The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-11 00:00:00

THAMES.

CONVICTION OF A RUFFIAN,—Pati ick Maloney, an Irish
stevedore, aged 21, of No. 7, Rosemarylano, alias Royal
Mint-street, was brought before Mr. Paget, charged with
assaulting Ann Barkley.
The complainant said she was the wife of a police-con-
stable of the K division, and living at the Gun Bank
station, Wapping. Last night she was passing along
Ratcliff Highway in company with another woman,
when the prisoner came in front of her, put ono hind on
her right shoulder and the other in front of her person in
a very indecent manner. She pushed him away and called
for a constable, to whom she gave the prisoner into
custody. _ _

Emma Loker, the wife of a polico•constable, confirmed
ho evidence of her friend.

William Groom, a police-constable, No. 458 K, said at
six o'clock last evening I took the prisoner into custody. I
arked him why he assaulted the woman, and he said " I
knew I did it. lam very sorry for what I have done. I
have nothing to say to it."

The prisoner, a rough, dirty, and dissipated-looking
fellow, said " I had the dhrop taken last night, I don't
know whatl did."

Groom was recalled, and said the prisoner was a little
the worse for liquor, but knew what he was about.
Mr. Paget said drunkeness was no palliation or excuse
for misconduct or a violation of the law. The prisoner
had committed a very gross offence. A respectable woman
passing along a public street was subjected to insult and
outrage.
isdeliaclaatsdewoiuftohbrteadttrivatelhr.ey much whether he ought not to
send
er
ra
sessions than he (Mr. Paget)
The prisoner would be more
y h
could deal with him. It was monstrous that women could
so
euvt e
not pass along the public thoroughfares without being sub-
jected to insults and assaults from disorderly ruffians. He
sentenced the prisoner to be imprisoned and kept to hard
labour in the House of Correction for two months.

ng
. said .that on g
WESTMINSTER.
A VERY BUSINESS-LIKE TItANSACTION.—A man,
about 30 years of age, who gave t,
name of James
Atkinson, was wilt,!esicfeh,aragnedacwtiivthe begg
detective,
Satur-
day afternoon he saw the defendant begging
about Eaton-
square. He went up to a street door and gave a butler
then took him into custody.
a letter, who returned it to him with sixpence. Witness

The officer handed two letters which he had found upon
le defendant, to the magistrate.
The first of these was as follows :

oeurnrenkind assistance under
--The bearer hereof
hu
na‘
the following circumstances:--I am a
'br
joy allbe
gksi npda
rLdaodni efso
ra na
sdkGi
negn
ytl
young man dis-
charged from St. George's Hospital with an uncured abuse,
brought upon me by a relapse in the rheumatic fever, which
disables me from following my capacity of life,
and has to
obtain a livelihood for myself and throe motherless children
that compels me to ask the assistance of
any whose kind
heart will assist with ever so small a trifle towards four
shillings I am weekly allowed from my last employer, and
the smallest assistance will be most thankfully received by
your moat humble and obedient servant,
"JAMBS SimrstYs."
The seccnd letter commenced as follows :—" To all kind
servants," and finished with " yours respectfully," contain.
ing the same srory as before.
Pin Salle (to defendant)—You were here last autumn,
and wero then committed. It was the same sort of story
then as it is now.

Defendant—l have been here before.
Police—lie had 14 days then.
Mr. Selfe—You have a letter for the master or mistress
of the house where you go, and a separate letttr for the
servants, both signed in a different name to the one you
now give as you.s. I have not the least doubt that you
are making a regular trade of begging, and I shall there-
fore commit you for a month.

CHILD BURNING IN EtiSEX.—At the Cheltnsfeid
police court on Friday, Harriet Devenieh, 35 years of age,
the wife of a gardener, living at Broomfield, Essex, was
charged with wilfully murdering her newly-born child, and
afterwards burning the body. It appears thaton the night
of March I 1 two of her neighbours observed an unusually
bright fire in the prisoner's kitchen, and looking :over
the blind, saw her kneeling before the grate. At the same
time they noticed a disagreeable smell, and knocked at the
door, but the prisoner refused to open it. It was afterwards
discovered that she Shad been delivered of a full-period
ohild. Although a surgeon proved, from an examination
of some of the bones found under the grate, that the child

lived before birth, ho could not say it existed- afterwards
The magistrates committed the prioner for trial for con-
cealment of Was