Star.
London, England, 1830-10-07 00:00:00

POLICE REPORTS.

MAN S lON.HOU ST.—A coal-meter, named Fact y, was charged before
the LORD Mayo a with having violated the confidence him,l
by signing a meter's ticket for one chaldrun (12 oche) reed in
coals, which
proved to be three bushels and a half deficient.
Mr. Staunton stated that the coals were sold by Samuel Johnson, of
Rutland-place wharf, and that witness desired the carman to measure a
certain sack which he pointed out. There was a demur about measuring
that particular sack, but the witness insisted upon it; and in conse-
quence of the remarkable deficiency, he sent for a coal-meter to the coal.
meters' office' and had the whole chaidron measured. The deficiency
proved to be three bushels and a half.
The defendant made one of the customary excuses—viz that the mis-
take was unavoidable on account of the great difference in the size of the
coals, and the appearance of the bulk of the different bushels.
Mr. Staunton said that another coalameter endeavoured to screen the
defendant from exposure, and offered to send a sack of coals to him
(witness) if he would forego the remessurement.
The Loan MAYOR considered the interposition of the second coal.
meter a proof of conspiracy. His Lordship declared, that if connivance
had the effect of stopping Si bushels out of 12 sacks, the public were
indeed but miserably protected. lie was determined to punish every
case of short measure, whether it arose from neglect or any other cause ;
and be ordered the defendant to be suspended for one month.
Edward Edwards, a coal-meter was then charged by Mr. Reeve and
Mr. Rurastead, the principal coal-meters, with having improperly inter-
fered to prevent the re.measurement of the above-mentioned coals, by
offering a sack of coals as a recompense. The interference was clearly
proved.
The defendant declared that he never had interfered with the mea-
surement of the coals, but be happened to be present at the time they
were ordered to be re-measured.

The LORD 5IA:oz said, he considered the conduct of Edwards
worse than that of Facey had been, and suspended him for a month.
Soon after the parties left the room, Mr. Staunton returned, and in-
formed the Lord Mayor that Edwards had just shook his fist in his face,
and called him a perjured villain."
A warrant was :issued for the apprehension of Edwards, who, upon
being taken, was so penitent, that the LORD Manz, at the request of
Mr. Staunton, discharged him.
A great quantity of unwholesome salmon has been lately imported.
The exposure which the practice of selling unwholesome salmon got a
few years ago, for a considerable time checked it. The fact is, that the
public were.so much shocked at the hazard they ran by eating kipper
and shedder salmon, that they would not touch any, and an enormous
loss was sustained by the importers of good salmon. This result was a
caution to the salesmen, who suffered severely, and the market remained
clear of the offensive article.

Robert Wilson, a fish salesman, was summoned by Mr. Cioldham,
the clerk of the market, to whose unceasing exertions:the public are in.
debted for protection from this dangerous food, for having exposed some
of it for sale.

Mr• Goldham produced a sample of the fish, with's prodigious roe in
it, and which, he said, would, if allowed to remain in its proper ele-
ment, have produced 1,000 young in the course of the year. The fish
was speckled on the back with red spots, and was what the salesmen
called a " harlequin." It was extremely injurious to the constitution.
It was also what the judges called a "hook-nose," a common deformity
with fish out of season. The tavern-keepers, in some instances, played
tricks with the roe of the unwholes4me fish. They frequently served
them up u lobster sauce, aid those who ate this nice substitute for that
delicious sauce,did not know to what to ascribe the belly-ache after hav-
ing indulged themselves. In the city the deception could not be easily
practised, but at the west.end of the town it was quite common, He
had destroyed 3,000 of these fish already, and the lons to the public
might be very well imagined.
The Loan MAYOR said it was evident the practice of taking un-
wholesome fish was injurious to the fisheries as well as to the health of
the public.
The defendant said that the unwholesome salmon was usually packed
in the bottom of the boxes along with that which was unexceptionable.
He was wholly unconscious that salmon of the kind was in any of the
boxes which he had to dispose of, and would take care to give due notice
to those at the fisheries for whom he made sales.

The LORD illawon ordered that the fish produced should be de-
stroyed, and that the defendant should pay the expenses.
W. Beceroft, a bummarec, or retailer of salmon in Billingsgate.
market, was next charged with having exposed unwholesome salmon
for sale.

Mr. Goldham said he had two or three times cautioned the defendant,
who had no excuse, as he as well as the other bumtuarees were excellent
judges of fish.
The Loan Maims( asked-what could be the motive of the defendant
for selling fish of the kind ?
_Mr. Goldham said, they got it for Sd. or 41. a pound, and could not
resist the temptation of the great profit.
The LORD MAYOR ordered the fish to be destroyed, and assured the
bummaree that he should, if again found exposing such an article for
sale, be deprived of his stand.
Thomas Gilson was charged with a similar offence.
The defendant said he could not help being deceived, as he bought by
candle.-light, when examination was exceedingly difficult.
kir. Hostata said it was impossible for men of such experience to be
deceived. They knew the unseasonable fish at a glance.
The fish was ordered to be destroyed, and the defendant was told that
if he repeated the offence he should be deprived of his stand.
LastirTst-irrazyr.--Pefer Saunders, a man having the appear-
ance of a naval-officer, but who has for a long time been " upon
the town," and has figured at the bars of the Thames Police-office
and Union-hall, upon .different charges of swindling, was brought
before Mr. WALLER, charged with stealing two watches, under the
lat followin circumstances
:
Mn. gs, a lady residing-in Mount-street, Whitechapel, said, on
the 28th o last month, the prisoner came to heri house, and wished to
hire a lodging, saying, he had just come from New South Wales, in the
George. She was induced to let him sleep there, and as he said he had
no clean linen, she lent him a shirt. The next morning he went away,
and did not return, and she soon after missed two watches.
Another lady, named Greenfield, said the prisoner came to her house,
and from his representations, she lent him five-and-twenty shillings,
and he decamped. He was, however, brought to her house by a man to
whom she had given information of the robbery, and when she asked
him for the money he said he could not give it her then, but he would
leave her a watch as a security for the repayment.
This watch was produced, and identified by the first witness as one
of those she had lost. _ _

Lee, an officer, said, from information he received, be went to the
White Swan public-house, Ratcliff-highway, and took the prisoner into
custody. On searching him, he found the duplicates of a watch, which
had also been identified by Mrs. Bagss.
The prisoner was fully committed to Newgate for trial.
HaTrom-aaanzw.—Yesterday William Turner, a drayman, in
the service of Reid and Co. brewers, appeared upon a summons before
Mr. Rogers, to answer the complaint of Mr. Simmonds, of Euston.
square, for negligent driving.
The complainant stated, that on Friday last he, accompanied by his
groom, was driving in a stanhope along the Harrow-road, towards tireen-
ford, when, just as be approached the eight mile-stone, he met a dray
drawn by three horses, which warped to that side of the road on which
he was driving, and as the road was too narrow to enable him to pass the
dray, he drew up and called out to two men whom he saw sitting on the
dray, to guide the horses aright. The men, one of whom was the de..
fendant, appeared to take no notice whatever of him, and by this time
the leader approached him so nearly as to render it impossible for him to
get out of the way, and he expected every moment that himself and the
stanhope would be crushed to atoms against the wall. However,
fortunately for him, he had a dog in the stanhope, whose barking
affrighted the leader, and caused him to warp again suddenly
to the opposite side, which was the only thing that could have
possibly saved him (the complainant) and the vehicle from utter de-
unction, and as the dray passed close by him he distinctly obxreed
I that the two men were fast asleep. He roused up the defendant, and
having asked him whose servant he was, he replied that he was servant
to Mr. Reid, the brewer, of Liquorpond.street, to whom the dray be.
longed. On the following day he called at Messrs. Reid's brewhonse,
and having ascertained the defendant's name, he had a summons issued
for his appearance here to answer for his neglect, and he (the can.
plainant) was induced to press the charge, because not only was his
own life and the lives of other passengers on the road exposed to the
most imminent danger, but also the life of the defendant and that of
his companion, who, while they were asleep, might have tumbled off
the dray and been crushed to pieces.
Mr. Roasas having asked the defendant what he had to say to the
charge, he replied that having been up at a very early hour, and tra-
velled much of the country on the day in question, he became fatigued,
and having sat on the dray to rest himself, be dropped off asleep. He
had been 20 years in the service of his present employers, and never
during that time had there been a single complaint made against him
till now. The person who sat on the dray with him was not a drayman,
but a poor man, whom he picked up on the road, who had walked a
great deal, and who was unable to proceed further at the time on foot in
consequence of his lameness.
Mr. Roans observed, that as a caution to him against endangering
his own and the lives of others in future, he should fine him in the pe-
nalty of 10s. and costs and, turning to 3lr. Simmonds, he said the
public, no doubt, would he very much obliged to him for the trouble
be had undertaken in the business.

The defendant having paid the penalty, Mr. Simmonds handed over
the 10s. fine to the Magistrate, to be deposited in the poor-box.
The Magistrates thanked him, and he withdrew.

THA3IESPoLtac.Orricx.—IMPORT %31T DECISION.—YOIterday
Alichacl Skelly and Patrick Wray, two Irish coal.whippess, ap.
pared before Mr. BALLANTIVE, On an information laid spinster/tem
under the 148th section of the Coal Act, for refusing to attend upon a
summons of one of the magistrates of this °See, to give evidence against
Capt. Richard Wardell, master of the ship Triune, by which they had
incurred a penalty of 901. and all the costs an conviction.
The information was she firer laid under the clause named in the Act,
and the hearing of the case excited much interest.
Mr. F. Id:Wegener, a solicitor, attended in support of the informs,

Lion, and stated that several informations bad lately been preferrad
against the masters of colliers, coal undertakers, publicans, and otlitti,
for taking what is termed in the coal-trade ‘, tow-row,"—that in, a
gratuity exacted from the coal whippers who are employed in chance,
the ml-ships in the river, and which is divided amongst the publics,.,
the muter, and the undertaker, after being deducted from the hard-
earnings of the poor labourers. The penalty for exacting " tow.zuw"
is 201. and although proceedings had been instituted for the sole puritost
of securing to the men the whole of their hard.earned wages, it was but
seldom any of them would come forward to give evidence against trio%•
who exacted the many. Under these circumstances they tette corn
pelled to adopt the present proceedings.
George Ells, a 19tamss police.officer, deposed, that en Monday, the
20th of September, he served summonses on both defendants, for then,
to attend and give evidence against Captain Wardell for exacting money
from certain sod-whippers Who were employed in clearing his yew!
The summonses were signed by Captain Richbell, but neither of ti,
defendants appeared.
Mr. BALLANTINI inquired if the information was dismissed in con
sequence of the non-attendance of the two men ?
Mr. Wegener replied in the affirmative. His client was saddlL
with all the costs, and be had no doubt the witnesses had beer
tampered with by those who were in the habit of taking tow-tow
from the labourers.
The defendants declared that they were not aware of the conse-
quences of not obeying the summonses, or they would have attended.
They were engaged in clearing a colliery on the day the information was
to be heard, and should have lost a day's work had they come forward
to give evidence.
Mr. BALLawslux said, their expenses would have been allowed by
the magistrates had they obeyed the summonses, and they could not
plead ignorance of the law, as each summons distinctly stated the penal.
ties incurred for non-attendance. They had acted very foolishly in rue
coming forward, as the information was laid against the master of tht
vessel, to prevent themselves and fellow-labourers from being impose!

u The defendants said they were totally unable to pay any penalty.
Mr. Wegener said, he was imperatively called upon to press for
conviction, as an example to deter others from disobeying the Magi,-
%rates' summonses.

Mr. BALLANTINE said, as the case was proved, he had nu other
alternative than to convict in the full penalty of NI. and costs. The
act_anve him no power of mitigation.
The defendants being unable to pay the penalties, were consigned to
the house of correction.

UNlON.MALL.—Yesterday four men, employed In pulling down
houses in High.street, Southwark, to make way for the approaches to
the new London.bridge., were brought up on the following charge :
Waubey, the street-keeper, after having described the wretched state
of the thoroughfare in High-street, owing to the work going forward
there, said that no attention whatever was paid by the superintendents of
the new improvements in that quarter to the accommodation of the public.
The manner in which the houses were pulled down by the workmen
was exceedingly dangerous to those who happened to be passing near
the spot, for instead of using the necessary precaution of placing a board
in front of the buildings, no such course was adopted, and the workmen,
to save:trouble, were in the habit of making ropes fast to the external
walls, and then a number of them pulled away until they brought thr
whole mass of rubbish into the street. On Saturday last several houses
were pulled down by this expedient, and workmen, instead of clearing
the rubbish way, allowed it to remain, blocking up the thoroughfare, to
the great inconvenience of the public, until the Monday evening,
although they were frequently warned during Saturday to remove the
obstruction.

Mr. Sor.ostox %am, the magistrate, complained of the very int.
proper way in which the houses were taken down in High-street. He
had no doubt, he said, that the workmen were allowed boards by the
contractors, but they were not used, and the houses were levelled to the
ground in the manner described by the street-keeper. He had himself
witnessed that very morning one of the houses pulled down by that
dangerous mode, instead of bricks being lowered down in baskets,
as practised on the city side. He also observed that there were no boards
placed up in front of the buildings in a course of being taken down,
which rendered it extremely hazardous to those passing that great tho.
he street-keeper said, that the defendants were all at work in the
centre of the street that morning clearing bricks, and although they were
told to remove the impediment thus created, they refused.
Mr. CHAMBERS mid, that the public thoroughfare was not to be
obstructed by the rubbish, which should have been conveyed away in.
stead of being left there. The Magistrate then asked one of the fore.
men whether it was out of necessity that the thoroughfare was blocked
up, from the Saturday until Monday evening?
The foreman said that he could give no answer to the question ; upon
which

Mr. Cnamagns convicted the defendants in a penalty of 40s. each,
and intimated his determination of inflicting fines on all those who were
brought before him for offences of a similar description.
Town-Hatt.—Elias Fro*, 14 years of age, was charged with
stealing a coral necklace and a pair of pearl ear-rings, from Jane 11eb.
ber, seven years old. The prisoner, as she was at play, asked her ta
show her the way to Weston-street; as they were going, the prisoner
took of her necklace, and pat it in her bosom, for fear of the crowd, she
said ; presently they came to a toy-shop, where the prisoner told bar to
go in and ask the price of a doll, and let ber look at the ear-rings the
while, which she took out of her ears; when she came out of the shop
the prisoner was gone.
The prisoner was remanded.