The Sun.
London, England, 1846-10-21 00:00:00

FLOGGING IN GAOLS.

Mr. BRISCOE then made a motion, in pursuance of
notice he gave at the last session, that the recom-
mendation contained in the last report of the prison
inspectors, that the practice of flogging boys under
fourteen years of age with the cat-o'• nine tails in
the gaols should be discontinued, should be carried into
effect.

Mr. AUSTEN seconded the motion, and only regretted
that it did not go to the extent of abolishing such a
punishment altogether.

Mr. C. BARCLAY said he was sorry to be compelled to
oppose the motion. In his opinion nagging was a most
proper punishment for boys, and it was much better
to punish then in this manner than to send them to un-
dergo a lengthened imprisonment, which might have
the effect of entirely contaminating them. He did not
see that any case of cruelty had been made out to call
for their interference.

Colonel CIIALLONER said they should not forget that
this degrading and horrible punishment, as it was called,
was very freely made use of at Eton and their other
public schools, as many gentlemen he saw around him
could no doubt testify.—(A laugh.) They had very
strong reason to remember the black rod and the right
urm of the master, after they had been guilty of driving
a tandem or hunting a badger.—(Renewed laughter.)
He agreed with Mr. Barclay, and thought that many a
boy would have been saved from ruin if the magistrates
had the power to order a flogging instead of sending a
young lad to undergo the form of a trial. If the boy
Jones had been well flogged at first, he would never have
gone a second time to the Palace.—(Roars of laughter.)
Mr. BRISCOE replied, and the motion was then put ;
but as the only magistrates who held up their hands in
favour of it was the mover and seconder, it was of course
lost by a large majority.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.
MANSION-HOUSE.
Charles Churrell, an exceedingly smart-looking boy,
aged fifteen, was brought before Alderman Wood,
charged with having picked a woman's pocket of four-
pence, in a very adroit manner.
The prosecutrix was followed by the prisoner, who
was in the company of two other boys, by whom his
movements were covered. He slipped one hand under
her pocket, and held it up, so that with the other hand
he emptied it with ease. He then slipped the contents
into a side pocket in his coat, and walked off; evidently
to look after more victims, Upon being taken into cus-
tody, upon the evidence of a boy, about his own age,
who had been sharply observing him, he was searched,
and in the pocket pointed out by the witness, were found
penny pieces and halfpence, amounting to fourpence. In
his trowsers' pocket were found tour shillings, of which
he had, as it appeared, a short time before, plundered a
person, who did not attend to prosecute.
The prisoner, who put on a crying face, out of which
he was not able to wring a tear, said the woman was mis-
taken. The whole of the money was his own, shillings
as well as half pence, and he hoped the Alderman would
not deprive him of it.
Alderman WOOD asked the woman whether she re-
membered exactly the kind of money she had had in her
pocket ? The prosecutor—l do, my Lord ; there were
three penny pieces and two half-pence.
Alderman WOOD—You are correct. There is the
money that was found in his coat pocket (handing the
money to her).
The prisoner looked quite confused at the unanswer-
able detection.
Alderman WOOD—Well, sir, what have you to say
now ? how did her money get into your pocket ? The
prisoner—I never put it there ; there were some boys
about, I don't know what they might have done.
Several of the police force stated that the prisoner was
constantly about the streets, in the company of young
thieves.

Alderman WOOD —You shall go for three months to
he House of Correction for this, and the four shillings
shall go towards your support.
WORSHIP-STREET.
Anne Sinner, alias Rnffey, alias Turner, the wife of a
.German eating-house keeper in Keate-street, Spital-
fields, was placed at the bar before Mr. Broughton for
final examination, charged with the wilful murder of a
young Irish labourer named Daniel Crawley, by stab-
bing him with a carving-knife.
The evidence now given, which was of a much more
conclusive character than any before elicited, was to the
effect that as George Brown, an acquaintance of the
prisoner, was assisting her in her business, at eleven
o'clock on the night in question, the deceased entered
the shop, and requested to be served with a quarter of a
pound of meat, which witness supplied to him and told
him it came to 2id. The deceased offered 2d., saying
that he had no more, and witness handed the money to
the prisoner, who objected to receive it, as it was a half-
penny short of the price. The deceased, however, in
sisted upon having the meat for the money. he had
tendered, when the prisoner wrapped it up in some
paper, and, placing it on a shelf behind her, called
the' prisoner a blackguard, and told him to leave the
shop, as she did not want his custom. During this
altercation another man entered and likewise called
for some meat, which the prisoner was in the
act of cutting for him, when the deceased, who
was leaning forward upon the counter with his head
resting upon his arm, continued his importunity, and
the prisoner, who was much excited, suddenly seized a
large cutting-knife, and exclaiming. " There, you —,
that's your halfpennyworth !" stabbed him in the breast
with it. The prisoner instantly flung the knife out of
her hand upon the floor beyond the counter, and the
deceased, who screamed out " Oh ! I am stabbed to the
heart, save me, save me !" and who tightly grasped his
side with both his hands, through the fingers of which
i
the blood was flowing in great profusion, was n the act
of reeling to the ground, when the witness carried him
to a chair, in which he was supported until the arrival
of the police and a neighbouring surgeon. The surgeon
at once pronounced the wound the deceased had received
to be mortal, and directed his immediate removal to the
London Hospital.
Francis Van Spielenberg, a German skin-dresser, cor-
roborated the last witness's evidence in all its essential
particulars, and deposed to some expressions towards
the prisoner from the. deceased, which, though not of
such a nature as to induce her to lose all control of her
temper, were of certainly an aggravating tendency.
Mr.. Holman, a surgeon of the London Hospital, de-
scribed the nature of the injury deceased had sustained,
from which he gradually sunk for the period of a week,
and then. expired.. The knife had caused an incised
wound, dividing the cartilage of the sixth and seventh
ribs, and puncturing the pericardium so seriously that it
exhibited. extensive inflammation and was filled with
fluid. The cavity of the chest also was gorged with
blood, from three pints to two quarts; and all the other