The Sun.
London, England, 1806-09-06 00:00:00

POLICE.

HAvrow-GARDEN.—Yesterday a man of the name.
of Walker charged a- female lodger of his, before the
Njagistrates at this Office, with. embezzling and dis-
posing of a quantity of the furniture belonging to
he apartment he had let to her. lshii case in
,itself
bore nothing of novelty, but was somewhat singular,
-in bringing befvre the- public. a species_ of trade we
have never before heard of in this or any other corn-
niercial city,- and which, we believe, never before-,
existed.

The goods which were taker! from Mr. Walker's
ho-Use being paVizied, -some difficulfy arose, with re-
spe6.l. 16 the discoKeryof the duplicates ; when they
r,v-ere at last folind to be in the OSseision of one
Baker, a general chandler .and grocer, carrying on
bt)sinesSin the neiglibour:lood of Queen Anne-street,
Ettst; who,., being summoned, attended to produce
them.

, . .
Mr,. Baker (one of the people.calleci Quakers),
e:01:11';:e,i the nature of his business, to be nearly as
follows lent money upon pawnbrokers' _du-
plicates, at the. rate of two-pence upon.,every shil-
ling specified by file duplicate.- It the, money so
advanced was_ nut repaid at the end of .the
he then charged pawn-broker's interest on it, until
the end of the month ; at which time, if principal
and interest still remained unpaid, the duplicate be,
came forfeited, and, of course, A.tr,_ Baker the, owner
(*.proprietor of the goOds so pawned, and might re-
deem them at pleasure. He advanced goods to this
sort of customers in the same way, and at the same
rate, giving one month's: credit for such goods,
bearing interest also, which, if not paid ;for, at
the expiration of that time, the duplicate, as before,
became also tbrfeit

It appeared that in this verysingular sort of traffic, .
Mr. Baker carried on a Most extensive and lucrative
bUsiness,. and thousands of pour pz-rsons flocked to
his fold daily..
'The Presiding 'Magistrates were of opinion that
this sort of de:ding was qirect:y contrary tcr the
YaWn-broker.-: Act, and must bp very injurious not,
only to the individual, but to the Public at largc.,
With respea to the former, I]'r. Baker had every ,
acivaiine,, and the unfortunate pers'on- who owned
the'gobtis every disadvantage ; for while be, made,
261, per cent.'upon the money he,advanced, he. also
became the lone fide owner of the.goods, at the end
of the month, if the money was, not re-v...id. With
reßpea. to the
.Public, these duplicates (by which .
many felonies and frauds/were discovered), coming .
to.the hands of a third person in this manner; caused,
a greater degree of ditliculty .in the production of
theM,Sand consequently must retard, or perhaps to,
tally's:defeat, the ends of, public justice. Besides all
this, such tratia6,lions had very much the appear-
ante .of usury.

Mr. Bakcr, wit!' apparent candour, replied, that
bad he scen. the business in. that light, he, certainly
never Would have praaised it-; but, on the contrary,
he thought it a matter that would not only prove an
acCommodation, but beneficial to the lower- classes
itql this MetropOlis-. However, if be was convinced
in his own" mind that it w•as injurious to thecom-
monalty, and, at all tended to retard the ends of jus-
tice, he was very
,willing to relinquish it entirely.
The Magistrates advised him to do so. And the
further investigation of .the business stands over for
a futtire day: •

Yesterday a man nsmed
Sh.wmt, and two otlwrs, were brought before the
Lottb Maniß. On a charge.ofatternpting to pass bad
money in. a pubic-house in the neighbburhood of
BattholOmew Fair.

• The IA °man who keeps the house stated, that at
a Lite hour the night betbfe, the Ptisoners came into
her bar, and had each of theim a glass of gin.• Stew-
art, then tendered her in • paynient a- half-guinea,
Which she, on .examining, found was, good, and was
-about to-give the change in Silvey, when one of the
914e‘r men.asked her if she could not give a 7s. piece,
titesilver. might • be bad ? She told the
man slt,e had not ope ; and he then said it_ would be
better ,to get change of a 7S. piece and threw one on
the counter,
.She then returned the half-guinea, and
was about to give -change for the 7s: piece, which
„she, had. weighed, and found to be good, when the
man who „gave it her said he believed he had half-
pence,. and- 104 out four pence --halfpenny, which
wa.tilree halfpence, short. of the Money due-to her-.
.I:be other, who had been, till then silent, then said he

hid three-halfpence - and, taking up the good,seven-7-
shillings piece which lay on-the counter, he put his
band in his pocket to search for the halfpence ; he,
however,- after fumbling for some time; said-he had
none, ;and then throwing a-seven;shillings piece out
of ins kind, as it it had been .the same as he took
tip-a-mitiute before,, said it -must be changed. The
woman, front all this Changing, suspected they
wanted tO cheat her, and therefore weighed this
seven-shillings piece, whichproved tO.he a very bad
one: She told them it Was bad, but- they insisted
that it Was the same the man took oft the counter,
and, if-it was bad, it must have been she that changed
On this an artereation arose between, them, in
consequence of which her huSband; and 'Seine friepds
Who wete in .the parlOur, came into the tap-room.
Onf,seeig,them enter, Stewart and another of the
prisonels niade their escape, one out of the 'front
and the other out Of the back dOor ; bUt they were
purSued and taken. The 'than who .-remained also
endeavoured to escape, but being prevented, he
pretended to fall into fits,. and while he was on the'
ground, a bad Sevenshillings piece fell out of his
mouth. They were all searched, but up other had
money. was found, except the bad sevekshillings-
piece tendered 'to the woman, and that Which tell
out of the man's mouth. . • - ,
An Officer then arrived, 'arid took- t ietn -to the
Compter.
- The person who searehed'thernlint being in town,
'the Loan MAR` remanded the PriSonerS Until to-
morrow, and gave directions that - the Solicitor of
the Mint should be apprised CZ the busineSs:
On Thursday three Men-Were brought beibre the
Lord Mayor, charged, by tWo of the City Officers,
;with htistling, the night before, in Bartholomew
One of the .ofircers stated, that, according to.or-
ders, he and his brother Otlicer were in the fair the
night before ; and having received information that
there were sonic: suspicious persons oti the. Oppoite
side' of the fair, they went round, and,: in
time; observed that there was a general hu,,tie in the,
place. .The Priioners seemed bn,ity in it;
aid, as they were notorious thi‘.-esthey apprehend-.
ed them; and brought theM before the Marshal, «ho .
committed thein to the Compter..
The LORD MAYOR asked the Officers whether
they were certain the Prisoners had no visible 'means
of subsistence ? arid 'whether they were, in fa&, noted.
thieves, who had been heti:ire in custody ? The 01E,
cars answered, that two of them,at all events, answer-
ed that •dekription, and were often before in custody
on similar charges ; but, with
.respea to the third,
they could not speak with solmuch certainty. In
consequence of this, the Lord Mayor ordered that
the two men who were known to be such bad Cha,
rashers should be remanded until Monday, and that
the third should be discharged. His Lordship, at
the same time, recommended him strongly to keep
out of the fair, and such company as be was found
in there.

Vaughan, the man who, as we before stated,' Was
charged on Saturday last with forging absent seamen's
bonds and orders for receiving their prize-money,
with intent to defraud Messrs. Jackson atid Co.
Na 4 Agents, was again brought. up for further ex-
amination.

Mr. Smith, a Gentleman belonging to the Navy
Pay Office at Greenwich,,identified the Prisoner as
a person to whom he, had 'paid a sum of. money, on
a forged order,_ on acconnt'of John Nixon, a -sea-
man. The Witness further said, that the Prisoner
represented himself to. him as the brother of John
Nixon, and, at the foot of the receipt,, signed as his
name, James Nixon; brother of John Nikon.
The LORD MAYOR said, this evidence wai'duffi-
cient to commit
,him fully for his trial ; but as the
place where the forgery was committed:wai.out.of
his jurisdiction, he could, do no .more than order him
to be taken to. Bow-street.