Mr. Hoskins, a wine-merchant, was charged at the Alansionhouse yesterday
with having shipped some red wine of little or no value, and having obtained the full amount of the drawback upon it, contrary to an act of Parliament, by which he rendered himself liable to a penalty of 200/. The charge was preferred by Mr. Walford, solicitor to the Customs. Mr. Hoskins admitted that the wine had been suffered to remain so long in his cellar, that its value had much deteriorated ; but alleged that he had paid the full amount of the duty upon it, and had shipped it for sale at Rotterdam. He was therefore, he thought, en- titled to the full drawback. A Customhouse officer said, the wine was vile trash—nothing but the washings of casks. This was denied by the defendant ; who said it would bring 5s. 6d. per gallon at public sale. The Lord Mayor, in consideration of there being no proof of fraud against Mr. Hoskins, whose stock of wine was all correct, fined him in the mitigated penalty of one fourth of a third of the amount of the drawback.
At the Worship Street Office, on Monday, an investigation was made relative to the discovery of some silver and gold coin, by a grave- digger in the burial-ground of Wickliffe's Chapel, near the London Hospital. On the 3d of November, a funeral bad taken place ; and the gravedigger, in filling up the grave afterwards, struck his spade against a tin box, which broke, and scattered about the valuable pieces of metal in question. He secured a number of them ; which he ap- peared to have kept by him, ignorant of their value, until the end oflast week, when he carried some of them for sale to a watchmaker, in Shoreditch, who ultimately purchased thirty-seven silver pieces of him for 31. 8a. The gravedigger, however, who had given his proper name
and address to the watchmaker, was alit rwards hrougat oeutwe the Ala- gistrate.by an officer, and explained the manner in which he became possessed of the pieces.
Mr.-Powell, the solicitor, and Mr. Field, the inspector to the Mint, pro- nounced the silver pieces to Le half-crown blanks, which must have been stolen from the Mint ; but in what way, or how long they had been in the ground, it was now impossible to say.
The Policeman stated, that in the course of hia.inquiries he discovered that several of the pieces were in the possession of a baker, whose children had picked them up at the funeral already mentioned.
The son of the baker now stated, that he picked them up at the scramble which took place at the grave; and he said he saw the mark of a crown upon the tin canister which they came out of. A little girl, his sister, said she also picked up three yellowish pieces, which she described as about the size of sovereigns; but some man took them out of her hand, and ran away with them.
It was not known what had become of the tin case, and nothing fur- ther could be ascertained respecting the matter. The gravedigger was discharged without any imputation upon his character.
Two men were committed, on Monday, from the Hatton Garden Office to the House of Correction, for following the trade of sorcerers and fortune-tellers in a house in Milton Street. Their rooms were filled with strange pictures, magical instruments, maps, cauldrons, &e.
On the same day, Henry Cox, a man of very sanctimonious appear- ance, and who had formerly been a preacher, was committed to New- gate for embezzlina.° sundry small sums of money belonging to his mas- ter, an attorney in King Street, Bloomsbury.
On Monday morning, a confidential servant of Earl Bathurst ab- sconded from his Lordship's residence, with gold and bank-notes to the amount of between 6001. and 7001., given to the delinquent to pay the accounts of the Earl. Information was instantly sent to Bow Street, and one of the officers was sent in pursuit of the offender.
Mrs. Spencer, a lady residing in Wyndham Street, Bryanstone Square, was robbed of some jewellery, on Saturday last, about the middle of the day, in the following manner. Her servant was engaged cleaning the street-door, when three musicians came up to the house, each having a bag on his arm. She finished cleaning the door, butt, having occasion to go down stairs, she left it open. On her return, the performers were gone. In a short time afterwards, her mistress, having occasion to go into the front parlour, discovered that her dress- ing-case, containing jewellery to a considerable amount, had been stolen from off the sideboard.
Mr. James Hatfield Kennedy, the Chief Clerk in the Transfer Of flee at the India House, shot himself on Monday, in one of the room belonging to the vapour-baths in St. Mary Axe. Mr. Kennedy resided at Clapton. He was sixty years of age ; and had complained of a pain in his head, on the morning before he went to take the bath. He had suffered much latelyfrom depression of spirits, and talked incoherently. He was supposed to be a man in good circumstances. A Coroner's Jury on the same evening returned a verdict of" Temporary Insanity."
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