The Sun.
London, England, 1849-01-23 00:00:00

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.
ESTMINST'ER.

After the disposal of the night charges, yesterday,
Mr. BrIODERIP said—With reference pc, the distressing
case of destitution in York-street, which has excited so
much sympathy, I feel it my duty to state that informa-
tion has been sent to me by a brother magistrate who
had been extremely kind to the family when they were
in hii district, that their character has been the reverse
of good. 'lt is static' that the eldest girl had been brought
before him for felony, but the prosecutor, taking com-
passio❑ upon the wretched condition of the parents and
children, declined to prosecute. Two of the other chil-
dren and the father, it is added, were afterwards brought
before the same magistrate, charged with felony, and
committed for trial, and the father was acquitted, and
the boy and girl found guilty and sentenced to a light
punishment, the case exciting such commiseration
that a subscription was made for them in court. I
am very unwilling to trespass upon editors of news-
papers, whose time is so much occupied, and
to whom space is so valuable, but I have no
means of communicating with most of the numerous
benevolent correspondents who have so liberally come
forward on the occasion, excepting through the medium
of the public press. I hope, by the aid of those journals
which have noticed the case, and caused the tide of
charity to flow, to ascertain whether the contributors
still wish their donations to be applied to the relief of
the family, or when, or how their money is to be re-
turned. Of the extremity of distress in which the family
was found there is no doubt."

The eldest girl, who was in attendance at the court,
admitted, in answer to questions from Mr. Taylor, the
chief usher, that she and the other members of the
family had been charged with felony, as described, but
declared that they were innocent. She also admitted
that the magistrate before whom she was charged had
taken an interest in the family and relieved them ; and
with respect to other points referred them to her mother.
Catherine M'Bride, a stout hearty• looking woman
about 30 years of age, with a ragged child in her arms,
was charged with begging.
William Wadlowe, 238 A, said that on Sunday
afternoon he saw a carriage driven up to the door of a
house in Wilton-crescent, Belgrave-square, when de-
fendant immediately hastened towards it and begged of
the lady inside.
Defendant (in an insolent tone)—l suppose you know
what I got, don't you ?
Constable—She then thrust her child in at the window.
Defendant—l wonder I did n't send it home with her;
don't you?
The constable continued—After the servant returned
from the door of the house, where he had just been to
knock, the lady ordered him to give her a penny.
Defendant—l wonder you ain't afraid of being struck
dead, standing there telling such lies.
The constable then concluded his statement without
further interruption. The footman having told him that
the defendant had repeatedly annoyed him, witness, who
knew her to have been often charged with drunkenness
and disorderly conduct, told her she must go with him
to the station, when prisoner, having declared that she
would beg in spite of him, put the child down on the
pavement, threw herself by its side, and caught hold of
some iron railings. After a great deal of trouble she
was induced to walk a short distance, when she sud-
denly turned round and struck witness a violent blow on
the mouth, which had given him much pain ever since;
she then threw herself down again and kicked and bit
him. tier language all the way to the station-house was
most indecent and horrible.

Another constable proved that she assaulted him vio-
lently on his going to the first witness's assistance.
Defendant in a sullen dogged manner, said she wasn't
begging; the lady called her to the carriage and put a
penny into the child's hand.

BRODERIP observed, that the public complained,
and with much justice, of the intolerable nuisance of
beggars, which rendered it impossible for pedestrians to
walk the streets, or those in carriages to stop at the
shops of tradesmen or at the doors of their own private
residences. Those who obtained alms by their impor-
tunities—to be rid of which the public but too frequently
relieved them, while in other cases they submitted
through intimidation—were, with very rare exceptions,
most unworthy of charity; and he (the worthy magis-
trate) felt confident, that those who gave money to street
beggars gave an encouragement to vice and immorality,
and bestowed upon worthless objects what, to the de-
serving, would be of great assistance.
The defendant was then committed for three months.
WORSHIP-STREET.

Mrs. Mary Anne Bedwell, stated to be the wife of a
fruit salesman in Spitalflelds, was charged with violently
assaulting and seriously injuring a broker named West,
and two of his assistants, named Pilgrim and Bleene.
In consequence of the defendant's husband being in
arrear for rent, the complainant West received instruc-
tions to levy an execution upon his goods fur the amount
due, and for that purpose, accompanied by two of his
mon, proceeded to the house at six o'clock on Saturday
evening. The defendant was out at the time of the levy,
but on her return, and learning the object of their visit,
she flew into a violent passion, and declaring that,
sooner than her goods should be taken away, she would
smash everything in the place, immediately snatched up
a poker, and laying about her in all directions, very
speedily covered the floor with the fragments of all the
glass, crockery, and furniture she had power to demolish.
She then smashed out the glass and framework of one of
the windows, and having unavailingly ordered the
men, Pilgrim and Bleene, to quit the place before
they also sustained kjury, commenced a furious attack
upon them, and exerted her strength to pitch one of
them through the broken window into the street. A
violent struggle ensued between them, in which the man's
clothes were literally torn to pieces, and the defendant
having been foiled in her object dealt the man a blow
with the poker which stretched him upon the floor, and
continued beating him so furiously, that the second man
(Bleene), in his apprehension that murder would be
committed, rushed out for the assistance of the police.
Bei ore they arrived, however, West himself entered the
place, but had no sooner got in at the door than the de-
fendant caught up part of a bedstead she had previously
broken, and dealt him such a blow across the face with
it as to break out one of his teeth, and followed this
up with such vindictive determinatioa that he was
obliged to make his way out of the house as rapidly as
he could.

Police-constable 191 H stated, that upon enterieg the
house to take the defendant into custody be found her
then engaged in smashing one of the windows to pieces,
and that the room presented undeniable evidence of the
outrageous nature of her conduct, almost everything in
it boing broken to pieces, and the fragments lying about
i❑ the utmost confusion.

Pilgrim described the attack upon him as of so furious
a description that he considered the woman must have
been either drunk or mad at the time, and after exhi-
biting his clothes, which were torn into tatters in the
defendant's attempt to pitch him out of the window,
stated that he had sustained such serious injuries from
the violence inflicted upon him that he had been obliged
to keep his bed all the preceding day.
Bleene described the defendant's conduct in similar
terms, and West complained that, in addition to one of
his teeth being knocked out, he had suffered such ago-
nizing pain in his side ever since that he felt satisfied one
of his ribs had been fractured.

The defendant generally denied a great portion of the
violence attributed to her by Phe various witnesses, and
pleaded in extenuation of the rest of her conduct the
dreadful excitement she naturally laboured under at
seeing herself likely to be very shortly without a home.
Mr. HAMMILL said that the case was one of far too
serious a character for him to deal with summarily, end
he should, therefore, order the defendant to be re-
manded for a week, to afford an opportunity for ascer-
taining the result of the injuries the complainants had
sustained.