The Sun.
London, England, 1861-11-16 00:00:00

THAMES.

A JUVENILE SMUGGLER.—Edward Mitchell, a boy, was
brought before Mr. Selfe, charged with smuggling 31Ibs.
of foreign manufactured tobacco. A Custom-house officer,
named Alfred Gullington, had his attention called to the
prisoner as he was leaving the Batavier, a Dutch steamship,
trading between Rotterdam and London. The prisoner
was carrying a bundle, which the officer opened, and found
it to contain a small quantity of tea and tobacco. The
officer said to him, " Have you any more tobacco, or any-
thing else about you liable to duty ?" to which the boy
replied, "Nothing at all." The officer placed his hand
upon the lad's breast, and found concealed under his shirt
311bs. of foreign manufactured compressed tobacco. It was
liable to a prohibitory duty of 9s. td. per lb.
The prisoner, in defend, said he had to bring the tobacco
on shore for a sailor who was on board another steamship,
called the Duke of Cornwall, in the river.
Mr. Selfe—You are a young smuggler, but if sailors think
they can escape by employing youngsters to bring contra-
band tobacco on shore for them, they are very much mis-
taken.

A respectable woman, the mother of the boy, implored of
the magistrate to be merciful, and aid her son was only
fourteen years of age.

Mr. Selfe—He told fibs. Respectable mothers shall not
save juvenile smugglers. The old Batavier many years ago
was a regular smuggler.

The officer—lt is little better now with the new Batavier.
Mr. Selfe fined the boy 345., the simple value of and duty
on the tobacco.

ALLEGED ROBBERY AND ASSAULT ON A POLICE-
CONSTABLE.—A STRANGE CASE.—Jonathan Smith, the
chief engineer of a screw steam ship called the Balderey,
lying in the West India Dock, was brought before Mr.
Selfe, charged with stealing two gun barrels, the property
of J. and E. Barnett and Son, of the Minories, and vie-
lently assaulting Francis Kelly, a police constable, No.
130 H.

It appeared that last night, between the hours of 9 and
10 o'clock, the prisoner knocked loudly at the door of the
private dwelling of the constable, Kelly, in Tenter-street,
Goodman's-fields, Whitechapel, and upon Kelly inquiring
his business he said he wanted a lodger in the house. Kelly
said, "We keep no lodgers here," and observing that the
prisoner was rather the worse for liquor, advised him to go
away. The prisoner then became very noisy and abusive,
and told Kelly he could not remove him. Kelly, however,
soon did so, and the prisoner then turned round upon him,
and hit him under the oar. A struggle took place, and the
prisoner violently assaulted the police-constable, and
marked his face. The prisoner, who had two gun-barrels
in his possession, was then taken into custody. He gave
several accounts of the way he became possessed of the
barrels.

The prisoner said he was an engineer, belonging to HRH,
and that he was " very fresh" last night. He was in a
public-house, and a man said he had gun-barrels to sell,
and asked him 10s. for the two produced. He offered him
4s. and a pot of beer for one, which was accepted. The
man followed him out of the house, and said he would take
3s. for the second one, and he bought that too.
Mr. Selfe asked the prisoner if he would state what he
wanted with gun barrels.
The prisoner—l am sure I don't know, sir; I was by the
head, and did not know what I was about.
Benjamin Naylor, foreman to Messrs. Barnett, gun-
makers in the Minories and Wapping, identified the gun
barrels. They were two of 26 sent to the proof-house in
Whitechapel on Thursday. The gun barrels had not yet
been returned from the proof-house, and he could not say
how many were missing.

Mr. Selfe remanded the prisoner until Tuesday, but soon
afterwards, at the earnest request of Mr. Charles Young,
solicitor, adjourned the case until Monday, and accepted
bail for the prisoner.

Captain Alexander Scott, master of the Balderey, became
the prisoner's surety to the amount of £5O.

The Rhone overflowed its banks at Lyons on
Sunday last, and the Saone, swollen by the waters of the
Rhone, rose three feet the same day. Some slight injury
was done to the works constructed to retain the waters in
their bed. The Rhone, however, began to fall during the
night, and the Saone, freed from the pressure acting on it
by the waters of the Dhow, began to fall, but wore slowly.