
it been written by my authority. I know nothing
either of the prisoner or Pearson.

John Anthony Johnson, a wooilen agent, said—l
was engaged on the 7th of August last by the pri-
soner to buy goods for him in Pearson's name, and
I did so, the prisoner giving me the money to pay
my expenses down to Bradford and Leeds.

Cross examined—l was tried about two years ago
for signing an order without authority, but I was
acquitted.
Charles Baker, a detective officer, said—When I
took tae prisoner into custody and told him the
charge was for conspiring with Pearson, he said
Mr. Walton had a bill of his for .£550.

Ed. Hancock said—l was with Baker, and at the
prisoner's request I allowed a friend of his to accom-
pany him in the cab, and on the way I saw the pri-
soner pass something behind his back to him. At
the station I asked the friend -to give up what he
had received, and he produced a bundle of papers.
Squire Walton, the prosecutor's son, corroborated
a portion of his father's evidence, and said—l came
to London on 27th of Sept. last for money. I went
to Pearson's office, in Noble-street, and told him we
wanted £l,lOO, and he took me with him to the
prisoner's office, in Fenchurch-street. Pearson went
in first, and sometime afterwards called me in and
then left me alone with the prisoner. He told me
he had received a letter from Florence that morning
advising him of a remittance of a large sum of
money. I asked him for some cash, and he replied
that he had a drawer full of bills of exchange, and
that I could take the amount I wanted. I told him
we could not take any more bills, and he then said
if we would wait a few days we should have every
farthing.
it was stated that, so far from the prisoner being
a man of good means, he had only furnished apart-,
ments; that there was not 58. worth of property be-
longing to him at his office, and that for some time
past he had been constantly denied to persons, and
among the number the sheriff's officers, who called
at his office with applications for money.
The next case against the prisoner was that of
_ _

IT- T 2 ainu , °Moor
who said—The prisoner was first introduced to me
about a year ago. He represented that he could, in
conjunction with M. Jean Marie Farina, whom he
afterwards introduced to the, manufacture eau de
cologne to sell at a large profit, which he was
into agree-
able to share with me if I was inclined to go it.
He slid that M. Farina would require £3O for the
secret for making the eau de cologne, but he even-
tually accepted £lO. The person calling himself
Farina signed the receipt, which was drawn out by
the prisoner; and they manufactured seven and
a half dozen of eau de cologne at my office, as
a sample, which I afterwards sold. The prisoner
produced the genuine labels of Farina's eau de Co-
logne, and said I could have the use of the plates,
but he afterwards said one plate was missing, and
asked me for money to pay for a new one being en-
graved. I gave him £6 by a cheque made payable to
Messrs. Smith and Co., the printers. The receipt on
the bank of that cheque I believe is in the prisoner's
handwriting. I believe that the endorsement of
" Newman and C 0.," on the two bills of exchange of
Aug. 23, 1862, drawn by C. A. Martin, on Barnett,
and of Sept. 19, 1862, drawn by Barnett and Co., on
Pollack, are also in the prisoner's handwriting. I
parted with other sums, amounting in the whole to
about £6O, under similar circumstances; and upon
the faith of the agreement I entered into being a
genuine one with the real Farina of Cologne. The
sample was all I got for my money.
Cross-ex,imined—The prisoner afterwards gave
me a bill for £OO to get discounted, and I was to
have received part of my money out of the proceeds.
I have not before seen the agreemenrproduced signed
"Johann Maria Farina Imhoff," and dated Oct. 24,
1860. Tha agreement I spoke to the prisoner about
was in his handwriting, and dated 1850. 1 did not
know that the person introduced to me as M. Farina
was Imhoff until after I had advanced the whole of
the money, and then the prisoner told me.
M. Albert Domeier, of 7, Old Jewry, said—l am
sole agent for Jean Marie Farina, of Julien'a-place,
Cologne. I do not know the prisoner, but Ido know
Imhoff, and I believe the signatures to the agree-
ment and the receipt produced are in his hand-
writing.
Cross-examined—There are 34 firms of the name