The Sun.
London, England, 1852-01-02 00:00:00

FRIDAY

JANUARY 2, 1852

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.
LAMBETH.

Sergeant Goff waited on the Hon. G. C. Norton
and communicated to him the death, at Guy's Hos-
pital, on the day before, of the notorious impostor,
Jane Farr. It will be recollected that this most art-
ful of a numerous class of ingenious impostors had
been brought to this court, about six weeks ago,
and underwent several examinations with "Blind
Johnny," a fellow who lived with her, and a woman
named Thomas, on charges of obtaining vast sums of
money by false representations. The fellow Johnny,
who assumed the names of various clergymen, was
ultimately committed to prison for three months, un-
der the Vagrant Act ; Thomas had been tried, con •
victed, and sentenced to twelve months' imprison-
ment; and Farr, when under remand, and while at
Horsemonger-lane Gaol, burst a bloodvessel, and was
in so weak a state as not to be able to attend at the
court to have the depositions in the various charges
against her completed.
The ingenious plan hit upon by this prisoner to
dupe her victims is one of the most successful on re-
cord—so successful, indeed, that within a short time
she defrauded four persons out of 701. Her mode of
proceeding was this :—She took a lodgingat the house
of some decent person in the immediate residence of
some respectable land surveyor, and after a few-days,
and in a dress suitable to the character, she used
to call on her intended victim, and placing before
him a sheet of foo'seap, on which was written in a
good round hand what purported to be an extract from
the will of her " uncle," requested the gentleman's
kind interference in her behalf, and more particularly
his advice with respect to four acres of freehold land
at " Folly-close," near Birmingham. Her manner
was so plausible that she generally succeeded in en-
listing the attention of the party, and she then repre-
sented that her solicitor at Birmingham had advised
her to dispose of the land at a price she named, but her
dupe, on being informed that it paid her a certain
sum as it was, and that this was considerably more
than the interest of the money would amount to,
strongly advised that things should remain as they
were. A request was then made that the gentleman
would do her the favour of writing to her attorney
at Birmingham to say that she bad determined on not
selling the property, and also to know how much
was then owing on account of the rent.
This request was also generally complied with,
and an answer was always duly received by
post from the "attorney," approving of the de-
termination, as, owing to sonic improvement about
to take place, the property must ultimately in-
crease in value, that a balance of 251. was then
due, and that this would be regularly forwarded in a
few days in Post-office orders. The letter generally
concluded by stating that the writer had just re-
ceived intelligence that Miss Hail's (the name the
prisoner assumed) aunt was in a very dangerous state,
and that, therefore, if she wished to see her alive she
must not lose a moment in proceeding to Carlisle, her
place of residence. This aunt, it should be stated,
was a person at whose death, as appeared by the ex-
tract from the will, she (Miss Hall) would be entitled
to considerable property, and the policy of seeing her
before, her death appeared most desirable. A diffi-
culty was started on the part of the prisoner, that
however urgent and desirable it might be to see her
relative before her death, she could not gratify that
wish until after the receipt of the Post• office orders
from her attorney, as she had not the means where-
with to pay her travelling expenses. The bait took.
101. or 201. were at once offered, the parties calculat-
ing on being able to pay themselves when the Post-
office orders reached them. Their expectations were
never realised, and they were obliged to reconcile
themselves to their loss.
Four distinct cases were established against the
prisoner, and on these she would have been placed on
her trial had she lived ; death, however, has spared
the country the expense of her trial, and, in all pro-
bability, her transportation.
In answer to a question from the Magistrate as to
what had become of a savings bank book, which was
said to belong to the deceased, though it had been
found on Thomas, and by which it appeared that she
had 401. deposited in a savings-bank, Goff said that
on the trial Thomas applied for the book, and, as no
opposition had been made to it, her request was com-
plied with, and the book delivered up.
It is not a little singular that Captain Routledge,
one of the most successful and extensive bill swind-
lers and mercantile impostors that has lived for the
last century, died under somewhat similar circum-
stances in Horsemonger-lane gaol, while under exa-
mination at this Court for innumerable charges of
swindling. •

THE TIDE OF CIVILISATION.
The tide of civilisation and emigration is al
flowing westward. The current is all flowing from
the east. The east, therefore, is above the west, and
no man can make the current move in a contrary direc-
tion, without accomplishing the greatest inversion or
subversion of all existing institutions that the
world has ever yet experienced. No emigra-
tion of human beings towards the east is k uccessful
Had the French known this great truth, they would
never have attempted to colonise Algeria ; it was work-
ing against the tide, instead of taking it at the flood.
France is not introducing western civilisation into the
east ; it is rather adopting the military and despotic
tactics of the people whom it subdued.. The French
are becoming Algerines, not the Algerines French.
To attempt to form a colony of western civilizes
in such a country would be folly, certain ruin. The
tide of civilisation forbids it ; yet the land is rich and
extensive, and the climate delicious. Turkey is a
cataract or rapid which not even the steamers of civi-
lisation can ascend. The tide is irresistible that
drives men westward, and hither all the patriots of
the east resort whenever they have endangered their
own safety at home. Great Britain is the north-
western terminus of the old world; and it is for that
reason only that she now enjoys the greatest amount
of liberty. It is not because she is an island, not be-
cause her soil is more luxurious, or her climate more
salubrious, or her people descended from a more in-
telligent race. Her people are merely the people of
the east, who were driven westward on the early surges
of the tide. We all came from Germany, and the
Germans came from Hungary, and the Hungarians
came from the Caucasus. Had our forefathers not
pushed onward to the ends of the earth, their sons
would now have been struggling in the east
tor those liberties which they have already
secured in the land of their destiny. When
men seek greater liberty than that which we enjoy,
they do not go east for it, but farther west,
away to the land where liberty is developed even in
its wilderness ; for there is a medium in all things,
and liberty itself, without law, degenerates into rude-
ness. France was at one time the land of liberty,
before the flood had reached England; ju4t as Italy
once was, before the flood had reached France ; and
just as Greece once was, before the flood bad reached
Italy ; and just as Asia Minor and the Levant once
were. The flood rolls along like a mighty river from
one region to another, and as it takes up a new country
it inevitably leaves those behind in a retrograde con-
dition in the hands of despotism. This is not chance
--it is destiny—it is a uniform system. History re-
veals the great secret in every page, and France is
even now illustrating the truth of it in her hopeless
and ineffectual struggles to turn the tide of humanity.
Can she turn it ? Is her geographical position such
as to render it possible ? Does she occupy the ter-
minus? or is there a stage beyond her? There is a
stage beyond her, and to that stage humanity will
infallibly proceed when it has done its utmost with
France, and found that utmost a failure.—Family
Herald.