The Sun.
London, England, 1847-12-29 00:00:00

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POLICE INTELLIGENCE.
MANSION-HOUSE.

The LORD MAYOR said he bad received several
letters complaining of a species of swindling, which
not only affected the press, but was accomplished
through the instrumentality of that power. His
Lordship then read the following :
"My Lord,—l hope your Lordship will excuse my
faking the liberty of addressing you en the following
subject:—

" An advertisement, of which I subjoin a copy, made
its appearance a few weeks ago in the Mt:bland, a Glas-
gow paper; and from the statements therein made I was
induced to remit the advertiser 10s., being the said
charged by him for a quarter of the Times. In return I
only received three papers, the last one about a fortnight
since. On the papers having stopped coining I wrote to
the individual, stating this to him, and requesting him
to see them regularly transmitted, but I have not heard
from him, neither have any of the papers made their
appearance, and now I have but little doubt that the
advertiser is a complete swindler.
" I make your Lordship aware of the circumstance so
that you may institute such proceedings as you may
consider best, either by punishing the fellow, or, if that
is impracticable, make the matter public, so that he
may in future be prevented from carrying on this ne-
farious imposition, and imposing on the public.
" If your Lordship cause anything to be done in the
matter, I hope I may ba made acquainted with the
result.

" I remain, my Lord,
" bow Lordship's most obedient servant.
" THOIIAS RODGIE.

" Perth, N. 8., Dec. 25.

" ADVERTISEMENT.—` The Times, Herald, or Chronicle
posted the evening of the day of publication at 20s. per
quarter; sent the evening ot the second day at 108. per
quarter. Any of the Sunday papers sent by Monday
evening mail at 3s. 6d. per quarter. The subscription to
be paid in advance. Apply to Mr. —, news agent,
Wilmington•square, London, No other papers
can be supplied.' "
" Rhoscrowther Rectory, Pembroke, Dec. 24.
" My Lord,—Believing that the best method ot coun-
teracting the plans of the London swindlers is by re-
porting them to your Lordship as their proceedings may
come to light. I take the liberty of troubling you with
the following statement:—
. _

" An individual lately advertised, in our local papers
describing himself as - of -,Wilmington-square,
London, professing to furnish the London papers at re-
duced prices a day after the date, and especially offering
uny Sunday paper by Monday's post at 3s. 6d. a quarter
payable in advance.
" Seeing nothing unreasonable its this, I wrote to the
above address, ordering the John Bull for a quarter, and
asking how the money should be paid. In reply, I duly
received a John Bull by the Monday evening's post,
with a requ( st that I should forward the 3s. 6d. by Post-
office order on the head office.

" This I did, and, as your Lordship probably antici-
pates, not another Juhn Bull have I had. Of course I
wrote about it to Mr. —, who duly answered, laid
the blame upon his clerk, and promised that he would
himself condescend to address and post my paper. But.
still no more John Bulls. Possibly your Lordship's ex-
posure of this trick may tend to prevent others from
becoming customers for Sunday papers by Monday's
post of Mr. --, news agent, —, Wilmington-square.
I have the honour to be, my Lord, your obedient servant,
" G. A. COCKBURN."
The Loan MAYOR said, the practice described in the
above correspondence was not confined to the agent
in the vicinity of Wilmington-square. He had re-
ceived several letters charging other persons who
called themselves newspaper agents with similar
frauds, and he was given to understand that at some
of the newspaper offices those persons were well
known to be most accomplished impostors. He
should be very happy to have the opportunity of pre-
siding as magistrate if any case of the kind were
brought forward. It was odd enough, and it placed
the impudence of the impostors in a very strong light,
to see that the accused made those the instruments of
their fraudulent dealings who were the most power-
fully qualified to expose and ruin them. The follow-
ing was, his Lordship said, an illustration of another
kind of fraua which had, he believed, been very suc-
cessful of late:—

"Weston-super-Mare, Dec., 1847.

"My Lord,—l humbly beg to apologize for the liberty
of this address, but request to lay before you a system
of fraud which has been resorted to by certain parties
styled (here the writer gives the name of a publication
and an address in the neighbourhood of Blackfriars-
bridge), there being no printer's or publisher's name
affixed. About two years since a man, going in the
name of , visited the various watering-places on
the Somersetshire coast, and prevailed upon many un-
suspecting parties to subscribe their names to a work
which he said he was then getting local information for,
named as above, and which was delivered in numbers
regularly, monthly, at 3s. each; and the better to in-
duce tradespeople and professional persons to put their
names down, he held out the inducement of the benefit
of having their circulars inserted, but never produced
any conditions whatever relative to the publication,
which he may since have attached to the list of sub-
scribers. After obtaining the signature, he assured the
party that the local description would not exceed one or
two numbers at the most. and that each number would
contain three most splendid engravings, to be drawn
and engraved by first-rate eminent artists, after which
some few numbers were left and paid for on delivery,
which upon examination were found to be a despicable
production, very deficient, and lamentably deficient in
the number of pages and the letter-press, and the names
of the engravers erased, and only two engravings in-
stead of three, as promised in the address on the cover.
In consequence of which defects I told the person on his
next visit that I should decline taking any more.
_ _

"I have shown the numbers to a respectable publisher,
who assured me that it was a gross imposition upon the
public to get rid of an inferior and unsaleable work, and
pronounced it worthless. From the time of my taking
the first lot of numbers (about two years ago), till the
27th ult., I have never seen or heard anything of the
parties, on which day a man left a parcel at my house,
which upon being immediately delivered to me, I read
the bill affixed, and found it contained a charge for 23
numbers of the --, 31. 95., and binding 35., making a
total of 31. 12s. ; upon which I instantly returned the
parcel unopened to the bearer, laying that I should have
nothing more to do with the work, which he obstinately
refused to accept, but requested me to return it to Mr.
-, Paddington, which I did per train o❑ Monday the
29th, and paid the carriage ; and on the following Wed-
nesday I received a threatening letter in the name of
-, and on the 13th inst. was served with a copy of a
writ. I beg to state that Mr. -- has selected two per-
sons only in each place, whom he intends to prosecute,
although the list of subscribers contained the names of
clergy, lawyers, surgeons, and a barrister and magis-
trate, residing in this town,but all of whom have rejected
the book with disgust. The following are the names of
the places he has chosen, viz., Burnham, Clevedon, Wes-
ton-super-Mare, Yalton, and Bath, which as yet I have
heard of, and the inhabitants of which are persons chiefly
in the middle ranks of life whom be has chosen out to
victimize.
"I must again apologize to your Lordship for the
lengthened detail of the circumstances attending the
glaring imposition intended to be practised upon me, and
humbly solicit your advice and protection.
"I have the honour to be, my Lord, your most obe-
dient servant, " W. 11. BRICKMAN."
The LORD MAYOR said he mentioned the subject
of the correspondence for the purpose of giving the
respectable press of the metropolis the opportunity of
remedying, by their power and skill, an evil which he
feared was beyond his reach. If, however, it was in-
timated to him that he could assist in abating so
grievous a nuisance he would proceed at once to act.
GUILDHALL.
Yesterday, some poor men from Yorkshire requested
the aid of Mr. Alderman Wilson to recover some
papers relating to their claim and pedigree which they
had lodged with the Heir-at-Law Society. Upon
requiring their papers to be returned to them, the
clerk at the office said he should not give them up
without an order from the magistrate.

The ALDERMAN inquired what property they had ?
The spokesman of the applicants said the Trout-
beck.estate, which was recently inquired into upon a
petition of right at Westminster, when after an in-
vestigation which lasted a week, a verdict for 340,0001.
was given in favour of two women; and the appli-
cants deemed the recovery of the papers of very great
importance to them.
Mr. Alderman ti iLsom said the Act of Parliament
forbade him to interfere with papers relating to the
title of real estate to such amount. He was limited
to the value of 15/. He could make no order on the
society. The papers were recoverable by action, but
in no summary manner.

Boxing-day-produced rather more than the average
number of cases of drunkenness and riotous conduct.
In two instances, where the police were roughly
handled, the Alderman directed the delinquents should
be prosecuted by the City Solicitor.
Michael ..111 Cuddy, John Doran, and Kitty
M'Cuddy, were charged with assaulting the police.
Mr. Marks, a printer and publisher, in Long-lane,
overheard an unusual noise in his shop, and found
his wife refusing to give a Christmas-box to Michael
M'Cuddy, who was drunk. He was a purchaser of
small publications, and, as he would not leave, Mr.
Marks used some force, and was assaulted by Michael
M'Cuddy. The latter was given into custody. On
the way to the station he said something in Irish to
his companions, and then commenced kicking the
constable's shins. The officer procured assistance,
and while they were strapping his legs, as he was a
determined kicker, he drew a knife with a long
blade, and tried to stab one of the policemen. The
other prisoners assisted in the attempt to rescue.
Upon hearing the prisoner had drawn knife,
Mr. Alderman Winsori, said he had not power to
sufficiently punish such an aggravated offence, and
he directed the City Solicitor to prosecute the pri-
soners at the sessions.
Robert Oxley, a labourer, was also charged with
an assault.

---Robert bouglas, a policeman, was conveying two
drunken men to the station, when one of them slipped
down, and the prisoner came from amongst the crowd,
and gave the officer a heavy kick on his hand, and,
as this did not make him let go his prisoner, he deli •
berately struck the officer a violent blow on the side
of the face with some hard substance, which he got
rid of and intermingled with the crowd. The officer's
face W 45 cut in a jagged manner. It was clearly not

a wound from a knife. He was so much injured he
was obliged to let his two prisoners escape, and
another officer secured Oxley on the spot.
Mr. Alderman WILSON directed the City Solicitor
to prosecute this case at the next sessions also.