The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-22 00:00:00

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//./- N EWE RATE R
work the communicator in my van as we O.IIIAP, Vtll-4
guard in the last van.
,
Examination continued—The driver
fectiy sober. Previous to my starting I did
the driver get the notice from any one that we leap f S
to stop at Egham.
B 7.16.

y Mr Crombie—When I started it was I. ~
and we arrived at 7.29. I timed myself before I got
out of my train. When I got out I sent a man bac.k
some distance down the line.

By Mr. Chubb—l was furnished es ith instruc-
tions. I did not say to any one that there were in..
structions I could not carry out.
By Mr. Rawlings—l have been in the service of
the company since August, 184 G. I took the post;
of guard in 1854. I was guard for six weeks when
the branch first opened. I don't remember seeing
a man with a red flag between the wooden bridge
and Egham Station. I saw a man with a red flag
at the station. There was also cne at the aueiliery.
I can swear that I saw him tnyER-.f as the train
passed. I left London that evening. I did not stop
at Egham going down. An ordinary train goes
out with three guards "erely e. A regular train
would be made up differently to a epeeial. I first
saw the train in the station just as I passed the
wooden bridge, but it was not in ccest quence of this
that I applied my brake. I bad five passengers in
my van. It was by nobody's authority ; the people
jump in themselves; there is no keeping them out
at those times. I will swear that my duties were
not interfered with by their presence. It is con-
trary to rule to allow them to ride, but I can do
nothing in race times—they will get in. I believe
all the carriages of the train were filled. I said,
" Yen can't get in here, gentlemen ;" but they said,
"We must; we want to get to town." They jump
in just as the train is starting. They always ride
in the brake vans at race times. I was not in con-
versation with the people in my van.
After some further evidence, the inquiry was ad-
journed.

MIDDLESEX SESSIONS—June 21,

(Before the Assistant-Judge.)

Thomas Blackburn, 28, alias "Lurcher," printer
Thomas Gardner, 21, waiter; and Thomas Jones,
19, weaver, were indicted for breaking and entering
the dwelling-house of Williom Palmer, and stealing
therein a plate-basket and other articles, value .£6,
his property.
Sarah Palmer, wife of the prosecutor, said she
lived at Richmond-cottages, London-fields, Hackney,
and on May 24, at about half-past two in the after-
noon, in consequence of something that was told
her, she went into a front room and there missed a
plate-basket and its contents from a sideboard.
When she missed the things the room window was
open, but it had been previously closed. Amongst
the things stolen was a pair of nutcrackers.
Henrietta Palmer, daughter of the prosecutor,
said she was at home when this matter happened,
and was looking out of the top room window at half-
past two in the afternoon. She saw the prisoners in
a field opposite, walking backwards and forwards.
Another person was also lying down in the field,
and he was one of the witnesses for the prosecution.
Arthur Wm. Palmer, a little boy, son of the pro•
secutor, said he saw the prisoner Jones on the day
this happened, and he came to their house and
knocked at the door, and on its being opened he
asked if there was any china or glass to mend. He
told him he would go and see, and was absent two or
three minutes, and when he came back the prisoner
was still at the door. He told him there was nothing
to mend, and he went away.

George Cunningham, a lad, said he was a brick-
layer, living at 19, Duncan-street, Hackney, and
oa the day of this occurrence he was in a field oppo-
site to Mr. Palmer's house. He saw the three pri•
soners standing near a partition in the field opposite
Mr. Palmer's house. He saw Jones go to the house
And knock at the door, and after being away a short
time he returned to the others in the field. After-
wards he saw Gardener go to the house, get in at the
area window, and soon afterwards come oat with a
plate-basket, which he covered over with his apron.
While Gardener was in the house the other men
were walking up and down, and they kept looking
about them. When Gardener came back from the
house he gave the basket to Jones, and they all
walked away together. Gardener opened the area
window by forcing back the fastening with a knife.
The basket was covered by Gardener with his apron
too quick for him to see what was its siza and shape.
When he saw this, he told the landlady of the house
that a robbery had been committed, and that the
thieves had gone towards Shoreditch Church.
Gardener cross-examined this witness, and wanted
to know how it was that as there were many people
in the field he did not at once give an alarm, and he
replied that he was afraid to do so, or something
might have been done to him. Only on Saturday
last he was knocked down in the Broadway, at
Hackney, and very seriously beaten by three men,
whom he did not know.

Richard Clark, police-constable 223 N, said, on
the 27th May he saw all the prisoners together,
they having come out of the Vinegar-ground, in
Old-street•road. He took Gardener into custody,
telling him that ho wanted him for stealing a plate.
basket and a quantity of plate from a house in
London-fields, Hackney, to which he made no reply.
The witness Cunningham was present at the time,
and he had given previously a description of all the
prisoners. On the person of Gardener he found the
knife produced, which could be used for the pur.
pose of forcing back the fastenings of windows.
John Gardener, 493 N, said he took Blackburn,
and afterwards went to his lodgings at No. 17, Sun-
street, Vinegar-ground, St. Luke's, where he found
the large buach of skeleton keys produced in the
drawer in the looking-glass; also a eentrebit and
file.

William Dew, another constable of the N divi-
sion, said he also went to the same house as the
above, and in a room occupied by Blackburn and
Jones tie found a jemmy and a pair of nutcrackers,
the latter identified by Mrs. Palmer as being one of
the stolen articles.

Thomas Robinson said that the prisoners lodged
in his house, No; 17, Sun-street, St. Luke's.
The Assistant• Judge summed up the evidence,
and

The Jury immediately returned a verdict of
guilty against all the prisoners.
Blackburn and Jones were then charged with
having been previously convicted, to which indict-
ment they pleaded guilty.
Sergeant Franklin, 13 E division, said that Black,
burn, alias Thomas Richardson, was sentenced on
the 30th March, 1850, to two months' imprisonment
for picking pockets; in the name of Thomas Keen,
he was sentenced to one month on the sth of June,
1851 ; in the name of Thomas Cook, 12 months on
the 9th of July, 1855 ; in the name of Thomas Wil-
son, at Clerkenwell Sessions, three months on the
19th May, 1857 ; in the name of Thomas Richard-
son, one month on the sth of November, 1857 ; in
the name of Thos. Richardson, six years' per al servis
tude at the Central Criminal Court on the 13th of
December, 1858. He was liberated with a ticket
st a December,l
e
of leave which would expire in December next.
Smith, police-constable 99, proved three previous
ando l.e o
n
in
convictions against Jones, commencing on the Bth
of June,
187 N,
18s5a
d.
Ch ropBhseB; G
ud terminating
Jones was tried at Clerkenwell Sessions on June 18,
1860, for breaking into a dwelling-house, and son-
i s 1
, police
tenced to three years' penal servitude. Since then,
on the 14th of March, 1863, he had served one
mouth for illegal possession of a silk umbrella.
No previous conviction was proved against
Gardener.

The Assistant-Judge said he would give Gardener
the benefit of nothing being known against him,
believing that he had been employed by these
notorious thieres to get into the window, end he
thought public justice would be satisfied by his
bi-ing imprisoned and kept to hard labour for 18
mouths. As regarded Jones, he had been sen-
tenced to penal servitude for three years, and after
that he had been found in possession of stolen pro-
perty. The sentence of the Court, therefore, on h;ra
would be five years penal servitude. As respected
Blackburn, he appeared to be a notorious thief, and
had been sentences to six years penal servitude in
1858, and that time had not yet expired. In his
case the public must be protected, and the sentence
upon him was that he be kept in penal servitude
for ten years.

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