The Sun.
London, England, 1853-10-06 00:00:00

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

MANSION-HOUSE.—A young man named Willi.- ix
Clarke was brought before the Lord Mayor under the
following remarkable circumstances :
Mr. Ashley defended the prisoner.
Mr. Frederick Riddall, clerk to Mr. Adams, Pick-
ford, and Co., of No. 35, Leadenhall-street, merchants,
said the prisoner was a porter in the same establishment.
On various occasions I have missed money from my desk,
and in consequence of that I marked a halfcrown yester-
day morning, and placed it in my desk, which I then
left unlocked. I quitted my desk for about an hour,
and onjmy return I missed my half-crown. There were
four persons in the same employment as the prisoner. I
said I missed money from my desk, and I knew there
must be a thief in the place. The prisoner protested
his innocence. I previously sent him for change, and I
then told him on his return of my loss. I said I had
marked a half-crown and placed it in my desk, and it
was gone, and the prisoner lifted up his cap and a
half-crown fell out of it, and I picked it up, and it
proved to be my marked half-crown. He then said,
" Oh, my God ?" and that he was quite innocent, and
some one must have placed the half-crown in his cap,
There were no persons near him at the time, but his
arm was on his cap, so that it was impossible for any
one but himself to put it in. Some days ago I gave
him one shilling and sixpence to pay for the carriage of
a parcel which was to be taken to the Eastern Counties
Railway, and I have received information that he took
the parcel to the Spread Eagle, and did not pay for it.
Cross-examined by Mr. Ashley—l saw the half-crown
safe at about half-past 10 o'clock, and I did not see it
again till it was dropped by the prisoner. I had put it
into one of the pigeon-holes, and I missed it between 12
and 1. The prisoner went out that morning on the
business of the house. I can't say at what time. I
did not send him out, and I had not told him before he
went out that I had missed the half-crown. When I
told him to go for the change he took his cap off and
put it on the desk, and then went out. I was there all
the time his cap was on the desk. My desk was left
open in the morning, and four persons were left in the
counting-house. I saw him pick up the cap when he
came back with the change.
Re-examined—l said that no one should leave the
counting-house until the police had been sent for,
that they might be searched. I said that when the pri-
soner was absent, and when he brought the change, I
told him the same. I had first asked each in the otThie
for change of a sovereign, thinking that I might find out
the marked half-crown in that way, and then I sent him
out for the change in the expectation that the
crown might be amongst the change. Before the half-
crown was picked up he made the exclamation.
Cross-examined—There were some of the others near
to the desk. I don't think it was possible for any one to
put the half-crown in the cap without my seeing it. I did
not see the prisoner put it into the cap.
Mr. G. H, Wilson, clerk to Messrs Adams, Pickford,
and Co., said I was present when Mr. Riddall said he
had put a marked half-crown into the desk, and that it
was not there. I did not put the half-crown into the cap
nor did either of the other clerks do so to the best of my
belief.
Cross-examined—Knew that the prisoner went in and
out several times during the morning. He turned the
cap up and the half-crown dropped from it.
Mr. A. Reed and Mr. H. H. Fox, also clerks in the
house, deposed that they saw the half-crown drop from
the cap, and that they had not put it into the cap.
Mr. Ashley, after having very closely cross-examined
the several witnesses for the prosecution, said the for-
mer master of the prisoner, a tradesman of high respec-
tability, was in attendance to state the great opinion he
entertained of the young man's integrity and trustwor-
thiness.

The Lord Mayor—You had better keep witnesses to
the character of the prisoner for his trial, fur I am deter-
mined upon such evidence as I have heard to commit
him to Newgate.
The prisoner upon being asked whether he wished to
say anything in his defence replied, "I shall leave it
to my solicitor."
He was then committed.
Caroline Goring, a young-married woman, was charged
with having deserted her child aged three months.
Finnis, of the City police, said—l took the prisoner
into custody last night, and told her I apprehended her
for having deserted her child. She denied that she had
done so, but when I took her to the station house, she
admitted that she had left her baby in St. Mary-axe.
A little boy who resides with his mother in St. Mary-
axe, said that on Friday evening, as he was coming
down stairs in the house, he heard the cries of a child
on the stairs, and observed a bundle, which he imme-
diately picked up. Finding that the bundle contained
a child, he ran with it to his mother, who took care of
it, and gave the needful information to the police. T;:e
Union was, he said, a few doors from the house in which
the baby had been deposited.
A nurse named Thomas, said—l know the prisoner.
She is a married woman, and the child is her's. She
gave it to me to nurse at ss. a week, but was not regu-
lar in her payments, and I offered to keep the child for
4a. a week, but I could not get that from her, and I
went to her lodging and gave her back the baby, saying
that I could not keep it for nothing. She would not
come to any arrangement at all.
The Lord Mayor—Did you see her husband ?
Witness—No, my lord. I understand she does not
live with her husband. When I went to look for her to
return the child, she tried to hide from me.
to give my,,baby, so I thought it best to
The prisoner said—My lord, "I am unemployed and
I had nothing
do with it as I have done.
The Lord Mayor—l consider your conduct most cruet.
- The poor child might have died, and if that had been the
case you would certainly have had to undergo a trial for
murder. The little boy and his mother, and the nurse
acted with humanity, but you showed that you have nc,t
11 ‘f. tilt natural touch," and I shall send you to the Hone
1%)
• r. 4
%

vj