The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1824-08-30 00:00:00

POLICE.

Bosse firratteu—Saturday, Jonies Robinson, who had been
remanded on a charge of horse stealing was again brought up,
The officer by whom the prisoner had was
taken into custody,
stated, that he had heard him offer s horse in Smithfield-market for
10/. which was apparently worth 101., which caused the witness to
inquire of him how he came by the horse. The prisoner said, he
would bring him to his master, who gave him the horse to sell, and
took him to a public-house for that purpose, but instead of produc-
ing the owner of the horse, he attempted to run away; he had
since stated, that the horse had been given him to sell by a person
whom he did not know, who promised him half a guinea for hie
trouble; and although the prisoner had been a week in custody, he
had not yet given any better account of himself, nor produced any
one to speak to his character.
The prisoner, who is a young man, and has much the arpear-
ance of a groom, when asked to give some account of himself, re-
mained quite silent.
The Alderman (Sir Charles Flower) said there could be no
doubt the hone was stolen ; and under all the circumstances of the
cue, he considered himself bound to detain the prisoner another
waek in custody, to give rime for further inquiry.
Two women of the town, and a man who had been their corn-
panion, were brought up, charged with haying been in a state ot
beastly drunkenness in llridge-atreet, at nine o'clock on Friday
morning, when the women exposed their persons in a manner
which the modesty of the officer made him beg to be excused from
dcsczibing.
The Alderman expressed the utmost abhorrence at the eoliduet
of the women, and sent them to Bridewell for a month ; the man,
being comparatively innocent, was fined a crown and discharged.

MARY-LA-BONNE.
A RACED'S Dxao Maur.—William and Thomas Briggs,
bakers of Craven-street, end a man named Prior, appeared os
Saturday, before Mr. Hawaii's, on the following charge :
It appeared, that on Sunday, a fortnight since, a Mr. Crewin, re-
siding in the seine street with defendant, had sent to their oven a
veal pie to be baked, having placed 'iencath the crust, on the veal,
a large lamb chop for one of the family who could only eat that
meat, bet cn the return of the pie, at.d in the process of clearing
or dissecting the dish being commenced, no chop could be
found ; and it had evidently been abstracted ; consequently, in
• day or two after, Mr. Crewin waited on Mr. Briggs and Jocu-
larly asked him if he had a conjuror in his employ ? llr. B. de-
manded what he meant, and Mr. C. detailed to him the mysterious
disappearance of the lamb chop, adding, that it must haw been
conjured out, either by, the devil In the shape of a witch in the
oven, or a conjuror in the bake-house ; upon this the defendant
became very outrageous, and indignantly repelled the charge, de-
nying ever having had any occasion to plunder defendant's pie for
the use of his family, who were rather choice as to what they ate t
and thereforewould not meddle with so trifling a dish as a veal pie.
The complainant assured him he thought it impossible he could
have dose it, and could only attribute it to the exercise of wits:bereft,
as the pie crust did not epyear to have been removed; &adhere:mei
mended him to have the oven and bake-house " exorcised ;" how.
ever, the loss of the limb chop was nothing to what followed, for
in his ears the vosiferation of " lamb chops," continually rung,
and he experienced from the defendants every description of annoy-
ance. A lamb chop was hoisted on a pole. and whenever he ven-
tured out the defendants assailed him, swinging to and fro the
chop, which vas denominated the " ghost of a lamb chop;"
from this kind of annoyance he sought Magisterial protection.
Mr. Briggs, senior, repelled the idea of any of his family being
capable of plundering their customer,' dishes ; and thought the
proceedings they had adopted were merely in joke.
The MACIIITIATZ advised such jokes not to be repeated; if
any further complaints were made, he sushi art differently.
The defendants were thee discharged csi.psying the expenses.

UNION HALL.
Mr. Ralphe, the butcher of Walvor*, accompanied by his wife,
In whose shop a
.gentleman complained he had dropped a al. note,
which appeared 30 our Paper of Wednesday last, attended at this
Office on Saturday. Ile stated, that in consequence of the publi-
city given to the statement of the gentleman in the Newspapers,
several of his best customers came to his shop, and declared that
they would not purchase another ounce of meat from him, if he did
notproduce to them a receipt from the gentleman acknowledging his
having received back the al. Mr. Ralphe stated, that he now at-
tended with his wife, who came forward with him in order to
declare most positively that she was unable to account bow the
V. note belonging to the gentleman came into hw poseession--
Notwithstaq.ding, he said, in consequence of the threats of his
customers he was now prepared to give the gentleman fil. upon
getting a receipt for that sum.
Mrs. Ralph* said, that if she had her way, she would not give
the Gentleman a farthing ; the Al. note had been given to her, she
was confident, by a customer in the way of bu.iness, on the Baur-
day ; but from what customer she could not now say, and indeed
she thought it a very hard case that they were forced to give up
their own money.
My. ALLEN observed, that his opinion of the case was now
precisely the same as it was when the complaint was first made ;
and if the W. note was not refunded to the Gentleman who dropped
it in their shop, and who afterwards traced it into their possession,
he :the Magistrate) would certainly commit Mrs. Ralph* for trial.
If, however, the money was restored, there would be no necessity
for any further prcceo.inge.
Mr. Rslphe immediately paid down Al. to Mr. Staples, the
Clerk, whom he requested to precuts a receipt from the gentleman
when he came to receive it, or dee, *id the butcher, I shall lose al
my custom.. lie and his wife then withdraw, the lady apparently
desA much chagrtned at the decision. *on a aids the gentleman,
who bad dropped the N. in the way tame to the office,
received back his money, and thanked e ;Miriam for the pains
bestowed on the case.
Mr. ALLEN took occasion to remark on the very important bena
fits frequently produced by the exposure of cases heard before
Magistrates at Police offices; the above case was certainly one of
this description, the publicity of which in the Newspapers had
created a great sensation in the neighbourhood where the butcher
lived, who was well nigh losing all his customers in consequence
of the traneaction.
SUPPLY or witexa.—ln the course of the day one of the turn-
cocks belonging to the South Lambeth Water Works, applied to
the Magistrate .or the usual reward In such cases. for having turned
on the water at the late fire in the London Road.
Mr. ALLEN inquired whether this was the fire at the stationer's
on Tuesday night, on which occasion the house and prcperty were
destroyed before the water was turned on ?
"he turncock replied that it was, but that he was not to blame.
hR. ALLEN—I will give you no reward; you are not entitled to
one halfpenny; there was a delay of nearly an hour and a half
before a drop of water could be procured from the pipes. What
was the cause of this?
The turncock declared it was not his fault t helived a mile and a
half from the South Lambeth Water Works, and nearly an hour
had elapsed from the commencement of the fire before he was called.
When he was informed of it he dressed himself at once, and ran off
to apprise the engineer, who had also to be roused out of his bed,
before he could arrange his part of the duties : and then be (turn-
cock) had to go back again the mile and a half. These things,
he said, he could not help, and therefore hoped the Magistrate
would grant him the reward.
Mr. ALLEN observed, that he would do no such thing; gross
negligence was manifest on the above occasion, and under the same
circumstances be (the Magistrate) would never sanction a reward
to those who betrayed such indifference for the Uses sad property of
individuals. .

LAMBETH-STREET OFFICE.
In our report of the examination of Daniel Iredgeworth Magi's
on Tuesday last, before the Magistrates of this office, on a charge
arising from his being found concealed in a coal cellar, it was
stated, that " it further appeared, on referring to theibocks in the
office, that the prisoner had been there before in a case not quite so
' honourable to his gallantry as the present. and for which he was
sent to sojourn in the House of Correction for three months." On
Tuesday we were, in consequence of strong representations made
to us, on what then appeared to us to be satisfactory authority,
induced to contradict the foregoing statement. These repr.srnta-
tions we have since ascertained to ba without any foundation in
truth, and it now becomes our duty, after an inquiry which leaves
no shadow of doubt on our mind, to declare, that our original
statement was perfectly correct. We hare iti our possession, from
the office books, the particulars of the conviction, and the subse.
quent proceedings, to which we forbear from makirs any further
alldsion. Our own justification rendered it necessary that we
should counteract the impression produced by the representations
of the indiscreet friend of the party offvneing.

Thomas Ford, a grocer, of Southampton, who had been
sentenced to twelve months' itnprisoninent, under the In- ,
solvent Act, for fraudulent conduct, has made his escape I
from prison. About five o'clock on Wednesday morning
last, a person to whom the insolvent had made over a large
kof his, property by an assignment, having dogged the'
eeper of the D.-..btors' prison ent of the jail, went to his
wife, and presenting a raper, told her that he was the only
detaining creditor, and there was a release for him. The
good woman,
.who knew the person speaking to her had
some connexion with the prisoner, hesitated a little, when
she was told, that if she dared keep the man i prisoner any
longer, she anti her husband would be severely punished.
Alarmed at this, and not knowing the difference between
the prisoner's situreion and a common imprisonment for
debt, she unbarred the door, and in five minutes he was
out of the reach of pursuit.
klosT.Ae s n:i 1 Nu F 1 at..--On Saturday morning, about
two o'clock, • lire of the most disastrous nature broke out in the
s:-.17.1r.i11s of Messrs. Turner and Co. in Gravel-lane, lioundeditch,
wkosc premises extend to a neighbouring court hescit.,.ards, towards
Cutler-street, in the close vicinity of one of the Put India Compa-
ny's warehouses. The alarm spread climacticalt the r...:ighbour-
lima, and at such so hour, may be easier conceived than expreued.
From the nature of the property where the fire commenced—the
hour of the night—and the complete want of sitter, the devouring
element gained smh ground, tlitti at one time it VMS feared it would
find its way to Petucitat-lane, when the destration would have
been most dreadful. Confined as it was kept, not less than seven
or kilt houses were, in the course of two lieu's, reduced to ruins.
Mr. Cope, the City Marshal, and the police officers, were at their
posts, and preserved peace and order, as much as was possible. It
is but justice to say that fire engines in abundance were promptly
on the spot, and that the men. as usual, exerted thetrselvts—but
1 the scarcity of water, for a time, thwarted their exertions. Had'
there been water sufficient at the commencement of this disunion.
' tire, the pariah engine, the fist on the spot. would have quelled its
' i It is consolatory to have to state that, c:ile: such circumstat.ctir,
no lives hare been lost.