The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-01-28 00:00:00

THE BRITISH PRESS.

POLICE.
ROW-STREET.
Yesterday a sprucely-dressed person, considerably under the
middle size, who stated his name to he O'Halloran, and that he
was a (master) tailor, was brought up from Covent-garden watch-
house, charged with having threatened to give a " good threshing"
to no less a person than Sir Iticustab BIRXIE, the Chief Ma-
gistrate of Police.
Porton, a constable of the office, stated that he was on night
duty at the office on Wednesday night, and soon after ten o'clock
there was a loud and continued knocking at the door. The ap.
plicant for admission seemed to use all his strength in the use of the
knocker, and witness hastened to answer the call, supposing that a
murder, or some other dreadful crime requiring the intervention of
the police, had been committed. He found the defendant at the
door• and upon asking what he wanted, he received for answer—
" What do I want, Sir? why I want to see Sir Richard Birnie,
the Hovemor-in-Chiel of this Police-office—what did you think I
could want ?" " You canna, see him to-night, Sir ;it is too late,"
said the witness. " Cannot see him, Sirrah, 'replied the prisoner;
" but d—m--e I will see him. I have a matter to settle with him
before I sleep, and see him I will—so show me up, show me tip,
young man." The witness assured him that Sir Richard had left
the office, and repeated that it was much too late to transact buil-
ness with a Magistrate. The defendant, however, was not to be
appeased, and he repeatedly vociferated—," 1 will see Sir Richard
Bimie—by the holy J-5 I will tee him, so show me up." The
witness again asked him what his business was, and he at length
said, " ll'hy, Sirrah, I intend to give him a good thrash-
ing, d--n his eyes ; and I'll, do it too, so show me up, I tell
you—show me up." The witness said he could not, at all events,
• show him up" for any such purpose, and advised him to go
about his business. " About my business !" said the defendant;
"I am about my business nowt I came here to give your Chief
Magistrate a whacking, and by my mother's chastity I won't budge
an inch till I have done it." The witness finding he could not
get rid of him, ordered a watchman to take him into custody.
Sir R. Muslin laughed heartily at this narrative, and calling to
the defendant, who liad re•reated behind some other persons,
said, " Come forward, Sir, I am not afraid of you," and when the
latter presented himself, Sir Richard, meauring his altitude with
his eye, added—" Why, really, though I am somewhat your
senior, I think / should not fare much the worse in a contest with
half-a-dozen like you ; and now, Sir, pray what possessed you
with an inclination to whack me. as you call it ?"
The defendant, in an under tone, said, lie hardly knew. He
had been dining out with some friends, and had drank freely, and
somehow or other he had got a notion into his head that a Mr.
David Latouche, a gentleman with whom he had seriously guar_
yelled—so seriously that the matter could be settled only in one Irv,
had been dining that day with Sir R. Bimie, and—
" Well, Sir," said Sir R. IllautE, interrupting him, " I want
to know nothing shout Mr. David Latouche or you • if your threats
had been directed against any other person I should. have held you
to bail to keep the peace; but as it is, you are welcome to walk
about your business, free as air,' and so, Sir, I wish you good
morning, and our acquaintance may as well cease from this time."
Mr. O'Halloran bowed very low and retired.

WORSHIP-STREET.
Yesterday Sarah Braja.tniu, an elderly Jewess, and dealer in
wearing apparel, was examined under the following circumstances :
On the 22d of December a parcel was stolen from a wagon, con-
taining seven muslin dresses, the property of a Mr. I.ainson, of
Rothe:Witte. Two men, named Bennet and Buckley, were ap-
prehended for the robbery, and convicted at the last Old Bailey
Sessions, when the Recorder, before whom the trial took place, im-
mediately ordered that the witnesses should be bound over to pro.
secute the receiver.
Lock, a constable of St. Luke's, deposed that on the 22d ult.,
about six o'clock in the evening, he was in Golden-lane with
another constable, and seeing a man, whom lie knew to be a bad
character, standing at the corner of Playhouse-yarci, he said to his
companion, " Here's snag coming, lees see what it is," and pre-
sently after another man came up with a parcel under his arm, and
the two proceeded up Playhouse-yard. and went into the house of
Mrs. Benjamin. Witness and his companion followed them, and
found in the room Mrs. Benjamin, her son, and the two men, with
the parcel, containing seven muslin dresses, lying open on the
table. The prisoner motioned to the men to be silent, and witness
took up the parcel, and laid hold of one of the men, asking " what
bad they got there ?" Receiving no answer, he took handcuff::
from his pockets to secure the men, when the prisoner interposing,
said, " I will give you two sovereigns if you let the men go."—
Witness rejected her offer, and was about to secure the men, when
the prisoner and her son laid hold of him to prevent his doing SO,
and offered him three sovereigns to let the men escape. He and
his comrade at length secured the men, and they were afterwards
convicted of the robbery, and sentenced to transportation.
The prisoner declared, that what the officer had stated was
false, a id said she always conducted her business openly in the
shop.—She was fully committed to Newgate for triaL

TOWN-HALL.
An ofreaee, unattended by any extenuating circumstances. was
embodied in the person of a baker's journeyman, named Robert
Gobbet:, who was brought before Alderman J. J. Sul Tir yester-
day to answer for it.
Henry Durant, shopman to Messrs. John and George Giles, of
Southwark House. drapers and haberdashers, High.street, South.
wark, said thrt the prisoner bad, fora latch of time, been in the
habit of delivering bread at his master's house. Many articles
had been from time to time missed, and blame attached to the per-
sons on the establishment, but not the least suspicion was entertained
that the prisoner was in any way connected with the circumstance.
Yesterday mornings valuable shawl was purloined, about the time.
of the prisoner's calling ; a strong sensation was excited by this
fresh proof of dishonesty : the servants of the house, conscious of
their innocence, determined on pursuing the prisoner, who was over-
taken by the witnesses in King-street, Snow's-fields ; they insisted on
searching his basket, the contents of which were covered with &linen
cloth. On the mention of the circumstance, and the obloquy that
attached to himself in common with others, in consequence of the
lose, the prisoner took from his hat the identical shawl, saying—
" There, go back, that will settle it."
The prisoner pleaded a first offence, and that he was urged by
distress. . .

Alderman J. J. SMITIf said, it was • grievous aggravation of
his offence to attempt to qualify it by • falsehcod--it was known he
had comfortable means of subsistence.
The prisoner was committed for trial.

......
Yesterday William Gerrard, a newsvender, was summoned
before L. B. Allen, Esq., for unlawfully keeping open his shop,
and exposing goods for sale on the Lord's day.
One of the officers, at whose instance the information was lodged,
stated, that on Sunday last the defendant's shop was open during
the time of divine rcrvice ; all the shutters but one were down, and
books and pencils exposed, as he supposed, for sale.
The defendant said he was unconscious of having offended ; his
shop wu open on Sunday for the sale of Sunday newspapers; as
the papers were printed and published on a Sunday, he considered
he had a right to sell them ; he had a wife and family to support,
towards which the profits arisinp from the sale of Sunday news-
papers contributed materially, owing to the working-class of people
purchasing them on that day to read the last week's news to tht it
families. . .

......
The defendant was informed that he must not expose any article
in his window, as rassengers passing by would naturally suppose
they were for sale, excepting newspapers, otherwise he would again
subject himself to be summoned, and the penalty would be in-
flicted ; but in this ease, as the defendant had nctcd not upon an
ntentional but an erroneous principle, he would orly fine him
four shillings, being the amount of costs only, which was in-
t tntly paid.
Two other uewsrenders were summoned fur a like offence, and
their cases sir, re similarly disposed of.

EXPOSING GOODS •T SHOP DOOR S.—At the Salford
Sessions last week, the Chairman intimated that costs
would not be allowed to prosecutors who exposed goods
for sale under such circumstances as offered a temptation
to commit felonies. On Tuesday a man named James
Miller pleaded guilty of stealing a pair of breeches, which
were exposed at the shop door of John Matthews; when
the Court refused to allow the prosecutor costs.
SaNGUtxtaY PUNIS/IMENT.—The punishment inflicted
on the fanatic assassin of General Kleber, in Egypt, justly
shocked the inhabitants of Europe, where, within these
few years past, milder modes of inflicting death have been
resorted to, and at length the guillotine, the most mild of
all; but this is only within a few years: the slightelt retro-
spection carries us back to all the horrors of the pale and
the faggot. On the 11th of May, 177'2, the Supreme
Council of Douai passed the following sentence on Joseph
Deflanders, who some time since robbed and murdered his
mistress with a cleaver:—That he should be delivered into
the hands of the executioner, and carried in a cart through
all the public streets of the city of Cambray, with a paper
on his breast and back, having this inscription—" A thief
and a murderer of his mistress ;" that, before the principal
gate of the parish church of St. Martin, he should perform
the amende honorable, in his shirt, with his head and feet
bare, a cord about his neck, and holding in his hands a
lighted taper; this done, that he should be conducted to a
scaffold, with a gallows on it; that at the foot of the gal-
lows he should be seated in the very arm-chair in which
his mistress sat when he murdered her; that the execu-
tioner should cut off his right hand, and throw it into the
fire before his face; that after this he should receive four
heavy blows on the shoulders with the same cleaver with
which he destroyed his mistress; that be should then be
hung up by the neck till lie was dead ; that, two hours
after, his body should be cut down, his head severed from
his body and fixed upon a.pole without the city, and that
the rest of his body should be put into a sack, and buried
underneath the pole. This sentence was executed accord-
ingly.
labouring mar of the name of Wyatt, in the employ
of M. E. Pat ker, Es 9., of Whitcway, during the absence
of his wife at Clindleigh, to procure medicine for him, he
haring been unwell, hung himself by his handkerchief.

IRELAND.
(From the Dublin Morning Reriaterl
NEWCOMEN'S BAND.
Monday, Four o'Clock.—An adjourned Meeting, numerously
attended, wu held this afternoon, Major Thompson in the chair.
After a variety of explanatory matter, it was resolved that the
opinion of Mr. Saurin should be taken as to the course best for
the creditors to adopt. .Ir. Furlong, jun. was appointed the sop.
citor, and the following gentlemen were unanimously nominated
a committee, to investigate the affairs of the house, and report 110 b
cordingly, viz John Flood, Francis French, David Henry, Charles
Fox, Joseph Dickson, Bernard Mullins, Esqrs., and Alderman
Montgomery.
At the Royal Exchange, this day, the Commissioners hare
found Mr. Leary, the surviving partner, a bankrupt.