The Sun.
London, England, 1840-11-21 00:00:00

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

MANSION-HO USE.
Jane Fisher, alias White, and Ann Smith, two well-
known begging-letter hawkers, were brought before the
Lord Mayor, charged with having very deliberately pur-
sued their avocation in the City.
The first had a child in her arms, and has been long
celebrated for being able to burst out into tears at a
moment's notice. She gave an instance of her power
in that particular line on being brought up,
.for down
streamed the tears in great abundance over her infant. In
fact, judging from her appearance in the Justice-room,
such an exhibition in the streets must have had the
effect of melting any heart. The other was the per-
former of a subordinate, but also an effective part in
the piece, for she was in the habit of stopping to gaze
with pity upon misery which she could not relieve ; and
the child, which was about three months old, hired for
the day, completed the group. The officer watched
them enterisig the houses of gentlemen well known for
their benevolence, and ascertained they had been soli.'!it-
ing charity by means of letters and petitions, as well es
by the natural eloquence of their tears.
Luke Kearney, an officer of the Mendicity Society,
deposed that he knew them both well, as flagrant im-
postors. The husband carried on the same trade very
extensively. Ann Smith was just out of Bridewell,
where she had served a month for begging. Witness
had upon one occasion apprehended her, and, while a
female searcher was examining her clothes, she con-
trived to chew and swallow almost the whole of a sheet
of foolscap, on which the history of a calamity which
had befallen he: dead husband had been pathetically
described. When witness endeavoured to prevent her
from devouring the last bit she almost bit the point of
his finger off.
The woman declared that they were willing to go to
labour if they could get work to do, but what on earth
was to be done when there were many more labourers
than could be employed.
The Mendicity officer declared that he knew them to
be at the business, and so successfully for the last five
years, that to expect they would go to work was quite
ridiculous. In truth, they had been regularly educated
in it, and were fit for nothing else.
The Lott]) MaYoit feared that they had a good
deal of skill in the trade, and ordered each to the
treadmill for two months.
A pauper chimney-sweeper, named Goodman, and
his wife, were charged by Mr. Richards, the master of
the Peckham-grove house, into which the poor of
some of the City parishes are received, with having
run away, taking with them the clothes belonging to
the establishment.
The LORD MAYOR asked whether the defendants
had any other clothes to ‘!ear ? 'The Master said their
own clothes were tied up in a bundle at the house, and
they might, of course, have put them on and departed
without meeting with any impediment. Theirebject, how-
ever, as was the case with several, was to get hold of
the clothes, and no use could be made of those which
they had left behind, lor nobody would dress himself
like a sweep, and as they i.,vele men and wife, the woman's
were as black as the mans.-7(A laugh.)
Mr. Thwaites, the Relieving Overseer of the City of
London Union, stated that it was quite common with
idle fellows to get orders to go into Peckham-house, in
order to run away with the comfortable clothes they re-
ceived. The male prisoner had done so before, and both
man and wife set the parish authorities at deti ince.
The woman said that bcgvng Mr. Thwaites and Mr.
Richard's pardon they were a pair of uncommon liars.
It was true she had the dirty rags of the establishment
upon her back, but she longed to get rid of them, and
to get into her ovn decent covering which she had left