The Express.
London, England, 1853-07-07 00:00:00

THE POLICE COURTS.

MANSION-HOUSE.

Charles Iriohtonon,;;;- of the persons employed by
Messrs. Moses, of Aldgate, clothiers, and en incomparable
imitation of Shakspesre'a Apothecary, was charged with
having pawned several coats, with the materials to make
which he had been entrusted by bis employers.
The wretched looking man admitted that he had pawned
the coats, but declared that u he had been obliged to en-
gage men to assist fin the work who could not wait for
Messrs. Moses's days of payment, and as ho had a large
family to support, and received no more than fIS. Gd. for
making a coat, he really could not resist the temptation.
The clerk to Messrs. Mows said his employers were by
no means desirous of pressing hard upon the prisoner, but
they were subjected to great depredations, and they had
no alternative but the course they were at present adopting.
It was proper to state that the pawning
_bad been going on
for a length of time, and that Messrs. Moses had two pay
days every week—Thursday and Friday.
The prisoner was then committed to prison for two
'booths for the illegal pawning.

11/4nagon, a journeyman baker, in the employment
of Mr. Leman, the extensive Nitwit baker. was committed
to prison for six weeks for stealing a loaf. The Lotd Mayor,
In et °totting the primmer, said that Mr. L. man's humanity
prevented him Iron establishing much heavier de-
linquencies.
1:I0W-STREET.
THREATENING TUE EARL OF ABERDEEN.

Thomas Whitehead, so artist, was brought before Mr.
Henry yesterday afternoon, charged with *eliding a threat-
ening letter to the Earl of Aberdeen.
Mr. Reynolds, the solicitor to the Treasury, conducted
the prosecution.
Mr. Clinton Oeo. Dawkins, the private secretary of Lord
Aberdeen, proved that he received the letter produced on
the 16th of June. It wat addressed to his lordship, and
signed " Thomas Whiteman." It was subsequently placed
in the hands of the police authorities.

Superintendent Pearce, F division, deposed that he
waited upon the prisoner at his lodgings, 17, Great Wild-
street, on the 23rd and 27th June. He had some conversa•
tion with the prisoner, who admitted that he was the
writer of the letter to Lord Aberdeen, and complained that
he had been persecuted by different governments year after
year. lie said that he had made frequent complaints upon
the subject, but to no purpose. Witness understood him
to say that the detective police had been instructed to keep
a constant watch upon him.
- -

The Chief Clerk read the letter in question. It was very
long, and dwelt upon some unexplained persecution to
which the writer imagined himself subject, and for the re-
moval of which he said he had applied in vain to several
cabinets in succession. The following is an extract:
I know not, my lord, what you may have to say shout
these illegal and unwarrantable proceedings ; but this I soy,
that there is and can be but one inference drawn therefrom,
and that is, that the government seem to have wanted, and
it would appear that they do want still, to make a victim of
me ; and consequently tlaey have done everything they can
to provoke me to crime. I have been by them reduced to
the greatest depths of misery : for five years and a half I
have endured these ineffable privations with a patience and
a fortitude that I believe there would be scarcely found one
in a thousand to do the same. But, my lord, human
patience has its bounds, and these bounds have
already been passed. Everpthicg bas been done to blast
my good name, and, not satisfied with that, everything has
been done to deprive me of the commonest means of exist-
ence. Beware, my lord, what you do in this matter ; for
if the saying be true that 'self preservation is the first law
of nature,' then, my lord, you have reduced me to a most
painful alternative. Your policy, my lord, like your pre-
decessors in this affair, has been, ,and still is, most perni-
cious and subversive. You have taught a lesson of impla-
cable vindictiveness and of unprecedented pertinacious
cruelty that will be cherished by thousands with a savage
satisfaction till the latest day of their death. You have
' sown the wind,' and if your lordship should persist in the
same suicidal course, you must not be surprised if you
should one day ' reap the whirl-wind.' Yon have, my
lord, like your predecessors, returned me evil for
good, and that too in such a sweeping manner that I
have been completely ruined thereby ; and I can
only say that if this facinerous flood of evil
is to continue, then, my lord, you will compel me to re-
taliate out of self-defence ; and if I should be goaded on to'
do that out of self-defence, which my soul abhors, re-
member, my lord, that the guilt will be upon your
head and the heads of your colleagues.—l am, &c., THOS.
WIIITEMEAD.-57, Great Wild-street, Lincoln's-inn-Fields.
—The Right Hon. the Earl of Aberdeen."
(During the reading of the letter the chief clerk was
once or twice assisted in the interpretation of doubtful words
by the prisoner himself.)
The prisoner admitted that he was the author of the
letter. _ . .

Mr. Dawkins expressed hie belief that the Earl of Aber-
deen was in danger of personal violence, from some of the
language used therein. •
The prisoner—l cannot see that any such inference is to
be drawn from any portion of the letter.
Mr. Henry—The expression, " I shall be goaded on to
do that which my soul abhors," is certainly calculated to
justify such an apprehension. Can you explain it in any
other way ?
The prisoner—Since his claim of 1848 up to the moment
when that letter was written, I have been constantly watched
and insulted by the secret police.
Mr. Henry—l have heard your letter read from first to
last ; but am wholly at a loss to know to what it alludes.
The prisoner—lf I am to be dogged and assailed by the
detective police, in every form of disguise, like a pack of
hounds; and if, besides their insulting bearing towards me
they are to circulate defamatory remarks to my preju-
dice,—shall I not be justified in knocking that man
down?

... .
Mr. Henry—What man ?
The prisoner—Any man who thus insults said degrades

Mr. Henry—What is your business or calling ?
The prisoner—l have no occupation.
In answer to farther questions, the prisoner stated that he
had no relations in London, but he had a brother
at Liverpool. He lost a fortune in 1847, and bad been
unable to procure any vocation since, owing to the
espionage of the secret police. And not only
of the police, for in 1849 be found that the soldiers at the
back of the National Gallery had their eye upon him, and
were arrayed against him. He did not wish his brother
to be communicated with. He only wanted it to be settled
u between man and man.
Mr. Henry—But what is it that you want settled ? Hu
he ever complained of the police ?'
Superintendent Pearce said he had ascertained from the
books at Scotland-yard, that the prisoner made some com-
plaints respecting the detective force two or three years
ago, and also against some soldiers. They were inquired
into by Mr. Beresford, but none of the constables knew
anything of him.
Mr. Henry—Hu any medical gentleman seen him ?
Mr. Brooks, surgeon, of Bedford-street, Covent-garden,
stated that he had conversed with the prisoner, and, upon
the one subject of espionage, believed him to be decidedly
of unsound mind. He we. evidently labouring under a de-
lusion._ . . .

Mr. Henry—That is also my *pinion.
The prisoner—l was prepared for anything almost but
such an astounding assertion as that. It the governments
disbelieved my statements, shy did they not put me to the
proofs ?
Mr. Henry directed that the prisoner should be removed
to St. Oiles's workhouse for the present.
The people in whose house the prisoner has been lodging
state that be was a remarkably quiet man, and of regular
habits, going out every morning and returning at night.
Some time ago be went to Jersey, to avoid the detective
police, but fancying himself still pursued by them there, be
returned to London. He looked about 60 years old.