The Sun.
London, England, 1845-07-19 00:00:00

al V 4 COUNCIL

The Judicial Committee of the Privy C-until sat yesterday
in the Council Ci,amber, Whitehall, fur the purpose of hear-
ing petitions and appeals.
The Lords present were—the Lord President (Lord Wharn-
eliffe). Lord Brwigham, the Vice-Chancellor Knight Bruce,
and the Jarlge vi the Attmiralty Court.

GORE'S PATENT.
This ca,e came before their Lordships upon an application
to have an early day appointed for hearing the petition for the
extension of the letters patent obtained by the petitioner.
Their LoRDSH irs appointed the first day of sittings after the
recess to hear the case.
Their LORDSHIPS, after disposing of several other minor
applications, pi oceecled to hear the case of Cockcroft v. Rawles,
which came befot e their Lordships upon appeal from the Pre-
rogative Court.
The arguments had not concluded when their Lordships rose.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.
sEcoNDARr. S' C(II7RT, July 18.
(Before Mr. Secondary JAMES.)
FARR V. STOKES.
The plaintiff is a cheesemenger, in Lambeth, and the de-
fendant, a baker. in the York-road. The action was brought
to recover the sum of 51. 65., for Irish butter supplied to de-
fendant. A witness was called who estimated the value of
such butter in February last at 50s. per cwt.
Some of t} .e jury considered the valuation too low.
The SECONDARY said the jury could only go on the evi-
dence, for it they did not, their verdict would be set aside ;
they must not go on mere surint.e, or do an act of injustice for
the sake of a few shillings.—Yerdiet for the amount claimed.

observations upon the conduct of the Vaintiff be Learned
t oun.el called upon the jury to dismiss such a ca.- with the
ignominy it deserve.t, and he concluded by emir .sing der
opinion. that if the jury were to give heavy damag-. under
such circumstances, it would not only tend not to a vance
morality. but that it would hold out a pusitive price un-
principled persons to neglect the education of their children
' and to make a market of them.
Mr. Justice COLE KMO r having summed up,
The jury, after deliberating about ten minutes, returned a
verdict for the plaintiff—Damages, 5001.

MIDDLESEX SESMIONS.
(Before Mr. Sergeant ADAMS, Assistant-Judge, and a Bench
of Magistrates.)
Janet Smith was indicted for having fraudulently obtained
the sum of 10s. 6d., the moneys of Geo. Stonehouse Griffiths.
Mr. Wilde conducted the case for the prosecution, which
was at the instance of the Mendicity Society.
It appeared from the testimony of Mrs. Griffiths, who stated
her place of residence to be No. 4, Burton-crescent, that on
the 23d nit. the defendant had come to her house about eleven
o'clock in the morning, when she told her that her father had
called on Mr. Griffiths, at his office, on the preceding Satur-
day, and that he was known to that gentleman, whilst she her-
self had been known to Mrs. Griffiths at the time she was ha
the sex vice of Sir Charles Forbes in Fitzroy-square. At that
period Mrs. Griffiths also lived in that square. The de-
fendant then proceeded to say that her father was in ex-
pectation of receiving pecuniary assistance from Mr. Grif-
fiths, and that he was at that moment ill in bed, and, of
course, was unable to call upon him ; that he was in arrear
at his club, of which he had been a member and subscriber
for several years ; and that if those arrears were not paid by
a given time, he would be a loser of any benefit from that
society. Having concluded this story, she then requested the
loan of 10s. 6d. to enable her father to pay up these arrears.
Mrs. Griffiths thereupon inquired how it was that she had not
made an application to Sir Charles Forbes, when the girl re-
plied that her late master was from home, and was at Kensing-
ton, on a visit to his son, and that if Mrs. Griffiths would have
the kindness to make the advance, the sum should be repaid
out of some money she had to receive shortly from the club,
after the payment of the arrears, on her father's account. This
promise. however, was not performed. but the defendant came
again and applied for another loan. Mrs. Griffiths upon this
gave a sovereign to her servant, desiring that she should accom-
pany the girl to the club, and then, if upon inquiry she found
her tale to be true, to give her the money. The inquiry, how-
ever, led to the discovei y that the whole of the statement was
fabricated, and therefore the sovereign was handed back to Mrs.
Griffiths.
The officer of the Mendicity Society said that he had known
the defendant for some time as a begging impostor, and further-
more that he had had her in cu.tody on a previous occasion.
The jury found the defendant Guilty.
The Learned JIDOIL then sentenced the defendant to six
months' imprisonment in the House of Correction.
The other cases which were disposed of were destitute of
any feature et public interest.

POLICE iNTELLIGENCE.
ROW--S I HEFT.

FRAUD ON A GAS COMPANY.—Mrs. Mann, landlady of a
public-house in Dean-street, soh'', and Iri/liarn Newman, a
gas fitter, were summoned, the latter for laying a pipe into
the h.,use and premi-es of the forme; def. ndant, which com-
municated with the pipe belonging to the Equitable Gas Com-
pany, without their knowledge or consent, and which continued
se to remain for forty-one .:ays. which subjected them, under
the sth Vic., secs. 2, chap. 36 (local), sec. 162, to 40s. for
each day.
Mr. Humphries appeared on behalf of the complainants, and
Mr. Child for the female defendant.
Mr. Humphries said that in the month of February last the
female defendant contracted with the company, after which a
meter was placed upon her premises, with a quantity of .
burners, according to the plan produced, from which it ap-
peared that the gas was supplied trom the main pipe in
the street, communi-ating with the meter in the house,
through other pipes. There was another pipe marked red
in the place, running from the legitimate pipe, which was
surreptitious. and which formed the subject of complaint.
On the 3d of May, something occurred in the house adjoining
the Jefendant's house, which caused a man to tie sent by the
Company to take an account from the index, and having shut
up the pipe, he found that the gas still passed to the meter,
which he communicated to the Company, in consequence of
which the house was watched, and it was then discovered that
from the day in question, till the lath of June, lights were in
full play to the number of eighteen. The female defendant
being apprised of the circumstance, she immediately went to
the other defendant, who applied to another company, who I
ordered persons to attend on her for the purpose of taking her ,
orders ; but, being put in possession of the fact, they declined
to take any such order. It was manifest that the surreptitious
pipes had existed about forty-one days, the penalty for
which would amount to lat., although the object of the Com-
pany was not severity, but that the public should know that
the parties committing such acts rendered themselves liable to
severe punishment.
Mr. Child said he was instructed to plead guilty on the part
of his cheat, and he hoped the Court would be lenient, as the
male defendant had acted without her knowledge, and,
although the burners were increased, there was no increase of
gas consumed.
The defendant was then ordered to pay a mitigated penalty
of 201., with costs.
The defendant Newman was then charged with the offence
above-mentioned, to which he pleaded not guilty.
The several officers connected with the company having
proved the ease, the defendant was Ilse convicted in a penalty
of 20/.' with costs.
The defendant said he had not sufficient goods to distrain
upon ; and after being detained in custody for some time, he
was ordered to attend on a future day to have the distress war-
rant made out against him, unless he was prepared to pay the
amount in the mean time.
S. WTH WARK. _ _ _

DESTIRATI ATTEMPTS AT Stricms.—Thursday, Mrs.
Eliza Roberts, the wife of Mr. Henry Boyden Roberts, a so-
licitor, was charged before Mr. Cottingham with making two
very determined attempts upon her life by poison and strangula-
tion on the preceding day.
Mr. Sidney Price, of 37, Union-street, Friar-street, Black-
friars-road, stated that the defendant, Mrs. Roberts, had been
lodging in his house for the last three months, and with her
child occupied one room on the second floor. For some days
past he an„ his wife observed that the defendant exhibited con-
siderable depression of spirits, and on the preceding day she
!poke of her husband, from whom she was separated, and said
that he had degraded her by giving her intocustody and sending
her to the station-house, and a hied that being tired of her ex-
istence she had resolved to terminate her earthly career, but did
not rapt ess by what means. The witness perceiving that she
locket! ill, and suspecting that she had taken something of a de-
leterious nature, examined her room and found an empty phial
with the word " poison" written on a label. He questioned ber
on the subject, but as she manifested no disposition to give any
information, he immediately sent for a medical man. and an
emetic and other means having been resorted to she reco-
vered after a short time; but being in a veli weakly condition
she was ordered to lie down and be kopt quiet. The defendant
was then placed in bed, sad in a few hours afterwards when
witness's wife went un to her room to take her seine gruel she
fonod the door locked. She knocked repeatedly. but without
effect; when witness, btit.g apprised of the cireustistance, went
up himself and broke open the door. (hi entering the room
he found %its. Roberts ljing apparently lifele son the htd with
a silk scarf twisted tightly round her neck, her face distorted,
and all the indications of strangulation perceptible. The liga-
ture having been removed, and restoratives having been admi•
nistered, she recovered, and as she subsequently expressed a
determination to destroy herself, the wi ness and his wife had
her brought up to this Court that steps might be adopted to
prevent a recurrence of the a tempt upon her life.
Mr. Cornea lt Asi inquired the cause of the defendant' hav-
ing mmie this rash attempt to destroy herself, and whether her
husband w.s apprised of the circumstances of her narrow escape

from death ?
The vileness, in reply. s-id that the defendant's husband was
a wile:dor, resieli-g in Church-street. Trinity-square—that a
separation had taken place between them about four years age,
awing to her having an illicit intercou, se with a Life Guards.
man—that Mr. Roberts subsrquently brought an action for
cri.n. con. against the soldier, the is•ue was tried before the
Sheriff, when 'he defendant allowed judgment to go lay default,
and the damages were assessed at 500/. Since that occurrence
Mr. Roberts and his wife had been hying apart, and as he sub-
scribed notteing to her support, she was reduced from a state
of comparative affluence to great indigence, and it was the
pressuie of want, he ( witness) had every reason to believe,
was the cause of her having made the attempts upon her exist-
ence. He added that he had forgotten to mention in the early
part of his statement that Mrs. Roberts, on finding she was
foiled in her attempts to destroy herself, had refused all sus-
tenance, declaring that she would starve herself to death, so
bent was she on self-destruction, and that she should lie down
and die at her husband's door.
Mr. COTTINGHAII inquired whether she had any relatives_,
and how she had been supporting herself since their separation?
The witness said that her parents lived at Spalding, Lincoln.
shire—that they allowed their (laughter a small pittance, merely
sufficient to pay her lodgings, and that she contrived to eke out
a miserable subsistence for herself and child by shirtmaking,
for which she was paid at the rate of fourpence a. piece.
Mrs. Roberts, who appears to be about twenty-six or
twenty-seven years of age, looked very ill, and wept during
the investigation, said, in a tone scarcely audible, that being
in great distress, together with her child, she went a few days
ago to her husband's house, to solicit some pecuniary
assiitance; that he peremptorily refused to give her a farthing,
and threatened to give her into custody if she came after him.
Finding that he was resolute in his determination, and that
everything conspired to make her miserable, she admitted
that she left his house with the fixed purpose of destroying
herself.
Mr. COTTINCHAM said that it was a most deplorable affair
altogether ; that evidence having been given before him
that the defendant had made two attempts upon her life, and
also had expressed her determination to starve herself to death ;
he was, therefore, called upon to place under restraint. This
he would de by calling upon her to find bail, and in the interval
he should communicate with her friends, and try if some ar-
rangement could not be made so as to relieve her and her
child from the pressure of want. The worthy Magistrate then
gave directions that the unfortunate woman should be taken to
the county gaol. and that in her present lamentable condition
attention m.ght be paid to her consistently with the regula
tions of the gaol.