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Evening Post, Issue 108, 14 June 1865, Page 3

John Riordan has been found Guilty of having, on the 31st .vlarcli, attempted to set fire to premises belonging to him in Walker street, with intent to defraud the New Zealand Insurance Company. The trial occupied the Supreme Court the whole day. Mr. W. W. Wilson stated Oial he would move in arrest of judgment. There was a good deal of technical evidence at the commencement of the trial, as to the registration, &c, of the Insurance Company ; the Crown Prosecutor -explaining that the law of the Colony — but not of the home country— rendered it necessary to charge that* misdeamnor of the kind for which the prisoner was indicted, was committed with intent to defraud some person or body corporate, although, of course, in fie event of a succesf ul commission, the loss to the owner or insurers of the particular property, would be but a small portion of the injury inflicted. Dwarf Actors. — Commodore Nutt and Miss Minnie Warren, two American dwarfs, who are described in the bills as the bridegroomsman and bridesmaid to General Tom Thumb, the lady being a sister of the General's little wife, and the gentleman looking like a handsome brother of the General, appeared, for the first time in England, lately, at -the lover St. James's Hall, Piccadilly. Commodore Nutt is said to be twenty years of age and only twenty.nine inches high, and his weight only twenty-four pounds. He is compact, but somewhat stout in figure, and has a pleasant humorous expression. Miss Minnie Warren is said to be eighteen years of age, twenty-four inches high, and to weigh only ninteen pounds. She looks like a sister of the Commodore's, and the family likeness between them and General Tom Thumb and his wife is very remarkable. They have rather sallow skins, prominent foreheads, receding noses, and shrill voices. Miss Warren is amusingly stately in her deportment, and the Commodore is a well-drilled little actor, with a great deal of natural ability. His comic songs are delivered with all the natural ease and knowledge of by-play of an old professional singer. All that he does is done in what is called " character"— that is to say, he changes his dresses half-a-dozen times in the course of a performance! When he appears as an Irishman, a sailor, or to give a representation of the " Grecian statues," he look* like a child, and it is only in his evening dress that the little gentleman is strikingly apparent. He la intelligent in conversation, and wonderfully self-possessed, Miss Warren assists him in comic duets and dances, but the chief work of the entertainment rests on his shoulders. On Saturday last there was exhibited at Liverpool the system of Signalling at present in vogu^e in the armies of the Federals and Confederates. The system, which was at first brought into* practice by Lieutenant Ruffln, of the American army is remarkable for its simplicity. The apparatus consists of a long pole, fixed upon a swing joint, which can be easily worked by a single operator. At the top of the pole in daytime there is attached a single distinguishing flag, and at night a plain distinguishing light takes the place of the flag. The working of the apparatus is strictly analogous to the indicating needle of the electric telegraph, the dips or inflections of the indicating pole to the right or the left hand of the operator signifying an agreed on letter of the alphabet. The system, which was tried at Aldershot by order of the Comraander-in-Chief, has already been favourably reported, on account of its " simplicity and portability, " and is at present under the consideration of the French government as to itß efficiency for army or naval use. At present it is used by the Federal navy, and by the blockade runners and blockaders of the Confederate ports.— Daily News.