Star.
London, England, 1830-01-16 00:00:00

THE STASI OF •ALTIMORC V. 3.

The defendant in this case is a person who has been astonishing
the inhabitants of Baltimore by the wonderful exhibition of walk-
ing on the ceiling, and other feats, in the performance of which the
safely not only of himself, but of his children, was placed in immi-
nent jeopardy.
Among those who witnessed the performances he exhibited in
the Belvidere Theatre were some so doubtful of the propriety of
permitting their continuance, that a suggestion was made to the
Chief Judge, calling upon him to recommend Mr. Peters to the
notice of the Grand Jury. The Judge accordingly addressed that
body upon the subject, submitting at the same time to its conside-
ration, as documentary evidence in the cause, the advertisements
wherein the aforesaid Peters described to the public his calling,
capacities, and intentions. Before, however, the business could be
acted upon by the inquisition, the gentleman in question, obedient
to the citation of the Court, or of his own accord, in anxiety to vin-
dicate his character and conduct (I know not which), suddenly
plunged himself arm the stand, without waiting for a presentment
by the authorised organ of the law. Making a lowly obeisance,
the accused stood erect and fair to front his accusation, while the
following dialogue ensued :
" Are you Mr. Peters?" asked the Chief Judge.
" I am," was the firm reply.
" Are you the author of this advertisement?"—(Holding out
the newspaper.)—" I am."
" You call yourself the eighth wonder of the world ?"
I " 1 do."

"; You walk upon the ceiling?"—" I do."
0 And don't you thick it a dangerous way of performiug your
leraisibutations?"

No—may it please you, I walk, upon the ceiling with the sante
ease that you do upon the faor."
Well, Sir, admitting that to be the case, and admitting your
right to put your own neck in jeopardy, let us come to that per-
formance in which your children are participators, for of them we
must at least have a care. Do you ascend ropes with your
daughters, propelling wheelbarrows before you ?"
" I have done it, but I will never do it again; I failed in the at-
tempt last night, but that was not my fault—it was the fault of
the carpenter, who left the ropes too loose; I have done the thing
in Europe—l have done it in America. I did it lan evening with
success in rehearsal, and I thought I could have done it as well be-
fore the public ; but I failed, and I will nut repeat it again."
.. Very well, Sir. Now, let us see if you endanger your chil-
dren's lives in any other ways. I perceive by your advertisement
that they waltz upon the tight wire, on which they also balance
themselves on ladders, and the legs of chairs, 'poised upon porter
bottles. Surely, these feats are as fearfel as they are fantastic and
surprising. We cannot suffer you to deal thus with your children,
and use your parental authority for purposes so fraught with dan-
ger to their limbs and lives."
The father here took fire, and, though still respectful in his look.
and language, and with many a flourish of the fist (not a la
Mendoza) and stroke upon the sternum, or stomach, thus gave vent
to his emotions:—

"Sir, my daughters are my children. Sir, I gave them birth,
I gave them bread, I gave them breeding. I taught them my own
trade for a livelihood, I instructed them in the mysteries of the
science I profess, they assist me in my business, they help me to
make money ; but, Sir, not for all the money in America would I
expose their lives. Sir, I love my children more than money; eke
I should be the greatest brute in the world.—(Here a thump oa
the thorax that sounded like a gong.) Sir, lam on brute. (Here
a second thump of increased loudness.) Sir, lam disk father,
they are my children ; I can take care of them, I will take care of
them ; and if I risked their lives for money I shook! be the greatest
brute in the world."—(A third thump capping this climax of the
moral sublime.) A moment's pause followed this burst of elo-
quence, and the Judge resumed—
" Mr. Peters, we do not mean to charge you with want of
fatherly regard for your offspring—nay, your present conduct leads
us irre.istibly to a contrary conclusion; and as you have assured
us t►at the wh.elbarrow bu.ineaa shall be brought to a close. and
that the other exercises of your daughters are unattended with
danger, we suffer you to retire, with a word of counsel in caution•
ing you how you carry your own person; for though you are a
stranger among us, yet we are not so indifferent to your fate as to
feel unconcerned on your individual account; you can preserve
your perpendicularity without hangini like a plumb-line from the
ceiling; and although an antipode may be an animal we should be
glad to see, yet we would not gratify our curiosity at the expense of
your spine. You may withdraw.
hi:. Peters was as•uring the Court that they bad nothing to fear
for him, when a noise was heard at the door, and a man rushed
into the room, ovetsettiog constables, suitors, and spectators, to
his course. He pushed through the iron railing in spite of the
bailiff who stood sentry, and to whose loud demand of " silence"
he @bricked— _ _

" Be siknt yourself, I wUI speak."
The crowd around the bar gave him a passage, and In instant
kis band was interlocked in that of the acquitted juggler, who still
occupied the stand.
" Peters, my dear fellow, I'll stand by you," was the ezclama.
tion which burst from his lips as be wrung the band of the mounte-
bank. " Give me the paper," be cried, snatching it from the
clerk as be spoke, and glancing over the page as if searching for
Mr.. Peters' paragraph. The Judge, at the beginning of the dis-
turbance, called out " Arrest that man ;" but, when in the intruder
be recognised Booth, the tragedian, he countermanded the order,
and requested him gently to withdraw. Booth crushed the paper
in one hand, put the other akimbo, drew himself to his fullest
height, and fixed an eye upon the Judge, whose look was very
lightning. Never did I behold a gaze so stern—se piercing—so
intensely expressive of bitter scorn and implacable batted. At
that moment Richard, Skyleck, Bndus, Pisarest, and Sir Edward
Weaker, stood before me concentrated into a single character.
.71e ethereal essence of the tragic art was embodied in his air and
'attitude—a male personification of Melpomene—as he uttered. in
the lowest depths of a voice that seemed to Issue from au abyss—
" Do ye not know me? We've met ere this—Aye, and we
shall meet again ; and when that moment comes, I tell ye—
tremble!"
" Yes," replied the Judge calmly, " to we may, Mr. Booth ; in
'the mean time, however, you had better it us for the present
separate; Mr. „Peters needs no advocate now ; be is at liberty,
suet you may both retire."
He acquiesced without objection, withdrew his eye from the ob-
ject of be gaze, the stormy aspect of his visage brightened into a
smile of pod humour and gaiety, and throwing his arm over the
Ambler of the friend for whom he had step, forth a champion,
they lift she room, twined in the mutual embrace et pleased tea-
Ition. Mr. Booth soon after sent an apology to the Court for his
strange behaviour.
The incidents detailed presented a scene in Which the ludicrous

and the pathetic were singularly blooded. Mr. Peters and his ex-
amination were legitimate objects el latighter—but the conduct of
Mr. Booth excited emotions of a MIMS kW. It is well known
to the public that this unteetinatesontkosom lo visited by paroxysms
of temporary insanity, user whose Wiens be by turns puts on
the characters which his pretleedos beds bin to personate. No
one could base beheld him at the arnime alledsd to above without
pronouncing his dramatic talent debt being ordoe—and it is only
to be lamented that his was Shedd somedoes prove too mighty
for his :cum ; if it be true that it his dewed= to the noblest of
the muss may be traced the aright et his educe. His familiar
acquintaece with Mr. Peters—and the low, "peeling the love of
woman," which be displayed for that pereemege. Indeed furnish au
enigma which the supposition of his insankty alone will solve. In
one sense, indeed, Mr. P's walk of the drama may be called the
more elevated, since he treads the came of that stage of which Mr.
B. presses only the "dor. But apart from di view of the subject,
the worthy mountebank would seem as far beneath his companion
in respectability of profession, that intimacy could scarce exist with-
out the agency of the cause alluded to. It is said that Booth was
tern on thesrevious night at the performance spoken of evidently
labouring under a mental alienation, which vented itself in alternate
bursts of laughter and of tears.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.

COURT OF KING'S BENCH, Jas. 15.
DOBSON •ND OVUM V. DACSOT.

Mr. POLLOCK stated that this action was brought by the plain-
tiffs, who are owners of the ship ?denture, against the defendant,
an importer of corn, well known in the city of London, to recover
a claim of £5B ifs. for demurrage, or the detention of the above
ship during footmen days, contrary to the stipulations of two bills
of lading. The Mantura, in 1828, sailed from Liverpool to Bre-
men and the Weser, where she took in a cargo of corn consigned
to several persons in Loudon. The defendant was consignee of
wheat, oats, barley, and peas. There were two bills of lading. in
each of which it was stipulated that the ship was to be delivered
within fourteen days after bar arrival in the port of London : upon
one bill, the allowance for detention beyond that time was £5 per
day, and upon the other four guineas per day. It appeared that the
ship arrived in the river, off Greenwich, on the Sth Jan. 1829, and
was ready for delivery on the 6th. All the goods ought to have
been taken out by the 20th ; but the defendant did not clear out
the whole of his property before the 5d of February. The defence
was, that no notice had been given of the ship's arrival; and, 2dly,
that notice should have been sent to the defendant, that the time
for taking out his goods having expired, be was liable for demurrage.
The Arroaesv GSNKCAL—The defence is neither one nor the
other.—(A laugh.)
Mr. Pounce said there was another point of defence, namely,
that the cargo was not accessible, but the plaintiffs were in a condi-
tion to prove that the goods were always ready after the 6th of Ja-
nuary, and might have been taken away.
Several witnesses were called, and among them Mr. Isaac Dab-
eon, Captain of the Mentors, from whose testimony it appeared
that the cargo consigned to Mr. Droop might have been delivered
within the fourteen days after the arrival of the ship.
The Arroawar Gresset, for the defendant, said, the main
object in this action was to bring before his Lordship, and a more
solemn tribunal, a question which had given rise to a mistaken
opinion—an opinion which wouW make a great alteration in the
mercantile concerns of this country. The original understanding
upon the law of demumge was, that parties in default were to pay
demurrage jointly, but it never had been supposed that the master
and owners of a vessel were to receive five pounds or twenty-
live pounds, as it might be, per day, from several consiguees of
a cargo. The Common Pleas and this Court in decisions upon
that point were at variance, and it was of great importance
that the law should be clearly established. With respect to the
merits of the case, he should prove that the defendant bad sent day
after day to get his goods delivered, and that the answer received
was that the cargo was not ready. It would appear that bags
of wheat had been piled up in the hold of the ship, to act as bulk-
heads, for other consignments of grain stowed in bulk, and that it
was impossible to get at the defendant's goods before those bags
which kept one part of the cargo from mixing with another, were
removed. The house of Exley and Co. had paid £75 for fifteen
days' demurrage. and it was too much to call upon defendant to
pay .258 in addition, when the delay was not occasioned by any
fault on his part.
Several witnesses were examined in support of the defendant's
case. One of the name of Collins, a tide-waiter, said upon his
cross-examination, that when goods were demanded on board the
vessel, they were delivered.
Mr. Pottarx,ln reply, contended that there was proof the de-
fendant waited for a sale of his grain, there being at the time a glut
lin the market. There was not only a dithculty of sale, but lighters
for the delivery of corn-vessels could not be easily obtained. The
Learned Counsel observed, that he could not see much difference
in the decisions of the Common Pleas and that Court, upon the
law which the Learned Attorney• General bad aUuded to.
Lord Tammanxe—,l I am of opinion, that if a party cannot get
his goods, being prevented by delay on the part of the owners of
other goods in the same vessel, that he is not answerable for de-
murrage." The questiou in this case was whether the removal of
the defendant's goods was obstructed by the misconduct of another')
in not removing goods. His Lordship added, where that was the
case he should consider the party so obstructed not liable. If the
Jury should be of opinion that the goods consigned to the defendant,
and mentioned in the bill of landing, had been suffered, by the
negligence of the defendant, to remain on board after the time sti-
pulated for delivery, they ought to find for the plaintiff.
The Jury gave a verdict for £5B 16..

OLD BAILEY SESSIONS, Jan. 15.

Joseph Boss and Minos Staines were convicted of stealing several
articles of wearing apparel from St. Gilds Workhouse.
In the course of the morning, there were four prisoners tried
and convicted, who were brought to justice by the exertions of the
new police force. The thieves had been stopped with the stolen
property in their possession.
Joseph Mon* was indicted for stealing, ou the 29th of Septem-
ber last, a jar of tubacco.—Guilty.
Wis. Laurence was indicted for hying stolen several articles of
wearing apparel, at Holborn, on the Ist of January.
William Bell arrested the prisoner, and found on his person seve-
ral skeleton keys, one of which corresponded with the lock in the
door which was opened, and the bundle containing the goods that
were stolen, was also found upon him.
The prisoner endeavoured to account for the possession of those
goods with which be was charged with stealing, by saying that they
were given to hint by a man whom he was waiting for at the public
house when he was arrested.—Guilty.
.lokos Wittianu and dishes Woods were indicted for stealing. in St.
Martin's-in-the-Fields, two pieces of bacon, the property of John
Freeman.—Both Guilty.
Lallans Stafford was indicted for stealing two coats and two horse
dottiest Edmonton.—Not Guilty.
WIWI'S* Jones and Thomas Ward were placed at the bar, charged
with stealing, in St. Andrew's, Holborn, 81bs. of bacon.—Guilty.
Thomas Jackson was indicted for stealing a counterpane, value
five shillings, in Kentish Town.—Guilty.
John Hoy was indicted for stealing a pair of shoes, the property
of Joseph Johnston, of Tottenham-court-road.
The prosecutor identified the prisoner as being the person who
came into his shop and took the shoes away.
The prisoner (a genteel-looking young man), in his defence,
addressed the Court In a must feeling manner, and said that it was
the utmost poverty that drove him to such an act, having bad a
wife and children just starving, and being unable to gain any em-
ployment.--Guilty, but with a recoonnemeation of mercy, on
account of his poverty.
Mr. Sergeant Damon, after having extracted • promise of his
future good conduct, humanely ordered him to be released from
confinement.
William Neiman Flanagan was charged with having stolen, on
the 934 of December, several articles of wearing apparel.
James Clarke (the prosecutor) enumerated the articles he bad
lost from firiffma-hill. Tke rimer had lodged in his house fur
three nights.
David Davis deposed to the prisoner's !saving left a bundle in his
shop, containing all the articles stolen.
The policeman deposed to having arrested the prisoner by diree-
don of Davis.
The prisoner, an being called on for his defence, burst into tears,
and owned his guilt, bat said it was the extreme of wretchedness
which drove hint to such an act. He said he had once.filled a meet
confidential situation of 41100 per annum—Guilty.
J. H. Herrington, aged Si, a surgeon by profession, was indicted
for stealing in the dweltiog.hoose of Louisa Gough, our gold rings,
and other articles of value, her property.
The prisomr, who was attired in the first style of fashion, came
forward to the bar, and entreated the Learned Judge to allow his
trial to stand over until Monday.
Mr. Sergeant AlAnill asked the prisoner bow long be bad been
in custody ?
Prisoner—Since the 28th of December.
Costar—Then you ought to have been prepared to take your
trial.
Prisoner—My Lord, I did not know until, yesterday that nay
offence was laid capitally. I ant a stranger in England,. and I have
not mode known my disgraceful situation to nines than one or two
persons that know me.
Tke prisoner was about to speak of the rospistabnity of hie
friends, when
Mr. Sergeant Attains told him to make application to the Judges

when they came into Court. This was done, and the prayer o. thr
prisoner was granted.
Wit. Gen* was indicted for breaking and entering the dwellit t-
hongs of Thos. Gentle, and stealing therein a silver watch, h:,

Prol'M.
The prosecutor proved the loss of the watch, and
Wm. Anderton, a pawnbroker, deposed. that on day of elm
robbery, tbe prisoner pledged the watch at his house.—Guilty.
James Bottler and Jabs PickeU were charged with breaking am!
entering the dwelling-bouse of James TimeweU, and stealing ht.()
sheets, and other articles.
The Jury found Plaott —Not Guilty. Butler—Guilty.
Edward Mousy, a boy only twelve years of age, was charged wet.
stealing from the how of Mr. J. Nicholson, on the 4th January.
sixty yards of silk. The prisoner forms one of a juvenile gang of
thieves who infest the city. Guilty—Deelk, but recommender: to
mercy on account of his youth.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

MARLBOROUGH-STREET.

71loses tionin, a man about thirty years of age, a working jew
eller, by profession, was yesterday placed at the bar before the
Presiding Magistrate, J. R. Cown., Rsq. charged with stealing
jewellers gold, the property of his employer, to the amount of up-
wards €9O. It appeared that the prisoner has for these last few
months been working for a gentleman named Harris, residing iu
Church.street, Soho, and on several occasions that gentleman has
given him outdoor work, which be has repeated pledged, but Mr.
Harris believing he was in distress, uniformly redeemed the arti-
cles, to the amount of upwards of ; and having missed more
gold last week, he gave him into custody of Andrews, an °Meer of
this establishment, and several pieces of gold in a rough state were
found at the house of Mr. Dobree, a pawnbroker residing in
Charlotte-street, Fitzroy-square.
Previously to the appearance of the prosecutor yesterday an in-
dividual named Dyer, a shopman to Mr. Dobtee, addressed the
Magistrate, and informed him that the prisoner was of rather re-
spectable connections, and had a brother a hatter, residing ii-
Usford-street.

Mr. Constre, in looking over the articles of gold produced by
the pawnbroker, which were upwards of a dozen in number, toll
him chat they wire liable to a severe punishment for receiving it
pledge gold in a state of manufacture, as some of the articles pro•
duced were.

Dyer replied that he should not have taken the articles in bad
be not known the prisoner, who pledged them for upwards of 12
years as a working jeweller ; in fact, he had made phis, brooches,
and other articles for them.

The prosecutor now arrived. and the prisoner was brought for-
ward.

Mr. CONANT enquired if the prosecutor could identify any of
the gold?
Mr. Harris replied that he could not swear to any of it.
Dyer produced some part of the gold which had been pledged
before the prisoner milted for the prosecutor.
Some further conversation took place; and another Gentleman
who bad been robbed appeared, but, as the property could nut be
swam distinctly to, the prisoner was discharged.