The Sun.
London, England, 1852-10-02 00:00:00

LAMBETH.

Elizabeth Heath, alias Randall, a notorious begging
letter impostor, was placcd at the bar on a charge of
stealing eight valuable diamond and other rings, a
bracelet, and other property, belonging to a lady
named Oiseau, 95 years of age.
Miss Lucy Shaw deposed that she had been the
companion of Mrs. Oiseau for fifteen years, and lived
with her at her residence, 8, Terrace, Walworth.
Some weeks ago the prisoner called on her mistress
with a petition, when she represented herself as the
widow of Captain Allen, who had been lost at sea,
and Mrs. Oiseau, b3lieving her representations, gave
her a sovereign. On Tuesday evening last the pri-
soner called again, end upon being told by the ser-
ant that her mistress wes at dinner she said she
would wait to see her, end went into the drawing-
room. The set vent informed her mistress that the
prisoner wes up st-.'ra ; she came out of the dining-
room for the purpose of going to and telling the
pi isoner that there r$ as no use in her stopping, but on
going into the hv't she saw the prisoner in the act of
leaving the house by the feont door. On seeing her the
pi :goner said she should colt again, bat witness told her
that it wes of no use, end she went away. Soon after
eight rings, a bracelet, and other articles, which her
mistress had placed in a basket on the drawing-room
table just before dinner, were missed, and suspicion
immediately fell on the prisoner. The two rings
and produced were a portion of the property
stolen.

Elizabeth Field, the servant of the prosecutrix, de-
posed b having admitted the prisoner into the house,
and showing her to the drawing room, where the
rings were. This witness swore positively that no
person but the prisoner had ent3red the drawing room
from the time the rings were plued there until they
were 10-4.

The searcher at Greenwich station-house said, that
while searching the prisoner at the station the bracelet
produced fell irom her bosom to the ground, and she
subsequently picked it up steel thily and was about to
put it into one of the pockets she had searched, when
the witness took it from her. On her person she
found a number of duplicates relating to various pro-
p3rty, and in her gloves, which she was very anxious
to retain, she also for Id a duplicate for two rings.
A shopman from Mr. Martin's, a pawnbroker in
Tooley-street, produced two rings (sworn to by Miss
Shaw), which he said bad been pledged by the pri-
soner on Wednesday last.

The prisoner, in reply to the charge, said the wit-
nelses were quite mistaken in her person, and that she
had neter been to the house of the prosecutrix at all.
She could not, she said, deny having pledged the
rings, but they had been given to her by another
p3rson.
Horsford, the Mendicity-officer, was here sworn,
and raid that be had known the prisoner for many
years as a notorious begging impostor. Her real
name was Randall, and both she and her husband had
convicted for frauds on the benevolent.
been frequently
The prisoner was remanded until Thursday next,
and the constable who has the case was desired to look
closely to the property to which the other duplicates
found on the prisoner related, as it was strongly sus-
pected that it had been stolen in the same way as the
rings.

FIRE AT LEITH.
DESTRiiC2IIIIE
On Tuesday morning
about three o'clock it was dis-
covered that a house
in the fifth story of a large tene-
ment, known by the name of the Barracks, and situated
in Lawrie's Close, principally occupied by Irish labourers,
was on fire. The flames spread rapidly from room to
room, and the whole roof soon became one sheet of
flame, which for nearly two hours illuminated the town.
The house in which the fire originated was tenanted by
a family who were about to emigrate to Australia, and
the father and mothsr had, it appears, been attending a
wedding in a neighbour's house on the preceding evening,
and had left their children in the house alone. About
three o'clock the watehman observed large quantities of
smoke issuing from ote of the windows, and he of course
immediately gave the alarm. On obtaining as entrance
into the house the smoke and flame burst forth with
great fury, and it was with the greatest difficulty that
the eli;ldren were ii.aved from the flamed. The fire
spread rapidly, and in a short time most of the inmates
of the other houses were rushing from the building in a
partial state of nudity, while others wore throwing their
furniture and clothing out of the windows; but most of
them had, however, to escape for their lives without
saving much of their effects. Two of the fire-eneines,
under the direction of Treasurer Millar, and Mr. Grant,
superintendent of police, were soon on the spot, and
while a body of firemen, with one of them, was stationed
to prevent the fire from communicating with the
pouring
ad-
joining buildings, the other was a constant
supply of water on the devouring element. The fire-
engine item Leith Fort we, • also iii, attendance soon after
the outbreak of the fire, but it was found unnecessary
to use it. For a ' onsiderable time it was feared that the
whole building woul I be burned to the ground, but,
tbrough the well-directed effors of the firemen, the fire
was confined to t'se two uppr stories; and about six
o'clock it was completely subdued. The inmates of the
home in which the fire originated have lost the whole of
their furnishings for Austrelia, and also a bank cheque
for 20/., which was in the house at the time. We
t lieve that about twenty families have been left house-
less, and have been compelled to seek a temporary
shelter in the poor-house, while others have had more or
less of their effects destroyed. The cause of the fire
has not been properly ascertained, but it is supposed to
have bee the result of a lighted candle falling among
some clothes. We understand that none of the property
is insured, and the loss will therefore fall very heavy on
the parties Op have suffered, many of whom have lost
their all.—ecoicnan,

Dispatches were received yesterday at the Colo-
nial 'office from the Governors of Van Diemen's Land,
Natal, and the Gambia.

MEMOIRS 01' THE BARONESS D'OBERIEIRCH, in-
cluding numerous curious Particulars illustrative of the
Secret History of the Courts of France, Russia, and Germany.
Three vols.—The Baroness D'Oberkirch, whose remarkable
memoirs are here given to the public, was much mixed up
with the great world in the latter part of the last century.
The friend of her childhood was Maria Fedorowna, wife of
Paul 1., Emperor of Russia, and she was in the suite of that
princess when Paul visited France, Holland, and Germany.
Consequently she saw much of the courts and courtiers of
those several countries, and her memoirs are filled with a
variety of anecdotes, not alone of lords and ladies, but of
emperors and empresses, kings and queens, and reigning
princes and princesses. As a picture of society anterior to
the French revolution, the book is the latest and most perfect
production of its kind extvit, and as such, besides its minor
value as a book of amusement, it possesses a major value as a
work of information, which, in the interest of historical
truth, is, without exaggeration, almost incalculable.—
Observer.