The Sun.
London, England, 1850-12-16 00:00:00

QUEEN'S BENCII.-(THIS DAY.)
blrd Campbell and a Special Jury were occupied
during the morning in trying the case of " Northcroft
v. Shvpherd," which is an action brought by the
plaintiff, as bract:try of the Pilot Steam Towing and
Ship lleicue Company (now defunct) against the de-
fendant, who was one of the directors, to recover certain
arrears of aalary. The case was only interesting to the
parties immediately concerned.

CRIMINAL COURT-(THIS DAY.)

OLD COURT.

The December sessions, being the second of the pre-
sent mayoralty, were opened this morning in the Old
Court, before the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor, the Re-
corder, the Common-Sergeant, Aldermen Gibbs and
Challis, Mr. Sheriff Carden, and Mr. Sheriff Hodgkinson,
attended by their respective deputies and other civic
authorities.
The first edition of th© calendar contains the names
of 131 prisoners, of whom 20 are f,r London, 78 for
Middlesex, 7 fur Ii nt, and 26 for Surrey.
The grand jury having been sworn and empanelled,
The 1-.< arned RECORDER proceeded to deliver his
charge to them as follows:—He said he was happy to
inform them that their duties were likely to be exceed.
ingly light, since the offences embraced in the calendar
were neither numerically heavy nor of that atrocious na-
ture which had too often characterised some of the
cases that had been the subject of pninfol investigations
in this court. He was rejoiced to observe upon looking
over the summary of the present calendar a total ab-
sence of a charge of either murder or manslaughter, or
iu fact of any charge which related to the destruction of
hutuan life. Nor were there many of those serious
cases which came under the denomination of cutting and
wounding; indeed, he believed there was only one. To
some extent therefore they might congratulate them-
selves upon the circumstance of the calendar indicating
an improvement in the habits and conditions of the peo-
ple, and if it should fortunately happen that future ca-
lendars shall present a similar diminution in the extent
of crime prevailing in :he metropolis, they might then
hope that education and religious instruction were pro-
ducing their natural effects, of softening and humanising
those violent passions which were generally found raging
amongst the lower orders of society. The majority of
the cases entered in the calendar were composed
of charges of simple larceny, but he regretted again to
perceive that not a few of them were charges also of
stealing from masters. A large proportion of the thefts
which came before this Court were of that serious class,
a somewhat strange fact, because the parties imme-
diately aggrieved by such cases bad a remedy in their
own hands, if they would only take care to have a
character with all parties whom they took into
their service. Most of those robberies were com-
mitted by servants who had been engaged
without any recommendations or characters,
and where wages were so extremely low that they could
not resist the temptations which came in their way; and
he hoped, after this information, employers would see
the expediency of paying their servants a fair remune-
ration, and of employing none who could not produce a
good character from their previous masters. One case
the calendar called for a more particular notice than
the ethers, it was a charge against five or six persons of
breakiny into a shop in the Strand, and stealing a large
quantity of jewellery and plate. Now, the proof of the
charge mainly depended upon the evidence of an accom-
plice, and it was right that he should tell them that, al-
though the law looked upon the evidence of an accom-
plice as equivalent to that of any other man, yet the
practice of this and other criminal courts, which was
confirmed by a long series of cases, required that
the evidence of the accomplice should be corroborated
in some material particulars before the accused parties
could be legally convicted. It was not necessary that be
should be confirmed in all the details of his evidence, but
if he were corroborated in any material fact which con-
nected the prisoners with the robbery, the jury would be
justified in sending the case fir trial. These were all
the remarks that he felt called upon to make now; and
again congratulating them upon the lightness of the
calendar, it only remained for him to dismiss them to
their duties.
The grand jury then retired, and shortly afterwards
several true bills were returned into court, when a petty
jury was empanelled and the trials proceeded with.

MARLBRO'-STREET.—(THIS DAY.)
ROBBERY BY A SERvANT.—Charles Riley was placed
before Mr. Bingham, charged with stealing two table-
cloths and several articles of plate, the property of Mr.
Richard Kershaw, 69, Pall-mall. It appeared from the
evidence that the prisoner was formerly in the employ
of the prosecutor, whose service he left about a fortnight
ago. On Wednesday last, on looking over his plate, the
complainant missed several silver table-spoons, tea-
spoons, dessert-spoons and forks, and four dinner-forks.
From the linen chest was missed two large damask table-
cloths. Inquiries were instituted amongst the other ser-
vants, who denied all knowledge of the missing property,
and the prosecutor having his suspicions that the prisoner
was the thief, gave information to the police.
Sergeant Mount, of the C division, said he apprehended
the prisoner on Saturday night, and on searching him at
the station found upon him the four duplicates produced,
relating to silver spoons and forks, which the prosecutor
had seen and identified as his property. There was
other property missing by the prosecutor, who applied
to have the prisoner remanded.
The prisoner, who admitted his guilt, and pleaded
pecuniary distress in extenuation thereof, was remanded
for a week.

TERRIBLE ACCIDENT AND LOSS OF LIVES

(THIS DAY.)
Shortly after eleven o'clock this (Monday) morning
the neighbourhood of Great Scotland-yard was thrown
into a painful state of excitement, in consequence of the
following deplorable accident:—lt appears that for some
titre a new sewer has been constructing, which
opens in Middle Scotland-yard, and extends some
distance into the river Thames, near Northumberland
wharf. At the usual hour this morning the various
men went to their work, and continued at their
several depar:ments without meeting with any
formidable impediment until the above-named
time, when all of a sudden the water from the river
washed away the mainstay at the end of the sewer, and
almost instantaneously the subterranean passage became
filled with water. One poor fellow was driven by the
force of the water to the mouth of the shaft leading into
the sewer. He was taken out almost exhausted and con-
veyed to the hospital, but no fatal injury is apprehended.
Three or four other persons, it is stated, on heaving the
mighty rush of water into the sewer, and who were
standing near a ladder, succeeded in making a retreat.
The whole of the men working further outland
have, however, we regret to say, been drowned.
In consequence of its being Monday, it is stated
that two or three of the hands had not gone to work,
the loss of life is, therefore, not so great as it other-
wise might have been. Two poor fellows, the clerk of
the works informed our reporter, were known to have
perished, be) and the possibility of a doubt. The steam-
engine, and every available machine were at full work
in pumping the water out of the sewer, but it is feared
that the same will not be cleared out until late this
night, and until such is done the exact number of persons
lost cannot be ascertained. The police have been placed
on duty at the spot to keep the crowd out of danger.

ENLARGEMENT OF THE " MORNING ADVERTISER."
--We are glad to perceive that our excellent contemporary
the AlTorniny Advertiser, is about to take that position
amongst the metropolitan journals, which its justly-deserved
popularity entitles it to assume. On and after the first day
of the next session of Parliament, it will appear as a double
sheet, the size of the Times. We understand that no ex-
pense will be spared by the spirited proprietors of the
Morning Advertiser to render it complete in its various de-
partments; that its foreign intelligence will be as ample, as
accurate, and as early as that of any other morning paper;
and that its general arrangements will enable it to vie in all
respects with its daily contemporaries. The Morning Adver-
tiser has long been known as the strenuous and consistent
advocate of the people's rights, and as the earnest promoter
of popular progress, while its general policy has been dic-
tated, not by those petty motives which influence parties,
but by those exalted views which harmonise with the
well-being of the great body of the people, whose political
and social improvement it so ardently desires.— Sunday

Times.
ST. BARNADAS Cuuncu, PIMLICO.—There was no
service performed in this church yesterday; and a notice,
signed by the churchwardens, and posted outside the door,
announced to the large number of persons who had assem-
bled at the hour when the doors are usually opened, that in
consequence of the difficulties of performing Divine service,
the church would remain closed until further notice.
MARRIAGE OF MRS. JERMY...--At Dover, on
Tuesday, Mrs. Sophia ,Jane Jenny, widow of the late J.
Jermy Jermy, who, with his father, was assassinated at
Stanfield Hall, by Rush, was married to Mr. Thomas Beevor,
eldest son of Sir T. 13. Beevor, Bart., of Haigham Hall,
Norfolk.
We are happy to hear that Mr. B. B. Williams, of
Buscot Park, Berks, who was thrown from his horse while
fox-hunting last week, and received a blow on the right
ankle from the hind hoof of his horse, and had his thumb
also injured, is in a fair way of recovery from the effects of
the accident.—Brighten Paper.
Last week an anchor, weighing 3 tons 3 cwt., and
a chain cable 100 fathoms long, and weighing 10 tons, were
landed from the Stonehoute, one of the South Devon Ship-
ping Company's vessels, at this dockyard. They were manu-
factured by Messrs. Brown, Lennox, and Co. They form
part of the stores of a 74-gun ship.—Devoxport Independent.
THE FLAX MOVEMENT.—An association has, we
understand, been recently formed at Bromyard, for the pur-
pose of promoting the growth of t
flax in that district. Up-
wards of one hundred of the agricultural members of the
association have expressed their determination to prepare a
portion of their land for flax for the next year.
LORD BRACKLEY.—A letter from this Noble Lord to
the Staffordshire Advertiser discloses the fact of his ap-
proaching convalescence. Although not able to resume his
Parliamentary duties at the commencement, he hopes to be
able to do so before the termination of the approaching
session.
DEATH OF LADY SCARSDALE.—We have to record
the demise of the above venerable lady, who died on Thursday
at Burn Hall, near Derby. She was second wife of the late
Lord Scarsdale, whom she married in 1800, and by whom she
had issue two sons and two daughters. The deceased lady
had reached the great age of 85 years.
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.—The electric tele-
grxph wires are brought down to the Brighton terminus, and
the electric telegraph will, it is expected, be in full operation
in about ten days from the present date.
TIIE COURT.—The Lord Chamberlain has issued
invitations, by her Majesty's command, to a distinguished
circle, to partake of the regal hospitalities at Windsor Castle,
on Thursday next, when her Majesty will have the second
dramatic performance at the Castle before Christmas.
LORD CAMPDELL.—The Lord Chief Justice of
, •
England on Saturday entertained at dinner a select party of
the bar, including Mr. Sergeant Shce, Mr. Sergeant MurpliV,
Mr. Sergeant Wilkins, Mr. Macaulay, Q.C., Mr. Butt, QC.,
Jampq,:Q.C., Mr. Peacock, QC., Mr. Greaves, Q.C., Mr.
All3l4us, r. Virille-s; 11.1 r, Mcqueen and Mr."Mellbr, ' •