The Sun.
London, England, 1848-07-10 00:00:00

HAMMERSMITH.

Thomas Oxley and six other costermongers and
general dealers, were summoned before Mr. T. Painter,
by the police, for permitting their barrows, &c., to stand
longer than necessary for loading or unloading in the
public thoroughfare round Kensington•churchyaid,
whereby they had incurred penalties not exceeding 40s.
or a month's imprisonment.
It appeared that the defendants were in the nightly
practice, with others, of congregating with baskets,
trucks, barrows, &c., on the open space of the high
road, to sell fish, fruit, vegetables, haberdashery, &c.,
forming a complete market, and the summonses were
taken out in consequence of the repeated complaints of
the shopkeepers of the nuisance occasioned thereby.
The defendants pleaded guilty, and said they were
compelled to do so for the purpose of obtaining a liveli-
hood, and keeping themselves and families out of the
workhouse.
Mr. PAYNTER said there could be-no doubt that it was
quite illegal for them to do so ; but he had himself ob-
served an evening or two before, as well as on other
occasions, a crowd of the carriages of the nobility and
gentry stopping up the thoroughfare in the high road,
in consequence of some fashionable party, and he felt
that it would be a great mockery of justice to punish
the poor persons then before him for committing an
offence which was committed by the rich with impu-
nity. He should, theref,)re, only inflict on each of the
defendants a nominal fine of one penny, without any
costs.

The poor men appeared much delighted at the justice
of the decision of the worthy Magistrate, and very
cheerfully paid their pence.

THE BEOLEYHALL ESTATE,
WORCESTERSHIRE.

BIRMINGUAM, SATURDAY. —A case of considerable in-
terest in the county of Worcester, and, in some degree,
involving a claim to property of great extent in the
neighbourhood of Redditch, came on for hearing before
J. T. Lawrence, Esq., and other county magistrates, at
Alcester Lanes-end, to-day. Mr. Whitehouse, a gentle-
man of considerable landed property; Mr. Woolaston,
steward of the Beoley Hall estate, acting under Mr.
Oliver, solicitor of London; and four persons, named
Porter, Richmond, Carpenter, and Bolton, were charged
with riot and assault. Mr. Johnson, solicitor, of Dudley,
appeared for the complainant, one Joseph Rogers, who
described himself as being " a yeoman," residing et
Braidley, in Staffordshire.
A brief explanation is necessary to the proper appre-
ciation of the charge.
The Beoley Hall estate, one of the most beautiful
properties in the eastern division of Worcestershire, was
formerly in the possession of the ancient house of Shel-
don, and from them descended by purchase to the family
ot. Liolmes. Some sixty year:, ago Mr. Holmes, the then
possessor, sold the estate, at that time in its entirety,
comprising the whole parish of Beoley, and consisting of
about 4,506 acres, iu lots to various parties. One pore
tion of the estate, consisting of the hall, and about 300
acres of land, fell into the hands of Mr. Whitehouse, oue
of the present defendants; but before the formal con-
veyance was completed (the sale being duly effected)
Mr. Holmes died without a will. The sale was however,
ratified by his successors. Within these last few years,
claimants to the whole estate of Beoley, now divided
into separate purchases, have sprung up in the persons
of a family of working colliers, named Staunton, of
Braidley, near Dudley, who claim as the legitimate re-
presentatives of the Hohneses, and who, moreover, affirm
that the sales made by Mr. Holmes were not of the free-
hold, but leasehold, expirable in sixty years from the
time the leases were executed. This period they affirm
has now elapsed; but it is remarkable that no copy of
any one lease has yet been produced.
Under these circumstances the Stauntons,, by the in-
strumentality of Rogers, on Thursday morning last pro-
ceeded to assert and do acts of ownership. It appears
that Mr. Whitehouse does not occupy the hall, but that
the premises were in the care of a gardener named Mor-
ris, and his wife. About ten o'clock on the morning in
question, ltogers, and an attendant bailiff. named Hall,
who did occasional jobs for him, proceeded to Beoley,
and having obtained admission to the hall, they imme-
diately assumed the right of proprietor ship. Morris,
the gardener, and his wife, were requir ed to perform
suit and service; the cookery apparel us was in im-
mediate requisition, and the lordly intruders dealt
with everything within their reach as the goods and
chattels of their colliery employers, the Stauntons.
This glorification was, however, doomed to be of
short duration. On Saturday evening Mr. White-
house, accompanied by Mr. Woolaston, and a nume-
rous band of trusty retainers, made ttreir appearance,
when they found doors and shutters bolted and barred,
arid every preparation made to resist a formidable siege.
A surrender was demanded, but refus ed; force became
necessary, the windows of the drawing- room were broken
in, the doors forced, and ultimately the besieged Mr.
Rogers and his knight, finding that t'bre enemy had not
only effected a breach, but that the besiegers were talk-
ing in unmistakeable terms of a eonti guous horse pond,
thrust the keys of the mansion int o the pockets of
a constable (who was present to keep the peace), ex-
claiming that "he had seen enough ;" and made a pre-
cipitate escape to avoid the personal indignities in anti-
cipation. It was for the assault and riot committed on
the occasion that the present charge was instituted.
Green, the constable, who was called to corroborate
the witness, decidedly contrwlicted him. He witnessed
neither assault nor riot.
The Magistrate gave no opinion as to the legal right
to the property, but dismiss ed the charge of riot and
assault.
The constable immediately gave up the keys of the
hall to Mr. Whitehouse, under a protest from Rogers.

FEARFUL MUTILATION. --On Monthly last, Samuel
Herrod, a small farmer, living at Hucknall-under-
Huthwaite, deliberately cut off his left hand, in a fit of
insanity, with a hatchet. The poor fellow had suffered
from mental aberration fox a short time previous, but
had appeared so far recovered as to be allowed to go
about the premises withcalt any attendant. Messrs.
Cooper and Godfrey, surgeo:ns_, who were fetched from
Mansfield to attend him, found it necessary to perform a
second amputation higher u and the patient is at pre-
sent doing well.—Nottinghu 6a Journal.
PRINCE DEmiDoEF AN 11) THE ENGLISH AT FLO-
RENCE.—This nobleman, w ho was amongst the most
distinguished of the foreig n contributors to the relief
fund raised at Florence by t lie committee of English at
that city last year, for the ltlish and Scotch sufferers by
famine, and who, on the occ a .sion of the fete then given,
lent his villa, San Donato, :and entertained nearly two
thousand visitors, has just I ieen presented by the com-
mittee with a bust in marbhe, executed at Rome by Gib-
son, of her Majesty Queen I 'ictoria, accompanied by a
latter expressive of their that ks, through Lord Vernon.