The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-12 00:00:00

LAW AND POLICE

SELLING BAD MEAT.—The conviction of a rarmer on

Friday for sending bad meat to the London market, with a
sentence of two months' imprisonment, was on the next day
followed at the Guildhall Police•court by a Leicester
butcher being sent to prison for a month for a like
offence. At Worship-street, on Saturday, a fine of £2O
was inflicted under similar circumstances.

CHARGE AGAINST POLICEMEN.—On Saturday, at the
Westminster Police-court, a charge was brought against
two constables of the B division, by an officer of the
Excise. He was coming out of a beerhonse in Pimlico, at
two a.m., when, without any reason, the defendants
attacked and beat him, calling him a thief and a vagabond.
He was so seriously injured that he had to keep his bed
for three days. The policemen denied the charge, but
were sent for trial.

THE MARQUIS DE ST. MAuracE.—At Westminster,
on Saturday, Captain Trapaud, Marquis de St. Maurice,
an old officer of the East India Company's service, applied
for a summons against Major-General Pears for forgery.
lle argued that Blackstone defined forgery to be the
making or alteration of writing to any person's prejudice.
The alteration of which he complained was the change of
a date in the list of the company's officers, by which he
lost £54 per annum, besides £2,000. Mr. Selfe said that
could not be forgery, but advised him to prepare an infor-
mation in writing, and lay it before his colleague, Mr.
Arnold.

THE GRAND STAND AT EPSOM.-At the Surrey ces-
sions, on Saturday, the adjourned appeal from the January
Sessions respecting the rating of the Grand Stand at
Epsom was beard. At one time it was doubtful whether
the Derby would he run this year, owing to the complica-
tion of affairs ; but, happily for the sporting world,
arrangements have been made. The counsel for the asso-
ciation maintained that the Grand Stand ought not to be
rated beyond £2,000 a year, instead of £4,500, as at
present. After hearing the arguments on both sides, the
magistrates decided that the rateable value of the stand
was £1,102, and assessed the appellants at that sum, but
allowed their costs.

MURDER AT DOVER. —At Dover, on Saturday, a pain-
ful excitement was created by the murder of a sapper,
named Barnes, by a comrade named Weldryck, a lance
corporal in the Royal Engineers. The murderer seems to
have borne no to the deceased, but is said
to be affected in his mind. He was at once taken
into custody, and brought before the magistrates at the
Maisson Dieu Hall. The evidence of other men in the
regiment shewed that the prisoner had lately been pecu-
liar in his manner. One of them said that it was not safe
to be in the room with him, and he had often lain awake
for hours for fear of what he would do. He had been sent to the
hospital several times, but the doctor bad refused to take
him in. After other evidence had been given, the
prisoner, who made no defence, was committed for trial
for murder, and sent to Maidstone Gaol. The jury at the
coroner's inquest, held on Friday, decided that Charles
Weldryck shot William Barnes, being in an unsound
state of mind at the time.

The Echo believes it is the intention of Mr.
Ayrton, at an, early day, to bring in a bill for tho abolition
of the security system, which will further extend the faci-
lities of the provincial press.

A rick of hay in afield belonging to Mr. Carsley,
a contractor and town carrier, of the Letchmere-road,
Battersea, was set on fire a day or two back by a spark
from the engine of a passing train, and nearly destroyed.
TIIE ITALIAN EMBASSIES.—A telegram from
Florence states that the late Minister of the Interior, M.
Cadorna, is appointed Italian Minister to London ; M.
Barbolani goes to Constantinople, M. Bertinati to Wash.
ington, M. Cerruti to Madrid, and M. Corti to the
Hague.

At the suggestion of a gentleman who happened
by curious circumstances to know the future intentions of
certain South London preachers, two of our reporters
attended separate places of worship last Sunday, by
arrangement, and reported the same sermon—sentence for
sentence—word for word. We leave our readers to draw
their own conclusion.—South London Press.

DISCOVERY OF OLD COINS AT OXFORD.-011
Thursday afternoon some workmen were employed in
digging the foundation of a house on the Cowley-road,
when they came upon a large quantity of old coins, en-
.
closed in an earthenware pot. The pot was broken by the
workmen, and the coins were dispersed and taken away
by a number of persons who happened to be near the
spot. They were all of silver, and of different sizes, the
largest being somewhat smaller than the present shilling.
The coins are said to be of the reign of Edward I.
THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. —There is
every probability of the meeting of the Royal Agricultural
Society being held in Oxford in the year 1870. The formal
invitation from Oxford was received and considered by the
council at their last meeting, and met with such a favour-
. able reception that it is all but certain the invitation will
i be accepted. A committee of five has been appointed by
the council to inspect the site for the show-ground and
i the other accommodation which they require. Several
1 hundred pounds are still required to complete the fund of
£4,000 which it is necessary to raise.
1 necessary
Vrederick Stewart, the landlord of the Union
I Inn, Wellington-road, was. charged at Leeds, on Friday,
with having an internal communication between his house
and a butcher's shop next door, kept by a person called
Jackson, against the provisions of the Leeds Improve-
ment Act of L942_ It appeared that on the 7th of March
Inspector Greenwood visited the house of the defendant,
and there found an internal communication leading from
it to the butcher's shop, in which he found about thirty
men drinking at the expense of Mr. Jackson. Not for
supplying drink, which was legal, but simply for having
the communication, he was summoned, and the mitigated
penalty of 40s. and costs inflicted. It was also ordered
that the communication should be walled up,
ORIGIN OF THE CULTURE OP THE POTA.TO. —Kil-
syth, Stirlingshire, is famous as being the first place where
potatoes were introduced into open cultivation. Thomas
Prentice, a day labourer, raised a crop of them in a plot
of ground attached to his garden in 1728, and by the
annual sale of them he soon realised what was, to him, a
fortune—a sum of £2OO. So late as 1755 this root was a
rarity in Wig,tonshire, and Dr. Duncan tells the story of
a lady bringing some of them in her pocket to church, to
present to a friend, as something quite new ; but the
string of her pocket breaking as she was leaving church,
they dropped into the passage, and the sight of them led
to a great many curious inquiries. It is well certified that
the date of their introduction into Somersetshire counts
back only a century. In Forfarshire, again, it was the
year of Culloden before they were cultivated in the
garden, and that as a great curiosity.—Farmer.
Referring to the strong language used at the recent
Exeter llall meeting of Orangemen, the Leeds Mercury Lon-
don correspondent says : —" Not content with the free use of
violent language on the platform, some of the more fiery
advocates of the Irish Church have not hesitated to
threaten Mr. Glachton3 with personal penalties. The
heroic 3lr. Cliarl'y h: s, we all know, devoted his
life to the purpose of pursuing the Premier, and
frustrating his unrighteous designs; and some of the
Ulster nun have gone so much further that they have for-
warded to Mr. Gladstone letters of a type with which Shef-
field alone, amongst English towne, has hitherto had much
a,quaintatice. No one, of courEe, suspects that the persons
who took part in the Exeter Hall meeting have had anything
to do with these abominable proceedings; nevertheless, the
Government bad, on Wednesday evening, a couple of official
short-hand writers at the gatheringl inExeter Hall, ty whom
the will* 54 tho Ppeoclieo lybr duly reported."