The Sun.
London, England, 1850-10-16 00:00:00

EVENING, OCTOBER 16, 1850.

plied, and Nowman had been in the morning chas-
tised by his master for burning some haulm in the
field, which he had lighted with lucifers he had about
him. The two boys were taken into custody the
same evening by police-constable Martin, and con-
veyed to the station. They have since been examined
and remanded.—Essex Herald.

POLICF.: IN 'l' ELLIGENCE.
MANSION-HOUSE.
Richard Edwards and James Meek were brought
before Alderman Gibbs upon the charge of having
endeavoured to excite a revolt on board her Majesty's
cutter Gossamer, on the Dutch coast. The prisoners
bad been brought home in irons.
Mr. Swainson, from the office of the Solicitor to
the Admiralty, attended for the prosecution. Mr.
Wontner appear: d for the prisoners.
The following is the essential part of the evidence,
which was detailed at considerable length :
W. D. Hall, second master in her Majesty's navy,
and commander of her Majesty's cutter Gossamer,
said—The prisoners were able seamen on board the
Gossamer, which was at the time I speak of surveying
on the coast of the Netherlands. I believe them to
be under martial law. I hired them both in her
Majesty's service. On the 16th of September, about
eight in the morning, the vessel was lying in the port
of Nieudiep, in the Netherlands. Edwards advised
the crew to come aft to me on the quarter-deck. I
went on deck and found the crew there. One of the
crew, named Widyer, said he thought himself
not properly treated, upon which the prisoner
Edwards turned round and demanded his discharge
of me. I remonstrated with him and the rest of
the crew, and explained to them the folly of
such conduct, mentioning at the same time that the
ship bad been robbed of two muskets, which formed
part of her ammunition. They said they were sorry
for it, or something to that effect; and I said, perhaps
when we overhaul the vessel we shall find the
fourth jib gone. Upon hearing which the prisoner
Meek became so violent that some of the other men
were obliged to hold him back. Speaking of me and
pointing at me, he said, let ins at —. Edwards,
pointing at Meek said, " I know what that man is if
he gets from the men," meaning, as I believed, that
he had no command of himself. To avoid the vio-
lence with which I considered myself to be threat-
ened, I took refuge in the cabin. I was compelled to
leave the quarter-deck for my personal safety. While
in the cabin, or adjoining it, I heard Edwards re-
mark that he would be d—d if he would go to sea in
the ship, or if he did he would not work, neither
would he let me, and he said at the same time, if I
took him to sea he would throw me overboard as I
was heaving the log. The position in which I
daeuld be in throwing the log would be with my
back to the crew, so that I could be thrown over the
gunwale. I then went on deck and desired them
to go to their duty. The prisoners remained amongst
the men as I had no means of shutting them
up. All returned to their duty except Edwards.
Meek returned to his duty, but observing that he was
not sober I recommended him to go to bed. I next
directed the men to go to breakfast. After breakfast
I allotted each man his work, when Edwards, corning
up and seeing Widyer at work, put himself in a box-
ing attitude, and tried to excite him to go ashore and
fight. I ordered Widyer to go below to avoid any
injury, and Edwards then demanded his discharge,
swearing that he did not care a for me or all the
consuls on shore. I replied, " You are in a foreign
port, and I cannot discharge you without sufficient
funds to pay your passage home, besides which your
services are required here to take the vessel back to
England." 11e went below, and said he would be
if he would go in the vessel, because he knew
that when we got to Grimsby I should impri.on him.
Finding that he could not get his discharge, be called
Meek, and said he would not go without his old
chummie (Meek), and then both of them went down,
packed up their things, and brought them on deck,
demanding of one their register tickets. I told them
again I would not discharge them, and Edwards said
he was discharged by me ; and when told by Mr.
Jones, the master's assistant, that I had done nothing
of the kind, he said the assistant was a-- liar. At
that moment Meek attacked another of the crew,
named John Webb, whom I was obliged to send,
bleeding at the ear, out of the ship, to avoid further
I violence. After this transaction, the remainder of the
crew told me they did not think it safe to go with the
vessel if those men remained, and I obtained the as.
sistance of some Dutch soldiers, and had the pri-
' Boners conveyed to the guard ship, which lay near the

Gossamer. -
Mr. Swainson did not think it necessary to go par-
ticularly into evidence regarding the temporary dis-
appearance of two muskets which belonged to the
Gossamer, as there appeared to be no ground for sup-
posing that they had been taken away with a felonious
intent.
W. Widyer, an able seaman on board the Gossa-
mer, said that Meek was drunk on the occasion of the
disturbance, and wished to leave the vessel because
he considered himself accused of having stolen the
muskets ; and as for Edwards, who was not at all so
drunk, he had given no reason at all for his conduct.
They both said, if the commander did not give them
their discharge, they would heave the log with him.
Alderman Gurus—What did they mean by that ?
Witness—That I can't say.
Alderman GIBBS—What do you understand by
that ? Did they mean anything good to the com-
mander by it ? Witness—No, not at all.
Alderman GlBB3—What were the words they used
to the best of your recollection ? Witness—They
said they would heave the log with him before they
got to England.
Alderman GIBBS—And what do you suppose they
meant by those words ? Witness—Why, they meant
that they would heave the commander overboard
along with the log.—(A laugh.) Something of that
kind I suppose they meant. Edwards tried to prevail
upon Webb to pack up and leave the vessel, and was
generally a quarrelsome man, but Meek was a very
different sort of person, and had been well conducted
until Monday, the 16th of September.
Mr. Swainson—Did you hear either or both of
them threaten the commander ? Witness—No. I
heard them swear at him but not threaten him. They
were both under the influence of liquor at the time.
Certainly Meek did not know what he was about.
They wanted to get in a stock of provisions. Ido
not think there was any fear that they wanted to run
away with the ship or the commander ; and I do be-
lieve that if they bad not been tipsy they would not
have acted as they did.
Robinson, another of the seamen on board the
Gossamer, .said he recollected a bit of a dust on board.
on the day specified, when Meek was not sober, and
Edwards was well sprung and rather rusty. Ed-
wards threatened to heave the log with the com-
mander, that is, to heave him overboard. Edwards
swore a little.
Alderman Ginns—What do you believe was the
cause ? Witness—Drink.
Mr. Wontner—Does not the commander swear
sometimes ? Witness—Why, no, I can't say he
swears much.
Mr. Wontner—Well, does he not swear a little
sometimes ? Witness—Well, he may swear a little.
--(Laughter.) I never heard him.
Mr. Swainson said he must admit that the evidence
did not go to the extent of proving the existence of
that sort of conspiracy which was necessary to estab-
lish tbe charge of exciting to revolt ; but he submitted
that quite enouo had been shown to satisfy the
bench that dangerous insubordination had existed.
Mr. Wontner said the prisoners • never had enter-
tained the most remote idea of exciting to revolt.
They were, in fact, two Yarmouth fishermen, who
had been hired for duty in a Queen's ship, with the
strict regulations of which they were not acquainted.
They wanted to go ashore to get fresh provisions, to
which they had been always accustomed; their pru-
dence left them, and they were met by the intern-
perate authority (if the commander, who was not dis-
posed to make any allowance for their former habits
or condition.
Alderman GIBBS said he would look over the de-
positions, and give his decision upon the case on
Friday.

SOUTHWARK.
EXCESS OF VIOLENCE BY POLICEMEN.--Mr. Su-
perintendent Haynes, M division, attended for the
purpose of acquainting Mr. A'Beckett of the result
of inquiries instituted before the Commissioners of
Police, and their decisions thereupon respecting the
alleged violence exercised by two policemen of the M
division, whose conduct in the first instance was
brought under his (M. A'Beckett's) notice.
The Superintendent said the first case related to a
policeman named Wakefield, of the M division, who
in taking a man into custody for an alleged breach of
the peace, struck him a violent blow on the front part
of his head with his truncheon. In the course of the
inquiry into the circumstances in the first instance at
this court, the; magistrate found it necessary to mark
his disapprobation of the policeman's conduct on the
police-sheet, and this led to a further investigation
before the Commissioners, the result of which was that
they suspended him from duty for a week, mulcting
him of his pay for that period. The other case
referred to another policeman, named Gingen, who
took a man into custody for assaulting him, but when
the circumstances were inquired into it turned out
that the policeman committed the first assault himself,
by knocking the man down on the pavement. The
Commissioners had also suspended this man from duty,
and he (the superintendent) had directions to muster
the force under his command, and to apprise them of
the decisions in the above cases, and to caution
them that from henceforth if any policeman used un-
necessary violence in the execution of his duty, or
produced his truncheon without there was absolute
need of it, the Commissioners were determined on dis-
missing them altogether from the service.
Mr.A'BECKETT said that he recollected both the
cases referred to; that he was always desirous of pro-
tecting the police in the execution of their arduous