The Sun.
London, England, 1831-01-07 00:00:00

SENDING A THREATENING LETTER.

Isaac Looker was put to the bar, charged with
having sent to John Rowland a certain letter,
threatening to burn the farms of the said Rowland,
and to murder him if he gave evidence against any
of the prisoners in the gaol.
The prisoner, who is stated in the calendar to lie
54 years of age, is a respectable-looking ran, and
we understand, a person in very good circumstances.
l'he Jury returned a verdict of Guilty.
The prisoner was then called up for judgment.
Mr. Justice ALDEnsoN—Prisoner, the Jury have
found you guilty, on evideuce which must satisfy
every reasonable man, that—
Prisoner—My Lord, I am innocent. I never
touched the paper.. I never wrote a line of it. My
Lord, I atn innocent.
Mr. Justice ALDERSON— You have been found
guilty of a crime, which is certainly not mitigated
by your denial, after such evidence—a crime which
strikes at the very root of society, by tending to ob-
struct the due administration of justice.

The prisoner here again interrupted his Lordship,
and said—My Lord, I declare I am innocent, I
never wrote the paper, I never put my hand to it.
The desk in which the piece of blank paper was
found was open to five or six persons in the house,
as well as to myself. My Lord, the law may find
me guilty, but it cannot make me so. I now de-
clare solemnly, that I am innocent of this crime.—
(The prisoner delivered these remarks with strong
emphasis, and spoke under the influence of intense
fe,ling.)—At the last part of his remark he laid his
hand on the bar with considerable force.

The Learned JUDuE then proceeded—l cannot
attend to these asseverations, for we all know that a
man who can be guilty of such an offence as that of
which you have been convicted, will not hesitate to
deny it as you now do. The sentence of the Court
is, that you Isaac Looker be transported to such
place beyond the seas as his Majesty shall direct,
for the term of your natural life.
The prisoner was then removed from the bar evi-
dently greatly affected by this sentence.
The Jury now obtained permission to leave Court
for a time to get some refreshment, and the Judge
also retired. During their absence, a young man,
apparently about 17 or IS years old, the son of the
prisoner, seas brought to the table by the solicitor
who conducted the defence. He there acknow-
ledged that it was he wrote the letters, and not his
father. A piece of paper was then given to him,
and he wrote from memory a copy of the letter sent
to Rowland. When compared with the original,
there could be no doubt that the handwriting was
the same. The copy was not a verbatim transcript
of the original, but there was very little difference,
and in all the words badly spelt in the original, the
same spelling was adhered to in the copy. He then
was shown the original and told to copy it, which
he did verbatim. The handwriting in both were
exactly similar.
On the return of the Learned Judge to Court,
these facts were made known to him, and the copies
of the letter were laid before him by Mr. Everett,
the counsel for Looker. The Court was also in-
formed, that the son had acknowledged that he
wrote the letters, and did so in order to save his
cousins, who had been accused of breaking machines.
His LORDSHIP expressed his surprise that these
facts had not been brought forward at the trial, !at
at least before he passed sentence. He could not
account for it, and without meaning to impute that
it was so, he must say that it looked like a trick.—
However, he would have all the facts laid before
him, and would give them due consideration, for
though the application came late, yet it never was
too late to do what was right.
His LotaisutP, after a short time, and while the
Jury were deliberating on the next case, again called
the attention of Mr. Everett to the subject, and said,
that he should require an affidavit, setting forth why
it was that the sou had not been called on at the
trial ; and also that the father was altogether igno-
rant at that time that his son wrote or sent the let-
ter, for it made no difference in his case, if he knew
and consented to its being sent. He should require
the most satisfactory evidence on this head, because
he observed, though he did not see the force of it
at the time, that the prisoner laid great stress on the
declaration that he had never signed or touched the
paper. His not having touched it, lie repeated,
would make no difference in his case, if he was con-
senting to its being written and sent by another.
James Lush, aged 40, James Toomer, 35,
George Towner, 36, and James Lane, 23, were next
put to the bar, charged with robbing Wm. Perry of
a sovereign. The Jury acquitted Lane, but found
the others Guilty.
James Lush and James Monier (two of the last
set) were again put to the bar, charged with robbing
Mr. Pinniger. In this case it was proved that the
prisoners formed part of a mob, which, after break-
ing al machine on the farm of Mr. Pinniger, went
up to that gentleman and demanded money. Mr.
Pinniger, who had heard of their coming, armed
himself with a brace of pistolQ, and also armed his
servants. He resisted, and said he would shoot the
first man that came on. One of the mob said" You
can kill only one," and they came on, and pressed
him and his men back. They (the mob) were
armed with sticks and iron bars, and one had a large
piece of wood, used as a lever in a saw-pit. One of
them struck the prosecutor on the arm, and a scuffle
ensued, in which several of his men got broken
heads. This was about one o'clock in the morning.
The prosecutor was at last obliged to give them
two sovereigns.
_ . _

Mr. Justice ALDERsoN summed up, and the Jury
found both prisoners guilty.
Maurice Pope was next put to the bar, charged
with robbing Mary Odden of one sovereign. The
prisoner was one of a riotous mob which came to the
house of prosecutrix, and by threats obtained the
money. Prisoner was found Gu►lty.
Judgment of death was recorded.
We are informed that the prisoner was one of to
pugilists who obtained some celebrity in the London
prize-ring.
After another trial for a similar offence, in which
the prisoner, Robert Odd',, could not be sufficiently
ident►fied, and was acquitted, the Court adjourned
at seven o'clock till to-morrow at nine.

The rub at Mr. ST. JOHN LONG'S practice
in the Covent-garden Pantomime is excellent, and calls
forth roars of laughter. Ridicule, after all, will do more
to exterminate quackery than even the terrors of the law.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

MANSION-HOUSE.

Mr. Astell, the Deputy Chairman of the East
India Company, appeared at the Justice-room, for the
purpose of bringing a charge against li. E. Kearney,
a person formerly in the commissariat department in
v''hoj it wi!l be retolicctedi assaulted him in
April last) near the steps of the London Tavern,
with an umbrella. The defendant had been sen-
tenced, at the London sessions, to be imprisoned
six months for the assault, and not to be discharged
until he shculd find two sureties in 501. each, and
be bound over himself in 1001. to keep the peace.
At the end of the six months Mr. Kearney was
discharged without being required to enter into the
neees.ary security. This violation of the orders of
the Court arose from the non-attendance of the
Alderman at the sessions. It was considered too
hard to detain peoitle in prison because a Court
could not be made, and in the hurry and confusion
every prisoner was discharged upon his own recog-
nizance.

Mr. Thornton; a clerk in the Secretary's office
at the East India-house, stated, that on Monday the
defendant, who was constantly in the habit of
calling at the East India-house, came to him, and,
after s •me observations on the subject of certain
claims which he said he had upon the Bengal Go-
vernment, talked of petitioning the Court, but after-
wards seemed to give up that idea, in the belief that
nothing would be done for him there. The de-
fendant then made use of the following remarkable
words to witness :—" I shall be ruined, Mr. Thorn-
ton ; indeed lam a ruined •an. I can now only
appeal to Parliament, and that appeal may do me no
good; but then my destruction shall not take place
with impunity. I may fall, but this I know, that
either Mr. Astell or I shall fall, and then all they
can do to end the tragedy would be to hang me."
The defendant (in a violent tone)—What ! now
by virtue of your oath did I make use of the word
hang ? Witness—Yes, and more than that : you
pat up your hand to your neck to show what you
meant. _ _ _

Defendant—Before God I never did. I only said
that my destruction should not pass unnoticed. Not
a word about hanging.
Mr. Thornton declared most solemnly that the de-
fendant had used every word he just uttered.
Defendant then, notwithstanding the request of
the Lord Mayor to permit Mr. Astell's charge to be
finished, insisted upon being heard at once. He then
addressed the Lord Mayor upon the subject oh his
claims upon the East India Company, and declared,
that although Mr. Astell disregarded those claims,
the Government of this country, and Lord Sandon,
the Secretary to the Board of Control, admitted and
confirmed then). He (defendant) had waited upon
Earl Grey on the subject, and in consequence of
that application, the Governmcnt had sent to the
East India Company to mention that he was to have
200/., his free passage to India, and employment
there. He was pursuing this theme for some time,
when

The Lotto MAYOR requested that he would speak
to the charge of the threatening language.
Defendant—l have nothing at all to do with Mr.
Astell now ; besides, he has nothing to do with my
business. It is now in the hands of Government,
and is, so far as he is concerned, settled. I bear him
no malice whatever.

The LORD MAYOR—Why did you use those
threats ? Defendant—l said nothing of the kind.
This man, who has given evidence, is one of the
wretched dependents in the East India-house, and
will swear any thing for his superiors. I never said
a word of threat. Who would say that I am an
assassin ? It was a fine thing, indeed, for a Colonel
to be afraid of a private man. Why, I met him the
day I came out of prison, and he told me he was
glad to see me out, and he asked me how I
got out. I did not tell him that the Recorder
and Alderman had consented to take my own
recognizances. I have not the least feeling against
Mr. Astell. I certainly detest his public character,
but I believe his private character is excellent, and 1
respect it as much as any man's.—(The defendant
proceeded to considerable length in this strain. He
said it was most ridiculous to suspect him of any
intention to do violence to Mr. Astell. If he were
to take away Mr. Astell's life, he must be supposed
to intend to take away the lives of the other t went).-
three directors.)
Mr. Astell would not take the trouble to repel the
slanders uttered by the defendant. The defendant
had violently assaulted him in Apiil, had been sen-
tenced to six months' imprisonment with directions
to find securities, arid had appeared at large without
having found those securities.
The LORD MAYOR asked Mr. Astell whether he
considered his life in danger from the defendant ?
Mr. Astell certainly did, and called on his Lordship
to protect him by the laws of the country.
Defendant—l declare that I never had any idea
of injuring you. The fact is, my Lord, they want
to keep me in prison for ever, to bar my claims. After
having made me many offers, which I refused, they
want to lock me up for ever.
Mr. Astell here stated, that with respect to Earl
Grey and the Commissioners for the Affairs of India,
neither the Noble Earl nor the Commissioners had
any thing at all to do with the case; it lay with him
alone as Chairman of the Company.

Defendant repeated that no danger was to be ap-
prehended from him by Mr. Astell. He hoped, at
all events, that the sureties would not be heavy.
Mr. Astell by no means required more than should
be considered necessary for his safety, and
The LORD MAYOR ordered the defendant to give
24 hours' notice of bail of two persons to the
amount of 501. each, and his own security for 100/.
The defendant was then taken away vowing that
all he meant by the language he had used was, that
Mr. Astell'e conduct should be so represented to the
public as to prevent his being again elected to the
situation of chairman.