The Sun.
London, England, 1868-02-11 00:00:00

LAW AND POLICE.—Th's Lay.

SINGULAR CASE.—In the Court of Probate and Divorce
an application was made by Alice Phillipson with regard
to the will of a person named Seed, for the purpose of
obtaining a grant ad litem, and to be able to receive certain
dividends. The facts appeared to be these. The testator
died within the Palatinate of Lancaster in 1849, and left
a will by which he bequeathed his property to a William
Wilson and to- his wife, both of whom had since
lied. At their death the property was to go in
two moieties—one to a Mr. Stretch and the other
to Mary Ann Wilson ; the former was dead, and
the- latter was in Peru with ht r husband. Between
the executors, Thornborough and Phillipson, there had
been a suit instituted in the County Palatine of. Lancaster,
but in October last Phillipson died, and there was no one
to represent him, or to administer the estate, or to continue
the, suit. There were several mortgages on the estate
which ought to be taken up, and it would be to the advau•
tape of Mary Ann Wilson that there should be a receives
to dibtribute the dividends and to continue the suit.— The
learned Judge-Ordinary said his difficulty wa3 as to the
question of a receiver. He would grant a rule ad Nen?,
but he would consult the Registrar as to- a receiver being
appointed.
EXTENSIVE FRAUDS ON CITY MERCHANTS.—AIexander
Hannah, 23, and William Patterson, 34, were 1 ring-lit
up at the Mansion House, on the charge of
fraudulently obtaining gooc's to a large amount within
three months of their bankruptcy. The prisoners had
carried on business on a very • extraordinary system of
fraud. It appeared that in the year 1866 they opened
a groctr's shop in New North-road, Islington, and
exchanged names—Patterson, who took the principal
part in the business, taking the name of Hannah, and
Hannah adopting that of Patterson. For some time their
transactions with the wholesale merchants in the City
from whom they obtained their goods were conducted with
great regularity, the payments being in cash. Latterly,
however, they obtained large quantities of teas on credit,
and it was shewn that the teas were immediately trans-
mitted to Glasgow, where" they were sold by a firm
of auctioneers. In this manner £1,200 worth of goods
were disposed of within a period of three months, of which
the prisoners had netted between £7OO and £BOO, and at the
close of the year the shop in the New North-road was
shut up, and the prisoners disappeared. On the pe'it'on
of one of their creditors they were then declared bank-
rupts, and shortly afterwards they were apprehended at a
village in the West of Scotland, and brought to London by
Detective Bull. Some additional evidence was now ad-
duced on the part of the prosecution, and the prisoners
were again remanded.
UTTERING COUNTERFEIT MONEY AT THE " ALITAMW
PALACE."—Richard Cronin and Edward Charles Jackson,
two young men, were charged before Mr. Tyrwhitt,
at the Marlborough-street Police-court, with uttering two
counterfeit half-crowns at the " Alhambra Palace," Leices-
ter-square.—Laura Crouch, a barmaid .at the Alhambra,
said that on the previous night the prisoner Cronin came
to the bar she was at and called for a glass of ale, and in
payment tendered her half-a-crown. Thinking it was
light, she asked the lad who acted as money-taker at the
bar whether it was bad, and he said it was, and bent it.
Cronin then paid her with a good half-sovereign, and on
the lad giving back the bad half-crown he left the bar.—
Mr. John Reeves, superintendent of the Alhambra Palace,
said that for the last fortnight a considerablenumtbheermof,
bad half-crowns had been taken by the barmaids, and the
prisoner and two others were suspected of passing
and last night Cronin was caught in the act of
passing a bad half-crown. Cronin then left that
part of the bar, and went. to another part, where another
half-crown had been passed during the evening, and on his
(Mr. Reeves) giving Cronin into custody, a bad half.
crown was found upon him.—Mr. Tyrwhitt discharged
Jackson. but remanded Cronin on bail.

HIGH TIDES AND FLOODS.—The remarkably high
tide of Saturday last has :caused much damage along
the northern coast. Early in the morning the Water
in the river Tyne rose to an extraordinary height,
in consequence of the vast volumes of water
rushing from the upper reaches of the river. Be-
tween three and four o'clock the water rose to its highest
pitch, and all houses, workshops, shipbuilding-yards, and
quays contiguous to the river were overflowed and sub-
merged for several hours. Serious damage is reported to
have occurred to property on both sides of the river. The
cause of the flood is assigned to the recent heavy rains we
have lAA, and a sudden rise of the sea in consequence of
the prevalence of north-east winds in the German Ocean.
The freshet and the flow of the sea meeting, the water was
thereby forced out of its current into other channels. The
people living in houses in the immediate neighbourhood
of Wilmington were startled out of their sleep by hearing
the watsr rushing into their bed rooms through the
crevices of the door and windows. Considerable conster-
nation was at first created, and no little amount of con-
fusion and alarm prevailed on the removal of the furniture,
&c., of the occupants. At Jarrow and the Tyne Dock, as
in higher parts of the river, the water rose to an extraor-
dinary height, and overflowed the banks and quays. At
Jarrow portions of the quay walls were washed away.
Shortly after three o'clock the tide in the river Wear rose
to a tremendous height, such as has not been experienced
during the last 25 years. Considerable damage has been
done in several places in the vicinity of the river. At
Stockton the Tees overflowed its banks oa both sides,
consequent on tbo spring tides and the " fresh." A sheet
of water surrounded the dwellings, and flooded the pig-
geries belonging to the poorer class.
DEATH OF MR. WILLIAM BATTY.--After a long
and suffering illness from asthma this well-known eques-
trian traveller and proprietor of Astley's Theatre died on
Friday last at 2.30 p.m., in the 68th year of his age. The
mournful event took place at his own pretty villa, Neville
Lodge, St. John's-wood.—Era.