The Sun.
London, England, 1824-03-04 00:00:00

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

MANSION-HousE.—Yesterday a case came on before the
LORD MAYOR, which certainly regards a question of consider-
able importance to the public. A parcel, containing the halves
of Bank-notes, to the amount of about 6001., was transmitted
from the Bath Bank to London, directed to the house of Jones,
Lloyd, and Co., of Lothbury, by the Bath coach, which stops
at the Swan-with-two-Necks inn, Lad-lane. The parcel should
have been delivered in Lothbury on Tuesday, but, to the asto-
nishment of the House, no parcel reached them ; and• as they
could get no satisfactory intelligence at the inn, a summons was
dispatched, requesting the attendance of the clerks and porters
who might have had charge of the parcel, or through whose
hands it might have passed.
Mr. HARMER attended upon the part of the owners of the.
notes. He stated, that what was peculiar in this case was, that
in the way-bill the parcel was mentioned, and ticked off as de-
livered, and that so involved and complicated were the arrange-
ments of carriage and deli Very of goods, that there appeared, to
be no possibility of ascertaining through what means, either
of intention or carlessness, the loss had taken place. The
public were, he added, deeply interested in the subject, as there
was no security for property transmitted from one place to
another.
One of the clerks produced the way-bill, which included a
parcel . directed to Messrs. Jones, Lloyd, and Company, the
carriage of which amounted to Is. Bd. The parcel was ticked
off' to one of the porters of the establishment, whose name is
Bellringer, who was of course responsible for that sum to Mr.
Waterhouse.

Another of the clerks, who was in the habit of checking the
waybill, stated that he had done so in this instance, and that,
he had ticked off the parcel to Messrs Jones and Lloyd, but
he had not seen the parcel.
The LORD MAYOR expressed surprise at his having ticked
off a parcel which he had not seen.
The clerk said it was usual, in the great hurry of business,
to
lltick off' without looking to the articles included in the way"
bi._ _

Lorin MAYOR asked whether it was not the duty of the
clerks; when a parcel mentioned in the way-bill was not fount',
to mention that circumstance to their employer?
The clerk said, in answer to this question, that he really had
not observed whether the parcel was or was not to be found.
Another person always called over the parcels, and whether this
particular parcel had been called over or not, he could not de-
termine. There were mistakes of the kind constantly occurring.
The Loan 31AI-wt.—We must endeavour to put an end to
mistakes, which so frequently deprive persons of their property,
and leave them no means of redress.
Bellringer, the porter, was then questioned. He said that he
was one of the porters of the establishment, and was allowed an
assistant. lie was responsible for parcels directed to the ground
where the house of Messrs. Jones and Lloyd was, but he did
not himself deliver on that ground. His assistant delivered
there. The parcel was entered in the book to his account, but
he had never seen it, nor been paid for it ; nor had he of course
paid for it.

Mr. HARMER.—This sort of confusion, by which the public
are exposed to such serious losses, entirely contravenes the efforts
to procure justice. Suppose the notes had been whole and in
circulation, a very serious sum would be totally lost. It is a
most lamentable thing that a man's property should be subject
to be blown away from him, and that no chance either of recom-
pense or other satisfaction should remain.
The assistant to Bellringer was called. He knew nothing,
he said, about the parcel. He had never received it, never
been paid for it, and of course never delivered it.
The Loki) MAYon.—You are perfectly right, Mr. Harmer,
in saying that the public are grossly treated by the persons
connected with inns. What security can I have, that if a par-
cel be directed to me I shall ever receive it ? The constant and
dreadful impositions to which we are all liable have induced
the Court of Aldermen to apply for an Act of Parliament to
give Magistrates a power of making more strict inquiry into
the cause of the loss of parcels, and to punish irregularities by
which confusion likely to interfere with the detection of a felony
is engendered.
Mr. HARMER said, he was sorry to say the case could not
be pursued further. There was no trace of the mites, and all
that would be done at the inn was by reference from one clerk
to another, and from one porter to another.
One of the clerks observed, that the parcel had been entered
as a common parcel, by no means a proper security for property
of value, which might be secured by insurance.
The LORD MAY on said, the omission with respect to insur-
ing goods was no excuse for the disappearance of property con-
fided to the care of innkeepers. He trusted, and indeed he was•
convinced, that this session of Parliament would not pass over,
without some enactment for the protection of parcels.
Here the case ended, but Mr. HARMER assured the Loan
MAYOR that every thing should be done to trace the half notes.
Bow-ST nEET.—Yesterelay Mr. Henry Orme, a respect.,
able tradesman in Little Russell-street, who is serving as
constable in his own right for the parish of Saint Martin, was
summoned to answer for having neglected and refused to furnish
a certain number of private soldiers of the Foot Guards with
billets, when required to do so under the Act of Parliament,
Mr. Orme, it appeared, had entertained a• mistaken notion,
that•the High Constable was to furnish him with printed forms
of billets, and being disappointed in that expectation, left the
men to wander about for many hours unprovided for. He was
fined in the single penalty of 405., being subject, according to
the Act, to that penalty for the omission in each individual-
case.