The Sun.
London, England, 1847-07-20 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, JULY 20, 1847.

The business in this court was over at seven o'clock.
CROWN COURT.—(Before Mr. Justice COLERIDGE.)
David Roberts was indicted for burglary on the 20th
of May last in this city.
Mr. Greaves and Mr. Gray were for the prosecution;
and Mr. Cooke for the defence.

The prisoner is a young man of nineteen, and at the
time of the burglary was footman in the service of the
prosecutor, a Mr. Manta, an elderly gentleman, who re-
,ided in a place called " the Commandery," in this city,
his household consisting of his wife and daughter, two
servant•women, and the prisoner. The house is large,
having a long hall running from one end to the
other, with a door at one end leading into the garden,
and at the other, to the carriageway. The drawing-
room and kitchen were on opposite sides of the hall
passage. On the morning of the robbery the cook got
up about five o'clock, and was surprised to find the doors
it both ends of the hall open, and secured so with mats,
her master's pocketbook a few yards outside the door
leading into the garden, and two silver candlesticks,
which had been left in the drawing-room over night, a
little further out. She looked up to her master's window
and found it, too, open. She, thereupon, ran to the pri-
soner's door, and knocked him up. He was ten minutes
in dressing, and when he was dressed he went to his
master's door and knocked at it, and tuld his master that
the house had been robbed, who thereupon looked
particularly at everything about him, and found
hat tho window had been opened, and also
the door of his bedroom, and that his purse,
containing notes, gold, and silver, to the extent
of 901., had been taken. He thereupon expressed his
surprise how such a thing should have been done, when
the prisoner explained to bins how easily a person on the
outside might have brought a ladder to the window (it
was on the first floor), and with a common dinner knife
,pen it, and pointed out the marks of a ladder on the
gravel below. The cook found, about the same time, a
dinner knife, that had been placed in a drawer in the
kitchen on the previous night, lying on the dresser in the
kitchen; and it was afterwards discovered that the lad-
der used by the burglar was the prosecutor's own. This
ladder lay in an outhouse near the door leading from the
hall to the garden; and the premises were so constructed
that if a stranger had used the ladder he must have taken
it round the house through the street, and then taken it
o,.ek again by the same direction; whereas an inmate
,aisild with ease, and without observation, carry it in by
one end of the hall and out by the other. The prisoner
was not at *55 suspected; but he almost imme-
diately affected to be indignant at suspicions which he
said his master entertained of him, and on this ground
left the prosecutor's service in less than a week. In a
very short time he was found to be spending
money at a most extravagant rate, changing 51. notes
in every direction, and spending half-sovereigns as
if they were coppers. Ho was then taken up,
and five 51. notes were found on him, and another
was traced to him. None of the money traced to him
was identified as the prosecutor's; but it so happened
that the notes lost by the prosecutor were all Bank of
England notes except one of the old Worcester bank,
and another of Farley's bank, and the sovereigns lost by
him were all old Victorias, whilst one of the notes traced
to him was of Farley's bank, and all the others were
Bank of England notes, and all the gold coins traced to
him were old Victorias. It further appeared that the
prisoner had ample opportunities of knowing where his
master left his money at night. The prisoner had
borne an excellent character for honesty.
Mr. CooKE, in addressing the jury for the prisoner,
contended that everything connected with the burglary
indicated the conduct of an experienced thief, and not
that of a mere innocent country lad, and submitted that
he was not called on to explain how the prisoner came
by the money with which he was found dealing till a
clear and otherwise unanswerable case was made out,
and that on the whole the prisoner was entitled to an
acquittal.
His LORDSHIP summed up.
Verdict—Guilty.
Sentence—Ten years' transportation.
This was the last case in this court; it occupied
several hours, there having been 33 witnesses examined
on behalf of the prosecution, and was over about five
o'clock.

Mr. Sergeant Allen assisted yesterday, and also this
morning in trying criminal cases, and Mr. Alexander
did so to .day.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.
MANSION-HOUSE.
A boy, not 14 years of age, named Win. Barber, who
is employed by Mr. Lee, of Leadenhall- market, was
charged before Sir J. Pixie, by Mr. Thomas, the Se-
cretary to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals, with ill-treatiag two cats. The prosecution was
instituted at the suggestion of Mr. Cook, the Common
Councilman for the district in which the market is
situated.
The boy was seen, at an early hour in the morning,
amusing himself with dragging a cat along, which ap-
peared to suffer greatly from such rough treatment.
Expostulation, instead of abating the cruelty of the pri•
soner' provoked him to more fierce, violence, and he not
only lifted up and dashed the poor animal upon the
pavement, but leaped upon it and appeared to enjoy its
last agonies. Soon afterwards the brutal young fellow
was seen worrying another cat, to finish whose existence
he had whistled for the help of a dog.
The case was considered to be peculiarly worthy of
the attention of the society, on account of the extraordi-
nary brutality of a boy of such tender years.
Sir JOHN PIRIE expressed surprise at the statement,
and asked whether the defendant was under any parental
authority.
The defendant's father stood forward and expressed
des r!:arAftt_ the
misconduct 11C.T.4e,Lh'isiul master,na to
the penalty of suspension for three weeks.
Sir J. Pine said, the notice which Mr. Lee had taken
of the offence was very creditable to that gentleman ;
but it was also the duty of the magistrate to prevent re-
petitions of such brutal conduct as far as was consistent
with his functions. The sentence, therefore, upon the
boy was, that he should pay a penalty of 21. 103. and
costs, or go to Bridewell for seven days.
The father of the defendant said, it was out of his
power to pay the fine. Mr. Lee had already suspended
the boy, but had promised to take him back at the end
of three weeks in consequence of his previous most ex-
cellent conduct.
Sir J. Pulse could not in such a case reduee the
amount of the penalty. and the defendant was committed.
WOR 311.1 P-8 TR EE T.
A young man named Henry Bolingbroke was charged
with a desperate attempt at self-destruction.
Mary Anne Pryme stated, that she and the prisoner
had lived together as man and wife for a considerable
time past, and that latterly the prisoner had been re-
duced to a state of extreme distress and mental depres-
sion in consequence of his inability to procure employ-
ment. Witness had occasion to leave home on the pre-
ceding evening, and on her return at a late hour at
night she was horrified at finding the prisoner stretched
upon the bed iu a state of stupor, and bleeding profusely
from a frightful wound in the upper part of the left
arm, evidently inflicted with a razor which was lying
open at his side. Nearly a quart of blood had poured
down upon the floor and became partially coagulated
under the bedstead, and there was almost an equal
iattwhe, the divisional surgeon, who
two policemen and procured the
luantity in a basin on a table by the side of the bed.
She immediately alarmed the other inmates of the
attendance house, who o
dressed the wound and applied proper restoratives, and
the prisoner, for his own security, was conveyed to the
station-house.
cfa I 1 e
Mr.d Mather,
Police- constable Watts, 115 G, stated that upon being
called in and interrogating the prisoner as to his motives
for the commission of the act, he sullenly
evaded the
question, and pointed to the wall, on which the
initials of the preceding witness were distinctly traced
in blood, and followed by the words, " You are the cause
of this."
When called upon for his defence, however, the pri-
soner, who displayed the deepest despondency, said that
ho had been reduced to the greatest destitution from
want of employment, and that that was the immediate
cause of his attempting his life, but that other circum.
stances, which he declined mentioning, had also combined
to render him weary of existence.
Mr. BnouGsToN said, it would be manifestly unsafe
to entrust the prisoner with his liberty in the frame of
mind he then exhibited, and he should therefore remand
him and direct his immediate admission into the infir-
mary of the prison, where his mental and physical state
would be properly attended to, and that in the course of
a week, when thoroughly recovered, he could be brought
up again, and he would then consider what should be
done with him.
The prisoner offered no observation, and was removed
in the van.
Ellen Moriarty, alias Macarthy, who stood charged
upon suspicion of having caused the death of her land-
lady, a middle aged woman named Catherine Lawson, in
Henrietta-street, City-road, was brought up for final ex-
amination.
No additional evidence calulated to throw light upon
the means by which the deceased came by her death was
now adduced than that brought forward before the co-
roner and at the nrevious examination at this court, and
the prisoner having declared that she had neither offered
any violence to the woman Lawson nor taken any of her
money, as alleged by some of the witnesses, and that the
reason of her getting out of the cab before it reached the
deceased's door, and subsequently denying that she had
ever been in the cab at all, was entirely the fright and
confusion she laboured under at finding herself suddenly
in the presence of the corpse of a woman she had just
before spoken to.
Mr. BROUGHTON said, that although the circum.
stances were undoubtedly suspicious, and had been
in some degree strengthened by the prisoner's own
dubious conduct, he did not feel himself justified
in sending her for trial on so serious a charge
upon the insufficient evidence which had been ad-
duced, and he should therefore discharge her, as it was
improbable that any jury would convict; but he would
warn her to be careful of her future conduct, as it had
been stated that she had been before convicted, though
of minor offences.

CLERICENWELL.
James Wilson, a young man, was finally. examined,
charged by Catherine Trussoll,
aged 23, with having
committed a rape. Mr. W alceling, of St. John's-square,
attended for the prosecution;. and Mr. Lofty, of the firm
of Lofty, Potter, and Son, of King-street, Cheapside, for
the prisoner.
The prosecutrix, a fine young woman, deposed that
she is niece of Mrs. Howe, of the Nag's Head, Gray's
Inn-lane, with whom she lived. The prisoner lodged
there, and mixed with them as one of the family. On
Thursday night, whilst she was in his bedroom, he came
up stairs to bed, and began to undress, saying he did not
mind her. She was
about to leave, when be threw her
on his bed and effected his purpose. As soon as she
went down stairs she informed her a.int and her cousin,
and the prisoner was turned out of the house, and a
warrant PM applied for.

The aunt and cousin in part confirmed her testimony.
The prisoner was committed for trial.

THE GUN COTTON EXPLOSION.
The explosion of a gun cotton mill at Faversham has
proved even more disastrous than was at first stated. So
loud was the explosion that the noise was heard within
two miles of Maidstone, a distance of seventeem miles.
The sound resembled thunder heard at a great distance.l
The houses within the circumference of a mile were all
more or less affected, as if by the shock of an earth-
quake. As the day was beautifully clear large volumes
of smoke which followed the explosion were seen at a
distance of several miles. One gentleman travelling on
the Dover-road perceived the smoke upwards of ten
miles from Faversham. Mr. Topping, the superinten-
dent of the works, who had entered the premises only a
few seconds before, and who is one of the victims, was a
practical chemist, of considerable ability, from Lon-
don. The escape of Faversham from injury is sur-
prising. Within a distance of thirty yards of the
spot where the explosion occurred, there are premises
containing no fewer than 136 barrels of gunpowder.
These premises were saved by means of high mounds
of earth which separated them from the mill in
which the explosion took place. One of these enormous
mounds is said to have been moved from its place by the
terrible force of the explosion. One boy escaped with
his life under very extraordinary circumstances. He was
dug out of the ruins after being buried in them upwards
of two hours. He lay between two other boys, both of
whom were quite dead. A large piece of timber pre-
vented the ruinous mass from pressing on him, as it had
done on the others, with fatal effect. The entire number
of persons who have suffered is supposed to be thirty-four;
of these, twenty-one have already died. Their funeral,
or rather the interment of the fragments of their bodies
that remained, took place on Saturday, on which occa-
sion the town presented a scene of distress difficult to
describe. Of the twenty-one dead, the remains of ten
only have been identified, owing to the dreadfully
mangled state of their bodies. Of the sixteen still living,
several are not expected to recover. Awfully destruc-
tive of human life as the accident has been, it might,
and but for a providential circumstance would, have
proved more so. It fortunately happened that a consi-
derable number of those usually employed in the works
were at the time the catastrophe occurred engaged in
haymaking. The immediate cause of the accident still
remains, and most probably ever will remain, a mystery.
At the Coroner's inquest, held on Friday last, on the
bodies of the sufferers, nothing that could be relied on
as to the cause of the catastrophe was elicited. Four
witnesses were examined, among them Mr. Hall, one of
the proprietors of the works, but neither of them could
give evidence throwing any light on the cause of the
mischief.
Mr. Hall stated that the house in Faversham was Con-
nected with the German inventor of the gun-cotton, and
that they had been manufacturing the article on a much
larger scale than had ever been before thought of in this
country.
Mr. H. Davy said, I reside in Ospringe-road, in the
parish of Faversham, and am superintendent of the gun-
cotton manufactory at the Marsh works. I have been
five weeks in Messrs. Hall's employ, and came down
here expressly to superintend these works, with the
management of which I am acquainted. Mr. Henry
Topping was the resident engineer and chief superin.
tendent. On Wednesday morning last I was in the
stove, a drying room, with Mr. Hall, during the work-
ing hours. I went in at six o'clock and remained till
breakfast time, at eight o'clock. I was away about
half an hour and then returned, and remained in the
works and about the building until within a minute
of the accident occurring. I wanted to see Mr. William
Hall, and went to find him, and met him within a half-
minute's walk of the buildings. I had only exchanged
two or three words with him, when I felt a concussion of
the air, which appeared to strike me in the back. I in-
stantly found myself covered with dust, and heard an
explosion immediately afterwards. It did not appear to
me very loud; it was more of a rumbling noise than an
explosion. The materials of the buildings flew about in
all directions after the explosion. As soon as I con-
sidered it safe to move I ran after Mr. Hall, who had
left me, and we then returned together to the stoves. I
found the premises in ruins. All the labourers who
could be procured were immediately set to work to get
out the workpeople buried in No. 3, and in rendering
assistance generally. Several of the bodies were taken
up a dve, and carried away. It was part of my
duty see that the orders (of Mr. Topping and
Messrs. Hall were carried into effect. To the best
of my knowledge they always were so. The factory
was conducted in such a way, that I always con-
sidered myself, as well as the persons employed
therein, perfectly safe. Mr. William Hall had ordered
the stoves to be kept at a certain degree of heat, No. 3
never to be more than 120, and No. 4, 110. To the
best of my knowledge these orders were always adhered
to. I consider that degree of heat perfectly safe, and
that a much higher degree of heat might be used without
danger. I cannot account in any way for the explosion.
There appeared to be two explosions, or rather a con-
tinuation of one ; the two were so close I could hardly
distinguish them separately. After the accident, Mr.
Hall, individually and by giving directions,.used every
exertion to relieve the sufferers and get them from the
ruins. Every precaution was always taken for the
safety of the work-people while employed in the
tae-
torees, even though it was considered there was no
danger beyond that ordinarily attending the manufacture
of gunpowder.
CORONER—Did you hear Mr. Topping say, on Satur-
day last, that if the prevailing hot weather continued he
feared some accident would happen ? Witness—l did
not hear him aay anything of the kind.
Examination continued—Robert Cheesman was fire-
__a saidehe-e„e a". sne hour pre-
ceding the explosion. He is seriously injured, and un-
able to attend here to-duty. I examined the state of the
ositohne.r, TinhNe oon. e3i,nraNngoe.d4
bmetawrekeend 11(1189
anddrele2sl3
thermometer about ten minutes previous to the explo-
tt Even
heatn in tchoeu
ld eventnot
hofavaelainrgereeratsierde htottss'daen;cirretehse.
greato beena
made
degreeu
in
the interval as to have caused an explosion. The ther-
mometers were always regulated by the heat of the fires,
and not by the state of the atmosphere.
Mr. HINDE, the coroner, finding that neither of the
witnesses could give any evidence immediately bearing
on the cause of the catastrophe, adjourned the inquest
for a month, in the hope that some of the fourteen still
surviving sufferers may be so far recovered as to be
able to lay before the jury more definite information re-
girding the circumstances under which the catastrophe
took place.
The following has been given as a correct list of the
deceased parties whose remains have been identified :
H. Topping, J. Tilley, J. Hammond, A. Wyles, J.
Petty, R. Knowler, E. Irish, Mercy Clark, Sarah Hinds,
G. Ransom. The following aro also known to have
been at work in No. 4 stove when the explosion took
place, and are, therefore, returned as dead, though only
fragments of the bodies of uny of these have been dis-
covere:l:—J. Redman, Mary Cheeseman, Anne Stringe,
H. Irish, Catharine Hall, J. Coppin, J. Rose, G. Mar-
mou rh, H. tlourn, W. Coppin, 11. Amos. The following
have been more or less seriously injured by the explo-
sion, and are now lying under medical treatment in
Faversham and the neighbourhood:—R. Cheesman, T.
Smith, W. Smith, G. Wraight, J. Vidion, J. Kempsall,
J. Chambers, J. M`Kewen, H. Alliott, T. Stringer, 11.
Sparkes, R. Cullen, J. Deane, W. Rogers, T. Woolley,
Mary INPliewen.
In addition to the numerous deaths caused by the
explosion, another death took place under very peculiar
circumstances. A young man who had been employed
in the neighbourhood having gone to assist in extricating
the sufferers, and digging the dead out of the mass of
ruins, suddenly felt himself taken ill in consequence of
the inhalation of the noxious atmosphere caused by the
explosion. He went and represented to a medical gen-
tleman in Faversham how ill he felt, and the medical
gentleman told him to walk about for an hour or two in
the open air, adding that it he did not feel better then,
he must call on him and he would prescribe some midi -
eine for him. In the course of three hours the unfor-
tunate man died. An inquest was held on the body,
when the medical gentleman referred to gave it as his
decided opinion that he had died from the effects of in-
haling the noxious air. The jury returned a verdict
accordingly.

BUILDINGS IN ALSIERS.—The extent to which
building is going on in Algiers, is scarcely understood
in England. This country is associated in our minds
with little but barbarism, Christian slaves, and bombard-
ments ; and we are scarcely prepared to hear of a cathe-
dral, churches (some for Protestants) abbattuirs, schools,
covered markets, banks, custom. houses, &c., on which
many thousands of pounds sterling have been expended
by the French. Yet such is the case, and the erection
of private houses keep pace with the constant increase
of the population. In the mixed or Arabian districts
of the three provinces no less than 842 private houses
have been built, the value of which has been estimated
at 176,0001. ; besides 38 industrial establishments, esti-
mated at nearly 9,000/. more.—The Builder.

EFFECTS OF FACTORY LEGISLATION.---The hands
at one of the mills belonging to Messrs. Taylor, Wigan,
are still out, in consequence of the Factory Act coming
into operation on the first of July, and compelling a re-
duction in time, and of course also in wages. It is not
true, as stated in some of the papers, and currently
rumoured amongst the public, that Messrs. Taylor were
offering a reduction of 25 per cent. upon the wages re-
cently paid ; the proposed diminution being only in
proportion to the reduction in the hours of labour. At
one of the mills (that in Church-street) belonging to
the above firm, the hands have continued to work with-
out a murmur under the new regulation. At the large
mill, where the " turn out" commenced, they resumed
work on Monday morning ; but, at the small mill, in
Wallgate, the engine and machinery are still idle. Pre-
vious to the act coming into force, Messrs. Taylor's mills
were all in full operation. Mr. Henry Whittaker's mill
was idle last week from the same cause.—Leeds Mercury.
It will be recollected that Dr. Arnold Mendols-
sohn, advocate, at Berlin, some time ago assisted M.
Oppenheim in abstracting, under peculiar circumstances,
the casket of the Baroness de Meyendorff. For this M.
1 Oppenheim was brought to trial, before the Court of
Assizes of Cologne, but Dr. Mendolssohn contrived to
make his escape, and, notwithstanding all the exertions
of the police, nothing was heard of him until a few days
ago, when he voluntarily presented himself to the judi-
cial authorities of Dusseldorff, and constituted himself
prisoner. He has since been examined three times, and
will, it is said, be shortly brought to trial before the
Assize Court of Cologne.
LEICESTER TRADE.---There are further indications
of an improved state of things. So far as the arrange-
ments for the autumn are concerned, we hear there is
every hope of a fair business being done at the opening
of the season. Prices are firm, and there is now more
employment.—Leicestershire Mercury,
Dispatches were sent off _yesterday evening from the
Colonial Office, for the Governor-General of Canada,
and also for the Governors of the other North American 1
FrOIiIICON.

PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT.
Rumours were very rife about the Houses of Parliament
last evening that Parliament wculd not be prorogued till
this day week, in consequence of the evident intention
of Ministers to pass the Bishopric of Manahester Bill in
the present session.