The Sun.
London, England, 1870-05-20 00:00:00

LAW AND POLICE.

CHARGE AGAINST A CONSTABLE.—A labourer, named
Daniel Shea, was charged at Worship-street with
drunkenness and disorderly conduct, whereupon he
made a -counter charge against the constable, who wit-
nessed against him. He stated that the constable offered
to fight a man for half a crown, and on the prisoner
making a jocose remark the policeman took him into cus-
tody. He called two witnesses in support of this state-
inent, but their story was contradictory, and the maxis=
trate disbelieved it, observing that it was most
unlikely the constable would act in a manner that would
ruin him for life. The Inspector of the H division, to
which the constable belonged, gave him an 'excellent
character, and said he was much trusted by his officers,
and was selected to apprehend street gamblers. He had
taken seventy-three persons into custody for such offences,
of whom seventy had been convicted, and it was believed
that the Spitalfields thieves, finding his vigilance trouble-
some, concocted this story. The prisoner was sentenced
to 20s. fine, the magistrate expressing a high opinion of
the constable.

ENDORSING BILLS.—An action upon two bills of ex-
change has been brought in the Court of Common
Pleas, The plaintiff, whose name is Meulengracht,
buys teas for the Russian market. The defendants,
Messrs. Rhodes and - North, were tea • brokers,
in partnership at the time the bills were endorsed by Mr.
Rhodes, in the name of the firm. The bills were drawn
by Mr. Hooper, a picture dealer, the father-in-law of
Rhodes. The latter allowed judgment to go by default,
and North repudiated liability on the ground that Rhodes
had no authority to endorse the bills in the name of the
firm, this not being a tea-broking transaction. - Evidence
was called on both .sides as to the practice of tea brokers
to take or endorse bills, and the learned judge left two
questions to the jury. 1. Whether tea brokers were in the
habit of endorsing bills, and 2, whether the plaintiff knew
when' he made advances on the bills that Rhodes
was endorsing the bills for other than the partnership
business. The jury returned a verdict for the defendant
North.
THROWING -A WOMAN ' OUT OF THE WINDOW.-: At
Clerkenwell, Charles Miller, aged 47, a broker, was
charged with being drunk and assaulting Mrs. Caroline
Bearram. The prosecutrix and her husband reside at the
same house as the defendant, and as she was passing the
defendant's room, he caught hold of her round the
waist and tried to drag her in. She struggled and the defend-
ant then said, making use of very bad language at the
same time, that if she did not go into his room he wouid
throw her out of the window. She refused to go, on which
the defendant pushed her against the window, and she
then screamed murder and police, which attracted the
attention of the neighbours opposite. The complainant's
head, arms, and part of her body were out of the window
when she was rescued from her perilous position. She
ran down stairs, the defendant following her, and when
in the kitchen he struck her three or four blows.—He was
remanded for a week.

SINGULAR DECISION. —A curious magisterial decision has
been given at Richmond, according to which a militia
man absent from training through imprisonment may be
punished as a deserter. A young man, named Richard-
son, was charged before the local magistrate with being
absent from last year's training. He denied that he was
a deserter, having been sentenced for some offence, .not
specified, to a year's imprisonment. He offered to pay
the expenses of anyone who would verify his story by
going to Coldbath-fields Prison. The magistrate, after
some hesitation, convicted him as a deserter, and sentenced
him to 40s. fine, or two months' imprisonment with hard
labour. He was removed in, custody.
BETTER THAN, HE DESERVED. —At Huddersfield, John
Balmforth, a young man, was charged with stealing £lOO,
the money of his father, John Balmforth, farmer, Slaith-
waite. On the 10th instant the prosecutor entrusted the
prisoner with a Bank of England note for £lOO to get
changed at Huddersfield, but he went to Liverpool,
booked a passage to America, and was apprehended just
as he was going on board the City of Paris. The magis-
trates asked the parents what they desired them to do
with the priso.ner ; and Mis. Balmforth replied, "We
only want him to go home and be a good lad." The police
were instructed to restore the money to the old people,
and the prisoner was liberated.
RAILWAY COMPANIES AND LANDOWNERS. —The Judges
of the Court of Queen's Bench and Common Pleas, sitting
on appeal from the Court of Exchequer, in the case of
the " Duke of Buccleuch v. the Metropolitan Board of
Works," decided the' principle of compensation
between railway companies and landowners, when
the former buy under the compulsory clauses
of the Act of 1845. The duke had a causeway (worth
two hundred pounds in the opinion of the arbitrator)
which ran down into the Thames. This was taken away
from him to make the Thames Embankment, and the
awarded over eight tbousand pounds, giving five thousand
pounds as loss consequent on the execution of the works.
The Court by a majorito decided that the Act did not
give an owner a right to compensation beyond the actual
land taken under the compulsory powers.

Lieutenant M. Ommanney, R.E., has been tem-
porarily attached to the office of the Director of Works
to the Admiralty in order to superintend the erection of
Lock Hospitals, which, under the provisions of the Con-
tagious Diseases Act, it is contemplated to build at some
of the principal seaports. Lieutenant Ommanney
recently held a similar appointment under the War
Office.

The Russian papers received yesterday publish the
text of a convention which has just been concluded be-
tween the Russian and Austrian Governments for
.the
union of the Kieff-Odessa Railway with that of Leopol-
Vienna via Volotchisk and Tarnopol. It is provided that
the gauge shall be different, as in the case of the Russo-
Prussian lines, so that the Austrian carriages will not be
able to pass into Russia, nor Russia into Austria.

The journals of Lisbon publish details of the
attempt now being made to recover the treasure from the
galleons sunk in Vigo Bay. After a nineteen days' search
made with large diving bells, the fifteen vessels were
found at a depth of 100 metres, and, on knocking a hole
into the side of the Almirante, some of the gold and silver
which formed the cargo was found, with a certain quantity
of pieces of plate and valuable arms. Some ingots were
forwarded to Paris, and others sent to Lisbon.
A Liverpool fish salesman was desirous of sending
some cash by steamer to Stornoway. In order to do so
he signed a blank cheque upon the North and South
Wales Bank, directing his clerk, Abraham Dyson, to fill
it up for £5OO, and give the money to the captain of the
steamer for transmission to Stornoway. Dyson, it is
alleged, filled the cheque up for £7OO instead of £5OO,
procured gold for that amount on presenting the cheque
at the North and South Wales Bank, and then absconded.

ALLEGED PROSELYTISING AT THE DOVER UNION
—A complaint has been made to the Board of Guardians
of the Dover Union, by the Rev. J, Laws. the Roman
Catholic priest of the district, to the effect that the chap-
lain of the Unionlouse had been in thehabit of using his
influence to induce inmates of the Roman Catholic faith
to abjure their religion. One case was especially adduced
that of a female who when on her deathbed was implored
by the chaplain to reflect on her awful condition, apd the
danger of departing this life as a believer in the Roman
Catholic faith. The rev. gentleman did not deny the
charge and pleaded his sincerity in holding Protestant
opinions, and the responsibility resting Upon him. The
board decided that the chaplain must nbt again act in a
similax manner.