The Sun.
London, England, 1830-07-23 00:00:00

MIDDLESEX SESSIONS, JULY 22.

Ann Buck, an ordinary-looking female, apparently
about thirty years of age, was charged with con-
spiring with a Portuguese emigrant named Quartero,
(who had been admitted to bail, anti did not now sur-
render to take his trial), to defraud and injure
Joseph Garvino, by falsely swearing that the said
Joseph Garvin() was the father of the child of which
she was then pregnant, with intent to compel him
to enter into sureties to the parish for its maintenance.
Mr. C. PHILLIPS stated the case, which he ob-
served was one of great importance to the public,
es such was the state of the law, that no man was
safe from being unjustly saddled with burdens of
this kind. The oath of the most abandoned female,
if not contradicted by positive testimony, and few
could hope to obtain such, was sufficient to fix the
odium and expense of the maintenance of a spurious
offspring upon the most respectable person. That
perjury was frequently committed in this respect
there could be doubt; but the difficulty of proof was
so great, that it was almost impossible to prosecute
the party for it with any hope of obtaining a con.
viction. In the present case he should be able to
show, from the admissions of the accused parties,
that Quartero was the father of the child, and that
the female prisoner had been induced by Quartero to swear the child to the prosecutor, although she
well knew she never had any intimacy with him,
Quartero having artfully represented to her that by
so doing she would secure a better allowance for the
maintenance of the child, the prosecutor being in
good circumstances, while he was very poor. In
consequence of the discovery of this conspiracy,
Quartero, who had previously been in receipt of a
weekly pension from the Society for the Relief of the
Portuguese Emigrants, had been struck off their list.
The prosecutor being sworn, deposed that he was
by profession a surgeon,
and till recently lodged in
the same house as Quartero. The prisoner at the
bar also lived in the house, in the capacity of a ser-
vant. Upon one occasion Quartero mentioned to
him that he had been intimate with the prisoner,
and that he feared she was pregnant by him : he then
asked witness to ascertain if such was the fact, and
if it were to give her something to procure an abor-
tion. Witness declined doing so, and told him to
recollect that they were not in Portugal, but in Eng-
land, where the laws were very severe on the sub-
ject, and that they might be hanged for doing so.
The same afternoon witness saw the prisoner, mid
told her what had passed, and advised her if Quar-
tero offered to give her any medicine not to take it
as it might cost her her life. A few days afterwards
he again saw her, when she told him that Quartero
wanted her to swear the child to him, for that he (Quartero) was so poor that he could not afford to
keep it. The girl afterwards declared, in the pre-
sence of Quartero, that witness was not the father

of the child ; yet after this she went before alb
gistrate and swore that witness was its father•
The CHAIRMAN here called for her depositioN
when it turned out that the party who instructed
Mr. Phillips had neglected to procure it from the
parish officers.
The CHAIRMAN observed the case could note
on without it, and the jury, under his directioel
found the prisoner—Not Guilty.