The Press.
London, England, 1856-04-26 00:00:00

ISO) an 4

THE TRIAL OF PALMER at the Central Criminal
Court was fixed by Lord Campbell on Thursday to
take place on Wednesday, the 14th of May. Lord
Campbell, Mr. Justice Cresswell, and Mr. Baron
Alderson will be the presiding judges. The prisoner
will not be removed from Stafford to Newgate until
immediately previous to the day of trial.
AN ORGANISED GANG OF HOTEL PLUNDERERS, who
have been committing great depredations upon tra•
yellers for some months past, has been broken up.
Two men were arrested last week at Liverpool, and a
third captured on board the Persia, New York
steamer, at the moment of her leaving Southampton.
For some time past the detectives have been on their
track. Their plan was to put up at the best hotels
as American tourists, and, in the night, by means of
an ingenious pair of steel forceps, to unlock any bed-
room door from the outside, enter the room, ride the
pockets of the sleeper, and, locking the door after
them, retire to their own rooms. This plan had been
successfully practised on more occasions than one,
and the thieves had got a large booty, in one case as
much as 565/. out of one purse. A short time since,
however, one of them, Kingston, in attempting such
a robbery upon the pockets of a Mr. Edden while at
the Royal Hotel, Manchester, woke that gentleman;
he immenintely jumped out of bed and gave chase
after the thief, who fled, but happily was seen by a
waiter to enter a certain bedroom, his own, for the
night. Twenty five pounds in notes, with a steel
morticing chisel and a lair of forceps were found in
the passage. The prisoner Kingston was appre-
hended, and the capture of his companion, Branch,
in the hotel speedily followed. The two men were
examined at Manchester on Saturday last and com-
mitted for trial. The third accomplice, Howard, was
arrested, thanks to the telegraph, on board the
Persia, at Southampton on Sunday with money and
property to a large amount in his possession.
Brought up to London, he was examined on Monday
at Clerkenwell before Mr. Currie, and remanded for
a week, on the charge of having robbed a Mr. Stani-
land of 5651. at the Great Northern Hotel on the
18th of March last.

THE SOLDIERS OF THE GTH DRAGOONS ( Innis-
killings) stationed at Canterbury, on Monday last
took the law into their own hands with respect to the
son of their meat contractor who had furnished some
questionable food, and nearly drowned him in the
horse trough. The case was inquired into before the
Bench on Thursday, when Lieutenant Anderson,
charged with having struck the complainant and in-
stigated the men to commit the assault complained
of, was fined 30s. and costs.

A FALSE HERALD OF PEACE nearly paid the penalty
of such traitors on Monday. A proclamation posted
over tile streets announced that a mounted herald
would proclaim the Peace at given parts in the town
between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Monday. The herald
appeared in correct costume, but he came only as a
photographer's touter, to announce to the expectant
crowd that his master would give away an indefinite
quantity of portraits of Crimean heroes ! The crowd
became furious, and had it not been for the police,
the herald, tabard and all, would have been pulled
off his horse, and possibly sent home in such a plight
as would have puzzled the master to recognise his
man.

SORE DEXTEROUS FORGERIES have lately been
committed by three brothers, John, George, and Ed-
ward Owen, sons of a Shrewsbury woollen-draper,
who, some years since, failed. Making his bank-
ruptcy their basis, the sons, after successfully forging
a cheque for 6001. on Messrs. Coutts, commenced a
novel system of fraud. Giving out that they in-
tended to pay off their father's debts in full, they
paid the creditors in forged cheques for a larger
amount than the original debt, thus securing to
themselves a certain balance. For eighteen months,
more or less, this system has been carried on in
even• part of the country ; and, although it was well
known to the police, the offenders up to last week
baffled every attempt of the detectives. On Thurs-
day a preliminary examination took place before Mr.
Bingham, at Marlborough-street, when the prisoners
were remanded for a week.

CAPTAIN HARIUSS, late of the German Legion,
charged with obtaining money by means of false
cheques, wit..Q committed for trial on Wednesday by
Mr. Henry. It was attempted for the dclince to
prose insanity.

THREE MEN, DOUBLE, GROUNDS, AND BRIGGS, the
two former lately a guard and signalman on the line,
have been apprehended at Cambridge, charged with
systematic depredations upon parcels of goods on the
Eastern Counties Railway. On Saturday week a boa
of luggage containing a silver Jewr watch was stolen.
The watch was traced to a pawnbroker's in Shore•
ditch, and the pawning-tickei, to the prisoners. Com-
mitted for trial.

A REWARD or 100/. has been offered for the appre-
hension of Foachini, the Haymarket assassin, who
appears to have been seen in the neighbourhood
during the week. The sufferers all maintain silence,
and, though questioned about the unfortunate matter,
refuse to give any reason fur the commission of the
offence. Persons well acquainted with them state
that political causes led to the act.
A Mrizria RECRUIT died at Brighton last week
from absolute surfeit. He had eaten an enormous
quantity of beef puddings, got drunk, and, under
a fit of apoplexy, died in the night.
THE CITY LAND-TAX OFFICE was broken into on
Tuesday evening and ransacked by burglars. The
cash, however, had been taken to the Bank that
afternoon.

A BRICKLAYER, and a woman with whom he coha-
bited, were last week charged before the bench at
Westgate, Lincolnshire, with cruelly beating his
child of two y( ars of age, by a deceased wife. From
the evidence it appeared that, while the man bela-
boured the child with a hair-brush till he broke a
thigh, the woman beat it with a "cat" of soling
leather:—

She had also been known to take it up by the shoulders
and " bump " it up and down on the floor until the poor
thing shrieked with the pain of its broken leg, and the
concussion of its bare feet with the ground. This mode
of punishment she sometimes varied by catching it by the
neck, and, holding it np some distance from the Ground,
letting it drop with all its weight, when she would kick it
into a corner or beneath the bed, vowing that she heartily
" wished the young devil dead," and that she " would as
lief kill it as kill a dog."

The poor child presented a dreadful appearance.
The prisoners were sentencad to be imprisoned for
six months.

THE ALLEGED POISONING CASE AT LICHFIELD
has been satisfactorily disposed of by the analysis
made by pr. Monckton. No traces of poison were
found in the intestines of Mrs. Ashmall. A verdict
was returned last week of "Died from natural
causes." Mr. Ashmall left the court amid loud ex-
pressions of satisfaction from the audience.
THE Two WOMEN, Celestine Somner and Ann
Harris, under sentence of death in Newgate, have
been respited during the Queen's pleasure.
A ROBBERY OF PICTUB.ES to the value of 1,5001.
was effected on Sunday night on the premises of
Messrs. Nagboor, 144, Oxford-street.

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