The National Register. — London, England, 1822-10-13 00:00:00

~16 MINGULAR AND AFFECTING NARRATIVE. -..41.....- In the year 1819, a respectable misli/le aged 'female, of the name of Roberts, k. pi a tavern of very good restore in the city of Si. John's. New Brunswick. She was a widow, and had two children, girls, the elder at that t )O, and the younger only eight years of ate. She was considered in be a woman of some property. and the house of the buxom uidow was well frequented, mute especially as an hotel. About the middle of that year a person of respectable exterior arrived at St. John's. and put up at the imine.— He represented himself to be a British naval officer, of high birth, a mauve of. Ireland. and possessing large estates in that country. During a residence there of some Months, he affected to take great interest in the welfare of the widow and her family, by which he gained an insight into her affairs, and soon ascertained that she was in pObWiLIOII of some property in trust for her chi!. dress, which she was desirous of laying out to the best .advantage. L► the month of October in that year. the schooner . Lord Aeisers was brought front Nova Scotia to ihe port of St. John's fur sale. By the recommendation of her friendly lodger, the widow was induced to become the purchaser of the vessel ; her new friend kite,ly under , took to :associate the business, and the suns of 6'.:01. was ultimately paid into bis hands to conclude the purchase in the naines.of the girls, Frances Watson and Maga. -ret Bourke (issue by two former husbandi), the rece►pt Jew the amount being also made out in the children's name. at,freeh register in the names of the new owners now .Isecame necessary, and this her kind friend also under took to isrocure at the Custom-house of St. John's; but instead thereof he contrived, unknown to the wasinw, to get his own naane endorsed upon the old register, a► master, and thus secured to himself the. whole and sole ocultroul of the vessel. His attentions now assnmed a different character— ,friendship appeared to have " ripenel into love ;" he seemed quite enraptured with the person of the widow, . and gained so far upon her affections as to prevail upon her to sell off her whole concern, and accompany him on a • voyage tolreland ; and a cargo of timber was ac • cordingly taken in tor Sligo. Wh w eu all was ready lor sailing, and the whole of the widow's effects on hoard. the enamoured lover managed to give a hint to one of the widow's creditors, that he was tritely to. lose his debt. On this intimation she was arrested awl thrown into prison, while her friend, her enema, and her schooner, set sail for Ireland, leaving her and her children in the utmost distress, every thing, even to their very clothes, beiirgoa board. Mit villany of , the affair was quickly exposed. The creditor who had arrested her, not only liberated her immediately. but procured a passage for her and her children in another vessel bound for Ireland. Tins vessel, unfortunately, however, was bound to a different quarter of that kingdom s and on her arrival in Ireland, ,ahe found that ahe and her children had to tra „verse the island nearly from one end to the other, with a ) other. lIICANS of conveyance than nature had supplied Mien) with. Even this difficulty was surmounted, and they at length succeeded in reaching Sligo about three :weeks after the arrival of tier runaway inamorato. Haw she soon learned that lie was a.mere adventurer, that par relations were of the lowest class of Irish, that. he Impd distributed her's and her children's clothes anion/pie them, and was giving balls and entertainments with the produce of the property he had thus surreptitiously ob tained. .(per first application .for redress was to the Magistrates, but baring no documents to satisfy them of the justice of her claims, and finding he was taking in a freight of corn for Liverpool, as a last and desperate resource, she threw herself and children on board the sc..ouita, deter- mined to go with it, at all hazards, wherever thceillain aught choose to transport it. lit the course of the voyage, the now assumed master and owner ran the vessel into a port in Ireland, where he disposed of part of the cargo, and being unable on his arrival at Liverpool to give a satisfactory account for the deficiency, he was arrested by the Consignees, and thrown into gaol. 11cr excessive agitation of mind, and the great fatigue she had undergone, threw the widow at this p:riod into a violent illness, which confined her for some length of time to her bed, and before she recovered, the vessel had been put into the hands of a mercantile house at Liver .pool, and had set sail with a cargo consigned to London, whither the pretended owner, who had contrived to get himself liberated from Lie espoul gaol, was also hasten- -lug _ . By the aid of the parish. and the contributions of se veral benevolent persons at Liverpool, to whom her situ ation hail been made known, the widow was enabled to follow, and she arrived with her children in London, about the middle of the year 18sto. Tne case was submitted to several professional gentle men. but application to lawyers was out of the question. No one would undertake her case gratuitously, nor. in deed, had she the necessary documents to establish her claims its a court of law. Of this the villain who had robbed her was well aware, and he treated her in C011be• qUeliCe with the utmost indifference, insult, and ne glect. Absolute want now pressed upon the wretched widow and her family, Irons which they were for a short tune relieved by the Mendacity Society, who continued their assistance much longer than their usual period, and even dirt cted their solicitor to take steps for obtaining posses sion of the schooner. 7 hese were found to be ineffectual, and the society were obliged to leave theist to their un happy late. During this period, her fals.• friend had obtained credit sufficient to have the schooner new coppered, and again put to sea. He had, however, been arrested tor the pay ment by the British Copper Company, and thrown Into the King's Bench prisms, where he has remained ever s nee—iearly two years. (I,:q,ss of the widow and her family was now at THE NATIONAL REOISTEI the extreme. They t, ere lodged in a'small hovel our the Surrey Theatre, and had not lain upon a ised—no not even upon straw—for upwards of fife months. They were destitute of shoes and stockings, and wanted even the common chithing to cover their nakedness; oc casionally not fasting hood for days together. In this forlorn situation—a stringer in a fcireign land—her chil dren expiring at her feet—bereft, as it were, of all hu man succour—Providence raised her up a friend, and that in the person of a man moving in the humble sphere of one of the Marshalmen of the City of London In the month of March, 1822, the widow,. learning that the schooner had returned to the port of London, went to make application to the Lord Mayor at the MansiOn-house. Brand, the marshalmao, was in at tendance. and to him she made known the nature of her application. He soon discovered her's was not a case in which the Magistrates could render her assistance, nobly undertook to do it himself, and set about it with an ala crity, intelligence, and determination, that do honour to !Inman nature. After visiting the scene of misery, he supplied the un happy family with bedding and the needful clothing, and furnished them from his own purse with small stuns of money weekly for their support. Having thus placed them in comparative comfort, he proceeded to ascertain into whose hands the register of the schooner had fallen, and succeeded by threats of legal proceedings in deter ring them front again sending her to sea, although they were under bond to the pretended owner to work the vessel. • With equal despatch he wrote off to America for copies of all the necessary papers and documents relative to the sale of the schooner in 1818 ; and, not to burden the narrative with uninteresting psrliculars, at length succeeded, in defiance of two faits in the Admiralty Courts, commenced for the mere purpose of lrightning the real owners into an abandonment of the property. in obtaining legal land actual possession of the vessel mt behall of the widow and her children ; and about ten days ago sold it for 5601.1 which, though con. siderably least than the original cost, may be fairly deemed its 101 l value after the wear and tear it had un• dergone, and the neglected state in which it had lain fo many months. On the receipt of the proceeds of the sale, the widow's first act was to return thanks to Providence for his titer caul interposition in her behalf ; her nett to repay Brand the various sums he was in advance—he would receive no more; and the residue has since, under his direction, been lodged in secure hands, until it shall be deter iii iii est in what manner it can be best laid out to insure the future welfare of the grateful widow and her children. .... To the honour of the British Navy, it is a pleasure to be able to state, that the perpetrator of this lengthened series of villanies is no officer, hut sprung from the lowest class of Irish, and working in his own country previously to this adventure, in the meanest occupation upon the public quays. He is still a prisnner in the king's Bench. and it is miderstond will shortly apply to be relieved under the Insolvent Lebtors' Act. POLICE. MANSION-HOUSE. HACKNEY COACHES woes SHORT STAGE COACHES. Ismwow DscisioN.—Ou Monday last the Justice. room was crowded by the proprietors of the " short stages," which convey passengers from the city to the sohnrbs, and by hackney coach owners, who have fur some time past complained greatly, that their bnsiness is extensively injured by the great number of these vehicles, which, they complain. illegally " ply" for hire, and make a 'nisei ,Tit of taking sup passengers and setting them down at shorter distances than those which they are appointed to rust. _ To try the question of the right of short stages to ply - for passengers, Charles Hearudon, the proprietor of the Kentish Town stage, N 0.3,647, was sunsmuned before the Lord Mayor, at the instance of several respectable hack ney coach owners, on • charge of having illegally plied fur hire on the 9th of Septenther last. Mr. Bann attended to conduct the prosecution for the hackney coach proprietors; Mr. Adolphus and Mr. An drews attended as counsel for the proprietors of the short stages; and Mr. Sykes, of the Stroup-office, attended as solicitor. Mr. Bunn shortly stated the case for the prosecution, which lie said was brought under the Act of the Ist of Geo. I. for the tegulation of hackney coaches, in which it was enacted," 'flat nu person should presume t.) stand or ply for tire within the Bills of Mortality, with any hackney coach, mourning coach, or other vehicle, without being duly licensed by the Commissioners of the Hackney Coaches, under a penalty of Five Pounds." The charge against the defendant was, that lie had presumed to stand wills si coach to ply for hire without being licensed as aforesaid by the Commissioners of Hackney Coaches; and as this Act of the Ist of Geo. 1., he relied, had not !men repealed by any subsequeni Act, he relied upon a convic tion, it the evidence should sustain his case, for the Act was imperative. Time evidence for the prosecution was that of two hack ney coach °suers, who deposed, that on the tith of last September, in the afternoon, the defendant, who was standing wills his coach, Nu. 3,047, near the Bank, did ply to them for him so go to Camden or Kentish 'luau, and that by plying lie obtained seven passengers. The defendant, iu reply, pleaded his license to carry passengers, by the Commissioners of Stamps, from the top of Highgate-frill to the Bank, and that fur that privi lege he paid to the Con 111 l intoner. 2.. td. per journey, a tax of 101. per 'unmet wheel duty, and a tax of 21.55. fur each coachman, besides the license duty. Mr. Andrews, fur the defence, said, if his Lordship considered the history or object of the Act in question ' or of those Acts which had been subsequently enacted, for the regulation of these vehicles of public conveyance, there ass slot the slightest doubt on leis mind of the lega lity of the defendant's act in plying for hire. Mr. Adolphus followed, and coutesided that it was even absurd to put time cousu Helton upon the Act contended for by the prosecution. lii the section upon which the ptoceedius was founded, it said, that nu person but flame licensed by the Commissioners of Hackney Coaches, should" presume to stand or ply for hire ;" so that stand ing or driving for hire through the streets would be equally offences on the part of the stage proprietors, and it would apply equally well agaimit the proprietors of the York or Exeter stages as against the prr►eut defendants. Mr. Sykes, the solicitor fur the Stamp•uflire, agreed perfectly with what Mid been advanced by the two learned counsel, and said that the great grievance which the hackney coach owners had to complain of, was the practice of the short stage drivers in taking up passenger*, and setting them down within the pavements. Hr had represented their complaint to the Lords of the Treasury, and procured a clause to be inserted in the last Act of the Kin 4, which rendered those short stages that made it a tumefiee to set down passengers within the distance they were appointed to run. It might be important to slate, that, though a stage coachman could not refuse to set down a passenger when lie required it, yet, that if ass individual made it a prac. tire to get oust at a certain ►hort distance, that would be taken as evidence of the knowledge of the coachman, and lie would be bound under a penalty not to convey such a passenger. Mr. Bonn replied, and a conversation took place, In which the prosecution of Me .Drnintnonds, of Charing Cross, against the short stages for • usisance, was alluded to. rite Lord Mayor consulted with Mr. Hobler, the chief clerk, and the City Solicitor; after which his Lordship annomiceil, that, after having considered the whole that bad been offered, he wall clearly of opinion that the prise. tier of the defendant was legal; is the section of the Act cited had been repealed by 'he operation of subsequeot Acts. This decision therefore confirmed the right of the short stages to ply for passengers. HOUSE OF CORRECTION,COLDBATH FIELDS, AND ME TREAD MILL. It is not perhaps generally known to many of OUT that there are upon an average from 70e to 70) individuals con stantly prisoners in the House of Correction for the County of Middlesex, and the greater part of this immense number Ude linquents are the very worst of the outcasts of the metropolis and its neighbourhood, the most abandoned and Irreclaimable (*both sexes. It may not be uninteresting to describe this modem invention of crimal labour. known by the name of the tread mill :—The tread mill was set to work in this prison in the month of June last. It was built under the auperintendance of Mr. Cubit. of !punch, and Mr. Penn of Greenwich. and it has ever since been in constant use—that so. (nut seven in the morning, till five in the afternoon, Sundays ouroptod, and also exclusive of the short periods permitted the dolloguents of both sexes for breakfast and dinner. There are hire no less than eight tread mills, built in u many different yards, and the prisoners are classed with great judgment, according to their sexes and degrees of guilt, by the governor and his assistants. Each of the tread mills has thirty persons at work upon it, attended by a task master. who sees that the pri soners exert themselves, and the greatest order and silence are preserved at each of them. At first this was not easily atom ;dished, especially among 'the females (and there is one of the eight mills appropriated to their exertions;) but they were soon subdued to reason. The wheel of the tread mill runs horizontally nearly th e while length of the yard. About five feet from the top of the wheel is an iron Isar, which the treader catch by both hands, and force the board of the wheel, on which they first stood, downwards. by their united strength and pressure, then raise a foot each un the next board, still exerting themselves as at first. and so on ad iridoitions. Its operation is like that of a squirrel's cage. with the treaders outside. There are seldom more dill!' SO on any one wheel at a time, the other six going off at different times in rotation. The last whocasne down has - his place supplied by the first whose turn it is to go up, and upon his doing so lie has no sett from his labour until he and the other a have moved the wheel so times the each person. Such is the labour of treading. that the writer of this article saw a stout fellow, on coming of the wheel, wet with perspiration, run to the pump to quench his thirst with good spring water. To speak in adequate terms of the cleanliness of every part of the prison is impossible. The walls, passages. staircases, &c. are as white and clean as those of any house in the kingdom. And the health of the prisoners (and be it remembered mat many of of both sexes are sent there loathsome with disease), does the greatest credit to the attention of the magistrates of the noun,. and the care of Mr. Adkins. the governor. AN INTREPID ARRONAUT.—A your% aeronaut, of the name of Fassy, lately made an ascension at Mar seilles, which was very near proving fatal to him. At five o'clock in the evening the balloon arose in the pre sence of numerous spectators; the hasty disappearance of the object of their attetitioti soon spre.d general alarm, when they again perceived the balloon, and discovered that it had lost its spherical form, and was falling with terrific rapidity. Toe most dreadful conjectures were now formed, and every one crowded to the spot where M. Fassy intended to have descended. Sarni they had learnt he came down in perfect safety near the hamlet of Saint Charles. The cause of the rapid fall which had as justly alarmed the spectitois was as follows:—M. Fassy having arrived at a great height, encountered con trary winds, which forced his balloon in every direction. He thought of descending, and to accomplish this lie pulled the silken string of the valve—but the latter be ing placed on the lower side of the machine, was so tightener{ within the folds, which were gummed, that it could not leave open to the vs a free passage. The aeronaut saw hinisclf reduced to pass the night in the air or to burst his balloon ; this last course seemed to him dangerous, and he adopted one which might have pre cipitated him six thousand feet. Standing up in his vascilating bark, he drew towards him the valve by grappling, with the balluoii. He then broke it with an admirable pri.sence of mind; but the gas evaporatitif too speedily, he came down with great rapidity. M. k. however, as an able navigator, had reserved lb s ballast for this decisive moment. On the point of being preci pitated to the earth. he threw out his bags and his an chor, and the machine suddenly lightened, slackened is fall, and left the aeronaut the medusa descending in a vivid state as he had started. At the close of last week, excellent potatoes were sell ing at Greenock, at the unprecedented low price o 1 4d. per peek, and we have heard of their being purchased in hulls at .6.6.1. One dealer, we are told, irritated at the depreciation of the commodity, actually upset a Cart load of potatoes auto Ilse rivet. V -