The Sun.
London, England, 1844-02-09 00:00:00

SUMMARY OF NEWS

AND

Vtibitt Optitten.

" Who runs may read."

FOREIGN.
On Sunday evening Louis Philippe received the new
Spanish Ambassador, the Danish Minister, the Prefect of the
Seine, General Viscount Sebastiani, General Durosnel, the
Duke d'Ossuna, Viscount de Bastard, M. Dupin, and Madame
Dupin.
Baron Pasquier, President of the Chamber of Peers, has
been rather seriously indisposed.
On Monday M. Laplagne-Barris was installed as President
of the Court of Cassation, in the place of M. de Bastard.
The Patrie of Monday evening publishes, under summons
from the Government, in virtue of the laws of September, the
contradiction from the Moniteur, which has appeared in the
Messenger, of the statement that M. Guizot, the Minister for
Foreign Affairs, had been in office during the Hundred Days,
as Secretary-General of the Interior.
The ball which was to have taken place at the Tuileries
having been countermanded, the Queen ordered the various
dishes of meat prepared for the supper to be distributed
amongst the various bureaux of charity in Paris. This divi-
sion took place on Monday, when 2501b5. of meat was sent
for the poor to each bureau.
The Lyons papers state that a great quantity of snow had
fallen on Friday and Saturday in the neighbourhood of that
city. It appears from other papers that immense quantities
of snow had fallen throughout France.

According to letters of the 27th ult., froth Sardinia, the
armed Sardinian flotilla against the Bey of Tunis sailed from
Genoa on the 21st. It is composed of two ships of the line,
the Angelo and the Tripoli, to which are to be added another
first-rater, and twelve gun-boats. Captain Courtois has the
chief command of the expedition.

A letter from Presburg, of January 27, in the Augsburgh
Gazette, states that the question of trial by jury had been
adopted in the Second Chamber of the States of Hungary by
a majority of seven.
According to a letter from Naples, of the 20th ult., the
borders of the crater of Mount Etna have become consider-
ably extended. Of the five new craters that had been
formed, two were still smoking, and from the southernmost
small flames were to be seen issuing in the night. From the
furthest to the eastward thick volumes of smoke were
emitted, and clothed the slope of the mountain as with a
shining mantle of snow. Hence it is inferred that the
volcano is not extinguished, and that there may still be
some disastrous eruptions.
A letter from Rome (20th ult.) states that the apprehen-
sions which were entertained of the Carnival being inter-
dicted are dissipated. The Governor of Rome, M. Lacchia,
has issued the decree allowing it to take place according to
ancient custom, but with some stringent regulations with
regard to the sale of confectionery.
On the 31st ult. the church of Mennecy, near Corbeil, was
struck with lightning, which carried away a portion of the
slates of the roof, and then descended into the, body, split-
ting the walls of a chapel, and doing other damage.
A pupil of the Military School of St. Cyr, named De Cas-
tellano, has just been accidentally killed, when fencing with
one of his fellow-students. The button of his opponent's foil
came off, and the point entering his eye penetrated to the
brain, and produced instantaneous death.
LAW AND POLICB.

In the Court 41:7iCiueen'sBench a case was heard which oc-
cupied the whole of the day ; it was that of the Queen v.
King and others. It was a criminal indictment against Wm.
Hy. King, Emily Anne Birch, and Augusta Anne Birch, " for
combining and conspiring to cheat and defraud certain of her
Majesty's subjects, being tradesmen, of divers large quan-
tities of goods. The indictment had been removed by cer-
tiorari. King is a solicitor, and Mrs. Emily A. Birch, a widow
lady, who for some years kept a lodging-house in Bedford-
place, Russell-square. The transaction from which
this prosecution arose was the ordering, by Mrs.
Birch, from tradesmen in all parts of the town, of a
large quantity of the most elegant and expensive furniture,
to the amount of nearly three thousand pounds. When it
was lodged in the premises at Bedford-place, King put in an
execution for a pretended debt, and seized the property,
which was sold. He was restrained, however, from appro-
priating the money, by the creditors making Mrs. Birch a
bankrupt in the meantime. The case was complicated by a
labyrinth of legal proceedings, real and feigned, which have
taken place between the parties. The jury returned a verdict
of guilty against King and Mrs. Birch, and acquitted Miss
Augusta Birch, expressing at the same time their surprise at
the extreme want of caution exhibited by the tradesmen
who supplied the goods. King was sentenced to be im-
prisoned in the Queen's Prison for eighteen calendar months ;
and, with respect to Emily Anne Birth, her sentence was, that
she be confined in the Queen's Prison for nine months. Mr.
Godson intimated that she would move an arrest of judgment
on the first day of next term.
In the Central Criminal Court Mr. Waddington, on behalf
of the Crown, applied to the Bench to fix a day for the trial
of Lieutenant Grant, who had given notice of his intention to
surrender and take his trial, for being accessory to the murder
of Lieutenant-Colonel Fawcett, in the duel at Camden Town.
The Judges refused to fix any day for the trial while the
accused should be at large.
At the same Court Charles Edwards was transported for
15 years, for attempting to fire a pistol at a widow, named
Matilda Potter.

In the New Court Eliza Mary Jones was found guilty on
a charge of stealing an infant female child, with the intention
of passing it as her own. She was sentenced to seven years'
transportation.
A respectably-dressed man, about forty years of age, who
scarcely raised his head during his examination, was charged
at Bow-street by Mr. Samuel Ries, proprietor of the Grand
Cigar Divan, No. 102, Strand, with stealing a quantity of
cigars the evening before. He gave his name John Watson.
He had been a frequenter of the Divan for seven years, but
latterly had been suspected of pilfering, and on this occasion
was seen to put the cigars into his pocket from a box on the
counter. He was immediately given into custody. The
singular part of the case is, that in the pockets of the pri-
soner was found 26/. 15s. 6d. in money, and ten cigars in a
case. His solicitor applied for him to be admitted to bail, as
he held a lucrative situation of trust, and one day's confine-
ment in Newgate, even if he should be acquitted, would be
his ruin. He was, however, committed for trial, and bail
refused.