The Express.
London, England, 1851-02-21 00:00:00

THE POLICE COURTS.

MANSION-HOUSE.

DIATIITTION AND Clillllll.—SsraA Boring. a person
whose face indicated bodily and mental suffering, was
brought before the Lord Mayor in the custody of W. Luck
(policeman 4301, charged with having stolen a shilling.
The policeman said the prisoner went into a shop in
Cannon-street and presented a petition praying for relief.
The tradespeople, especially in that neighbourhood, were
overwhelmed with applications from people pretending to
be in distress as well as from real objetn; and the petition
was refused. The woman retired from the shop, but re-
turned after some little hesitation, took up a shilling which
lay upon the counter, and was about to depart when the
money was missed, and she was amused of the theft. She
at once acknowledged that she had taken possession of what
did not belong to her, but the tradesman, who was
a gentleman if well-known humanity, declined to appear
against her, and she pleaded deep distress as the excuse
for the robbery.
The Lord Mayor.—l am very sorry to see a female who
has evidently seen better days brought before me fur all
offence of this kind. You seem to be in a deplorable con-
dition. How did this happen ?
The prisoner, with the tears gushing from her eyes, said
that she was starving, and that her husband and children
were starving. She solemnly declared that when she first
entered the shop, she had not a dishonest thought, but that
as she was leaving it, she saw the shilling on the counter,
and supposing that some customer had left it behind in
mistake, she could nut resist the temptation, when she
looked to her perishing family, and had within her grasp
the means of saving them for a while.
The Lord Mayor—But why, if you were in such neces-
sity, did you not apply to the Union? The relieving officers
could nowhere be unensible to Inchon appeal.
The prisoner—My lord, I did apply to the relieving
officer in Itermonibr y, where we live, but he slammed the
door in my face, and r, fns to give me any assistance. I
hope your lordship will forgive me : it is the first dishonest
art I ever committed, and it shall be the Last, whatever may
be the consequence.
The Lord slayor—Officer, have you made any inquiries
into this case ?

The Policeman—l went, my lord, to the place in which
the prisoner resides, and I found there was the most miser-
able poverty in the room. There was an odd bislstead, nn
which there was a little straw, hut no clothes whatever.
On the straw the prisoner's husband lay, labouring, as I
was told, under a disease of the hip, and.at the foot of the
bedstead were two wretched children. All the furniture
in the place consisted of two broken-down chairs and the
man at my request got up and lighted a match, and I
looked round and saw that there was not a morsel of food
there. It was altogether a melancholy sight.
The prisoner—My husband was in the employment of a
respectable tradesman in kasteheap, who knuws g... 1
character, and would still employ him, but has Iwinoblig.-d
to take into his service a person better able to work in the
business. We have three children at home, and we have
not a bit to eat, and I came out to get something when I
fell into this misfortune.
The policeman—l called upon the tradesman she speaks
of, my lord, and I find that what she says is true. The
gentleman told me if he had any jobs to do he would wil-
lingly give them to the man, whom he believed to be
henestand knew to be industrious.

The Lord Mayor (to the prisoner)—How have you been
sustaining life ?
The prisoner—We have got a loaf of bread now and then.
The Lord Mayor—Anything else ?
The prisoner—A little cold tea, nothing more. I hare
been under medical care, but the doctor told me there was
no use in prescribing fur me, fur it warn not physic but food
that I wanted. If your lordship will send a female with me
into the neat room, I'll soon show her thst the clothes
lteMr cover, not a living body, but a living skeleton.
The simple statement of the unhappy creature evidently
affected the crowd in the justice-romu. Her apprehension
app. wed to be a permanent separation from her family, and
she &knit and again entreated forgiveness, and toned that
she would " ain no more."