WEST BRITON AND CORNWALL ADVERTISER 26 December 1856 . LOCAL INTELLIGENCE . BODMIN - Mr. McALLISTER's vocal and instrumental concerts at the Guildhall, Bodmin, on the 17th instant, was well attended with the elite of Bodmin and the neighbourhood. The overture from "Flotow," by the band, was performed in excellent style. The quartett from "Mozart," by Messrs. HICKS, BOISRAGON, SQUIRE, and LUTMAN, was warmly applauded, and Mr. SANGWIN's "Merry Maids of England" was rapturously encored. The glee of "The Gipsies" by Messrs. LANYON, SANGWIN, and BARTON was also loudly encored by the crowded audience. Mr. LUTMAN presided at the pianoforte the whole evening. The whole performance was considered by persons of taste to be highly creditable to both the band and the gentlemen amateurs who so kindly and efficiently assisted. . ST. COLUMB HARMONIC SOCIETY - A correspondent informs us that the notice which appeared in the county papers last week of this society's seventh concert, has been received with dissatisfaction, in consequence of a remark on the inefficiency of the second violin. We may add that we know nothing ourselves of the merits of any of the society's performers. . HELSTON SAVINGS BANK - At the annual meeting of this institution, held on the 18th instant, Mr. Glynn GRYLLS was elected president in the room of the Rev. Canon ROGERS deceased, and Mr. John Jope ROGERS and Mr. Frederick HILL were elected trustees. . BOROUGH OF TRURO - On Wednesday the 17th instant, the newly-appointed borough magistrates assembled in the Council-room to qualify for their office. Dr. BARHAM, Mr. E. MICHELL, and Mr. SPRY qualified; bur Mr. CHAPPEL refused to do so unless the fees payable on the occasion, amounting to four guineas, were paid by the Town Council. . PENZANCE CHRISTMAS MARKET - This market, on Tuesday last, was one of the best for meat, both in quality and quantity, that has been known, and the butchers market made a most creditable appearance. Amongst others, Mr. Henry SAMPSON and Mr. Edward WILLIAMS showed unusually fine mutton; Mr. Sampson had ewe and wether Leicesters, fed by Mr. HARVEY, of Trelissick, which turned out the fattest meat we have ever seen; Mr. Williams's sheep were from Mr. DOBLE's farm, at Ladock, and were also very fine. Prime beef was shown by Mr. J. RODDA, fed by Mr. HENDY; by Mr. DONNITHORNE, fed by Mr. HODGE; by Mr. ARTHUR, fed by Mr. GOLDSWORTHY; by Messrs. Rodda and Son, fed by Mr. Clark, St. Ewe, Mr. Samuel HARVEY, and Mr. Humphry PASCOE; also excellent beef by Mr. RENDALL, fed by Mr. Charles ELLIS, Sennen; by H. SAMPSON, fed by Mr. John CARDELL, Lower St. Columb; and three oxen by Mr. DUGDALE, fed by Mr. WHITE, St. Hilary. ST. AUSTELL CHRISTMAS MARKET - This market, on Wednesday last, was well supplied with meat and vegetables. Some excellent beef was exhibited by Mr. James NETTLE, and on the stall of Mr. William CROWLE, of Charlestown, fed by Mr. Henry CARVETH. Messrs. Matthew ROBERTS and Son had a prime show of beef, mutton, and pork, the best stall that has been seen in this market for some years. . CAMELFORD CHRISTMAS MARKET - The beef and mutton exhibited for sale exceeded any former Christmas market at Camelford. All the exhibitors were entitled to commendation. The stall of beef exhibited by Mr. John HAWKEY was of a very superior description; the prize ox was bred and fed by Mr. NICHOLLS, of Altarnun, of the pure North Devon breed, and weighed upwards of 11 cwt., with 160 lbs loose fat. Messrs. STEPHENS and NUTE's stalls both for beef and mutton attracted considerable attention, and they were adjudged to have the finest heifer, a rare animal of the pure North Devon breed, upwards of 8 cwt. and of extraordinary thickness of fat throughout. Mr. Nute's fat wether, fed by himself, was a rare animal, forty-five pounds per quarter, and Mr. Stephens's fat ewe was much admired. Messrs. COTTELL and GARLAND's stalls also came in for their full share of praise and admiration. The market was well attended, and almost all the meat was cleaned out early in the evening, at from 7d! . to 8d per lb. . BENEVOLENCE - The Rev. C.M. Edward COLLINS, of Trewardale, has presented 2s.6d. to every poor woman in Blisland; sixpence to every child, and sixpence to every child in the Bodmin union, together with plenty of good tea and cake; and has provided the National School children of Blisland with a good tea treat. Each servant from Trewardale has been very handsomely rewarded. Great credit is due to the rev. gentleman for his kindness, which will also be remembered by the rising generation, and the "son and heir" will no doubt be remembered by all who know him for his father's kindness on his birth. . COLLEGE OF SURGEONS - The following members of the college, having undergone the necessary examinations, were admitted [..]entiates in midwifery at the meeting of the Board on the 16th instant: Messrs. Arthur Austen DAVIS, Fowey, and Thomas BOYLE, Truro. . WAR WITH PERSIA – The following is an extract of a letter from a Cornishman - a young medical officer of the H.E.L.C. service, attached to the 2nd Scinde Irregular Horse, under Colonel JACOB, just received: . "Dadur, 4th November, 1856 - We are now on the march to Affghanistan, and are encamped at a place called 'Dadur,' at the entrance of the famous 'Bolan Pass;' we have been here for the last three days awaiting further dispatches. This place is almost entirely surrounded by hills which are perfectly barren and of primitive limestone, and during the day it is extremely hot although the nights are cool and pleasant. There are, including myself, three European officers with the detachment and 600 men, so that we form a large cantonment. The place is, however, surrounded with most notorious thieves, so that we are obliged to sleep with a brace of pistols as bedfellows; in fact, throughout the whole of the country, which is called Cutchee, the inhabitants are so treacherous that it would not be safe to travel unarmed. When constantly exposed to this sort of thing you think nothing of it, and get into the habit of seeing your pistols all right before going to sleep just as at home y! ou do of winding up your watch. . The Persian expedition which they have for some time been preparing in Bombay, is at length ready to start; but what they are really going to do no one seems to know. I hardly fancy they will ever bring the Persians to fight with them, if ever they do start, which some doubt. We are anxiously looking forward to the march through the Bolan, as we are the first detachment which has gone through since the Afghan war. I have no news to communicate, since we are cut off from everything occurring in the civilized world and don't even know what occurs five miles off. - F.T.B." . A MINER ASSAULTED - On Saturday last, before Mr. E. MICHELL, Mayor of Truro, and Messrs. STOKES, NANKIVELL, and PADDON, magistrates, Mary Ann SEARLE, alias BULLOCKE, and Henry CARNARTON, were charged with assaulting John LITTLE, a miner of St. Austell. It appeared that on Friday last, Little was in Truro, and between eight and nine in the evening he wished to obtain a lodging for the night, instead of returning to St. Austell. He was accosted in the street by the woman Searle, who finding what he wanted, told him she could show him to a good lodging-house. Not knowing the character of the woman, he went with her to Calenick-street, and was shown into a house and went upstairs to bed. On looking around, however, he did not like the appearance of the place, and said he should not stop there. He went down stairs and was going out of the house, but had only reached the doorway, when he received a violent blow on the back part of his head, which knocked him into the street. He di! d not fall, but immediately recovering himself was violently assailed by Henry CARNARTON and SEARLE; he received several heavy blows on his face, which was scratched and discoloured, and they got him to the ground and kicked him. Several persons came to the spot and called out "police," upon which Carnarton and Searle started off. Police constable PAPPIN came up, and the parties being described to him, he soon apprehended them, and they were identified by Little. Searle was convicted of being a prostitute and disorderly, and committed to the house of correction for three weeks; Carnarton was fined 40s. for the assault, and in default of payment was committed for one month to hard labour. . ROBBERY AND ASSAULT - On Saturday evening last, as a person called William BULLOCK, of St. Stephens in Branwell, was returning from Par, with goods, consisting of currants, &c., three young men, named Simon ROBINS, of Polgooth; William CLEMES, and John PEARCE, of St. Austell, got into the cart without permission to ride; shortly after which the driver heard them interfering with his boxes, and charged them with it, upon which they violently assaulted and beat him. On Monday last, they were taken before Mr. E. COODE, jun., when the charge being proved, they were committed for trial, bail to the amount of GBP 20 each being accepted for their appearance at the sessions. . ROBBING A WESLEYAN CHAPEL - On Monday night last, the Wesleyan chapel at Chacewater, was entered by some thief who evidently thought to have appropriated the proceeds of the quarterly collection made the day before; but in this he was disappointed, his only booty being six leather straps, and about sixpence from the Sunday-school box. . FOWL STEALING - On Saturday night the 20th, at Tregisson, in the parish of Ruan Lanihorne, some persons broke into the fowl-house of Mr. William ELLIOT, and carried away twenty fowls and two geese. . STEALING FROM A DRAPER'S SHOP - On Saturday last before the Mayor of Truro, and Messrs. Stokes, Nankivell, and PADDON, magistrates, a milliner called Tryphosa WITHIEL, living in Truro, was charged with stealing a quantity of ribbons, value 13s., the property of Messrs. John and Henry BARRETT, drapers, West-bridge, Truro. . It appeared from the evidence that in the forenoon of the previous Thursday, Withiel was in Messrs. Barrett's shop, and asked for two yards and a half of black lace, with which Elizabeth ANDREW, one of the assistants, supplied her; and she paid for it, and said she wanted also to take home some ribbon for strings for a velvet bonnet. Miss Andrew gave her altogether twelve rolls of ribbon in a box to take home to suit her customers with; she measured a roll of black ribbon before it was taken away, but did not measure the others. Withiel was to return them as soon as possible, and what she required was to be cut off from the rolls by the assistant when they were returned. . About an hour afterwards, Withiel again entered the shop, and delivered the ribbons to Emily JAMES, another assistant. She asked for a yard and a quarter of the rose and black, with which Miss James supplied her, and she paid for it, and that was all she bought. Miss James looked at the other rolls of ribbon in the box, and found they bore the marks they had on them when sent out. Miss James placed the box in a recess, and neither she nor any other assistant had occasion to go to the box afterwards. . In the evening, however, after the shop was closed, in consequence of suspicion, the box of ribbons was examined in the presence of the Messrs. Barrett, and the two assistants before named. Miss Andrew measured the black roll, on which she had put a mark before delivering it to the prisoner in the morning; it then measured eight yards wanting a nail, but it measured after it was returned not four and three quarters yards. About a yard, part of which Miss Andrew had observed was faded, had also been taken off the rose and black coloured ribbon; and eight or nine yards of the violet and black ribbon; this roll was made to appear of its previous size by the insertion of paper around it. There were also other pieces of blue, black, rose, and rose and brown ribbon missing; it appeared that Withiel had unrolled five pieces of ribbon, and cut a length from the inside end of each, after which she had rolled them up again, still showing the end that was marked on the outside. . On Messrs. Barrett ascertaining their loss, they gave information to Mr. Nash, police superintendent, and a search warrant having been obtained, Mr. Nash and Mr. John Barrett went to the prisoner's lodgings, where they found two bonnets trimmed with ribbons which Mr. Barrett recognised as corresponding with some he had lost. Other pieces of ribbon were found in a cupboard and in the prisoner's bedroom, which Mr. Barrett identified, and which corresponded on being compared with the rolls. The narrow black ribbon on the bonnet was exactly the quantity that had been missed. Mr. Nash took her to the police station, and whilst there she said she should tell the truth; and in the evening before she was sent to the borough prison she said, "I shall plead guilty, and let the magistrate settle it here instead of sending me to take my trial." The prisoner was convicted under the Summary Jurisdiction Act, and sentenced to two months' hard labour in the county gaol. . We are informed that the drapers of Truro have sustained so many losses through allowing goods to be taken from their shops to be used from, that they are compelled to consider whether they must not discontinue the practice. With this view, they held a meeting on Monday last, and discussed the subject; but as two of the drapers of the town were not present, the meeting was adjourned until Saturday. . TRURO POLICE - [greatly condensed] An unnamed apprentice to Mrs. Heard and Sons was charged with wilful disobedience of orders, the second time he had been brought before the magistrates. At the first offense, the magistrates had told him that he would be sent to gaol should he ever appear before them again; therefore, they should sentence him to one month in prison with hard labour. However, the boy's friends appealed to the lad's employers, and as he expressed "contrition" for his past misconduct, and submitted a written apology, and he was therefore discharged. . The article then went into a long "opinion piece" regarding the beer shops which entice young men with skittles and card playing; they "permit females of notoriously bad characters" to be in the shop as well. These were identified as the "great evils to the youth of the town." CAMBORNE PETTY SESSIONS - At these petty sessions, on Tuesday, a man named Edward THOMAS, of Tuckingmill, about forty-five years of age, who has a wife and seven children, was summoned for an assault with intent &c., on the wife of Anthony COCK, a miner near Roseworthy, in the parish of Camborne, about ten o'clock in the morning of the 16th instant. The case being proved, he was fined GBP 5 or two months imprisonment. Before the money was paid, a girl about seventeen years of age recognized the prisoner as a man who about five weeks since, in a neighbouring parish, committed a similar offence on herself. He was taken in charge by the policeman of Pool, and ordered to be brought before Mr. Reynolds, of Trevenson, on Friday next, for examination into this second charge. . William and Mary BLEWITT, of Crowan, were charged with assaulting Mary RODDA, of that parish, at Camborne market on the 20th instant. Mary Blewitt was fined GBP 1 and the expenses, but a similar charge against her husband was dismissed. . Thomas DEVENY, of Hayle Copperhouse, complained of Richard SULLIVAN, of Phillack, for breaking a window and damaging the sill to the amount of 4s. The case was proved and Sullivan had to pay 16s. altogether for the trespass. Henry BERRIMAN, of Camborne, miner, was convicted in the penalty of 5s and costs, (GBP 1 7s.6d. altogether) for having on the 5th assaulted Alice BOSANKO. . SHEEP KILLED BY DOGS - On the night of the 17th inst. some dogs got into a field of Mr. John EASTERBROOK, of St. Stephens in Branwell, and killed twelve ewes, several of which when opened were found to be with double lamb. The dogs also severely injured several other ewes. . INCENDIARY FIRE - On Wednesday night last, about ten o'clock, a fire broke out in a mowhay belonging to Mr. John HAWKEY, a farmer living about a mile from Shortlane's end,on the Perran Road, in the parish of Kenwyn. The mowhay is some distance from the farm house, and the fire must have been caused by an incendiary. It broke out in a large mow of oats, and making an immense blaze it was immediately discovered, and a number of persons from the neighbourhood hastened to the spot to assist Mr. Hawkey and his people in extinguishing it; which they eventually succeeded in doing, by carrying water from a pump. The value of the oats in this mow was about GBP 70, and we understand it was insured in GBP 50; only about one hundred sheaves of the mow were saved. The mowhay was well stocked with corn and hay, and had the wind been in another direction, the whole must have been consumed; or if another mow had been lighted by the incendiary, instead of the one destroyed, the fire would ha! ve communicated to the rest of the corn and hay in the mowhay, and probably to some bullocks' houses. There is no clue at present to the perpetrator of this diabolical act. A fire, also attributed to an incendiary, occurred at the same place about thirteen months ago. . FATAL MINE ACCIDENT - On Monday last, a sad accident occurred at Porkellis United Mines, Wendron, by which a young man named Thomas JENKIN lost his life. It appears that Jenkin had been working under ground three months only, and was naturally somewhat timid. On Monday, while descending in the open shaft he complained of giddiness of the head, and was cautioned by his elder brother to hold on, but he lost his hold and fell over into the engine shaft to a depth of twenty fathoms. His death must have been instantaneous from his falling against the rods. . At West Seaton Mine on Saturday last, as one of the sumpmen named John RICHARDS, was attending to some pitwork previous to leaving work, the skip or waggon on the incline drawing the ore to the surface passed close by him, and almost immediately afterwards the chain suddenly snapped asunder and caught him between the timber and waggon, instantly crushing him to death. He has left a widow and seven children totally unprovided for. . CORONERS' INQUESTS - The following inquest has been held before Mr. CARLYON, county coroner; On Tuesday last, at Redruth, on the body of John PRAED, aged forty years. The deceased was a smith, and worked at Wheal Buller mine. On Friday week, he was employed with a young man named Thomas KNEEBONE, in breaking up a bar of iron into lengths of about seventeen inches for the purpose of making bolts, and in breaking the last two lengths of the bar, one of the pins flew up and struck the deceased in the forehead, and knocked him down. He did not appear to be seriously hurt, but on his calling at Mr. PRICE's, the mine-doctor, in the evening, that gentleman found there was considerable depression of the [ox frantic?], and on a consultation with Mr. MICHELL and Mr. HICHENS, it was deemed necessary to remove the bone without further delay. This was accordingly done. The dura mater had also been injured by the pressure of the bone, and there was reason to apprehend an injury to the br! ain also. After the operation had been performed, the deceased was desired to go home and remain in bed, and had he attended to the advice of the medical gentlemen, there is no doubt he would have done well. He however went to the mine the following day and acted very imprudently. The consequence was that inflammation set in and he died on Sunday evening. Verdict, "accidental death." . The following inquest has been held before Mr. HICHENS, county coroner; On Friday last, at Trew, in the parish of Breage, on the body of Eliza BLEE, sixteen years of age. It appeared that between four and five weeks since, the deceased when working at Wheal Vor, quarreled with a lad, a fellow worker. She gave him a sound drubbing and he struck her on the head with a stick. A bump in the head succeeded the blow and soon afterwards she complained of illness, but got better. On Thursday she died. Some talk prevailing about the blow, a post mortem examination was made by Messrs. Wearne and Roskruge, of Helston, surgeons to the mine, and an inquest was held. It appeared that although these gentlemen found some slight congestion of the brain, that congestion was no more than might have been caused by typhoid fever, which prevailed in the neighbourhood and of which in all probability she died. A verdict of "died from natural causes" was returned.