The Sun.
London, England, 1868-04-07 00:00:00

LAW AND POLICE.

FORGING A BAPTISMAL REGISTER.—At the Ceram.
Criminal Court a man named William Rawlings Lindley
pleaded guilty to a charge of uttering part of a certified
copy of a baptismal register, knowing it to have
been forged. It was stated that the prisoner
was a candidate for a supplementary clerkship in the Civil
Service, the condition of the competition, which was an
open one, being that the candidates should be between 16
and 20 years. The prisoner gave in a certificate of his
baptism, which stated that he was born in 1848, whereas
his birth really took place in 1843. Sentence was
deferred.
A BARRISTER COMMITTED FOR CONTEMPT OP COURT.—
At the same court a somewhat curious incident occurred.
Mr. T. E. Briarly, an old member of the bar, appeared in
court wearing his wig and gown, and during some conver-
sation with a friend, the grand jury handed over to the
Clerk of Arraigns some indictments, and as they were
leaving the court, Mr. Briarly followed close upon them,
and was heard to exclaim, "A most shameful thing, a
most unjust thing." Shortly afterwards the foreman of
the jury returned into court and complained that a member
of the bar had insulted him for having, as they under-
stood, thrown out a particular bill, and the barrister
had threatened to publish their names. The Recorder
ordered Mr. Briarly to be brought before him, and having
spoken of the complaint made by the foreman of the jury,
said that it was a grave contempt of court. Mr. Briarly
said he was sorry for having said what he had done in
court. The Recorder said it was a grave offence to use
such language in or out of court. Mr. Briarly said the
jury had done wrongly, and would smart for it hereafter.
The Recorder said that was a renewal of the threat. After
some further parley, the Recorder said that he was
sorry to have to do it, but it was his duty to commit
Mr. Briarly for contempt of court ; but he would
bo released on finding two sureties. Mr. Briarly
appealed to the members of the bar to be bond for him,
_but there being no response, he was given into the custody
of the governor of Ncwgate.

CONVICTION FOR " TOUTING " AT WESTMINSTER ABBEY.
—At the Middlesex Sessions, Charles Lewis, an inter
preter, was charged with having obtained 2s. from a lady
by means of false pretenees. It seemed that the present
proceedings were instituted by the Dean and Chapter of
Westminster Abbey. On a certain day the prisoner wore
a red waistcoat, and received 2s. to show a lady inside
and outside the Abbey, and having walked round the
cloisters would have left her, but the woman remonstrated
and the accused was given into custody. The assistant
judge committed the prisoner to six months' hard labour.
THE JAMAICA REBELLION.—At the Judges' Chambers
an application was made to Mr. Justice Willes, in the case
of " Phillips v. Governor Eyre," on the part of the
defendant, for leave to amend his second plea. The
action was brought for false imprisonment, &c., and is
pending in the Queen's Bench by a notice against the
Governor of Jamaica in reference to the rebellion. Mr.
Petberham was counsel in support of the summons, and
Mr. Horne Payne appeared on the part of the plaintiff.
The object of the application was to amend the plea as to
an Act passed under which the defendant alleged he had
acted in the suppression of the rebellion. After a discus-
sion between counsel on both sides, his lordship made an
order that the plea should be amended, and the order was
accordingly drawn up.

A RECEIVER OF STOLEN POSTAGE STAMPS CONVICTED.
—At the Manchester Sessions, John Howarth, who for
many years past has kept a
.provision shop in that city,
was tried upcn a charge of having received postage stamps
from an errand boy of Mr. Edwin Slater's, of St. Ann's-
square, knowing them to have been stolen. The boy, it
will be remembered, destroyed letters which he was en.
trusted to post, and took the stamps to Howarth, who
was in the habit of receiving them as cash, and obtained
cakes for them. Howarth was found guilty, and sen-
tenced to five years' penal servitude.
ROBBERY BY A BANKER'S CLERK.—At the Southampton
Quarter Sessions Percival George A. Thring, a young man,
was charged with stealing the sum of £3OO, the property
of the National Provincial Bank. The prisoner had been
employed as cashier at the Okehampton branch of the
bank, and did not go to the office on the Bth February,
and suspicion being aroused, the safe in which he should
have placed his money on the previous evening was broken
open, and £5OO found to be missing. The prisoner and his
wife were traced to Southampton, and he was apprehended
when in a state of intoxication, with nearly the whole of
the stolen money in his pocket. The deficiency was about
met by a balance of wages due to the prisoner. He
pleaded guilty, and was committed to nine months' im-
prisonment with hard labour.

CHARGE OF ft ALF-STARVING A SERVANT.—At the
Westminster Police-court Miss Ann Turner appeared in
answer to three summonses, taken out at the instance of the
Marquis Townshend, charging her with assaulting her
servant, aged 17, named Mary Barry, and with
having neglected to supply her with a sufficiency of
food. The girl said she entered the service of
the defendant in October 1866. She ought to have got up
at six o'clock, but did not sometimes, and was kept with-
out her breakfast and dinner. Her mistress struck her on
the eye with a blacking brush, but afterwards said it was
an accident. Her mother came once a week, but she never
complained of her ill-usage. The defence was a complete
denial of the charges, and the magistrate thought that the
charge of assault was a most trivial one, and that with
respect to the insufficiency of food bad quite fallen to the
ground. He therefore dismissed the case.
ROBBERY FROM A BODY.—At the Middlesex Sessions,
Charles Webb, an ex-policeman of the C division, was
indicted for stealing a hat and coat, the property of Alfred
Coseltine, and also with stealing a watch and other arti-
cles, the property of the Rev. Noel Christmas. It seemed
that about 12.45 a.m. on the 10th March, the rev. gen-
tleman was seized with a fit in the street, and taken to the
Charing Cross Hospital by the prisoner and another con-
stable, named Spink. The prisoner tiel up the property
found on Mr. Christmas, which consisted of a gold watch
and chain, pencil-case, &c., and took them away. An
inquest was subsequently held, and the prisoner was asked
to produce the property, but said that he had not got it
w;th hi n. He was directed to fetch the articles,. but did
not return. To the first indictment the prisoner pleaded
guilty. He was sentenced to eighteen calendar months'
imprisonment, with hard labour.

WORKMEN'S INTERNATIONAL EXIIIRITION, 1869.
—The Right Hon. Lord John Manners, M.P., has con-
sented to become a vice-president of this undertaking.
The list of guarantees has been joined by the Duke of
Argyll, Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke, Bart., M.P., Mr.
Henry Hoare, the Right Hon. Sir William Hutt, M.P.,
the Right Hon. Lord John Manners, M.P. and Mr. W.
H. Smith. Mr. Hamilton Hoare contr:butes to the fund
for preliminary expenses.

THE THAMES EMBANKMENT.--At a recent meet-
ing of the Metropolitan Board of Works, the tenders were
opened for paving the footways, fencing, &c., on the
Thames Embankment, between Westminster Bridge and
the Temple. There was a great differenCe between the
highest and the lowest, a circumstance, in a larger or less
degree, by no means unusual under the system of
" tendering," but one which political economists have not
yet been able satisfactorily to explain. As in this case
the inequality was as much as £4,115, the board, after two
divisions, accepted the lowest, that of Messrs. James
Knight and Son.

TECHNICAL TRAINING OF ARTlSANS.—Arrange-
ments are in progress for giving effect to the resolutions of
the conference of working men, held on the 14th ultimo,
under the auspices of the Working Men's Club and Insti-
tute Union and the presidency of the Earl of Lichfield.
The consent of Dr. W. B. Carpenter, F.R.S., and Pro-
fessor Warrington Smyth, to deliver lectures, together
with conditional promises of co-operation from several
equally distinguished men of science, have been obtained.
A sub-committee is charged with the duty of ascertaining
what are the existing means of technical instruction avail-
able to working men, and steps have been taken for the
representation of the artisans in the course of the inquiry
instituted by Mr. Bernhard Samuelson's parliamentary
select committee.

MISHAPS OF DR. 111‘Lzon.—A correspondent of
an Indian paper sends the following account of the Rev.
Dr. M`Leod's departure from Calcutta :—"The Rev. Dr.
M`Leod, who left with Lady Lawrence in the Feroze, did
not quit India's coral strand,' i.e., the muddy banks of
the Hooghly, without a parting mishap of a rather ludicrous
character. The rev. gentleman is not one of Pharaoh's
lean kine, and to this partly may be attributed the adven-
ture that befel him. The doctor was the guest of one of
our merchants, the son of a reverend gentleman of the same
jitat, who sent Dr. M'Leod in his carriage to the Penin-
sular and Oriental wharf, where the party were to embark.
On the way the carriage came to grief by coming in con-
tact with a, ticca garry. This was the commencement of
another proof that misfortunes come not singly. The
doctor was transferred to a ticca, and expected this make-
shift would see him safe to the l'eninsular and Oriental wharf.
Such, however, was not to be the case. The construction of
ticca garrics in Bengal is not the highest work of art in the way
of carriage building, and as the doctor stepped upon the
step the latter broke, and the great man fell to the ground.
This of itself was not much, for happily he was not hurt.
But his breeks came to grief in a very unfortunate style,
that left the doctor less decently clad than if he had ap-
peared in his native kilt. He made a timely and precipi-
tate retreat into a friendly house, and made himself fit to
proceed on board and pursue his voyage, let us hope, in
peace and safety."

SAD STATE OF ENGLISH WORKHOUSE S

A terrible picture of the condition of many of
the provincial workhouses was drawn by the Arch-
bishop of York at the interview of the deputation
from the Workhouse Infirmaries Association with
the President of the Poor-Law Board. At Ches-
terfield Workhouse, for instance, said his grace,
quoting from the official inspector's report, some
of the beds in the infirmary are so near together
as almost to touch, the rain drips through the
ventilators in the ceiling on to the floor, and in
one instance on to the bed. There are no proper
chairs, dining-tables, or tablecloths ; in one ward
seven dirty and neglected children were found
eating their dinners on the floor; the medicines
are handed over to the patients themselves, who
take them or not as they are inclined ; there are
no proper means of washing the sick, and only one
towel a week is allowed for use in each ward. In
the same infirmary an imbecile patient was 1 ttely
beaten to death by a pauper wardsman for some
trifling act of negligence. In the Shardlow Union
there is no classification even of the sexes ; at
Ashton-under-Lyne the convalescent sick share
the lunatic day-room, confinements take place in
the general sick wards, and the fever wards are
used for itch and other disgusting diseases. This
state of things is more or less common to the
Blackburn, Burnley, Bury, Chorley, Clitheroe, the
Fylde, Harlingden, Oldham, and Preston work-
houses. His grace recommended that the reforms
which have been made in the management of the
London workhouses should be extended to those
in the provinces; that the sick poor should be sepa-
rated from the able-bodied paupers ; that, in lieu
of sick wards annexed to each workhouse, conso-
lidated infirmaries, managed on the hospital system,
should be provided; that from 1,000 to 1,500 cubic
feet of air should be allowed to each patient ; that
nursing should be conducted by a trained staff,
with one assistant nurse for each fifty patients; that
there should be a resident medical officer to every
250 patients—the medical officer to have no pecu-
niary interest in the medicines dispensed ; and
that Lord Devon should seek from Parliament
powers to enforce a code of regulations for the
government of infirmary establishments, and t 3
appoint an auxiliary' corps of medical inspectors.
Mr. Ernest Hart suggested that these inspectors
should report specifically like the gentleman just
quoted. There were reports and reports, and most
of the stock phrases in use by inspectors were mere
euphemisms, covering a multitude of workhouse
sins. Inspectors were too fond of reporting in ad-
jectives; thus what they called "insufficient attend-
ance" meant neglect of giving the sick their proper
diets, leaving them to their own help or no help,
mixing the convalescent sick, who needed rest
and quiet, with noisy lunatics; " inadequate" and
" insufficient " st:od for the evils which had been
exposed in connection with the Bedminster Union;
the scrubbing of hands black with gangrene as if
they were black with dirt, the killing of an infant
by accidentally placing it in scalding water, and
then rubbing off the blisters with a towel, &c.
The Earl of Devon, in reply to the deputation,
said that the Legislature was not always ready
to give the board powers over guardians for fear
of strengthening centralisation. He acknowledged
the value of the recommendations of the infirmary
committee, and said that many of them were
already embodied in the bill he should propose
for second reading.