The Sun.
London, England, 1849-02-28 00:00:00

CRIMINAL COURT.-(THIS DAY

OLD COURT'.
The Lord Mayor, Mr. Justice Cresswell, and severs,
Aldermen took their seats on the bench shortly after ten
o'clock.

CHILD MIIRDE/L---Mr. BODKIN said he was instructed
to apply to his Lordship for the postponement, until
next session, of the trial of John Copeland and Eliza
Copeland, his wife, who had been committed on the
charge of murdering their child by setting fire to its
clothes. In consequence of certain representations
which had been made to the Government, the Solicitor
to the Treasury had been directed to prosecute, and
having only yesterday been able to obtain copies of the
depositions, he found from the nature of the case that it
would be impossible to be prepared with the necessary
evidence during the present sessions.
Mr. Justice CRESSWELL—In fact you want the re-
cognizances of the persons who were bound over to pro-
secute released until next sessions?
Mr. BODKIN—Yes, my Lord; and the reason of the
application is that a new state of facts arose on the
examination before the magistrate to those that came out
at the coroner's inquest.
Mr. Justice CRESSWELL intimated that he could not
entertain the application until the court was furnished
with the usual affidavits with respect to the grounds upon
which it was made.
POST-OFFICE ROBBERY.—Edward B TOOMC, a post-
man, aged 40, was indicted with stealing a letter, con-
taining a half-sovereign and sixpence, the property and
moneys of the Postmaster-General.
From the statement of Mr. BODKIN, who attended for
the prosecution, and the evidence of the witnesses, it
appeared that the prisoner had been in the service of the
Post-office, as a letter-carrier, for fourteen years, and
that his duties were chiefly confined to the office at New-
cross, Deptford. Several complaints having arisen in
that district with respect to the loss of letters and their
contents, means, which had already received the approval
of the Court, were had recourse to for thedetection of the
guilty parties. On the 10th of February a letter was
put into the office at New-cross, containing a half-so-
vereign and a sixpence, which had been previously
marked, addressed to a gentleman at Ripon in York-
shire. It was posted at five o'clock in the afternoon, and
should have reached the London office about six o'clock
the same evening, but on the bag being examined, that
and another letter were found missing. Two officers
were immediately sent to the prisoner's lodging at Dept-
ford, and on searching him the half sovereign and six-
pence were found in his trousers pocket, and the envelope
in acoat pocket. Upon being questioned be said, when he
called at New-cross for the letters, he put the one in
question separately into his letter-pouch, and, as a man
had given him a ride in a cart which had no springs, he
supposed that the jolting must have shaken the money
out of the letter. He also said that he would have given
up the money, but did not discover it in the pouch until
he had left the office.
Mr. DIINIIAN addressed the jury for the defence, laying
weight upon the fact that the prisoner had never been
known to be guilty of any crime or of any profligate
habits. His conduct during the fourteen years that he
had been connected with the Post-office had been
marked by industry and integrity, and in his humble
sphere he had secured the adherence and confidence of
all who knew him. He submitted that the prisoner's ac-
count of the way he became possessed of the money was
extremely probable. The practice of sending what was
called " test letters," with marked money in them, was
well-known to the prisoner, and it was not likely
that he would risk himself and his family for halt-a-
sovereign.

Several witnesses, some of whom had known the pri-
soner from his childhood, gave him an excellent cha-
racter for honesty, sobriety, and industry.
The Learned JUDGE having summed up,
The Jury found a verdict of Guilty, with a recommen-
dation to mercy, on account of his long connexion with
the Post-office, and bis previous good character.
Sentence deterred.

AEU" COURT.
(Before the COMMON SERGEANT and Mr. Alderman
LAWRENCE.)
Nicholas
_Holliday, a young man, 22 years of age, de-
scribed as a policeman, was indicted for stealing a 51.
bank note, the property of Elizabeth Coleman.
The prisoner pleaded Not Guilty.
Mr. lorry prosecuted, and Mr. Ballantine defended
the prisoner.

Ii
was proved, on the part of the prosecution, that
on the night of the 9th of January the 5/. note in ques-
tion was enclosed in a letter by the prosecutrix, and put
into the post office at West Ilam, in Essex. A witness
on the part of the prosecutrix swore most dis-
tinctly that he put the letter containing the
note into the post-office ; the letter never
reached its destination, and shortly afterwards
the note was found in the possession of the prisoner.
On the night in question the prisoner was a policeman
on duty at Stratford Broadway; and the suggestion on
the part of the prosecution was, though there was no
proof of it, that the prisoner must have extracted the
letter containing the note from the box of the post office
by inserting a cane into the box having its end split.
The story of the prisoner, when taken into custody and
asked to account for his possession of the note, was that
he found it wrapped up and lying in a lane on his beat.
The prisoner lodged in the house of a brother policeman
and his wife, both of whom deposed to his previous good
character and to his good reputation in the police force.
It appeared that the prisoner on his return home oa the
morning of the 10th of January, told the policeman's
wife, with whom he lodged, that he had found the not*,
and he afterwards got her to accompany him when he
went to get the note changed ; but it was alike re-
markable that the prisoner when procuring change for
the note did not endorse it himself, but got the police-
man's wife to do it.

Mr. BALLANTINE, in addressing the jury for the
prisoner, said be had certainly been guilty of great in
discretion, on his own confession, in not seeking an
owner for the note on his having found it, but contended
that there was no proof of the prisoner having taken
the letter containing the note from the letter-box. The
circumstances were peculiar, and the evidence, such as
it was, was almost entirely supplied by the prisoner
himself. The prisoner was a policeman, and a
man of great respectability ; and he was wander-
ing about the neighbourhood in questio❑ in
the course of his duty, and therefore he
was exactly the person if anything was lying upon the
ground to find it. He (Mr. Ballantine) did not think
if a man found a 51. note, that it was a robbery if he put
it into his pocket.

The COMXON SERGEANT, in summing up the case,
said there could not be a shadow of a doubt that if any
man picked up a 5/. note in the street, and did not seek
fur as owner fur it, it was a larceny. Did the prisoner
do anything to find the owner? Instead of that, he
went with the policeman's wife to get change for it.
Why not go himself? And when the prisoner changed
the note, he did not endorse it himself; but got the po-
liceman's wife to do it.

The jury found the prisoner Guilty of finding the
note and appropriating it to his own use.
The COMMON SERGEANT told the prisoner it was
fortunate for him that he had been found guilty only of
finding and appropriating the note, fur had he been
convicted of extracting the letter and note from the
letter-box, he (the Common Sergeant) would most as
suredly have transported him. Uner the circumstances,
the sentence would be comparatively light, and was, that
he be imprisoned for three months, and kept to hard
labour.

LLOYD'S 6HIPPING.—(THIS DAY.'
Loicaori, FEB. 28.—Wind this day at noon, S.S.W.,
fresh gale and squally.
DEAL, FEB. 27.—Wind N. to S. and S.E.—Arrd.
Jacob Ceats, Beaman, Batavia, and sailed for Amster-
dam; Lady 91`Dotiald. Elder, Calcutta, and sailed for
London; Austerlitz, Allrick, Havannah.
Dovort, FEB. 27.—The Sainte Marie, which sunk off
Dangeness, 23d instant, after being in contact with the
Diana of Liverpool, has been taken into Folkestone
harbour.

SOUTHAMPTON, FEB. 27.—Sid. Sultan (steamer), Con-
stantinople; Jupiter (steamer), Gibraltar.
PORTSMOUTH, FEB. 27.—Wind S.E.—Sld. Joseph
Bushby, China; Prince Albert, Meyer, New York.
BRISTOL, JAN. 27.—Wiud S.S.E.—SId. Nora Creina,
Antigua; Emerald, Barbadoes; African Queen, Africa.

LI'EIIP•OL, FEE. 27.—Wind S.-26, Arrd. Liver-
pool, Raisbeelc, Savannah. Sld. Douglas, St Thomas;
Stranger, Leghorn; Agnes, Nassau; 27, Inglboro, Cal-
cutta; Meg of Meldon, ditto; Christiana, Singapore;
Maypo, Africa; Coquette, ditto; Eiiza Johnston, Bahia;
Laura, Demerara; Leonora, ditto; Elvira ditto; Man-
dane, St. Vincent; Ino, Antigua; Daniel, Port-au-Prince;
Josephine, Tampico; Genoa, New Orleans; Tarquin,
Mobile; Geo. Thatcher, Philadelphia; W. Jarvis. New
York; Atlantic, Mize. Off port—England's Queen.
WARREN POINT, FEE. 27.—Wind W.N.W.—SId.
Ayrshire. New York.
PETERHEAD, FEB. 26,-.—W .W.-51(1, Union,
119bertS0D, Greenland.