The Sun.
London, England, 1849-01-04 00:00:00

is gentlemanly-looking young man, defended
himself.

The facts of the case (whicli occupied the Court a
considerable time in hearing., and have been recently
fully before the public) were these. The prisoner
(who is sif good family, and has been brought up to
the medical profession) on the 7th of July called at
the shop of Mr. Springwiner, a dealer in bottles and
chemists' fittings, and having informed him that he
was about taking a chemist's business of a person
known to Mr. Spring winer, looked out a quantity of
fittings, which he requested might be put by for him.
He then produced a bill from a country union bank,
drawn upon Messrs. Spooner and Attwood, the Lon-
don bankers, for the sum of 121. 45., and purporting to
be signed by John Williams, which he requested Mr.
Springwiner to pay into the bank for him, and give
him (prisoner) a cheque upon his banker for the
amount. This Mr. Springwiner refused to do, but said
he would obtain payment for the bill if prisoner left
it with him, which, after some hesitation, he con-
sented to do. Mr. Springwiner having sent the bill
to Messrs. Attwood, they denied having any account
in that name, but on searching through their accounts
found they had given credit to the amount of 1001. to
a Welsh clergyman of that name, imagined it to be
his, and, therefore paid it. The prisoner, however,
never expected it would be paid, for he never:called
on Mr. Springwiner any more, but sent him a letter
requesting the return of the bill. This of course was
not done, and nothing more was heard of the prisoner
until he was taken in custody for a similar offence,
when leaving Winchester gaol, where he bad been
imprisoned as a rogue and vagabond.
The evidence not leaving any doubt of the pri-
soner's guilt, the jury at once returned a verdict of
Guilty.
It was then proved that he had been convicted
in August, 1846, for uttering a forged instru-
ment for the payment of 101., and was ordered
to be transported for seven years, and which, by
the interference of his friends, was commuted to
two years' imprisonment. There was then a great
number of charges against him, and some for forging
Bank of England notes. He was, however, no sooner
out than he began again, and towards the autumn of
the past year was apprehended at Newport, Hants,
and lodged in the jail there, from whence he effected
his escape—but a description of him being telegraphd
to Hull, he was retaken, and subsequently placed
upon his trial for the offence and acquitted. The
authorities, however, down there committed him as a
rogue and vagabond, and sentenced him to two
months' imprisonment in Winchester jail for having
broken prison and which place he was leaving when
taken upon this charge.
There were several other charges against the pri-
soner, who was, ordered to be transported for ten
years.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.
MANSION-HOUSE.
John Brennan and John Cronin were charged with
having robbed a lady of her purse.
The prosecutrix, who is the wife of a gentleman in
the Bank of England, had gone round to pay her
tradesmen's bills on Saturday, and so nicely had she
provided for the occasion, that upon discharging the
demand of the last creditor, she put exactly 3d. into
her purse. In passing along Cornhill she was followed
by the two prisoners, one of whom had a coat slung
across his arm, and in an instant they whipped the
purse out of her pocket. The action was a perfect
specimen of skill ; but two officers, Funnel' and
Wardell, who have a very extensive knowledge of
the fraternity, and had been observing the prisoners
for some time, seized theta and the lady's property
upon them.
The officers said they had known the prisoners
as common thieves for some time, and Cronin had
been lately discharged from a prison in which he
had been confined three months. They (the officers)
had seen many clever instances of sleight-of-hand, but
the neatness with which the purse had been taken
exceeded all they had before witnessed.
The prisoners were committed.
The LORD MAYOR said that the generous public
were responding to the calls of distress at the present
very severe season in a manner that did honour to
their feelings. He had on that day received 51. from
" Beta," and H. from a lady, for the poor-box.
WORSHIP-STREET.
A respectably-dressed man, named Samuel Collins,
described as a cigar-box manufacturer, was placed at
the bar, charged with having feloniously intermarried
with one Anna Maria Hornblower, his first wife,
Esther Isabella Collins, being then and still living.
The prisoner, who was proved to have been mar-
ried to the first wife in 1843, was given into custody
at the instance of the second, who stated that about
three years ago she became acquainted with the pri-
soner, who passed by the name of Smith and repre-
sented himself as a single man, and that after visiting
her repeatedly at the house of her father, where he
was received as her future husband, he proposed to
her that they should be privately married by license
in the country, and that when the time arrived for
an open acknowledgment of the fact to her friends she
should be at liberty to do so. She therefore accom-
panied the prisoner down the Eastern Counties Rail-
way to a town in Essex (the name of which she did
not positively know, but minutely described the
church), where they were married, in the month of
August, 1847, and immediately after the conclusion
of the ceremony she returned to her father's house in
town, and, being earnestly enjoined by the prisoner
to keep the marriage a secret, long did so, until she
some timejafterwards accidentally discovered that the
prisoner had another wife living, when she imme-
diately tore up her certificate in revenge for the
prisoner's base conduct towards her, apprised her
parents of the position in which she was placed, and
gave instructions to the police for the prisoner's ap-
prehension.
A sergeant of the N division deposed to apprehend-
ing the prisoner at his house in Prince's-street, Hag-
gerstone, and that upon communicating to him the
nature of the charge against him he at once acknow-
leged the first marriage, but positively denied there
were any grounds for charging him with the second.
When called upon for his defence, the prisoner re-
peated the same statement he had made to the officer,
declared that the second wife's testimony was no-
thing but a pure fabrication, and said she had been
induced to make such a charge solely by jealousy and
vindictive feelings towards him.
The MAGISTRATE, however, saw no reason for
discrediting her testimony, and ordered the prisoner
to be remanded, to afford the police an opportunity
of tracing out the church where the prosecutrix so
positively alleged that the marriage with her had
taken place.
William. Smart, who stood remanded upon the
charge of stealing a timepiece and a large quantity
of household furniture, the property of a poulterer
named Groves, residing in Poole-street, Hoxton, with
whose wife the prisoner had also absconded, was then
brought up for final examination.
Some further evidence was now gone into to prove
the prisoner's instrumentality in the removal of the
property, and the depositions having been taken the
prisoner was fully committed for trial, bail having
been refused. .
As soon as the case had been disposed of the pro-
secutor's wife made an earnest appeal from the wit-
ness-box to induce a more favourable interpretation
upon the prisoner's conduct, but, finding the Magis-
trate's mind made up, she then, with the greatest
coolness imaginable, besought him to compel her
husband to make some permanent arrangement for her
future support, as she was entirely without the means
of subsistence.
The MAGISTRATE, however, told her that after the
heartless profligacy she had exhibited in the whole of
her conduct,. he was astonished at her audacity in
making such an application, and ordered her instantly
to stand down and quit the court; which she very
reluctantly did, but waited outside till the prisoner
was transferred to the van, when she repeatedly
kissed her hand to him, the gaoler refusing to allow
them to converse together.
LAMBET.g.
A young
man, who gave the name of Henry
Wilson, was placed at the bar before Mr. Elliott, and
charged on suspicion with stealing a surplice, a pulpit
cushion, and other articles from some church or chapel.
Police-constables Thomas Cannon, 50 P, and W.
Woodward, 157 P, deposed that about two o'clock on
that afternoon they stopped the prisoner in the Brix-
ton-road with a large bundle, and, on questioning
him as to what it contained, he instantly dropped it
and walked away. They, however, soon secured
him, and on examining the parcel they found it to
contain a clergyman's surplice, the furniture of a
pew, two cushions, one of Palmer's patent lamps,
a set of fire-irons, and other articles, and all those
things they (the officers) were of opinion had been
stolen from some church or chapel. The pri-
soner refused to give any account of himself, beyond
saying he had recently come from Brighton. He,
however, added, they should learn a little more about
him if they took him to this court, as his history was
well known here.
The prisoner, who declined giving any account of
himself or the property found in his possession, was
remanded until Tuesday 'next.
Edward Stone alias Ginger, a notorious member
of the " swell mob," was charged with being con-
cerned with two others not yet in custody with
breaking into the house of a widow lady named
Tinkin, in Leipsic-road, Camberwell, on Sunday
evening last, and stealing therefrom two valuable
watches, the one gold and the other silver, two gold
chains, brooches, rings, and other property belonging
to that lady. From the evidence adduced it appeared
that on Sunday evening last Mrs. Tinkin and a
young lady residing with her left home about half-
past four o'clock to take tea with a friend in the
neighbourhood, and on their return, about a quarter
before eight, they discovered that during their ab-
sence the house had been entered by thieves, and the
property before-mentioned stolen. The thieves, it