The Sun.
London, England, 1847-12-25 00:00:00

J. Farquhar, D. M`Michael, Glasgow, ironfounders, to
meet Dec. 23 and Jan. 18, at twelve, within Comrie's
Royal Hotel, Glasgow.

PRICE OF SUGAR.

The average price of Brown or Muscovado Sugar, computed
from the returns made in the week ending December 21,
1847, is 235. O/d. per cwt.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

MANSION-HOUSE.
Wm. Robert Booth was summoned to show cause
why he unlawfully detained in his possession., in the
city of London, eight coils of rope, the property of
Mr. H. T. Gray, the same having been unlawfully
obtained from the said complainant, and unlawfully
deposited with the defendant by one Joseph Seager,
against the statute, &c.
The Lord Mayor and Alderman Gibbs sat to ad
judicate ; Mr. Crosby appeared for the defendant.
The circumstances arose out of the evidence given
upon the late prosecution of the notorious swindlers
Gardner and Holiday, of Pancras-lane, Cheapside,
and their clerk Seager, all of whom were convicted
at the Central Criminal Court, of having defrauded
Mr. Gray, ropemaker, of the Commercial-road, of
goods of the value of upwards of 4001., and sentenced
to be imprisoned for certain periods.
Mr. Barber, of St. Paul's Churchyard, Mr. Gray's
friend, to whom the detection and expeditious appre-
hension of the swindlers were mainly attributable,
attended to give evidence for the complainant.
It appeared that Mr. Booth had advanced the sum
of 211. upon part of the rope, to Gardner and
Holiday, being altogether ignorant that any unfair
practices had been resorted to by them to obtain
possession of it; and Mr. Crosby contended that,
under such circumstances, his client could not pro-
perly be said to detain the property unlawfully. The
plunder to which Mr. Gray had been subjected, how-
ever, by the atrocious system pursued by the gang,
was most serious, and Mr. Booth feeling that such
was the case, and that to occasion additional expense,
would be a cruel aggravation of the complainant's
calamity, was willing to give up the rope, the value
of which was 331. Bs., upon the payment f a moiety
of the cash advanced to the swindlers, against whom
Mr. Booth also had a claim for warehouse room, which
he would abandon.
Mr. Gray said he had every reliance upon the
judgment of the magistrates, and only required their
sanction to agree to the proposition.
The LORD MAYOR and Alderman GIBBS said the
very production of the documents necessary to show
that the persons accused of the fraud had been con-
victed at the Central Criminal Court, would cost
more money than the complainant would gain if the
decision were in his favour, after the examination of
the evidence. It, therefore, appeared to them to be
advisable that the offer of Mr. Booth's solicitor, which
indeed, appeared to be an equitable one, should be
accepted ; and they would make out an order accord-
ingly, with the view of putting a complete termina-
tion to the difference upon the subject.
LAMBETH.
- -

Mr. George Frost, auctioneer and furniture-dealer,
Clapham-road, appeared before Mr. Norton on a sum-
mons, charging him with violently assaulting George
Lewis Renshaw. Mr. Hardman attended on behalf
of the complainant.
Renshaw who described himselfas a furniture-broker
and said he obtained a living by attending sales, deposed
that on the 16th instant he atiended a sale at the
large room, at the Grove-house Tavern, Camberwell-
green, and while there had received an order from a
gentleman to purchase a 6i-octave pianoforte, in
rosewood case. Mr. Daniels, another dealer present,
informed him that he had received a commission to
purchase the same instrument, and offered that if he
did not bid against him he should give him a share
of his commission. He in consequence allowed Mr.
Daniels to purchase the article 241. without bid-
ding against him, and he of course expected to have
received his portion of the commission. When the
sale was over he went down to the coffee-room of the
tavern, and Mr. Frost, who was there, commenced
abusing him, knocked him down, took him up, and
flung him against the floor two or three times, and
ultimately turned him out of the room. Besides the
injury done to his person by being struck, his clothes
were so damaged that it cost him 10s. to get them
repaired.

Mr. NORTON—What was the cause of the de-
fendant abusing and striking you ? Renshaw—l don't
know, Sir; but he charged me with attempting to
spoil the sale.
Mr. NORTON—What ! spoiling the sale ? Why,
according to your own account, you had neglected to
bid against another person for an article for which
you had an order, merely because. you had been
promised your share of the commission from some-
body else who wanted to purchase the article. 'Was
that what he called spoiling the sale ? Renshaw—l
don't know about that, your Worship, but Mr. Frost
began upon me the moment he saw Mr. Dickeson, the.
auctioneer, give me half-a-crown.
Mr. NORTON-For what was it that the auctioner
paid you half-a-crown ? Renshaw—l can't say, your
Worship.
Mr. NORTON—I think you said something about
its being a made up sale. Now was the half-crovOk
given to you because you said nothing about its
being such a sale while this auction was going on ?
Renshaw—l can't say, Sir. All he said to me was,
that he was wry much obliged to me for what I had
done, and handed me the half-crown.

The defendant, in reply to the charge, said the con-
duct of the complainant in the sale-room was such as
nearly seriously injured the sale, and on his subse-
quently obtruding himself into the coffee-room, where
a few of them were about to dine, and his conduct
there being of a piece with that of which he had been
before guilty, he requested him to leave the room.
This he refused to do, and he did, he would acknow-
ledge, turn him out.

Mr. Joseph Dickeson, the auctioneer, was then
called and said, that after the sale he went down
to the coffee-room, and found the complainant and
the defendant in high words, and saw Mr. Frost
turn Renshaw out of the room. During the
sale, he heard a noise in the room, and distinctly
heard the voice of Renshaw, and Mr. Frost said that
if he had net taken him out of the room he would
have spoiled the sale.

Mr. NORTON—Then what was it you paid him the
half-crown for ? Mr. Dickeson--Oh, it's always
usual with auctioneers to give such persons a crown,
or half-a-crown, for making themselves useful in the
sale-room. The witness admitted that the piano-
forte, about which the row took place, was a "put
in" article.

Mr. NORTON said he was well aware of the prac-
tices carried on at these auctions, and he very much
regretted that there was not a law to repress it. He
(Mr. Norton) himself had once attended the sale of
the effects of a deceased friend, and anxious to possess
some of the articles as a memento, ha had bid for and
purchased. The consequence was, that a parcel of Jews
and queer people about him called out to the auc-
tioneer and said, that if he did not leave the room they
should. He then convicted the defendant in the
penalty of 305., saying, at the same time, that the
penalty would be much higher but that he felt the
complainant deserved all he got, and that his conduct
was far from blameless.
THAMES.

David Hall, a seaman, was brought before Mr. 13a1-
lantine, on remand, charged with assaulting and
wounding James Hogan.
The prosecutor, who came home in the Devonshire,
of Plymouth, and who has been in the London Hos-
pital since the 15th instant, appeared in a pitiable con-
dition with his nose and face covered with adhesive
plasters. He stated that he was in the White Swan
public-house, in High-street, Shad well, on the 15th
instant, and a quarrel took place between him and the
prisoner, who attempted to strike him, but was pre-
vented by a friend. A few minutes afterwards he
left the house, and was met by the prisoner in the
street, who said, " I'll have it out of you," and
rushed towards him. He stood up to defend himself,
a scuffle ensued, and the prisoner seized him by the
hair and pulled his head back, and then caught his
nose with his teeth, and made two bites at it. Wit-
ness sung out, " Oh, you are biting my nose, let go,"
and the prisoner left him. He put his hand up to his
nose, and found part of it was gone, and he was
bleeding very much.
A girl, named Hannah 'Williams, who saw the pri-
soner biting at Hogan's nose, and a police-constable,
named Pickering, 87 K, who took the wounded man
to the hospital, and said he was bleeding profusely,
were next examined, •and it appeared from their
statement, that Hill boasted he had bitten off Hogan's
nose.

Mr. Vidal, house-surgeon of the London Hospital,
stated that on the prosecutor's admission to that in-
stitution he found the whole of the left nostril of the
nose gone. The parts were jagged, as though they
had been bitten in the way mentioned by Hogan, who
was in great danger for two or three days from in-
flammation of the face, which put on the character of
erysipelas. The prosecutor had since had three or
four attacks of haemorrhage, and it would now be some
time before a complete cure would be effected.
The prisoner, in defence, said that Hogan struck
a girl he was with, and he remonstrated with him for
beating a woman. Hogan followed him and beat
him before he could get his coat off. As to biting
Hogan's nose off, he had no recollection of such a
thing.
Mr. BALLANTINE-But the prosecutor does, and
he will keep a memorandum of it on his face as long
as he lives. If you must get into these rows, not
much harm would be done, if you were to stand up
and fight it out like a man, but to bite a man's nose
off is most atrocious, cowardly, and savage. I shall
commit you for trial for assaulting ard wounding the
man. I have been looking at the books to ascertain
if I could commit you for trial for the felony, and I
am sorry to find I cannot. You ought to be trans-
ported for acting as you have done,