The Sun.
London, England, 1838-02-12 00:00:00

LORD JOHN RUSSELL'S HAT.

Oa Wednesday a poor woman named Mary Ann Blay, who
stated that she was re.,iling in Limehouse, applied to Mr.
B.illantine and Mr. 13roderip, the Thames Police Magistrates,
to request their interference under very odd circumstances.
The applicant stated that about three or four months ago
she was on her way home from Poplar, where she had been
purchasing some vegetables, when she saw something black
lying on the ground, opposite th© house of Mr. Tardell, the
Lutcher. She at first supposed it was a piece of coal ; but. on
stoopinc, to pick it up, discovered that it was a hat. She walked
onwards' with the hat in her right hand, until she reached
the Commercial road, when she was met by a pclicernam
who asked her where she had got the bat. She informed
him that she had picked it up at the corner of the New-
road, and the policeman looked at it, and saw the name of
Lord John Russell in the inside. lie demanded the hat of
her, and on her refusing to give it up to him he seized the
hat, and took her into custody. She was locked up in the
station-house, and on the following morning was brought
before the sitting :Magistrate at that office. The Justice,
after hearing the policeman's statement, directed her to be dis-
charged, and gave orders that the hat should be detained for a
certain time in the station-house, and if no owner was dis-
covered that it should he given up to her. She had since
made repeated inquiries of the police respecting the hat, but
could obtain no information from them, nor any redress for
the false imprisonment she had suffered.

Mr. Ballantine asked the applicant if she was sure the hat
belonged to Lord John Russell?

The woman said there bad been a white-bait Cabinet dinner
at Mr. Lovegrove's West India Dock Tavern, at Blackwall,
on the night she found the hat, and Lord John Russell wi.s
one of the party.
Mr. Ballantine—Well, I don't understand how his Lord-
ship could lose his hat at the corner of the New-road.

The woman said it was supposed that Lord John Russell put
his head out of his carriage window, and looked back to see if
his friends were following him, when his hat fell off his head,
and as he was a Lord he would not stop until it was picked up
again.—( Laughter. )
Mr. Ballantine —What do you want me to do in the matter?
The applicant said she wanted to know to whom the hat be-
longed.

Ballantine—Why, I should say it belonged to Lord
John Russell.

The woman said the hat was worth a guinea, and that if she
had accepted ss. from the policeman and given it up to him,
he would not have taken her into custody. She thought it was
very hard to be subject to such tyranny, because she had picked
up Lord John Russell's hat for she had done no harm
to the owner of it.—( A laugh.) She supposed Lord John
Russell was in liquor, or he would have ordered his carriage
to stop and picked up his bat.—(Roars of laughter, in which
the magistrates could not help joining.) " You may laugh,"
said the woman, " but it is all true what I say. You may de-
pend upon it, the Ministers don't cat white bait without drink-
ing plenty of wine after it, you may be sure.—( Increased
laughter.) I don't know why the gentlemen laugh, lam
sure. I was locked up all night away from my husband and
children."

Mr. Ballantine said it was very singular the woman could
not recollect what night it was she picked up the hat, and the
letter and the number of the policeman who took her into
custody.
The applicant said she was too much alarmed at being locked
up in the station-house, and brought before the Magistrate, to
recollect what night it was, or the policeman's identity.
Mr. Ballantine said it was a very odd affair, and he would
direct the books to be searched to ascertain when the woman
was brought before the Magistrate.
Soon afterwards the woman was again called into the office,
and Mr. Ballantine said it appeared from the minutes, that
she was brought before him on Tuesday, the 3d of October
last, on suspicion of stealing a hat, and that the policeman
said that be stopped her at two o'clock in the morning, with
the bat in her possession. It a'so appeared that he had dis-
charged her, but no mention was made of the hat belonging
to Lord John Russell. If that fact had been mentioned to him,
he should ha-re ordered the hat to be restored to his Lordship
immediately.

The Applicant—l am sure it is his Lordship's hat ; there
is Lord John Russell inside of it quite plain ; it's a new one.
Mr. Ballantine—Very well, an inquiry shall be made about
the hat, and you can attend here to-morrow, and we will let
you know what has become of it. I think Lord John Russell
has the best claim to the hat, if he has not already got it.
Lord John Russell, on the day on which it was stated he
lost his hat, near Limehouse, from his carriage, was staying
for the Parliamentary vacation at Endsleigh House, near Ta-
vistock, more than 200 miles from town.

COAL.—Of the heat produced from foul fuel, in a
common fire place, seven-eighths ascend the chimney. One
full eighth of it floats unburned, in the shape of coal smoke.
At present, over London, at any instant are to be seen floating
in the atmosphere as smoke, mane chaldrons of the most pre-
cious part of our coal—that part, in fact, which, with proper
management, is convertible into gas for lights. Authors have
calculated that one-eighth of all the coal brought to London
escapes in this w iv, which at present must be a loss of 100,000
chaldrons a year !
A beautiful spcciinen of the moth butterfly, active,
shining, and to all appearance full of vivacity, has been for
nearly a week in the possession of the editor of this paper.
The appearance of such a stranger, during the most inclement
season that has occurred for many years, is a circumstance
almost unprecedented ; and the wonder is increased by the
nature of the locality is which it first revisited the glimpses
of the sun or moon—the farm of Airdrie, parish of Kirkbean,
situated at the base of the giant Criffel, now buried in the
deepest snows. Mr. M'Naughton, the tenant, brought the
moth with him to town on Wednesday last, and as the Minister
of the parish happened to call at the same time, he had an
opportunity of seeing it. In the room in which it was caught,
fires are only used occasionally ; and, altogether, we as little
expected to witness such a sight, as to see moose and rein-
deer looking down from Critic'. or antelopes and camelopards
grazing on the plains below.—Dunfries Courier.
The river at the Steam Packet Station presented a
sheet of solid ice, upon wl:ich people crossed to the opposite
side, safely as if on terra firms, and ska•ing was enjoyed in
perfection on other parts of the river, within the constant
action of the tides. The large and thick masses of ice,
with their keen edges, carried by the water against the vessels
at the mouth of the river, in many instances cut deeply into
the planks. On the wharf persons going out of their offices,
with pens in their hands or mouth, found the ink in them
frozen in a very short time. Wild fowl were shot in abun-
dance on the moors. Trade has suffered a great stagnation.
Since Sunday the weather has opened end continues to look
favourable. On Monday last seven swans passed over the
town, winging their flight so near the houses in Mellicent-
street, as to afford a labourer an opportunity of shooting one of
them, which he accomplished at a distance of twenty-five or
thirty yards.—Cardiff Chronicle.
The cold in Switzerland has been extreme, 30 de-
grees below Zero of Reaumur. At Neufchatel the wolves
have abandoned the mountains fur the plain.
Wednesday Mr. Clarke, proprietor of the Ohl
Ship Stables, and also of the Old Steine Mews, Brighton.
made a determined attempt at suicide by inflicting some des-
perate wounds on his arms, with the view of bleeding to death.
The unfortunate man was not discovered till nearly exhausted,
when he was conveyed to his residence in Old Steine-street,
where he now lies in a very precarious situation. Some pecu-
niary losses which he had recently sustained are supposed to
have driven him to the commission of this desperate act.
SHOCKING SUlClDE.—Yesterday afternoon, he-
txonri three and four o'clock, a woman about fifty years of
age, climbed up on the parapet wall of Gearge the Fourth's
Bridge, at the south-west corner, and threw herself over.
She was observed by a gentleman passing at the time, who
immediately sprang forward to seize her, but he was too late
to prevent the con:mission of the rash act. She fell into a
yard adjoining the Cowgate, and, singularly enough, she
alighted o❑ her feet. Medical assistance was procured with
the utmost promptitude, but she survived only about ten mi-
nutes. She has left a husband and several children ; and it
is said that the disagreeable terms on which she lived with
the former was the cause of herself-destruction.—Edinburgh
Evening Courant. _

A vessel was observed yesterday on the most dan-
gerous part of the Goodwin Sands. Boats from Deal were
soon rendering assistance, and rescued the crew, with the ex-
ception of three, who found a watery grave.—KentishObservo.
A new expedition has been ordered by the Russian
Government to proceed to Chiva and Bockara, with the object
of surveying the territories comprised between the Oxus and
the Caspian Sea, and of determining the position of an an-
cient bed of this river communicating with that body of
water. It is said that the members of this expedition will
also be intrusted with the task of reclaiming s2veral Russian
subjects, who have been sold as slaves by the Tartars of that
part of Asia.
A LARGE FAMlLY.—According to Mr. .J. Baillie
Fraser, Futtee Alice Shah, the late King of Persia, had, at
the time of his death, from 700 to 800 wives in his harem.
Of this goodly collection were born to the King, first and
last, from 120 to 130 sons, and about 150 daughters ; which
progeny increased so rapidly that, when the King died, had
descendants been all gathered together he would have seen, it
iti said, a tribe of five thousand souls—men, women, and chil-
dren—clustering around his throne.—Mirror.
Some days ago, the diligence called the Marseellaise
did not arrive at Flours, in the Loire, till four hours after its
regular time. On stoppir', at the hotel, the driver, instead of
getting down, remained on his seat. Being spoken to several
times by the landlord without giving any answer, some one
went up to him, and found the poor man senseless and stiffened
by the cold. He was taken down, carried into the house,
placed in a warm bed, and carefully treated. He at length
gave some signs of life, but his complete recovery remains
1 doubtful.