The Sun.
London, England, 1849-12-20 00:00:00

THE SUN,

NEWPORT, DEC. 18 —Win 1 N.E —Arrd. Victury, • CRIMINAL COURT.—( THIS DAY.)
Bustin, Miramiciii. Sld. Tusket, St. Thomaa'd,; Merry, OLD COURT.
Jamaica. (Before Mr. Justice CoLERIDGE and Mr. Baron
PENA pall R)ADS —Joseph Porter, Reid, Richibucto. ROLFE
ULL. DEC. 19.—Wind N. N. W.—Arrd. James
A respectably attired man, named Hugh Swan, ag ed
WGhiUERNSEY, DEC. 18.—The St. Anne, Brest to Mal), te, Turner, Bombay. OS described as a draper, was indicted for a ruts
was stranded yesterday in Rof•qoaine Bay. demeanour.
LOWESTOFT, DEC. 19.—1 t ohrw a viohnt gale at Mr. Clarkson, IN ith whom was Mr. Huddlestene,
W.N.W. to N.N. W. the %hole of lest night.—There appeared for the prosecution, and Mr. James and Mr.
was a large fleet of vessels in Cartor Roads his morn. Parry for the defence.
ing, and several drove foul of each other. The Cresswell Mr. CLARKSON stated the case. The indictment,
and the Union have both been assisted in, with stern and he said, was preftrred under the sGth Vic. chap. 102,

quart( ra stove in. A numb.ir of vesscls have parted at.d
run .to the south ward.
ilanwicu, DEC. 19.—The Emma, Sunderland to
Portsmouth, wus in contact in the harbour yesterday,
with the Sarah and Elizabeth of Goole, and reccivcd
damage.

see. 34 and 25., commonly known ai the New
Bankruptcy Act;, the first-named section provided
that any party in a state of bankruptcy
destroying any . papers and documents, cr
altering any of his books and accounts,
with the view of deceiving or cheating his
creditors within three months previously to the
issuing of a fiat in bankruptcy against him, should be
deemed guilty of a misdemeanour, and upon convic-
tion liable to he imprisoned for a period not exceeding
three years. The second named section enacted that
any party obtaining credit within a certain period
before his bankruptcy, with the same intent as in the
previous instance, should be deemed guilty of a mis-
demeanour, and upon conviction liable to he impri-
soned for a perio:l not exceeding two years. The
defendant in this case was a linendraper, who
formerly carried on business in Hanway-court,
Oxford-street, and High street, Camden-town, and
the facts which it was proposed to prove against him
had been gathers l from his own lips. It would
be shown almost beyond a doubt that he had
destroyed memoranda having reference to goods
which were in his possession, with intent to defraud
his creditors. The fiat issued against him on
the '2Bth April in the present year, but by the
declaration of the defendant it would seem that his
affairs had been going wrong ever since he had com •
menced business. In the month of September, 1848,
or thereabouts, however, the defendant made the
acquaintance of a man named Burton, who would be
called as a witness. '1 his Burton lived in the Broad-
way, Fleet-street, where he carried on the business of
an auctioneer, and the defendant had from time to
time been in the habit of forwarding to him large
quantities of goods to be disposed of without reserve.
He made certain memoranda of the goods sold in this
way, and received certain account sales in return
with the amounts the goods fetched; but by
his own confession it would he shown that
he had destroyed these, and it would be the
duty of the jury to decide whether or no he
did so for the purpose of defrauding his creditors.
That was the offence to be urged against the
defendant under the first-mentioned section
of the Bankruptcy Consolidation Act. With regard
to the second offence it would be brought before the
Court in this way. In the month of March, of the
present year, the buyer of the defendant applied to
Messrs. Porson and Co., warehousemen, to sell the
defendant a certain quantity of goods, but Messrs.
Porson and Co. declined to sell the goods until Mr.
Porson had seen the defendant upon the subject.
Mr. Port on saw the defendant accordingly, when he
represented that his affairs were as flourishing then
as they were in 1847, when he made a large pur-
chase of another representative of Messrs. Porson and
Co's. house, in fact that he was 1,5001. better than
solvent, and upon the strength of this declaration he
was supplied with goods to the extent of 1001. This,
the jury would observe was in March; in the
following month the defendant became a bank-
rupt. The goods sold on this occasion
by Messrs. Porson and Co. had not been
traced since the issue of the fiat, nor could
any papers or accounts be found in the possession of
the defendant having reference to them ; but it had
been ascertained that in the same month of March
Burton sold for him, in the manner already described,
1,0001. worth of goods, while by the declaration of
the bankrupt himself it appeared that in all Burton
had sold for him about 20 parcels of goods within 18
months prior to the issue of the fiat, 600/. or 7001.
worth of which having been so disposed of between
the Ist of March and the 28th of April, 1849. It
would he shown that the goods sent in this way were
in the same condition as when the defendant received
them from his creditors, and it was therefore quite
clear that the sales between March and April consti-
tuted an offence under the second-named section of'
the Act of Parliament.
The issuing of the fiat was then proven, as well as
the adjudication under ; but, upon cross-examination,
it turned out that the examination of the bankrupt
was taken in private, and not before a Commissioner.
The bankrupt, moreover, was examined without any
previous caution, that what he should say would be
taken down in writing, and might be used against
him in a court of law.
Mr. JAMES, under these circumstances, objected to
the admission of the proceedings as evidence, on the
ground that the examination had not been taken
before a Commissioner, as the Act of Parliament pro-
vided, to whom any objection could have been made
of illegality of particular questions; and, secondly,
bec.Juse the examination was of a compulsory charac-
ter, and it would, there'ore, be opposed to the first
principle of evidence to admit it ai evidence against
the examinant. Mr. Justice Pattison had laid it
'own that a bankrupt's balance-sheet could not be
received as evidence to establish a criminal charge
against him, anl here the case was much stronger,
since the Court were aware that in the examination
of a bankrupt the examinant was forced to answer
the questions put to him under pain of certain penal-
ties. In point of fact, the bankrupt was a quasi
criminal, for his refusal to answer any of the in-
quiries put to him would haVe subjected him to be
punished in various degrees at the discretion of the
Court of Bankruptcy.
Mr. Justice COLERIDGE intimated to the Learned
Council for the prosecution, that the Court would no
trouble him to reply to the first point, inasmuch as
the examination in this instance was not of a char-
acter likely to make out an offence of perjury against
the examinant, and hence supposing a caution had
not been given, which did not appear to be the case,
it was by no means certain that any was necessary.
Mr. CLARKSON contended that there was evidence
of abundant caution, but, after the intimation of his
Lordship, he would proceed at once to the considera-
tion of the point that this examination could not be
admitted as evidence, since it had been taken in a
compulsory manner. He insisted that the examina-
tion of a hankrupt was not of a compulsory nature;
on the contrary, it was free and voluntary, and the
strongest evidence of this was the fact that bankrupt's
attorney was present to caution him not to answer
questions that were calculated to criminate himself or
bring him into trouble, or in any way to militate
against his own interest.
The COURT overruled the second objection, and
allowed the examination to be received, hampered
with a note of the objection and facts, to be hereafter
embodied in a case for the opinion of the Criminal
Court of Appeal.
Evidence was then put in to support the opening
statement of the Learned Counsel, a witness being
called to prove that at a meeting of the defendant's
creditors, on the 18th of April, the defendant, in the
presence of his own solicitor, admitted that he had
sent goods to Burton's, probably as many as 20
parcels, in the preceding 18 months ; and that he de-
stroyed the accounts of the sales, and the
memoranda relating to the goods, as he . re-
ceived them from the auctioneer. He further
admitted that the statement he made to Messrs.
Porson and Co. in the previous months, of his assets
exceeding his liabilities by 1,5001., was purely ficti-
tious. A statement was put in which had been ex-
tracted from the defendant's books, from which it
appeared that from August, 1847, when the defen-
dant commenced business, down to and including
March, 1849, his purchases of goods amounted to
8.267/. He had obtained goods besides this to the
extent of 3021., which were not entered in the books.
In the first month, namely, August, 1847, the pur-
chases amounted to only 851.; but in the last, namely,
March, 1849, they amounted to 1,6071. At the
period of his failure, the defendant's liabilities
amounted to 4,4001., and his assets to 1,388/. and
costs. It was elicited, however, in cross-examination,
that the flfendant had offered his creditors no ob-
struction in ascertaining the state of his affairs, while
on several occasions he stated that he had sold the
goods through Burton, to obtain funds to meet his
engagements with Messrs. Porson and Co. and other
houses in the City; and that he had lost as much as
7001. by one of his two shops, which he had held
join
(tliyh
ewei
at with persont
cni aoted
snedwSzna Smart.
our report left.)

NOTICE TO MARINERS.
Cronstadt, Nay. 22, 1849,

Sir,—We deem it n-eessary to draw the attention of
the committee to the accompanying translations of two
paragraphs that appeared in the Sr. Petersbargh papere,
one puhli)hed in 18 tl, and the other on the 12th inst.
By tit' former it appeartd to have been the intention
of the Russian Government to rebuild the old wooden
lighth,usa on Viel,and (Fikanc), and by the latter that
such' has not ben case, and that the!-to will be only
one on that island instead of two, and that the present
one is a revOlvi-g
(Signed) JOHN BOOKER and SON,
Agents to Lloyd's.
Capt. G. A. Halsted, R.N., Secretary, Lloyd':,.
Extract from the St. Petersburgh Papers, 1841:

" The Russi in Government, finding that the wooden
lighthouse on the Island of Vielsand is in a dilapidated
state has di tided upon building a new one on the same
spot during 1841; and until it is finished, tie fixed light
on the ?tone lighthouse will be changed to a revolving
light, which will show two minutes, and be dark one
minute.

" This alteration will enable the masters of ships
better to distinguish this light from those on the Island
of Dago and on S•alfersort."
Extraet from the Journal de St. Petersburg, of
Nov. 12, 1849, No. 968 : _

NOTICE.—IMPORTANT TO NAVIGATORS.—In the
month of February, 1841, an advertisement appeared In
the St. Petersburgh papers, stating that of the two Light
Houses existing on the Island of Vielsand (Filsant) in
the Baltic, the wooden one was taken don in conse-
quence of its being in a dilapidated state, and that
instead of the two fixed lights formerly placed on Vol-
sand, there will only be one revolving light on the atone
light-house, which will show a light two minutes and be
dark cne minute.

" Whereas many of the charts with which merchant
•essels are supplied continue to indicate that there are
two light houses on the Itlind of Vielsand, the Hydro-
graphic Department of the Minister of Marine consider
it necessary to draw the attention of navigators to the
fact that there is only one light house on this island, and
that is the stone one, and that the wooden one formerly
situated seventy fathoms to the north of the former, was
pulled down in 1841, and must, therefore, be erased from
the marine charts.

MARKET NEWS.-( THIS DAY.)
_ NE IiXTGATZ AND LEADENHALL.

Large supplies of each kind of meat for Christmas
consumption wore on sale to-day; yet the general de-
mand ruled steady at full prices. Bee', from 2s 8d to
3s 101 ; Mutton, 33 Od to 4s Od; Veal, 3a 4d to 4s Od;
and Pork, 2s 10d to 4s 2d per 81bs, by the carcase.

BODY-STREET.-...(THIS DAY )
William Fairchild, a veterinary surge,n, and Charles
proprietor, were charged as tol-
Lloiw'asll:e_r, an omnibus

It appeared that the prisoners and others wsnt into
the Montmouth Arms, Charles-slreet, Westminster, ancl
regnled themselves will' several gli,ses of brandy sod-
water, and smoking cigars. Their score amouotA to
ss. 6d., which they refused to pay, and left the house.
The prisoners were followtd by the landlord's son, who
asked them for the money. They rofus, d to give it
him, and then pushed him away. The prisoners pro•
creded along the streets, puthug., against every re-
spectable fetn,le they met; and on arriving opposite the
Treasury, they commenced showing most it,isteroudy.
They were then taken Into custody.
Mr. HALL tined them each 20s. for disorderly conduct
in thesevere,
gave tile the altertettive, either of
pa
ying
the and n 1 5s . i6t
6d. to the landlord f the Monmouth
Arms, or of being convicted of the assault.

The prisoners immediately paid the si. 61., and also
heir fines.

MARLBRO -STREET—(THIS DAY.)
THE EFFECTS OF THE BOTTLE.—Caroline Garland,
a woman of dissipated appearance, wa4 charged betoro
Mr. Bingham, with being
.drunk, and assaulting Mr.
Charles Wright, licensed victutilltr, 18, Union-street,
Middlesex Hospital.
evreplainaut sated that bb01.4 hall-past twely© Vole&