force had not run to his aid, and enabled him to get his
staff from his pocket, at the flourish of which all the
trade disappeared. The Lord Mayor committed the
defendants to the House of Correction, the one for seven,
and the other for three days. His lordship said that at
the end of his mayoralty he would have to declare that
the most unmanageable people with whom his experience
as chief magistrate had made him acquainted, were
those who belonged to the trade and mystery of the
thimble, notwithstanding the quiet and unobtrusive
nature of their general employment. (Laughter.) The
moment a set of disturbers of the peace were brought
before him he guessed that the majority were tailors,
and he was never yet mistaken in the opinion.

This case was followed by another of a similar sort.
John Bryant, a drunken fellow in tatters, was charged
with having disturbed a neighbourhood on Saturday
night, with having insisted upon going to bed in the
street. A policeman said the defendant had given a
great deal of trouble to the police, and that he had on
that particular occasion alluded to not only kept up a
roaring noise in the street and shoved people about, but
that he had actually stripped himself of his clothes, and
laid himself down for the purpose of going to sleep.—
The Lord Mayor—Were there any females present?
Policeman—Certainly, my lord, a great many. The
Lord Mayor—What is this man? Policeman—He is a
drunken tailor, please your lordship. The Lord Mayor
—I thought it would be unnecessary to ask the question.
He must go for twenty-one days to Bridewell.

Mary Ann Elder, a young girl of modest demeanor,
but destitute appearance, was brought before the sitting
magistrate, at Guildhall, on the 10th, charged with Breaking
a Street Lamp, value 1s. 6d. A policeman stated
that about a quarter past three o'clock on Sunday morning
the prisoner was loitering in Skinner-street. He
asked her what she was loitering about for, and she
replied that she was starving. She had been at the Smithfield
police-station on Friday night, and she was sent to
the West London Union. She received an order for
admission to the King's Cross House of Refuge, but was
refused admittance. From Thursday morning until
Sunday morning, she had had nothing to eat but a
halfpenny loaf. He requested her to go, but she said that
she wanted to go to prison, and she took up a stone and
broke a pane of glass, the property of the gas company.
He then took her into custody and brought her to the
station. The magistrate asked the prisoner if she had
any money to pay for the pane of glass? The prisoner
replied that she had not, and in answer to further
questions stated that she was born in Shoreditch; that
neither her father nor mother were living, that she had
no friends, and that she had for some time been living
in the country. Mr. Pontifex, on behalf of the gas
company, said, they did not wish to have her punished.
They believed she had committed the offence from sheer
destitution. The magistrate enquired of Mr. Pontifex if
he was willing to take charge of the girl, because, being
in so destitute a condition, she would, if dismissed, break
some more lamps. Mr. Pontifex said he could not
undertake to take care of her. The girl was then sentenced
to seven days' imprisonment. Her appearance and
destitute condition excited the greatest commiseration
among all persons in the court.

The Treatment of Prisoners in Winchester Gaol was
the subject of an investigation before a coroner's jury
held at the Queen's Prison, Southwark, on the 11th
inst., on the body of William Jones, aged 53, an inmate
of that prison (to which place he had been removed by
habeas corpus from Winchester Gaol about three months
ago) where he had died of fever. The principal witness
was William Sills Poulton, a debtor in the Queen's
Prison, who said that he had been a prisoner in
Winchester Gaol for twelve months before he was removed
on the 17th of April to the Queen's Prison. During
seven months of that time he never tasted animal food,
and no sustenance whatever but bread and gruel. He
was in that prison for debt. It is a gaol for felons as
well as for debtors. When a man first went there he
was put into the sheriff's ward, which is a place for
debtors, where they were kept for fourteen days; but
if they did not settle their debt or make application to
the Insolvent Court they were removed to what was
termed the convict prison. The diet for Sundays was,
for breakfast, one pint of gruel and four ounces of
bread; for dinner, three ounces of cheese and four
ounces of bread. In the evening the same as for breakfast.
Every day the same for breakfast and supper.
Monday the dinner consisted of four potatoes weighing,
perhaps, half a pound, and four ounces of bread.
Tuesday's dinner, three ounces of cheese and four
ounces of bread. Wednesday's dinner, the same as on
Monday (four potatoes). For Thursday's dinner they
had what was termed a quart of soup and four ounces
of bread. Friday's dinner consisted of three ounces of
cheese and four ounces of bread. Saturday they had
the same as on Thursday; they had no meat whatever.
The soup, he understood, was made from the water in
which the felon's beef was boiled. He had been
confined in bed for two days without tasting food, because
he could not touch the prison diet. He spoke to the
doctor, and asked him for a little tea, but he made no
reply, and pointed to the rejected gruel. All the
debtor prisoners there were kept on the same allowance.
When he first came to the Queen's Prison he was
under the care of the doctor for several weeks, in
consequence of the treatment he received in Winchester
Gaol. In answer to a juror the witness said he understood
the dietary was regulated by a bye-law made by
the visiting justices. He had complained to the board,
but nothing had been done in the matter, and he was
soon after removed to this prison. The Jury returned
the following verdict: "That the deceased died from
fever, and the jury are of opinion that the evidence
given before them as to the dietary of the debtors in
Winchester Gaol ought to be inquired into by the
Secretary of State." The Coroner said he should send
a copy of the verdict and of the depositions to the
Secretary of State, as he considered, after what had
transpired as to the different gaols throughout England,
that Winchester Gaol ought to be inquired into. It
was entirely out of his jurisdiction to inquire as to the
dietary of a prison, and the general treatment in gaols;
but it was a matter that came specially under the
operation of the royal commission appointed for that
purpose.

Mr. Stooke, master of the Queen of the Teign, two
seamen, and two Lascars, have been sent to England as
prisoners by the Governor of Gibraltar, on a charge of
Murdering Five Lascars on the High Seas. Thirteen
Europeans and Lascars accompanied them as witnesses.
The accused were produced before the Thames Police
Magistrate on the 27th ult. It appeared that, when
seven hundred miles from the West coast of Africa, at
night, some of the Lascars on board, who had been
shipped at Singapore, armed themselves and made an
attack on the mate and an English mariner; the mate
receiving many wounds. The object of the Lascars was
presumed to have been to massacre the English and
seize the ship. The mate, some seamen, and the master,
had a bloody conflict with the mutineers, and overcame
them; five were killed, and the prisoners were charged
with their murder. The magistrate remanded the case.
The two Lascars were sent to prison, but bail was taken
for the master and the two sailors. The inquiry was
resumed on the 4th inst. Mr. Bodkin attended by order
of Lord Palmerston. Mr. Stooke, the master, and the
two English seamen, were first placed at the bar, on a
charge of killing five Lascars. The only witness at all
adverse to them was Fairfold, a sailor; but his cross-
examination, and the evidence of others, showed that he
was a discontented man, and probably mixed up in some
degree with the mutiny; Mr. Stooke had ordered him
into irons for complicity, believing that he had undertaken
to steer the ship to California, if the Lascars
seized it. Mr. Treatt, the chief mate, and Mr. Cumming,
second mate, detailed the occurrences on the night when
the Lascars were killed; fully proving that a most
desperate attempt to murder the officers had been made
by the Lascars. Both mates received numerous wounds.
The magistrate considered that it had been amply shown
that there was a mutiny; the only question now was as
to the necessity for killing the five men—the question
whether there was any excess of violence. The case was
further remanded till the 19th, when Mr. Stooke and the
two seamen, Northcote and Goldsworthy, were