The Sun.
London, England, 1851-10-28 00:00:00

A SERIO-COMIC BLUNDER.

Mr. Ayton, one of the principal corn merchants of
Newcastle, and Mr. Joseph Swan, were walking
arm-in-arm, on Saturday last, when a voice loudly
exclaimed "That's the man." The speaker, a woman
from Lanchester, in this county, whose husband is
(or formerly was) a common carrier in connexion
with Sunderland, fastened upon Mr. Ayton, and
accused him of having, a few days before, robbed her
of 6/. Mr. Swan assured her that Mr. Ayton was
a respectable gentleman, and incapable of any act
of the kind—she must therefore be mistaken.
"0, no ! she was not mistaken ; he was the man
and Mr. Swan was doubtless no better than his com-
' pany !" The result was, that a Lanchester police-
man, whom she had brought over to Newcastle, re-
quested the attendance of Mr. Ayton before a magis-
trate. The parties were now in the Corn Exchange,
where the woman's accusation prduced much excite-
ment and not a little merriment, the alleged offender
being generally known, and the unlikeliest man in the
world to be the subject of such a charge. The police-
man had no warrant and no jurisdiction; yet Mr.
Ayton, in the excess of his courtesy, consented to ac-
company him, and they all went before G. H. Ram-
say, Esq. (the woman accompanied by her husband).
It then appeared that the complainant, a few days
bank
before,b was in Newcastle, and applied at the district
sopuaffocnseckareidfswoftraoschange for Irish provincial notes. Un-
ul in
16 her application, she was leaving the
, when some one tapped her on the shoulder and
astshiastnkhferlil'n effecting her object. The pro-
passing down Greu y
that a pint of beeYr- accepted; and as they were
street she suggested to her friend
Theywould be no bad thing. Ho of
courseastsaepn_tedth.therefore repaired to a neigh-
bouringe Sh a
ands pe atrheebor the Ducrow—where
notest.ey proceeded to the
they had their beer ;
were discounted.
Commercial Bank, where the
His kindness not yet exh,asnsshte_ip, the stranger
accom-
paniedo on the Sandhill, to
her to a grocer
assist her in buying goods ; and they parted 'i
11
mutual protestations of good-will, which
werewt
converted, on the lady's part, into benedictions
as Irish as the notes, when she discovered that
her packet of money, so kindly made up for her
by the unknown benefactor, wasthe 6/.shaonrdt.
no -Adler-.
Ayton, she positively swore, was. man,
nheiari
oobfattithiaeecyb.arg“esnhead wondered
t ethffaetctheineould mitigating
think
of denying the fact. He must recollect so well that
theywere half an hour together in the public-
house,the l
h'''). Pay for the beer, he insisted upon paying for it
. and that when she pulled out her purse
of the accusation—the
.
himself.' This was her constant reply to the denial
if Mr A sation—the woman seeming to think that
shop as.iurel
1 . • .biltela had f
eirai of his t forgotten his delinquency, the re-
essts from the bank and the grocer's
mem„y. tap-room liberality must refresh his
I( Mr. Ramsay that Mr. Ayton was not the

LONDON,

woman's companion, and the absurd case was dis-
missed, to afford an additional caution to courts and
juries against trusting too implicitly to oaths of iden-
tity. I-lid the incident occurred to a gentleman in a
place where he was a stranger, the consequences
might have been serious.—Gateshead Observer.