The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1826-03-29 00:00:00

WORSHIP-STREET.

DARING ROBBERIC..-1 ester* a your,(; man, named Wilkin-
son, underwent an examination before Mr. liENETT♦ the sitting
Magistrate, charged with the commission of a daring rubbery.
Isaac -tninh, owaer and navigator of • StafiUntstiire barge, the
prosecutor (whose tentimony was in part confirmed by other wit..
noises) stated, that on Saturday evening he and another navigator,
named Collins. arrived from Staffordshire in their respective barges
it Alison. Whitehouse and Co.'s %tag, Regent's Canal Basin,
Citymead• On Mond►y evening the two countrymen strayed
along the City-road, rod it was not long ere they were picked up
ley a pair of the hundreds of prOlilitUte3 who nightly perambulate
that district, and decoyed to an infamous (louse in Ilenbow's-
rents, (3uiden-lane. Smith afterwards quitnsl the house, leaving
his companion there ; but in the court (the rents) he was attacked.
by four or firemen, one of whom knocked him down, and Le held
him on the ground while another of the gang (the prisoner) took r
milk handkerchief from his neck, his het, containing another hand.
kerchief, from his head t pulled off his smock truck, which had
cost him !Is. Gd., and rifled ►is pockets of eighteen 1/. !firming.
ham bank-notes, two sovereigns, and other money. After having
thus robbed him, the whole of the gang retreated into the
broth.A.

------
A young woman here stepped forward, and said she lived on the
spot, and had seen the assault; and site could swear it aus not
the prisoner who atruck the prosecutor, it was a taller man.
111 r. BENETT—IIe does not say it wan the prisoner knocked
him down, but that he was the person who robbed him of his
property.
The Magistrate was informed that this female is a common pros-
titute repotting at that place.
The prosecutor was re-examined, and positively swore it was the
prisoner that robbed Min, as described. lle knew him by his
features.
A watchman stated that he itceompanied the prosecutor to the
brothel, and in an upper room they found the 'prtsonet, whom the
prosecutor instantly identified as the man that rubbed
Wilkinson is a respectable kinking young nun, and was stared
to be of a reputable family, but he is well known as a dissolute
character.
was remanded for further examination.

Five men and a female were brought before the Magistrate on
suspicion of having robbed the house of Mr. Reece, Artillery-row,
St. Luke's, on Saturday last.
It appeared that a pang had been observed lurking about the
house, and one of them was wen coming from the area with a
basket. Information of the robbery wis given to some of the
parish officers, who apprehended the prisoners, and in the room of
one of them, nulled Parkinson, a number of housebreaking im.
plements were found, but not any of the stolen property, which COO-
mated chiefly of plate.
Three of the prisoners were identified as having been seen at
Mr. Reece's house. They were remanded.

UNION-HALL.
Yesterday morning, scan after the'Magistrate had taken his seat,
a young roan, who gave his nine Whitaker, entered the office,
and, with tears in his eyes, asked how he should proceed for the re-
covery of 101. of which he had been cheated a short time before, by
a man whom he represented to be a foreigner. He stated that, as
he was standing at his door in Wittwelfth, a man addressed him in
the accent of a Frenchman, intimating that he was just arrived
from the continent with a cargo °flue, silk, cachmere, and camels'
hair shawls. The latter articles he described as having been for-
warded over land from Persia to France, and from thence by him
smuggled into this country. Notwithstanding the brilliant descrip-
tion given of the goods, and their costly qualities, the applicant
was unwilling to have any dealings with the foreigner, alleging
that he had no money to expend upon such commodities. How-
ever, his scruples on this point were silenced by the Frenchman,
who, observing the appendages of a watch. consisting of a gold
chain and seals, dangling from the fob of applicant's small-clothes,
said, " Never mind money; you can let me have your trinkets,
and I wilt give you in exchange a camels'-hair shawl of the finest
quality," then producing a shawl of apparently very line texture
and splendid colours, he proposed selling it for seventeen pounds,
and offered to accept of the chain and seals until the applicant
could pay the money. His grand object in raising money at so
considerable a lons to himself. he added, was for the purnoss of as-
sisting in paying MT the Captain's debt by whom lie and his
cargo were landed in this country. Mr. Whitaker paid the fellow
really told so plausible a story, that he was induced to strike a bar-
gain with Min for the shawl, which he represented as worth so
much money. After much parleying, it wan at length agreed upon
that the shawl should be given up to applicant ompayment of la
which sum was instantly paid down, the buyer of course supposing
that he had made a noble bargain. Soon after the transaction wit-
ness took :he article to a friend, in order to know his opinion of it,
when, to his consternation, he was told that its utmost value wu
seven shillings instead of seventeen pounds. The applicant here
produced the shawl, which was of a gaudy pattern, and, to the
eye of a novice, well calculated to pass off for the real camels' hair.
The Magistrate having patiently listened to the above tale, as
well as examined the shawl very minutely, asked the applicant
ghat he could do for hint.
Whitaker replied, that he wanted to get back his 10/., and to
punish the fellow who had committed so abominable an imposition.
Magistrate—" Then I can 410 neither." It was astonishing, he
observed, after the repeated cautions given in the newspapers on
this subject, that people could he so foolish as thus to part with
their money. Had the applicant, he added, had Me foresight of a
child, he might have discoseredtheobject of the impostor.
Mr. Whitaker was evidently disappointed. Ile, however, gave
a description of the mock shawl merchant. who, it appears, has
taken in a great number of poor people in that district in precisely
the same manner.