The Sun.
London, England, 1853-05-05 00:00:00

SOUTHWARK.-(THIS DA Y.)

EMBEZZLEMENT BY A GAB COLLECTOR.—Mr. William
Madam, a gentlemanly-dressed and respectable person,
residing at No. 134, Blackfriars-road, was brought be-
fore Mr. A'Beckett charged with embezzling various
sums of money, the property of the London Gas Com-
pany, Vauxhall.
Mr. Edward Draper, Inspector of Collectors to the
above company, stated that the prisoner was one of
their collectors,, and his duty was to collect money in a
specified district, and hand the money to witness at the
gas works every Friday. He had ascertained that the
prisoner had received several sums of money in another
collector's district, and had appropriated the money to
his own use.
Mr. A'Beckett asked whether he had any of the par-
ties in the Court who had paid him the money?
Mr. Draper replied that he had not, but he had the
counterpart of the receipts. One sum he had received
was from a Mr. Peyne, at Mitcham-terrace, which did
not belong to his collection. He had not accounted for
that.
Alex. Ross, a collector in the company's employ, said
the prisoner had received money in his district; he had
no right to do so.
Prisoner—Did you not give me authority to collect
money wherever I could get it ?
Mr. Ross—l gave you orders to collect when there
was any change of tenant, but I don't recollect anything
else.

Sergeant Romaine, 14 L, said the prisoner said; when
he produced his balance-sheet, that he could bring the
company in debt.
Mr. A'Beckett said the money ought to have been
paid at Vauxhall ; therefore, the offence, if any, was
not in that district.

The prisoner was accordingly remanded to Lambeth
Police-court.

A DOMESTIC TRAGEDY.—An investigation into the
supposed suicide of an aged female named Sarah Hawle,
taken yesterday before Mr. G. W. Brent, at the Pied
Bull, Islington, disclosed a fearful species of ingratitude
on the part of an adopted son. It appeared by the
evidence that the deceased, who was a married woman,
but lived separately from her husband, had some years
ago adopted a nephew, and brought him up as her own
son. Some time since she established herself, with him,
as a ladies' shoemaker in the neighbourhood of Barbican,
and they took up their residence together. In course
of time the adopted son, whose name was stated by a
sister of the deceased to be Thomas Wells, married, and
the presence of his foster mother under the same roof
proving no longer desirable he turned her out, and
claimed her property as his own. In despair, the poor
woman sought her husband, a very old man, and with
his consent legal proceedings were taken with a view to
obtain back some portion of the wife's property. This
seems to have proved unsuccessful, and on Friday last
the deceased, on visiting her nephew, was knocked down
by him, and otherwise ill-treated. This appears to have
filled her cup of misery. She returned to her husband,
bade him "good bye," and proceeding in the direction
of her home, entered a coffee-house at King's•cross,
where she asked if she could have a bed ? Upon being
answered in the affirmative, she asked to have a little
warm water and a cup of tea taken up stairs ; and her
request having been complied with she retired for the
night. As she did not come down at the usual hour in
the morning her room door was burst open, when she
was found partially undressed lying across the bed, and
quite dead, with a cup containing some grains of oxalic
acid on a chiir beside her. The medical evidence prove.
that death WAS caused by irritant poison ; and the jury,
after an intimation from the deputy-coroner that they
had nothing whatever to do with family matters, unless
the violence of any person could be shown to have
hastened ti e death, found "That the deceased died from
the effects of swallowing oxalic acid, but whether wil-
fully, or by mistake, there was no evidence to show."