The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1826-09-11 00:00:00

LAMENTABLE NECESSITY.

Samuel Sergi:int, a eery Orson in appearance, one side of whom
was paralyzed, was brought in by the officers of the 1 ltnxiicity So.
ciety, for begging in Oxford-street.
Fagan, an officer of the Society, said the prisoner had gained a
settlement in St. Giles's parish, was wholly incapable of work, and,
unless supported by the parish, had no means of subsistence but
by begging; he had taken him to the workhouse, where be was
abused for bringing him, and the vagrant turned into the street
with fol. and a piece of bread and cheese. When the poor fellow
was taken up hetore, he requested that his term of imprisonment
might be a long one, as there he would get food, and a place to shel-
ter him from the storms of night.
Mr. !)Pea said he could not think of sending a poor wretch like
that to gaol, alto, as soon as his term expired, had no resource but
to beg again, and again be sent to prison. " Let bim stand back till
one of the parish officers come in."
Later in the morning Mr. liigg, the overseer of St. Ones's, came
In, to whom lie. Dyer mentioned Sergison's ease, telling him he
ought to look to such poor creatures as the prisoner was, and do
something for him, as one of their own poor.
Dlr. btgg promised to do so, and desired the man to go to the
workhouse.

JUVENILE DEPRAVITY.

QtrEE N-SQUARE.-Ou Saturday S. H;11, a lad about 14 years
of age, was charged with felony.
It appeared that the prisoner, with another boy, named Morris,
went to the house of Mr.Sweetapple, a walling-jeweller and dealer in
fruit, in Yeoman's-row, Brampton, and, in the purchase of a small
quantity of fruit, they stole a gold ring and escaped.
The prisoner was committed.
LOVE IN AN AREA.

Titutge-Orwicg.—On Saturday a disciple of Jehu, named
&coward, and a smart buxom damsel, calling herself Chloe 71111,0,
were placed at the bar under the following circumstances :
A trusty guardian of the night stated to' his Vorship,' that, on
calling one that morning in Shade-street, he saw the figure of a
man in the corner of the area of No. 7, seemingly trying to conceal
himself. The railings were all secured, and the way in or out
must have been over them. Not being quite so young as he used to
be, he did not choose to make any attempt to get at hint • but
knowing the prisoner could not very well escape, he alarmed
the family, when, to their utmost astonisbment, the kitchen-table,
bore evident marks of a recently-laid out elegant supper for two;
and, on a further search, the damsel, who acted u housemaid to
Ate establishment, was found concealed in the wine-cellar, and
consigned to durance vile,' with her gallant, in the adjoining
watch-house.
. It being understood that the girl had paid for the treat,, andite-
=Wgiving Stannard a most exeellent character., they wine
idth &strict caution as to their future babanour•
4 MUSICAL MANIAC.
Usios.lUl4.4A few day. elle**feette wit triwwwftwel"

________
office with the signature of " Meekee," and addressed tn the sittir
Magistrate, the purport of which was a request that his
%ash!
would be ood enough to order one cf the watchmen belontono ,I'.
the Vauxhall trust to deliver up some keys to the writer which'
the former hail in his possession, and which were late the property oy4
gentleman who had committed suicide in the parish of Lox, ' The Magistrate, Ina Swahey. Esq. being unacquainted with tl;
circurnetances and ure of the caee, directed the writer of de
letter to attend at the office and make the application In person. o'.l
Saturday, Mr. Meths attended accordingly, and stated in ratier.;,l
terms that he lived at No. 33, Southampton-street. Strand,and th
the object of his application to the Bench tees for the pew '4„y
property of value. &Leered U 5
compelling a watchman to deliver tip the keys of a wardrobe s 4 au escritoire in his house, late the property of Mr. Illad;:rte
chorus-master of Drury-lane Theatre, who cut his throat about ~‘
weeks ago in Vauxhall watch-house, where he had beet, confined
for impropriety of conduct during a tit of ititoxieation. The appi,
cant said that the deceased gentleman resided with him precious .t
his death, and when that unfortunate event took place in St. ThernW's
Hospital, he (the applicant) applied to have the keys of the w,,,.
wriehrisenhhco:httnedheld
them
(the
imehn.i
pc.
remptorily refused, and the present mode he considered the only ope
re"huuti° tirhe4
of making him.
Mr. SWANEY (to the applicant)—Where are Mr. Black's ?ch.
troobehamind
tiontshe may ? The have died fittest
ssess pedeo oern f.s to certainly haven) propeny l tha
Mr. Meekes said that it Was cot the behalf of the relations a h., deceased lodger that he applied.
The Magistrate observed that he could not interfere in the pus,
ness. or give any directions respecting the keys, but he was con.
winced that if application was made for them in the proper way,
through the authorities of the licopital in which the deceased died,
they would be delivered up.
On receiving this advice, ail in the office expected to see the asa pliant withdraw, but he remained immoveable berme the req.'. crate's table, and at length broke out into a rhapsody on the talot.
of the late chorus-master of O)ury-lane Theatre, and in the near
breath exclaimed against the 31agistrate for not investing him with
the power and authority to seize the keys from the person oho held
them. He then commended his own genius ass onnposerof music.
i and contrasted some of his musical compositions with those or
1 Ilandel, Mozart, and Bishop, which did not prises half the et-
-1 traordinary powers of genius. iti comparison with his. But, ailed
he, emphatically placing his hand on his breast, ‘• what cuts me to
the heart is. that with all my knowledge and perfeciinn in thew.
when I semi its a composition in the expectation of its being broalh't
forth to the astonishment of the world—it is rejected—nay neglected,
and lies on the shelf unheeded, and the compositions of men wanly i 3
ferior in point of abilities are received,' encouraged. and applauded.
This fact, he said, " atom showed the bad taste of those whops.
sided over the musical departments of this country."
The llagistratc having listened very patiently to the enlarger,
at length interrupted him by requesting that he would wake his
exit, as there was a vast deal of business to attend to that coming.
Mr. Meekes, however, stood his ground, anti cortinued bowing
and scraping to the ground without showing any disposition to re-
tire. He then commenced in another strain. and, in the most
incoherent manner, proceeded to applaud the works of Shakspean,
io the midst of which, as it was evident the poor man was deranged,
lie was gently led out of the office.

p
FFMALF: SWI NDLE R.—An elderly female, whose legiti-
mate appellation it would be difficult to define. but who is well
known to the Police, under a variety of names, has lately been rac
tising on the credulity and good.nature of the tradespeople of
Islington, mid its vicinity. Under the title of the widow Johase
who had just arrived in London by one of the North= coaches,
and attended by one female servant, the lady engaged a suite of
apartments (of course ready-furnished) in the house of Mr. Watson,
in the Lower-road, at the vulgar rent of fifty shillings par
week. She represented herself as the widow of a naval officer.
and said she was in possession of a handsome independent income.
which she was in the habit of receving quarterly; her travelog
equipments being in every respect suitable to a person of tome sub.
stance, the ordinary security of a reference as to character was no:
accepted or inquired into, though ostentatiously offered, and she
I was admitetd into possession. Being a stranger in toelplace, she
requested an introduction to such tradespeople as she might hare
occasion to deal with : and this effected, she counne.ccd her opera.
lions in such downright earnest, that the door was beset from morn
till night with persons delivering orders, all of which were for Mn.
Johnson. This was carried on for the space of ten or twelve days,
when some of them had the impertinence to ask for the seaman
of their accounts, but the insulted lady declared that she was quite
surprised at their want of faith ; it was her way to pay a good
price for every thing—she never haggled about a shilling or two en
an article; and finally, if she ran long bills, she ought to meet
long credit: however, when her quarte's money came due, which
would be on the 29th of September, every one 'Wald be paid.
%Vali such excuses, the majority of the creditors seemed content—
some that could afford to be out of their money, at a huge prosper.
tive profit, went on supplying ; those whose means were small, had
the enielhrbene to lose the lady's custom. Some losses often prole
gains is the end. One of the latter class, a dispenser of the IoM,.
bent oiler, who had more discernment than the rest. began to think
it somewhat singular that a lady and her female servant should be
able to consume generally ten or fifieen*pounds of bread per day,
and he mentioned his suspicions to the butcl:er, who said that was
a trifle in comparison to the 'poetises they had in his way, for they
often had as much as twenty, sometimes thirty, pounds of matte
the day from him. This lett to inquiry, and it was satisfactorily
ascertained that the surplus stock was nightly transtkreed ts
another quarter, and sold off by " inch of candle," though am
for " the benefit of the under-writers." This discovery was
soon buzzed about, and the creditors the nett rnoreni
went fin the house en wager, to demand imeete.dfate payment,
but unluckily they were " a day after the fair." fnr the iitir lady
had fairly flown the previous night, leaving the landlord fee
' empty boxes in lieu of the rent. and no trace has since been obtained
either of mistress or servant. It' her description be correct, there
MI be no doubt that she is the same person who was " many a
time and oft" before the Magistrates of Bow-street, Marlbnroagb.
street, and Hatton-garden. under the names of Juno,
Drown, and many more aliases. Her establishment was then more
imposing, having the addition of a groom in blue and gold, tree-
ther with a well-dressed Abigail, the former being her son and the
latter Per daughter. On one occasion, at liattnn.gartlen, Mr.
Laing shamed her into retumine her ill.got finery to the angry
claimants; but in all her exploits this accomplished female Diddles
ingeniously contrives to steer clear of those offences which would
compel her to make an appearance at the Old Bailey, of which ho-
nour she is not at all ambitious.