The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-01 00:00:00

AN INCORRIGIBLE IMPOSTOR,

Mrs. Hester Wooderson, a widow lady living in Virginia.
place, St. James's-square, Notting-hill, said she was no
relation to the prisoner's wife, but attended her through her
,
illness. She (the wife) was confined three weeks ago. Her
husband was away from home and she was in a very dis-
tressed state, but she would not apply to the parish for relief.
The prisoner returned home on Saturday fortnight, nine
days after his wife had been confined, and he gave her 16s,
out of which 4s was paid for rent and 58 for the doctor. He
went away again on the following Sunday. Witness did not
see him again until he was in custody. His wife was in a
guying state, and when Alr. Frost, the parish doctor, was
called in, ho said she was sugaring
from want of nourish-
ment. As the poor people in the neighbourhood were un-
able to support her, application was made to the parish
officers, and she and her children were received into the
workhouse on the following Friday.
The prisoner said the statement of the witness was correct
to see his wife on Monday night,
as far as regards the money he gave his wife. When he left
he went to his work, as it was some distance.
Herring, the porter of the workhouse, said the prisoner
He saw the same woman
came
, side the lodge, and she told him he was waiting for Wilcox.
lockedH Hannah
m aßaph he
Ford,saw the
er
se
is Getablespte
rof
th fee :Aael ee dressed
de saTe, nlet ddc
oianni :bee
cirl black enrcoweuatos-f
said the prisoner
week: She found her in a
had been married to his wife ;
receiving a letter from her • l6
ears'
- s. on Thursday
necestaries, lie was not :sober m
water she Went is
"erYthing to purchase day she "'Jelly
starving. She said she did nyot ckattt.o e state, and fsv.,
husband. She had got rid of almost4low Where to find her au,
--3 D, and she had v,... , aY she Nvo i.,....
the court
ton Thube.sday
',-.4 ,her Any 2,
"or Button )y.„,

Wolverhampton would seem to be fatal to impostors.
Here the notorious Alice Grey was committed to the assizes,
from whioh sho was sent to penal servitude ; a few months
ago another female impostor, who had feigned illness and
alleged that she had been robbed in railway trains, was
committed from the same town; and now a third Alice Grey
has been effectually stopped for a while in her extraordinary
career. Yesterday in the Wolverhampton borough police-
court a young woman named Mary Ann Jones, alias Hutton,
alias Williams, alias Taylor, who had been remanded from
that day week, was again brought up, charged with being an
imposter.

Capt. Segrave, the chief constable—l have made inqui-
ries about the prisoner, and hold in my hand a number of
letters which I have received from nearly all parts of Eng-
land. Her history seems a long one, and it proves her to be
a rogue and a vagabond beyond any room for doubt.
John Chidley, chief warder at the Stafford gaol, deposed
that he knew the prisoner had been committed to that pri-
son seven times. On the first occasion, on Oct, 3d, 1801,
she was sent for a month's imprisonment as a disorderly
pauper. He did not remember where she had been commit-
ted from in this or any of the cases, as he had come away
with little notice.

The prisoner—From Burstein.
Witness—On the 13th Nov., 1861, she was sent to prison
for 21 days as a rogue and vagabond. On the 11th of the
following December she was sentenced to three months for
want of sureties. On the 19th of March, 1863, she was com-
mitted for a month under the Vagrant Act. After being out
about a day she was sent back also for a month, likewise for
being a rogue and vagabond. On the 25th May, again
under the Vagrancy Act, she was sent to prison for three
months; and on the 31st of last month she was committed
as a rogue and vagabond for 21 days.
Police• constable Henry Tew stated that about half-past 4
on Sunday morning he was on duty in Queen-street, and
saw the prisoner standing at the top of Ptincess-street.
Hearing her groan very much, he went and asked her what
she was doing there. He could get no reply further than
that sho came from Stoke, and that she would go and drown
herself. She subsequently sat down on a step and appeared
to go into hysterics, and although he put many questions,he
could get no satisfactory answers. He at length took her to
the station, and she then said she had run away from Bur-
lem with a young man, who had deserted her near Wolver-
hampton. Judging from the smell of her breath that she
had taken poison, he sent for a surgeon, and the result was
that it appeared she had taken something of the sort.
Mr. T. H. Wolfington, surgeon, and assistant to Mr.
Dehano, surgeon to the police, deposed that he was sent for
by the police on Sunday morning, the 20th inst., to the
police-office, where he found the prisoner attempting to
vomit. In reply to him she said she had taken some powder
as a poison. He gave her an emetic and afterwards several
nauseous draughts. The emetic produced a slight vomiting,
and the nauseous draughts cleared the stomach. The pri-
soner appeared very ill, and being himself alarmed, he called
several times during the day. She appeared better after she
had taken the medicine, and calling him aside said a young
man had given her the powder to obviate the consequences
of previous misconduct, and that she was likely in five or six
months to become a mother. Yesterday morning, however,
on the instruction given by the Mayor a week ago, he made
an examination which enabled him to state positively that
she was not in that condition.

The prisoner declined to put any question to either of the
witnesses.

The Chief Conptablo said there was an officer present who
could depose that there was no such person in Burslem as
the imaginary young man charged by the prisoner with the
offence named. It was not thought necessary to examine
this witness.

Mr. Iremonger then read to the prisoner certain of the
communications that had been received by the police autho-
rities. From those documents it was gathered that the pri-
soner's name is Mary Ann Hutton. She is the daughter of
respestablejlworking people of Burslem ; for some time she
lived as servant in the family of an uncle, who is a grocer
in that town, but she absconded about six years since.
Nothing was again heard of her until about two years ago,
when she was found ty the roadside at Stone by Mr. R.
S. Adderley, who having been told by her that she had
been violated by three men at Trentham, took her in his
carriage to the Stone Workhouse. The abominable charge
was proved to be unfounded, and she afterwards con-
fessed as much, We next hear of her in the city of Chester,
where she made a somewhat similar charge, and was de-
tected, but being destitute, the magistrate only sent her to
the workhouse. At Eliza Ann Williams she has also been
in the custody of the county police of Chester, on the charge
of feigning fits in the streets of Tarporley, in that county.
For this offence she was imprisoned four days. She is well
known at the General Railway Station at Chester, from
which place, after feigning fits, she was taken to the Chester
Infirmary. Because of her celebrity, the Chester police
had her photographed, and the likeness was yesterday pro-
duced in court. The prisoner was evidently the original,
notwithstanding her effort, by closing her eyes when the
photographer was before her, to disguise her identity. At
midnight on the 22d of May this year a young woman was
found in the streets of Eccleshall, in Staffordshire. She
appeared very much excited, and said " I will destroy my-
self. Oh 1 I wish I had never done it." She was ap-
parently in great pain, gave her name as Mary Ann Taylor
Hutton, of Burslem, but would not say what she had done.
She was searched, had refreshment given to her, and was
put into a cell for safety. On the next morning she ap-
peared very ill, and Mr. Greatrex, surgeon, was sent for.
She told him that she had taken arsenic that had been
purchased at Shiffnal, in Shropshire. Every attention was
Paid to her on Saturday. On Saturday morning she seemed
a great deal worse, and Mr. Greatrex was again called in.
She told him she had taken more arsenic, which she had
concealed in her stays. Mr. Hawthorne, another medical
man, was sent for, and they both considered that her depo-
sition should be taken. Accordingly, the magistrates (Mr.

E. Lyon and Mr. H. Hillick) were called out of church to
be present, when the clerk took down her statement. On
Monday morning Policeman Keith saw her in the cell,
and at once recognised her as the woman. whom Mr.
Adderley found on the roadside at Trentham, and further-
more showed that three months after that time, when a
keeper on the Trentham estate had been nearly killed
by poachers, she alleged that she could give evidence
which would secure the conviction of the offenders, and a
house pointed out by her at their rendezvous was searched,
only, however, to prove an imposture. This evidence the
officer gave before the magistiato on that (Monday) morn-
ing, and they committed the now fully-recovered impostor
for three months' imprisonment. Since thr.t time she has
been further imprisoned by order of certain of the Pottery
magistrates. We next hear of her in the South Staffordshire
llospital, at Wolverhampton, to which place she had been
conveyed from the adjacent village of Mosley on the 11th
of last March, alleging that she had been poisoned, &c.;
but Mr. Keogh, the house surgeon, who had detected a
similar case a few months before, soon discovered the cha-
racter of his patient, and she was discharged on the follow-
ing day. Although she gave the name of Mary Ann Taylor
Hutton, yet Mr. Keogh has identified the prisoner as one
the same person. On the 12th of March last, the very
—nt from the Wolverhampton Hospital, a Mary
found on the road at Sedgley,

threatening to Commit suicide, and complaining of having
been violated. She was taken first to the workhouse, and
then before the magistrates, by whom she was admonished
and discharged. Next, and last, she is found on the 19th
inst. in the streets of Wolverhampton by Policeman Tew.
In reply to the magistrates, the prisoner said she had no
urther statement to make than that she had never lived as
servant to her uncle, and she hoped their worships would
send her for three or four years to a reformatory school.
The Bench committed her to take her trial at the next
Staffordshire Quarter Sessions as an incorrigible rogue and
vagabond.

While she was being taken to her cell she told the gaoler
that she was as glad as though she had had £2O given to
her that she had been committed for trial.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TImES.—We must again bespeak attention to the
experience now daily accruing on the important
question of Artillery and Fortifications. It has been
stated as a reproach to our authorities that we have
allowed no free competition between artillerists at
home, but the complaint, whether well or ill founded,
is of little importance, since all the requisite expe-
riments are conducted for us abroad. It Parrott and
Blakeley guns have had no trials at Shoeburyness,
they have had enough and to spare at Charleston,
and we can measure their merits and defects with
as much ease as if they were in use at Woolwich.
The question in fact resolves itself into a comparison
between the ordnance used by the Americans and
that used by ourselves. If what the Americans
have done and are doing is more than we are doing
or can expect to do, we are certainly in arrear of our
duties, but that as yet is by no means certain. Both
Federals and Confederates have got far bigger guns
both afloat and ashore than we have brought into
use, but it is not yet established that the biggest
guns are the best. It is beyond doubt that Charles-
ton was shelled at five miles' distance—that is to
say. a few shells from the batteries did actually fall
into the town. But it is evident that the bombard-
ment was altogether ineffective, and our correspon-
dent in the Southern States has related a report
that after the first three or four rounds the projec-
tiles all fall short, owing to the damage suffered by
the guns. This account is all the more probable
from what we know of the final result—namely,
that after very short practice many of the pieces
actually burst. We are prepared, however, to ad-
mit that even these facts are not decisive of the
whole question. If a dozen 16-inch shells could be
thrown into a fort or arsenal at a five-mile range, it
might be well worth our while to purchase such a re-
sult at the cost of a gun. Better dis-
lodge an enemy and lose a battery than
keep a battery and leave the enemy unharmed. If
these heavy guns do really, before they burst,
perform feats hitherto thought impracticable, and
calculated to secure some of the great objects of
warfare, we cannot discard them on account of their
short-lived powers. This drawback of sudden decay
must be taken into the reckoning, and we must pro-
vide for an expenditure of cannon as well as of
cartridges, and that is all. But this condition being
granted, it is not at all certain that the Americans
are ahead of us. A correspondent informed us on
Friday last that our 110-pounder Armstrongs could
make excellent practice, and without bursting, at a
range quite as long as that from which Fort Sumter
was bombarded. He added, too, that the smaller
Armstrongs had thrown their bolts more than twice
that distance with a given elevation, so that the
larger pieces might be expected to do at least as
much as any American gun at Charleston. From
this it follows that the range of our artillery is
fully as great as that of the American artillery,
and if the calibre of our pieces is lighter their
strength is far more to be depended upon. As to
the heavier guns, we also have got some 300-poun-
ders, pronounced " effective," but our monster can-
non, like those of the Federals, are found, unfor-
tunately, apt to burst. The question, therefore,
must ultimately turn upon a balance of advantages
and disadvantages. If large guns cannot be made
powder-proof, we shall have to weigh their cost
against their service and decide accordingly; but
we must record as a piece of practical experience
that thb 800-pounders of the Confederates have
already been condemned by General Beauregard
himself. That distinguished engineer, after making
trial of this enormous ordnance, has, it is said, re-
quested that no more such cannon may be sent to
him. Equally uncertain is the lesson to be drawn
from the contests between forts and batteries in
Charleston Harbour. We do know that Fort Sum-
ter was riddled with shot and shell at a range of two
miles and upwards, but wealso know that the Confe-
derate flag was still flying over the work when the
last intelligence was received. We know, too, another
thing, and on Federal as well as Confederate autho-
rity. Though Fort Sumter was so shattered, Fort
Wagner resisted the same artillery with perfect im-
punity. Neither Parrott nor Dahlgren guns, neither
shot nor shell, produced the least effect on the de-
fences of this fort, which was abandoned only be-
cause the sappers bad worked close up to it by the
rules of science, and which was found by the be-
siegers to be absolutely uninjured. When we ask
of what these bulwarks consisted, we learn that they
were formed of sandbags, so that defences which
could be extemporised on any seashore are disco-
vered to be proof against the heaviest artillery ever
yet brought into battle. It seems as if we should
never get to the end of the race between Forts and
Ships. Of the naval experience derivable from the
American War we can say at present but little,
owing to the peculiar character of the vessels em-
ployed. There is not one of these vessels, unless it
be the Ironsides, the armour of which would be re.
gard.ed in this country as fit even for an expertmen-
tal target. Their very latest model, the Tecumseh,
which was launched the other day at Jersey City,
is protected only by five wrought-iron plates
each
one inch thick. We know that such plating is
worthless, and that our artillerists would hardly be
at the trouble of trying a gun against it. The
Armstrong 110 pounder has smashed twelve such
plates in a mass, and the old 68 pounder would do
as much with equal ease. The truth is that no valid
comparison can be sustained between our iron-cased
ships and the American Monitors. We not only
forge our plates in solid sheets, but we scrutinise
every one of them with extraordinary minuteness,
and reject every month at our dockyards as much
iron as would arm a Monitor. The Americans, from
the very necessities of their position, adopt a rough-
and-ready practice, but with what results is per-
haps hardly yet known. '1 he performances of the
Monitors at Charleston seem enveloped in mystery.
We certainly do not hear of their being sunk or
captured, but they appear to have received consi-
derable injury, and we know that the military
authorities have complained angrily of the ineffec-
tive co-operation of the fleet in the work of the
siege. But the relative inefficiency of the Confe-
derate guns is a mystery also. Unless our experi-
ments are delusive, eve have guns which would to
a certainty pierce the sides of any vessel armed,
like the Monitors, with built-up plates, and yet,
though the Confederate batteries are said to
mount guns of our best manufacture, it is remark-
able that they perform no such complete service.
POST.—The cordial receptions which Admiral
nacres and the officers and men under his command
have received from the inhabitants of the various
ports visited by the Channel fleet during its re-
cent cruise have been all duly chronicled, and it
is extremely gratifying to observe the pride and
interest which is taken by all classes in the ap-
pearance of these fine ships and their crews—a
result which is perhaps as much due to the re-
collection of the debt which the country owes to
the past achievements of this particular branch
of the service, as from the certainty that our
future position among nations depends upon our
roesltinacisusuisrheedalythbee task
maintaining the supremacy upon the ocean, for
othferudlaiyn
gonthewhwicahves would Britanniam
day on which this nation would sink into the
position of a mere third-rate
Power. Every one,
therefore, having the welfare of his country
at
heart must view with peculiar
interest the huge
iron monsters which are destined to take the place
of our old wooden walls. And it must be admitted
that such splendid triumphs of engineering skill
as the Warrior and her consorts represent are
well calculated to inspire all who gaze upon them
with confidence. But while indulging ourselves
with these feelings of satisfaction, it is impossible
—indeed it would be most unwise—to close our
eyes to the fact that these magnificent specimens
of naval architecture are after all but so many
experiments the value of which has yet to be
proved by the results, which can only be obtained
in actual war. It is well known that the im-
provements which have been made in artillery of
late years have compelled us to adopt a stronger
material than the one formerly in use for the con-
struction of our ships of war. The first plan of
giving protection to the vulnerable wooden hull by
means of a covering of iron plates has given way to
the system of constructing vessels entirely of iron,
while the third and last point consists in deter-
mining which is the form or model calculated
to produce the most formidable engine of
war out of the materials at our disposal.
On this point we are at direct issue with enter-
prising rivals upon the other side of the Atlantic.
Great Britain and America have been for the last
two years steadily pursuing directly opposite courses,
each fully satisfied of the correctness of their own
theory. And while we have had the benefit of much
leisure for calmly considering the merits presented
by either system, the Americans have had the ad-
vantage of experience in actual war for guiding
them in the conclusions which they have arrived at.
Die chief characteristics of the two
rtheories may be
summed up in the following words—few but ve
ry
heavy guns in strong and diminutive hulls, 2 ve • SUS
well armed, large, and powerful ships. The first,

which is the American theory, aims at inflicting the
greateet amount of injury by coneentrating the
whole force of the vessel's armament into a single
blow, while at the same time pre venting the smallest
possible mark for the reception of the enemy's fire.
Although the advantages and disadvantages of these
two opposite principles have been frequently dis-
cussed in the public journals, no very satisfactory
conclusion appears to have been arrived at up to the
present period; for the experiments which have
taken place from time to time upon the other side of
the Atlantic have been so varied in their results
that, so far from helping to settle this difficult ques-
tion, they have tended rather to envelop;! in greater
obscurity. At one time we were told of i.be com-
plete failure of the monster gun theory ; and the
repulse of the monitors at Charleston in the eari;er
part of the year was quoted in support of this view,
for it was said that the monitors found it impossible
to sustain the oombat with their few, slow working,
heavy guns against the rapid firing and storm of
shot and shell which was directed against them.
On the other hand, there is the case of the Atlanta
and Weehawken, in which instance one single shot
from the monster gun of the smaller vessel is said
to have actually decided the action, by smashing in
the iron sides of the Atlanta, killing 40 of hes
crew, and making a prize of her in 15 minutes.
We are well assured that all that can be said on
this subject, if unsupported by the test of actual
experience is of little avail. Admiral Dahlgren
may continue to blow the Warrior to pieces in his
imagination, while Sir William Armstrong is occu-
pied in driving his bolts through Capt. Ericsson's
iron turrets upon paper, but we shall remain at as
great a distance from the conclusion we wish to
arrive at as ever. This is a question which can only
be decided by the experience which is to be obtained
in actual conflict, or by such a bond fide experiment
as the construction of a vessel on precisely the same
model as that of the American turret ships, and
trying the effect upon her of a broadside from the
Warrior. On the other hand, it would be wise to
see what effect a 4401 b. shot would have upon the
bows or stern of one of our favourites, instead of
confining our experiments to firing comparative
pop-guns at models of her strongest sections. If she
bears the shock without flinching, then only we
shall be satisfied that our money has been well laid
out; but, if not, and we should have the misfortune
to discover that we had only generated another
Atlanta, the sooner she was disposed of to a needy
neutral, and her place supplied by something supe-
rior to her, the better. This, unfortunately for the
pockets of the public, is the age of new inventions,
and we have necessarily to buy our experience. It
is our business to set about doing this without loss
of time, and in the most thoroughly effectual man-
ner within our reach. We cannot afford to stand
still, or we shall soon be left behind in the race with.
other nations. Great Britain and America, as the
exponents of two opposite theories, stand before the
world as two rival candidates for public favour;
and, while the question of the superiority of the two
systems is as yet undecided, we turn with come
pardonable anxiety to see what view other unpre-
judiced nations take of this matter, France is in a
measure committed to the principle of the broadside
armament, having been the first nation to introduce
armour plating, and cannot, therefore, be looked
upon as a wholly unprejudiced supporter of this
theory; whereas Russia and Holland, nations that
) may be said to be wholly unprejudiced, appear in-
clined to favour the turret principle. If then, we
wish to be upon the safe side, we had better make
i up our minds at once to conduct experiments upon
a scale that will be better calculated to tiolve this
very important point.

COUNTRY MARKETS.

NEWARK-WEDNESDAY.

About an average supply of wheat at our market to-day,
and sales wero made at easier rates. The weather has been
very favourable for pastures and root crops during the past
week.

White wheat new, 42s to 458 Barley,-grinding.. 30s to 32s
Red do. 415 to 438 Oats, old, .. 2Bs to 31s
Old white 44s to 475 New do 22s to 24s
Red do. 408 to 42s 1 Beans. 38s to 41a
Barley, malting.... 3GB to 41s 1 Beans, new —s to --s