Star. — London, England, 1829-12-03 00:00:00

—w I am aware, nevertheless, such is the spell of interest connected AV it h Shakspeare's name, that the mind starts with avidity at the ti l o.t distant prospect of any novelty respecting him, and submits with impatience to believe, that if any new fact can be ascertained' it may not be made a practicable stepping-stone to some farther formation. It may be feared, too, that the circumstance of such intelligence justifying a little alarm about the spotless sanctity .of he poet, instead of acting as a sedative to human interest, has ra :her tendency to increase the palpitation and solicitude, apd mor bid vigilance of the curiosity. I am, therefore, not unprepared for being told that in this suspicious love language of Shakspeare there is room for a world of profound reflection and meditation. The stern moralist, keeping to the letter of the sonnets, will find them a text for no unfair inculpation of Mr. Malone, who. has 8 bitindle•sly insinuated that the bard was jealous of his wife. He will turn aU the pathos of this matter of scandal to the aide of our . • •ympatby wit h Mrs. Shakspeare, who was, perhaps, poor soul ! with her own bandit, watering the •ery mulberry-tree of her graceless bard in their Staffordshire garden, at the moment when he in London was gadding after a married woman, and recording in rhyme their double adultery and compound fracture or the marriage vow. How humbling it is to the species, be will add, to find the man, who held up, as it were, a mirror to nature, thus detected in its reflection, playing A uch fantastic tricks before high heaven as make the angels weep !" It will be also pleaded, perhaps, that these illicit effusions seem to illustrate that alleged contempt for his wile which is so acutely discovered in the poet's will. It will save us, however, from being plunged into such deep moralization by a few sonnets, if we re flect that all ibis conjugal contempt assigned to the mighty poet, is screwed by the hardest inference out of circumstances most lm. perfectly known to us, and that in spite of his interlineated will, and this sonnet-sung attachment, we see him retiring, when but little past the prime of life, very unlike a man who bad been weaned from domestic affections, to spend the resislue of his days with the mother of his children. I have said, that the addition which these sonnets afford to our knowledge of Shakspeare, is insignificant u an index to his bio- graphy, and I shall not feel the assertion fahified, though I should see persons of more ingenuity than I can pretend to, eliciting many brilliant conjectures from their contents. I can only say that I have outlived all taste for conjectural biographies, and that the truths ►rought to view by these effusions seem to be neither nu• merous nor momentous. We learn from them that Sbakspeare had a friend, to whom he was devotedly attached, (the nature of his language to that friend I shall by and by consider,)and a poetical mistress, who, not satisfied with inroads on the poet's heart, car tied her conquests even to that of his friend, and made Shakspeare sonnetize on his jealottrf of too much tenderness subsisting be tween them. It appears, however, that he never broke with his friend on this account, so that his love-passion must have been a humbler sort of lodger in his heart that could put up without either the whole or the best of its apartments. Other casual moods of his mind are expressed with an air of sincerity, which I deny not to be interesting as insulated records of his feelings, though I still re• fuse them the character of new or indicative importance as to his history. lie speaks to his friend. in certain passages, with extreme modesty as to his own poetical merit, and aUudes, with an admira tion that is beautifully unenvious, to some other poet of the time who had won the favour of his friend. He writes on one or two occasions in apparent dejection under the frowns of fortune, and in one sonnet, distinctly laments being obliged to live by the voca tion of a player. If there be any other interesting allusions in these sonnets to his personal circumstances, it is from want of me mory that I have unintentionally omitted them. I am making no hair-splitting distinction when I would empha tically distinguish the general, and even vague, but still actual pleasure, which we enjoy in these sonnets, from hearing the wel come voice of Shakspeare express his casual and transient feelings, and the falsely-imagined pleasure that he is telling us something new about himself, which tradition, or his other poems, had not told us, and which may consequently be regarded as new aestimonies for tracing his life. We learn from a hundred son- nets that be was a devoted friend, but if we possessed not are of these, would it ever enter into our suspicions that he was cold-blooded in friendship ? We find him, in effusions of the same sort, confessing to the influence of the softer flame; and will thosewho have ever felt to their hean's core his power in the drama of describing love pretend that they would have repudiated their sympathy, if they had suspected that he had drawn his amatory ex perience from the admiration of any other woman than his own good old Anne Hathaway ? Some of the Sonnets indicate that he was subject to casual misfortunes; and what ghost or sonnet was required to make us believe as 'much ? It may be alleged that these complaints seem to contradict the general prosperity which is attributed to the course of his life, on the supposition of which Dr. Johnson, using the bard's own beautiful simile, says, that he seems to have shaken off the difficulties of fortune like " dew-drops from the lion's mane !" But what man, even the most prosperous, were he to journalize his feelings in sonnets, would not record him self a thousand times poorer, and more unhappy on one day than another ? He praises one of his contemporaries in the sonnets, and he could well afford to do so. Drummond's account of him supersedes the necessity for any other proof that he was gentle, good-natured, and amiable. He speaks very humbly of himself in certain passages. This leads us, however, to no discovery that he was blind to his own mighty endowments ; for in other passages he freely para phrases, and applies to himself the " nee monumental's" of Ho race. The only very striking phenomenon in the Sonnets is, dot he predicts immortality to himself from those effusions, and not from his dramas—an opinion which the world has thought proper to falsify. Lastly,the Sonnets allude to his being a player, and to his disliking the profession—had they told us the reverse, there would• have been some novelty in the information. Only twenty-two of these Sonnets are addressed to a lady, whose name has not even been guessed at; and of whom, if we except what the poet himself calls his " mad slanders," nothing is known, but that she had dark eyes, dark hair, and played the virginal. More than 100 of his Son nets are addressed to his male friend, of whom still less, if possible. is discoverable. We may be told, perhaps, that these poems are, nevertheless, the record of a deep and strong personal friendship, and that if you divest those effusions of an exaggerated amatory garb, the mere fashion of the age, in Shakespeare's language 'to a male friend, they illustrate the strength of his friendly attachment. I believe that they record a very strong and pure friendship, but I deny that they unequivocally paint his passions, and the true cha racter of his sentiments. Of the love Sonnets to the lady let us think as literally as we please—but to take his friendship Sonnets according to the letter of their phraseology, I should be very sorry. Those friendship Sonnets are not the work of Shakspeare writing in his own unaffected character, how sincere never the friend ship itself may have been, but the fantastical language of a friend in poetical masquerade, exaggerating friendship into love, and painting his sentiments in hyperbolical colours. This is surely not the unequivocal language of passion. That the fashion of the age makes Shakspeate's real sentiments unblanvable, is unquestionable; for persons of the same sex, in those days, wrote downright erotic sonnets to each other most innocently, and a man subscribed him. self, your lover, meaning no more than at present he means by " your humble servant." But keeping the poet's own real senti ments in unquestioned sincerity apart—the poems themselves are tinged by the chartered hyperbole of the age, with a jealousy and misery in the sentiment of friendship which ere foreign to its na ture. The great heart of Shakspeare, when it bestowed Its friend ship, most have bestowed it largely; but, believing this as I do, I would rather refresh.my deep and sacred impressloo of the be lief by a reperusal, of his other tvor,ks, 'than of mote of the.e awn• nets, in looking to whisk it is one thing to adjure most soimuly and sincerely any moral blame of him for his esaggerstion, and another thing to admire the hyperbolical as a matter of taste, or to admit it as an index to the history of his life. As a guide to s - 4 the history of his life; &cod Nnnets to b Oak friend are indet d but faint scintillations,- •dt seems hapesibleto make out to whom they were dedicated.:• Dr. Drake - ieriplooplbly, bust by no means, I think, conclusiveli, contends that their object was Lord South ampton. If this be the fact, it is rather odd to find the poet call ing a peer of the realm " his sweet boy," at a•time when his Lord• ship must have beep thirty-giz years of age. Mr. Gen. Chalmers, whose ingenuity always repays its errors, by giving ample occa sion for a laugh, insists that they were addressed to Queen Eliza beth. •What must her unsezed Majesty have thought uf - the 20th Sonnet ? Considering these Sonnets merely as poems, without reference to thier biographical importance, it is manifest that some of them lack an important characteristic of true poetry, namely, their being genuine draughts of the poet's mind ; for when he extols the personal charms and complexion of his friend, we recognize only an assumption of a fictitious- character, borrowed in mo ments of thoughtless accordance from the capricious rhodo montade of the times. To take the fashion of the age, and its unmeaning licence of language, into allowance, would be but justice to him if he were the commonest sonneteer, but most emphatically is it due to his hallowed memory as the master of the human heart. Still, at the same time, that very allowance leaves his language to be held unmeaning, and therefore, in several pass ages, uninteresting. Many of the Sonnets, nevertheless, express an unelargerated friendship that'is truly Shakspearian and endear ing ; and the fancy, harmony, and diction of the greater portion of the whole collection betoken the hand of a master. They form, altogether, the best of our sonnet poetry anterior to that of Drum• mond ; for George Stevens's comparison of them with Watson's productions is unworthy of an answer. If the same Commenta tor's question, " What have truth and nature to do with sonnets ?" deserve any reply, we may simply extinguish it, by telling him that they as much to do with the sonnet as with any other short spe cies of poem. It is very true, that any long series of effusions, clothed in uniform metre, inspired with slightly varying sentiments: and devoted to the same subject, will produce, when collectively read, a certain monotonous effect, from which I cannot deny that, these sonmets are totally free any more than those of Petrarch. It is delightful to take a short walk through side-rows of sweet briars and honey-suckle; but it would tire us to make a day's jour ney through interminable alleys of them. There is no necessity, however, for our making a toil of a pleasure in reading either the sonnets of Shakspeare or Petrarch, for the character o( tedium be. longs not to those pieces individually, any more than the pressure, of a crowd belongs to the presence of a single person. To say that these Sonnets add but little to Shakspeare's fame, is as excusable as to say that a considerable rock might appear but as a pebble if it were piled on the top of Olympus. But in many of them all the ma jesty and grace of Shakspeare is as distinct, and impress us with that peculiar aspect, as if thoughts that voluntary move harmonious, numbers were the spontaneous respirations of his mind. I was beginning to enumerate the more exquisite portion of his sonnets, such as the Bth, the 30th, 123 d, and others, but let me spare the reader the officious aid of a cicerone, where he may so easily judge for himself. I will not preach to his taste and ear by commenting on the exquisite richness of music and meaning in the following lines : Let me not to the marriage of true minds Amidst impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, — Or bends with the remover to remove : 0 no ! it is an ever•fued mark, That looks on tempests and is never shaken ; It is the star . to every wandering bark, Whose_ worth's unknown, although his height be taken. Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come ; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks; But bears it out e'en to the edge of doom. If this be errour, and upon me proved, I never writ, and no man ever loved. T. C. SPORTING INTELLIGENCE. GREAT STEEPLE CHACE—Dtc,i. The long-talked-of match for 100sovs, pp. between Captain Roses Clinker and Mr. Osbaldeston's Clasher took place yes terday morning in the neighbourhood of Melton-Mowbray, In the presence of a great concourse of sporting characters. By the terms of the match, the weights were fixed at 12 stone each ; Clinker being ridden by the celebrated Dick Christian, and Clasher by his spirited owner. The starting and coaling-in points were not fixed till a few hours before the time for meeting, when they were declared to be Great Dalby, and a field near Tilton. The interest excited by the match was extraordinary, especially in the two counties ( Northampton and Leicester), of which the two horses were respectively the champions. Clinker has long been known, not only in the Melton Hunt, but in every sporting county in the kingdom ; he was formerly hunted by Mr. Holyoake, and was considered a remarkable superior horse at a burst; he was af terwards purchased by Captain Ross for 500 guineas to run the great steeple duce with Lord Kennedy for 2,000 guineas, in which be proved successful ; he also started in the sweepstake last sea son, his defeat being attributable to injudicious riding. Clasher has only been known in the immediate vicinity of the Pytcbley Hunt, and came into node last year by winning the Welter Cup at the Hunt Meeting. Mr. Osbaldeston has all along expressed the greatest confidence in him; and this will account for the compa rative timidity with which the Leicestenbire people laid odds on Clinker. At the time appointed for starting the parties appeared at Great Dalby, and without any unnecessary delay, went off abreast at a killing pace ; they kept tide by side over Burrow Lord ship, Twyford, Marfieet Lordship, the chances throughout appear ing so equal that the most experienced could not venture an opinion on the race; the leaps (and there were some rasping fences) were taken with admirable coolness, horses and riders doing their work in the cleanest and most sportsman-like manner. Nothing decisive could be gathered till they got to the last fence which separated them from the winning field. Mawr went at it as if he was be ginning the chase, cleared it iu a style that cannot be too highly admired, and in an instant was in the Tilton field; not SO Clinker, who fell in making the leap, lay some time before be got up, and of course lost the race. _ _ _ It is allowed that this was one of the finest things of the hind ever Ken at Melton ; nor can it be denied that Mr. Osbaldeston and Christian displayed first-rate horsemanship. The betting on this match was eaceedingly heavy. and it is reported that Mr. Osbaldeiton has won a very large sum. The Meitonlans are bit very hard, and are evidently less sanguine about the second match between the same parties, which is fixed for Saturdey peat, near Northampton. The distance run was about five miles. We omitted to state that neither Clinker not his jockey was hurt by the fall. A new club is about to be established at the West-end of the toss*, to be called the Huirsdnans. If recruited from the other clubs, it cannot fano( becoming uncommonly numerous. Yesterday afternoon an inquest was held at the Rose of Normandy public-house, in High-street, Marylebone, before Mr. Stirling, touching the death of Miss Mary Ann Tessier, a young lady who was burnt to death at a boarding-school in that neighbourhood, and the following evidence was given :—Min Emma Beardmore, of 26, Beaumont -street, aged twelve years, was at school with the deceased on Friday morning, at No. 103, High street, and about half-past nine o'clock the detested endea voured to reach a piece of paper from behind an image Which stood upon the chimney-piece of the school-room, and her clothes went too neat the bars of the grate, and her frock caught fire. The de ceased screamed, and ran out of the room, and the witness did not see her again until she was put into bed. In answer to the Co roner, and some ofthe Jury. she said there were two other children in the room at the time. The deceased was younger then her. self. The governess was not present, fur the school hours did not begin till ten o'clock. The deceased had been occasionally corrected for getting too near the fire. Mr. John Dever mew. pies apartments in the same house where the accident took plate, and is a tailor. He heard the screams of the child, and ran to meet her on the stairs In flames; he accidentally had piece of woollen cloth in his hand. and hi threw it over her shoulders, and with the assistance of Mr. Galilee, the land. lord of the house, the fire was extinguished, and the child was car ried into the back• parlour, and in about three minutes the assist. ante of a surgeon was obtained. Mr.' Natio. Grant; of Thayer. street, was celled in ; he found her shoulders, end nen; and back, and a mt., and nee leg of She deceased; very • much umt. 'and ko arplied the necessary remedies. Alt she Bogeyed and dled at "St, o cluck the neat evening, in coosequelpcit orthe Cled...—Yerdicf.—• Accidental ••••, LAW INTATLICETICE. COURT OF KINGS DENIM Dna. 2. WEST WIDDLXIEL WATZ2,-WORLII COMPAPT SUIVIIIKSOP AND 4111101111 BIL • Thill was an action brought against the defendants for fraudu lently placing a pipe and cock on the main pipe of the Company, by which they obtained water for the supply of the defendant Su werkrop's baths without paying the Company, although he had agreed to give the Company one penny for 56 gallons. The Clerk of the Company deposed to the defendant applying for a supply of water to some baths situated In Lucasvard, Oxford street, and that the Company agreed to furnish him with it at the rate of one penny for 36 gallons. Pdward Smith, Inspector, proved that there was a service-pipe leading to the tank on the basement of the defendant's premises. There was a guage In the to*, and it was the turncock's business to take an account of the supply of water. William Turner examined—Was in the service of defendant last year; was first emgloyed In the stable, and afterwards took the place of foreman; It was my duty to see the cisterns full. They used to be pumped full; but went away one night about eleven, and next morning found a pipe laid on ; it had been placed there during the night ; the business was not quite completed, and the turncock, Smith, and a plumber, returned about ten o'clock and finished the plumbing work at the pipe. The cock of this pipe used to leak, and the defendant said he would make the turncock put in another. The turncock frequently had a bath, but he was never charged for it ; the price was 4s. He Is now in, defendant's service. cross-examined by Mr. Cameau.s.—Did :lot know that Sewer krop was the clerk to the Portable Bath Cothpany ; was dismissed from the defendant's service. Re-examined by the AITO2II2V Gisn.at.—informed the Com pfix ny of this pipe about three-quarters of a year after it bad be e n ed. Several other witnesses were enunined, whose evidence corro borated that of Wm. Turner. The defence to the action was, that the defendant Suwerkrop was the clerk to the Portable Bath Company, and was not in Lon don when the pipe was laid on the main. The Arroassv-thntaaat, in reply, said, that whether or not Suwerkrop was a partner or clerk, it did not signify, as be knew what was going on, and immediately that pipe was laid on , it de prived the Water ,ompany of rent ; and the moment the pipe was taken tiway, the rent was the same as it was before the pipe was put in, and that it was therefore& fraud upon the Company. Lord Timm= summed up the case to the Jury. and said that a master was answerable for the illegal acts of his servant, and if they thought the son of Mr. Suwerkrop was aware of the facts of, the pipe being laid on, they would give the plaintiffs the benefit of the verdict. The Jury consulted for a few minutes, and returned a •erdict for the plaintiff—Damages £2O. COURT OF COMMON PLEAS, Dec. 2. LIBIL—PINDEX V. WSSTLAIM Mr. Sergeant %toe stated the plaintiff's case. Francis William Finden was a young man who, while waiting for a situation which hr expected to obtain in a public office, entered at a very small sa lary into the employment of Mr. Westlake, a gentleman who was in the habit of sending him about for the purpose of endeavouring to obtain cash for bills, which be w e nt in the habit of drawing upon a person of the name of Wimpy. But a short time elapsed from the period at which the plaint.ff enteted upon this employment before the charge was brought upon which the present action was founded. Mr. Westlake waited upon the father of• the plaintiff, saying that be bad looked into the young man's desk, and from an account there be perceived that Francis Finden had appropriated to his own use a suns of six pounds, the property of the defendant; also two bills of. exchange, drawn upon Mr. Wimpy, mid one drawn by that gentleman, amounting in the whole to upwards of £2OO. Upon this a go od deal of communication passed between the par ties, in the course of which the father offered a bond for the sum In question; but Westlake required that the money should be paid immediately. The defendant. not content with making these charges, caused to be posted up in all the usual places for sticking bills, a placard, consisting of a notice cautioning bill-brokers and ethers against taking two bills drawn upon Mr. Wimpy, for eighty seven pounds and thirty.nine pounds, and another drawn by that gentleman, and charged the plaintiff with embezzling them. It must be evident to the Jury, that if the money were paid by the father for bills, the real value of which was much to be doubted, the present cause of action would never bate arisen. If it should appear to the Jury that the defendant acted bona-fide, there would be grounds for the Jury's coming to a decision in his favour • but, on the other band, if be were only influenced by a desire to Obtain in cash the amount of wettbless bills, the Jury would feel it only just that Finden should receive compensation for the injury done to his character. The defendant pleaded the general issue. Mr. Serjeant ANDIMWS, for the defendant, put It to the Jury whether, under the circumstances, Mr. Westlake could have done otherwise than, upon probable cause, institute the prosecution, and afterwards yield to the importunities of a father and drop the pro. secution, when, and when only, that father had guaranteed the payment of the money ? James Mathews, a clerk of Mr. Wesdake,examlned—l was pre. sent when directions were given to search Mr. IFinden's desk ; the bill now shown me was on the 30th of April stuck upon Mr. West lake's house. George Gelder—A paper, with penciled directions on it, was given to me; I searched in conformity with them, and did not find the bills; I found an envelope, addressed to Mr. Wright, bat did not contain the bill stated in the penciled writing. James Smyth.—l know the plaintiff; I never received the bill in question. Crossountined.—l have a slight recollection that Mr. Finden once said something about a discount to me. Samuel Wright.—! do not recollect having been asked for the discount in question ; he usight have done so; at different times I have paid in cheeks to the plaintiff, sums amounting to between live and ten thousand pounds, and he might ask about such a discount. Mr. Finden reexam ined.—My son's promising In one of his letters that I should call and arrange about a bill related to another bpi, an acceptance of my own.—Verdict for the plaintiff—Da mages, 2200. LONDON SESSIONS. These &Woos commenced yesterday mousing, before the Right Hoa. the Lou Maros, Mr. Sergeant Alum. and several Aldermen. ASSAM.? EPOS. • SOLICTIOE IN THE PUNT TALON. Asses ankh, a powerful man, stood indicted for violently as. sauteing, on the 4th of August last; William Heary James Conway, a solicitor, living in Castle-street, Holborn. Mr. ALLAY and Mr. STEAK appeared for the prosecutor, and Mr. C. PI it.t.trs for the defendant. Henry James Conway stated, that on the 4th of August last he went to the Fleet Prison. It was about seven o'clock In the even ing. When witness was coming out of the prison, he saw the dt fendant at the bottom of the coffee-room gallery stairs. Without saying say thing defendant knocked him down. When down de fendant kicked him several times, and then kneeled upon his chest. Prosecutor called out "murder," three or four times, when seve ral persons came to prosecutor's assistance, and dragged the defend ant from him. Prosecutor went boats in a hackney coach. On the following morning he went to the prison to make a complaint to the Warden. The defendant, on seeing the prosecutor, said— " What brings you here, you b-- thief ?" adding, " you have robbed me of thousands—you have sold me." Mr. Brown or. dered the defendant to be confined in the strong room. Cross-examined—Did not have a hackney-coach ago to the Fleet Prison on the second day. Was Attorney to the defendant in fire different suits. He was unsuccessful in them all. Defen dant complains of Ms conduct. Be most certainly did not use any irritating language. Defendant has paid hint £2O. His bill amounts to 1150. Mr, Wm. Brown, the Warden of the Fleet Prison, stated, that the defendant admitted having assaulted the prosecutor. Mr. Lee, surgeon, spoke to the nature of the Injuries the prose cutor received. Witness attended him for several days. Mr. C Pnu.un addressed the Jury in behalf of the defendant, and called witnessed to show that the parties fought. The Jury returned a verdict of Guilty. The Court postponed its judgment. Tuesday morning 25 male prisoners, among whom were some desperate ocracksmen ' " were conveyed fromN e w gate to Chatham, and were guarded by 3lr. Smith, the Clerk of the Prison Records, and a number of turnkeys. Upon their arrival they were put, on board the Dolphin hulk (the vessel which was lately driven (torn her moorings) preparatory to their embarkation for NC* South Wales, in which colony they have been sentenced to remain for the term of their natural lives. Thursday se'nnight, as a gentleman, who is in a re spectable mercantile house in this town, was proceeding to his residence at Kirkuk,. just beyond the boundary stone, he came is contact with a bricklayer, who was carrying a beck iron on his shoulder, by which means the gentleman bad hiskleft eye moat dreadfully cut, and remained jolt* insane:Me for some minutes afterwards. The Injury was gait* accidental, as DO attempt what seer was made to rub or otherwise molest the geml=thq is in a fair way of recunry. The night was Very dark.-- Papp. The phrenologists have discovend that the Skull of a goose has MOOD of the bump indkatleo of wisdom than a'turkey, sakihat the shall of a genuine phrenologist very much tesembie. that of the former. , . POLICE INTELLIGENCE. MANSION-HOUSE. Yesterday Margaret Braddack, an elderly decently dressed woman was brought up on a charge of passing bad money, in which she appeared to be rather an extensive dealer. William Aickson, a fruiterer, in Leadenhall-market, stated that the prisoner came to him on Tuesday and purchased sixpennyworth of apples, in payment for which she offered him half a crown,whieh on inspection, he was confident was counterfeit. He also knew the prisoner to be the same person who bad purchased sixpennyworth of apples from him the Tuesday before, and given him a bad crown in payment, which he had taken, and given her the change. Perceiving the halfcrown to be bad he told her so, and asked her where she got it? She replied that she had taken it from a poul terer in the market. He proposed going with her to the shop, and they went out of his shop together. They bad not gone many yards when be perceived her to let fall a small parcel, and, taking It up, found it contained seven bad halfcrowns and two bad shillings. Site then said she had not taken the first halfcsown at any shop in the market, and he gave her into custody. Mr. Powell, of the Mint, proved that all the halfcrowns and the two bad shillings were counterfeit. The prisoner was committed for trial. She was about to state where she had purchased the counterfeit money, but the Lord Mayor told her it might be better to make that communication in private to Mr. Powell, which she said she would do. It is said that the quantity of counterfeit silver coin in circulation is immense. BOW-STILEETs Yesterday information was given to the Police of the following impudent robbery, committed on Tuesday evening,: —About five o'clock on that evening, a man of very gentlemanly appearance called at the house of Mr. Meevor. a musical composer, 38, Southampton-street, Strand, and asked permission to look at the first floor, which was to be let. Mr. Meevor's gold watch and ap pendages were lying on a table in the drawing-room, and the vi sitor contrived to take them up, and place them in his bat. Alfa. Meevor heard the noise of the gold watch chain rattling as the stranger put on his hat to go out, and almost at the same moment she turned round and missed the watch. She gave the alarm to her husband. who pursued the stranger, but the latter ran at the top of his speed the moment be got to the door, and succeeded io mating his escape. The police are on the alert to apprehend the thief. HATTON-GARDEN. Yesterday morning Mary Murray was brought before Mr. Ro seau and bleiSergeant Smarm, under the following circumstances . Mrs. Haywood deposed, that on Tuesday evening she was pro ceeding home from Mile.end. When she bad got to the corner of High-street, St. Giles's, the prisoner came up to her, and without . _ _ . any provocation struck her several violent blows , tore her bonnet and veil completely off her bead, and kicked and abused her in a most shameful manner. It was some minutes before she could speak, she was so violently assaulted. An officer came up and took the prisoner into custody. Jarvis, police-officer No. 5, F division, stated he took the pri soner in custody, and he never saw a woman so violent in his life. He was obliged to get the assistance of six other officers, to take her to the watch-house ; the prisoner biting and kicking all the way. Lincoln, the police inspector, said the prisoner's conduct in the watch-house was most outrageous. She assaulted every one who went near her ; and in bringing ber to the office she bad assaulted poles' than three officers. Whilst the witnesses were giving their evidence, the prisoner abused them in the most disgusting language. The Magistrates consulted a short time, when Mr. Rouses told the prisoner she was fined 25, and in default of payment to two months imprisonment. As soon as the prisoner heard the ft ntence she seized the leaden inkstand on the clerk's desk, and threw it with great force at Mr. Ronan'. Luckily, Lincoln, the inspector, was just behind her, and seizing her arm at the instant, it fell short of its aim, other wise the Magiatrrate must have received a severe contusion. k' UNION-HALL Ass Masten,san was brought up for final examination, on a charge of having stolen a very handsomely-cut sugar-baron, and a wine decanter of a curious pattern, the property of Mr. Fitzmaurice, of the Borough, and where she bad been living as housemaid. It ap peared, from the evidence, that about three weeks ago , the pd. saner offered to pledge the Damn and decanter at Mr. Ilirkman's shop ; the assistant to whom they were shown, thinking that such handsome articles could not be her own prperty, questioned her about them; at first she stated that she had bought them from a Jew, when she was in different circumstances, but afterwards she confessed she had taken them from where she was a entrant. An officer was sent for, and she was taken into custody. On her appearing before the Magistrates the glass was likewise produced; this, when she was remanded, was given into the care of the chief constable Hall. When Mr. Flummeries attended yesterday, he told the Magistrates that within the last two days the things which had been taken away bad been replaced, in con sequence of which he should forego the prosecution; this was de clared to be impossible, and Halls produced the boon and decanter offered by the prisoner at Mr. Kirkman's. Mr. Fitamaurice stated that the articles taken were pan of a set out of a mahogany travelling-case, and that the compartments were now all full, containing four decanters, and two sugar-basons.— Upon these being sent for, it was evident that some one, probably a fellow-servant, had replaced the stolen propeny, by having simi lar ones manufactured, and so closely was the style and pattern imitated, that it would be a difficult matter to detect the new front the old.—Mr. CUAX/1111 thought that thine was still a ease strong enough to warrant the commital ; but the prisoner persisted in her first story of having purchased the articles; and upon Mr. Fits maurice saying he should feel some difficulty In identifying them as his property, she was ordered to be discharged. MARLBOROUGH-STREET. The Steward of a Benefit Society denominated the Cordwainers, holding their meeting at the Horse and Groom, King-street, St. James's, appeared yesterday before the presiding Magistrate, J. E. Conan, i'sq. to answet the complaint of an aged member of the Society, (or refusing him that relief, which, as a subscriber, he was entitled by the rules to receive. The case excited some interest. The applicant, whose whole frame was petalled, from which circumstance he was deprived of the use of one atm, stated he had been a member of the Clob upwards of fifteen years, and always made his payments to the Society good. He had received their relief as a decayed member for a abort space of time, and t►ey had now broke him front the Club, and the application in this instance was (provided it met with the Worthy Magistrate's approbation) to be re-instated. _ _ _ _ _ Mr. Cowie inquired what the defendants had to say ? The Steward of the Society (who appeared by his age to be a young member, in comparison with the complainant) replied, that the articles of their institution stated that no ene on the decayed list should work, and the complainant had broken this law. Mr. CONANT inquired how ? A visiting Steward 'replied, that the complainant's wife kept a coal shed, and also retailed potatoes, and one morning when he (the witness) went to the compkinant's shop, as he crossed the street be saw him holding a potato in one band, apparently for inspection, to a Lady who was standing outside the shop. Mr. CONANT inquired If he was of opinion that was working? The witness said be certainly thought it was. The worthy Magistrate asked what the' complainant had to say to it?—The unfortunate complainant declared that he did not ab sw a potato for sale or sample. Mr. Cowawe asked the witness if he, crossing the street, could tell whether he was selling, or whether he beard any conversation The witness replied that he did not hear any thing said, and that the lady walked away before he got up to the door. The worthy Magistrate was of opinion that she pretence for ex clusion was frivolous, end said the complainant must be imme diately reinstated. T H A HES- POLICE. Yesterday, TAos. Shand/. a journeyman sawyer, was charged with intermarrying with Ann Willis, the former wife being still living. The prisoner was married to his first wife 23 years ago. at Maid atone:but he shortly afterwards separated front her. He married another woman at Stepney Church, about three years ago, by whom be has had two children. The second wife applied to the Overseers of Ratcliff (or relief, and it was discovered that the pri soner's first wife was then living. The prisoner was fully committed for trial. 1- • - - , Au DAC 10179 "LOB , ERV . ztaturuay afternoon last, between four and five o'clock, Mr. Alexander Munro, the keeper of the Royal Institution, was attacked in Se -l-street by three men. who knocked him down, robbed him of his watch, a sovereign and a half in gold, and fifteen shillinis in silyer, and, beat him with great brutality. This most audacious robbery was committed before the lighting of the lamps. - Nothing has yet been heard of the offenders.—Liverpool Paper. BIRTH. At Mantillas, the Lady of A. J. Hamiltoo, younger of Dal sell. of a on and boir. D 1 RD. On the ilth of September last, Francis Ornwn. Esq. of Beßeira. island of St. Vinctnt. Ia Whitehall-place, Frances Mary Torritt Croke, daughter of Sir Alexander Croke: ki:*4 l: Eit 14914, pier ag.,Tv. Mersin • • -". ' 40 imputes atter 7 Mutilate • • 10 entautei after _ Linos Printed and Puldforoorbflorm Mini, it - •c 4, Omer No.l, Pl4oti:N4ce.lll,ople ear. v~