the customary way, provided means for getting him out
of France into England. The secretary added, that the
practice of sending foreigners to England was not
confined to France. The Society had ascertained that
Polish refugees had been sent from Hamburgh and from
Switzerland here under the same circumstances. The
magistrate said it was a monstrous system to convert
England into the Botany Bay of foreign countries; and
that something ought to be done to stop a system that
added materially to the load of pauperism and crime
already imposed upon England. If he relieved the
applicant, it would only be encouraging others to come
to the court, and no real good would be done, as the
applicant could not expect to get employment here,
when every department of industry was overcrowded.
If the applicant was allowed to continue in a state of
starvation, he might be driven to crime, and thus a
magistrate hardly knew what to do under such
circumstances. Some trifling temporary relief was given to
the applicant, and he was dismissed.

Mr. Coulter, an extensive farmer, agent, and middleman
in the county of Louth, was Murdered on the 2nd
instant near Dundalk. He had left his house in the
morning to attend a neighbouring fair, and was soon
afterwards found lying insensible on a stone dike at the
road side. He appeared to be leaning across the stones
with his head to the field and his feet towards the road,
as if he had been apparently dragged into that position.
It would appear that the first attack was made about
thirty yards from this spot. The road between both
places was sprinkled with blood, and in such a manner
as if the person from whom it had come staggered along.
A struggle appeared to have taken place on the scene
of the first attack, and it would seem that Mr. Coulter
made an attempt to return home, but that he was
overpowered in the place where he was found. On
examining the back of the hedge near this spot, traces were
discovered as if two persons had been secreted there.
Where he lay, the stones, some of which had rolled into
the field, were quite covered with blood, and upon one
of them there was some hair. A brass pistol and an old
bayonet were found here, the one broken in the stock, as
if it had been used in striking the victim; the other was
covered with blood. On Mr. Coulter's being discovered
his head presented a dreadful appearance; on one side
it was bruised in and yielded to the slightest pressure,
while all over it was covered with deep wounds. Several
of the wounds were evidently inflicted by a bayonet, and
one of the ears was nearly torn away. He was not dead,
but only survived till the following day. His money
was not touched. He was agent to some property in
the neighbourhood, and had lately served several of the
tenantry with notices to quit.

Eight Irishmen, labourers at the Vauxhall Gas works,
were charged at the Lambeth Police Court, on the 5th
and 7th, with the Murder of Henry Chaplin, a Police-
constable. Police-constable Newton stated, that at one
o'clock on Monday morning, he found the prisoners
making a great disturbance in Vauxhall Walk, and
Chaplin trying to get them home. As they continued
disorderly, Chaplin threatened to lock some of them up.
Five or six of them then went away, but presently
returned armed with sharp metallic clinker-stones, which
they had taken from the border of a neighbouring
garden. One of them, John Heckey, threw his clinker
at Chaplin, and struck him on the mouth: Chaplin
staggered, but recovered himself, and struck Heckey
with his staff. Patrick Cane and the others then rushed
in, and shortly laid Chaplin on the ground insensible,
from blows on the head inflicted with the heavy and
sharp clinkers. He died shortly afterwards, in Guy's
Hospital. Newton grappled with some of the men, but
they knocked him down, and all escaped for the time.
When arrested at their several places of resort, Heckey
and Cane were still bleeding from wounds given by
the staves of the constables. Mr. Rhys, surgeon of the
Hospital, proved that Chaplin died from the wounds
which Newton saw inflicted by Cane and others. The
prisoners were remanded for examination of further
witnesses.

At the Marlborough Street Police Court, on the 12th,
Captain Paulet Henry Somerset, of the Coldstream
Guards, was charged with Assaulting Police-constable
Griffin, one of the officers stationed on the approaches
to the Great Exhibition. Orders had been issued that
no carriages should go up the carriage-road from
Kensington Gate to the building, but should proceed along
Rotten Row. Captain Somerset drove a phaeton up
the prohibited road at a rapid pace; Griffin signalled
him with his hands to go back, but he continued his
progress. The policeman, as he approached, called out
to him that he must go up Rotten Row, but Captain
Somerset only whipped his horses forward; the policeman
then caught hold of the reins; Captain Somerset
whipped him over the head and shoulders, and then put
his horses to the gallop, until he was stopped by a
mounted patrol. Four lashes that fell upon Griffin's
face drew blood slightly. In his defence before the
magistrate, Captain Somerset pleaded that he did not
know the nature of the orders issued to the police. He
had driven along the same road the day before without
interruption, and he was not aware that he could not do
so that day. He denied that his horses were going faster
than at a trot. The constable seized the reins, and
nearly threw one of his horses, a young horse, on its
haunches. Fearing the horse would kick, he desired
the constable to let go. The constable would not, and
he lost his temper and struck him. He considered he
had not met with that courtesy from the police which a
gentleman was entitled to expect. Mr. Hardwick, the
magistrate, addressed the defendant:—"It matters very
little whether the warning given by the police-constable
at Kensington Gate was seen or not; two other constables
signalled you, and then, whether gentleman or coachman,
it was your duty to pull up at the instant. Instead
of doing this, you drove on furiously, and paid no attention
to the constables." Defendant—"I should have
stopped if treated with proper civility." Mr. Hardwick—
"If officers exceed their duty, there is an easy remedy
by complaint to the commissioners, or to a magistrate.
I am surprised that an officer in her Majesty's service
should not have set a better example of obedience to
those in authority. Constables must be protected in
their duty, and examples must be made of all persons
who obstruct or injure them when so doing. You will
go to the House of Correction for ten days." Defendant
—"House of Correction! pray allow me to pay a fine.
I trust you will consider your decision over again; such
a sentence will probably oblige me to leave my regiment.
I will pay any fine you may inflict." Mr. Hardwick—
"No; I decline to make any alteration in the sentence.
The law knows no distinction of persons, and there are
no circumstances of mitigation in your case, as you,
from your position, ought to have set an example of
obedience to those in authority." Captain Somerset
was then removed to the lock-up cells.

The Great Western steamer, one of the royal West
India Mail Company's ships, brought to Southampton a
large amount of Gold-dust from California, consigned
to the Bank of England. On the 16th inst., 157 boxes
were unshipped, and packed upon four trucks to be
conveyed to London: the average weight of the boxes
was nearly half a hundredweight. When the train
arrived at Nine Elms early next morning, it was found
that three boxes were missing from one of the trucks.
The same afternoon, a boy, the son of a publican living
near the Winchester station, while searching for bird's-
nests on the railway bank, found one of the missing
boxes: it had not been opened. A watch was set at
the spot; and at half-past eleven o'clock at night a
man came to the place. He was arrested. When
taken before the mayor and magistrates of Winchester,
he said his name was William Plankin, and that he
was a tailor of Earl Street, Soho: which was
subsequently found to be true. He accounted for his
presence at Winchester, and for his going to the bank,
in a way by no means satisfactory; and he was remanded.
A reward of £250. has been offered for the apprehension
of the thieves and the recovery of the other two boxes
of gold: one weighed fifty-three pounds, and the
other forty pounds. The value of the three was £7000.

An important question of Copyright was decided by
the Exchequer Chamber on the 13th. The circumstances
were these:—The opera "La Sonnambula " was
composed by Bellini, at Milan, in February 1831;
Bellini was an alien, resident at Milan; when the