The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-09 00:00:00

MIDDLESEX SESSIONS—June 8,

(Before the Assistant-Judge)
Jane Wise, 29, and Sarah Johnson, 26, were indicted for
stealing 120 yards of silk, value £lB, the property of Alfred
Hayman and others.
Mr Abram prosecuted; Mr Holdsworth defended the
prisoners,
From the evidence it appeared that prosecutor keeps a
linendraper's shop in Sloane-street, and on the afternoon of
the 25th May the prisoners entered the shop and asked to
look at some sareenet. They were asked to walk up the
shop near a recess in which the silk goods were kept. One
of the prisoners took a chair and placed it near to where
the silk was, but a shopman removed it further away lower
down the shop. The shopman went down the shop, when
Wise took advantage of his absence to put her chair back
again, They purchased some articles that came to 4s 9d,
and then asked to look at some ruche trimming, When
the shopman was gone to get the trimming another shop-
man, whose suspicions were excited, watched them, and
distinctly saw Johnson rise from her scat, take up five
pieces of silk and put them under her cloak, They were
then about leaving the shop, but near the door they stopped
to look at some parasols, when the rolls of silk fell from
Johnson's dress, and Wise tried to kick them away with
her loot. A policeman was sent for, and the prisoners were
given into custody.
Mr Holdsworth said he could not struggle against this
evidences and
The jury found both prisoners guilty.
The prisoner Johnson was then further indicted for having
been previously convicted of felony, which she protested
was false, as at the time she was in her confinement.
Mrs Howe, warder at the Westminster House of Correc-
tion, said she knew that both prisoners had been in that
prison, and more than once, and she asked that they might
be remanded to allow her to make inquiries.
Matilda Taw, 48, and Matilda Taw, 14, mother and
daughter, were indicted for stealing a frock and a pair of
boots, the property of Richard John Aubrey, from the per-
son of Ellen Aubrey, and a jacket, the property of Richard
John Aubrey, from the person of an infant child.
It appeared from the evidence that Mr Aubrey was a
chemist, carrying on business in High-streer, Poplar, and on
the 18th May, two of his children, a bey and girl, one six
and the other four years of age, were sent to school, but be-
tween one and two o'clock they were brought home by a
gentleman, a woman, and a boy, who were strangers to him,
the girl being without her frock and boots, and the boy
without his seal-skin jacket, which they had on when they
were sent to school. He gave information to the police, and
afterwards on going to a toy shop, kept by a Mrs. Gallmay,
he saw a little girl wearing his child's frock and boots.

further was proved that aMrs Se ,gar, of Oriental-street,
purchased the frock and boots of the elder prisoner, who
said, as she had no little children of her own, they were
then of no use to her. The robbery was traced to the pri-
soners in this way :—lt appeared that John Biggs, of
Frederick's-terrace, St. Leonard's•row, was passing along
Lirnehouse-cut, and saw the children sitting on a bank cry-
ing. The little girl showed him her feet, and she had no
boots on them, nor had she any frock ; and the little boy
was without his coat. He assisted a lady in taking the
children home to Mr Aubrey's, and these articles were
proved by Police-constable James Posford, 260 K, to have
been sold by both mother and daughter to Mrs Seeger, the
latter prisoner stating that they were given by a captain's
lady to a Mrs Penton, who had given them to her. She
said that Mrs Penton was an actress, and was engaged at
the music halls in the neighbourhood, but after a diligent
inquiry no such person as Mrs Penton could be found.

Inspector Be ,re, of the K division, said the younger pri-
soner told him that Mrs Penton's husband sang at the
Poplar Music Hall and the Effingham Theatre, but this
turned out to be false.

The jury found the prisoners Guilty.
The little girl was then lifted up to the bench, and she
pointed out the younger prisoner as the person who had
taken off her frock and the boots from her feet.

Inspector Beare said there wore numerous complaints of
a similar nature made at the station house of the robberies
of children, but since the prisoners had been in custody
there had not been one.

The Assistant-Judge sentenced the elder prisoner to be
imprisoned and kept to hard labour for 12 months, and the
younger to be imprisoned for two months, and then to be
sent to a reformatory for three years.

The Australian Dick TuiTin,

The last mail from Australia brings intelligence of the
capture of the celebrated bushranger, Francis Gardiner,
whose career so much resembles the descriptions of that
of our Dick Turpins and Paul Cliffords that in sketching
his history we seem to repeat their well known feats of
100 years ago. He is said to have left this country at
its expense, and for weighty reasons, some years since,
and shortly after freeing himself front control took to
the bush, since which time he has been the terror of
the traveller and the squatter. Like Dick Turpin, he had
an eye for a good horse, and so sundry settlers found out
to their cost. Though possessed of a largo stock of the
fortiter in re, he Was by no means deficient in the suaviter
in mode, as will appear from the following anecdote,
which is doubtless not without foundation in fact :—Just
after some of his most daring exploits, and when his foes
were most on the alert, a certain Government functionary
gave a musical soiree, at which a stranger of prepossessing
appearance and manners made himself particularly agree-
able. Being asked to sing, he gave " Sweet Spirit, hear my
prayer," with much taste and feeling. The party having
broken up, all, as it was supposed, retired for the night.
Next morning, however, a meet unpleasant denouement took
place. A considerable quantity of plate and valuables had
disappeared, and an early post brought a polite note, signed
"Francis Gardiner," apologising for having caused some
inconvanionoc to his hush, and inquiring tenderly after the
health of the ladies. Being once surprised and captured he
effected his escape from his escort, shooting one of them
through the cheek with his revolver. On that occasion he
received two sabre cuts, which are said to have proved his
identity in the case of his present capture. Having baffled
all the efforts of the police and others influenced by the large
reward offered, viz., £lOOO, he at last succumbs to a cleverly
concerted scheme, executed with as much spirit as success.
The following particulars are given of the capture :—lt ap-
pears that a party of five native mounted police, in charge
of Lieut. H. J. Browne, on the march to headquarters from
the 111‘lienzie district, stopped for the night at an interme-
diate station. Before retiring a message was received by the
officer that a person wished to see him, who turned out to
be a detective. From him the lieutenant learned that Gar-
diner was living in the immediate neighbourhood with a
woman who had eloped from her husband at Sydney a year
before. As it was said there were others of the gang with
Gardiner, the detectives, three in number, feared to attempt
the capture, and claimed the assistance of the lieutenant and
his troopers. This was granted, and a plan was formed by
him that the detectives who were disguised as geld-diggers,
should arrive at Gardiner's store or humpy at a certain time
next morning, at which time and place the troopers were to
meet him. Accordingly, they arrived at the sceneof action,
the troopers singing in chorus, a plan adopted by their officeer
to disarm suspicion. They found Gardiner in front of his
store, with four of his associates ; the detectives advanced,ion
and the leader accosted Gardiner, asking a trivial question.
by.
At a signal from Lieut. Browne, Gardiner was.
selzutinee,
the detectives, while the troopers, suddenly
covered the bystanders with their carbines. Lieut. dismounting,
then calling on all present to surrender as prisoners on
werel
of instant death, handcuffs were produced, and all
secured before the first shock of surprise was over. Upon
searching the premises several articles of jewellery and £2OO t
ined several
in money were found, and the stables
horses ; one of them, a remarkably handsomeconcontained
animal has
1 :on identified as the property of a Southern proprietor,
from whom it was stolen some months since.h After et,
severe march of 100 miles through the. bush, under heavy
rains, the prisoner le as safely lodged in Rockhampton Gaol,
and, being brought before the local magistrates,wasfully
for trial. It adds somewhat to this notorious.
committed
freebooter's romantic history that he should. have owed his
capture to a ei-devant Light Division Crimean.
.Officer, who
was hotly engaged, and cc tine out, not undistinguished,

from the famous Redan, and whose love of adventure led
'- the wide field which the Queensland moss-
him to eft— _
In ridding the continent of this
trooper's life presents.
formidable bandit he has conferr... a benefit on society
everywhere
which there
,is no doubt will be recogniseu.
throughout the land.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

TIMES.—The rejection of Lord Houghton's
amendment on the 4th clause of the Penal Servi-
tude Bill was a triumph of Doctrinaire legislation.
The effect of this clause, as it now stands, is to
make it necessary for a ticket-of-leave man to report
himself once a month at a police-office. In its ori-
ginal form the bill required the convict to produce
his licence on the demand of a magistrate or con-
stable, but made no provision for organised surveil-
lance. This did not satisfy the supporters of the
Irish system pur et simple, and the precaution in
question has been superadded to it. No licence-
holder is to change his residence without communi-
I cation with the police, and if he fails to put in an
appearance monthly he is guilty of a misdemeanour.
To doubt that the enforcement of such a condition
will interfere with his gaining an honest livelihood
would be absurd. It is not, as Lord Carnarvon
seems to suppose, that the police might in some
instances warn employers against engaging a gaol-
bird, but that periodical visits to the police office
would make him a marked man. It is one thing to
have been in trouble no one knows how long ago,
and another to be stamped as a criminal fresh from
prison and still under degrading restraint. Whe-
ther this is felt to be a disgrace in the country die.
tricts of Ireland is another question ; in England,
at all events, it is fatal to character and self-respect.
Now the recovery of character and self-respect is
not only the greatest blessing to which a reformed
offender can aspire, but it is also the best of
all safeguards against his relapse. The interests
of society are therefore so far engaged on the same
side as those of the well-disposed convict, and we
hive to consider whether the necessity of pro-
tecting ourselves against the incorrigible is
such as to justify the sacrifice of the well-
disposed. Had this issue been raised in the
House of Lords, the weakness of Lord Car-
narvon's position would have become manifest.
That position rests upon one ground, and one
only, the alleged success of police supervision in
Ireland. Lord Cranworth meets this argument with
an emphatic denial of the fact In Ireland, to
which so much allusion had been made, the police
had never been employed to supervise released pri-
soners ; and when the Commissioners recommended,
not without hesitation, that it might be expedient
to try the Irish system in England, they did not
mean that there should be what had been absurdly
called police supervision, which would give no secu-
rity at all; but that the work ought to be done
through the agency of an office connected with the
convict establishment and employing proper officials
for the purpose. It was of the very essence of
supervision that it should be unconnected with the
police." Candour compels us to own that we cans
not reconcile this statement with the repeated ex-
planations of the Irish plan furnished by Sir Walter
Crofton, who not only describes the duty of
supervision as performed by the Irish constabulary,
but combats the objections to its being performed by
the English police force. At the same time, it is
perfectly true that Sir Walter himself regards each
part of his system as dependent for its success on
the rest, and dwells with peculiar earnestness on
the previous training of the convict in intermediate
prisons, as well as on the enlistment of public
opinion in his favour. What is mere material, how-
ever, is that the efficiency of supervision is found in
Ireland to be in inverse proportion to the density of
population. In Dublin it can hardly be said to be
in operation at all, and that for the best of all rea-
sons, that nothing short of active and vexatious
espionage would be of any use in a large town. It
is here that the theory breaks down. When it comes
to be applied practically, it is found that mere regis-
tration is no security for good conduct. The real secu-
rity is the knowledge on the pert of the convict that
the police have their eye upon him, a conscicusness
which might equally be brought home to him, whe-
ther he is registered or not, but which nothing short of
espionage could render an effective check in either
case. There is much truth in Lord Lichfield's re-
mark that an accomplished villain about to commit
a crime would take care to report himself before-
hand "to keep up appearances." Considering how
greatly the weight of authority in the House of
Lords preponderated in favour of this view, we are
some what at a loss to account for the result of the
division. A more decided innovation than that in-
troduced into our police system was never carried
by a majority of Conservative noblemen. Hitherto
the detection of crime and the arrest of offenders
have been the only duties of a policeman; hence.
forth, the prevention of crime by precautionary
measures will become part of his office. Lord Car-
narvon entirely mistook the nature of Lord Hough-
ton's reasoning when he scouted the idea of a ticket-
of-leave man having rights of independence. No
one would think of maintaining that a man who is
liberated before the expiration of his sentence can
plead the liberty of the subject against police inter-
ference. The danger is that the police force itself
may be demoralized by its new functions, and that
some of us who have never had tickets of leave, and
are never likely to want them, may be harrassed by
practices which we associate with the policy of
foreign despotisms. This experiment, too, is to be
made with the hope of realizing objects which are
much better promoted by voluntary agency. We
give full credit to Lord Carnarvon and his friends
for sincere though factious benevolence, and strongly
suspect that a philanthropic fallacy dictated the vote
of Tuesday night. This fallacy consists in attribut-
ing to police supervision the good effects which are
really due to e-e kind and judicious superintendence
of individuale. In Ireland it is admitted that the
efforts of one such person have been the mainstay of
the whole system. Our own experience of reformas
tories tells the same tale. Iron rules of discipline
and routine are of little avail without the word in
season, the gradual training in habits of order and
regularity, the nameless and numberless influences
of personal sympathy. The discharged prisoner is
a moral convalescent, and requires constant care and

akilful treatment to save hiin from a return of his

malady. Christian charity may undertake this
task, bat the State cannot. As legislators, we can
but provide religious instruction and every other
means of reformation for the inmates of our prisons.
When they are set at liberty the best we can do is
to let theta mingle with the crowd and retrieve

themselves by their own industry, and it is because
it tends to defeat this end that the 4th clause of the
Penal Servitude Bill appears to us so mischievous.
HERALDS—The question which the Danes are
going into Conference to discuss on to-day is a
momentous one for them, and through them for the
principles they represent in Europe. In form,
perhaps, it is a small one. It is, whether they shall

Cede the strip of land, some forty or fifty miles broad
at the outside, which lies between the frontier
which England has proposed and the frontier which
the Germans demand. But it is only in form that
the issue is trivial. No advocate less unscrupulous
than the leading Ministerial journal would venture
so far to defy the well-known facts of history as to
maintain that the importance of a territorial dispute
bears any close or necessary relation to the acreage
of the disputed land. Mantua does not cover a very
large space of ground, yet, after two sanguinary
_ .

'and crushing defeats, the Emperor of Austria was
prepared to stake again the fortunes of his empire
in a renewal of the conflict with the victorious

armies of France, rather than give it up. Calais
was no enormous territory—yet we fought bard to
retain it. Gibraltar can show no very imposing

acerage t but as long as England can find a than or
a shilling, it will never float any flag but hers. The
importance of territories for which nations struggle
is constantly measured not so much by what they
are, as by what they protect. It is not the pcpula-
tion, or the fertile yield of any particular spot of
ground, that makes the possession of it in a states-
man's eyes an adequate recompense for the sacrifice cf
war. It is its strategic character which gives it a
political value far beyond its area or its wealth.
The strip of territory that lies between Flensburg
and the line of the Schlei is of first rate strategic
importance. The frontier proposed by English,
and accepted, as their ultimatum, by the Danes, is
one which it might be possible to defend. Better
provided with artillery, and more thoughtfully
defended then it was in the last campaign, it might
keep at bay for a considerable period any power
which was not mistress of the sea. But the line
which the Germans propose beyond Flensburg has
no strategic value at all. It would be a frontier
perfectly indefensible. It would, in street, be hand-
ing over the Danes to be the vassals of Germany,
No command that issued from the fortress ofeany
R n•
ermds
burg could be disobeyed by Denmark. Contumacy
would be immediately punished by a raid into Jut-
land, which the Danes would have no power to
resist. Nor would Germany be satisfied with mere
oou, would beget the
spectacle
iniquityeeedtiaeenl obedience.
we . successfuldthe
desire forf another, one
add
sp:endid r Denmark's utter helplessness would
peculiar fascination to the enterprise. It
would be a l •
g orious opportunity for one of those
displays of valour which Germany can only
make
.egainst an opponent who is ten times or
twenty time,: her inferior in strength. There cm
be very little doubt that if Denmark consents to
accept an indefensible frontier, the respite she
will gain will be very short, and that the Deno-
German difficulty will score make its appearance
again in an aggravated form. The Germans never
will consent to be satisfied with anything less than
the whole of that which they insolently designate
as the "North German Peninsula. Any a A
peace
into which the Danes may enter now, that will

(...4

leave to their adversaries the opportunity of futur°
aggression, will simply be a delusive respite. 13e
demon of ambition has been awakened in the
sluggish German mind, and it wi:l not ue
satiated now with a scanty meal. The
nation has reached that stage in its growth will"'
—ost dangerous for its neighbours It i 0 in
is the
precisely the
-nme state as regards the taste for,
France was in 1791. T.n„°
foreign aggression as
democracy has become power:
an,' to make them
Governments and aristocracies, fled,
do its bidding slavishly. But it has not learned,
as the French democracy has now learned, to a.Ece,a,..
n 1 enough to terrify
its own weaknesses, and to know the dangers
.I,,"'t
Nor v11.11„"e,
which it may be driven by its passions.
want stimulants to keep its new elaving alblere
There are many competitors for its favour. ho
is scarcely a prince or great noble in Germany the
does not believe that he holds his position its
sufferance of the many •headed tyrant and ch
professor leaders, or who would not give up ,aluhro
to appease its wrath. Already M. Bismarck
conjured the storm which was gathering round 1..
by a dexterous appeal to its passion for corques,'
t
His example will not lack imitators. For Lc sil;
years to come it will be an axiom of G rman statee
craft to divert the dangerous excitablity
their
democratic associations, by practising uP°° t bat
new martial tastes. The idea, therefore, te a
Germany will sit down satisfied with harliiira
mouthful of Denmark when the other lie
invitingly before her is a delusion which will be
ruinous if it is allowed to take a practical S'-ieir
In any case the Danes will have to defend t
nationality in a future and not very distant n'e
The only point to which their efforts csatiot
usefully directed now is to take precautions
ieleSS
the war, when it comes, do not find them help
and disarmed. If they accept an untenssad
frontier now, they will certainly be overrun'
if
that is the worst that can happen to theTted
they break up the Conference now' vae,
trust themselves again to the chances of resistAa
It must be acknowledged that the attitude to
the neutral Powers is not very encoureginacei.
them. The strange reserve of France, the gree of
ling cowardice of England, the curious tolerant
bßussia for the pretensions of neighbours which,u3are
e so dangerous to her commercial existen,c;?ght,
circumstances which do not promise, at
any hopeful issue to the resistance of the e 13006
But things are as bad now as they well can if Ole
there are many grounds for the belief Os' ;noel
war were to be renewed the attitude of the 11,1 east,
Powers would be improved. In Erigland.,::aierst
it is not likely that pusillanimity of the n'il",-hich
or the influences, whatever they may be, ia.trsin
overrule the Government, will be likely to r':f the
for a much longer period the impatiencej,liish
country. The previous war had brought .1-):Tthe
feeling to the very verge of an explosion ton.
moment when the armistice was agreed. weeK
Probably if it bad been deferred for alic"r,e'aerc-
the English people would have forced their `'„Tuaele
ment into the fray. The sight of a renewed s'ioed,
between the same opponents so unequally rtliainier
would rouse the same sympathy to an equal; Ger'
sity of fury. The hatred of Germany and t",..; little
mans is so keen among us that it requires sre'J Tbs
provocation to fan the feeling into a fls°2e: Danes
constant hope that the deliverance of the
bar
might be accomplished by peaceful nieaDpg for
hitherto restrained the nation from Praesat Of 6
Lw active measures. But when once the rrealio
peaceful solution is passed, and they begin ti.°;roder
that England, after all her promises, is t° ""ers °`
to abandon them to the marauding plunder opls
Germany, we eannot believe that the Engli,eahaPor le
will be false to the traditions of their 1)007, is tb°
their country's former glory. At all events: p the
last chance for the Danes. If they break °be re'
Conference (supposing their ultimatum to a faith
fused), they throw themselves upon the g°° eople,
and the generous instincts of the EnglishiP prse:
If they allow it to linger on till the sessl°l3),-,:t
tically over, they abandon themselves to wk" timid
-
proved to be their bitterest enemies--tuearais.,'
vacillation and the selfish perfidy of the v.
Ministers.