The Sun.
London, England, 1846-06-22 00:00:00

RICHMOND PETTY SESSIONS.

CAUTION TO STEAMBOAT CA,PTAINII.—On Saturday,
Thomas Grecn, the c;,ptain of the Echo, Richmond
steamboat, appeared before th, bench, of which R. Gar-
rick, Esq. was chairman, to answer a summons laid wi-
der the 67th si.ction of 'the Waterman's Act, charging
him with the avoidance of a fare.

Th. complaint was made by Mr. W. Blake, a gentle-
man, residing at No. 3. Ailsa-park villas, Twickenham.
H stated that on Monday last, a few minutes before
twelve o'clock at noon, he saw the Echo steam-boat
alongside the pier. When complainant got there, he
found there was no ptwsibility of going on board from
the pier, in consequence of the place for going on board
not being or a level with the boat, which had not ar-
rived a minute. Some man afterwards placed a board
in a nearly perpt-ndictilar position, so that they could
not step on buard. lie askt'd them to move the plank ;
they did so, Ittr, did re,t alter the position of the vessel,
a d the result was that he ct.uld not step on hoard, and
the captain (the detendant:, wade a signal, and the
boat wt nt off without him.

The corn lairant had no witness to support his state-
ment, and the defi ndant called as his witness,
Timothy Rigby, a waterman, who stated that on Mon-
day last the complain; nt and a lady came to the pier
and attempted to go on board the Echo steam-boat.
There was a plank fri.m the pier to the boat, and the
lady had got half %,av with a person on each side to as-
sist her, and the money-taker holding out his band
from the boat to receive her, when by the desire of the
complainant she turned back. The boat which was be
bind its time of starting, was alre-ady out in the stream.
and could not have moved nearer shore without injuring
other boats. A lady had previously gone over the same
plank, which rested one and on the pier, and the other
on the rail of the stearn.boat.

Richard Hancock, the money-taker on the Echo, cor-
roborated the major part of the preceding evidence, and
proved in addition, that three ladies came on board
without any inconvenience, but the complainant refused
:and said, " That way may do for you, but it won't for
we."

Mr. Hancock, the part owner of the Echo, said the
inclination of the plank was but the quarter of a foot in
ten. He was .bout to explain how difficult it would
have been for the boat to have come alongside, when
The CHAIRMAN stopped him, and said they could per-
mit none other than a professional gentleman to offer
any remarks. The bench were of opinion iluit the case
of avoidance was made out, and they should fine the
defendant 205., including costs.
The fine was paid.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.
LAMBETH.
THE LATE EXTRAORDINARY AND SUSPICIOUS DEATH
OF A BOY AT DULWlClL—lnspector Campbell, of the P
division, attended before the Hon. G. C. Norton, in com-
pliance with a message sent to him to give an explana-
tion to come diielosurts made to the Hon. Magistrate
late on Friday erenint, relative to the extraordinary and
tn-picions death of George James Berns-ell, a laJ, aged
fifteen, who had been teund dead in a muddy pond at
the back of his master's house on the evening of Tues-
day week last, with a 28:b. metal weight tied round his
neck, and both his hands tied together. The short facts
of the case appeared to be these:—
The deceased had been in the employment of a person
named Evans, a manufacturer of " piqua," or British
tea, as errand boy, since last April twelvemonths, and
on the evening of Tuesday week his master and his
master's son proceeded to Sydenham in a pony-chaise for
the purpose of purchasing some greens, and on their re-
turn they found written on the foot- board of the deceased's
bed in chalk an intimation that his body was in the
pond at the back of the house. A board was also found
floating on the poed, on which was written with chalk,
" The body of George Benwell is in this pond." The
body was found there, and upon being taken out a 281 b.
weight was round his neck, and both his hands were found
tied together. An inquest has since been held on the
body, and, after a lengthened inquiry, the jury returned
a vet diet to the effect that the deci ased had been the
author of his own d• ath, and had committed suicide,
Subsequent to the inquiry, Mr. Bishop, the half-brother
of the deceased, had received several communications
imputing the death of the deceased to very different
cam-es ; and oni., in particular, from a female, named
'n;eobald, who had lived as servant with Evans, who

states that there was an exceedingly bad feeling beta een
the deceased and his mastkr, and that this had rec‘ ntly
become considerably increaid on the part of the latter

on account of her (Theobald) communicating to the goy
the secret of the manufacturing to which he (Evans) Intd
been engaged, and it was on the application of Mr.
Bishop that Mr. Norton required the attendance of Mr.
Campbell to give some explanation of the case.
Mr. Campbell said that he had taken much trouble in
and was still pursuing the inquiry into the case, which
was one of the most suspicious and extraordinary that
he recollected during his lengthened experience as an
officer. When before the coroner and jury, Evans, the
master of the deceased, who is a most eccentric charact r
arid a Socialist, said that he did not observe anything
wore than ordinary in the deceased's manner, when him-
self and his s' left home for Sydenham, on the evening
of Tuesday week, yet when he had proceeded half his
journey, he said that something struck him that all was
not right at home with George. Upon this he was asked
by a juror why he did not return, if such was his I el-
ing; and his reply was, that he slu uld have don'- so, but
that he thought that if anything happened, he should be
then too lute to prevent it, but the answer to this and
other questions from the coroner and jury was con-
sidered anything but satisfactory to them. There were
several points in the case which he (Mr. Campbell)
could not reconcile to his belief that the de-
ceased had committed suicide, and even to say the
least of them were of a highly suspicious cha-
racter. In the first place, the cord by which
the metal weight was suspended on the neck of the y.t'ut h
was so short, as to be barely sufficient to tie behind, and
it was exceedingly doubtful to him whethe r the lad him
self' would have been enabled to tie it in the mariner in
which it had been round. In the next, if even he had so
tied it and his hands, he had then to get over a wooden
paling tour feet six inches in height, and such would be
the difficulty of getting over such an imp &meat with a
quarter of a hundred tied to his neck, that he (Mr.
Campbell) should not be able toaccomplish it much more
a boy of 15 years of age. In the third place, he (Mr.
Campbell) tound in the boxes of the lad a copy book and
other papers, which bore the hand-writing of the de-
ceased, and upon comparing them with the chalk writing
on the foot of the deceased's bed, and also the piece of wood
found 1 ether on the pond, they bore no comparison what-
ever, and in his opinion had nev.-T been written be ihe same
hand. The jury were of a similar opinion previous to the
stepmother of the dec axed being called, but she swore
point blank that both were in the handwriting of the
deceased, and th's it was that principally induced the
jury to come to the dec,sien they had. Since then the
step-mother had been most anxious to get possession of
b nth the writing and the board hearing the chalk marks;
but he (Mr. Campbell) r/ fused to let her have them, par-
ticulsrly as he had found that Evans had been stopping
' at her house ever since the death of the boy, and some
of her neighbours did not hesitate to impute a more than
ordinary intimacy between the two parties. There was
another circumstance which he (Mr. Campbell) felt it
necessary to mention, and that was, that on a med.cal
inspection of the body, appear /Lees of an extraordinary
description, and which he could not pa7ticularly allude
to, were found, and Evans had acknowledged to him (Mr.
Cami,bell) and others, that he had been accused of an
atrocious offence.
Mr. Bishop, the step-brother of the deceased, here
begged to mention another circumstance, which appeared
to add to the many other sus: icious iuciuents rnbed,arct of the the
ease. The chalk writing on
mid which he did not believethteo fhlavt_bennpNiVt-raist,t.:nsbiry,
the deceased. ere in these words=
cue to Inv friends,
have the kindness to remember d
at the back of the house „
George B ne ell is in 5;1,,,, and .‘ my friends,"
And after the words • 1 !'
d. [his circumstance satisfitd
there were comm.. p
g t: not b.y the_ deceased,
even if hea Ghhaed was
t •'
him that the wririns
oft
gsruarhEnaanlr Olnaenndt,, when on the point
palpably ignorant
been, he doubted a
of self. destruction, he would have taken the trouble to
write
so methodically; and alto Aether he was very des-
stiti,fi ,(1 with the inquiry, and hoped his Worshlp would
not ,slow it to rest where it stood.
Mr. NORTON admitted that the circumstances of the vase were exceed* suspicious, and direoted