The Sun.
London, England, 1838-09-01 00:00:00

MOST HORRIBLE DEPRAVITY.

Information was received by Constable George Barham, of
Lewisham, on Wednesday last, that two boys of the name of
Thornton and Robert Duke, the former being about fourteen
years, and the latter eight years old, had engaged a donkey
and chaise to go to Bexley, and it appeared that the charge
for such conveyance was to be five shillings, and that
the younger boy, Duke, offered a ten pound note of the
Bank of England for change. This led to a suspicion that
all was not right, and the constable immediately pursued
them with a horse and fly, and came up with them at the
Fox under the Hill, a beer-shop near the seventh mile-
stone on the Shooter's-hill road. The driver of the chaise,
a man of the name of Perrin, had pulled up there for the
purpose of getting change for the ten-pound note, who said
to the constable on his making his appearance, you are the man
I wished to see, and then handed over to him the note, and
Barham took the two young vagabonds into custody. The
Magistrates were sitting at the Green Man Tavern at the
time, before whom the constable shortly placed the prisoners
who were remanded to the following day, in order to give
time to ascertain how the note came into their possession,
inasmuch as the urchin Duke had stated, after he was in
custody, that he was going from his mother, who resides atNo. 21, High-street, Deptford, for the purpose of giving his
aunt 81 , and that his sister, a girl twelve years of age, had given
him the note.
In consequence of this information, Barham, about eight
o'clock on the same evening, proceeded to the house of the
mother, in High-street, Deptford, and after considerable
difficulty obtained an entrance and interview with Mrs.
Duke, and made his business known to her, who, by the way.
was extremely intoxicated at the time, and having a bottle of
rum before her, she denied having authorised any one to
take the money ; however, she was in that beastly state that
it was necessary for him to make further inquiries, when she
informed him that her children had robbed her of all her pro-
perty, and pointing to a shilling and some halfpence on the
table, she declared that was all the money she bad in the
world. The constable subsequently met one of the abandoned
woman's children, a girl only eleven years old, in Deptford,
at eleven o'clock at night, and took her home, when the
unnatural parent sprang at her and would have torn her to
pieces, so infuriated was she, had it not been for the consta-
ble's interference ; seeing the situation the child was placed
in, he took her to a friend's house for security, and then,
from information he received, went and apprehended the
elder sister, who was sleeping in a privy in Effingham-place,
Deptford. The two children complained of not having had
anything to cat during the day, and the constable took them
to his own house, at Lewisham, where he gave them refresh-
ment, had them washed, for they were in a most filthy state,
and put them into a comfortable bed.
On the following morning (Thursday) they were brought
before the Magistrates, and a warrant was immediately
granted by them for the apprehension of the mother. On the
constable arriving at the house he found her sitting in the
front parlour, habited in a man's shirt only, and in her usual
state of intoxication, from which he conveyed her to the
station-house of the R division, Blackheath-road. We must
apprise the reader, that the boy Thornton, who accompanied
the boy Duke, although only fourteen years of age, has been
twice committed for felony; and as it was represented to the
officer that Mrs. Duke was in the receipt of a large annuity,
it was deemed necessary a search should be made on the pre-
mises. Accordingly Barham and two other officers went to
the house for that purpose, especially as the boy Duke had
informed the officers that he had taken the 101. note from
a roll of other notes. But previously to making any search,
Barham had the precaution to call in a respectable person, a
neighbour, to witness and identify such property as they
might discover. On entering the house they went into the
front parlour, and there found behind a chest of drawers
nine 101. Bank of England notes, a green purse containing
1/ 55., and in a dirty rag, in one corner of the room,
nine sovereigns and a half, a beautiful silver repeater, half
a dozen table spoons, and a great many other valuables.
The house is stated to be splendidly furnished ; the de-
struction of property from the evil propensities of the
widow of a most respectable man, a captain of a merchant-
ship, who, during his life, laboured hard and honourably to
found the comforts of his wife's latter years, and the children's
early care and future prosperity, were seen in such a state as
it is next to impossible to describe. The mother having
caused the children, in the midst of plenty, to be completely
neglected, they unfortunately in their turn helped themselves,
by cheating and robbing the parent ; but, as Mr. Smith, the
Magistrate, justly observed, she had brought all this upon
herself, by her own improper conduct, and farther, if she
persisted in her evil course, her children would not only be-
come thieves, but the girls would be prostitutes. After much
consideration, Mrs. Duke agreed that her uncle, Mr. R.
Seeds, of New Town, Deptford, should receive the money
produced, and pay her ten shillings per week. She was also
fined five shillings for being drunk, and costs, with a promise
from the Bench that should she be found again in a similar
state, hey would call upon her for heavy sureties, in default
of which she would be committed to the House of Correction.

APOTHECARIES' HALL.--Names of Gentlemen
to whom the Court of Examiners granted certificates of quali-
fication on Thursday :—Thomas Embling, Oxford ; Cornelius
James Philbrick, Colchester ; George Crump, Albrington,
Shropshire.
THE CONVICT MASLEN.—Since our last, this
unhappy man has made a direct confession of his guilt. He
states that Mr. Rumbold never did him an injury, and that he
never entertained any malice towards Mr. Rumbold; but
that, being nut with a gun for the purpose of shooting rabbits,
a thought struck him that he would rob Mr. R. on his return
from Calne Market; and that he placed the hurdles across
the gap with that object. He fired at him at the spot, but
the horse on which he was riding being very spirited cleared
the hurdles and galloped off; and he (Maslen) returned
home another way, through a wood. We understand the
man is extremely penitent, On Tuesday last the under-
sheriff received a letter from Mr. Baron Parke, directing the
execution to take place on Thursday the 6th of September,
(Devizes market-day,) instead of Tuesday the 4th, as before
ordered. A petition to her Majesty, praying a commutation
of the sentence to transportation for life, has been numerously
and respectably signed in this town ; and yesterday morning
Mr. Tanner, the solicitor who prepared Maslen's defence,
proceeded with it to the Isle of Wight, for the purpose of pre-
senting it, in person, to Lord John Russell, through whom it
will be presented to her Majesty.--Devizes Gazette.

THE WHEAT MAGGOT.—Mr. Twynham, of
Whitchurch, says that he first observed the wheat maggot,
which has this season committed such general havoc, in the
year 1828, when it occasioned a deficiency of produce in
Hampshire, to the amount of one-fourth of the crop ; and that
it has prevailed in a small degree during two or three subsc-
quent years, but nothing in comparison with the numbers
now apparent, the havoc appearing to exceed that of 1828,
with this counteracting circumstance, that the ears of wheat
this year are much better formed and thicker set, and would,
but for this unfortunate casualty, have yielded much more
abundantly than for many years past. This maggot is pro-
duced by a small fly, of a reddish yellow body, with fawn-
coloured wings. The moment the stem of wheat is cracked
by the bursting ear, and long before it is fairly out, swarms
of these fliea settle on it, and may be seen of an evening (at
which time they are most busy) completely covering the ex-
posed part, and introducing from their body a long tube, about
the size of a fine hair, into the capsula, or, as commonly
termed, the "chest" of the car, where the blossom of the
wheat is forming ; through this tube, I imagine, the eggs from
which the maggot is produced are deposited ; certain it is,
that in about ten days, from the time these flies are thus ad-
hering to the ear, the maggots begin to show themselves. It
will be observed, that one side of the ear is much more affected
than the other, which is accounted for by its bursting the
straw laterally, the other side being covered by the flag until
the first part has made its appearance several days; hence
the part first exposed, and on which the fly immediately set-
tles, being filled full of eggs, and consequently maggots, is
most injured; for, as in the nut, those insects do not travel
from one kernel to another, as a close inspection of the ear
will prove, fine full-sized corns being found in the middle of
the ear while others ere de7troyenl atove and below. By the
tarry the .hole ti,,r is fairly through, which, in a sca=on like
the present, frequently takes a week to accomplish, and
hence the immunity of the one side from mischief.