The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-06-09 00:00:00

THE DARING ESCAPE FROM HULL GAOL•

RE-CAPTURE OF THE CONVICT.

An account has already been given of the escape of a
convict, named Thomas Foster, from the Hull gaol. On
Wednesday he was re-captured. The time of escape is
supposed to have been shortly after two o'clock on Sun-
day morning. Having got some miles out of the town before
daylight, he appears to have found biding-place for the
day in an old disused shed. On Sunday evening he again
set out across the fields in a westerly direction from Hull,
and dining Monday, once more hid himself. Whether
during the two days he managed to procure any
food does not appear. On Monday night he again set
out across the fields; but as the morning advanced he
found that he was within six miles of Hull, and so he
betook himself to one of his hiding-places. Nothing
more is known of his movements until Wednesday.
On the afternoon of that day he presented himself at
the Loftsome-bridge Tollbar, which crosses the River
Ouse about four miles from Howden. A small charge is
made for passing through the gate ; and on Fentan, the
gatekeeper (and formerly a Hull policeman), coming out,
Foster asked him to let him pass without paying, as he
hadn't a halfpenny. Fenton's suspicions were aroused;
so he asked him to go and sit down in the house until
somebody came up who would pay toll for him.
Foster complied, and Fenton kept him in conversation for
some time, gradually becoming more strongly convinced
that he was the fellow who had made his escape from
gaol. Fenton at length asked him if he had nothing he
could give or exchange with him to pay the kalfpenny
for toll, when Foster pulled a large knife out of his
pocket ; and Fenton, perceiving that in case of an
attempt at taking him into custody the knife would be
a very dangerous weapon in his hands, gave him a
small penknife fur it, and allowed him to pass through
the bar, proceeding in the direction of Selby. Pre-
vious, however, to Foster leaving the house, a gen-
tleman drove up from Selby in a gig, and, on taking
the toll, Fenton whispered to him to go at once
to the superintendent of police at Howden, and
tell him of the whereabouts of the escaped convict. The
gentleman did so, and, in an hour, Superintendent
Green, in a dog-cart, arrived at Fenton's house. Foster,
between the time of the gentleman's departure from the
gate in the direction of Howden and the arrival of
Green from that place, had discovered that he was in
the company of an old Hull policeman; and tholigh
Fenton endeavoured to make time pass unnoticed
until Green arrived, by keeping up a conversation with
him, Foster, feeling in an awkward position, left the
gate-house, the difference in the value of the knives,
having satisfied the toll claim. His feet, however,
were in very bad order, and this, coupled with the
fact of the boots he had on being a very bad fit, prevented
him from getting far; and Superintendent Green and
Fenton, setting off after him in the dog-cart, came up
with him about two miles distant from the bar.
Having recognised him sitting on a gate, they alighted
from their dog-cart, which they put up at an adjacent
house, and then walked quietly towards him, Green
feeling certain that he was Foster. They both closed in
upon him, and he was once more in custody. Greentook
the prisoner to the Howden Police Station, where
Sergeant Graves, of Hull, proceeded on Wednesday eve-
ning. The officer at one recognised Foster, and brought
him to Hull. A larder had been entered during the
early part of the week, in the vicinity of North Cave,
and some ham and short-cakes carried by Foster, when
he arrived at the toll-gate, are supposed to be the pro-
ceeds of that robbery. Foster was brought up at the
Hull Police Court on Thursday, charged with breaking
out of the gaol, and remanded for a week, in order that
the Secretary of State may be communicated with.
Nothing can be learned as to how Foster became pos-
sessed of the clothes he had on when taken into custody.

PARDONS.—TWO boys. by the name of Bryant, who
were sentenced to the Dedham jail about a month ago,
in default of the payment of fines imposed for rescuing
a younger brother from punishment at the hands of a
school teacher in Roxbury, were yesterday pardoned by
the governor, at the request of the Mayor and Marshal
of Roxbury.
How AN ENGLISH ADMIRAL Looxs UPON THE
JAPANESE EMBASSY.—At Aspinwall, an English man-
of-war was lying close to the Roanoke, having on board
Rear-Admiral Sir Alexander Milne, commander-in-chief
of her Britannic Majesty's forces of the North American
station, who paid Flag-Officer McCluney of the Roanoke
a visit. He was cordially invited by the flag-officer to
come on board when the Japanese arrived, but he
declined, and afterwards expressed the idea, that it was
a " great farce—foolish and nonsensical." The admiral
would not hoist his flag though every other vessel had
their colours displayed.
GOLD IN WALES.—Some time ago we were credibly
informed that gold, in appreciable quantities, had been
discovered iu a quartzose vein in the Clogau mountain,
situated about half-way betwixt Dolgellev and Bar-
mouth, in Merionethshire. It seems that ..he crown
claims all mines of gold and silver as royal mines, and,
of course, the crown claimed this, although the parties
who discovered it were working profitably the same
property for copper. Terms for working the mine for
gold have rPopntly been arranged with the crown, and on
Monday last operatioua were re-commeuceo. rive holes
were bored in the usual way, filled with powder, and
fired; down came about a ton of auriferous quartz, about
one-half of which is worth, probably, 20s. per lb. weight.
One of the stones weigh nearly a quarter of a ton, and is
said to carry gold in finely divided particles throughout.
We have been favoured with a sight of one of the stones,
broken down on Monday, weighing 101 b., and which
bears that character. We are informed that the total
result is nearly £l,OOO, with a continuation of the same
kind of ore in the lode. It is said that there are no
difficulties in the way of its extraction. If this be
really the case, the very varied mineral products of this
country will be still more varied by the introduction of
a product hitherto unbelieved to exist in this
country, at all events in remunerative quantity.
Whether there is a continuance of such valuable or
remains to be proved. Our attention has been drawn to
the subject as one of probable importance, and we shall
shortly be in possession of further particulars.
ENGLISH PICKPOCKETS IN PARIS. Complaints
having been made to the police that numerous cases of
picking pockets had occurred of late, some intelligent
officers were charged to detect the thieves ; and, as the
greater part of the robberies were committed in the
galleries of the Palais Royal, in front of Chevet's shop
in that place, at the omnibus station of the Place du
Palais Royal, and at the basin during the playing of
the band, it . was there that the officers were
chiefly on the watch. Two detectives saw a man
pick the pocket of a lady who was looking into M.
Chevet's window, and then go away with another man
and a woman. The three went to the Cafe de la Rotonde,
followed, of course, by the other officers, and after stop-
ping there a little while they separated. One of them
turned towards the Theatre Franqais, and on reaching
that building threw a pocket-book down an opening into
a cellar. One of the officers who had followed deemed
it prudent to arrest him, and took him before the com-
missary of police of the district; and shortly after, the
other officer came in with the other two. The last
comers pretended not to know the first one, but it hap-
pened by a strange chalice that a London policeman was
present in the bureau of the commissary, and recognised
the three as well-known English pickpockets. The
woman, it appears, named Gordon, is thirty-six years old,
and has been residing for some time at an hotel in the
Rue St. Lazare ; on her were found long scissors and imple-
ments used by pickpockets, also some letters in English,
showing that she was in communication with the persons
who robbed Fontana, the jewellers, and who are now in
cnstody at London. The man who threw away the pocket-
book, named Jackson, is twenty-eight years of age, and
lived iu the Rue Tronchet; the pocket-book turned out
to have been stolen at a singing cafe from a person of
Vaugirard. In the mall's lodgings some papers were seized
which proved that for some time past he had been tran-
'Bitting about 400 f. a week to his wife at London.
The third prisoner, named Macdonald, is 26 years of
are, and resided in the Rue Castellaue. He lived in
good style ; and it was stated, among other things, that
a young woman with whom he was intimate having
expressed a wish to have a little dog, he had without
hesitation given 120 f. for the animal. From correspon-
dence seized it appeared that he was in communication
theives at London. The three prisoners were sent to
the Prefecture of Police to await their trial.
FOREIGN WORKMEN.—The versatility of our French
rivals in all handicraft occupations has often made itself
conspicuous, to the disparagement in some measure of
our own people, in the face of all the other and nobler
qualities which these possess. The resources of the
French soldier in cooking, finding quarters and comfort
for himself, improvising substitutes for the propel
munitions of an army when these are not at haia
c
in the legitimate shape, and generally in over.
coming Mechanical difficulties, were frequently taker
notice of during the Crimean war. Our rivals won
dered how troops so transceudeat in their purely war
like discipline, and so brilliant in battle, could be s.
helpless ill all the small, but iu the aggregate, importan
details of a soldier's duty ; and our own commander
admitted the defect, and groped about rather hopeless'.
for a remedy. The fathers of the same Frenchmer,
when they were our enemies, and filled our prisons
war, scattered over the whole country the touchirg
testimonies of their ingenious industry iu toys and liglt
moveables. They were things not of an enduring
nature ; most of which have probably disappeared;
but many people will remember how often, when tber
boyish admiration was excited by some little articl,
conspicuous at the same time for the simplicity of tie
materials and the prettiness of the construction, there
was the sane invariable answer about the makers—
" Ah, yes, the French prisoners, poor fellows." In
those dire paudemoniums, the convict bagnes, whew
thousands of the most accomplished ruffians in France
were chained to the pavements, their natural ingenuity
and activity still developed itself, and out of their
polluted manufactory has come many a pretty toy 'or
decoration, such as .the mind naturally associates with
youth and innocence,---i3kokovocrs Afagypin. for June,