22 SEPTEMBER 1855, Page 2

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At a meeting of the Court of Common Council, the Lord Mayor notified that he had retired a memorial, signed by a large number of "persona of the greatest influence" in London, calling attention to the state of the Thames, and urging that it should be immediately freed from pollution. The Lord Mayor consulted the Court as to the best steps that could be taken to forward the object in view ; and after some discussion, a ma- jority decided that the memorial should be referred to the Commissioners of Sewers.

Mr. Deputy Eagleton was elected, on Wednesday, Alderman for the Ward of Farringdon-Within, in the room of the late Mr. Alderman Kelly.

At a meeting of the City Commissioners of Sewers, on Tuesday, Mr. John Simon formally resigned his post as Medical Officer of Health. He was highly complimented by the members of the Court ; but while they agreed to accept his resignation, they made it a condition that he should hold office until his successor was appointed,—an undertaking he had voluntarily offered to fulfil.

Certain proceedings in the Cemetery at Camden Town—the digging up and carting away of large quantities of human remains to make way for the foundations of buildings—have excited much indignation in the lo- cality. These excavations have been carried, it is said, to within a few feet of a cholera pit existing there ; and the stench from the desecrated graves, entirely those of the poor, has been dangerous to the public health. On Tuesday the inhabitants held a meeting in the Pratt Street school. room,—Mr. King, Churchwarden in the chair; and adopted resolutions denouncing the conduct of the authorities of the cemetery, and calling on the Bishop of London and the Secretary of State to interfere.

At a meeting of the Vestry of St. Pancras, on Wednesday,—Mr. Churchwarden Ferrer in the chair,—similar resolutions were passed, and a committee was appointed to urge the authorities to put a stop to the outrage.

It is proposed to present Admiral Sir Charles Napier with a testimonial. The project was set on foot at a meeting of his admirers on Monday, held at "the Three Compasses," Silver Street, Golden Square ; Mr. James Homes in the chair. An address championing the cause of the Admiral was adopted.

At the opening of the September Sessions of the Central Criminal Court, on Monday, the Recorder, in his charge to the Grand Jury, referred to the case of Strahan, Paul, and Bates. The offence they were charged with, he remarked, was of even a more heinous character than the great commercial frauds which had recently come before the Court: they, the partners in one of the oldest banking firms, had disposed of valuable securities deposited with them for safe custody. Formerly the law declared that this was not a fob.. nious act, as the documents were voluntarily placed with bankers; but by the 7th and 8th Geo. IV., cap. 29, the act was made a misdemeanour. In the present case, if the Grand Jury believed that Dr. Griffith deposited his bonds with the prisoners for safe keeping, and that they then pawned them and used the money obtained for their own purposes, they must find a true bill. It was not for them to enter into legal niceties. He himself should be slow to believe that an act of Parliament had left a loophole for the escape of criminals by exempting them from punishment if they made a voluntary statement of their offences before a civil tribunal.

On Tuesday, the Grand Jury returned "true bills" against Strahan, Paul, and Bates.

On Wednesday, they surrendered ; and an application was made to post- pone the trial till next Sessions, grounded on the insufficient time there had been to prepare the defence. The Attorney-General objected that if the accused were examined in the Bankruptcy Court in the mean time, some- thing might arise to interfere with the prosecution of the criminal charge: but Mr. Ballantine undertook that an application would be made to the Commissioner to postpone the examination : the Attorney-General then gave way, and the Judges permitted the trial to be adjourned.

Henry Coe Coape, a person of gentlemanly appearance, was tried for con- spiring with one King to obtain 40001. from Henry Porter Smith by false pretences. King has fled the country. Mr. Coape had extensive property ia Essex left him by his father ; but he soon got embarrassed, from expensive experiments in farming, sold part of his property, and mortgaged the rest for 16,0001. King is related to him. King wanted to raise a loan of 80001., and induced Coape to consent to be his security. Through Mr. Kirby, " man- aging.director " of the Albert Insurance Company, an arrangement was made toy which Mr. Smith was to lend 40001. and Sir John Wilson a second 40001., the security being the estates some of which Coape had already sold, while the others were mortgaged. The affair was conducted with suspicious secrecy by Mr. Kirby, and with disgraceful want of care in inquiring about the na- ture of the security—if the necessary inquiries had been made it would have appeared that Mr. Coape no longer possessed the estates specified, and that

the rest were deeply mortgaged. However, the money was advanced, the deeds were executed, Kirby and others got‘tich,peskings, a loan advanced by the

Albert Company was repaid, King got the balance, and quickly disappeared. Presently, Mr. Coape appears as an inselvent, and the lenders find that their seourity is imperfect. It came out during the trial that from the sale of the mortgaged estates the lenders will realize 60001., and will have a claim on other funds.

When the evidence for the prosecution had closed, Mr. Ballantine was about to address the Jury for the defendant; but they intimated that it was unnecessary for him to do so, as they had made up their minds already that the charge had not been made out. They at once, therefore, returned a verdict of "Not guilty" ; and the Foreman added, that it was the opinion of the Jury that the prosecution was a most infamous and unnecessary one. The Recorder observed, that., without saying anything upon the subject of the nature of the prosecution, he could not help observing that if anything could open the eyes of young men of fortune, who were desirous of raising money, to the manner in which they were plundered by offices of this kind, and by the description of parties who bad that day been examined, this case ought to have that effect. The Albert Office, he was afraid, was not the only one in London where these sort of transactions were carried on • and he hoped that what had taken place might be attended with some good effect in future.

John Howse was tried for misdemeanour in damaging a model at Hamp- ton Court Palace. The offence was trifling • the prisoner had been drink- ing; but it was felt necessary to prosecute him as a warning. Howse had already been in prison a month. He was acquitted.

The seven navvies and a woman who so cruelly treated a policeman at Penge were tried for that offence : one man was acquitted, but the rest were found guilty.

Watts, the man who so brutally killed his wife at Paddington, in a fit of drunkenness, was found guilty of " Manslaughter" : his sentence was trans- portation for fourteen years.

There is a defect in that part of the Merchant Shipping Act which refers to marine-store dealers. These traders are bound to enter in a. book all articles of "marine stores" purchased by them, with the name and address of the sellers : it is notorious that the dealers purchase all kinds of articles. The other day, Philip Taylor was accused at the Mansionhouse of illegally purchasing engraved copper-plates : the plates had been stolen by a boy employed at an engraver's ; Taylor had bought them, and. had made no entry : these facts were clearly proved. But Taylor's solicitor urged that no offence had been committed : engraved copper-plates are not "marine stores." Alderman Wire took time to consider the case; but ultimately he was reluctantly compelled to admit that the solicitor was right—legally, Taylor had not offended, for the clause in the aat clearly applied to "marine stores "—Government property especially—and. not to the multifarious articles of other kinds so freely purchased by the so-called marine-store deal- ers. He liberated the accused with a caution.

The employes of the Post-office seem quite incapable of resisting the temptations of money-letters. On Saturday, no fewer than three were brought before the Bow Street Magistrate for stealing letters. A London letter-carrier and a Barnet letter-carrier were committed. The third case was very bad. Richard Walker, a sorter, has been in the service of the Post-office for eighteen years; his salary is 1/. 15s. 9d. a week. He secreted two letters in his coat-pocket. When detected he pretended that some vil- lain must have placed the letters in his pocket. He was remanded.

When Jane Gibson, the nurse accused of having unlawful possession of a large quantity of property belonging to the hospitals in the East, was re- examined by the Southwark Magistrate, on Monday, letters were read tend- ing to increase the suspicion against her'; and she was remanded, that Mrs. Sidney Herbert and some of the ladies who nursed our soldiers might attend to give evidence.

Cruelty to women figures too conspicuously in the Police records of the week. On Monday, Daniel Lordon, a Spitalfields weaver, with his wife, al- though out of employ, found money to buy drink. They quarrelled when intoxicated, and Lordon stabbed his wife in the night. Next morning he surrendered; confessed his crime, and led the police to his lodging, where the body was found. On Tuesday, George Pemble, a Southwark shoemaker, found his wife drunk at an early hour: words arose,- the woman abused her husband, and pelted him with mud and oyster-shells : he struck her, and she fell against a lamp-post, dead. On Friday sennight, Rose, a dock- labourer, went home drunk: seizing- one-of his children, he flung it across the room.: rebuked by its mother, he beat and kicked her, and then flung her out of the window : fortunately, her fall was broken by a passer-by. The Thames Police Magistrate regretted that, he could only send the wretch to prison for six months.