The Sun.
London, England, 1839-01-10 00:00:00

UEEN. SQ UA RE.

James Robinson, was yesterday charged with stealing a
quartern of flour from Mr. Thompson, a baker, in Bond. street.
The accused, in reply to the charge, said he was hu, gry.
Mr. WurrE said he could not have intended to make a
meal off raw flour, and therefore committed him for trial.
[Raw flour being evidently convertible, with no great diffi •
culty, into food, the worthy Magi-trate's reason for com-
mitting the hungry man, must have leen misunderstood by
the Reporter.]

On Tuesday, an adjourned inquest was held on the
body of Ann Davis, a Jewess, aged fifty years. On
the pro ions evening several witnesses were examined at
very great length, from whose evidence it appeared that on
the night of Thursday last the deceased was seen apparently
in excellent health at her house. The following morning,
at eleven o'clock, she was found dead in her bed. On the
Coroner and jury viewing the body they were greatly sur-
prised at finding the bottom of both ears cut off. It was at
first surmised that the earrings had been stolen, but it was
stated by the deceased's sister that she never wore ar.y.
The extraordinary mutilation of the body, coupled with the
fact that a :sovereign and five shillings in silver, which had
been seen in a pocket belonging to the deceased on the
pravious evening, were missing, and two lodgers in the
house found in a state of intoxication, the jury wished that
the body should undergo a post ',torten& examination, when
the Coroner issued his warrant for that purpose to Mr.
Jones, surgeon, of Jewry-street. Last night that gentleman
made his report to the jury, which was to the effect that the
deceased's death had been caused from disease of the lungs.
Verdict —" Natural death." The case has created consi-
derable sensation in the neighbourhood.

" INSUBORDINATION" IN A WORKHOUSE.--
At the last meeting of Wandsworth Magistrates a pauper
was committed for seven days to the House of Correction
for " insubordinate conduct in the workhouse." The
master of the workhouse deposed that, having received in-
formation that the prisoner had sold a pennyworth of
bread to another pauper in the house, he went to him for
the purpose of interrogating him upon the subject, but when
he mentioned the matter the prisoner put his hands in his
pockets and laughed at him. He then put himself into an
attitude of defiance, and turned round to the other paupers
with a gesture evidently intended to incite them to disobe-
dience and disrespect. In this case it appears the laugher
was the loser.

THE TIGER ESCAPE FROM WOMBWELL'S
MENAGERIE.—On Tuesday G. Frederick Young, Esq ,
of Church-lane, Limehouse; late M.P. for Teignmouth, and
a Middlesex Magistrate, waited on Messrs. Combe and
Hardwick, at Lambeth-street office to consult with them
as to the best means to be adopted to prevent a recur-
rence of what took place in his neighbourhood on Sun-
day night, and on a previous occasion, and to protect the
inhabitants of the vicinity from the extreme danger and
alarm to which they had been put on two different
occasions by the escape of wild beasts from the mena-
gerie of Mr. Wombwell, which is situated on the
north side of the Commercial-road, and quite close
to the Regent's Canal-bridge. It was stated that, a few
months ago, ft huge Polar bear made his escape from the
yard of Mr. Wombwell, and its appearance abroad and
unrestrained had not only created the greatest alarm among
the inhabitants of that densely-populated neighbourhood,
but an individual whom it attacked had most narrowly
escaped with his life. The Magistrates, after consulting dif-
ferent law authorities on the subject, thought the shortest
and best course for the inhabitants to pursue was to prefer
a bill of indictment against Mr. Wombwell at the Sessions
fora public nuisance. The Bench direCted at the same time
that Mr. Inspector Simmonds, of the.K division of police,
should call on Mr. Wombwell to caution him and his ser-
vants to be more careful in the interim as to the security
and proper restraint of the animals.
EXTRAORDINARY ATTEMPT AT MURDER.—
On Monday last Mr. Thomas, of Maccliynlleth, a solicitor,
and Clerk to the Board of Guardians at that place, left t.t
four o'clock in the afternoon for the purpose, as he stated,
of seeing Captain Thurston, a Magistrate, and Chairman of
the Board, who lives at Pennel, on business. On the
road he drank to excess, and on arriving at the house,
rode through a narrow passage into the kitchen, and
asked for Captain Thurston. The coachman replied that
he was in the dining-room, and that he must go to the front
door, and took hold of the horse's head to push it out of
the house as well as its rider. Thomas told hLn that
if he did not immediately leave hold of the bridle he
would shoot him. The coachman persisted, and even-
tnally closed the door, and instantly Thomas fired
through the panel, and the ball lodged in the fleshy part
of the coachman's arm. He then discharged another pistol
without effect, and riding to the dining-room windows
used most siolent language to Captain Thurston. The
Captain fired a gun loaded with shot twice at the horse's
legs, which made it gallop away, and Thomas was soon
after secured by a constable, after he had been to two
houses for the purpose of obtaining more powder. He had
five balls in his pockets. On Thursday he was taken be-
fore a numerous bench of Magistrates, and committed to
Dolgelly Gaol to await his trial on this serious charge, He
has hitherto borne the character of a very peaceable man,
and his hatred towards Captain Thurston is supposed to
have originated in his opposition to his election, and since
corresponding with the Commissioners to obtain his dis-
missal. The coachman is in no danger, and the ball has
been extracted by Mr. Loyd, of Aberdevey.—Leeds In-
telligencer.

A case came before the Magistrates at Worship-
street on Monday, in which a man named Strong was
charged with assaulting a policeman. It appeared that
Strong having suspected his spouse of being improperly
acquainted with the constable, and determined to have sa
tisfaction, invited the latter to supper, in-order, as he him-
self confessed, that he might make the policeman, who was
a more powerful man than himself, drunk, so that he might
have his revenge ! It turned out, however, that the police-
man got the better of it, as far as fighting went ; but wife,
husband, and he having been locked for the night in the
station-house, the female was fined by the magistrates 405.,
the policeman 10s., with orders to pay his share of the
breakage occasioned during the fray ; while the husband
was discharged, as it was considered he had received some
provocation, although his wife and her supposed paramour
stoutly maintained the contrary.
DREADFUL EXPLOSION.-The immense tank, for
holding a supply of water for the Gas Company, burst
this (Saturday) morning about half-past twelve, carrying
with it the whole of the walls by which it was surrounded.
Fortunately there was only one man near the tank when
it gave way (Alexander Angus). He had just left off
pumping water into the tank, and was leaving the gate
the moment the explosion happened. He is severely but
not dangerously hurt. The tank was erected only a few
weeks ago. It was circular, and measured sixty feet in
diameter, by twenty-five feet deep. The water, at the
Cute it burst, was within fifteen inches of the top. So
terrible was the explosion that the whole of the walls were
in one moment levelled to the ground and some of the
stones thrown a distance of forty yards. The noise was
heard in Union-street, and in the immediate neighbourhood
of the works the inhabitants thought an earthquake had
taken place. The cause of the accident is said to be the
thinness of the plates, but at this late hour we can give no
farther particulars.—Aberdeen Herald.

John Nutt, coachman to Frederick Burmistcr,
Esq., of Upper Wimpole-street, was on Monday cha:•ged,
at Marylebone Police-office, with having caused the death
of a cabman, named Hunt, by driving, while in a state of
intoxication, his master's barouche against the vehicle of
deceased, whereby the latter was thrown into the road, and
the wheels of a third carriage passed over his body. The
evidence was conclusive, but the prisoner was remanded, to
await the result of a Coroner's inquest on the body. A
person who was on the box with the accused at the time of
the occurrence, and who also was drunk, was liberated on
his own recognizances.