The Sun.
London, England, 1866-03-08 00:00:00

WESTMINSTER.

IMPUDENT ROBBERIES.—James Johnson, a low-
looking fellow, was charged with stealing an um-
brella from the person.
There was no prosecutor, as he had left town,
but a remand was asked for.

Henry Gills, 287 B, said at a quarter past one
he was on duty in Queen's-row, and heard a cry of
" Stop thief !" He saw the prisoner running, with
an umbrella in his hand, and stopped him. Prisoner
said, " It's only my father running after me, and
this is his umbrella." The prosecutor, who was
not sober, then came up and gave the prisoner in
charge, saying he had snatched it out of his hani.
Prisoner then said he put three gentlemen in a cab,
and one of them dropped the umbrella, and he
picked it up. At the station he repeated this, but
the prosecutor's wife identified the umbrella as her
husband's.

Prisoner adhered to his statement about the gen-
tlemen, and he was remanded till Wednesday.
Joseph Blake was charged with stealing a sheet.
Inspector Morgan, 277 B, met the prisoner at 1
o'clock in the morning with the sheet under his
arm, and asked him where he got it. He said he
found it in the ruins in Victoria-street, Westmin-
ster. The sheet was stolen from the leads of Mrs
Elizabeth Blackmore's, 6, Wilton-place, some time
in the day. The prisoner was charged with unlaw-
ful possession.
Prisoner denied that he had come by it otherwise
than he had stated to the constable.

Mr. Arnold remanded him on the charge of
felony.

Attempted Sale of Damaged Tea.—Rmark-

able Prosecution.

_ _ ____.e._ ____

At the Guildhall police-court, yesterday, a sum-
mons was taken out by the Commissioners of
Sewers for the city of London against Messrs.
Henry Brown and Thomas Alexander Roberts,
auctioneers, carrying on business at No. 22, Throg-
morton-street, for offering for sale 350,0001b5. of
tea, which was the salvage recovered from the fire
at Beal's-wharf, Tooley-street, and which was unfit
for human food.
Alderman Stone sat to hear the case.

Mr. Baylis, the solicitor to the Commissioners of
Sewers, conducted the prosecution, and Mr. Poland
(barrister) appeared for the defendants.
Mr. Baylis said the tea was offered for sale by
the defendants at the Commercial Sale-rooms,
Mincing-lane, on the 25th of January last, on be-
half of the fire insurance offices. The trade were in-
dignant at the quality of the tea, but with that ho
had nothing to do ; his complaint was that the tea
was unwholesome, and unfit for the food of man,
and if he did not prove that, his complaint must
drop to the ground. Ho believed that he should
prove that it was not only in a bad state, but that
in some cases it was stinking, and consequently
unfit for the use of man.

A long discussion ensued as to whether tea was
" food," within the meaning of the act.
Evidence was then given of drawing the samples
from Beal's-wharf, and
Dr. Letheby said am food analyst for the city
of London. On the 23d of January five samples
of this tea were brought to me sealed up, and I
made a careful examination of them. In the first
place, the samples consisted for the most part of
very much damaged tea and charcoal--burnt wood.
Secondly, I found they were all more or less
in a state of putrefaction, the glutinous matter
in them smelling very strongly. Thirdly,, I
found, upon infusing them in water, that they
turned out an infusion that had none of the
characteristics of good tea. The description ap-
plies to all of them. The infusion smelt of putre-
fying matter. They had little or no taste of tea,
and the solution was a pale colour, instead of being
a dark colour, as tea usually is, and the strongest
matter in the tea was in some instances entirely de-
composed, so that it gave no discolouration, and in
the other cases almost entirely decomposed, so that
it gave very little discolouration. I next found that
they yielded per 100 grains from 3.4 solid matter to
6.2, the proportion of good tea being not under 20.
I have no hesitation in saying that they are unfit for
human consumption.

Cross-examined by Mr. Poland—Tea is never
coloured with copper, nor coloured at all when it is
good. Ordinary green tea is coloured with a kind
of clay, with Prussian blue and with turmeric, but
they are not deleterious or injurious to health. The
good green tea has a great deal of theine which is
not found in common green tea.

Mr. R. M. Holborn said he was a tea dealer, and
his firm had been in business for 90 years. The firm
was Holborn and Son. He attended Messrs. Brown
and Roberts' sale on Jan. 25, and protested against
the sale taking place. He had had samples drawn
from the bulk by his servant. He had examined
the teas, and in his opinion they were unsound.
He did not call them tea—he called them corrupt
matter and dirt. He said in the public sale room
that it stunk, and so it did. He did not think it--
he knew it. (Laughter.) He would neither buy
nor sell it, nor deal in it at all.
Mr. Poland contended that the defendants could
not be convicted by the act the summons was taken
out under, as it was an act obtained by the Com-
misioners of Sewers for the City, and had no juris-
diction beyond. There was no exposing for sale in
the City, and the fact of a contract being made
there when the goods were out of the district could
not be construed into an offering for sale within the
meaning of the act.
Mr. Baylis • said the offer to sell took place in
the City, and for the penalties the defendants were
liable.

After some further discussion,
Ihe summons was dismissed, the inquiry having
asted nearly four hours.

METER A
inlrt.hoSasnatelreeyd
II a r
will appear to-
morrow monie Society's
performance of the " Creation."
ETnE igitt lI
(Friday)Lij.—
A TELEGRAPII LINE SIR THOUSAND MILES LONG.

—The telegraph has '..lately been extended far up Fraser
River, en route for Russia, and is now in working order
from New York via San Francisco, to a point 400 miles
above New Westminster, on Fraser River, making in round
numbers about 6,000 miles.—Pananta Star.

BRITISH CHESS ASSOCIATION.—At a general
mooting of the British Chess Association, on Tuesday,
Lord Lyttelton in the chair, it was resolved that the pre-
sident and other officers shall hold
„offico for two years
and bo re-eligible ; also that a general committee of not
less than 30, and managing committee of 16, shall transact
the general business of the association. It was also resolved
that a general meeting be held every year for business and
a congress every alternate year.

A new theatre is about to be erected at Paris, in
which the works of Greek and Latin authors will alone be
performed—such as those of Euripides, Sophocles, 2Eschy-
lus, Terenceand others. Something like 3,000,000 francs
have already been subscribed in shares, and tho architect
has completed his plan for the building.