The Sun.
London, England, 1847-10-20 00:00:00

SOUTHWARK.

James Johnson, a decent-looking young man, was
placed at the bar, charged with assaulting police-
constable 79 M, and rescuing a prisoner from his
custody.
The officer said, that about one that morning he
heard a riot in Union-street, near the Monument
public-house. On proceeding to the spot witness
perceived two men fighting,' and while he was trying
to part them, the prisoner came up and tripped him;
and while on the ground one of the men kicked him.
He seized hold of the latter, and was about to take
him into cutody, when the prisoner again tripped
him, and rescued the man from his custody, and they
both ran away. He, however, pursued them, and
captured the prisoner in the Borough.
In answer to the charge the prisoner said that he
was not near the place at the time, and he denied
tripping up the policeman.
Police-constable 48 M said that he saw the prisoner
running away towards High-street, and hearing cries
of " Stop thief!" he took hold of him until the other
officer came up, when they took him to the station-
house.

The MAGISTRATE committed the prisoner to prison
for 21 days.
Prisoner—l hope you will alter your decision, and
fine me.

MAGISTRATE—I shall not do so. You have been
guilty of a serious offence, and must suffer the penalty
of the law.

The prisoner was accordingly sent to prison.
THAMES.

SERIOUS CHARGE AGAINST A CHIEF OFFICER.—
Thomas Gill, chief officer of the barque Cumberland,
recently arrived from Madras, and now lying in the
West India Import Dock, was charged with felo-
niously stealing six bags of rice, the property of the
owners of the vessel.

Mr. Pelham conducted the prosecution, and Mr.
Verry defended the prisoner.
Mr. Pelham, in opening the case, said the prisoner
was 'the chief officer of the Cumberland, recently
arrived from the East Indies. At Calcutta they had
taken in 6,420 bags of rice, and on their arrival at
Port Louis, in the Mauritius, where the rice was to
be discharged, it was his duty to have seen the cargo
duly and properly delivered; whereas he had em-
ployed some of the crew to cut open the bags, and
he abstracted from various bags the quantity above-
mentioned. The rice he sold to a custom-house
officer in Port Louis, and in consequence of that
officer attempting to smuggle some rum on shore at
the same time, with which he was stopped, the whole
thing got discovered. The next day, in anticipation
of a hurricane, the captain was compelled to get
under weigh, which was the reason the matter was
not laid before the authorities at Port Louis. Mr.
Pelham concluded by handing in a certificate to that
effect, signed " George Vickers, Inspector of Police,
Mauritius." .

Mr. Pelham then called Captain Thomas Andrew
Carr, master of the Cumberland, who deposed that
on the 12th of March, 1847, his ship was lying at
St. Louis, which is an open roadstead. On that day
he went ashore about seven o'clock in the evening,
when the custom-house officer came up to him and
said, "I have got into trouble about that bottle of
rum you told your steward to give me." Witness
said, " I will go and see if I can get you out of it,"
when he added, " And there's that rice, too, your
mate sold me." Witness was completely astonished
at this, and the more so when he saw the six bags of
rice, two of which were whole, the same as they were
delivered at Calcutta, with the cargo mark and all on.
When he went on board he taxed the prisoner with
the robbery. He at first denied all knowledge of the
matter, then said he had given it to the custom-house
officer, but ultimately confessed he had sold it for Bs.
He had no right or presumed privilege whatever to
take the rice.
Mr. Verry said he was instructed his client had a
perfect answer to the charge, but he wished it post-
poned for the production of important witnesses, and
he trusted the magistrate would accept his own bail.

Mr. YARDLEY-4 certainly shall not. A grave
charge of felony has been brought forward, and I
must say a prima facie case is made out. I shall
remand him until Thursday, and shall require two
good sureties for his appearance, in the sum of .50/.
each, and himself in 1001.
The bail was put in.

DARING HIGHWAY ROBBERY.
BRISTOL, OCT. 19. Considerable interest was
manifested here to-day, in consequence of an
oahriie himself edlhicigisuhipzo .a t
v o
of
robbery,polioe
exa-
mination by the magistrates at our Police-court, of a
man named James Venn, a returned convict, who on
aMs police-
constableobn being
gy the
2 eveningo
5 perpetrator
fth,e deliveredef a Bedminsterd
accompanied by an attempt to murder, upon the per-
son of a respectable young woman, named Ann
Loosemore. The prosecutrix, who appeared to be
still suffering from the injuries inflicted upon her, at
once identified the prisoner as the person who had
robbed and maltreated her. She stated that between
five and six o'clock on the evening of the 11th inst.,
she had occasion to cross the lanes from Knowle to
Bedminster, and as she did so she observed the pri-
soner following her, but had no suspicion that he was
other than a casual passenger through the lane. On
arriving at a point of the road where it is separated
by a small rivulet, the prisoner, who had taken the
opposite side from her, suddenly sprang upon her,
and with a large stick he was carrying struck
her a blow across the head, which felled her
to the ground. As soon as she came to herself
she found him standing over her, and demanding her
money. She told him she had none with her, and
begged him to spare her life, but he said he must have
her money, and did not know whether he should
spare her life or not. She begged that he would
permit her to get up, which he did, and she then
gave him eighteenpence—all the money she had with
her. He said he must have more, and upon her as-
suring him that she had given him all she had with
her, he struck her :again on the head, and she fell
stupified to the earth. Upon partially recovering she
felt that she was wounded, and that the blood was
flowing down her neck and person. She also felt the
prisoner pull away her pocket, and thrust his hands
into and search her bosom, but she was too much ter-
rified, and, indeed, to weak, to raise her head from
the ground. Having possessed himself of her pocket,
he left her, threatening her if she should follow him,
and telling her that he had a companion keeping watch
As soon as she had recovered a little, Miss
contrived to reach a house at the turnpike
gatehard by.
e near,yo
persons at which, seeing her in a faint-
Lh bm. re
the
faint-
ing state, sent her to the Bristol General Hospital for
medical assistance. The prisoner afterwards gave
himself lap to a constable, stating that he had com-
mitted the robbery, that he gave her the second blow
to quiet the prosecutrix, and that he wanted to be
tucked up. The magistrates committed him for trial.