The Sun.
London, England, 1853-07-05 00:00:00

MERCHANT SHIPPING BILL.

The house then went into committee upon this bill.
Clauses up to 28 inclusive were agreed to after several
desultory discussions.

On cluse 29, which provides that British vessels may
be navigated wholly by foreigners,
Captain SCOBELL moved the omission of the clause.
This, he said, was a national question, and struck
at the root of our maritime power. The right honour-
able gentleman the President of the Board of Trade
might tell them that this clause was the summit of
free trade, but he denied that this had anything
to do with the question of free trade at at all. The
repeal of the Navigation Laws was said to be the summit
of free trade, but when that was passed the Government
did not propose the repeal of these manning clauses.
If this clause passed, and it it were declared allowable
for the master, mates, and men of a British vessel to be
foreigners, he should propose another clause that every
morning the crew of every vessel should sing " Rule
Britannia," and that the captain should accompany
them on the French horn, and the mate on the German
flute. (Laughter.)

(LEFT SITTING.)

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT.

(THIS DAY.)

OLD COURT.
(Before the Recorder.)
Thomas Cornell, 27, baker, was indicted for stealing a
horse and chaise, value 201., the property of Richard
Skelton.

It appeared that the prosecutor, who is a veterinary
surgeon, on the 25th of June last was driving a pony
chaise, and that he fastened up the horse near a gentle.
man's house at Forest-gate, and left it for about a quarter
of an hour, and on his return he found that both the animal
and vehicle had disappeared. He gave information of
his loss to the police, and a short time afterwards the
prisoner was overtaken on the Leystond-road with the
pony and chaise, driving at a furious rate, and he was
taken into custody.
The prisoner was undefended.

Mr. M'Murdo, the surgeon of the prison, said he had
attended the accused since his admission, and he thought
he was a man of flighty disposition, and in an unsettled
state of mind, but he considered he was capable of dis-
tinguishing between right and wrong.
The prisoner, on being called on for his defence, said
on the morning in question he had just come out of
gaol, and he took a walk in the forest, and seeing the
pony and chaise he took a fancy to it, and had a ride
along the road, until he was stopped by a policeman and
conveyed to prison.
The Recorder having summed up,
The Jury acquitted the prisoner.
BETTING-HOUSES.

William Woodward, 31, clerk, withdrew his former
plea of not guilty, and pleaded guilty to stealing a bank
note value 1001., and other property, belonging to Robert
Bell and others, his masters.

Mr. Ballantine said it was by his advice that the
prisoner had retracted his former plea. He was a young
man who had been in the service of the National Pro-
vincial Banking Company (who were now obliged, un-
willingly, to prosecute him) for six or seven years,
during which time he had conducted himself irreproach-
ably, and his honesty had remained entirely unim-
peached until the occurrence which formed the subject
of the present indictment. Previously to entering the
bank he had been in the employ of the Parcels Delivery
Company for nine or ten years, and though he held an
office of considerable trust, there was a person from that
company present who would state that ho did not
know a better or more honest servant. He had unfor-
tunately got among that gang of robbers and swindlers
who were allowed to infest the metropolis and keep what
were called betting-offices. He was led on step by step
to commit the crime to which he had just pleaded guilty;
and it appeared that on the day before he committed it
he pawned his hat or his handkerchief in order to raise
a shilling, the whole of the money he had purloined be-
ing swallowed up by the people to whom he alluded.
He was sure his lordship must feel the lamentable con-
sequences which ensued from such establishments, for,
encouraged to the extent they were, they opened the
door of ruin to persons in the situation of the prisoner. He
hoped an end would some time or other be put to this
growing evil, for he could state that one or two out of
every three cases of robbery in which he was engaged,
were to be attributed to the temptation held out by bet-
ting-offices, and those who became their victims were
generally persons of respectability.
Mr. Bodkin, who appeared on behalf of the company,
said the directors had found that they could not, con-
sistent with their duty, avoid instituting this prosecution;
but ho was instructed by them to say, that they had no
reason to believe that the prisoner had ever committed
himself in a similar way until he became connected with
those dens of infamy, for he could call them nothing else,
which existed in different parts of the metropolis. He
would only say, that when suspicion attached to the
prisoner, an officer was appointed to watch him, in order
to see whether there was anything in his conduct to jus-
tify that suspicion, and he was traced, on an evening
shortly after the commission of the offence, to no fewer •
than four betting-offices. It was impossible to repre-
sent too strongly to the public authorities the mischief
which such places created, for there were great numbers
of young men whose ruin could be clearly traced to them.
It was right he should state that the 1001. which the
prisoner was charged with stealing, was taken out of a
remittance to the bank of 2001. It was the duty of the
prisoner to open the enclosure, and he contrived to ab-
stract from it notes to the amount of 1001. At first, it
was considered to be a mistake on the part of the ma-
nagers of a branch bank, but on inquiry it was found
that the money had been purloined. Suspicion then fell
on the employs in the post-office, but they were now
completely exonerated by the confession of the prisoner.
The Recorder—Did the prisoner make any false entry
Mr. Bodkin replied in the negative.
The Recorder said it was impossible for any person
having experience in that court not to concur in all the
observations made by the learned counsel, with respect
to the system of betting-houses. He believed that the
attention of those whose duty it was to watch over the
morals and good of the people was directed to the sub-
ject ; and every one who knew anything about it were
aware of the extreme difficulty of devising a remedy
which would be really effective ; and their anxiety was
not to take any false step, but still he hoped some mea-
sure would soon be passed to check the evil.