The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-08-01 00:00:00

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

STEALING FROM A SHOP.—Yesterday at the Police-
court, John Urey, Thomas Jones, and Jane M'lntyre,
were charged with stealing a quantity of stockings from
the shop of Mr. Mathews, 85, Scotland-road, on Satur-
day night. The articles were hanging on th frame of
the window inside the door, when one of the prisoners,
who were all in company, snatched them away, and they
all made off, but being observed were soon apprehended.
On ()Ile of them 9 pairs of stockings were:found, worth
about Bs. They were committed for trial.
SMUGGLING TOBACCO. A seaman, named Prank
Mooney, was yesterday charged, before Dir. Rushton,
with having smuggled 51 lbs. of tobacco from a vessel,
lying in the Ki nes Dock. He was fined L 5, orone month's
imprisonment.—Patrick Coggins, on whose bulky and
suspicious person, and next to his skin, 61 lbs. of leaf
tobacco was found, was remanded, as was another man on
whom some of the same article was discovered, it being
stated that the prisoners were employed as lumpers on
board of a ship discharging, and that the offence mig'at
turn out, upon inquiry, to involve a charge of felony.
THEFT FROM A SAW MILL.—A man, named Bell, a
sawyer, in the employ of the executors of the late Mr.
Logan, of the Saw-mills, was yesterday charged with
having stolen about twelve feet of rosewood veneering,
and same glue, value 65., from the premises. The case
was clearly proved, and the prisoner vas committed for
trial.
STEALING Booxs FROM A CHAPEL.—At the Police-
court, yesterday, a woman named Mary Lowe was
charged with stealing five books from St. Nicholas's Ro-
man Catholic Chapel, Brownlow-hill. They were the
property of several parties belonging to the congregation,
and the prisoner had sold them at an old book shop in
Paradise-street. She was committed for trial at the
sessions.

THE SAILOR AND THE AUTOMATON.—On Thursday a
sailor, " three sheets in the wind," was going into Hol-
den's exhibition, in Leigh-street, when his attention was
attracted by what he thought the insolent stare of an
automaton sentinel which keeps guard at the door. Be-
lieving it to be an insolent Frenchman or rebel in some
new-tangled uniform, he at once, to use the sailor's
phrase, " pitched into it," and very shortly knocked it
into tatters. He was brought before the magistrates on
Friday. and ordered to nay 255., the sum at which the
defunct was valued, and the costs incidental to the case.
SINGULAR ROBBERY.—On Thursday, Robert Critch-
ley, a boy about twelve years of age, was placed in the
dock. charged with having broken into the office of his
employer, Mr. Yates, of Clayton-square, and stolen £5 14s
The office, it appeared, had been entered (broken into it
was thought at first) on Monday night, or early on Tues-
day morning, a desk forced, and the money stated taken
away ; but, on examination by the police, it was found
that the lock of the door had not been broken, that it had
been opened by a key, and the panelling afterwards dis•
figured by a hammer. The prisoner had purchased a new
watch on Tuesday night. On being asked, in the usual
manner, what lie had to say to the charge, lie replied—" I
only took 103., which I found upon the floor." Mr. Yates
said he did not wish to press the charge as the boy's pa-
rents were poor, but respectable. He was remanded.
On Wednesday the prisoner Cuddy, who, as we stated
last week had been arrested in possession of a quantity of
pikes, was again brought up, when some further evidence
was produced, showing that he was connected with the
notorious Chartist ironmonger, Dr. Reynolds. Police-
constable Kehoe stated that, on Tuesday night, in conse-
quence of an intimation he had received, he went to a
yard in Vauxhall-road, kept by Mr. Winstanley, wheel-
wright, when a top room was pointed to him by his fore-
man, Mr. John Dickenson. He entered the room, and
found there fourteen pike-heads, twenty-three sword-
knives, one bayonet, and five pikes mounted with shafts
about eight feet in length. He took the weapons to the
police-office. John Dickenson stated that he worked at
Mr. Winstanley's, where the pikes, &c. were found.
About three or four months back a number of similar in-
struments wei e brought there by Dr. Reynolds ; there
were as many as filled a hand-cart at that time, consisting
of pike-heads, knives, and three or four guns : they were
first put in a place on the ground floor. Dr. Reynolds
came in and out frequently, and carried guns. Subse-
quently Cuddy rented an upper room, to which the pikes
were removed, and where they were afterwards found by
the police-officer. Cuddy and another man removed
them, saying that Dr. Reynolds did not wish any of them
to be lost. The prisoner was again remanded.
On Saturday, Cuddy, O'Brien, and M'Kavatt were
again placed in the dock, before Mr. Rushton and Mr.
Percival.—Mr. Rushton said there was no further evidence
to be offered that day. He had expected there would
have been. He felt, however, compelled to put Cuddy
under a remand for commitment, and that he would do.—
Mr. Yates, solicitor, said it might ultimately turn out that
the man was perfectly innocent, although he had acted
foolishly in having possession of these weapons.—Mr.
Rushton : then no one will rejoice more than I shall.—
Mr. Yates : If he is, the imprisonment will be hard upon
Ru. 51404 ; Depend upon it, I will not Olaf)

with the libert, of the subject. lam responsible for what
I do. (T 6 Cuddy :) You must be committed ; I will take'
care that it shall be for as short a time as I can possibly
arrange.—Cuddy Can I have bail ?—Mr. Rushton : No.
You, too, O'Brien stand committed.—O'Brien: There is
nothing against me.—l think otherwise, sir. The boy
711`Kavatt may remain here, (with a view to his discharge.)
I think he has been an instrument in other hands.—Sub-
sequently Cuddy again appeared at the dock.—Mr. Rush-
ton said : I have received your note, and cannot comply
with your first request. There is against you another
class of evidence which it is of importance should be pre-
pared. Your other requests may be complied with ; you
may have all that is necessary for your health.
STABBING.—FEROCIOUS ASSA ULT.—Threemen, named
Patrick Grimes, Henry Kelly, and Anthony Kelly, with
two women, Bridget Sheridan and Bridget Searle, were
placed in the dock, charged with a serious assault upon,
and stabbing John Joyce. From the evidence it appeared
that on Sunday night, the 16th instant, about twelve
o'clock, a quarrel and conflict took place in Sawneypope-
street. The prosecutor, according to his own statement,
ran out, hearing that his brother was almost killed, when
he was immediately set upon by Grimes and both the
Kelleys, receiving a serious stab from each. The female
prisoners, it was stated, had furnished the men with the
knives, accompanied with the charitable injunction, " Go
to work with them : cut his belly out !" Joyce was re-
leased from their grasp by police-officers attracted by the
noise, who took him to the dispensary. He had been
stabbed in two places in the back, and also in the right
breast. He bled profusely, and his boots were found to
be filled with coagulated blood. Mr. Lyr.ch, surgeon to
the dispensary, stated that he was not yet out of danger.
A document on bekalf of the defence was produced, to
show that Joyce had agreed to compromise the matter for
£3 10s.' which he admitted he had received. Mr. Rush-
ton said he would have no murder or bloodshed of that
kind in the streets of Liverpool. He ordered the evidence
to be taken as far as it had gone, and remanded the pri-
soners.

CORRESPONDENCE.

*-•_-
THE WATER QUESTION.

TO HENRY DANSON, ESQ,

SlR.—During the debate on the Water Question at
the last Council meeting, you are reported to have said
that the reports addressed by me to the Water Committee
were a mass of trash and rubbish, and that they appeared
to have been written by a man not in his right mind.
In thus, Sir, taking advantage of your position n the
Council Chamber to insinuate a charge of insanity against
an individual who had no opportunity of vindicating him-
self, you have perpetrated an outrage which I feel assured
will be reprobated by every right thinking man, whether
in the Council or out of it; and I am well convinced that
no other member of the Council would have made a
statement so calculated to wound the feelings and damage
the reputation of the meanest servant of the Corporation.
In thus, Sir, publicly charging me with insanity, you
ought to have adduced some proofs that you were war-
ranted in so doing. Why not put the Council and the
public in possession of the documents on which you
ground your accusation ? Do this, Sir, and I shall
willingly abide their fiat as to the extent of the madness.
This, however, you have not done, and until such time as
you do so you must excuse me if I tell you that you have
made a statement to the Council which is an unmitigated
calumny. In making this accusation, Sir, you had evi-
dently forgotten that I had feelings; that I had a family
and friends, both here and at a distance, to whom such
an announcement made, under such circumstances, must
necessarily have caused unqualified pain ;—you must also
have forgotten to what an injurious extent such a state-
ment might operate on my future prospects in life. But
above all things you had evidently forgotten that circum-
stances had placed you in a position demanding at your
hands conduct and language becoming a gentleman.
I trust, sir, that no portion, either of my reports or car-
duct, throughout the ar.luous and unequal contest in which
I have been engaged, will admit of the construction you
have been pleased to put upon them ; unless indeed, an
individual is to be set down as insane, who honestly and
earnestly endeavours to perform his duties to the public.
Such, sir, may possibly be your opinion.
In acting as I have done throughout this affair, I have
studied only the interest of the Corporation, and the well-
fare of the Inhabitants of Liverpool. And with the know-
ledge which I possessed of the extent of our local water
supply, I should have grossly failed in the faithful per-
formance of my duties if I had suffered the Council to be
misled by certain parties in regard to that supply. I re-
gret exceedingly, that the course which I have felt it in-
cumbent on me to pursue in respect to this question,
should have given offence to individuals whose good
opinions I have laboured so long and earnestly to gain.
And I regret also, the probable injury I may have entailed
upon myself by acting as I have done. But I have the
satisfaction of feeling that I have been influenced by no
motives, save and except, an ardent desire to promote the
best interests of that community whose servant I have so
long been.
I shall conclude this letter by expressing a hope that
you will, as a gentleman and an honourable man, embrace
the first opportunity which may present itself, in order to
set me right in the estimation of the Council and the pub-
lic, or else to furnish me with the grounds, on which you
thought fit to found so grave a charge against me.—l am,
sir, your obedient servant, JAMES M`DONALD.
Liverpool, 31st July, 1848.