The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-06 00:00:00

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.
(YESTERDAY.)
MANSION-HO USE.
William Christey, a Custom-house agent, was brought
before the Lord Mayor by Inspector Waller, upon a warrant,
charged with having been concerned in frauds committed at the
Custom-house.
Mr. Hobler, jun., stated that he appeared by order of the
Board of Customs, to prosecute in the case. The prisoner
had been employed to enter goods at the Custom-house, and
to pay the duty on them, and he stood charged with having
paid duty on a smaller amount of goods than had been im-
ported, and with having charged the duty ~.t) the full extent to
those who engaged him to act for them. He ( Mr. Hobler,
jun.) had preferred indictments before the grand jury at the
Central Criminal Court by order of the Board of Customs, and
those bills had been returned, and he subsequently obtained a
warrant for the apprehension of the prisoner, which was exe-
cuted by Inspector Waller. The prisoner was, as the offence
with which he was charged was a misdemeanour, entitled to be
released upon giving bail to appear at the next session of the
Central Criminal Court for trial.
The LORD MAYOR having learned that there were three in-
dictments against the prisoner, said he should require two se-
curities of 2001. each upon each indictment, and the prisoner's
own security to the amount of 6001. upon all of them.
Mr. Alexander Christey, of Muscovy-court, Trinity-square,
lighterman, and Mr. George Henning, of Artillery-court,
Chiswell-street, were then examined and accepted by Mr
Hobler, jun. as bail.
These indictments cannot be tried any where but at the
Central Criminal Court.
The police gave good evidence yesterday of the wholesome
effect of the Lord Mayor's positive directions to them regard- 1
ing the omnibus nuisance. Several drivers and conductors of
omnibuses were brought before his Lordship, charged by the
officers in various districts with having loitered, notwithstand-
ing the numerous examples which, to their knowledge, have
been made within the last eight or ten days. The defendants
tried, by every manwuvre of which they were capable, to get the
penalties remitted altogether, or at least mitigated. In all their
efforts they were unsuccessful. His Lordship inflicted the full
fine upon every man against whom the charge of having loitered
was established. Most of the defendants paid. A few pre-
ferred a taste of Bridewell.
THE STATE OF THE STREETS AS TO CLEANLINESS.—
Several gentlemen, amongst whom were some members of the
Court of Common Council, waited upon the Lord Mayor, to
inform his Lordship that, notwithstanding the activity displayed
by him in urging the due performance of the contract for keep-
ing the streets clean, the contractor evidently disregarded all
hints, and directions, and threats, and seemed determined to go
on in his old way, not caring anything at all about the matter.
Mr. Lott, of Cordwainers -ward, said he felt most grateful
to the Lord Mayor for the attempts he was making to cleanse
and purify the streets of the several wards, and he sincerely
hoped that the cleansing and purification would reach his ward,
which greatly stood in need of some strong process of the kind.
He begged to be allowed to state that a scientific person had
called upon him and exhibited some drain pipes, for application
to under-draining wood and other pavements, as the mud in
streets was, from the foundation, when wet and soft, working
up between the block of wood or stone, of which .the pavement
was composed.
The LORD MAYOR advised that the plan should be sub-
mitted to the Commissioners of Sewers.
Mr. Bracher. of Coleman-street Ward, said that Moorgate-
street, and the lanes and alleys adjacent, had not been touched
with broom or the machine for a considerable time, so that
some opinion might be formed of the condition of that neigh-
bourhood at the present moment. People as they passed along
were covered with mud, and the shop windows came in for a
pretty good share. The contractor had been applied to, and
had promised to do all that was necessary, but he had done
nothing.
The Loan MAYOR—The best course you can adopt is to
summon him before me.
Mr. Bracher—l shall do so, my Lord. lam determined to
follow it up.—The summons was then issued.
MA R YL EBONE.
Eliza Dutton, a poor-looking creature, clothed in rags, who
has spent more than half her years in prison, was again placed
at the bar, charged with drunli znness, and an attempt to com-
mit suicide in her cell.
It appeared that after the fri son er had been locked up, the
sergeant on duty ( Cummins) heard a noise in the cell, and
looking in, observed that the risoner was making an attempt
on her own life. She had, in the most determined manner,
torn off the waistband of her dr -tss, fastened it round her throat,
and had drawn either end so tiAtly, that Cummins had great.
difficulty in cutting it with hi penknife. When released the
prisoner was quite insensible, ~id a sargeon, who was called
in immediately, was engaged si•veral hours before she perfectly
recovered. Had assistance come a minute later life would
have been extinct.
The prisoner begged hard to be forgiven, but
Mr. Lowe committed her for a month to the House of Cor-
rection, and a person was place.- in the lock-up cell, lest she
should again attempt self-destruction.
Matthew Thomson, groom :o Mr. Crawley, solicitor, of
Fitzroy Farm, Highgate, was fully committed for trial, for
having at various times stolen sdlit beans from the stable of his
master.
WORSHIP-STREET.
Thursday a tall, powerful man, named Patrick Connell, ap-
parently a bricklayer, was charged before Mr. Bingham with
cutting open the head of a youth, named William White, with
a t odor's lion, called a " goose," and thereby endangering his

life.
The offence was fully proved, but it appeared that the pri-
soner's intellects were considered to be affected.
The object of the prisoner's rage, who is a slender youth of
15 years of age, was ghastly pale, and so ill that it was with
considerable difficulty he could support himself while giving
his evidence.
Mr. Courtney, the surgeon, described the injury as a very
severe scalp-wound of great extent, and said it was altogether
a truly wonderful escape from death.
The prisoner, of whose insanity there cannot be the remotest
dcubt,—as the unhappy man sometimes displayed the most
apathetic indifference and at ethers the greatest violence, and
for one half of the day was singing and shouting gaily, and for
the other was on his knees devoutly praying,--made in his de-
fence an incoherent and unintelligible harangue, and
Mr. BD./GHATS fully committed him to Newgate for trial.
leaving it to a jury to determine the question of his sanity.
LAMBETII-STREET.
- • -

On Thursday, after the numerous night charges had been
disposed of by Mr. Norton, Nehemiah Shahspeare, a middle-
aged man, who had been upwards of seven years resident engi-
neer at the Lambeth waterworks, and who while in that situa-
tion enjoyed a handsome salary, was brought into Court and
charged by Mr. Johnston, the principal in the firm of Johnston
and Co., of Gloucester-street, Commercial-road, with having
wilfully and maliciously caused the bursting of a steam-boiler
on his premises on Tuesday morning last, by which the lives
of upwards of 70 individuals were placed in the most imminent
danger, and property to a considerable amount destroyed.
An account of this explosion appeared in the Sun of
Wednesday.
It appeared from the evidence of Mr. R. Johnston, that
the accused had been engaged by him as engineer at a salary
of 2Ss. a week. The accused had been engaged in preparing
a slide for the engine, and witness thinking that he was slow in
executing the job, told him that if he did not wish to do it to
say so at once, and he would find somebody else to finish it.
The prisoner made no particular observations in reply;
he, however, finished the job on Monday. On Tuesday,
the morning of the explosion, witness went into the engine-
room and saw nothing amiss. The witness described
the manner in which the engine was supplied with water,
for the purpose of proving that with oriLnary care all tie-
rangement from deficiency of water might be avoided.
After witness had gone from the engine-house to the ware-
house he was alarmed by a violent rush of steam into the latter
place, about ten minutes to 9 o'clock. The witness then de-
scribed the effects produced by the explosion of the boiler.
When he first saw the prisoner afterwards he was standing by
the side of the boiler in the yard. Witness said, "Well,
Shakspeare, you have done a pretty thing,' and observing that
he was smiling at the time, and instead of exhibiting the
slightest grief or regret at what had happened, seemed to enjoy
it as a good joke. Witness, addressing a friend who was with
him at the time, said, " Look at the old villain, he has got a
smile upon his countenance ;" and his only answer was, " No,
1 have not." While witness was in conversation with Mr.
Good, a cigar manufacturer, the prisoner was about to leave the
yard, but witness told him he should not leave the place, and
that he (witness) would give hitr into custody. The prisoner
merely replied, "Oh, very well," and requested he would allow
him to go home for his jacket. Witness permitted him to go
as he requested, expecting of course that he would come back,
but witness saw nothing of him fr' m that time until this morn-
ing, when he came to the premises, and witness then sent far
a constable and gave him into custody. When he saw the
policeman he laughed. Finding he prisoner had kept out of
the way, witness had called at thu prisoner's lodgings, and left
word, as he was not at home, thar unless he came forward wit-
ness would send a policeman after him.
John Williams said he had been employed in assisting the 1
prisoner in finishing the slide for me engine, and on Monday
night he had occasion to get upon the top of the boiler, and
finding that there was no water in It, he, addressing the priso-
ner, said, " Halloo, there's no water in the boiler ;" upon
which be replied, " No, I should think not." On Tuesday
morning, a little before ten o'clock, he (witness) was in the
saw-house, when the prisoner came in there and went past
him, and was returning, when the explosion took place. At
the time the prisoner exclaimed, " Oh ! what's that ?" and
the witness replied, " It's the boiler that's burst, and you must
know it is." Its reply to a question from Mr. Johnston, the
witness said that on Monday the stoker tried the cocks in front
of the boiler, and found there was no water on.
The prisoner declared he could not account in any way for
the accident, but was satisfied it was not for want of a good
supply of water. He further said that he was perfectly inno-
cent of the charge, and that it was quite impossible he could
have thought of anything so wicked, as he endangered his own
life as much, if not more, than any other ;and for his charac-
ter's sake, as an engineer, would aot have wished the thing for
a thousand pounds.
Mr. NORTON observed the case should undergo a much
more minute investigation, and remanded the accused to a
future day, consenting, however, in the meantime, to take bail
for his future appearance.
THAMES-. 1 OLICE.

It is now more than twelve months since this Court was
opened for tha transaction of pubic business, yet nothing can
be so disgraceful as the state of each and every of the passages
by which it is accessible. The approaches north and south by
Charles-street and Arbour-square. when the weather softens
in the slightest degree, are all but ankle deep in mire, whilst
the two other modes of access, ooe leading from the Court to
the Post-office, are altogether i:opassible except by wading
knee-deep through the slough. .1p to last summer a stagnant
pool, reaching from the footway 611 either side, lay directly in
front of the entrance to the CoPrt. By way of remedying
this the:water the water was balec out, the soil was dug up and
carted away, and a parcel of loose shingle, without a particle of
binding material, was thrown into the hollow. The conse-
quence is, there being no drainao,P, all the moisture in the
neighbourhood oozes into the holl:.w in which the loose shingle
is deposited, and the unhappy wiplat who hopes to escape from
the mud by stepping on the stones feels his footing give way,
and finds himself suddenly immersed in the subjacent pool,
wondering the while what motive the constructor of a trap can
have, the only produce of which is the increase of catarrhs.
Wo to the confiding waggoner %Yr.°, trusting to the seeming
solidity of the way, ventures his team upon the passage ; once
floundering in the slough of despcod, nothing short of unload-
ing will enable him to get out. It is amusingly provoking to