The Sun.
London, England, 1835-10-06 00:00:00

THAMES POLICE.

Yesterday Captain John Lawrence, the master of the
ship Caleb Angus, appeared before Mr. ComnE, on a sum-
mons to show cause why he refused to pay the sum of
4/.105., the balance of wages claimed by Benjamin Cooper,
a seaman, for his services on board as a mariner from Lon-
don to Honduras and back. _

The seamen had signed articles for 2/. ss. a month, and
the net amount of his wages from the Ist of May, 183 b, to
the 22d of last month was 101. 1 ls. G•cl. After deducting
the amount of money advanced, tobacco, and hospital dues,
he claimed the balance above-named. The Captain, how-
ever, said there was a balance owing to him of 3/. 2s. 6d.,
and that he had paid 71. 9s. 6d., equal -to 121. Os. 10d., Ja-
maica currency, at Belise, for law expea.ses, incurred by the
apprehension and committal of the corn plainant to prison for
four days, for an assault on the Captaii a.
The Captain here handed up the v Duellers for the pay-
ment of the money, and a certificate linder the hand and
seal of Henry A. Gray, Assistant Keel ?er of the Records
at Belise, from which it appeared that “ Benjamin Cooper
had been brought before William Mciskall, William H.
Coffin, and William Walsh, Esquires, : Magistrates, at the
Court House, Belise, on the 15th of uly, 1835, charged
with having assaulted John Lawrence, C aptain of the Caleb
Angus, without provocation. The co mplaint was fully
substantiated, and the prisoner was ordered to be kept in
solitary confinement for four days, and t o be fed on bread
and water only during that time, and • then return to his
duty on board the said vessel.' The ex penses which had
been incurred on the warrant to be paid in the first place
by the Captain, and then to be deducted :from the wages of
the prisoner.—H. A. Gray, Assistant Keeper of the Re-
cords, Record Office, Belise, Honduras, Aug. 1, 1835."
• Mr. COMM said that with this docu; sent before him he
could not order the payment of the wage s, but he could not
help remarking that the law expenses we re most exorbitant.
The gaol fees amounted to 11. 16s. Bd., including 10s. for
four days' rations (bread and water), and then he found
that D. B. Lockward, an officer of polio •e, charged 1/. for
Cooper's apprehension, 11. 10s. for the vv arrant, and ss. for
examining him.—( Laughter.) The bill o f the Clerk of the
Court, Thomas Miller, amounted to 4 4., as follows
" Warrant and examination, 1/. 10s. ; attending Magistrates
at examination, 1/. ; two subpoenas issu ed on part of de-
fendant, 10s. ; and a certificate of order, 1/." The last bill
made out was by L. M. Leman, P ootmaster-General,
" For warning Magistrates, &c.,'31. 19s. !2d." He must say
that it was an extremely hard case on •. the sailor that he
should be compelled to pay such enormo us fees, which had
swallowed up the whole of his hard-e earned wages. In
London the expenses of a warrant, a pprehension, &c.,
would only amount to 4s. or ss. He was compelled to
dismiss the case. _

Soon afterwards Mr. BRODERIP took. his seat on the
Bench, and his colleague referred his at tention to the do-
cuments, and the enormous amount of thin fees, amounting
to 121.' West Indian currency.
Mr. BRODERIP perfectly agreed with the decision of
Mr. Comsu, and also that the charges vere most exor-
bitant. There was one item very amusitli if it was pos-
sible to be amused at such a charge—" ; For warning the
Magistrates, 3/. 9s. 2d.—(Laughter.) A. reform was cer-
tainly wanting here.
Several cases of a similar nature have; come under the
notice of the Thames Police Mag,istratc s, in which the
whole amount of seamen's wages have been: :swallowed up in
fees to clerks and police officers in the We :st ,Indies, in cases
of trifling disputes between sailors and Ca ptait.is.