The Sun.
London, England, 1860-01-27 00:00:00

THAMES.

SCANDALOUS CONDUCT OF PAWNBROKERS.—WiIIiam
Ogilvie, of the firm of French and Ogilvie, pawnbrokers, of
No. 207, High-street, Poplar, appeared before Mr. Selfe to
answer two summonses, taken out by Ann Nightingale, a
seamstress, which charged the defendant with unlaw-
fully taking in as pledges materials for the manufacture of
two shirts, the same being in the course of manufacture.

Repeated complaints have been made against French and
Ogilvie by poor individuals for several years, and the ma-
gistrates have frequently condemned their loose and un
satisfactory mode of doing business. A few weeks since
Ogilvie was fined £lO for a violation of one of the clauses
of the Pawnbrokers' Act, and Mr. Selfe then lectured him
severely. The present case was a very flagrant
one. The complainant had given out shirts to
be made to several persons, who instead of returning them
had pawned them with the defendant, who received them
without making any inquiries. The defendant had seven
dozen shirts not made up belonging to complainant. There
was not a stitch in one of them. One woman to whom the
complainant had entrusted the materials for making one
dozen of shirts had taken them direct from her house to the
defendant and pawned them. When she remonstrated with
the defendant for receiving the goods he said, " You have
no right to employ persons without taking security." The
defendant had sent her four dozen and a half of shirts not
made up since the summons was taken out.
Mr. Selfe—Why, he has been doing this by wholesale.
The Complainant—Yes, sir, and he has now two dozen
and a half more shirts of the same description belonging to
me. Not one of the shirts sent to me had been touched.
They were just as I delivered them to the woman. I have
a person in court who applied to Mr. Ogilvie for some of my
shirts, and he has stuck to the ticket, and refused to part
with it or to restore the shirts. He has put me to great in-
convenience and expense.

The defendant, in reply to the charge, said he had
already delivered two dozen and a half shirts to Mrs.
Nightingale, and was now willing to give up the remainder.
Mr. Selfe—That is not the question. You are charged
with taking in unfinished work—work in the course of
manufacture, and I have no hesitation in saying that your
mode of doing business is highly discreditable. It is the
worst pawnbroker's shop in the district by a long way.
The defendant repeated that he would restore all the pro-
perty to the complainant.

Mr. Selfe—That won't do. I fine you £1 in ono case for
taking in eight shirts in course of manufacture, and 6s. in
the other case for taking in two shirts in the course of
manufacture, with 2s. costs in either case.
Mrs. Nightingale asked how she was to obtain the re.
mainder of her property.

Mr. Selfe—lf the defendant will not give them up take
out a fresh summons.

The defendant—l will give up all the shirts.

Mr. Selfe—You had no business to take one of them in.
You received them of persons who had no right to pawn
them. The mischief done by you- pawnbrokers, by lending
money on slop work, is incalculable. It is a premium upon
crime, and loads to wide-spread misery.

SUDDEN DEATII OF A NAVAL OFFICER.—
SOUTHAMPTON, Thursday.—William Valentine, third
officer of the Sultan, Peninsular and Oriental Company,
was found dead in his cabin this morning. An inquest was
held on board, and no cause was assigned for his death.
The inquest was adjourued for a post mortem examination.
He leaves a widow and four children.
The Zlilan Gazette speaks of numerous arrests
made by order of the Au strian Government at Venice, and
estimates the number at about 400.

DRURI-LANE THEATRE.

Yesterday the annual meeting of the proprietors
of this theatre was held in the saloon—Mr. Joseph
Arden in the chair.
The SECRETARY read the following report of the
committee of management :—" The committee place
before the proprietors the accounts of the past year
duly audited. The annual report of the architect
is also submitted to the assembly. The receipts of
the year, adding the balance of the preceding year,
£377 7s. 10d., amount to £4,694 75., leaving a cash
balance at the banker's of £293 12s. sd. The re-
ceipts comprise the sum of £4,000 for the year's
rent from Mr. E. T. Smith. The payments com-
prise the sum of £1,350 19s. 7d. for four quarters'
rent to the Duke of Bedford, and on account of the
arrears due to his grace, and the sum of £9OO paid
the trustees of the new renters. The four quarters'
rates and taxes, and the ordinary current expenses
of the 12 'months up to Christmas, have been paid.
The committee have to report to the proprietors
that in July last they deemed the period to have
arrived when the public should be informed of the
approaching expiration of the seven years' term
under which the theatre had been held. Adver-
tisements, in accordance with former precedents,
for letting the theatre, were inserted in the Lou-
don daily papers, but no tender was made within
the period specified by the committee. The adver-
tisements were continued up to the end of August,
when an offer of £4,500 annual rent, for seven
years from Mr. E. T. Smith, led to a negotiation,
which terminated in the renewal of his tenancy.
In October a lease to Mr. Smith was executed for
a term commencing on the 2d of December last, and
ending on the Ist of August, 1867, all the material
provisions of the former lease having been adopted,
with Such alterations and additions as the further
experience of seven years' occupation pointed out
to be necessary. The committee concluded their re-
port by adverting with much satisfaction to the
unprecedented success with which the lessee has
commenced the first season under his new tenancy."
Mr. T. M. NELSON, the architect, then read his
report.
The adoption of the report was then formally
moved and seconded, and carried unanimously.
The following gentlemen were then re-elected
members of the committee :—General Sir William
Codrington, and Messrs. Henry Collingwood Ibbet
son, Arthur Pratt Barlow, Richard Spencer, Geo.
Baugh Allen, and Joseph Arden (the chairman.)
The committee then retired and nominated ttie
following gentlemen as a sub-committee :—Mr.
Benjamin Bond Cabbell, Mr. Henry B. Cores, Sir
William de Bathe, Bart., Mr. Joseph Arden, and
Mr. Thomas Rawlinson.

A vote of thanks was next given to the auditors,
after which they were re-elected.
The CHAIRMAN then proposed a vote of thanks
to Mr. E. T. Smith, for the manner in which he had
managed the theatre; and in doing so spoke in
high terms of the honourable manner in which that
gentleman had fulfilled all the conditions of his
lease, and the promptness with which he was ever
ready to carry out any suggestion the committee
could show was for the benefit of the theatre.
Mr. B. B. CABBItLL seconded the motion, which
was carried unanimously.
Mr. E. T. SMITH, in returning thanks, said,
though he had not been able to make the house
what it had been, he had, in seven years paid them
in rent £30,000, which had not been done before.
(Hear.) He had endeavoured to obtain all the talent
he could, and if he had not been able to obtain more

than he had produced it was not his fault. He
assured the meeting that he would do all ho could
for the success of the house, and he hoped to meet
for years to come the same kindness he had received

thai day. (Hear, hear.)
A cordial vote of thanks to the chairman termi•
nated the proceedings.

THE TREATY OF COMMERCE;

The outline of the terms of the Treaty of Com-
merce with France furnished by the Patric seems to
indicate that the reduction of the English wine
duties is to be from the present rate of ss. 9d. per
gallon to ls. per gallon (equal to 2d. per bottle)—
an alteration which will, it is presumed, be general,
and include all foreign as well as colonial growths.
At the same time it appears that the French prohi-
bitions against our iron are to be replaced by a duty
a little less than £3 per ton, and that woollen and
cotton manufactures are also to be admitted at rates
yet to be fixed, but which are not to exceed 30 per
cent. As the clauses of the treaty are on our part
to be brought into operation within a week or two,
the impression produced in the wine market by the
announcement has, of course, been considerable,
business of all kinds being for the moment virtually
suspended. At present many houses in the trade
doubt the correctness of the statement, but
should it be confirmed an immediate rise in prices
will be expected. The drawback question will
be one of keen anxiety, and probably of diffi-
culty. According to some estimates the paid
duties on existing stocks would be found to
amount to £2,000,000, but this is generally sup-
posed to be greatly beyond the true total. Under
an order of the Inland Revenue-office in 1852 draw-
back can be claimed only on wines on which the
duty has been paid within a limited period, the term
for the red wines of Portugal and Franco being,two
years, while for all other descriptions, including
sherry, it is six months. There is another provision,
also, which will have a greater effect in reducing,
the number of claims—namely, that to entitle them-
selves to any return of duty whatever all dealers
must have kept a stock book, showing every quan-
tity received in or delivered out, and embracing a
separate entry of all wine exported—a provision
which is thought in a very large number of instances
to have been imprudently neglected. On the other
hand, as the changes in France are to be delayed for
a year and a haf, our iron, cotton, and woollen
markets will, of course, not experience any imme-
diate influence. Assuming the rate of duty named
for iron to apply to manufactured iron, it will be
sufficiently low to admit of a large export trade
from this country, since it seems to be about 33 per
cent, less unfavourable than that of the Zollverein,
in the face of which some of our goods can reach
even Berlin itself. Any satisfactory anticipations
that may be formed on this point must, however,
be contingent upon the absence of local or Custom-
house obstructions, calculated expressly to create
restrictions in a new form, which might become
equally as potent as the old. On pig-iron the duty
of £3 per ton would, it is believed, prove nearly
prohibitory, but it is hoped that on that material
the rate will bo different. Concerning the 30 per
cent, rate on woollen and cotton manufactures the
belief is that it will allow a large introduction of
British cotton goods into the French markets,par-
ticularly in l©w qualities, and that there are certain
descriptions of low worsted and woollen stuffs
which likewise cannot fail to be taken in consider-
able quantities. A sanguine expectation connected
with the entire movement is that France having
hitherto been the great centre of trading restric-
tions in Europe all the other continental nations
may now lose faith in their narrow systems and
hasten to follow her in her first steps to reform.—
Times.

SHIPWRECK ON THE SUFFOLK COAST.

LOSS OF FIVE LIVES.
ALDBOROUGH, Jan. 25.—About two o'clock yes-
terday morning the brig Dallas, of Shields, foun-
dered on Sizewell Bank, during a very heavy gale
of wind from S.S.E. Immediately after the vessel
struck, the maskr and four of the crew took to her
boat. The boat, however, was no sooner launched,
than she instantly filled and capsized, drowning the
five poor men. At break of day, when the
wreck was for the first time observed from
the land, the lifeboat of the National Lifeboat
Institution, stationed at Thorpeness, was without
delay manned and launched, and afterwards pro-
ceeded off through the heavy breakers to the scene
of danger, which was many miles from the land.
After an hour's hard toil the lifeboat reached the
wreck, and succeeded in taking off the rigging, in
an exhausted state, the remaining three men, and
in bringing them safely on shore. Two fishing
smacks' boats, with their accustomed readiness,
previously tried in vain to save them. Almost be-
numbed with cold, they had now despaired of being
rescue) from their perilous position, and expected
everymoment to be engulphed in the boiling elements,
as their poor comrades had been a few hours before.
Their joy was therefore great, when they saw the
noble lifeboat riding majestically, like a living
being, over the rising billows, approaching them,
and shortly afterwards taking them safely into its
charge.
FLEETWOOD, LANCASHIRE, Jan. 25.—0 n Mon-
day night, during a terrific storm, the lifeboat of
the National Lifeboat Institution on this station
saved one man from the Ann Mitchell, of Montrose.
Early the following morning the same valuable
lifeboat put off and succeeded, during a heavy gale
of wind, in rescuing the crew of six men of the
Jane Roper, of Ardrossan.

THE CLEVELAND IRON TRADE.—At a meeting
of the firms engaged in this trade, held at Middlesborough
a few days sinc, the stocks on hand were reported to be
69,960 tons, while the orders received amounted to 167,700
tons. The' members of the trade will in future hold a
weekly exchange meeting at Middlesborough every Tues-
day.
THE SLAVE TRADE.—Two large Blue-books
(marked A and B), contain a voluminous correspondence
with the British Commissioners at Sierra Leone, Havan-
nah, the Cape of Good Hope, and Loanda ; and reports
from British Vice-Admiralty Courts, and from British
naval officers, relating to the slave trade, from April 1,
1858, to March 31, 1859, presented to both Houses of Par-
liament by command of her Majesty.