The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-16 00:00:00

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TIM SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER x3G '1862.

LA W---THIS DAY.

COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH.
SLANDER- KOENIG V. RITCHIE.
Sir Fitzroy Kelly this morning opened the case on the
part of the deiendants. The learned gentleman was ad-
dressing the court when we went to press.
The case will not conclude to-day.

LONDON GAZETTE.—This Evening.

CRIMINAL COURT--THIS DAY.

OLD COURT.
(Before the Common Sergeant.)
THE WIDOW AND HER £BO.

_ _ -- --
Edward Wood, dust contractor, was indicted for feloni-
ously receiving a sum of money, well knowing it to have
been stolen. He was also indicted for the larceny.
From the evidence it appeared that the prosecutrix, Mrs.
Stiddolph, a widow, residing at Bermondsey, where she
carried on the business of a confectioner, and being in pos-
session of a considerable sum of money, £BO, she placed it
for security under the fender in her bedroom. By some
means or other it got removed to within the grate, and the
servant girl one morning shoveled the two pieces of cloth
in which the money was wrapped up in into the
ashes, and threw it into the dust-hole. A short time
before the money was so accidentally disposed of a

argo quantity of almonds, which had become useless

to Mrs. Stiddolph, had also been consigned to the same place,
and the dust collector's cart having arrived, the men were
called in to cart the refuse from the house. The ashes were
taken to the prisoner's premises, and there left, and the
peculiarity of the heap was marked by the immense quantity
of almonds it contained. Atter the ashes were on the pri-
soner's premises a lad informed him that one of the men
had discovered a lot of money in the dust. He then went
to them, and they gave him £l5 as his share of the disco-
very. Some time after inquiry was made by Mrs. Stid-
dolph relative to the money, and the fact that a quantity of
worthless almonds was also mentioned as being in the dust
which was taken from her house, which it was also said
contained the £BO which, with the exception of one sove-
reign, consisted entirely of half sovereigns. The prisoner,
it was afterwards discovered, had paid lls. 6d. to

the parochial authorities, and also £2 10s. for
some clover, amongst which was one of a very peculiar de-
scription, and to which the prosecutrix swore as her pro-
perty. On inquiry being made, the prisoner denied the
finding of the money, but he afterwards said that some
coin had been discovered by the men, and that, according
to the practice of the yard, the men gave him a half of the
found money—viz,, £l5.

The prisoner was then taken into custody, and as he was
being conveyed to the station-house he told the constable
that when any money was found it was always divided
between himself and the men. Notes, he said, were fre-
quently found ; and with respect to the money in question,
he said one of the boys told him that £45 had been found
amongst the dust in the yard, and that he had received £l6,
which he had paid away. He had given £9 Ile. 6d. to
Mr. Riches, and £2 102. for some clover, and the rest he
had advanced to his men, which he was to deduot on the
following Saturday.

A statement made at the police •court by the prisoner was
also put in and read ; it stated that the money was found
amongst the dust collected; and that he received £l5 as his
share. When he was first spoken to about the money he
denied all knowledge of it ; but he afterwards made an offer
to repay the prosecutrix all he had received from the men.
The Jury were of opinion that the prisoner was guilty
of receiving the money, and that he did not give himself
any trouble to find out the owner.

The Common Sergeant—Do you mean to say that when
the prisoner put the money into
his pocket he reasonably
believed the owner could be found ?
The Foreman—Yes, my lord.

The Common Sergeant—The property then was stolen.
You must now say whether the prisoner received the money
under circumstances that induced him to belicve it had been
stolen.

The Foreman—We find him
guilty of receiving the
money, well knowing that the owner could be found, but
we strongly recommend him to mercy.
'1 he Common Sergeant—Will you say whether you are
of opinion that the prisoner believed that he had a right to
the property found as his perquisites ?
The Foreman—We think so.

The Common Sergeant, in passing sentence, told the pri-
soner he had been found guilty of a very serious offence;
but at the same time, he must admit, it was under very
peculiar circumstances. He thought it could not be too gene-
rally known that such as plate, jewels,or money did not belong
to parties finding them, but that they were bound to take
the best means in their power to discover the owner. Under
all the facts of the case, he thought he might safely in the
present instance pass a light sentence, but he did not mean
by that to mark his opinion as to a person appropriating
money, as had been described. He thought the prisoner
laboured under some idea that he was entitled to the pro-
perty; and, as he had before remarked, the case was some-
what peculiar, he should sentence him to two months' im-
prisonment In the House of Correction.

NEW COURT.

(Before Commissioner Kerr.)

Frederic Leighton Chft, 25, basket maker, was indicted
for unlawfully being at large before term of penal servi-
tude, to which he had been sentenced, had expired.

Mr. Clerk and Mr. Besley prosecuted, and Mr. Kemp
defended the prisoner, who pleaded guilty.
It will be recollected that the prisoner was one of two
brothars, named Clift, feather dealers, residing at Peck-
ham, who were about two years ago indicted for and found
guilty of setting fire to their premises, with intent ;o defraud
the Globe Insurance Company of the money for which he
had insured his property. They were convicted and sen-
tenced to 10 years' penal servitude, but previous to the
prisoner's being sent out of the country he was transmitted
to Millbank Penitentiary to undergo the probationary part
of his sentence. A short time after his entering the Pene-
tentiary he contrived to effect his escape therefrom with an-
other prisoner, and remained at large until he was taken
into custody on another charge, viz., for forging and utter.
ing a bill for £44, with intent to defraud.
The'Commissioner sentenced the prisoner to 15 years
pOlial servitude.

POLICE-THIS DAY•

MARLBOROUGH-STREET.

AN UNIAPPY PAIR.—THREATENING A WTFE.—WIII.
Norris, a pattern card marker, 55, New Compton-street,
Soho, was charged with threatening his wife Mary Ann,
Mr. Edward Lewis, of Great Marlborough-street, ap-
peared for the complainant, a respectable looking young
woman, and said that the parties had only been married
two years, and for some time past the defendant had
threatened his wife with great inhumanity, the sole cause
for it being because his wife was in the family-way. The
defendant had told his wife that he would not strike her,
but that because she Was about to give birth to a child
he would, by his conduct to her, put her in her grave
in three months. Last January the wife, through the
defendant's ill-usage, had been delivered of a dead
child, instruments being used. Ho (Mr. Lewis) would call
the wife and then ask the Magistrate to show the defendant
that if men would act like brutes to their wives they would
be punished.

The wife then deposed that her husband had for some
time ill-used her, but had latterly said that he would not
strike her ; but he was in the habit of violently shaking her,
and said that ho did not like children or the idea of her
Jawing thorn.

The defendant said he never remembered using any
threats.
Mr. Tyrwhitt said they had better live apart.
The defendant said ho did not wish to live apart.
Mr. Lewis observed that they could not live together.
Mr. Tyrwhitt said the defendant was a poor cowardly
fellow to harass his wife in her then condition. He should
make the defendant find one bail to keep the peace to his
wife for three months, and he would tell him that he con-
sidered him a pool miserable fellow.

THIRD EDI NON.

SUN OFFICE, SEVEN O'CLOCK.

DOWNING-STREET, DEC. 13.
The Queen has been pleased to appoint Robert William
Gifford Watson, Esq., to be Chief Magistrate for her Ma.
jesty's settlement of Lagos.
DEC. 15.
The Queen has been pleased to appoint Henry Byerley
Thomson, Esq., to be Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court
of the Island of Ceylon ; Richard F. Morgan, Esq., to be
her Majesty's Advocate for the Island of Ceylon ; and
John Comber Browne, Esq., to be Superintendent of Go-
vernment Schools and Organising Master for the Island of
Mauritius.

FOREIGN OFFIPE, Nov. 7.
The Queen has been graciously pleased to appoint John
Elijah Blunt, Esq., now British Vice-Consul at Adrianople.
to be her Majesty's Vice-Consul at Adrianople.
DEC. 13.

The Queen has been pleased to approve ef Mr. C. Kramer
Waller as Consul at Newcastle, New South Wales, for the
Free Hanseatic City of Hamburg.
WHITBHALL•PLACB, DEC. 15.

Tho Archbishop of Canterbury has, under the authority
of the Act of the 13th and 14th years of her Majesty's
reign, chapter 94, appointed the Right Honourable Spencer
Horatio Walpole to be a Church Estates Commissioner, in
the place of William Deedes, Esq, M, P. deceased.

BANKRUPTS.
That portion of the Gazette containing the bankrupts
had not arrived when we went to press.

COURSE OF EXCHANGE.—THIS DAY.
Amsterdam
Ditto
Rotterdam — 11 161 11 17
Antwerp..
Brussels — 25 421 25 50

Hamburgh .. 13 61 13 61
Parisl7f 25 25
Ditto
Niarseilles
Frankfort on Maine —118 k
Vienna
Trieste
Petersburgh
Berlin —
Madrid .. — 49 49/
Cadiz
Leghorn — 25 52/ 2.5 57}
Milan . ... 25 55 25 60
Genoa — 25 55 25 60
Naples
Palermo .. 1193 119
Messina .. 1191 119
Lisbon — 521 522
Oporto — 521 523
Foreign Gold in Bars (Standard), per 0z...... a 17 9
Mexican Dollars
Silver in Bars (Standard)
South American Doubloons 0 0 0