The Sun.
London, England, 1862-11-18 00:00:00

ING, NOVEMBER 18, 186/

taininp, wearing apparel worth £5, the property_of
Anne Eastland ; also a box and contents value 1:,70i
the property of James Singer Turner ; and another
box and contents value £lO, the property of Thomas
liarnardl at the London, Brighton, and South Coast
Railway Tertnitua, London-bridge.
Mr. Lilley prosecuted, and the prisoner was un-
defended.
Mary Ann Barnard, a married lady residing near
Colchester, said that on the 18th ult. she arrived at
the Brighton Railway Tetrainus, London-bridge,
with her box directed to her at SoUthvf7ark; She
left it tear the booking-office while she went to par,
take of refreshment; and on her return a few
minutes afterwards she missed it, Inquiries were
instituted, and some time afterwards the box was
found at the cloak-room, where it had been left by
the prisoner in the name of Matte.
Henry Rogers, a pOrtPr in the employ of the com-
pany, said that on the 18th ult. the prisoner came
up to him, and pointing to Mrs. Barnard's box, said
" Take my box into the cloak-room." Witness did

so, and left.
A clerk in the cloak-room Said he received the
box in question from the prisoner, who gave the
name of Matta, and requested the box to be kept
for her until called for. A little while after the
box was labelled Mrs. Barnard eime and identified
the box as her property. The prisoner declared it

was hers.
Thomas Richards, a detective inspector of the
London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, said
he was called to the cloak room, where he saw the
prisoner, who said it was her box. She had brought
it from Brighton by the last train, and hafl.given
the ticket up on some part of the line. Witness
knew better th in that, as she took the box from
the departure platform, and there was no label on
it. The prosecutrix identified it as her box, and
produced the key that unlocked it. He took pri-
soner into custody. The prisoner had a man out-
side the station ready to convey the box away.
In defence the prisoner said she took the box
thinking it was her box which she lost a long while
ago.
The Deputy-Chairman summed up, and the Jury
returned a verdict of guilty.
The Court did not consider it worth while to go
into the other cases; but they should like to hear a
history of them.
Mr. Lilley said that after the prisoner was taken
into custody Inspector Richards, with Mr. Carpen-
ter, the superintendent of the police, proceeded to
her lodgings, and found property belonging to Miss
Eastland and Mr. Turner, of Seaford, which had
been stolen from the same railway.
Mr. Carpenter said that the prisoner had lived
with Lady Buxton, but that they had lost sight of
her for two years, until the 4th of August, when
she was taken into a house by a poor woman at
Brighton, whom she robbed, and went to Lewis the
same night as Mrs. Turner. Her system was to be
on the platform, and call the porters to remove lug-
gage, saying it was hers. Her parents were very
poor people, residing near Uckfield, and for many
ears she had carried on petty depredations.
TheDeputy-Chairman said that she was a very
bad character, and the public must be protected
from such a person. He sentenced her to three
years' penal servitude.
William Hutchings, 22, pleaded guilty to stealing
several sums, the property of the trustees of the
Royal Liver Friendly Society, the London branch
of which was situated at No. 77, Westminster-road.
Mr. Robinson, who attended for the prosecution,
said that they had no wish to press for a heavy
punishment. All that the society required was,
that their subscribers should be protected against
dishonest servants.
Mr. Tilson observed that, although the sums were
small, considerable difficulty might be thrown in
the way of subscribers by non-payment of their
subscriptions. He should sentence the prisoner to
six months' hard labour.
John Shepherdson, 19, and John Ford, 25, were
indicted for stealing a purse containing a shilling,
from the person of a woman unknown, in the Crys-
tal Palace.
Mr. Joyce prosecuted on behalf of the Crystal
Palace Company, and the prisoners were unde-
fended.
It appeared from the evidence of Hain!, detective
officer 320 P, that on the day of Blond. in's benefit
at the Crystal Palace he was on duty in the build-
ing, when he saw the prisoners loitering about
among the crowd. He watched them, and saw
Ford put his hand into a female's pocket and take
something from it. He seized him, and found a
purse containing a shilling and a railway ticket.
The other prisoner covered him, and during the
scuffle he lost sight of the female.
The prisoners made a rambling defence, abusing
the officer for his interference, but the jury found
them guilty.
Evidence was given that Ford had been several
times convicted, and was a very bad and incor-
rigible character. The other prisoner was also a
well-known convicted thief.
Mr. Tilson observed that it was time that such
bad characters were got rid of, and that for a very
long time. Ford being the worst, and utterly in-
corrigible, he should sentence him to seven years'
penal serv:tude, and Sheperdson to three years'
penal servitude.
Several other cases were disposed of which were
entirely devoid of interest.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE—Nov. 17,

MANSION-HOUSE.—Two respectably-dressed
men, named James Crowther and Samuel Goodburn,
were placed at the bar, in custody of detective
officers Gay ler and M'Leod, before the Lord Mayor,
upon a warrant, charging them with conspiring
together, and obtaining by means of false pretences,
during the years 1859-60-61, and the present year,
various sums of money to a large amount, belong-
ing to their employers, Messrs. Laing and Merti-
dew, 39, Mincing-lane, colonial brokers.
Mr. Wontner appeared to conduct the prosecu-
tion ; and Mr. Sleigh, barrister, instructed by
Messrs. Hillyer and Fen wick, appeared for the pfi-
soner Crowther; the prisoner Goodburn was un-
defended.
Mr. Wontner, in his opening statement, said the
case which he appeared to prosecute on behalf of
Messrs. Laing and Merridew, was one of considera-
ble importance. The prosecutors were very exten-
sive colonial brokers, and the prisoners, both of
whom were in tneir service, had defrauded them of
a very large amount of money by a very ingenious
mode, and he was quite sure the case would eecure
his lordship's undivided attention, as it was rather
complicated, and one in which the prosecutors felt
boiled to prosecute, as if such offences as that he
should go in to were allowed to go unpunished, there
would no longer exist any safety in the commercial
world, and the confidence which should exist be-
tween master and servant would be entirely de-
stroyed. The prisoner Crowther, it appeared, en-
tered the service of the prosecutors in 1852, when
the firm was Laing and Campbell, and at the time
of his discharge he was employed in the capacity of
market clerk, at a salary of £5OO a year. Messrs. Laing dealt in a great many different articles of
produce, and the prisoner had his duties allotted to
him, and unbounded confidence was placed in him.
It was his duty to attend to the department under
which head came drysalting goods, and he had the
buying and selling of those goods, and the firm
gave him every discretion in the matter, and left
it entirely to him, looking upon him to perform his
duty without inspection. The other prisoner was
book-keeper, and had been in the service of the
prosecutors for upwards of 30 years. He was at
the time he left them in the receipt of a salary of
£4OO a year. His duties were undoubtedly confi-
dential. He kept all the books at that time, and
likewise retained in his hands all the warrants re-
lating to goods which were purchased, and he had
no right to part with those warrants until the
goods had been paid for. In 1853 the prisoner
Crowther introduced to Mr. Laing a person named
Barber, a saltpetre manufacturer, residing in Ber-
mondsey. The prisoner described him as a man of
limited means, but of high principle, and wished to
place the whole of his transactions in the hands of
Messrs. Laing. Mr. Laing consented to open an
account with Mr. Barber, to buy and sell his goods,
but before he did so, be impressed it on the prisoner
that he was not to have a greater credit than £5OO.
They accordingly commenced business with Mr.
Barber, and bought all his raw saltpetre and sent
it to him to be refined, after which they sold it for
him and so reimbursed themselves with the profits
of the raw material to pay Mr. Barber the differ-
ence. If that had been maintained there would
have been no risk to Mr. Laing, and the benefits
would have been mutual. The transactions were
carried
on with Mr. Barber from that time until
March in the present year, when they were termi-
natedin the following manner :—Mr. Merridew,
Mr. Laing's partner, happened to hear that Mr.
Barber was purchasing saltpetre through another
house, which was contrary to his contract with Mr.
Laing, and he informed Mr. Laing of the fact, when
that gentleman immediately ordered the account to
be closed. The next day Mr. Laing was in his office
when the prisoner Crowther entered and informed
him that Mr. Goodhurn had gone away ill. Mr.
Laing said he was sorry to hear it; and Crowther
then said he was sorry to inform him that Mr. Bar-
ber's account was considerably overdrawn. Good-
burn was sought for but could not be found. The
next day, however, he made his appearance at the
counting-house, and Mr. Laing asked him to make
out Mr. Barber's account and see how it stood.
He did so, and it turned out that Barber was in-
dehted to the firm to the amount of upwards of
£7,000. He was asked how it was he had allowed
Mr. Barber to run in debt to that extent, and he said
he had done so in the hope that the profits of his boo-