The Sun.
London, England, 1857-06-20 00:00:00

SOUTHWARK.

CUTTING AND WOUNDING.—MURDEROUS ASSAULT ON
A WlFE.—Thomas Iris, a middle-aged, respectable-look-
ing man, waiter at a large tavern in the vicinity of this
Court, was brought before Mr. Combs, charged with
committing a murderous assault upon Margaret Iris, his
wife, and stabbing her in the right side of her face with
a knife.

The complainant, whose face was much disfigured,
stated that she had been married to the defendant 20
years, and had 13 children by him. For some time past
he bad neglected her and the children for another
woman, which continually caused words between them.
On the previous night she met him at the tavern, when
they both went home together, apparently very comfort-
able, but as soon as they entered the house he abused
her, and struck her with his fists. He then threw a
chair at her, and broke every thing he could lay his
hands on ; and as she was about to quit the house by
the street door he stabbed her near the right eye with a
knife he bad in his hand, and then she called out " Po-
lka I" and " Murder !" A constable came up at the
the time and took him into custody. When he threw
the chair at her he had a knife in his hand, and she
then struck him. After that be stabbed her, but she did
not think he meant to do her any harm.

The prisoner said it was all through his wife's tongue,
which was always abusing him whenever they met each
other. She wa3 jealous of him, and he could assure his
worship she had no occasion to be so, as he had nothing
to do with other women.

Mr. Combe asked 'him what he had to say for stabbing
his wife ? He replied that it was done by accident, when
she was assaulting him. He declared that he had no
intention to hurt her.

The wife here informed his worship that he continually
ill-used her, but at the same time she did not want to
hurt him provided ho would be kind to her for the future.

Mr. C(;mbe told her he could not allow such a mur-
derous assault to pass over. He should sentenee the
prisoner to six months' hard labour, and at the txpira•
tion of that time he must find bail for six months longer.

Prisoner (laughing)—That's just what I want. That
will serve her out.

THAMES.

CONVICTION FOR SMUGGLING TOBACCO--Henry
Amatty, William Wicks, and Ge,,rge Walker, lighter-
men, were brought before .Mr. Yardley charged on a
Custom-house information with smuggling 83 lb 4. of
foreign manufactured tobacco, by which they had in-
cnrred a penalty of 1001. each.
A clerk from the Customs Solicitor's-office attended
on the part of the Crown.
It appeared that a Thames police constable named
Major, No. 30; was looking after the prisoners, whom
he had for some time suspected to be smugglers, and saw
Walker leave a beat at Irongato Stairs near the Tower,
look about him, and then go back and speak to Wicks,
who was in the boat, and say, "let us have it, it's all
right." Wicks raised a bag cantairing something very
heavy. Walker was proceeding towards Tower bill
with his load when he was interrupted by Major,
who asked him what he was carrying,
to which be replied that he did not know. Major
esizad the bag, and opened it, and found it to contain
tobacco. The officer believed the weed had just been
imported in a foreign steamer.
Mr. Claridge, appraiser of condemned goods, in the
Quen's warehouse, said the tobacco was of foreign
manufacture, and hale to a duty of 93. 5d per lb.
The prisoners made no defence, and Mr. Yardley sen
tented them to pay a fine of 1001. each, and in default
of payment to be imprisoned for six months. They
were committed accordingly.
CONVICTION OF LASCABS AND CHINAMEN FOR VIO-
LATION OF THE COMMON LODGING-HOUSE ACT—Tikh
Abdalla, a Lascar, was charged by Inspector Prica with
violating the act of parliament regulating common lodg-
ing houses.
Police Sergeant Maddigan, No. 51 A., raid he visited
the defendant's house in Bluega'e-fields, Shadwell. It
was not registered. The defendant and his wife, an
Englishwoman, and their child were in one bed, and two
Lascars were sleeping under it. There was another
Lacar asleep in a cupboard under the stairs and two

omen of the town slept in two separate rooms.

The defendant said he did not keep a lodging-house,
and called Elizabeth Wilion, who said she occupied a
roirn in Abdalla's house, and occasionally tack home

men.
Mr. Mid, one of the inspactors of common lldging-
houses, said the prisoner had been convicted four times
and fined 10s., 405., 31., and and repeatedly warned.
Mr. Yardley said the prisoner was a most incorigible
offender, and he would not allow any one to keep one
part of his dwelling as a lodging-house and the other part
as a brothel. 136 fined the prisoner 51., and in default
of payment one month's imprisonment.
Arze, a Chinaman of Bluegate-fields, was charged
with a similar offence. Sergeant Kirby, No. 53 A, found
three Chinamen in the same room as the defendant. The
house was in a most filthy state, and not registered.
Mr. Yardley fined the dependant Si.

MINI4VG INTELLIGENCE.

( From the Mining Journal of this day )

Another serious fall in the standard for copper ores
has been the chief topic of conversation in mining circles
during the week, and various plans have been propound.
ed to remedy the present unsatisfactory state of the ,
copper market. Now, it appears to us there are two
ways of bringing the smelters to book, and one or the
other should be adopted at once. The first is, let share-
holders conset to forego dividends for six months, that
the produco of the mines brought to market may not
be more than enough to meet current expenses ; if
the Devon Great Consols, North and West Bas-
set, Great South Tolgns, and a few under the same
management, were to set the example, it would be quickly
followed by others, and from 5000 to 6000 tons of ore
per month would be withdrawn from the market, and
the furnanes of the smelters be left .comparatively
idle. The other plan, and the one most likely to succeed,
would be a miners' smelting company, formed by a com-
bination of mining shareholders, capitalists, managers of
mines, and consumers of copper ; and for a company of
this sort, under proper management, and the Limited
Liability Act, almost any amount of capital would be
subscribed, for that no business is so profitable as smelt-
ing is well known, and every person holding a share in a
mine would be interested in subscribing. To show the
miner how his profits are diminished by the present smelt-
ing monopoly has often been our task ; let us again refer
to the system under which he is compelled to sell his pro-
duce. The smelters are also the merchants in copper, and
regulate the price of copper for the consumer and the ore
for the miner, and both, it is scarcely necessary to say, ,
fo suit their own purposes. A mine having ore for sale
"samples" it a fortnight before his sold, and during this
fortnight all the smelters take samples and have assays
made, so that they know its exact value. The ticket-
ings, or weekly sales, supposed to he species of auctions,
are nothing of the kind, for the smelters, or their agents
i meet together before the sale, and arrange, not oily for
the parcels each may require, but the prices they will
give for them, so that as one will not bid against the other
there is no competition, and the miner is compelled to
take the price offered, because he has to rely upon the
proceeds to meet his monthly expenses, in wages to men,
So., no advances can be got, except upon ore sales, for
the smelters are the only bankers in the mining districts,
and they are also the merchants, supplying materials,
from candles to steam-engines. How nicely, therefore,
the whole thing works for the monopolists ! They keep
down the price of ore at starvation point to the miner,
until they get in a large stock of metal ; and to get a
good profit out of the consumer of copper, they next
meet in London, and put up the price ld. or 2d. per lb.
Then to raise the spirits of the miner a bit, and to
induce him to go on raising all he can, the standard creeps
up, week after week, for a time. Well, baying
sold their large stock, the metal world is startled some
fine morning with a drop of ld. per lb. in copper; and
the mining world knows but too well that it is the pre-
cursor—in fact, the pita for again reducing the price of
ore, preparatory to laying in another stock. We would
ask any one who may have watched the market for the
last 20 years, Is this picture overdrawn ? And what will

the uninitiated think of the following t The miner
is compelled to sell 21 cwts. to the ton ; here the
smelter gets 5 per cent., and a mine selling 1,000 tons
a month loses 50 tons of ore—say 2501. The expense
of reducing ore to metal is about 1/. ls. per ton on the
ore ; and in any other branch of business a manufac-
turer buying a crude material, to manufacture into an
article upon which he realises a large profit, would be at
the expense of the manufacture. Not so the smelters ; they
make the miners pay by deducting 21. 15. per ton from all
the ores they buy, as returning charges. Ore of 5 per cent.
produce, at a standard of 1301., is worth 61. 10s. per ton ;
the smelter deducts 21. 15s. per ton. Now, supposing
copper itself to be 1151. per ton (21. less than its quoted
value), the fair value of the ore, at a produce of 5 per
cent., is Si. 15:,. per ton, according to the price of the
copper; and then, even allowing the smelter 1/. Bs., the
real cost of returning, the miner should receive 41. 7s.
instead of 31. 155., and a mine selling 1,000 tons per
month loses 6004