The Sun.
London, England, 1853-04-23 00:00:00

THE MODERN GUNPOWDER PLOT.

SEIZURE OF ROCKETS AT ROTHERHITHE.

BOW STREET---(THIS DAY).

At half-past one o'clock this afternoon Robert Hale
and William Hale, father and son, appeared before Mr.
Henry, the magistrate at Bow-street, to answer a sum-
mons charging them with having, in a house in their
occupation, a certain large quantity of gunpowder,
greater than was allowed by the law to be in the pos-
session of one person.
There were several foreigners present in the body of
the court, but in consequence of it not being publicly
known that the case was to be brought on, the court
was by no means crowded.
Mr. Bodkin, barrister, attended on the part of the
Crown, and Mr. Clarkson appeared for the defendants.
Mr. Bodkin said he was instructed by the Govern-
ment to submit to Mr. Henry certain circumstances
which appeared to them to justify their interference with
respect to premises in the occupation of the elder defen-
dant, if not in the joint occupation of both. He should
show that they had brought themselves under the ope-
ration of a penal act of Parliament, which provided
that no dealer in gunpowder should be possessed of more
than 200 lbs. of gunpowder at one time and in one place,
and that no person who was not a (haler should be pos-
sessed of more than 60 lbs. under similar circumstances,
and this act imposed a penalty of 2s. on every pound
above those amounts. Mr. Bodkin then detailed the cir-
cumstances under which the present seizure had taken
place, and stated that the Government had other rea-
sons than obtaining penalties for instituting the present
proceedings. He then called the following witnesses :
James C. Evans, a superintendent of the Thames po-
lice, deposed that he executed, on the 13th April, a war-
rant, granted by Mr. Henry. The premises were situ-
ated at the back of the Grand Surrey Canal, in Rother-
hithe. He got there about three o'clock in the afternoon.
He wasfaccompanied by Sergeant Sanders of the detec-
tive police. He found a man, who gave the name of
James Boylen. He saw him sitting before a machine,
lemming in rockets. Witness inquired for Mr. Hale,
and he said he was not there. He then asked if Mr.
Robert Hale was there, and he said not since Monday.
I told him we were officers of the pplice, and asked him
if he kept any gunpowder on the premises. He said they
kept no gunpowder—only a rocket composition. I then
produced the warrant, and after reading it over to
him, proceeded to search the premises. He first
showed us a small cask of composition, which he
said he was using. There were a number of shells and
rockets lying about. There was a shed about thirty feet
from the work house. I asked for the key of it.
He called it the magazine. He said he had not got the
key, which was kept by Mr. Robert Hale. I then said
I would break it open. On my threat to break in he
produced the key, and opened the door. Among other
things in the magazine there was a quantity of gun-
powder. I took possession of all I found there, and
carried it away from the premises. It was weighed at
the arsenal, where it was taken. I took possession
of 79 cases, containing altogether 1,759 rockets. The
witness then stated that on seeing the defendants they
denied that the composition was gunpowder, and they
offered to refer him to Sir Tnomas Hastings, and othera
in order to show that they were not carrying on a manu-
facture for Wegal purposes. He took a portion of the ma-
terial to several chemists for analisation. Healso made an
experiment himself by loading two pistols, one with the
composition, rnd• the other with ordinary granulated
gunpowder, and on firing them off he found that the
ballsplaceo in each made an equal indentation upon a
board.

Cross-examined by Mr. Clarkson—l found no granu-
lated gunpowder. When I made the experiment with
the pistols I could not distinguish any difference between
the reports of the two. I will undertake to say
that the one with the composition made no
hissing noise when it was let off. I know nothing of
making rockets. I never was employed in any other
proceedings against a party for making rockets or for
having gunpowder. (The witness here produced two
rockets, one was very small, being about an inch
in thickness and four inches in length, but the
other, which was charged, and rather startled the counsel
and spectators had a formidable appearance, being at least
a foot in length, 3 or 4 inches in thickness, and pointed
at the ends. It appeared to be encased in iron.) Sir
Richard Mayne directed me to remoue the rockets and
composition to the arsenal at Greenwich. I did not see
on the premises 500 lbs. of what is ordinarily called gun-
powder.

Thos. Clark said he took a quantity of powder from the
premises of the defendants, and conveyed it to Mr. Way's
chemist in Bolles-street, and delivered it to his assistant.
John Sanders said—l was present at the firing of the
pistols in Scotland-yard. I loaded them myself, one
with the composition and the other with a cartridge of
granulated gunpowder. I put the same quantity in
each. He fired at a board, and in both instances
the ball went through the board into the wall. They
both went off instantaneously.
Mr. J. T. Way, examined, said—l am a professional
chemist. I have been engaged in that department of
science 12 or 14 years. I received from my assistant a
quantity of gunpowder for analisation. I found it to
consist of nitre, sulphur, and charcoal. Those are the
ingredients used in the manufacture of gunpowder. The
proportions of these substances vary in different kinds.
In 100 parts of this composition there were 70 parts of
nitre, 12i of sulphur, 16i of charcoal, and 1 per cent.
of moisture. It does not present the appearance of
granulated gunpowder.. Powder is granulated by being
passed through a sieve, but it can be reduced in a pulp
by the application of water. The composition is in my
opinion gunpowder.

Cross-examined by Mr. Clarkson—l never saw any
gunpowder manufactured. My knowledge of the manu-
facture is obtained from reading. This composition
had the appearance and character of gunpowder.
Mr. Augustus Hoffman, professor of the Government
School of Mines, in Jermyn-street, St. James's, and also
a professor of the Royal College of Chemistry, gave evi-
dence as to the materials of which the composition con-
sisted.

The examination of the witnesses was not concluded
when we went to press. The decision of the magistrate
will be given in our next edition.

ELECTION COMMITTEES.-(THIS DAY.

BERWICK-UPON-TWEED.

On the meeting of the committee this morning,
Mr. Wells stated that upon consideration of the facts
which had been already adduced, and the intimation of
the committee that the agency of Thomas Smith had
been sufficiently established, he had felt it to be his duty
to advise his client, Mr. Stapleton, to withdraw from
further opposition to the petition. It was then stated
by the learned counsel that the case as regarded the other
sitting member, Mr. Foster, had been only a fishing
case, and it was not proposed to adduce any further
evidence. _

The room was then cleared, and on the readmission of
the parties the chairman read resolutions to the follow-
ing effect :
" That Mr. Stapleton was by his agents guilty of
treating at the last election, and was not duly elected."
Mr. Hawkins then proceeded to sum up the case
against Mr. Forster.

KNARESBOROUGH.
This committee sat this morning at half-past 11
o'clock.
The petition complained of a double return ; and from
the statement of counsel it appeared that, at the last
Mr. Dent, Mr. Woodd, obtained each 113
votes, election, there were four candidates, of whom three, Mr.
West
aheadnithe fourth, Mr. Collins, only 107. The three
first were then declared duly elected, although the bo-
rough is only entitled to return two members. The
petition prayed for Mr. Westhead's seat ; and it appeared
from the evidence that, among the votes recorded for
him, was that of Mr. R. Dews, who was admitted by
counsel to have acted as Mr. Westhead's paid agent at
the election.

The committee came to • resolutions declaring Mr.
Dent and Mr. Woodd duly elected. They also altered
the poll taken at the last election, by striking off from
the list of votes recorded for Mr. Westhead the name of
Mr. R. Dews, as not. being entitled to vote for that
gentleman.
It is somewhat singular that this is the third double
return for this borough. The two former ones occurred
in 1688 and 1689.