The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-02 00:00:00

POLICE INTELLIGENCE—Fib. 1.

MANSION-HOUSE.—An incident occurred
during the sitting of the Court of which the Lord
Mayor availed himself to comment upon the serious
and systematic obstruction of public 'traffic by cos-
termongers hawking fruit for sale on trucks in the
principal thoroughfares in the city, and upon the
encouragement they received from some quarters in
defying the law and all regard for the public con-
venience in this respect. This practice has of late
been so greatly on the incraase as to render neces-
sary, in the public interest, the special interference
both of the late and the present chief magistrate.
several others of the aldermen, and also of the Com-
missioner of Police, with the view to its repression.
Although it is an offence punishable by a fine of
405., or imprisonment in default of payment, to
obstruct a public thoroughfare, the usual course of
the Lord Mayor and others of the magistrates at this
court has been to inflict upon persons charged be-
fore them with infringing the law in this respect a
fine of half-a-crown or three days' imprisonment;
and that only in cases where the offender had pre-
viously received an admonition from the bench—
which he had disregarded—for a similar breach of
the law. Yesterday three costermongers were
brought up for obstructing, in midday on Thurs-
day, the traffic in Lombard-street and Bartholomew-
lane; two of the most crowded thoroughfares,
as is well known, in the city of London. Two
of them, named Nathan and Franks, were
seen, with another, loitering with their trucks
selling fruit, all three abreast, in Bartholo-
mew-lane, and at that time no fewer than nine
other trucks were observed in the same street,
short though it is. They were discharged with a
caution by the Lord Mayor, it being their first
offence. Woolf Cohen, another of the class, charged
with a similar offence, was proved to have been seen
standing with his truck in Lombard-street four or
five times between 3 and 5 o'clock in the afternoon,

and being a previous offender, he was fined half-a-
crown or three days.
Mr. Keeling, of the firm of Keeling and Hunt,
wholesale fruit merchants—of whom many of this
class of costermongers are reputed to buy the fruit
they vend in the streets—was in court, and asked
permission to address the Lord Mayor, he having
previously offered to pay the fine for Cohen. Leave
being given, he said he wished to call attention to
the privation which that class of men, the number
of whom throughout the metropolis was estimated
at about 20,000—had, with their families, suffered
of late from the obstacles which some of the city
magistrates had opposed to their calling, which pri-
vations were greatly aggravated during the last
month by the severity of the weather. Scores of
these men had been driven from the streets, where
they were accustomed to earn an honest livelihood,
and had thus been exposed to want and perhaps to
crime; and but for the assistance which had been
rendered them would have been in a state of star-
vation. When they were fined or imprisoned for
obstructing the streets it was not so much they as
their wives and families who were the sufferers ; and
he trusted he might appeal in the interest of this
class of men to the well known benevolence of the
Lo Mayor. He admitted there was often just
cauTe for complaint in the manner in which many
of them followed their calling. in the public streets,
but he thought that scarcely justified the extent of
the interference with them by the magistrates of late.
He added that the matter would probably be
brought under discussion in the Court of Aldermen
at their next meeting, and to that quarter he looked
for some arrangement which might remedy the
public inconvenience caused by the obstruction of
the traffic, and at the same time fall in with the
interests of the men.

The Lord Mayor (to Mr. Keeling)—What is the
drift of your application? Do you mean that be-
cause a man is in a state of poverty and want ho is
to be held at liberty to commit an infraction of the
law; that because a costeomonger is badly off and
finds it difficult to dispose of his goods, he is to take
up a standing in a crowded public street, to set up
a table or a stall, for instance, in Cornhill ?
Mr. Keeling—That course has been allowed in
other cases.

The Lord Mayor—What do you mean by " that
course ?" Here is a man (Cohen) brought to this
court charged with having been seen standing in
Lombard-street four times in two hours in the
height of the day, impeding the traffic with his
truck, regardless of repeated warnings and remon-
strances addrescd to him by the police. Do you
suppose, if you were in my place here, you would
be justified in allowing your feelings to override
your judgment, or your sympathy with a particular
class of the community to blind you to the public
interest ? I cannot foresee what the Court of
Aldermen may do in a matter of this, kind ; but I
know, from constant experience, that no policeman
ever brings an offender of this class before the bench
unless he has found him cbstructing the current of
traffic in a great public thoroughfare, and that in
spite of repeated warnings. These men are never
brought here from quiet streets and lanes, where
they might possibly follow their calling with less
of public inconvenience. It is of the utmost iinpor-
tance that every possible facility should be afforded
for the accommodation of the traffic of a great city,
and it is one of the first duties of a magistrate to
preserve order in the public streets, and to see that
no unnecessary impediments are thrown in the way
of people going about their business.
Mr. Keeling said the shoeblacks were tolerated;
why not the costermongers
The Lord Mayor—The shoeblacks are posted at
stations recognised by the police authorities, and
where they offer no obstruction to the thoroughfares
—at retired corners, for instance, in the neighbour-
hood of the Royal Exchange. There is no analogy
between a shoeblack stationed at one of those
spots and a man with a truck loitering along the
Poultry, for example, by the edge of the kerb, with
a number of carriages, cabs, and omnibuses toiling
at a slow pace in his wake until it shall please him
to get out of the way.
Mr. Keeling said he trusted, nevertheless, that
some consideration might still be shown for a class
of men who laboared hard to earn a living.
The Lord Mayor—l have a natural respect and
sympathy for every man who is struggling to earn
an honest livelihood, but I must tell you one thing,
Mr. Keeling. I don't think it is right for a gentle-
man in your position to come here and pay fines for
a prisoner who has committed a breach of the law.
I have before me two acts of Parliament which
apply to this among other offences. I am bound to
do my duty when I see that the law which I am
here to administer has been infringed; and it is a
public scandal when a man of respectability comes
forward before an audience in a court of justice and
interposes between the bench and a prisoner.
Sir It. Carden, who was upon the bench, re-
peatedly signified his hearty approval of the ob-
servations made by the Lord Mayor.
Mr. Keeling said that was the first time he had
interfered in the way mpntioned by the Lord Mayor,
and if he had committed an error it was from sym-
pathy with the men in question.
The matter then dropped.
Henry Williams, a middle-aged man, who had
previously undergone a sentence of penal servitude
pleaded guilty to stealing a policeman's coat and
truncheon, and a hat and scarf from a clerk in a
merchant's office in the City, where he had pre-
sented a begging letter.
The Lord Mayor, who sat in petty sessions with
Alderman Sir It. Carden, sentenced him to six
months' imprisonment with hard labour for each
offence.

John Johnson, 45, who had also been previously
convicted, underwent a final examination on a
charge of stealing gas fittings from the staircases
of several merchants' offices in Cannon-street, and
was committed for trial.

GUILDHALL.—Richard Wells, a clerk in' the
employ of Messrs. Tie Tritton, and Co., East
India merchants, of 26, old Broad-street, was re-
examined on the charge of embezzling £2OO and
other sums, the money of his masters, and was
again remanded.
William Martin, George Gabriel, Matthew John
Cooper, and Francis James Burton, the eldest of
whom was not more than 17, were brought up for
further examination relative to the charge of man-
slaughter which was partly inquired into on Tues-
day last.

Witnesses were examined, after which Alderman
Phillips said there was not sufficient evidence
against Burton and Cooper, and they were there-
fore discharged, but Gabriel and Martin would be
remanded until Wednesday.

BOW-STREET.— A gentlemanly-looking young
mi7n, who was charged as William Robertson, but
who i;:ow acknowledged that his real name was
Richard ltyrie, and that he was an assistant or
supernumerary clerk in the War-office, engaged in
the topographical branch, New-street, Spring-
gardens, was charged with stealing a quantity of
paper from that office.
The prisoner, who admitted that he had stolen
the paper, was remanded.

WORSHIP-STREET. Mary Macdonald, a
good-looking and well-dressed young Scotch-
woman of 20, was brought before Mr. Leigh by
Sergeant Gee, of the II division, under somewhat
strange circumstances.
The sergeant stated that while on duty in the
Whitechapel-road between three and four o'clock
that morning a policeman brought the young
woman to him, and stated that he had seen her
repeatedly pass him upon his beat, and that he
thought she must have been walking about in this
manner for several hours. Numerous overtures
of an improper description had been made to her,
all of which she scornfully rejected, and, this at
length exciting his notice, he determined to stop and
question her the next time he saw her, and on her
again coming up to him, footsore and dejected, he
asked her the cause of her so walking about the
streets, and she with some reluctance then told him
a story which induced him to hand her over to the
sergeant, who took her to the station for protection
gave her some refreshment, and determined to bring
her before the magistrate, to see what could be done
with her. _ _

Mr. Safford, the clerk, questioned the young
woman, and the statement jointly made by her and
the sergeant was, that her father having died some
time since, her mother married again, her second
husband being a Mr. William Laidlaw, a grocer and
teadealer, of the Spoutmouth (as it sounded), in the
Gallowgate, Glasgow, and who did not behave very
kindly to her, though she did not allege any par-
ticular instance of neglect or unkindness. There
was one other daughter besides herself, who was
married and settled, and it was her (the young
woman's) duty to generally assist in the business.
She had been for two years courted by a young man
who was a sailor on board an East Indiaman called
the Maggie Miller, to whom she was engaged to be
married, and who had written to her from Calcutta
two months ago, stating that he was on his return
voyage, and would be in London by the latter end
of January. She was anxious to see her sweetheart
as soon as possible, and, in fear lest he should be
obliged to sail again without being able to come to
Scotland, she got up on Friday morning, before her
father or mother was awake, and, taking £2 12s. to
pay her expenses from the till, she quietly left the
house at a quarter to 6 o'clock, went to the railway-
station in Dundas-street, and then on to Edinburgh.
There the passengers stopped about a quarter of an
hour, when she took her place in the train, and on
reaching London late at night took a lodging at
the first house she saw, her money having now
run 94 to the extent () 15e, ad. She

went day after day all round the dock►a, in th e
expectation of hearing something of the Maggie
Miller, but could not, though she still persevered,
in the full conviction that the lyoung man must
have arrived, till Thursday morning, when she
found that the whole of her money was expended,
and, as she could not return to the place where she
had lodged without the means of paying for it, she
continuously walked the streets till three that
morning, when the policeman met her and took her
to the station. She had had nothing to eat from
eight o'clock the preceding morning till the con-
stable stopped her and lodged her in the station.
By direction of the magistrate, Mr. Safford wrote
a letter to the girl's parents, acquainting them with
the circumstances, and guaranteeing, if they for-
warded sufficient money to pay her expenses back
again, that au officer should see their daughter into
the train, and in the meantime the FOUng woman
was transferred to the workhouse, that she might
be properly taken care of till the answer arrived,
the girl leaving the court crying heartily.

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

TRAFFIC RETURNS FOR THE WEEK.

Miles Opened. Receipts.
Railways. ,.7........./.,_____4
1861. 1860. 1861. 1860.
...-- _-.... -
X
Ballymena and Port Rush.. 35 35 295 272
Belfast and N. Counties.... 65 . 65 1,092 1,015
Belfast and County Down.. 21 21 512 486
Birkd., Lane., & Ches. June. - - - -
Myth and Tyne 2' 20 1,188 1,280
Bristol and Exeter 125 125 5,325 5,620
Caledonian
Cockermouth &Workington 8 :3.4 261 236
Cork and Bandon 2O 20 303 260
Cork, Blackrock, & Passage 6l 61 106 161
Cork and Youghal . 26 - 214 -
Cornwall fin 531 92i: 8,,,,,,
Deeside l7 17 222 4-•-•
DublinA Belfast Junction
Dublitif and Drogheda 63 63 1,465 1,37!
Dub. & Wicklow (m.Kingst ) 101 401 1,388 1,248
Dundalk and Enniskillen
Dundee and Arbroath 174 174 601 529
Dundee, Perth, & Aber. Jun 3l 31 1,180 901
East Anglian 671 671 757 865
E.Counties,Nrfk.,&E.Union 499 499 22,600 24,:N85
Edinburgh and Glasgow
Edinburgh, Perth,& Dundee 78 78 2,973 2,970'
Forth & Clyde Junction
Furness
Glasgow & South-Western 1831 1831 7,927 7,425
Great Northern 283 283 24,754 23,961
Great North of Scotland
a t.Soutlya. dr Westn.(lrlnd ) 329 2191 7,291 6,527
Great Western 5831 5782 34,816 33,741
Inverness & Aberdeen June 55 55 615 66g
Irish South-Eastern 254 251 264 Ng
Lancashire & Yorkshire 3954 3951 34,215 32,675.
Leominster and Kington
Limerick and Ennis.
Limerick and Foynes 2 2666 117 96
Llanelly 4 461 517 413
London & North-Western
London and Blackwall 5l 52 1,317 1,412
London & South-Western
Lond. Brighton, &S. Coast. 2244 2231 11,752 11,142
London, Chatham, & Dover 561 194 729 282!
Loud., Tilbury, & Southend 424 40 1,074 924
Man.,Sheffield,& Lincolnsh 1731 174 11,078 11,019
Manch. S.Jun.& Altrincham 91 1,054 924
Maryport and Carlisle
Midland (incl. N.-Western) 6141 6141 38,637 36,310
Midland Gt.Westn. of Irind. 177 177 4,254 3,556
Monkland 56 56 1,551 1,396
Monmouthsh. Rail. & Canal 44 44 2,313 2,122
Newcastle and Carlisle 7B 78 3,639 3,261
North British (incl. Selkirk
and Galashiels)
North Devon 35 35 366 387
N-Eastern(Bedale&Leybrn) 764 764 35,528 34,700
North London 9 9 2,270 2,305
North Statibrdshire 246 233 6,122 7,434
Oswestry and Newton 2O - 436 -
Ithymney l9l 191 677 463
St. Helen's Canal & Railway 30 30 1,844 1,854
Scottish Central
Scottish North-Eastern ll5 115 3,730 3,725
Shrewsbury & Birmingham 291 29/ - -
Shrewsbury and Chester
Shrewsbury & Hereford
Shropshire Union 291 735
South Devon A 72 2,760805 2,646
South-Eastern 306 306 16,616 17,943
South Wales .714 1711 8,485 8,747
S. Yorkshire and River Dun 118 118 2,881 3,281
Stockton and Darlington
Taff Vale 5l 4
1,626 1,
5,135 4,132
Ulsr 5l "
Ulverstone and Lancaster
Vale of Clwyd. lO 10 130 104
Vale of Neath 3511 35 1,713 1,360
Waterford and Kilkenny 3l 31 356 204
Waterford and Limerick
WeSt Cornwall 27/ 271 676 621
W.Hartlepool Harbr.&Rail. 39 39 4,405 3,553
West Midland.
W'haven,Cleator,&Egrmnt. 7 7 408 409
Whitehaven Junction l2 12 683 673
Whitehaven & Furness Jun. 35 35 696 698
FOREIGN AND COLONIAL.
Antwerp and Rotterdam 62 62 872 743
Austrian B2B 673 31,281 25,470
Belgian Eastern Junction 204 214 270 268
Buffalo and Lake Huron l6l 161 1,146 1,600
Demerara (fortnight) - - - -
Detroit and Milwaukie lB5 185 1,577 1,250
Dutch Rhenish lOBl 1081 3,167 2,801
Eastern of France 1032 1006 15,806 41,819
Grand Trunk of Canada 970 970 12,244 10,137
Great Indian Peninsula 2971 245 4,652 3,613
Great Luxembourg l2B 128 2,202 1.811
Great Western of Canada 345 345 8,638 7,149
Lyons and Geneva 142 142 3,518 3,499
Madrid, Saragossa &Alieant 301 284 12,105 8,701
Northern of Canada -
Northern of France 620 602 43,752 46,547
Norwegian Trunk 44 44 - -
Paris, Lyons, & Mediterrn 879 840 73,049 66,618
Paris and Orleans 922 922 48,906 42,476
Paris and Strasburg - - -
Royal Danish 69 69 --;`' - Sambre---
and Meuse 6B 68 1,044 1,185
South Austrian
Southern of France 777 773 21,171 15,313
Welland ... ............ - - - --
26 -
West Flanders
W. and NW. of France 742 730 33,518 32,907

COUNTRY MARKETS.

WAKEFIELD-FEB. 1.

The arrivals of grain here this week are large. Wheat
is generally held with firmness at last Friday's prices, but
the demand is not active, and it is still difficult to make
progress in sales, except of a little fine old English or the
best new foreign. Fine barley quite as dear, other sorts
quite neglected. In beans, oats, and shelling there is ne
alteration to note.

LOUGHBOROUGH—JAN. 31.
At this market to-day the show of wheat from the far-
mers was good, but the quality wan irregular. Buyers
purchased sparingly, and last week's rates were not rea-
lised ; white, 62s to 78s ; red, 54s to .72s per 36 stone. Bar-
ley was quite as cheap as in the week previous, malting
selling at 37s to 43s per qr., grinding 32s to 35s per 30 st.
Oats barely supported their value. Beans less firm.