The Sun.
London, England, 1840-04-29 00:00:00

X"

coURT OF ALDERMEN.

OMNOUS ILIGULATIONS.

Yesterday a Court was held for the transaction of
public business.
The thanks of the Court were, upon the motion of
Alderman KELLY, voted to the Bishop of Llandaff, the
Rev. Dr. Hook, and the Rev. Mr. Davis (the Chaplain
to the Lord Mayor), for the excellent sermons preached
by them on Easter Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.
THE INTOLERABLE NUISANCE OF COMMON INFORMERS.

Alderman Col ELAND presented a memorial from f.:lr
proprietors of 2i 2 omnibuses, which daily passed
through London, praying that the Court would sanction
certain regulations to which they had unanimously
agreed, fer the purpose of preventing obstructions in the
streets of the city, and putting an end to the continual pe-
nalties to which memorialists and their servants had
been lately exposed. The Alderman observed that,
under existinc, circumstances, the multitude of sum-
monses issued against omnibus proprietors for
violations of the law, was great beyond ali
idea formed by the public. He had been pre-
sent when fifty were heard. On tile succeeding Sa-
turday, one hundred summonses were appointed to be
beard ; and he believed the number which stood over
for decision on the 2d of May, Mr. Wire, the solicitor
to the proprietors, having applied for postponements
from time to time, in order to prepare regulations,
amounted to nearly five hundred. Nov, that such a
state of things with regard to public carriages in the
City of London, should exist, was a most serious evil ;
but no doubt at all existed that it was impossible to
comply with the Act of Parliament in the immensely
crowded thoroughiares. It therefore was necessary to
adopt some arrangements to meet the exigency, and the
memorialists appeared to him to have made, under the
judicious advice of Mr. Wire, regulations calculated to
meet the difficulties which had so long presented them-
selves.—( Hear, hear.) 'rile Alderman then moved
that the memorial should be sent to the Public Com-
mittee, who should be instructed to examine evidence
on the question, and report to the Court.—(Hear.)
Mr. WIRE said that, as the Court were determined
to send the memorial to the Committee, lie should post-
pone the observations he had to make until the memo-
rialists were called to give evidence. He, however,
begged to assure the Court that the memorialists were
determined to do every thing to prevent the possibility
of causing public inconvenience, and that they had
already published and acted upon regulations which
showed the sincerity of their intentions.—(Hear.)
The memorial was accordingly referred to the Com-
mittee.

Sir PETER LAURIE said that he had to call the atten-
tion of the Court to a memorial of considerable im-
portance from a very large and respectable body of the
citizens of London. It was principally signed-by the
residents of the Ward of Farringdon Without, and
related to the harrassing annoyance to which the
citizens were subjected. The names of the members
of the Common Council of that ward, and about 160
of the other inhabitants, were attached to the docu-
ment, which he knew would receive due attention from
the Court.--(Hear, hear.) It would be recollected
that there was a time when he thought informers were
of public utility. His experience in the borough
of Southwark, however, convinced him that he
had formed an erroneous judgment. He had
ascertained that shopkeepers were harrassed and
inconvenienced by the informers, and that the pub-
lic received no benefit at all, for those offences against
the law which was really calculated to operate pre-
judicially, and compromised and winked at by the ver-
min to whom he alluded, while little errors and omis-
sions were followed up with the most pertinacious ven-
geance when the persons informed against objected to
the alternative of bribery.--(Hear, hear.)
The Clerk then read the memorial, which was as
follows
TO THE COURT or LORD MAYOR AND ALDERMEN.
The humble memorial of the undersigned inhabitant
householders, in the City of London, on behalf of
themselves, and the retail shopkeepers generally,
' of the said City.
Humbly showeth,—That many of your Memorialists
and other householders of this City, have suffered much
annoyance, inconvenience, and expense, for some months
past, by having been subjected to harassing mulcts or
convictions founded on the frivolous and vexatious in-
formations and complaints of common informers, which
proceedings have been the more severely felt, as until
lately the common informers have, from having been
discouraged by the Magistracy of the City, confined
themselves almost exclusively to districts without the
City.
That that order and regularity with which the citi-
zens were wont to carry on their trades and businesses
has not in any degree been relaxed, and had it been so,
the excellent City Police regulations which have been
established would have been amply sufficient to have
corrected any such evil, and, therefore, your Memorial-
ists can attribute the present influx of informers within
the City boundaries to no other cause than the regula-
tions made by the Secretary of State for the Home De-
partment, by which they were almost wholly deprived
of the wages of their merciless and harrassing proceed-
ings in this country.
That by the 31st section of the statute, commonly
called the Police Courts Act, 2d and 3d Vic., chap. 71,
the Magistrate had power to award costs to either
party, and by the 32d section to award amends to the
party summoned in certain cases, and by the 33d sec-
tion to inflict penalties on common informers for com-
pounding informations, and by the 34th section to de-
prive the informers of the whole or any part of the
penalty though given him by the statute ; and by the
35th section to mitigate any fixed penalty or term of
imprisonment, or summary conviction, in such manner
as he may think fit.
That although the New City Police Act is assimila-
ted to the Metropolitan, so far as regards most of the
new restrictive and coercive clauses, yet almost all the
discretionary and mitigatory clauses above referred to
are left out of it, and confined alone to the Act called
the Police Courts Act, the consequence of which is, that
in all cases of conviction for alleged offences within
Temple-bar, the penalties directed by the statute are en-
forced to their full extent. The informers get their
full moiety, and they run no risk by laying vexatious
informations, whereas the reverse of those evils happen
with respect to cases in the county ; and in order that
the Metropolitan Police Magistrates might have every
warrant which the statute gives them for discouraging
common informers, your Memorialists have been in-
formed that a circular was lately addressed to them by
the Marquis of Normanby, directing full effect to be
given to the discouraging clauses above referred to,
whereby informers are now scarcely ever seen at any
of the Police Courts of the metropolis.
Your Memorialists humbly pray your Honour-
able Court to originate, by petition, to Par-
liament, or otherwise, as to your Honour-
able Court shall seem meet, such proceedings as
may relieve the citizens of London from the scourge of
common informers, and give to the Magistracy the same
lawful means of discouraging them, as well as the same
powers of mitigation, and relief as are given to the
Metropolitan Police Magistrates. And your Memo-
rialists will ever, &c.
Slr PETER LAURIE said that he considered himself
bound to speak in the highest terms of the conduct of
Mr. Humphreys, the Common Councilman, who ap-
peared at the bar with the Memorialists to advocate
their cause, although, by enabling them to accomplish
their object, that gentleman must lose professionally to
the amount of 2001. or 3001. a year.—(Hear, hear.)
The evil appeared to be easily remediable, according to
the suggestion iu the memorial, which he should move
be referred to the Police Committee. He knew
that at the Town-hall some of his brother Magistrates
did not as peremptorily dismiss informers as he did.
The moment he learned that an informer had been con-
victed, he refused to communicate at all with such a
person. Guildhall must not become such a place as
the Town-hall was.—(Hear, hear.)
Alderman LUCAS could not see why, if the regula-
tions and directions sent by Lord Normanby to the
Metropolitan Police Magistrate were useful, they should
not be extended to the citizens of London, who had as
good a claim as others to the privilege of being pro-
tected.—( Hear, hear.)
The RECORDER suggested the propriety of transmit-
ting a copy of the memorial through the Remembrancer
to Mr. Fox Maule and Lord Normanby.—(Hear.)
Mr. HUMPHREYS having been called upon to address
the Court, said that the memorial itself so fully ex-
plained the object of the inhabitants, that it was unne-
cessary for him to say a word about the annoyances
arising from the system to which they were exposed.
He should, however, allude to the rel.ef to which the
memorial pointed. There was now in Parliament a
Bill for better defining the powers of Justices within
the Metropolitan Police District. In that Bill
two clauses, the benefits [of which extended to the
City of
.London, and indeed to all parts of the
country, would be most important to the community.
They were as follows :—" And be it enacted, that ex-
cept the constables belonging to the Metropolitan
Police Force, and the persons employed by the Com-
missioners of her Majesty's Custom or Excise, Stamps,
or Taxes respectively, it shall not be lawful for any
person to lodge any information before any Police
Magistrate, or before any Justice or Justices of the
Peace, within the Metropolitan Police District, for any
misdeameanour, punishable on summary conviction, by
which the informer was not personally aggrieved ;"" and
be it enacted , that every common informer who shall
obtain any sum of. money or other reward from any in-
habitant of the Metropolitan Police District by threat-
ing directly or indirectly to lodge any information or
make any complaint before any such Magistrate, Justice,
or Justices for any misdeameanour, or as an induce-
ment for forbearing to lay such information or make
such complaint, shall, on conviction of the offence be-
fore one of the Police Magistrates, or before two Jug•
tices of the Peace, either by his own confession or by
the oath of any credible witness, be liable to a penalty
of not more than ten pounds."—(Hear, hear.)
Alderman COPELAND, at the same time :that he
most heartily assented to the memorial, doubted very
much the expediency of including the City of London in
the Bill just alluded to. He should greatly prefer a
separate Bill for the City of London itself. Of the
evils of the system so justly denounced by the Memo.
rialists he had ample experience,and he pursued a.course
when be sat at the Town Hall which made the informers
very shy of appearing before him. He assured the
Memorialists that in his seat in Parliament he should do
all he could to procure a remedy for so serous an evil
as they complained of, but it would not be by associat-
ing the City in the Bill which had been drawn up with
an exclusive object.—(Hear, hear.)
The matter was then referred to the Police Com-
mittee, and a copy of the memorial was ordered to be
transmitted to the Secretary of State.
Sir P. LAURIE, after the reference had been
made, said the CitylSolicitor had called his attention to
a very great public inconvenience which would re-
sult from the passing of the proposed Bill in its pre-
sent form. The object of the Legislature undoubtedly
was to protect the public from those pests of society,
common informers, but it appeared that by the mode
in which the clause for that purpose was worded, the
Navigation Committee, the Trinity House, and the
Harbour Master would be restrained from lodging in-
formations to prevent obstructions in the river. The
officers of the Commissioners of Sewers, and parochial
authorities, as well as the servants of gas companies,
dock and railroad companies, and other public bodies,
would likewise be prevented from proceeding by intnr-
mation, to prevent malicious injuries to their property
by summary process, because the officers making the
complaint could not be said to be "personally aggrieved,"
as mentioned in that clause of the Bill.--( Hear.)
The CITY SOLICITOR was heard in support of
this view of the case, and observed, " that it must have
been an oversight on the part of those who drew the
Bill, or the officers of public bodies would have been
protected in the discharge of their duties, as was the
case in the Bill with the officers of Customs, Excise, and
other Government departments.
The RECORDER acquiesced in the opinion just deli.
vered by Sir Peter Laurie and the City Solicitor, and
the Remernbrancer and the City Solicitor were ordered
to take the necessary steps to bring the subject under
the consideration of the Secretary of State.

THE PRACTICE OF SEARCHING FEMALES IN STATION

HOUSES.

Alderman HUMPHERY called the attention of the
Court to the practice of searching females who were taken
up by the police, and lodged in the station-houses. He
found by the statement of a female who had been
brought before him at Guildhall police-office on the pre-
ceding day, that she had been most grossly insulted in
one of those places, which were intended rather for pro-
tection than offence. It appeared that fire supernume-
raries took the female and two men who were with
her to the station-house, and there, under pretence of
searching, most disgutingly insulted her.
_ _ . _

After several observatio'ne from Members of the
Court, the subject was referred to the Police Committee.
The Court then adjourned.

EXTRAORDINARY OCCURRENCE

It will be recollected by our readers that a few weeks
ago some particulars were given of the death by starva-
tion of an eccentric character, whose name was sup-
posed to be James Foote, and who was found in an
emaciated and dying condition in a celebrated cave
near Farnham, formerly the residence of a noted witch
named " Mother Ludlam," and which was known in
this part of the country as Mother Ludlam's Cave.
This unfortunate man was stated to be of good family,
but from the loss of a beloved wife his reason became
impaired, and he was impressed with an idea that he
should live the rest of his life in a cave, and he went
away from all his connections and travelled about differ-
ent parts of the country until he arrived at Farnham,
where he took up his abode in one of the inns, and made
particular inquiry about the cave, and he at length em-
ployed a man to carry his portmanteau for him to a spot
a short distance from the cave, and he then told the man
that he should not require his assistance any further,
and he paid him and went off with his portmanteau, and
from that time nothing more was heard of him for a pe-
riod of six weeks, when he was found near the cave
in a dying state. He was removed to the Union work-
house at Farnham, where every attention was paid to
him, but the wretched man was beyond all hope of human
relief—he was unable to articulate more than the
words, " the cave, the cave," and he gradually sunk
and expired in a few hours. Upon a search being
made in the cave, it was evident that the unhappy
man had resided there ever since the time that he was
last seen. In one corner lay a hear of fern that had
served as his bed, and his portmanteau was in another
part of the cave. This was opened, and was found to
contain a great quantity of valuable clothing and linen,
a gold watch, and other articles. During the interval
that elapsed between the death of the deceased, and
the holding of the inquest, a gentleman, a efranger to
the neighbourhcod, came to the Union House and re-
quested to see the body of the deceased, and he recog-
nised it as being that of a relation, and said that he had
left London, which was his place of residence, several
months before, and that none of his friends had the

least idea where he had gone to. Frosn this gentle-
man, some of the particulars above-mentioned
were obtained, and he also expressed his intention to
attend the inquiry that was to take place before the
Coroner, and give some farther information respecting
the deceased. When the Coroner's inquest, however,
took place, this person did not make his appearance,
neither did any one come forward to make any state-
ment or give the least information respecting the de-
ceased. The jury returned a verdict that the deceased
died from starvation ; and as none of the deceased's
relations came forward, he was interred in Farnham
churchyard, an immense number of persons from the
vicinity, who were attracted by the extraordinary cha-
racter of the deceased, being present at the ceremony.
From this time the remembrance of the occurrence
died away, but within the last few days it has become
revived, owing to a rumour that was very generally
spread about that the grave of the deceased had been
disturbed, and a general impression prevailed that the
body had been removed. These rumours at length
prevailed to such an extent, and caused so much ex-
citement, that it was considered prudent that some steps
should be taken to ascertain whether they had any
foundation, and application was made to the minis-
ter of Farnham, for his permiasion that the grave
should be opened ; and, upon his consenting, the
grave was accordingly dug up, and it was then found
that the rumour was well founded, and that both the
body and the coffin had disappeared. The object of
this violation of the sanctity of the grave will for ever
probably remain a mystery ; but the general belief is,
that it was a proceeding adopted at the instance of the
deceased's relatives to obtain possession of the body,
not wishing, for sonic reason or other, to come forward
and claim it publicly when the deceased was first found.
There are various other rumours, but this one would
appear to be the most probable.

IMF SUN, LONDON. WIRDNRSDAY, APRIL 29,_1840.

THE RUPTURE 'WITH CHIN*A.-

EXTRAORDINARY PROCEEDING.

On Saturday morning, in consequence of instructions
from the Horne-office, which directed that the prisoners
should not be subjected to any further restraint than was
necessary for their safe custody, orders were given by the
Commissioners of the Metropolitan Police to the crew of a
Thames-police galley to board the ship Diana, from Snga-
pore, on her way up the river, and accordingly Mr. R
White, an inspector of Thames-police, and three river
constables, went on board near Woolwich, and took into
custody James Spittal, Joseph Taylor, Henry Lawrence,
John Madden, and Thomas Rainford, charged with
being;
concerned in a disturbance which took place among some
American and British seamen on one side, and a
number of Chinese on the other, at a village near
Hong-kong Bay. It will be recollected, that a
Chinaman was killed during this affray, which ori-
ginated in some disorderly and violent acts committed by
the American seamen, but was charged on the British,
and led as well, as the opium smuggling, to a stoppage of
the trade. The five prisoners were conveyed to the
Thames Police Court, where their chests and hammocks
were deposited, but instead of being taken before Mr.
Ballantine, the presiding Magistrate, as was expected,
according to the usual practice, they were rowed to
the Investigator, Thames-police Station-ship, off Surrey-
street, Strand. Here they were put below, and pro-
vided with proper refreshments by Mr. Fortey, the in-
spector in charge of the vessel. A report of their capture
was made soon afterwards to the Commissioners of Police,
and by them to the Home-office. A consultation was held
as to what could he done with the prisoners, and the opi-
nion of the law officers of the Crown taken as to whether
they could be legally detained. It was decided that they
could not, and at five o'clock on Saturday afternoon, Mr.
Fortey received an order to disch.-.rge them, and they were
accordingly set at liberty. It appears that Spittal, Tay-
lor, Lawrence, and Madden, belonged to the ship Car.
natic, which left the London Docks in the autumn of 1838,
for the Cape, Bombay, and China. Spittal and Lawrence
shipped on board in London, the former as second mate,
the other as boatswain. Madden signed articles, and
entered at the Cape, and Taylor at Bombay. Rainford
belonged to the Mangalore, of Liverpool, at the time of
the disturbance. After the affray in which the Chinaman
was killed, Lawrence was sent on board the Charlotte, a
vessel, we understand, which was purchased by Captain
Douglas, of the Cambridge East Indiaman, then in the
neighbourhood of Macao. After remaining in irons for
17 days, Lawrence and his companions, who had been con-,
fined in other ships, were tried by a Cuddy court-martial,
at which Captain Douglas, Captain Elliot, the Superin-
tendent of British trade, and other commanders of British
vessels, were present. They were found guilty of some
offence, which the men declare they never heard specified,
and two of them were sentenced to three months' impri-
sonment, and a fine of 151. each ; and the others to six
months' imp: isoninent, and a fine of 20/. each. After their
trial and sentence they were transferred to the Sultana,
bound to Singapore, where they were confined in a prison,
ashore for twenty-one days. At the expiration of that
time they were shipped on board the Diana, Captain Dod-
man, bound to London, and sent home as prisoners. The
five men, who are fine looking seamen, and behaved with
great decorum while in custody of the Thames police,
complained much of the ill-treatment they had met with,
and all of them attributed the disturbances to the American
seamen. The account given by the sailors, and with every
appearance of truth, is as follows:—On the 4th of July
last, the anniversary of American independence, several
American seamen went ashore to a small village,
where they got drunk and quarrelled with the Chinese.
After committing many acts of disorder they left
the place, and in doing so tell in with some British
seamen, to whom, however, they behaved in a very
Hendly manner, with the exception of one man, known
as Baltimore Tom, who boasts of his pugilistie powers,
and challenged to fight any seaman on board a British
ship, accompanying his challenge with some insulting
remarks. The British seamen did not offer to molest
Baltimore Tom on that occasion, but a week afterwards,

learning that he had gone ashoi e, several Enghil
and Scotch sailors went after him with a determination, foe

the honour of their common country, to fight him if he
would accept of one of them as an adversary. When
they got upon the beach at a village abreast of Lin Tin,
the British seamen met the Americans coming towards
their boats without the boasting " Baltimore Tom." The
Americans had their hats decorated with gold leaves,
which they said they had taken from the Chinese, whom
they had fought and beaten. They also stated that they
had broken open a " josshouse," or Chinese place of wor-
ship, and knocked the wooden gods and idols about.
The British seamen proceeded to th village, which
they had no sooner entered than the Chinese, believing
them to belong to the party of Americans who had just
committed the outrage, attacked them with sticks and
stones in a most brutal manner. The British seamen
retaliated, and, after a desperate conflict, succeeded in de-
feating the Chinamen, cleared the village, and caused them
to fly in all directions.
Many persons on both sides were injured during this
affray. A seaman had his head cut open by a blow from
one of the Chinese, and was carried by his shipmates to
the boat, bleeding profusely. A Chinaman, who received
several blows, died of his wounds next morning, and his
body was exposed by the people on the beach, in sight
of the British fleet, and an English seaman was demanded
to expiate the loss of a Chinese subjuct—a demand which
could not, of course, be complied with, as the Chinese
were the aggressors, and it was not known who had in-
flicted the injuries which caused his death. The five
seamen brought home on Saturday declare that many of the
unfortunate differences which have happened between the
Chinese and the English have originated through the
. .

violence and disorder of the American seamen, who ge-
nerally manage, through their Consul and captains, to fix
the blame on the British. When the five seamen were
takes on board the Charlotte they were threatened with
the cat-o'-nine-tails and all manner of punishments; and
Captain Douglas had the gratings rigged, and swore he
would give one man three dozen, but he did not carry his
threat into execution.

BROAD.STREET WARD CHA-