The Sun.
London, England, 1869-08-31 00:00:00

LAW AND POLICE.

CURTOUS CASE OP FRAUD. —At Guildhall, on Monday, a
curious case of fraud was investigated. A man named
Edgington, Rho carried on the business of a bonze
and business agent, was in the habit, it seems,
of selling worthless businesses to persons who had
saved a little money. He sold a cigar business to
a widow, named Day, for £7O, representing its profits to
be £4 a week, giving her a guarantee signed by Mrs.
Maria Cox, who was said to be the owner of the agency,
undertaking to refund the premium in a month if the
business were not approved of. The takings of the
business proved to range from 10. to 2s. Gd. a day, but
Mrs. Cox escaped the liability imposed by her guarantee
on the ground of being a married woman. Nine previous
examinations had taken place, and on Monday Mrs. Cox
and Mr. Edgington were both committed for trial on a
charge of conspiracy to defraud.

CHARGE or FORGERT.—Mr. Gambell, of Wood Green,
was charged with forging and uttering bills of
exchange. The prosecutor was a bill discounter, and
the forgery was committed in the name of Captain Greer,
an officer in the army, whom the prisoner represented to
be his brother-in-law. He was remanded for trial, and it
"was stated that there was another case against him to a
large amount.

FATAL FIGHT.—At Wandsworth Police-court a pot-
nan, named Brooks, employed at a public-house in
Wandsworth, was charged with the wilful murder of a
labourer, named Driver. A quarrel arose between the
men late at night, and a struggle ensued. A tumbler,
which the prisoner held in his band, was broken in the
scuffle, and he struck the deceased with the broken glass,
inflicting a wound in the throat, from which he died in a
few minutes. The prisoner was remanded.
AN OBLIGING PRISONEIL—At the Middlesex Sessions
George Taylor, a meulder, with scarcely a rag to cover
him, was charged with stealing a watch from a coffee-
house keeper at Clerkenwell. When asked if he was
guilty, the prisoner said, " I might just as well say Guilty
as not. Put it down Guilty." The deputy-clerk of
the peace said that he was also charged with
an assault, and with stealing a pair of boots and
the prisoner said he had better put them all down Guilty.
[t appeared that the prisoner was running off with the
boots, when he assaulted those who tried to stop him, and
snatched away the watch and chain from the coffee-house
keeper. He had been previously convicted, and was sen-
tenced to twelve months' imprisonment with hard labour.
The prisoner exclaimed, on leaving the dock, "Hurrah !
now I Shall get a new coat."
THE POLICE AND THE PUBLIC.—At the Middlesex
Sessions a young man, named Marshall, was charged
with assaulting a police-constable. It appeared that at
half-past one in the morning the prisoner and other per-
sons were going along by Ball's-pond, Hollaway, making
a great noise, when police-constable Nunn came up to
them, and a quarrel ensued. It was said by several wit-
nesses that Nunn was drunk, and that Mar-
shall had not attacked him. Mr. Serjeant Cox
summed up the evidence, and said there was
perjury on one side or the other. The 'jury found the
prisoner Not Guilty, a verdict which was received with
some applause.

A Dublin correspondent writes :—" A farmer,
Nmed Hunter, a Scotchman, living five or six miles from
ewport, County Mayo, has been shot dead near his own
house. He was driving home on a car, with his wife, son
and servant, and, finding some obstruction on the road,
pulled up. Immediately an assassin came out, and, lodging
two pistol balls in his body, killing him instantly. The
others of the party were uninjured. The motive of the
crime is believed to be that the deceased was levying a
decree on a tenant. Two men have been arrested on sus-
picion.

SHOT BY A VOLUNTEER.—The inquiry into the
cause of the recent fatal occurrence at Wormwood Scrubbs
was brought to a conclusion on Monday. A little girl
w•as shot whilst picking up lend, near one of the rifle
butts, after firing was supposed to have ceased. The
West Middlesex and the London Rifle Brigade were in
possession of the targets at the time, but beyond the fact
that the shot came from the latter no information
could be obtained. The jury returned a verdict
that the deceased was killed by a shot fired by one of
the members of that corps.

WILTSHIRE MOONRAKERS.—A few weeks since
a correspondent inquired, through the medium of Notes
and Queries, the origin of the term " Wiltshire Moon-
rakers." The following answer appeared in that inter-
esting publication last week, signed by "An Old Moon-
raker" :—" Mr. John Yonge Akerman, in his " Wilt-
shire Tales," puts the following explanation, in the dialect
of the country, in the mouth of a Wiltshire peasant :
Piple zay as how they gied th' neam o' moonrakers
to we Wiltshire yank, bekase a passel o' stupid bodies
one night tried to rake the shadow o' th' moon out
o' th' bruk, and took 't vor a thin cheese. But that's
+.ll' wrong ind o' th' story. The chaps as was
doin' o' this was smugglers, and they was a vishing up
zome kegs o' sperrits, and only purtended to rake out a
cheese. Zo the exciseman as axed 'em the questin bad
his grin at 'em ; but they had a good laugh at ho, when
'em got whoame the stuff.' I used to see in Southampton,
some thirty years ago, at the junction of French
and Bugle Streets, where it may still exist, the sign
of a public-house called Wiltshire Moonrakers. It
represented two men standing by a pond in
which appeared the reflection of a full moon. A sailor
was seen in the background running towards
them : doubtless a coast-guard, which would be in a
seaport town the natural idea of any officer of either the
Customs or the Exgise. This would seen) to confirm Mr.
Akerman's version ; and I have reason to believe that
formerly a great deal of smuggling was carried on between
Southampton and South Wilts. The other version is
that certain Wiltshire peasants actually raked for the
reflection of the moon, in the full belief that it was a
cheese. I have lived in Wiltshire more than sixty years,
and have heard both legends given indiscriminately,
iccording as the object might be to exhibit us as rogues
or fools."

painfui tragedy of an unusual character is re.
ported from Ireland. A doctor, residing at Kimiadcn, six
miles from Waterford, shot his wife and subsequently him-
self late on Friday night. The fire was fatal in both in.
stances. What motive prompted the rash man is not yet
known.

Among the speakers at an open-air meeting of
working men, held in Manchester on Saturday, in favour of
the entire closing of licensed houses on Sunday, were Mr.
Rylands, M.P., Mr. C. E. Cawley, M.P., Mr. Alderman
Rumney, and others. Resolutions in support of the object of
the meeting were unanimously irisfe'.

It is to be regretted that the ill-feeling between
the unionists and non-unionists of Rotherham and Maskro'
has manifested itself in hostile demonstrations. On Satur-
day night a large body of unionists assembled opposite the
house of a non-unionist named Phillips, and by their pro-
ceedings caused considerable alarm in the height ourh oud.
An alarming accident occurred on Saturday during
the opening of a foot bridge across the Irwell connecting
the Broughton side of the river with Peel Park and Sal-
ford. A platform over the river upon which the Mayor and
a number of ladies and gentlemen had gathered gave way
while the Mayor was speaking, and about GO persons, the
Mayor included, tumbled, many of them into the water.
The water was shallow, and all were able to scramble
out again, Lut several were crushed and bruised. The cere-
mony was alterwards proceeded with.

At the Beverley election committee o Monday a
Libcral freeman named Wilberforce, a herdsman, said
he had crcasionally voted for the Tories, Lut only
when compelled to do so by Ifs emplo; or. lie
said there bad been ono pure election since 1817, the em-
ployment of messengers had been ono form of bribery; in
1865 he and hls nophcw received .C 5 each for their votes
from the Tories. Freem, n have been examined whose fees
on talii ► ,; up tbo7r free& m had Leen paid by Wreghill, Sir
Edwa agcnt.

The Pioneer, an Indian paper, states that Sir
Aithur Cotton, the eminent engineer, has projected
scheme for a canal from Calcutta to Calais, via the
Caucasus. Part of the work has already been done
in the construction of a canal from Hurdwar to
Cawnpore, and one from Calcutta to Oelyabaiab, besides
numerous port'ons of the work exist in Europe. A few
links would complete tho communication, and Sir Arthur
inlicyco they could bo added without much difficulty.