The Sun.
London, England, 1870-04-01 00:00:00

STRANGE STORY OF FRAUD.

A deplorable story was told before Mr. Justice Smith
at the Leeds Assizes. The case was that of Sharper v.
Stansfield. Mr. Shaper is a tobacconist and eating-house
keeper in Sheffield, and Stansfield was formerly employed
in a spirit vaults in the same town. The plaintiff had an
only child, a daughter,called Maria,age 21. The question was
whether the sum of £65 deposited in a Sheffield bank on
the 28th of July last by the defendant, was the property
of the plaintiff, and had been improperly taken from
him ; whether, in fact, the plaintiff had been
robbed and plundered by the conduct of the
defendant operating upon the mind of plaintiff's daughter,
and leading her to become the tool in his hands for
robbing the old man. In 1865, the young lady made the
defendant's acquaintance, the stores at which he was bar-
man being close to the plaintiff's, premises, so that the
defendant came frequently in her way.. She was attrac-
tive, and young, and naturally unsuspicious, and the de-
fendant offered attentions to her, and took opportunities
to make himself agreeable, and especially expressed to her
a wish that she should become his wife. She became at-
tached to him, and she agreed to marry him if he would
establish himself in business. The parents of the young
lady knew nothing of all this, and the defendant was
aware of their ignorance. But at length it came to the
father's knowledge that this intimacy existed, and in order
to break it off he sent his daughter to a school in Germany,
where she remained from March, 1866, to June, 1868.
The father thought the defendant would not communi-
cate with her there, but he did, and sent her
his photograph. On her return from the Continent,
the defendant resumed his attentions, and wrote
the young lady various letters, and took the
opportunity when the father was not there of
going to the plaintiff's shop arid meeting her, when she
was not under her father's eye. The defendant, having
got a promise of marriage, adopted a course which the
counsel said, enabled him to plunder the plaintiff. That
he poured into her ears sophistry was sufficiently trans-
parent. He told her that she was an only child, that all
her father had would be hers, and that, as she took part
in the business, she was entitled to a share in the profits.
lle pleaded, too, " You are going to be my wife ;
what is your's will be mine, and, in point of fact, is
mine." Step by step, operating upon her affections and
upon her mind, he at last suggested to her that she
should help him to money out of her father's till The
weekly earnings in the shop were £l5O, and the
young lady, influenced by the defendant, helped herself
from time to time freely of it, and handed it to the
defendant, generally in silver. It became a systematic
thing for sums of money to be handed ever to the de-
fendant on ThesdaY4 4.)41 VTidays; and it was supposed
that in that way the de endant had altogether received
no less than £5OO. flaying first been content with the
money taken from the till, the defendant at length sug-
hested that the young lady should open her father's cash.
3x. She protested against that even to tears, but at last
yielded to the defendant's suggestion, He obtained for
her counterfeit lop, and by that means considerable
sums 'were abstracted from the cash-box. On the 28th of
July last he took to the Sheffield Bank, in George-street,
£65, and in September he deposited at interest £6O with
a person named Moore. This went on until November
last year, when Miss Shaper found that the defendant
was paying his addresses to another young woman ; diffe-
rences arose between them, and his conduct was so bad
and insulting that Miss Shaper broke off the acquaint-
ance. Her father was told all that had taken place, Arid
the defendant admitted to the police that he had put the
money in the hank, but he gave the plaintiff a promissory
note for £l2O. Letters were read from Stansfield to Miss
Shaper, chewing the influence he had over her mind.
Miss Shaper was examined, and so was Stansfield, 110
swore that he had never received a halfpenny from Miss
Shaper, whereupon his counsel thew up his brief. A
verdict for the plaintiff was returned, and Stansfield will
be tried for robbery,

REMARKABLE INSURANCE CASE.
Some curious disclosures were made in the course of an
insurance case heard at Kingston. A claim was made
against the Sun Fire Office by a man named Chapmanfor
£4lB insurance effected upon Chance Cottage, situated
between Reigate and Epsom. The policy was subscribed
upon the 7th of March, 1866, and on the night of the 14th
of September following, Chance Cottage was totally con-
sumed by fire. The policy was effected for £5OO ;
but Chapman assessed .the value of the goods at £4lB,
which the company resisted as extortionate. Some singulP-
features were disclosed. In the first place the actor-
said to be brought by Chapman simply in a
ratter, and as trustee for a man named ia-ryli era-
Walker. Chap-
man described himself as a„,.liensed lighterman and an
owner of barges. He had ;,dices at 20, Lime-street, and
wharfage premises in Southwark. On the occasion of the
great fire in Tooley-street, some years back, he placed
his premises at the disposal of the defendants'
company for the harbouring of salvage ; and
it was through that circumstance that he was
introduced to them. Down to 1865 he had
been in a comparatively large way of business ; but in
that year he got into difficulties and was obliged to mort-
gage barges, and in 1866 he went through the Bank-
ruptcy Court. He said that he was a married man with
a family, and that he still resided in Tooley-street. Walker
has been his foreman at a salary of from £3OO to £4OO a
year almost since the conclusion of the Crimean war, and
had lent him altogether sums amounting to between £4OO
and £503 since the period he had 'found himself in
pecuniary straits. Walker, having discovered that he
was raising money elsewhere upon the security
of his baro-es, insisted upon receiving security
for his advances, and therefore he mortgaged
to him the furniture and effects at Chance
Cottage, and the policy with the defendants' company was
assigned to him. Walker's account of himself was this :
He had been in the navy, serving on board the Leander,
under Captain William Peel and two other commanders,
and he had been also attached to the Naval Brigade,
which had acted in concert with the land forces. On
the 18th of June he had borne Captain Peel out of the
trenches. He had the war medal with three clasps, and
he held certificates of good conduct from the officers
under whom he served. He had gone to the Crimea with a
little money, and this he turned to good account by taking
advantage of the necessities of his comrades. He also pur-
chased relics of the war and resold them at a profit. He
had sold the swords of Russian officers as relics of Eng-
lish officers that had been killed. But principally had he
bacome rich through plundering the dead bodies of the
killed as they lay on the field of battle. It appears that
in 1861 a young woman named Lewis, the daughter of a
cattle dealer, left Berkshire for London, and obtained the
situation of a stillroom-maid at the Brunswick Hotel,
Hanover-square. She remained there three years. After
that she removed to the White Hart, at Bromley, as bar-
maid. Chapman, for some reason or other, stayed at the
White Hart, and became intimate with Miss Lewis. She
regarded him as an unmarried man, and ultimately
she went away with him to the Cottage, near Epsom.
After a time they quarrelled, and she left him. He used
to visit her, however, and give her money to support her-
self and her children. She came to London after a time,
and he ceased his payments. She then got into the Ber-
mondsey Workhouse, and there she was found by
the detective officer employed by the company to
hunt her up. Her whereabouts had been disco-
vered principally through a photograph of her that
her sister at Chatham had handed to the police. The
effect of her evidence was that after she left there could
only have been a few pounds worth of property on
the premises, and that the whole affair was arranged
between Chapman and Walker to defraud the company
and to defraud Chapman' re
When she left her
place was taken by a Miss Haynes, a young lady whom
Chapman was said to have met at St. James's Hall. She
asserted that she was at Chance Cottage simply as Chap.
man's servant, with, wages of £l6 a year. It appeared
from the evidence that on the 14th of Septem-
gone up to London, leaving the
ber Chapman had
young woman Haynes (alias rakington), one of his
sons, Walker, and the servant girl behind him.
Orders were given that his pony carriage should be sent
over to Reigate station to meet him on the return journey.
Accordingly Miss Haynes and one of the boys drove over
about six o'clock. Walker left the cottage simultaneously,
and he went into the Fox Inn at Kingwood, where
he remained until he was joined there by Chapman, Miss
Haynes, and the boy, at half-past nine. The party
remained at the Fox until half-past eleven, and on their
coming forth they discovered Chance Cottage, which was
only a few hundred yards off, to be in flames. In a short
time the cottage was burned to the ground and every-
think it contained was totally consumed. Nothing could
be discovered to account for the origin of the fire. It was
said that when Walker left the house there was a fire
lighted in the kitchen and another in the front parlour..
The servant girl went home to her mother's at eight
o'clock, leaving the place empty. The jury returngd a
verdict for the defendants. Chapman and Walker both disappeared from the Court before the Chief Justico
munmed up.

STORMS IN AMERICA.—The American papers
state that unusually severe weather has prevailed in many
parts of this country. The Buffalo Express of the 17th of.
March, says that the two previous nights rivalled anything that was ever known formclemency. There was great
suffering among the mountains of Utah. A stage coach
with ten Chinamen as passengers, was upset and six of
them were frozen to death. The Chicago Times
that, i
declares _
the city s. practically snow-bound.
The fall of snow which commenced at 3 •Wan. continued
without intermission throughout the day of the 15th. The
fiercest snow-storm and gale known for years has raged
in Vermont. Five trains of the Erie Road were detained
at Binghampton, and the passengers were nearly famished
for want of provisions. In Troy, New York State, the
snow fell to the depth of twenty inches, and travellinocr was
greatly impeded. In many places the roofs of the buildings
fell in from the weight of the snow which rested upon
them, and serious accidents occurred.

THE FENIANS IN AmznicA.—The recent shoot-
ing affray in Fourth-street between two prominent
Fenians, on account of some differences regarding the
conduct of matters in the Fenian circle, to which they
belonged, is an ugly case for the brotherhood, whether
Mr. Meehan dies or gets well, or whether Mr. Keenan is
hanged or acquitted. There has not been a time since
the Canadian invasion in 1866 that the Fenia,ns have not
been wrangling among themselves, over their funds, or
their presidency, or their programme of action. Under
these dispiriting influences their organisation has done
nothing and does not seem likely to do anything. They
are severely discountenanced in Ireland by the Pope and
the priests, while here they are for ever wrangling over
the spoils. It seems likely now that murders or mur-
derous assaults among themselves are to be added to
their other drawbacks, and when these get a firm foot,
hold in Fenianism even the Irishmen who enjoy broken
heads must leave it. It has always seemed strange to
us that a people who
.Arci be famous• for bravery and
fidelity in foreign service should be so unreliable and
faltering in their own behalf. It is paraphrasing a trite
remark, but it is aypropriate, nevertheless, to say pat
Fenianism nejJedye enemy but it e own 7--2V.ty" York
Sep -