The Sun.
London, England, 1870-11-26 00:00:00

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.-THIS DAY.

THE CHARGE AGAINST REFORMATORIES. - Robert
Graham, a decently dressed lad, was charged on remand,
at the Westminster Police-court, with stealing a £5 note
from his master, Mr. Jones, a linen-draper, of Warwick-
street, Pimlico, and he had been remanded to enable an
uncle to take charge of him, but the most interesting
part of the case was that the mother had stated that her
husband, a warder in Milbank prison, found among his
convicts at that establishment a large proportion of men
who had been in reformatories when boys, going so far as
to say that 6 out of 7 was about the average ; the step-
father, Stokes, attended and denied having made such an
assertion, his wife must have mistaken the impression he
meant to convey. In consequence of that assertion the
Rev. Sidney Turner, director of reformatories, has been
in communication with Mr. Arnold, the magistrate,
and assured him that so far from being places of
corruption they were decidedly of correction,
and although they could not pretend to eradicate £the
seeds of vice from all placed in their charge, he had great
pleasure in stating that not more than 8 per cent. of the
reformatory boys turned out bad, nor more than 6 per
cent, of the girls. The statement of the mother was a
simple invention, no doubt caused by the fear of having
to pay a sum of money per week for the maintenance of
the boy. Mr. Arnold said a gentleman had attended
from the rev, gentleman, and would take the boy to be
trained to a seafaring life, and as he was acting kindly in
not punishing the lad, and the very clothes he wore were
purchased with the stolen money, he trusted the father
would, to satisfy his own conscience, refnnd the
money. The father demurred to this, and Mr. Arnold
said he could not compel him. He left it to his good
sense of propriety and conscience. The b who had
been apprehended at Liverpool by Sergeant Randall, of
the B division, was then given up to the reformatory
authorities.

RUNNING INTO THE LION'S MOUTH.—Michael Lynch,
aged 40, and Patrick Connor, 54, Irish labourers, were
brought up on remand, before Mr. Paget, at the Thames
Police-court, . charged with the unlawful possession of
27 lbs. of raw cocoa-nibs and 20 lbs. of iron nails, the
property of some person unknown. The prisoners
rushed into the lion's den. They were coming along
Leman-street and encounteredjtwo police-constables, who
were standing at the door of the Leman-street police-station,
who saw indications of uneasiness on both, which convinced
them that they had been guilty of some dishonest act,-
and asked them what the bags contained they were
carrying so assiduously. The prisoners replied only a
few little tit-bits of things, and tried to move on in
double ,quick time, but they were soon overtaken and
stopped by the policemen, who, after a long and severe
struggle with them, succeeded in forcing them into the
station and opening the two bags. In one they discovered
27 lbs. of cocoa nibs, in the other 20 lbs. of iron nail.
The prisoners said they picked them out of the dust bin
at the Hibernia Wharf, Southwark, where they were
employed. The police constables searched the bin spoken
of by the 'prisoners. There were no cocoa nibs or iron
nails in it. The prisoners insisted they took the pro-
perty found upon them out of the dust bin as rubbish.
Mr. Paget said the cocoa nibs were perfectly clean,
and had not been among the dust, and if
they had been the prisoners had no right
to meddle with them or to remove nibs or nails. He had
no doubt the property was stolen from the wharf where
the prisoners were employed, and that they had com-
mitted a most impudent robbery. Property in transit
must be protected. He sentenced them each to two
months' imprisonment, with hard labour.

BANKRUPTCIES ANNULLED.

Bennett, John, Gresham-buildings, Basinghall-street,

architect, Norember 21.
Chabord, Alphonse, Camden-street, Camden Town,

August 31.
Chapman, Edward William, Tooley-street, Lime-street,
and Wapping, lighterman, August 15.
Hollis, C. E., Lombard-street, timber broker, August 15
Jackson, John, Warrington, implement agent, Nov. 17.
Payne, Thomas, Davenport, near Stockport, Nov. 18.
Simmons, Abraham, Tavistock-mews, `l'avistock•street,
October 25.