+ ~ -
 
Please report pronunciation problems here. Select and sample other voices. Options Pause Play
 
Report an Error
Go!
 
Go!
 
TOC
 

recommendations, that it became necessary to visit such
offences with the utmost severity. The persons who
gave the false character were usually the worst of the
two, but it was not his intention to make any distinction
in the present case. He then fined the prisoners £10
each, and, in default of payment, committed them each
to three months' imprisonment.

The proceedings in the Bankruptcy Court, on the 20th,
in the case of Lakeman and Co., produced some curious
disclosures respecting Commercial Transactions of the
late King of the French. Stephen Charles Lakeman
carried on business in copartnership with one Chalè and
General de Rumigny, chief aide-de-camp to King Louis
Philippe. The place of business was in St. Mildred's
Court, Poultry. They were commission-agents. This
was a meeting for the last examination of Lakeman.
Rumigny has not yet surrendered to his fiat, and he has
up to this time alleged, upon affidavit, as a reason for his
non-surrender, and to prevent his outlawry, that he is
unable to obtain a passport, the prefect of Police, for
State reasons, refusing to grant one. Lakeman, being
examined at great length, gave a history of the
transactions of the firm. He stated that the partnership of
Rumigny was established in May, 1848, soon after the
arrival of the late King in this country, solely for
"political purposes." The object was to purchase the debts
of the Civil List on account of the Royal Family of
France. This he clearly understood from conversations
with Rumigny and with the King. A loan was to
be negotiated with Messrs. Baring to the amount of
£800,000 on the landed property of the house of Orleans
in France. This money, when raised, was to be applied
to the purchase of the debts of the French civil list, on
account of the Royal family, it being specially provided
and determined that no debt should be purchased at a
less advantageous rate than 40 per cent, discount. Such
was the object to be attained by the house of Lakeman,
De Rumigny and Co., in May, 1848. A short time
afterwards the copartnership was modified by the
introduction of Chalè into the concern, and a second commission
was given to the establishment as thus amended.
They were "to receive goods and consignments from
French manufacturers and tradesmen, advancing them
money on account of such consignments, so as to gain
their sympathy for the Royal Family of France."
Circulars were accordingly despatched to certain French
houses; a place of business was taken, "the General
attended daily at the office," and customers, when they
offered themselves, were introduced, in the presence of
Lakeman and Co., to the Ex-King at Claremont. The
concern did not prosper. Rumigny went to France,
and Lakeman was left behind to face the responsibilities
of the firm, which terminated in bankruptcy. It
appeared by the balance-sheet that Lakeman was victimised
by his partner Rumigny, who was to have brought
money into the concern, but brought none, while he
drew out £1300. The Commissioner allowed the bankrupt
to pass.

The celebrated Don Pacifico, whose claims upon the
Greek government have made so much noise, has applied
in the Court of Queen's Bench for a Criminal Information
against the Morning Herald for an alleged Libel.

The libel is in a letter from the private correspondent of
the Morning Herald at Athens, dated the 28th of
February, which contains the following passages:—"The
Jew Pacifico, before his fraudulent "bankruptcy at
Constantinople, and before his consulship in Greece, held an
inn in a village in Portugal." "On one occasion Don
Pedro, on his way to Lisbon, first sent to say that he
would stop there, and having changed his mind and
taken another route, was much astonished some time
afterwards to see mine host arrive with a bill for £150
for the cost, he said, of his preparations to receive his
Majesty. Don Pedro took the thing as a joke, but gave
him £25 and sent him to the rightabout." "Since then
Pacifico, having changed for the third time his nationality,
and put himself under Sir E. Lyons' protection,
raked up this old account, which he pretends to have
been torn or lost in the pillage of his house, and which
suddenly took the fearful proportion of £25,000. This
is the principal item of the Pacifico affair, which also
comprehends the indemnities for the harm done to his
house, such as £2000 for bronzes and crystals broken,
and the rest in proportion. Now it happens, that before
the riot in his house Don Pacifico had had the misfortune
to have one of his daughters run away with twice
first by a merchant's clerk, and secondly by an apothecary's
boy, and on this second sad catastrophe he
addressed himself to King Otho, protesting that his
daughter had stolen everything he possessed, and that
he had nothing left to live on, and consequently asking
for alms. The King, it is a well-known fact, lent him
more than once 100 drachmas at a time. You may
judge, therefore, of the crystals and bronzes there must
have been to break in his miserable dwelling." Don
Pacifico's counsel, in applying for a rule, denied all these
assertions. Don Pacifico had never been at Constantinople,
and had never been a bankrupt. He had three
daughters, the eldest of whom married with his full
consent, and the youngest, who was thirteen years of
age, was still living under the parental roof. With
regard to the second, to whom the libel was supposed to
refer, she had been married to an officer named Lante.
M. Pacifico, being a Jew, had objected to that marriage
on the ground of Captain Lante's religion, and his
daughter had been married without his consent; but as
to her running away, or taking away with her any part
of her father's property, there was no pretence whatever
for the charge. The rule was granted.

Newmarket fair was infested by swarms of pickpockets
and rogues of all kinds. Many persons were robbed in
the street. James Betts, a young man from Snailwell,
while defending his wife and sister from a gang of
thieves, was struck down, and died in a little time. The
murderers escaped detection. The crime so alarmed the
people, that they would not leave the town but in large
bands; and the first market after the fair was thinly
attended, though it has been usually thronged; terror
kept many away.

NARRATIVE OF ACCIDENT AND
DISASTER.

THE splendid steam-yacht called the Peterhoff, built
at Blackwall, for the Emperor of Russia, has been Lost
on her passage to St. Petersburgh. Her transmission
was intrusted to an eminent firm on Cornhill, who took
every care to supply her with an efficient crew. A master
mariner, Mr. James Boniland, who had been
employed in the Baltic for the last twenty-four years, was
appointed to take charge of her, her crew being selected
from men who had been trading in that sea. Some five
or six weeks ago she took her departure from the
Thames, having on board, in addition to her crew,
Mr. George Rennie, the engineer, and Mr. Waterman,
jun., who designed the yacht, and who, we understand,
was charged with its delivery to the emperor, with
Mr. Eschapper and one or two other gentlemen. She
reached Copenhagen in safety, and having taken on
board two ladies attached to the embassy there for
conveyance to Revel, she resumed her trip on the 22d ult.
Going up the Baltic, the wind blew a hurricane; and,
while making for the island of Dago, at the entrance of
the Gulf of Finland, she struck on a reef of rocks. By
this time the weather had moderated to a calm, otherwise
every soul on board would have perished. As soon
as they were seen from the land, three boats were
despatched to their relief, and the weather favouring their
exertions, the wreck was gained, and the whole of those
on board were taken off. On reaching the shore every
relief was afforded them, and it appearing impossible to
rescue the wreck with the means then at command
on the island, Mr. Waterman, jun., with Mr. G. Rennie,
proceeded on to St. Petersburgh overland, with a view
of procuring assistance. The journey being one of
considerable difficulty, much delay must necessarily take
place ere any relief can be rendered the wreck. Very
trying weather has since set in, and the last accounts
speak of her loss.

A melancholy case of Hydrophobia has occurred at
Lochend, near Edinburgh. About seven weeks ago, a
boy named Weston, between eight and nine years of
age, a farm-servant, was bitten by a little dog belonging
to the neighbourhood, which had been observed on the
day of the accident howling and roaming about the