Star.
London, England, 1830-11-25 00:00:00

POLICE REPORTS.

Mawstow-Ho uss.--Mr. Saunders, fishmonger, in the City, and
Mr. Gamper's, Secretary to the Society for the prevention of Cruelty to
Animals, waited upon the Lord Mayor, to mention to his Lordship a
singular species of inhumanity, in which persons connected with the
fisheries are In the habit of indulging. The following was the sub-
stance of the complaint.
• • • •

- -
It has been the practice, when lobsters are caught, to tie up the claws
with cords, in ceder to prevent them from doing each other injury,as it is
known that shell-fish of the kind will, if this precaution be not
taken drag each other to pieces. The fish arc fretted by being thus
preventedBn horn grasping whatever they approach, but they sustain no
in quality as food. To save trouble, however, the humane per-
sons who deal in shell-fish substitute anther mode of preventing the
lobsters from biting, and stick a plug in tne spot where the claw is di-
vided. This practice, it is calculated, is the cause of great agony to the
poor fish, for the moment the shell is removed, the substance appears
to have lost its firmness, and the place where the plug is stuck is com-
pletely reduced and mortified.
The complainant stated that the lobsters were very often to be found
in fishmongers' shops in the condition above represented, with the bo-
dies injured materially, and the claws, which were considered the most
delicate parts of the fish, absolutely rotten. They had ascertained be.
yond a doubt, that the mortified condition of the fish was attributable to
the cruel method of plugging, and they hoped that, for the sake of hu-
manity, as well as for the security of the health of the public, the Lord
Mayor would issue a prohibition, or give such cautions or directions as
would put a stop to the practice.
The LORD MAYOR said that he had beard before of the practice, and
intended to have made some observations upoc the cruel and injurious
nature of it from the Chair. He could not seize a more fitting oppor-
tunity than the present, and was glad that the representation had
been made.
Mr. Mohler said that the ladies would at all events feel an interest in
discountenancing the practice of plugging lobsters, when they heard that
if children ate of any in that state, they were sure to incur the most dan-
gerous internal complaints.
The LORD MAYOR stated that he beard from a medical authority
that shell-fish tortured into mortification by plugging, was actually
poisonous. The public had often been put upon their guard against
unwholesome salmon. Unwholesome lobsters were, he was given to
understand, infinitely more dangerous.
The complainants hoped that the apprehension of danger would
operate on those upon whom the certainty of Inflicting unnecessary pain
had no effect in discouraging the practice.
The Loki) blaYon then said he should issue the necessary directions;
but indeed he had every reason to suppose that, after this public repre-
hension of the practice, the public would take care of themselves. The
lobsters of which sauce was made, ought to be very particularly looked
after, as the other ingredients were calculated to hide the mortified and
rotten condition of the fish.

Mr. Hobler mentioned that many an acquaintance of his who com-
plained in the morning of cholera morbus, or other internal complaints,
could trace the disorder to nothing but a supper of lobsters on the pre-
ceding night. He was convinced, from what he had lately heard, that
the plugged lobsters, whose substance underwent a total change by
the system of torture, had a dreadful effect upon the stomach.

John Griffin, a journeyman baker, was charged with having stolen
41bs. of flour, the property of his muter, Mr. Francis Aslen, of
London.wall. _ _ -

It appeared that, about eight days ago, the prisoner entered the
employment of the complainant, and that he was just a week at work,
when a hatful of flour was taken from him. He had been allowed a
guinea a-week, as much bread as he could eat, and a certain quantity
to take home each night.
The prisoner said be expected to be out of work in a week, and he
had thought it no harm to lay up a little flour for the time he should
be unemployed.
He was committed for trial. His unfortunate wife, when she beard
that he was to go to Newgate, screamed aloud, and continued to scream
and to beat at the bars of the cage in which her husband was locked,
until she was quite exhausted.
OUILDEALL.TAONIOS StIO/t, • chandler's shopkeeper in West-
street, Smithfield, appeared before Mr. Alderman Lucas, to answer to
an information filed against him by John True, a neighbour, for retail-
ing beer without having a descriptive board in front of his premises with
the words " Licensed to sell beer by retail."
Mr. Harmer, who attended for the defendant, objected that the law
required only such persons as were licensed to put up a board, and his
client not being licensed, the penalty did not attach to him.

Mr. Alderman Lucu held this to be good, and quashed the In-
formation. _ _ _ _ _

If the complaint had been that the party sold beer without being li.
ceased, the result must have been Merest.
The punishment of whipping seems to be growing more into disre-
pute every dsy.
Mr. Teague, the Governor of the Cempter, having dropped in acci-
dentally,
Mr. Alderman Faxesiovati Inquired about the health of the three
culprits who were severely flagged a few days ago, for conspiring to
rob the premises of Mr. Claimed, on Ludgate-Mil.

Mr. Teague replied that two of them were sufficiently recovered to be
again set to work at the hand corn-mill, but the third, Wilson,
(who received the smallest number of stripes,) was in the infirmary,
holes having made their appearance in that part of his back which was
Wasted.

Mr. Alderman FARIBROTRER, shuddering at this statement, fee.
trendy expressed a wish that be should live to see this barbarous punish.
ment abolished. It degraded the sufferer too much to leave room to
hope that he would reform or be admitted into society. It did not
prevent the repetition of crime, for when pain ceases, it is usually soon
forgotten ; the degree of terror of another flogging was little indeed,
because no man committed a crime till he had assured himself he
could accomplish it so cunningly as to certainly escape detection.
Then, it might be observed, these was the example to others made
by the punishment ; but, he would ask, bow many, and who
s
teingm the persons that ordinarily assembled to benefit by such ex.
:Teague concurred in these remarks, and added, that the punish.
meat had been delayed some days, in consequence of $ dispute between
the Under-Sheriffs and the Secondaries, as to which of them were bound
to superintend the infliction. The irksome duty ultimately fell to the
lot of Mr. Potter, the Acting Secondary.

Bow.STRZZT.—JohIt Montan, a young man, was brought before
Sir RICHARD BIRNIE and Mr. HALLI, on a warrant obtained against
him by the parish officers of St. Clement Danes, as the father of an il-
legitimate child, of which one Eliza Buck had been delivered in the
workhouse of that parish.
The mother of the child, who described herself as a servant, pointed
the defendant out as the father of the infant which she carried in
her arms.

Mr R. Buena asked Kiernan if he meant to deny the infant.
Defendant—No, your Worship, Ido not. I suppose it is all right.
Sir IL Brants asked Kiernan what he was.
Defendant—l am nothing now, your Worship. 1 was a police-con.
stable, but got discharged in consequence of this business.
Sir R. Buses ordered the defendant to pay 2s. 6d. a week for the
support of his child, and recommended the parish to intercede with the
Commissioners for him.
Tuesday, John Fellows, a man of extremely respectable appearance,
of the advanced age of 84 years, was brought up for re.examination
upon a charge of obtaining money ander false pretences, from a man
named Perkins, for whom he undertook to procure a situation in the
Customs.

Neither the prosecutor, nor any person on his behalf, appeared to sub.
stantiote the charge ; and as part of the money advanced to the prisoner
had been recovered, the magistrate observed that in all probability the
affair had been fully compromised.

LuDovAw GHOST REVIVED.—It will be recollected by
our readers, that a few months since a girl named Temperance Wil-
liams excited a considerable feeling of eh= in the parish of Ludgvan,
near Penzance, by playing a variety of tricks in the house of an aged
couple with whom she lived as servant, with the purpose of inducing
them to believe that these gambols were produced by supernatural
agency, and that after a full and patient bearing before a bench of ma.
gistrates of Penzance, the girl was committed to the County Beidewetl,
for having destroyed the property of her master. A shalt lime since
she was released from durance and returned to her native place, where
she was taken into the service of a person to whom she is related. She
had not been long in this situation when she commenced operations
in the old mode, though with some variations. On the former oc-
casion she operated on jugs„ teapots, glasses, fire-irons, a beer
barrel, 4tc. now she amazed the wondering inmates and the as. tonished visitants by operating on articles of food : a duck pre.
pared for the spit, to the terror of the beholders, appeared to resume
its vitality by bounding from the table to the floor and from
one apartment to another; but in all cases, the girl was in
the room where it commenced its movements. Pieces of salted
pork and rolls of butter were also flung about, as If by magic, and
stones were tossed in the air so as to fall amongst some persons who
were at work in a field adjoining the house where the girl lived. Setting
fire to articles of clothing was one of the mischievous pranks played in
the former instance, in the present case only one piece of cloth We,
burned. The late muter and mistress of the girl had been subjected to
a good deal of obloquy, in consequence of having prosecuted her, as
their ignorant neighbours could not be manamed the " evil one" was
not the immediate actor in these go:Ma* and consequently they were
and are firmly convinced that the girl had nothing to do with the mat.
ter, except as a sufferer by the freaks of the mischievously merry demon.
Varned by the censures so unsparingly beeped as the former -
to of this damsel, tier employers, who, as we stated, are relatedtto her,
bare been satisfied with sending her about bee business- On her depar-
nue the disturbances ceased. The above particulars have been trans-
mitted to us by a respectable carrsepoodeot...-Wea Brit.&