The Sun.
London, England, 1853-12-20 00:00:00

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

MANSION-ROUSE.—Thomas Downing, a person of
respectable appearance, was brought before the Lord
Mayor, charged with having fraudulenly and by a false
pretence attempted to obtain money from Mr. Fortes-
;me, lock manufacturer, of Cheapside. •The name given
1)7 the prisoner is supposed to be fictitious.
• Fortescue said—About ten minutes past five
C,clok on Saturday evening the prisoner
sac,
me
P, and told he knew an intimate friend of mine
called
at
the
named
-Weston, and asked me for one of our cards of
address,
some of ourhle had a country friend who wished to buy
" Hobbs I gave him the card of our firm,
In a few' minutes
and Fortescue," and he left the shop.
he returned, and asked me if I could
give him Mr. We
away, and in
about lite,s address. I did so, and he went
uoro:ninutes he returned, and said
that Mr. Weston Waa
at home, that he had a bill to
meet of 71. in Walbrook
asked ' but
ra was deficient four shillings
of the amount, and he
wire to let him have the loan
of that sum as a friend of
inunezvteston. I told hint I
4r.
wsetrangers, but that
made it a rule not to lend
be at Patine
he had better go and knock at
s door again,
who I thought would be sure to
andi he left
to
the rrence-
me. I then saw him go into our factory, in,
lane, adjoining our house, and speak.
and then he went to Mr. Weston's house in Lawrence-
lane, lane, and I saw him go up the staircase, and heard some
conversation between him and Mr. Weston, and
I went
up stairs and asked Mr. Weston if he knew the prisoner,
to whioh the reply was that he had never seen the man
before in his life. I said I would give the prisoner in
charge for endeavouring to obtain money under false
pretences. The prisoner then said, "Mr. Fortescue, I
beg mercy of you ; consider my position."
Mr. T. S. Weston, general warehouseman, of No. 31,
Lawrence-lane, Cheapside, said, Mr. Fortescue is a friend
of mine. I was at my warehouse on Saturday evening at
ten minutes past 5 o'clock. I had been at the warehouse
perhaps two hours previously to my seeing the pri-
soner. I do not know him. I war at the top of the
stairs when he called. I heard some one ask for Mr.
Weston's warehouse, and he was told to go up stairs to
the first floor. The prisoner then came up and said,
" Is Mr. Weston at home ?" I said, " Yes, my name
Weston." He said, "May I beg the favour of a few
minutes' conversation with you ?" He said, " I am a
particular friend of Mr. Fortescue's, and I .have_ called
upon him just now, but neither he nor his partner is at
home. (Laughter.) The object of my calling upon him

was that I have a little account of about 4/. to make up,
to pay in Walbrook ;" and he pulled out his porte
monnaie ; and that moment Mr. Fortescue came up the
stairs and said to me, "Do you know that party ?" I
said "No, he has just called upon me and said he was
a particular friend of yours." Mr. Fortescue said the
prisoner had just called upon and said he claimed the
acquaintance and friendship of me. I said, " I never
saw the prisoner before in my life." The prisoner then
said, " I beg your pardon, Mr. Weston ; I have seen
you frequently." I asked him where. He replied at
the house opposite. I asked what house. He said at
a public-house. There was no public-house. He then
said at Lake's dining-rooms in Cheapside. I stated that
I had not been there for two years, and Mr. Fortescue
said the prisoner was an impostor, and gave him in
charge to a policeman.
The prisoner said, upon receiving the usual caution
from his lordship—l hope you will be inclined to think
that it is more an error of the head than any intention
to defraud. It is true I do not question their evidence
that I did as they described. I have had three attacks
of delirium tremens, and I was, on the 24th of last
month, discharged from St. Thomas's Hospital, after
having had the third attack, and such is my prostration
of mind and body with the recollection of what has oc-
curred and the severance of friendships I held most dear
that sometimes I do not recollect what has occurred. In
May last I charged myself with embezzlement, which
was not true. In fact lam a perfect wreck, and if it
please the Almighty to take me I shall be thankful
indeed.
A licensed victualler who sat in the justice-room said
—I have known the prisoner for some years. He came
to me and two others four years ago, and victimised us
exactly in the same way.
The prisoner was then committed for trial.
The Lord Mayor requested that the press would
acknowledge his receipt of U. is. from A.I.C. for the
poor-box.

GUILDHALL.—George Parker, John 'Saunders,
alias M`Guire, Charles Marshall, and Lewis Myers,
were placed at the bar before Sir R. Carden and Alder-
man Humphery, charged with being concerned in the
late extensive Jobbery of plate, watches, and jewellery,
at Leighton Bnzzard.
Mr. Waller, who appeared for the prosecution, said
that Mr. Reuben Rouse Rowell, a watchmaker, and
jeweller, of Oxford, was present to complain of a similar
robbery committed upon his premises in July last, when
a quantity of watches were stolen, one of which was
ultimately offered to him again for sale. He was en-
abled thereby to trace the possession of it through seve-
ral hands to Mr. Jones, the refiner, of Wilderness-row,
who declined to tell of whom he purchased it, and as a
cheqiie for 15/. of Jones's, of a subsequent date to that
of the robbery, was found in Myer's possession, Mr.
Rowell was induced to believe that the prisoners at the
bar were concerned in the burglary at Oxford, as well
as the one with which they stood charged.
Alderman Humpliery said that was a distinct charge,
and he would take care and have Mr. Jones before him
to account for his possession of the stolen watch.
A number of other witnesses were then examined ;
and the following letter found at Marshall's lodgings
was also read :

" London, Dec. 7, 1853.
" Friend Henry,—You must excuse me writing to
you, but I have left the Royal Oak, as Mr. Parker is
not there. Write to me by return of post, as I shall
operate next Sunday night if possible.—l remain yours,
&c. " FRIEND.
"Direct for me, No. 84, Hill-street, Walworth-road,
London. I have left Union-street."
This letter was addressed " Mr. 11. Auckland,- at Mr.
Couplaud's, farmer, Carlton, near Worksop, Notting-
hamshire."

Mr. 'Waller said the prisoners were apprehended on
the night before the Sunday specified in the letter for
the writer and his friend to " operate," or iti other
words, to rob Mr. Coupland's premises, and their in-
tended visit was therefore prevented.
Huggett said Marshall had been living in Union-street
until very lately.
Henry Passant was then called to show that Mar-
shall occupied the room in which. the letter was
found, and that since the burglary at Leighton Buz•
zard he had purchased about 61. or 71. worth of new
furniture.
Sir It. Carden intimated his intention to remand all
the prisoners to Leighton Buzzard. Tho possession by
Myers of stolen property, so soon after the commission
of the crime, was a good reason for including him in the
charge. If he were acquitted he might then be tried
at the Old Bailey for the unlawful possession of stolen
goods in London.
Mr. Solomon, for Myers, asked if the worthy alder-
man would take bail for his client ?

Sir Robert Carden— Certainly not.
Mr. Solomon had only asked the question, in order
that he might apply to one of the judges to take bail.
Alderman Humphery did not think any judge would
accept bail in such a case.
Parker complained that they were about to be sent to a
place to be tried where there was already an unfavour-
able impression against them, and they did not consider
they were getting fair play. They had no funds to
take their legal advisers down with them into the coun-
try, so that they were entintly in the hands of the police.
Sir Robert Carden thought the police engaged in the
case had shown the most praiseworthy zeal, and they
deserved great credit for the manner in which they had
traced the prisoners and recovered portions of the stolen
property. He felt convinced that in the hands of such
experienced officers the prisoners would meet with every
fairness, and all the assistance consistent with their
duty.
The depositions were completed in the course of the
afternoon, and will be sent with the prisoners this morn-
ing to Leighton Buzzard.
Alderman Humphrey acknowledged the receipt of 101.
from ‘f C, V." for the poor-box.

MARLBOROUGH-STREET.—The police made an-
other attack on the Cocoa-tree Club, St. James's-
street, better known as "Charles Lyley's," the
fourth within about six months, and, as will be seen,
with no better result than in the preceding instances.
The parties found in the house and taken into custody
in the majority of instances gave fictitious names. The
police, however, succeded in obtaining real names and
addresses, as far as they could do so with certainty, and
the police sheet, as altered, presented the following list
—Real names :—Charles IHarrington, William Boswell,
John Watson, Edward Herbert, Arthur Pearson, George
Williams, William Richards, James Winsett, Frederick
Lyley, James Wilkinson, James Griffiths, George Lyley,
Charles Lyley, Hon. F. A. Carey, George Brown, (door-
keeper), Nathaniel Kemp, and Captain Scott. Fictiti-
ous names : Arthur Cooper, Nathaniel Kemp, and Sam-
uel Brown—twenty persons in the whole.
Mr. Clarkson was present for the defendants.
Superintendent O'Brien, of the C Division, produced
the usual authority from the Police Commissioners for
entering the house known as the Cocoa-tree Club, No.
64, St. James's-street. About 3 o'clock yesterday
morning, witness, accompanied by other constables,
went to the house, and rang the outer-door bell. After
a short delay the door was opened by the door-keeper,
Brown. Witness went through the passage, and passed
through other doors. He was stopped by a fourth door,
which was strongly secured with iron bolts, stays, and
bars. Witness told the constable to try to force the door.
The constable did so for some time, but without effect.
The door at last was opened, and witness proceeded up-
stairs, and in the lobby met Charles Lyley, one of the
defendants, who was taken into custody. The other
defendants were found in a room on the first floor. Two
of them were not.present in court—the Hon. Mr. Carey
and a military gentleman named John Scott. The room
in which the defendants were found was fitted up as a
billiard room, with three tables. The room was
thoroughly searched, but no gaming implements were
found in their possession, but some of them had consid-
erable sums of money about them. When taken to the
station-house, several of the defendants gave fictitious
names ; but after inquiries had been made, they gave
their right names.
Mr. Bingham inquired if this was the whole of the
evidence.
The superintendent said it Was.
Mr. Bingham—There is no case made out against the
defendants. They must be discharged.
The defendant having been liberated,
The superintendent applied for a warrant against the
two parties who had neglected to make their appearance.
A solicitor, on behalf of the two gentlemen, said they
were prepared with a sufficient excuse for their non-ap-
pearance.
Mr. Bingham had no objection, provided a sufficient
excuse were made out, to allow the matter to stand over
for a short time.

MARYLEBONE.-- William Stratton, the keeper of
a coffee-stall at Wharf-road, Paddington, was charged
with having sold spirits without a license.
Brown, 299 D, deposed that on the previous morn-
ing, at 6 o'clock, he was supplied with a cup of coffee
at the defendant's stall, and on witness remarking that
it was a very cold frosty morning, the defendant said,
" I have a little rum here, and you can have a drop."
The rum was poured out from a tin bottle at the back of
the stall. The defendant was then taken into custody.
The prisoner said that on the Saturday night he had
provided himself with a half-pint of rum to oblige par-
ties coming up by the mail train. They had previously
given him the money to pay for it.
Mr. Broughton inflicted a mitigated penalty of 251.,
and in default of payment three months' hard labour in
the House of Correction.

THE NEW CAB ACT.-Sir R. Mayne, Commissioner
of Police, has applied, by a circular, to the various
boards of trustees for lighting the roads leading from
the metropolis, to the effect, that the most effectual
mode of giving information to the public, at night as
well as by day, of the point of the circumference of a
circle of four miles radius from Charing-cross (with
reference to the new cab law of last session) it is to
place a lamp post at the spot, upon which a notice of
the distance may be affixed. The trustees are therefore
requested to cause a lamp-post to be put up at places,
which will be pointed out to them by the superintendents
of the respective divisions of police in which they
are situated ; and who will supply the iron plates on
which the notice is embossed in white raised letters
upon a black ground.
SUDDEN BEATH AT TELE LONDON-tRIDGE STATION.—
OH Saturday Mr. Payne held an inquest on the body of
Mr. Soil dam Matthews, who had died at the North
Kent Railway station, London-bridge, on the previous
night. The deceased had suddenly fallen down and ex-
pired. Mr. John Matthews, of No. 10, Church-street,
Woolwich, son of the ceceased, said that his father was
a butcher. lie had had pretty good health, but he had
been troubled about family affairs, and he had complained
of a heavy weight or pressure on 'his Chest. Thejury
returned a verdict of " Natural death.",

" The memorialists have long suffered grievances and
annoyance from droves of cattle coming into and pass-
ing through the parish on the Sunday, to be in readi-
ness for the Monday's market, and causing obstruction
and sometimes danger to the attendants of public wor-
ship, while other persons belonging to their own and
other parishes, are, through occupations in connexion
with the market, altogether shut out from any due
observance of the Sabbath—a grievance which would
be greatly increased when Islington would become
the converging circle for all the various lines of ac-
cess to the new market. That this monstrous evil
would be altogether obviated by a transfer of the market
from Monday to Tuesday. That this very change of
market day was expressly recommended by the select
committee of the House of Commons in 1832, in their
report on the observance of the Sabbath-day. It will
appear, they reported, from the evidence, that by
transferring Smithfield and other markets from Monday.
to Tuesday, a great part of the evil of Sunday travel-
ling might be abated within a circle of 120 miles
around London. In the wish to promote so desirable an
object, the chief coach proprietors, together with sales-
men of great respectability, and others connected with
Smithfield market, concur. It is in evidence that this
market is crowded on Monday morning very inconveni-
ently to buyers and sellers, and not less injuriously to
the cattle, and that the Friday's market is so much less
abundantly supplied, that if the other market was held
on Tuesday, instead of Monday, the proportions of the
supply would be better adjusted ; nor does it ap-
pear that any evil would result to any class of so-
ciety from the change of the day, certainly none
that can for a moment be placed in competition with
the unquestioned mischiefs which the Sunday prepare: ,
tions for the Monday market, more especially the har-
bouring and driving of large masses of cattle in the
neighbourhood of London on the Lord's-day unavoidably
cause.' To this the memorialists add, that such un-
questioned mischiefs' have greatly multiplied since 1832,
by the increased requirements of the metropolitan mar-
ket, on account of the augmented population, and would
now, unless the day be changed, be all concentrated with
accumulated force on Islington. They also submit that
the opportunity for changing the day of late years has
greatly improved, by the facilities afforded by the rail-
ways for bringing the cattle expeditiously to market ;
and is now brought to the most favourable crisis that
could be devised by the transfer of the market to the
new site."

The Lord Mayor sent an answer to the application,
in which he says :—" I am sensibly aware of the grie-
vance long felt by the inhabitants of Islington and other
parts of the metropolis on this subject, and I beg to
assure you that your efforts to put down so great an evil
and one so painfully felt by the religious community,
have my entire; approval. Any petition, therefore,
embodying your views on this matter would, I am con-
fident, be received by the Common Council of the City
of London with every respect and attention, and would
have that weight attached to it to which it is so justly
entitled."

NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.

PORTSMOUTH, DEC. 19.

Sir James Graham, Bart., M.P., First Lord of the
Admiralty, is at Osborne to-day, and will visit the
dockyard to-morrow, it is (very naturally) supposed
on business with the authorities connected with the
fleet.

Rear-Admiral Berkeley, C. 8., M.P., visited this
dockyard to-day, and had an interview with. the Port-
Admiral.

Lieutenant Horatio Nelson Atkinson (a godson of
Nelson) of the Coast Guard service, is here to-day to
try the efficacy of projecting a common rocket from a
ship to the shore within a certain distance. This is in
contradistinction to the coast mode of endeavouring to
throw a rocket line over a ship in distress near shore,
for, while the various points along shore are supplied
with rocket stations and missiles for this e:sential ser-
vice, it does not appear to have been considered neces-
sary to have such means of safety at hand on board the
ship whose crew may stand in need of them. Lieuten-
ant Atkinson's idea is most simple, and would save a
large amount of dragging about materials if it should be
thought capable of supplying the needful aid in the hour
of danger without necessitating the establishment of
cumbersome and expensive gear ashore, which is likely
to be found useless when suddenly required, as has been
too often proved to b• the case. The principle of the
" notion" of Lieutenant Atkinson is briefly this :—A ship
is a diminutive and difficult object to hit at sea, even
when stranded, whereas the shore is wide-spread, and
could not be missed if the range of the rocket would take
it in.

The Leopard, 18, paddle-wheel steam-sloop, Captain G.
Giffard, was removed from the fitting basin to-day, and
hauled off to the Malabar coaling depot to complete coals
for further service.

The Helena, 16, sailing-sloop, was brought down the
harbour this morning, and placed in the fitting-basin
ready for docking to refit.
The Tyne store transport, Master-Commander Tucker,
is ordered into harbour to fill up with stores.

PLYMOUTH, DEC. 19.

His Sardinian Majesty's frigate Eurydice, 28, Capt.
A. De Ceva, arrived here this morning, and was imme-
diately boarded by the Sardinian Consul, Mr. Treeby.
She saluted the British flag with 21 guns, the Port-
Admiral with 17, and the Consul, on his departure, with
five guns. The compliment was duly acknowledged
from the battery in the citadel, and from her Majesty's
flagship Impregnable, in Hamoaze. The Eurydice is
19 days from Genoa and Villafranca, and had touched
at Gibraltar, since which very severe weather has been
experienced. She has altogether 550 men, including a
few who are going by rail to Newcastle to take charge
of the steam-frigate Carlo Alberto, lately launched there
for his Sardinian Majesty. From Plymouth the Eury-
dice proceeds in six or seven days to Boston and New
York.

WOOLWICH, DEC. 19.

APPOINTMENTS.

Captain Richard Laird Warren (1839) to command
the Cressy, 80, screw steam-ship, commissioned this day
at Sheerness.

Captain Henry Caldwell (1853), promoted in August
last, while serving as Commander of the Prince Regent,
90, flagship of Rear-Admiral Corry, has been appointed
to study steam at the Factory at Woolwich Dockyard.
Captain Horatio Beauman Young (1846), to study
steam at the factory at Woolwich Dockyard.
Paymaster George Grant (1850), recently serving in
the Prometheus, steam-sloop, when on the West Coast of
Africa station, to the Juno, 26, at Chatham, fitting for
service on the Australian station.

Mate James T. Pringle (1852), recently serving as
Acting-Mate in the Hastings, 72, when flagship on the
East Indies station, to the Boscawen, 70, at Chatham,
fitting to serve as flagship on the North America and
West Indies station.

Midshipmen.—William H. Nurse, to the Princess
Royal, 90, screw steam-ship, at Portsmouth ; George
R. Harvey, to the Royal George, 120, screw steam-ship,
at Sheerness.

Assistant-Surgeon William G. Hill (1853), to the
Saracen brig, at Devonport.
Naval Cadet G. N. Smallpiece, to the Princess Royal.
Assistant-Engineers.—John Forster, Arch. Young,
Walter T. Fry, and Charles Freeburn, to the Cyclops
steam-frigate, at Sheerness, preparing for service on the
Mediterranean station.