The Sun.
London, England, 1869-10-05 00:00:00

LAW AND -POLICE.

TECRNTCAL.—A curious technical ob3ection was raised on
Monday at Judges' Chambers, in an action which was
brought on a promissory note, under the Bills of Exchange
Act. A clause in the Act rendered the proceedings
irregular, as the action was not brought within six months
of the bills being payable. It was contended that tho writ
was on that account bad. The Master, to meet the diffi-
culty, ordeed the writ to bo amended.
A DEFAULTING CLERK.—At the Middlesex Sessions, on
Monday, John Bennett, a clerk in the employ of Messrs.
Collard and Co., pleaded guilty to stealing £ll7 from his
employers. He had been given two checks to get cashed
at :the Westminster Bank, and did not return with the
money. Ho was arrested on board a New York steamer
at Southampton, £BO, a gun, and a pistol being found on
him. His employers recommended him to mercy, as they
thought the offence unpremeditated. The Assistant-Judge
said that but for that recommendation the court would
have passed a sentence of penal servitude. He was sen-
tenced to hard labour for two years.
OMNIBUS RIVALRY.—At tho Southwark Police-court, on
Monday, an omnibus driver was summoned for careless
driving, and injuring another omnibus. The prosecution
stated that the act was wilful. The defence denied the
carelessness, and declared that the charge was a conspiracy
to drive the defendant off the road. The defendant was
fined 20s. and costs, in addition to £7 10s., the damage to
the omnibus.

TIIE HEROIC LIGHTERMAN.—The lighterman Slattery,
who has been instrumental in saving so many lives from
drowning, attended at the Guildhall Police-court on Mon-
day. A statement which he made last week about the in-
difference manifested on one occasion by the husband and
sons of the drowning woman has excited the indignation of
the husband. Slattery stated that the husband had at-
tended at the Royal Humane Society to contradict the
statement; the wife of the man now attended, and con-
firmed in every particular Slattery's account of the affair.

Regarding the alleged radical change in the
management of the Duke of Sutherland's estates, the
Inverness Advertiser adds to its former infornattWcn by
:Wing that the report is believed to be correct by partio3
re ring on the duke's property, and, further, that a large
tia:..t of land has been surveyed preparatory to being let
in small holdings, while renewal of lease has been refused
to one of his Grace's largest farmers.

SIAMESE LINKS.—A. very sharp ti ielc was lath
week played upon a tobacconist in the City. A man
calling in ordered half a pound of Turkish tobacco, which
was duly weighed and packed up for him ; he then asked
the tobacconist if he had seen ono of the new "Siamese
links," at the same time giving him one, and telling him
to thrust his fingers into it. He did so, and soon his
hands were tightly. fixed. Meantime the donor of the
link quietly took possession of the tobacco and coolly
walked away with it, to the astonishment of the powerless
shopman.
A. SERMON IN STONE.—Tho Princess
daughter of Charles 1., lies buried in St. The mss , _New-
port, in the Isle of Wight. A beaut: u marble monument,
erected by Queen Victoria, records in a touching way the
manner of her death. She languished in Carisbrook Castle
during the unhappy Commonwealth wars, a prisoner,
alone, and separate from all the companions of
her youth, until death set her free. She was
found dead one day, with her head leaning on the
Bible, open at the words—" Come unto me all ye that
labour and aro heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
The monument in Newport Church records the fact. It
consists of a female figure reclining her head on a marble
book, with the text already engraved on the book.
LICENSED BEGGARS.—A Scottish custom of by-
gone days came again to light in the course of the evidence
given before a Parliamentary Committee last session—a
system of licensed begging, Before the Scottish Poor-law
Act of 1845 it was the custom in most of the burghs for
the poor to go about on certain days in the week
and get their halfpenny or their penny at the different
shops. It was a recognised mode of maintenance
of paupers. Sometimes persons were struck off
the roll of paupers relieved by the managers of the poor,
and a badge or ticket was given to them as a licence
to ask alms within the parish ; and the Act of 1672
directed that this " ticket " should be given if the contri-
butions at the parish church were not sufficient to entertain
persons unable through age or infirmity to work. But even
without badges being regularly granted the paupers were
allowed to beg on one or more days of the week in most
towns. At St. Andrews's, in lieu of this licensed begging,
which was found to be a daily annoyance, a box was carried
through the town every Saturday for collecting alms for the

poor.
STIERIDAN'S CARELESSNESS.—And now the reek-
,ess spendthrift began to deteriorate. The Regent's society
led him into the Regent's vices. He quickened his wit by
wine till it stole away his health. Indolence got a closer
grip upon him, and chained up all his faculties. He spent
half his time drinkingand joking,the other half in evading
his angry creditors. He was sometimes for hours, even
for days ambushed in the treasury at Drury-lane. He
seldom answered letters, and very often did not open those
he received. He lost receipts, and paid bills twice or three
times over. He allowed interest to accumulate on small
sums till the parasites grew larger than the trees that
nourished the fatal adoption. Unopened letters contain-
ing bank notes were found, by friends who called on him,
wedging a rattling window. Ho would set out on a journey
without half enough money, and then live expensively
at an inn, and wait till some friends to whom ho appealed
raise the siege. It was said to be his invariable daily
dramatic trick to get the rooms on both sides of his hall
filled with growling creditors, and then to slip out down
the centre, and borrow money for the day in his own
inimitable irresistible wheedling manner. Ho was con-
stantly being arrested, and always raising money to pay
his debts. The leaky boat required incessant bailing, or
down the owner would sink for ever.— Walter Thornburg,
in Cassell's Magazine.
A RAILWAY TRAIN IN A SAND DurFT.—An
accident of a somewhat curious character occurred on the
Welsh Coast Railway the other night. Between Pensarn
and Harlech stations there is a heavy cutting, and on this
portion of the line watchmen are kept to see that the line
is clear from stones or from sand, the line running for a
considerable distance almost parallel with the sea. The
passenger train duo at Harlech at seven p.m. reached its
destination without mishap, and in about half-an-hour was
followed by a goods train, which crosses the passenger
train at Penrhyndenclraeth. In the interval which elapsee.
between the passage of the two trains, the sand drifter
on to the line to a depth of nearly two yards, am'
owing to the fierce storm which was raging at the
time the depth momentarily increased, and the goods
engine, the Casteldenraeth, after making its way throng}
the drift for a short distance, left the metals and
came to a dead lock in the sand, falling partly on its side.
Fortunately the driver and stoker sustained no injury,
but the sudden stoppage was severely felt in the rear o;
the train, and the guard, W. Leitch, came in for some ugly
knocks, and was badly cut about the head. Some of the-
trucks of the train were also slightly damaged. News o.
the disaster was at once conveyed to Portmadoe, and a
strong detachment of men sent down to the spot, but the
age LepA4o,ll_:)2lL_d until thq Mowing raoi_laug,: