The Sun.
London, England, 1871-02-14 00:00:00

FHE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1871.

LAW AND POLICE.

THE ALLEGED LIBEL CASE AT RAMSGATE.-At Rams-
gate police-court, on Saturday, Mr. Purcell, on behalf of
Mr. Edward Welby Pugin, Mrs. Pugin, his stepmother,
and Mr. Whelan, late secretary to the late Mr. Pugin
withdrew the imputations which had been made against
Mr; Hodgson, postmaster of Ramsgate, and Miss Hale,
his niece, and the criminal informations for libel against
them were withdrawn.

DARING ROBBERY BY MEANS OF CHLOROFORM.—
Another daring robbery by means of chloroform has taken
place. At five o'clock on Thursday afternoon, a lady
named Newell went to ber bedroom at her residence
at Stamford Hill, in the suburbs of London, and
on the landing was confronted by a strange man,
and a youth, one of whom held her while the other
applied a handkerchief saturated with chloroform to her
nose. She became insensible, and on recovery found
that a gold watch, three £5 bank notes, and £35 in gold
had been carried off. No trace of the thieves has been
discovered.

ROBBERY 'OF PILLAR BOXES.
During the last three months a gang of London thieves
have been exercising their ingenuity in extracting letters
from the pillar-letter boxes erected in the streets in
various parts of the metropolis, and so ingenious and
successful have been their operations that they have suc-
ceeded in possessing themselves of a large sum of money,
and also in baffling the combined exertions of the police
and postal authorities to put a stop to their "little game"
until Saturday last, when a scheme concocted for the
apprehension of the thieves fortunately proved successful,
though one of the prisoners afterwards contrived to effect
his escape from the Hertford police station, and up to a
late hour on Sunday evening had not been re-appre-
hended. The modus operandi of the thieves has
been to steal letters from the pillar letter-boxes, to ap-
propriate those containing cheques and notes, to get
them cashed as soon as possible, and, when practicable, to
forge the endorsement. The scheme laid for the discovery
of the robbery was this ;--The London police authoritiesput
themselves in communication with Mr. J. W. Chesehyre,
manager of the Hertford branch of the London and
County Bank, by whom a cheque was drawn for the
amount of £7 Gs. 3d., in the name of John Gardiner,
and made payable at Hertford to Frank Summers. This
cheque was placed in the hands of Detective-Sergeant
Hancock, by whom it was posted at a pillar letter-box at
Kennington. PreMising that the cheque would be pre-
sented at the Hertfori bank early on Saturday by one of
a gang of suspected thieves, Sergeant Hancock, with
two constables, arrived at Hertford by the first train
reaching the town on that day. The two constables were
posted in the vicinity of the bank; Sergeant Hancock
took up his position in the window of the post-office,
eford Northernstation
the
thee Th
which commands a view of the bank entrance, and two
constables
os nt abo
leae
at about
train
ainn
darrivingis twelveiu s e
.
of the local constabulary, with Superintendent Jarrett,
watched the arrival of the trains by the Great Eastern
andtehllt the
Greatr
o'clock brought two of the suspected parties, who imme-
diately
nmarradoewly watchedtheirway onb yto
the
Railways.n
former London linen d County
Bank,
On arriving at the bank they made a pause for a few
minutes, during which something was seen to pass
between them, and then one of the fellows went into

the bank and cashed the cheque which had been prepared
by Mr. Chesshyre, and posted by Sergeant Hancock.
Immediately the presenter had endorsed it a signal was
given by the bank clerk, and the thief was quickly in
the hands of Sergeant Hancock, his confederate being
apprehended by the other constables outside. The man who
presented the cheque gives the name of John Hall, aged 22,
of the Walworth-road, London, , but is better known
by the soubriquet of " Coley." The other man is named
Benjamin Poulton, alias "Ben the Flat," and is
about 35 years of age. He at first gave the name of
John Jowkins. Although he is a short, slight-built
man, he is known as a desperate character, and but
for the fact that he was completely surrounded by con-
stables when apprehended he would doubtless have made
a desperate attempt to escape. They were both well and
neatly dressed. He and his confederate were at once taken
to the Hertford police station and left in charge of a
metropolitan and local constable, who received instructions
from Superintendent Jarret not to allow the prisoners
to leave their cells under any pretence whatever ;
but, after they had been confined about an hour,
the man Hall, who had been crying and protesting that
he was not aware the cheque had been stolen, asked
to be permitted to leave his cell to write a letter to
his friends. This he was allowed to do, and after he had
written his letter he was put back into the cell, but,
although there were two bolts and a lock on the door, the
constables forgot to either bolt or lock the cell door after
replacing Hall. He observed this omission, and, quietly
biding his time until there was no one in the police station
except himself and his comrade, he opened his cell door
and walked off unobserved. About half an hour after his
departure his absence was discovered, greatly to the con-
sternation of the police, who raised a hue and cry in every
direction, but, as we have already stated, the missing bird
was still on the wing up till a late hour on Sunday even-
ing. It is estimated that between £5OO and £6OO, has
been stolen from the London pillar-boxes within the last
month or six weeks. Poulton was taken before Mr. W.
P. Willson, the mayor of Hertford, on Saturday evening,
and remanded.

M. Marinoni, the well-known maker of printing
machines in Paris, was a candidate for the National
Assembly, and struck out a new notion in the way of
canvassing. He caused all his posters to be adorned with
his photograph.

AN IMMATERIAL DIFFERENCE.—A correspondent
gives it as the result of a private calculation of his own
that to count the alleged
_war indemnity of £400,000,000
sterling, paid in sf.' pieces, requires 20 years, and not 105
years, as reckoned in the paragraph quoted by us from a
Belgian paper.
THAI ACTION AGAINST MISS JEX-BLAKE.— The
defences have been given in on behalf of Miss Jex-Blako
in the action brought against her by Mr. Craig. The de-
fence, we understand, justifies the statements she made at
the infirmary meeting, by narrating what was said and
done in the row at the College. The defender also dis-
claims the imputation of malice, as she had no acquaint-
ance with the pursuer, and would not even know him if
she saw him.—Daily Review.

THE CONFERENCE.—A correspondent writes to a
contemporary as follows : Turkey has been herself
desirous, under existing circumstances, to surrender .the
neutralisation of the Black Sea, in return for her own
right of holding the gates of the Bosphorus and Darda-
nelles, and opening or 'closing them at her own pleasure.-
This is, I believe, substantially the agreement to which
the Conference has now come. It means, of course, that
Turkey can at any moment admit the fleets of her allies,
and confine Russia to the Black Sea. -
FATAL HUNTING ACCIDENT.—An accident which
happened in the hunting field in Essex, in the middle of
January, to Mr. G. 3. Cockerell, has terminated fatally,
Mr. Cockerell having expired at the house of his friend
Mr. Peter Smith, of High Trees, High Boding. The
deceased, who was the occupier of Ravens, at Little
Easton, has left a widow and thirteen children, eleven of
whom are at home. The deceased, it may be stated,
was out with the East Essex hounds ; in riding over a
drop fence his foot slipped out of the stirrup, and he
was thrown on to the pommel of his saddle and very much

injured.
THE IRISH EDUCATION QUESTION.-It is stated
that there has been a hint thrown out to the Irish members
who have complained of the omission of the Irish educa-
tion question from the sessional programme of the Queen's
Speech that the bill will he introduced, at least pro form 4
after Easter, even if business should compel it to be with-
drawn afterwards. But this is said to be the parting hope
held out by Mr. Chichester Fortiscue: and is, on inquiry,
repudiated by Lord Hartington. According to the
latter, it will entirely depend on the state of business
after Whitsuntide whether the Irish questicin of education
be touched.

ROYAL SPEECHES AND THE MARRIAGES OP
PRINCESSES.—The engagement of the Princess Lou* is
only the second of the kind in the Queen's family that
has been announced in a speech from the throne. The
marriage of the Princess Royal, which took place in
January, 1858, was not anticipated in the Queen's Speech
at the opening of Parliament in December, 1857, nor was
that of the Princess Alice in July, 1862, announced in
the speech in. February the same year. Princess Helena's
marriage was, however, foreshadowed in the Queen's
Speech, in February, 1866, in the following terms :—" I
have recently declared my consent to a marriage between
Princess Helena and Prince Christian .of
stein (&c.) I trust the union may be prosperous and
happy."
BREAKFAST.—EPPS'S COCOA.—GRATEFUL AND CO3l-
- very agreeable character of this preparation has
-.rendered it a general favourite. The Civil Service Gazette re-
marks :—" By a thorough knowledge of the 'natural laws which
govern the operations of digestion and nutrition, and by a
careful application of the fine properties of well-selected cocoa,
Mr. Epps has provided our breakfast tables with a delicately
flavoured beverage which may save us many heavy doctors'
bills." Each packet is labelled—JAMES Errs & CO., HoMmo-
pathic Chemists, London. Also, makers of Epps's Cacaiiine, a
very thin evening beverage.—Advt.

THE USE OF FORTRESSES.

Major Palliser, of artillery celebrity, regrets that the
public attention should be diverted from the ,11-important
questions of national defence by a wrangle about the '
purchase system. He thinks some important lessons
are to be gained from the experience of Paris.
There is a vast difference between fortifying Lon-
don and making London unassailable, by the use of
fortresses. So far back as Sept. 21st, Major Palliser
doubted whether the Germans would derive any benefit
from the bombardment of Paris, and the result has
proved that the bombardment did not accelerate the sur-
render by a single hour. On the contrary it has held out
too lqng, producing risk of abs'olute famine. Had Paris
been defended by a circle of heavily armed earthern forts,
situated about four miles from the present enceinte, she
would have been safe from bombardment, the German
lines must have been greatly extended, and room allowed
for making sorties. The extraordinary development of
rifled artillery has only lately rendered such a system ,of
defence possible by enabling forts to afford each other reci-
procal defence and to sweep all approaches, at distances never
dreamt of by former military engineers. No scheme could
be entertained for the defence of Lcndon, which does not
protect the communication with the sea, but as the dis-
tance from Kingston-on-Thames, to the forts at the mouth
of the river is only about thirty miles, it is evident the
protection of the navigation is not an impossible problem,
and Major Palliser holds the question should be at once
committed per se to a Royal Commissicin.