The Sun.
London, England, 1848-01-08 00:00:00

PRICE OF SUGAR.

The average price of Brown or Muscovado Sugar, computed
from the returns made in the week ending January 4
1848, is 263. 114 d. per cwt.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.
MANSION-HOUSE.
Ann Smith, Mary Ann Smith, and Ann Swinson,
who have been frequently concerned in street rob-
beries, were brought before the Lord Mayor upon the
charge of having stolen a purse containing 1 ls. or
125., in Cheapside.
It appeared from the evidence that Ann Smith had,
in the course of numerous walks up and down Cheap-
side, attempted to pick the pockets of several ladies,
and that the other two prisoners, and a female who
had escaped, covered her from the observation of those
upon whom the experiments were tried, but luckily
not from the notice of Dalton, a City constable, who
has acquired a very useful knowledge of the London
thieves without being known by them. Miss Eliza-
beth Bamfield, a young lady, who was at a quarter-
past five o'clock going along Cheapside, was the last
of their victims. Two of the women walked before
and two behind her, and Ann Smith with true pro-
fessional tact whipped the purse out of her pocket,
without in the slightest degree disturbing or attract-
ing her notice. The four thieves then turned round
and began to look after other game, and Dalton hav-
ing given the necessary hint to a brother officer, ran
up, and soon learned from her that she had been
robbed. He then returned, and met the four women,
who had again turned round, and as Ann Smith was
concealing something in her bosom, seized her by part
of her dress. With singular activity she slipped out
of his hand, leaving her shawl in his possession, and
ran down one of the narrow streets in which, as she
found that the pursuit was becoming dangerous, she
flung down the purse, and struggled desperately to
elude the officer. Her career, however, was doomed
to have an end. She and two of her accomplices
were secured and conducted to the station-house,
when Miss Bamfield identified her purse, and the pri-
soners were recognised as old visitors.
Ann Smith—l'd be glad to know from this lady
whether she saw me at all near her ? Miss Bamfield
—No, I never saw you at all.
Dalton—My Lord, she is too clever to let herself
be seen or felt either. But few can escape such
artists.
Ann Smith said, upon being asked whether she
wished to make any defence before the Lord Mayor,
it is false to say I took the purse. I ran because the
man pulled the shawl off me, and was frightened, and
did not know well what I did.
Ann Swinson—What could I have to do with it?
I was walking before the lady, and could not touch
her. As for these two young women I never saw
them before, and it is not likely that strangers would
make up a match to commit a robbery.
The LORD MAYOR—You are all connected with a
formidable gang of thieves, and I believe that very few
persons whom you attempt to plunder manage to es-
cape you. As you are so expert, and go about in
gangs, I shall, in order to protect my fellow-citizens
as much as possible fr_m your machinations, direct
that in every case of this kind the City Solicitor shall
prosecute.
The prisoners were then committed for trial, and
the City Solicitor was directed to prosecute.
James Coates, charged with having committed se-
veral railroad robberies, was brought up for final
examination.
Mr. Justins attended for the Great Western Rail-
way Company, and a solicitor attended upon the part
of the Blackwell Railway Company.
The following was the new evidence in these se-
rious cases of plunder.
Mr. Joseph B. Lear, assistant at Mr. Gregson's
academy, in Tillington-park, Holloway, said—On the
18th of December I was a passenger from the Pad-
dington-station of the Great Western Railroad to
Cheltenham, in the Parliamentary train, at half-past
ten o'clock. I had a large carpet bag, containing a
suit of clothes, boots, and a number of books. I do
not remember having seen the prisoner in the train.
The last place in which I saw the bag was Swindon,
where it was in the possession of one of the company's
servants. On arriving at Cheltenham it could not
be found at all. On the following Tuesday I saw the
bag at the Cheltenham station. It was tied in a dif-
ferent way from the manner in which it had been
fastened when I set out, and the clothes were missing.
The other property was in it. I had spoken about
the bag to Mr. Brown, a superintendent of the com-
pany.
John Frazer, one of the company's men at Swindon,
said, on the 18th of December I found the bag which
was identified by Mr. Lear, in an urinal at Swindon.
It was tied carelessly, and appeared to be nearly full,
and I gave it to Mr. Robinson, the sub-inspector at
the Swindon station.
Hardwick, metropolitan policeman of the D divi-
sion, to whom the investigation of the robberies was
entrusted, and who not only found some stolen pro-
perty in the prisoner's lodging in town, but appre-
hended the prisoner himself in Cheltenham, and
found some stolen property in the latter place in his
possession, was next called. He produced a suit of
clothes and boots, which the prisoner said at Chelten-
ham was his property, and which Mr. Lear imme-
diately identified as having been stolen out of his
carpet bag, which was found at Swindon.
Justins then called witnesses in the next case,
which makes the fifth against the prisoner, the rob-
bery of Mr. Thompson on the Blackwell Railroad
being the first.
Captain Spong, of her Majesty's Navy, said—On
the 11th of December I went down to Blackwell in
an omnibus, and went from thence to Gravesend in a
steamer, having two carpet bags. The bags disap-
peared on the way. They contained a quantity of
clothes and some articles of jewellery. The clothes
were all marked with my name.
Hardwick here produced several articles of dress,
some of which had been found by him at the prisoner's
dwellings in London and Cheltenham. He also pro-
duced a number of duplicates which he had found in
the prisoner's trunk, and the pawnbrokers produced
goods pawned.
Captain Spong immediately identified the property
as part of the contents of the stolen bags.
Mr. Justins said he could obtain evidence as to
some rings 4elonging to Captain Spong, which had
been seen upon the prisoner's fingers at Cheltenham,
but it was not at all desirable to accumulate the ex-
penses of the prosecution.
The LORD MAYOR—Prisoner, do you wish to say
anything ? The prisoner—Not now, my Lord. I
wish to be remanded for another week.
The LORD MAYOR—For what reason. Prisoner—
I have a reason, or I would not ask for the remand.
I can't tell it now.
Mr. Justins—l have reasons, too, for wishing for a
remand, because I have information of several other
robberies committed by the prisoner, who has been a
constant railway traveller for the mere purposes of
plunder, but I am anxious not to add to the expenses
of prosecution, which your Lordship knows must be
very great already, and I therefore call upon your
Lordship for a committal.
The LORD MAYOR—Certainly, I shall now commit
the prisoner for trial. If he have a reason for asking
for a remand he ought to say what it is.
Committed for trial.
GUILDHALL.
A young woman named Amelia Jones attended to
learn the result of an application she had made three
days before to be assisted from the charity box.
Her story was rather a romantic one. She was
stolen from a boarding-school when she was fourteen
years old, and married to a young man who worked at
plumbing and painting. They were separated on the
second day of their marriage, and her husband was
prosecuted at the sessions for enticing her away, she
having some pecuniary expectances. Upon his li-
beration he enlisted for a soldier, and has recently
been discharged, after serving seven years, but as he
was a drunken fellow she determined never to renew
her acquaintance with him. She was taught the art
of straw bonnet making, by which she partly main-
tained herself, and on Sunday last she arrived from
York in search of an uncle nomed Robert Newland,
a butcher, in easy circumstances, and with the view
of maintaining herself by her business. Her uncle,
she had heard, lived in Marylebone, but she had no
other address, and she had not the good fortune to
find him. ller inquiries for work were unavailing,
and her application to the magistrate was, that he
would use his influence in obtaining work for her as
a straw bonnet maker, and grant her a little assis-
tance in the interim. Her means were quite ex-
hausted.
Sir C. MARSHALL interrogated her at some length,
and finding she had a local knowledge of York, and
that hitherto she had been able to support herself in
respectability amongst those who knew her, while in
London she had not a single relative or acquaintance
to help her in sickness or want, thought the best thing
he could do for her was to send her back to York.
He therefore caused a letter of inquiry to be addressed
to the superintendent of police of York, and gave the
young woman a trifle from the poor-box, to sustain
herself in the interim.
Sir C. MARSHALL having received a satisfactory
reply yesterday, directed her fare to be paid hack to
York, and dismissed her with a few words of kind
admonition.