The Sun. — 1858-12-03 (London, England)

CARD-SHARPING.—It is the intention of the Lord Advocate to introduce into Parliament, next session, a bill for the suppression of vagrancy, and the measure will also contain provisions having for their object the putting down of card-shr ingg.--,6cotoinna.  At the usual meeting the Middlesexinagistrates, held at the Court-house, Clerkenwell-green, yeiterday, Mr. Townall in the chair, The report from the Finance and General Purposes Committee stated that a loan of £20,000 had been raised at 4 per cent. on security of the county rate, £15,000 of which was to be applied to Colney Hatch Asylum, and £5,000 to Vie:lndustrial School at Feltham.  There was a motion on the paper in the name of Mr. G. F. Young, on the subject of disputes arising between -the coroners and the magistrates about the disallowance of fees in certain cases ; but. when it was called, Mr. Young was not present. The chairman said he regretted this the more; as the attention of the court might have been called to certain observations published by the Registrar-General, reflecting on the magistrates in their judicial capacity, in dealing with the coroners. • The .CHAIRMAN also called attention to what had taken place in reference to a claim put forth by Mr. Wakley and a jury, to have a prisoner charged with homicide in custody brought before them. There had been for many years a dispute on this subject, but in this An a new ' feature had been introduced. An application had been made to the Home Secretary to order the prisoner charged with this murder to. be produced before the coroner and jury, and Mr. Walpole, in reply; said 'there was no objection to the prisoner's being taken before the coroner while on the way to the,--•police court. The prisoner was delivered into the custody of the police, according to the magistrate's remand, and on the way to the police court they_ took him in a roundabout direction to the coroner's inquest, so the responsibility was with the *Ake, and not the prison officers. Mr. N. LAVRIZ said he presumed it was not intended to ask . the Home Secretary what Act of Parliament gave him the authority to make such an order; but irhe should be called upon to specify it, the right holiourablepntleman, he thought, would be placed in a very difficult position to answer. The Home Secretary had no power to make any such order.- .  The eIIAIRMAS said that in consequence of what had now occurred, some magistrates might think that, as a /patter of course, all applications for a prisoner to be taken before the coroner must be winged with. It was nothing of the kind, and the I.istratcs in performing their duty must well weigh the matter before they acceded to any such request. Mr. lionixsox said the prisoner was given up to the police by the prison officer, in the regular way, on the expiration of the remand, and was then taken by the police to some place where an inquest was being held. The prisoner was not sent there by the magistrates, nor by their authority. They had to keep the prisoner in legal custody, and they had done so.  Mr. N. LAURIE said the Secretary of State had no authority to make- such 'an order, and had the man not been taken in due course before the magistrate there would have been. an action for escape, and were the governor .to obey an order to take a prisoner before the coroner while under a magistrate's committal; he would be dismissed.  Lieutenant HILL, governor of the House of Detention, said the prisoner was not taken to the inquest by any of his officers, but by the police, and he should not have allowed him to leave the prison if the period of -the remand not expired. The same course had been taken in the case of the foreigners lately charged with murder. _ _ _  M-r. N. LAURIE said the court had made an order upon the subject which must be carried out. The Secretary of State had no authority to order otherwise.  The matter then dropped. Some ordinary matters were then disposed of, and the court adjourned.