The Sun.
London, England, 1812-10-28 00:00:00

34MDLESEX SM.:TONS, OCT. 27.

Thdmas .E4argon,• lately employed as of ice-
keeper in tlie'of4e of faje!ity's Quarter-
Master-General, stoodlndictedfor fraudulently al-
tering.; in a bill krona the coach-office of the George
Inn, Southwark, the sum of 3s. Id. to 13s. Id. for
the carriage and p'orterage of a parcel from Hy the;
and thereby defrauding hip Majesty..
The prosecution was carried on by order of Go-
vernment ; and it appeared from the :evidence,
that the traverser bad h?en many years employed
as office-keeper, and that it was a part of his duty
to-receive all parcels addressed for the department
of the .Quarter-Master-General,
.to pay for the
same, and to present. his accounts once a 'quarter
to the head of his departmetit. On the !.41th of
October last Year, a parcel was breught- from
Hythe, to the Office, and the charge upon the bill
for carriage was 2s. Id. with postage Is. which the
inn porter received from the traverser,'-.who,- in
settling h 6: account in January last, charged for
this parcel 13$: ,Id. and in order to make the
voucher tally with the item in his account, he
placed the figure one before the two, and so made
it 12s. Re received a draft for the balance due
to him, on Messrs. Cox and Greenwood ; -which
was regularly paid. In consequence of some sub
sequent discoveries, his vouchers were re-examin-
ed, and upon examining the -books at the George
Inn, the fraud was discovered.

The Jury. found the prfsoner Guilty without he-
sitation:

The. traverser was the: tried: upon another in-
dietment of a limilar nature, for several charges
'of 3s. Gd., and 'l3s: -alleged, in his ac-
connt, to have been paid at the White-horse
Cellar, Piccadilly, on.different dates, for the con-
veyance of
.parcels from his 'office to Mahe. It
appeared, on the testimony of Mr: Robinson,
clerk of the coach-office there, that no such, par=
cels werebooked-there for Ilythe, and consequently
that no such payments had been made as those
charged by the traverser. He was accurdingly
'found guilty on this indictment ,aLso.-
'The CHAIRMAN, in proceeding to pass sentence;
observed, that the amount of those specific frauds
were on, a scale so small as not to be apparently,
of much importance; but the facts became of very
great importance, when it was considered bow
many hundreds of persons ,were confidentially cal-:
ploved in the various departments of Governmenti-
in situations like the traverser's; and whose frauds
to a great amount, though smallin detail, might
either 'pass unsuspected, or elude discovery by the
management of such persons, and through J.he
cUlty oftletection in the minuteness and complicatiOn
of their accounts. It was really shocking to ,re-
flect.,:thar,while the real exigencies of the Gevern-.
•me nt ddilY calledf or b u rthe on,the people,
• under the presstTc of the times, they were s.carce-
able to bear, these burthens should be still more
heayily increased by the frauds of persons en-
trusted with the disbursement
,of public money.
Acss Of this kind, therefore, whenever- conviction
could be brought home.tosthe criminals, called for
most exemplary punishment., The Court was
empowered in this case' to pass on the traverser
sentence of transportation : however, on account
of. his years, they
.would .not inflict on him. that
punishment, and therefore only sentenced -him to
twelve months' itnprisOnment on each conviction.
MATERNAL CRUELTY.-Eliza&eth . Bruce stood
indicted for cruelly starving, unmet ciialiy beating,
and otherwiSe. most 'inhumanly- treating her own
'son,' Robert Bruce„,a, child under.eight years of
age, in the month ofJune and July lest, in Spital-
fields. , The circuinktances were shortly these
The traverser is a widow with eight children,
and was pregnant with a ninth. at the time this
cruelty was discovered, In consequence of the
finlignant'rumpurs of, the inhabitants of the neigh-
bourhood, a publican, named Icomewovd, xvho
lived 'in the vicinity, went to the apartment, where
the poor child was confined; and fOutui him almost
naked, perfectly squalid with filth and emaciation,
from apparentlarnine; He interrogated the child,
who, frotu. his appeared not more than four
years old ; on being convinced from his answers
that his own conjectures were well-founded, lie
brought him to his house, gave hina focid, and
immediately acquainted the parish-officeti; 'who
forthwith applied to the Magistrates at the next
police-Office, and the mother was taken into ens-
tody.
Mr. Fox, a surgeon, who examined the child,
said, he found him in the utfilost state Of"'Misery
and dejection, emaciated-almost .to a skeleton,
from famine. The child had no disease; nor did
he adthiniSter any medicine. But from the change
of treatment, cleatilinelis, and food, his
.appear,
mice xi-as so much altered for, the better, in three
Or four weeks, that he should not have known
him again it he had not frequently seen him in the
interim... • ' .

Elizabeth Jones,. a lodger in the same, house
with- the• mother, .Rose ItObins, another lodger,
and Mary gall, occasionally employed to wash for
the mother, who kept an eating-house, also gave
evidence of the cguel treatment of the child,
totally different from that of her seven other child-
ren;three of whom were grown up, and
it was stated, she treated.with the greatest kind-
ness. It appeared, -also, front their testimony,
that the little victim was 'confined in a room Over
the scullery in the yard, and not suffered to play
aboutwith the other children ; that he Was fasten-
_
ed by the leg with a small iron chain to some post
or other immovable thing in the room ; and
that although he was thus prevented from -a ccess
even to the water-closet, the poor child, for
.theinevitable consequences i‘of such a priva-
tion, was severely beaten by'his 'mother. Mary
in particular, proved, that while she
washing up dishes in the scullery, the child, by
some Means,.got down to the yard, where he took
-cabbage-stalks out of the hog-wash tub, and
concealed them under his littlegarments.for food;
that be even took the grease off the • candlesticks
to eat, and asked her for water to drink from a
dirty pail she was using ; ar4d that the mother bid
her take care of the candle-ends in the candle-
sticks, as she could not keep a bit of candle for
this boy; that on her representing co the mother
that the poor child, she believed, had not enough
to eat, she answered, "he had, a craving disposi-
. tion, and was never satisfied." .

'LONDON : Prmtc,l by MONIAS WOOD, of N 0.35, 111:.th!on-lane, 6went-garden ;•,' and Publi,%lol • by, wiLTIAM- ARNITCER..SCRTITS. Sot,tl3l-Mvltoi
• At the L',-us th,p.icE, No. 1122 Straw!, where Aiirertis'ements, OrticrOor the Paper, Tatters for the Editor, &c. (post.