The Sun.
London, England, 1853-09-12 00:00:00

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

MANSION-HOUSE.—Charles Wheeler, who was
some days ago charged with having attempted to steal
part of the gas-pipe in the taproom of the Golden Fleece
Tavern in Queen-street, Cheapside, was brought before
Sir P. Laurie for final examination.
Mr. G. Johnson, of Bride-lane, Fleet-street, licensed
victualler, said,—On Friday week the prisoner came to
my house, and was going into the parlour. I did not
at all like his appearance, and I showed him the way to
the taproom. I gave directions that he should be
watched, for I suspected that my pots were in danger.
He went in, had a pint of beer, came out and paid for
it, and returned the pint pot, and the newspaper which
he had been reading. Immediately after I went into
the taproom, in which the prisoner had been the only
customer, I found it filled with gas, and the pipe was
missing. If anybody had gone in with a light the con-
sequences might have been serious.
Several other publicans who had been robbed of gas-
pipes attended, but they could not identify the prisoner
as " their customer.'

Sir P. Laurie said, he hoped the notice which was
likely to be given by the exposure of the scheme of
robbery described, which could bring but very little
tothe thief, would put the trade upon their guard against
such fellows as the prisoner, and sentenced Wheeler to
imprisonment and hard labour in Holloway Gaol for
six week.

Elias Lippman, an apprentice, was committed for
two months upon the charge of having stolen 4/. from
his master.

A young woman, who refused to give her name, was
committed to Bridewell for having thrust a pair of
scissors into the hand of a policeman, who, when she
was applying for relief at the union, advised her to make
her application temperately.

BOW-STREET.—Ann Brown, a charwoman, was
charged with stealing a cash-box and its contents, be-
longing to Mr. Marcus, of Great Russell-street, Blooms-
b nry, and William and Eliza Murphy, man and wife,
were charged as accessories to the robbery.
Mr. Henry remanded them for further examination.
Maria Clarkson, a young married woman, who had
pawnbrokers' duplicates in her possession relating to
immense quantities of jewellery, supposed to have been
stolen, was charged with stealing a gold ring, worth 31.,
from the shop of Mr. Cording, 232, Strand, and re-
manded for further examination.
A gentleman, who did not give his name, applied for
a summons against the keeper of the branch post-office,
62, High Holborn, for assault. The complainant applied
shortly after eight on Thursday night for a postage-stamp,
and put down a shilling. The person who served refused
to give him change, and he said he must keep the stamp
if he called next day for the change. The other would
not consent, and demanded the stamp back, which com-
plainant refused. The shopman collared him, and in the
struggle that took place he had his dress coat torn asun-
der, and his hips grazed against the counter. Eventually
he was obliged to buy a shilling's worth of stamps.
Mr. Henry decided that the shopkeeper was not bound
to give change, and said the applicant was decidedly
wrong in refusing to give back the penny stamp. He
should therefore refuse the summons.
The applicant threatened to complain to Colonel Ma-
berly.

MARYLEBONE.—Prancis Nicholls, in the service of
Messrs. Pickford and Co., the carriers, who have exten-
sive warehouses at the Camden-town station of the Lon-
don and North-Western Railway Company, was placed
at the bar before Mr. Long for final examination, charged
with having committed various acts of plunder on the
premises alluded to.

- Upon one charge of stealing 154 yards of velvet, value
Si. 10s., the prisoner was sent for trial.

WORSHIP-STREET.— William Moore, alias Wil-
kinson, alias Durrant, and 'Samuel Bromley, two deter-
mined-looking men, both of whom were recognised by
the police as well-known characters, were charged be-
fore Mr. D'Eyncourt with the following assault and
daring highway robbery :
Mr. William Cecil, a licensed victualler in Shoreditch,
state 1 that on the evening of Friday, the 26th of last
month, he and his brother-in-law Mr. John Evans, had
occasion to call upon business at a public-house in Fleet-
street, Bethnal-Green, in the parlour of which they found
the prisoners and several other men. Some conversation
ensued between them, and witness, having been drinking
somewhat imprudently previously, allowed himself to be
prevailed upon to treat them to spirits and other refresh-
ments. This consumed some considerable time, at the
end of which the witness expressed his intention to leave,
and went to the front of the bar for the purpose of dis-
charging the expenses, to do which he thrust his hand
into his trousers pocket and foolishly pulled out a handful
of gold and silver. He then noticed that the prisoners
and their companions had followed him out of the room,
and must have seen him expose his money, but he and
his brother-in-law quitted the house without suspicion,
and walked arm-in-arm in the direction of his own resi-
dence till they reached one of the arches of the Eastern
Counties Railway, when they found themselves suddenly
confronted by the prisoners and four other men, who
rushed between them, so as to force them asunder with
great violence, and witness at the same moment received
a heavy blow in the face, which felled him to the ground
and nearly stunned him. The blow was so severe that
he had no power to raise himself, and before he could do
so he felt himself lifted up on his feet by two of the men,
who held him tightly in a fixed position while some of
their confederates proceeded to rifle his pockets, from
which they took sovereigns and silver amounting to be-
tween 51. and 61., and then, having wrenched his watch
from his neck, they dropped him to the ground again
with such violence that he became totally senseless, and
the whole effected their escape with his property.
Mr. Evans, prosecutor's brother-in-law, who, it ap-
peared, had also been maltreated by the gang, deposed
to the sudden and violent nature of the attack upon them
by the six men, of whom he could positively swear that
the prisoners were two, and the whole of whom sur-
rounded the prosecutor to plunder him the instant they
had felled him to the pavement. The blow they dealt
the prosecutor was so violent that witness entreated
them not to further illuse him, and, seeing him lie there
motionless, he ran back to the publichouse to get the
assistance of the landlord, with whom he returned, and,
on regaining the spot, found the prosecutor stunned and
unconscious, with a cut over one of his eyes from which
the blood was trickling down his face.
Mr. Vann, who was engaged for the defence, cross-
examined both witnesses with a view to prove that the
attack upon the prosecutor had resulted from a challenge
on his part to fight some of his assailants, and to shake
their identity of the two prisoners, but both witnesses
declared that no such circumstance as that referred to
had taken place, and both persisted in a positive identi-
fication of each of the men.

The landlord of the public house near which the
assault and robbery were committed was next called,
and he admitted that the prisoners were among the men
in his parlour, who all left within a minute or so after
the prosecutor, but his evidence was so contradictory
and unsatisfactory that the magistrate was induced to
ask whether anything was known of the witness ?
Sergeant Jackson said that the landlord had already
been fined for Sunday trading and that his house was the
constant resort of characters of this kind. The landlord
denied the last allegation, but admitted that he had been
fined as the officer had stated.
Bullen, a detective officer of the H division, deposed
to tracing the prisoners, from the description given of
them, to different public-houses in that neighbourhood,
and that on explaining to them the nature of the charge,
and that be also " wanted " Moore upon suspicion of
burglary, they both stoutly denied any participation in
the robbery, but on sending for the prosecutor and his
brother they reluctantly acknowledged that they were
two of the men who had induced the prosecutor to treat
them as described. The officer added that both prisoners
had been several times in custody, and were connected
with one of the worst gangs that carried on operations in
Whitechapel.
214 - Vann expressed his intention to reserve the de-
fence, and, the depositions having been taken, both
prisoners were fully committed for trial.

WESTMINSTE
looking man,
was charged
Chappell, a respectable-
eircutitasst charged with being drunk under the
following
No. circumstances :—The defendant is the landlord
of the house
ghost had been seen -end-Place' where it was alleged a
was taken into oustod and on the previous evening he
the police for being drunk
and making a great noyiseby
iliarand declaring that the ghost
had been got up to keep a
seutodut of. his own house and
frighten him. He had
was collected,
with one or two men,
and a great crowd
Inspector Richardson explained taodtthe magistrate that
a ghat, the house be-
longing in it, and,
a most absurd story had got abroad
such
in the
longing to the defendant had had
in consequence of the publication of the
papers, the neighbourhood had been in
uproar that it had been necessary to send an: date of
the police to disperse the crowds that assembled.
of
The defendant said he was making an elides:von
get into his own house at the time the policernar, spoke
of, of, and, owing to the circumstances of. the case, which
were very annoying to him, he admitted he was much
excited.
The magistrate (Mr. Broderip) remarked, that he had
seen the statement in the newspapers of the ghost story,
and,taking into consideration the excite Tent under
which the defendant was probably labouring, he dis-
charged him.

CLERKENWELL.—Bridget £k roll, an oldliish
Irish-
woman, was brought before Mr. Come on a warrant,
charging her with selling illicit and other manufactured
spirits.
It appeared in evidence that the prisoner had been
known to different revenue and other Government offi-
cers for more than a quarter of a century a
smuggler and dealer in contraband goods, as a notorious
and her con-
nection had extended far and wide with the most know-
ing of the tribe. Numerous convictions had been
although_ob-
tained against her by Government, and although
heavy judgment was passed against her in May, 1850,
in the Excise Court, it had not, to the surprise and sa-
tisfaction of herself and fraternity, been enforced or
even noticed since, the consequence of which had been
a more extensive illegal trading, the defendant, and
others concerned intimately with her, bidding the law
and its rules defiance. To such a pitch had this for
some months been going on, that the attention of In-
spector Brennan of the G division was directed to her
practices, and on Friday morning last, after exercising
many stratagems, two of his men, well disguised, ob-
tained admission into the house. 11, Bell-court, Gray's-
inn-road, and, besides being initiated into their practices,
were jovially regaled with spirituous liquors, &c,, for
which they were charged as at a public-house. The
latter circumstance was the ground-work of the present
proceeding•.
to
know how many persons were
Mr. Come WsehPfl—