The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-13 00:00:00

Committal of a Lady for Stealing.

Julia M'Millan, a regimental schoolmistress at
Aldershott, was charged before Alderman Lusk, a
Guildhall, with robbery.

, -
Mr. Lewis, jun., conducted the defence.
Henry George said—l am an assistant to Messrs.
Nicholson and Co., drapers, of St. Paul's-church-
yard. About a quarter past 3 o'clock yesterday
afternoon the prisoner came to my department and
asked me to show her some cambric handkerchief's.
I showed her some, and she purchased half-a-dozen,
which she paid for.
James Bright, an assistant in the same employ,
said,—l am iu the silk department. Between 12
and 1 o'clock on Wednesday last the prisoner came
to my department and wished to see some black and
coloured silks, which I aceordiegly showed her.
She selected a black moire antique silk dress, which
she paid for, the price being £4, and a coloured silk
dress, which she said she would call and pay for, as
she had not enough money. She came again about
5 o'clock and asked to be allowed to look at some
evening silks. I showed her some check silks, and
she selected one and paid for it at the same time
that she paid for the coloured silk dress. She paid
altogether £6 15s.
Adderley Clarke, also in the prosecutor' employ,
said—l was in the show room yesterday about 3
o'clock when I saw the prisoner come in. As soon
as she took her seat I went upstairs and watched
her from above. I saw het put her mantle over the
connter with one arm and with the other hand
draw half-a
-dozen cambric handkerchiefs from be-
neath a quantity of others, and endeavour to slip
them into her pocket, but they fell on the ground.
She then passed her hand down inside her dress and
picked them up and asked the assistant who was
serving her for a pin. With it she fastened the
handkerchiefs to her dress. I informed my em-
ployer of what I had seen, and the prisoner was
eventually given into custody.
Police-constable Lewis, 358, said, from information
I received I followed the prisoner from Messrs.
Nicholson's premises to the top of Cheapside. I
then asked her if she had anything which did not
belong to her, or which she had not purchased at
the shop she had just left. She several times assured
me she had not, and, after some further conversation,
I took her to the police station, where she gave up
six cambric handkerchiefs, which she took from
under her dress, and a smail box containing three
studs. She said that was all.
Elizabeth Harrison, the female searcher, said,—l
found on the prisoner this hag (an enormous pocket),
which she was wearing, and a ticket relating to a
parcel left at the South Eaatern Railway station.
Lewis, recalled, said,—l took the ticket referred
to by the last witness, and on presenting it at the
cloak room received this piece of silk, consisting of
46 yards, and of the value of £6 12s.
The witnesses George and Bright, on being re-
called, identified the silk and the handkerchiefs
produced as their employer's property, and said
they remembered showing those goods to the pri-
soner at her own request.
Mr. Lewis made a most urgent appeal on behalf
of the prisoner. He asked, in the first place, that
she might be remanded, in order that her friends,
who were all highly respectable and had been tele-
graphed to, might have time to place before the
court a defence which would be most material to the
prisoner, but which ho was not at present in a
position to explain; aud, secondly, that she might
be admitted to bail in the interval of the remand or
pending the trial, whichever course the magistrate
might decide upon.
Alderman Lusk said he had not the remotest
doubt about the good position the prisoner had oc-
cupied in society ,or of the respectabilityof her friends.
There was no question of character but of fact. The
case was exceedingly clear, and the circumstance of
the prisoner wearing a large bag under her dress
led to the suspicion that this theft was one of a series
of thefts. He had decided upon committing the
prisoner to trial without admitting her to bail.
Mr. Lewis said he could give bail to any
amount for the prisoner, aud reminded the magi-
strate that in the case of a west-end physician
whose wife was charged with a similar offence
that lady was admitted to bail from the first with-
out failure of justice, so that there was a precedent
for his present application. He therefore hoped
the worthy alderman would reconsider his decision,
and on account of the prisoner's youth, health, and
great mental suffering, liberate her on bail.
Alderman Lusk said that if it were a poor per-
son without friends he could not entertain such an
application, and that his duty as a magistrate would
not allow him, however much he might commiserate
the unfortunate young woman before him, to make
any distinction between rich and poor in the admi-
nistration of justice.

THE REV. CANON SENICYNS, on Tuesday week,
at Durham, slipped on a piece of turnip rind, falling on the
pavement with such violence as to break his leg, but he is
going on favourably.

MR. PIIILLTMORE'S EXCEEDING ACCURACY.—
In reply to ono cf Mr. Phillimore's crotchets about
the modern way of studying the classics, his Edinburgh
Reviewer mentioned as Professors at Oxford "Professor G.
Smith and Professor Arnold." On which says Mr. Philli-

more, his pamphlet reply, " Professor Smyth being a Cam
bridge Professor of Modern History, and not a tutor ; Dr.
Arnold for the last half century not having had any share
in academical education." Dr, Arnold's lectures on Modern
History were delivered long after 1814; but it is obvious
that the persons referred to by the Edinburgh Reviewer
(not, to be sure, very pertinently) were Mr. Goldwiu Smith,
the present Professor of Modern History at Oxford, and
Mr. Thomas Arnold, the Professor of Poetry, Dr. Arnold's
eon,