It is the custom for the masters of the Dutch
eel schuyts and fishing smacks to pay all monies received by them into the Bank of England, on account of the Dutch Consul, who gives them a check for the amount, to be paid to the proprietors in Holland. A few dap since, after the Dutch captains paid in several bags of silver, the proceeds of the sale of their cargoes of fish at Billingsgate, a great proportion of the coin in one bag was found to be counterfeit. The Bank clerks examined the other bags, and base silver coin to the amount of 134/ was discovered. Since the discovery, Mr. Mitchell, one of the principal surveyors of the Thames Police, called on board a fishing. smack, to obtain some explanation of one of the captains. He found the Dutchman at his dinner, and told a seaman on board to request him to step on deck. The captain refused to leave his cabin until he had finished his meal ; but on Mitchell telling him his business was urgent, he poked his body half through the hatchway. After he had finished, the Dutchman asked if that was all the news he had to tell? Mr. Mitchell said it was. "Then," said the schipper, "as you have told your news, I shall go finish my dinner." He then disappeared, and resumed his seat, as if nothing had happened. Two other Dutch captains, who were standing by, treated the affair with the same levity, and said they had not English enough to understand it. [We hear that there is to be a Conservative meeting held immediately, at whit' h Mr. Ward is to preside,—Mr. Baring having declared that since he became a country gentleman, his head is so full of turnips, he has no time to attend to bad shillings, and ship matters,--in order to represent to his Majesty the gross impropriety of suffering the subjects of our ancient ally the King of Holland to be so unseasonably disturbed.] Last Sunday evening, the metropolis was visited with the rare phenomenon at this season of the year of a severe storm of thunder and lightning, accompanied with a gale of wind of extraordinary violence. The Jubilee, a Gravesend sailing-vessel, was coming up the river, in Blackwell Reach, when the lightning struck the mast, shivered it to pieces, and carried the whole, and a great portion of the bulwarks, away; a sail also was torn to ribands. Fortunately, the passengers were below, and no one was hurt. The vessel was instantly put ashore. The lightning also struck the chimney-pots on the Stationhouse in Green Bank, Wapping, and forced them upon the adjoining premises belonging to the Workhouse, and broke several panes of glass. In the neighbourhood of Stepney, several trees were blown down, and others torn up by the roots. A small unoccupied house in Bromley was struck by lightning, and much injured. The storm was severely felt in Greenwich and Deptford, and much damage was done.
A Coroner's Inquest was held on Saturday before Mr. Baker, at the Vestry-room of St. John's, Wapping, on the remains of Caroline Chaplin, an unfortunate young female, who had drowned. herself through distress and misery. A woman of the town deposed that she had known the deceased, who was about twenty-two years of age, for the last eight years. The last time she saw her alive,was about six o'clock on Tuesday evening, when she was in the Blue Anchor public-house. She was not intoxicated at the time, nor did witness see her drink any
thing. She had been in the public-house the greater part of the day, owing to her having no other place to go to. She complained of being turned out of her lodgings by hr landlady, in consequence of not being able to pay her way, and seemed very melancholy, and cried bitterly in consequence. She had been very low spirited for some days before, in
consequence of distress. It appeared that the deceased was most respectably connected ; but being seduced about three years since, her family discarded her; and her seducer having a short time afterwards deserted her, she was driven to the miserable life of prostitution. Vetdiet, Temporary Derangement. —Daily Papers.
The above is a very plain and very common tale, but what a picture does it display of misery unutterable on the one side, and of heartlessness and villany on the other ! It appears that Chaplin was noted among her wretched companions for the sweetness and kindliness of her disposition. Several of them who appeared as witnesses and spectators at the Inquest wept bitterly. After the Inquest, an application was made for instructions as to the disposal of the body. None of the relations had appeared to claim it. The Coroner ordered it to be disposed of agreeably to the Anatomy Act. The companions of Chaplin begged hard to be allowed to bury it in the ordinary way; but as none of them could claim relationship, and as it was conceived that the example might be of value, the Magistrates were inexorable.
Our readers may recollect a ease of a penny-a-line murder of an old man named John Whitbread, near to Camden Bridge, Camden Town ; and that, on an inquest being held on the body, it appeared from circumstantial facts, that he had not been murdered, but that he had been run over. Since this verdict of the Jury, direct evidence of the unfortunate nian's having been killed in the manner inferred by the Coroner's Jury has.been obtained; and a lad named Piggot has been held to bail for the offence.
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