The Sun.
London, England, 1841-09-06 00:00:00

THAMES-OFFICE.

CRIM. CON. EXTRAORDINARY.—THE BLACKSMITH
AND ins WIFE. —Dim id Rowland, a blacksmith, was
brought before Mr. Broderip for final examination on a
chargg of stealing property to a large amount, belonging
to James Ruggett, of Bristol. The prosecutor is a striker
in a blacksmith's shop at Bristol, and the prisoner, who
occupied a room in his house, was a fellow workman. On
the 10th of August, the prosecutor's wife left her home,
and when Ruggett came home on the evening of that
day, he found that two pigs, worth 71., had been removed
from a stye and sold by his wife for 41.; she had also
taken away two suits of clothes belonging to him, a tea
caddy, a green box containing property worth about
501., and other articles. The prosecutor told his friends
that he had lost his " old woman" as well as his pigs,
and they all sympathised with him except the prisoner, who
laughed, 'end said it was a good job, and that Ruggett
ought to be delighted he had got rid of such a wife. On
the following Monday, the 10th, the prisoner left Bris-
tol by the railway, and the prosecutor ascertained that
his wife had only left the city an hour previous, and
that she was joined by the prisoner at the Bath station,
and they both set off for London in the same train.
Ruggett could hear no tidings of his wife until Saturday
last, when he was informed by letter that she was living
with the prisoner in Park-street, Limehouse. IW came
up to London immediately on the receipt of this intelli•
gence, and was passing the King's Head public-house in
Limehouse on Tuesday evening, when he saw the
prisoner in the tap-room, and at once gave him into
custody. The only articles found in his possession be-
longing to the prosecutor were a handkerchief and a
knife, which he identified, but Ruggett's wife, with the
most unblushing effrontery, said she had given them to
her paramour, and that she took the pigs and other
property from her husband's premises to support
" Davy," and that she dearly loved him. Mr.
Broderip was much disgusted with the woman's conduct,
and said she was an adulteress, and he would not hear
anything she had to say.
Mrs. Dowley, a lodging-housekeeper, in Park-street,
Limehouse, said the prisoner hired lodgings for himself
and Mrs. Ruggett, whom he called his dear Mrs. R., on
Wednesday, the 18th ult., and brought a good deal of
property to her house, which had been seized by the po-
lice since the prisoner had been in custody.

The prisoner, in defence, said th knife and handker-
chief found upon him were given hifu by Mrs. Ruggett,
and that she ran away with him instead of his running
away with her.
Mr. BRODERIP said he should commit the prisoner for
trial on the principle of law, that if a man and the
owner's wife jointly take away the husband's goods, it
may be felony in the man, though he was acting jointly
with the wife.

The " dear Mrs. R." cried bitterly, and hung over
" her dear Davy" for some time on hearing the decision.

POLICE CORRECTIONNELLE.

The heart of a man is as tough as a flint, and as hard
as the nether millstone. The heart of a woman is an inex-
haustible fountain of love and tenderness. At her tenth
year the young girl loves her mamma ; at twenty, the
youthful epousee doats, or is presumed to (loot, on her
husband ; at fifty, the lady on the decline seeks solace
in the love of God ; at sixty, the poor old widow, or
vecille fille, loves to distraction her poodle, cat, nor par-
roquet, but en revanche she has a fine collection of
pigeons, and concentrates upon them all those sparks of
lingering attention which yet find a resting place in he*.
ame refroidie. At the rear of the apartment which she
occupies in the Faubourg St. Martin she has constructed
with true ornithologic intelligence, a long and commo-
dious aviary for her cherished pets, which are thus per-
mitted to enjoy a sweet, a peaceful, and above all, a com-
fortable existence. Dame Tonnard each evening, having
first assured herself that her winged prisoners want for
nothing, closes their doors and windows, and early next
morning comes to restore them to liberty, a privilege of
which they avail themselves with much more prudent
forbearance than the bulk of mankind. After having
fluttered during the allotted period from roof to roof,and
journeyed from house to house, they return at dewy eve
to the maternal nest, and enjoy that repose and security
which is only to be found under .the shelter of the
Penates. _

In front of Madame Tonnard's apartment there lives
an old employe, named Lebuis, who has purchased by
30 years' service the right to rise at whatever hour he
pleases, and do exactly as he likes from morning to night.
Lebuis has also his petite passion—a passion as harmless
and innocent as that of his fair neighbour. Lebuis culti-
vates, trains, and tends throughout the entire length of
his three windows a garden of eight good feet by 14
inches. There the fragrant honeysuckle caresses with
the amorous embraces of its picturesque branches the
graceful jassmine and majestic. dahlia. Not an hour in
the day passes without Lebuis visiting his floral trea-
sures, and, according to their momentary necessities, ex-
posing them to the rays of the sun or sheltering them
from his too great intensity; while, regularly as the
shades of evening descend, with a carafe of filtered
water he imparts new life and freshness to drooping, leaf
and withered stem.

Upon that rarity, a fine day, in the late lugubrious
July. Lebuis perceived with the clairvoyance of a true
horticulturist, by certain infallible signs and tokens, that
his flowers had been rudely visited during his temporary
absence, pecked, deranged, defiled. He lay in ambush,
and was not slow to perceive a plump-breasted pigeon
disporting amongst the leaves of his delicate treasures,
and turning up the earth beneath them With its beak, in
the hope of finding there some grains of seed suited to
its appetite. He easily seized the indiscreet rover, and
the first movement of his indignant soul was to twist the
bird's neck ; but, moved with compassion at the sight
of the graceful creature, whose plumage glittered in the
sun like a collar of sapphires and emeralds, Lebuis
abandoned his avicidal project. Determined, neverthe-
less, to prevent the recurrence of so dire a disaster, lie
attached to the pigeon's neck a piece of writing, upon
which his complaint was engrossed in due form, and let
it loose.

That same evening, Dame Tonnard, having proceeded,
according to custom, to inspect her little aviary before
going to bed, was not a little astonished to perceive a
paper suspended to the neck of ona of them. With a
tremulous hand and fluttering bosom she unfolded the
billet (could it be a billet doux?), and read as follows
"Madam--I have the honour to acquaint you, that if
you do keep your pigeons from ravageinn, cgi
te I shall
mye garden,
should I catch them hereafter within my
eat them boiled aux petits pois.
" Your humble servant,
" F 1
This horrible threat made DameLEBUIS Tonna'rd4mslP'yr like
an aspen. passed a sleepless night in reflectingnv on
the conduct which it was befitting that he should pur-
sue in such an emergency ; and the night, this time an
evil counsellor, inspired' her with the following reply,
which she despatched to her ruthless neighbour by her
carrier pigeon :
" Monsieur—You are an impertinent fellow to dare to
threaten my birds ; and if you kill them, Y" will be an
old assassin.—Your servant,
" VEUVE TONNARD."
Lebuis's reply was conceived in these terms
" Madame Tonnard—You are an old fool, the worse
for being old. If your birds return to-day, they shall be
digested to-morrow.—Not at at,l?LoEurusueirvsrEt,mploye."
The correspondence ended here e”re I,triv manyotsothefoqutotazhel;
a very pretty one as it stocx
days, from one window to the other the neighbours ex-
changed the most injurious reproaches, to the great an-
noyance of all the adjacent inhabitants, whose repose
this intestine war most grievously disturbed. Accord-
ingly, those who were Most litigiously disposed amongst
them set on the pair to make the Commissary of Police
of the trivial difference. This counsel was
rthasehjgiuyd
foellowed ; and a reciprocal complaint having been
lodged before the Procureur du Roi, the affair was
discussed at the Police Correctionnelle, where both
parties appeared at once as plaintiffs and defendants.
The Tribunal, having heard with admirable patience
the reproaches and recriminations of the rival parties, in
consideration of the common category of " faults on both
sides," dismissed the partis dos a dos, having first taken
care to warn them how they went to law for the future,
by making them share the costs equally between them.

PEDESTRIANISM.—ThurIow had accomplished
one half of his task at Richmond-hill Gardens, at twelve
o'clock on Tuesday last, and. has now completed 570 out
of 1,000 miles in 1,000 successive hours. He shows no
symptoms of distress, but expresses full confidence of
being able to finish his arduous undertaking.—Norfolk
Gazette,