The Sun.
London, England, 1835-12-22 00:00:00

HATTON-GARDEN.

Yesterday a chubby-looking personage presented himself
before the Magistrates to offer himself as bail for a man,
who was charged with an assault.
Mr. LAING—Are you a housekeeper ? Bail (with a
roaring voice)—To be sure, and a leaseholder too.
Mr. LAlNG—Where do you live? Bail—ln North-
road, Islington.
Mr. LAING—What are you ? Bail—What am I ?
Why, I am a musician.
Mr. LAING—What do you mean, do you sell music ?
Bail—Why, yes, to be sure, I sells and plays too.
Mr. LAlNG—Where do you play ? Bail—l plays any-
where that they likes to engage me.
Mr. LAING—What, instrument do you play upon ?
Bail (smiling)—Why, I plays upon various. I plays upon
the wiolin, the trumpet, the bassoon, the clarionet, the oboe,
the flute, the flageolet, the trombone, the kettle-drum, the
fife, and many others.
Mr. LAING—Then you are an extraordinary musician to
play upon so 'many instruments ? Bail—Why, perhaps
I am.

Mr. LAING—Are you worth 20/. after all your debts are
paid ? Bail (smiling)—l should think so.
Mr. LAlNG—Answer, yes or no ? Bail—Yes, to be
sure I am.

His bail was then accepted, and he quitted the Office.

WORSHIP-STREET.

Yesterday Charles Pardoe, Noah Flood, and Frederick
Thomas, appeared before Messrs. BROUGHTON and GROVE,
charged with having in their possession, and carrying about
for sale, unstamped newspapers. In consequence of an
order issued by the Commissioners of Stamps, Handley
and Attfield, two officers of this establishment, obtained
authority to apprehend all persons they found offending
against the Act of Parliament.
Messrs. Wooller. and Robinson were engaged for
Thomas ; and a solicitor attended for Flood.
Handley saw the defendant on Sunday morning, about
eight o'clock, near Shoreditch Church, put a paper under
a door. He stopped him, and found thirteen Weekly
Times, ten Cleave's Gazettes, and five Twopenny Dis-
patches in his possession.
Mr. BROUGHTON—Did he say whether he was selling
them or not ?

Handley—No ; but we only charge him with carrying
them.

Attfield—He said that he only sold thu papers to those
who could not afford to pay for stamped papers. The de-
fendant is a clerk in a respectable house.

Mr. BROUGHTON told the defendant that he was not like
many who appeared before him, and who pleaded distress
as their inducement to sell them. He was liable to a
punishment of three months' imprisonment.
Handley said that the defendant, he believed, besides his
family, had an aged mother to support. But they were
instructed to say that they were not to press for a convic-
tion, and that they (the defendants) must deliver up the
papers. In case, however, of a second offence, a convic-
tion would ensue. The defendant had some stamped papers
with him. _

The defendant was sorry for having transgressed the Act,
but he had not sufficient to support himself with.
Mr. BROUGHTON asked if there was any one in attend-
ance from the Stamp Office ?
Attfield replied no ; and stated that the cases were left
for the Magistrates' decision.
Attfield next charged Noah Flood, who had been con-
victed at Union Hall in a month's imprisonment, with hav-
ing forty-three unstamped newspapers under different titles,
in his possession. He admitted having sold twelve. Wit-
ness found him in Whitecross-street.
The solicitor for the defendant said that a single paper
would not sustain the charge of its being a newspaper. Con-
secutive numbers should be produced.
Mr. BROUGHTON observed that the definition of a news-
paper appeared in its discussing public events. (The
Worthy Magistrate here took up Cleave's Gazette.) Here
he remarked, referring to the picture, is a white slave starv-
ing amidst Christians in a land of plenty and splendour, and
in another part is a black, a West Indian slave, drinking
a pot of porter. That is discussing public events, and
constitutes a newspaper, and it was not such by being con-
tinuous.

Frederick Thomas was next charged by Attfield with
having twenty-four Weekly Times in his
,possession, in
King-street. The defendant said he was going to take
them home. . _

Mr. BROUGHTON here remarked that, in his opinion, the
most serious consequences would follow the repeal of the

Stamp Duties. He considered that the stamped papers were
quite as accesible to the public as the unstamped, as while
one person might afford to buy an unstamped, three or
more could join their money and buy a stamped paper.
While the stamp did exist Government ought to check the
circulation of the unstamped, as by suffering them it was
acting most unjust towards those who 14 embarked an
immense capital in the legal journals.
Mr. BROUGHTON then said that, as the Stamp-office did
not press for a conviction, he would discharge the defen-
dants.

Mr. Robinson addressed the Magistrates, inquiring in
that case, ought not the papers be delivered back ?
Mr. BROUGHTON, on a letter being handed up to him,
by Ballard, a Bow-street officer, and, having read it, said,
according to this, they must be sent to -the Stamp-ofice.
Attfield stated that they had put the name of the parties
they belonged to on each paper, and in case of a second
appearance the papers would be brought against them.
Flood asked if the officers had the power of laying hold
of any parcel he might have on a suspicion against him ?
Mr. BROUGHTON said that, in their case, it was similar
to one charged with felony. A person having them in their
possession was liable to a penalty of 201., whil one assisting
to send them anywhere incurred a penalty of 100/. If the
officer took him into custody, and he had no unstamped pa-
pers, the officer was liable to answer.
Mr. Wooller said that, as the defendants were discharged,
if they detained the papers, they (the officers) were respon-
sible.

The defendants then left the office, minus the papers.

MAR YLEB ONE.

John Woods was yesterday placed at the bar charged
with vending unstamped publications.
Webster and Franklin, two officers of this establishment,
on the previous morning saw the prisoner offering un-
stamped papers for sale. They purchased a Weekly Times
of him, and then took him into custody with five more in
his possession.
The prisoner, on promising not to offend in the same
manner again, was discharged, Mr. RAWLINSON telling him
if he was brought up again on a similar charge he would be
convicted.

James Barter was next charged by the same '3 fficers with
selling unstamped papers, twenty of which were taken from
him.

The prisoner, in reply, made up his mind before the
officers took him not to deal in unstamped publications
again, as he could do no good with them.
He was also discharged with a caution, and the papers
found on both prisoners were detained.

WHALE SHIPS IN BAFFIN'S BAY.

We are gratified in being enable to communicate some
interesting information respecting the whale ships missing,
one of which, the Dnncombe, of Hull, arrived off Peter-
head, on the coast of Aberdeenshire, on Thursday last.
The following letter, dated the 17th inst., was received at
Lloyd's yesterday morning from a respectable gentleman at
Peterhead :

Peterhead, Dec. 17.

" The Duncombe, of Hull, was off here to-day. The
crew are all in good health, but greatly reduced and ex-
ceedingly weakly. Some of our whale ship Captains took
out some fresh provisions to her, which were most thank-
fully received and gratefully acknowledged. The crew had
been put on an allowance of half a pound of bread and a
small portion of beef per day. The frost was so intense
that they could never get hot diet, the beef freezing as soon
as it was boiled. They boiled beef once in three days to
save fuel. Several of the crew were frostbitten, but re-
covered. The Captain (Scoflin), on going up to the crow's
nest one time was severely frostbitten and nearly lost his
life, but by means of blistering, recovered.
" Captain Scoffin reports that he ivas forty days enclosed
in the ice.

" In the course of that time he drove from lat. 69, 30 deg.
to 64 deg., the winds prevailing principally from the north-
wards. She left the Abram, the Lady Jane, .Dordon, and
Grenville Bay, as well as the 2Vinfo/k and Harmony, on
the 7th of November, in lat. 64, thirty miles on the iee,
and seventy miles from the Westland. They were then
driving from nine to twelve miles a day southward.
Captain Scoffin expects that the Norfolk, of Berwick,
from her position, has got out, and he entertains hopes
that the others would continue to drive southward and get
clear.

" Several of the crews of the lost ships, Mary Frances,
Isabella, and Lee, are on board of the left ships ; four of
the Mary Frances are on board of the Duncombe.
Monstrous to relate, when the Mary Frances was lost, the
crew set fire to her and burnt all her provisions, and the
crew, as a sort of just retribution, NNere, and some of them
are still, doomed to suffer hunger, which might have been
partly appeased had they preserved those provisions.
" The Dunconibe, while off here, had twenty-two pieces
of beef, one cask of pork, and about 16 cwt. of bread left.
She was not aware of the four ships off the Westland being
detained, until she received the intelligence here.
" The Duncombe did not see the other ships after the
7th of November, she got clear of the ice on the 1 I th.
She kept working out, making a mile now and then, while
the other ships seemed to be lying still. She cut through
several miles of thin ice.

""These particulars may be of use to you, at any com-
muning on the subject.
" The four ships at the Westland must be shut up for a
season, and there are still great doubts about those at the
middle ice getting clear. In any case relief must be sent,
to make every possible attempt to liberate them."
We stated yesterday that the Duncombe had reached
Hull.