The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-13 00:00:00

THAMES.

PAINFUL CASE,—ROBBING AN EMPLOYER.—TWO York-
shire lads, named 'William Lowth and Richard Tarbottom,
were brought up on remand before Mr. Selfe, charged with
stealing eight £5 notes.

Mr. Lewis, jun., (Lewis and Lewis), Ely-place, appeared
in this case, and said the prosecutor, Mr. Charles Mason, a
merchant in Hull, had no wish to proceed, or that the lads
should be subjected to any further punishment. The parents
and connexions of the youth Lowth were of the highest
respectability, the anguish of his mother, expressed in a
letter he held in his hand, was indescribable, and the dis.
grace and degradation of her son would, he feared,
be attended with fatal results if he was
kept in custody. Lowth was clerk to Mr. Mason, and
in the absence of that gentleman at Torquay the robbery
was committed. The belief was that the elder youth,
Tarbottom had induced the other, Lowth, to break open his
master's desk, and steal the notes. They both came to
London with the money, spent £3 of it in photographic
portraits, commenced a wasteful expenditure, and were
taken the day after their arrival in London by Dunaway a
detective officer, and £3O recovered.

Mr. Mason said ho believed one of the prisoners, Lowth,
was in liquor at the time the robbery was committed, and
he had no wish t• press the charge.

Mr. Selfe said a public wrong had been done, and he
ought not to give way to importunities of this description.
The police had been put in motion, the offenders appre-
hended, and the magistracy and the police ought not to be
mere agents for the recovery of stolen money. He was'ap-
pointed to hear and decide cases of felony put before him,
and it Wits only a question whether he ought to convict
summarily on a plea of guilty, or commit for trial at the
Central Criminal Court. It was impossible for him to listen
to such applications as these without violating his duty.

Mr. Lewis said that the act of the prisoners was more a
boyish freak than anything else, and that they were very
repentent.

Mr. Selfe thought it was something more than a boyish
freak to break open a merchant's desk in a merchant's
office, and steal £lO.

Mr. Lewis—lf you are determined to send the prisoners
for trial, you must take the depositions here, and send them
down to Yorkshire.

Mr, Selfe was of opinion the prisoners could be tried in
London.

Mr. Lewis—The boy Lowth is only 16, and the other 17
years of age.

Mr. Selfe—They indulged in mutual recrimination last
Saturday when they were here. You will take the deposi-
tions, Mr. Bowdier.

Mr. Lewis asked the magistrate to treat the case under
the police act for unlawful possession of the notes. _
..

Mr. Elelfe reluctantly acceded to the request, and said
he took a great deal upon himself by disposing of this
case summarily, for it was a very serious oae, and he
could not help noticing that Lowth had abused the confi-
dence reposed in him by robbing his employer. The pri-
soners if sent before a jury would probably have been
sentenced to penal servitude. He convicted them of the
unlawful possession of six £5 notes, and sentenced Lowth
to six weeks and T arbottom to five weeks' imprisonment and
hard 'about in the House of Correction.

Sir Robert and Lady Pigot returned yesterday to
their residence, Branches Park, Newmarket, from Inver-
ness-shire, where Sir Robert had excellent sport.
PRUSSIA.—It is now almost certain that the
Prussian frigate Amazon has been lost, with all on board,
off the Dutch coast. The Prussian Government has pur-
chased in England the Eurydice, of 26 guns. An Admi-
ralty Council was to be held at Berlin on the 13th inst., to
discuss various projects respe ting the preposed new naval
stations. The captains of all the vessels at Dantsic have
been requested to attend. It is stated that the Govern-
ment will negotiate a loan of 10,000,000 dols. for the fleet.

The mercantile letters from New York yesterday
contain nothing to throw additional light on the political
situation, but with regard to financial matters they show
that it is the opinion of the leading New York houses that

if the war bo protracted for three months longer without
the subjugation of the South being accomplished, a general
suspension of specie payments must inevitably take place.
The Trust and Agency Company of Australasia
have notified that the 12,500 new shares of this company
announced for issue at the late half-yearly general meeting
have been fully applied for, and that the list will close on
Monday. They also state that the arrangements for
opening a branch in New Zealand having been completed,
operations in that colony will be commenced forthwith.

THE AMERICAN DIFFICULTY.—In the rooms of
the Liverpool Underwriters' Association yesterday the fol-
lowing notice was posted :—" It has been suggested that
shipowners should instruct the captains of their outward-
bound ships to communicate by signal or otherwise with
any English vessel they may meet that war with America is
probable. This suggestion, we understand, meets with the
strong approval of the underwriters. By Marryat's the
signals will be—No. 6,417, without distinguishing pendant,
A prospect of war ;' No. 9,735, with telegraph flag at some
other masthead, with;' No. 6,559, with rendezvous flag
over the number, ' United States.' "

The militia of Canada, as at present organised,
is under the command-in-chief of the Governor-General,
and has a staff of adjutant-general for each province, with
two provincial aides-de-camp and a quartermaster-general.
It consists of two divisions, known as the " Active" and
the " Sedentary." There are 16 batteries of artillery, 16
troops of cavalry designated as class A, 12 troops of class B,
62 companies of rifles, and several corps of light infantry.
In Lower Canada there are 42 battalions, and in Upper
Canada 47 battalions of " Sedentary" militia. The Canadian
rifles are regularly enrolled troops, and act with the other
Queen's regiments stationed at Toronto, Montreal, and
Quebec. The militia has shown that it can be relied upon
in times of emergency. In addition to these there is a con-
siderable force of Volunteers in both provinces, and, with
the aid of the reinforcements which have already arrived,
and those which are on their way or under orders, we have
no fear for Canada.—Canadian Netos, Dec. 12.
WAR RISKS ON BRUISE( SHIPS.—An influential
meeting of shipowners was held yesterday at the Jamaica
Coffee-house, Cornhill, for the purpose of forming an
association with a view of insuring British ships against
war risks. Mr. William Phillips took the chair, and among
those present were Mr. G. Marshall, Mr. C. Wigram, Mr.
Tindall, Mr. Anderson, Mr. F. Somes, Captain Hunter,
and many others. Mr. Baglehole, the secretary, explained the
object of the association, which was to be called "the British
Shipowners' Mutual War Risk Assurance Association,"
and to afford the shipowners of the British empire the means
of protecting themselves against the risk of war in respect
of their vessels on the principle of mutual assurance, It
was well known that already, in anticipation of hostilities
between this country and the United States of America, the
marine insurance companies and underwriters at Lloyd's
were asking and obtaining high premiums for insurance
of British ships against war risk, which no doubt would be
largely increased on the announcement of an actual decla-
ration of war. In the uncertainty that at present existed
as to the nature and extent of the risk there could be little
doubt that the underwriters in fixing these premiums made
their calculations so as to leave a considerable margin in
their own favour. The plan of mutual assurance proposed
by this association would sav e the shipowner any unneces-
sary outlay under this head, and secure to him a prfect
indemnity at the lowest possible cost. It was proposed to
admit vessels sailing under the British flag and bona fide
owned, the value of each vessel to be declared at time
of entry. Vessels sailing at any time during the year in
waters adjacent to the eastern or western coast of the
United States, that is to say within 50 deg. north latitude
on the north, the Equator on the south, 60 deg. west longi-
tude on the east, and 130 deg. west longitude on the west
should be chargeable with an extra premium of 1 per cent.
In order to provide a fund for the payment of claims, each
vessel should pay on entrance a premium of ss. per cent.
and that the committee should thereafter have power to
levy from the members from time to time such additional
sums by way of percentage on the amounts severally entered
by them as should be found necessary. All claims would be
abjusted according to the usuage of Lloyd's, and, when
passed, paid within the month. The chairman then sub-
mitted a formal resolution approving the formation of the
association, which was unanimously adopted. A shipowner
suggested that operations should be commenced as early
as possible. The Americans were very quick people. An
influential committee was then appointed, and the meeting
was adjourned for a week to admit of the rules being sub-
mitted and approved,