The Sun.
London, England, 1841-10-13 00:00:00

WESTMINSTER SESSIONS.

The Court met at three o'clock yesterday (Tuesday)
for the purpose of renewing and granting music licences,
and fur other general business.
Music licences were renewed to the following places :
The Hanover-square 'Rooms. the Lowther Assembly-
rooms, Strand ; the Grapes, Old Compton-street ; the
Duchess of Clarence, Vauxhall Bridge-road ; the Cath-
erine Wheel, Great Windmill-street; the Windsor Castle,
Long Acre ; the Crown and Still, Clare-market ; the
Two Angels and Crown, Upper St. Martin's-lane ; the
Swan Tavern, Hungerford-market ; and the Prince's
Theatre, King-street, St. James's.
An application for a music licence for the Belgrave
Tavern, Elizabeth-street, Pimlico, was made on behalf of
Mrs. Rebecca Hodgson, and granted by the Court.
The -Report of the Visiting Justices of the New
Brideweli was then read—the Report of the Committee
of Account, and the Annual Return of the Governor of
the Bridewell. _ _

The Report of the Visitingc, Justices stated that the
Bridewell was.. in a clean and healthy state ; the number
of prisoners confined was 287, viz., 167 males, and 120
females. Since the introduction of the now dietary, the
number of patients in the Infirmary, had considerably
diminished, and from the dates of the last Report there
had been only one death.
After same further routine business had been disposed
of the Court adjourned.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.
MANSION-HO USE.

Policeman William Knox, No. 421, was brought before
the Lord Mayor, by Sergeant Vale, No. 403, by the di-
rection of the City Police Commissioner, to answer for
the offence described in the following evidence :
Sergeant Vale stated that as he was passing along
Cannon-street, at a quarter before twelve o'clock on the
preceding night, he saw the defendant and another
policeman in a public-house, and said to him when he
came out, " You can't deny, now, that you were in a
public-house." The defendant said that he had not been
drinking, and offered to bet five shillings that it could
not be proved that he had been drinking. Witneis re-
fused to lay any wager, and the defendant put himself in
a boxing attitude, and, after using very provoking lan-
guage, struck him in the face three or four times, not
with any degree of violence, but evidently for the pur-
dose of inducing him to strike.
The LORD MAYOR (to the defendant)—What
have you to say for having committed this folly ?
The defendant said that he certainly did go into the
public-house with another policeman, a gentlman hay-
idz given them two-pence a-piece to pay for something
to drink, as the night was so bad. As, however, the
other policeman was intoxicated, the pdblican refused to
serve the man, and he (defendant) then refused to be
served, and waliod out, when he was charged by the
complainant with havi,-.;:: been drinking, which he Imme-
diately said was a falsehood. Provoked by the charge,
lie did, he admitted, put himself into a boxing attitude
before the complainant, but he sole:nnly denied having
given a single blow.
The LORD MAYOR—But why did you put yi,;Jself in
a boxing attitude ? Deendant—l was greatly irriti.:o
at the charge ; but I did not touch him. _ .

Sergeant Vale—lle struck me three or four times on
the cheek with his shut fist, but he did not hurt me.
His object was to excite me to strike him. I took him
into custody. He has been reported before for fighting.
Defendant—l have never been reported for drinking
in my life, at any rate. The sergeant was himself in the
house twenty minutes before.
Sergeant Vale—Yes, but that was on business, as the
publican is here to prove.
The LORD MAYOR—I have nothing to do with that.
I have merely to decide with regard to the assault.
Defendant—l have a wife and two children, my Lord,
and I hope you will take that into consideration.

The Loan MAYOR—I fine you ten shillings for the
assault. The Commissioner knows how to deal with
you as to what does not come under my cognizance.
The night was certainly a very severe one, and a man
might be excused for looking for shelter anywhere.
Two young men named Shaw, alias tl IL'iam Monks,
and Watkins, alias George Dart ah, were brought up for
final examination, on a charge of having uttered a base
half-crown piece in the shop of Mrs. Abrahams, tobac-
conist, in Sun-street, Bishopsgate. The conduct of the
prisoners, who are notorious dealers in bad money, hav-
ing been desperate, the Lord Mayor requested that Mr.
Powell, of the office of the Solicitor to the Mint, would
attend, to ascertain whether there might not be suffi-
cient evidence to justi"y a committal, although one of
them had succeeded, by swallowing the base coin, in
putting out of reach a part of the usual evidence con-
sidered necessary to establish a conviction.
William noddy (policeman No. 652) stated that he
saw the prisoners, whom he knew to be very bad cha-
racters, look into several shops in Sun-street, and at
length enter, one after the other, into the shop of
Mrs. Abrahams, who was alone. After they left the
shop witness entered and soon learned that the poor
woman had given them change for a bad lialkrown.
He immedately pursued them, and with the assistance of
a sergeant, apprehended, and brought them hack to the
shop, where Mrs. Abrahams identified them. Witness
then desired her to mark the half crown, and at the same
moment Shaw cried our "gnash it," and Watkins, with
great violence, grasped Mrs. Abr,i hams arm, snatched
the bad money, put it in his mouth, and some persons
having rushed in to the assistance of the prisoners, sue-
ceeded in swallowing it, after which he said to witness,
" Its down."

Mr. Powell regretted that the evidence was not suffi-
cient, for he had known the prisoners to be incorrigible
smashers for a length of time.
Mrs. Abrahams said that she could not guess how the
policeman escaped serious injury, for a hundred people
rushed into the shop and quite overwhelmed him.
Sergeant Burrell (No. 602) corroborated this part of
the policeman's conduct, which he witnessed in the shop,
and secured one of the prisoners, lie found upon each a
quantity of good money.

The -LORD MAYOR asked whether either of the pri-
soners struck the policeman ? Policeman Hoddy said he
could not say that he received a blow.
The LORD MAYOR—Did the prisoners resist 'you ?
Policeman Hoddy—Certainly they did.
The LORD 31Avott—I consider that they have been
guilty of a high misdemeanor in assaultinc, Mrs. Abra-
hams and resisting the police, and I shall commit them
if they do not find good bail.

Mrs. Abrahams said that she was very poor, and had
been greatly plundered by persons like the prisoners.
Mr. Nobler suggested the propriety of directing the
City Solicitor to prosecute the prisoners, who were expe-
rienced hands, and knew how to get out of ordinary dif-
fieul ties.

The LORD MAYOR immediately desired that in-
structions should be sent to the City Solicitor on the
subject, and mentioned that he had been given to under-
stand that many cases of swallowing both good and bad
money had proved fatal to those who got rid of prosecu-
tions in that way.
Mr. Powell said that he was acquainted with various
cases in which the swallowing 4_4' good as well as bad
money had produced ulceration of th stomach, and ab-
cess of the intestines, which ended in death. One of
the individuals he alluded to (Thomas Seeley) had swal-
lowed seven good half-crowns, and died in great agony
of intestinal abcess.

The prisoners seemed, by their countenances, to deny
the efficiency of such a mode of getting rid of life.
They did,not at all contradict anything that had. been
uttered against them, but stood cautiously and steadily
at the bar, and perfectly comprehended the whole of the
proceedings.