The Sun.
London, England, 1833-12-12 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF TITE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

About a fortnight ago we found an absurd
parade made in the Tory papers of a foolish
protest on the part of the Norwich Corporation
against giving their testimony, or producing their
accounts, before the Municipal Commissioners.
The silly persons who, like children walking
through a churchyard in the dark, whistled out
this ridiculous protest to keep their courage up
amid the Tory gloom, thought, no doubt, that
they could thus deter the Commission from
opening its Court at Norwich. In making such
a calculation they forgot two things—namely,
first, that the Commissioners do not limit their
investigations to those facts alone which the
Corporators are willing to supply; and secondly,
that in the case of Leicester, they continued to
take evidence from the inhabitants after the
Town-clerk had actually declared the contumacy
of his employers, and locked up his books in
the sane strong box with his precious elec-
tioneering mortgages. In the case of Nor-
wich, the Corporation, knowing too well the
iniquities which the investigation would bring
to light, would perhaps have been wise in
ad.liering to the Old Bailey plea of " not
triminating themselves," but, as the Mayor,
notwithstanding the protest, allowed the Com-
mission the use of the Town-hall, and
the Corporation permitted their accounts to be
exhibited, the inquiry has advanced with as
much success as if all the Magistrates and
Council had been its zealous promoters. Some
of them, indeed, have been examined, and others
have volunteered explanations ; so that we are
not even deprived of corporation light, notwith-
standing the threatened imitation of the Mer-
chant Tailors' Company in London by their
swaggering brethren in Norfolk. We may thus
congratulate the public that respect for a Royal
Commission, recommended by a vote of the
House of Commons, when that Commission,
like the present, has been clearly directed
towards the laudable aim of collecting evi-
dence for the purposes, not of spoliation,
but of reform, has in general superseded the
necessity of the more extended or more formal
powers of a Board appointed by Act of Parlia-
ment. It is plain that, if its objects had not
met with the general support of the people,
and if its labours had not tended to pro-
mote municipal improvement, its alleged defects
would have been almost immediately discovered,
and its pretensions universally resisted. The
foolish, boobies, who have at last resorted to
legal opinions against the necessity of submitting
to its compulsory process, might have saved
themselves the trouble, if they had reflected
that the investigation had nearly been completed
before they began to move, and that the inquiry
was of such a nature as in few cases to require
for its successful conduct any means of compul-
sion. There has been no Act of Parliament
for the Commission on the Poor Laws, and yet
we may venture to say that no person, or class
of persons, whether clergy, overseers, or
magistrates, have declined to give evidence
on their administration, when applied to
for the purpose. In the case of the Factory
Commission, the King's seal, without any
statutory authority, was the only warrant of the
Commissioners, and yet every factory was thrown
open for their inspection, and every witness in-
vited or summoned attended at their call. And
what has been gained at Leicester—what has
been gained at Norwich, or what can be gained
anywhere, by refractory corporators, when the
general feeling of the country is favourable to
inquiry into municipal abuses ? The Mayors,
and Magistrates, and Councils, may indeed be
silent, but will not the injured or insulted inha-
bitants who have petitioned for municipal re-
form, and who are best informed on corporate
abuses, speak out ? Let any one read the
_Norwich Mercury of Saturday last, and tell us
what the corporation has gained by protesting
against giving evidence. In the eight days' exa-
minations recorded in that paper, we find as am-
ple a foundation laid for municipal reform as if
the books of the corporation, with all the fasti
of corruption for the last forty years, had been
willingly and ostentatiously laid on the table of
the Commissioners. Undisguised bribery, not
only at the election of Members of Parliament,
but of magistrates and municipal officers, is proved
and admitted. This is not all : not only was money
distributed to buy votes, but those whose votes
could not be bought were kidnapped and carried
away till their opposition was unavailing. We are
shocked at the picture exhibited of the election
proceedings of that city—proceedings which
would disgrace a tribe of savages, and probably
cannot be paralleled among any civilized people
of the present age. Some of our readers, un-
acquainted with the mysteries of Norwich elec-
tioneering, may not know the meaning of the
word cooping, as the means of returning a good
magistrate or electing a Tory Member of Par-
liament. The -following deposition, confirmed
byr" a cloud of witnesses," will make the matter
plain to the meanest capacity :

" Robert Alden offered himself as an evidence, and
stated that at Alderman Angell's election he was in Ber-
street two or three days before the election, and saw about
160 men, who carried him to the Orford Hill,
against his will, put him in a post-chaise, and drove
him to Panzworth Lion ; there were half a dozen others
with him. They put him into a room with some more,
who were also voters in favour of Alderman Alarshall. I
was kept there a night and a day, and about twelve
o'clock the next night a coach and four came and took
us away. I saw Houghton there, with Mr. Bell,
the Coroner ; at the time the windows were driven out
they formed a guard, to prevent us from running away ;
we were taken to Ranworth, with seven others ; the
sober were put in the inside of the coach, and the drunken
(meson the outside. Houghton seemed to be with the men
who had the sticks. He saw them at three or four
o'clock, and several times in the afternoon. Once out of
the room. Some of the men had pokers. I asked
Houghton if he could net get me away, knowing he was
a Sheriff's officer. He said he would have nothitn; to do
with it. Do you sincerely believe, in your conscience,
that he was one of the party who kept you there against
your will ? Yes, I really believe he was. I am confident
I asked him to get me away. I was put into a wherry
on the river. There were about fifty stavesnien, ano
about eight of as. They took one man home, who they
thought would vote for them, but he voted against them.
The wherry was moored in the middle of Ranworth
Broad. I tried to get them ashore in the morning.
There were six watertnen, or maltsters, to guard us.
They gave some of the men liquor, with something in
it to make them drunk, and they were drunk all the
time. They kept some of them moving about, because
they had taken laudanum. I was perfectly sober all
the time. We had rum, brandy, gin, wine, or
anything. When he got into the boat, and tried to get
away, the people in the wherry weighed anchor, chalet:
him, and took him back again. About two hours after
that another wherry, with a posse of friends, came to take
us away again. Our wherry sailed away with u. into
the North River. When the wherry neared the shore I
jumped upon the bank, and got away to my own friends.
The men told me they were employed by Mr. Hanker,
jun., who was a friend of Mr. Angell. Mr. Bell, the
coroner, was there, talking to the posse. I broke some of
the windows of the room we were in, and, in consequence,
iron bars were put up. I thought Houghton and Bell
ordered tire men, as they were talking to them, when they
took the windows out. I have before deposed to three
facts on affidavit."
Hire we have coroners' and sheriffs' officers t

employed as the illegal instruments of violatin g
the liberties, defeating the privileges, and out-
raging the persons of their fellow-citizens, whom
they were bound to protect. That the Alder-
men promoted such scenes of violence, or con-
nived at them, is proved by the testimony of
several witnesses. " The man at the house,"
says one of these witnesses, " sent to Mr.
Hankes for a pair of shoes, and they
brought him a pair of Alderman Hankes's.
Young Mr. Hankes was with the man
when he was put on board the wherry. .When
he got home he was obliged to have his stock-
ings cut off his feet ; he was ill for a fortnight
after, and was attended by Mr. Nicholls.
When he got home he applied at the hall, but
no magistrate was there." It would be need-
less, after such outrages, to enter into details on
the minor crime of bribery. This was so com-
mon, or so nearly universal, among the bur-
gesses of Norwich, that all sense of its danger
or enormity had been obliterated. One witness
stated that he could tell so much of this base
corruption that he scarcely knew where to begin.
He did, however, begin with the election of an
alderman, who being a Whig, and not wishing
at first to bribe, was driven to the practice by the
example of his antagonist. "We then went,"
said the witness, " into a regular system of
buying their " men and they ours." The
usual scenes of treating and cooping took place,
and the honour of being an alderman of Nor-
wich was on this occasion bought by 1,534/.
It is no wonder, after hearing the.abominable
details of which this is only a specimen, that one
of the Commissioners exclaimed, " The
members of the corporation take so much
pains to destroy the morals of the poor, it is
really a wonder that so many resiat the tempta-
tion." Mr. J. J. Gurney, the well known
banker, having been accused by one of the wit-
nesses of having contributed a sum of money
towards these corrupt electioneering purposes,
appeared before the Commissioners at their

next sitting, and, in clearing himself, thus bore
testimony to the extent, enormity, and perni-
cious consequences of the existing system of
bribery :
" I have the deepest impression of the guilt, the sin,
and misery in which my fellow-citizens are involved by
these municipal elections, and I would far rather have an
arm cut off than promote them in any way ; it encourages
a system of demoralization which has been long going on
to a fearful extent, in bribing, treating, cooping, and every
species of iniquity; I am satisfied that the object of the
commission is to do an immense degree of good to the city,
and will be a means of preventing much mischief. The
Commissioners have no notion of the sin, misery, demorali-
zation, and guilt, wretchedness, and poverty which this
system of municipal election inflicts on this city. I was
informed by one of the most powerful manufacturers in the
city, and one who has large dealings with the poor, that he
believed one single ward election did more harm than all
the preaching in all the churches and meeting-houses did
good in one year. I make no distinction of parties, both
in my estimation b-ing equally guilty; whenever the
m angers find a purse, they fly to that purse, as an eagle
does to a carcase."

Another witness stated that he had known
30/. given for a vote for a Common Councilman

in ahard-run contest,—that he had himself
stood openly in the market-place with money to
buy votes,—that at every contested election
bribing takes place, though sometimes not above
2/. or 3/. are given for a man,—that both sides
resort_to it, and that " nothing but poverty of
purse makes purity of election at Norwich."
Sometimes the public charities of the city are
converted into election bribes by the Magis-
trates, and notes for admission into the hospi-

tals are offered in exchange for votes. The
same witness stated that " he had himself given
such notes for votes, as you would give 2d: for a
cabbage." Other testimony made it evident that
the magistracy sometimes attempted to ruin a
refractory party by sending him to an upper
Court, in order to increase his expense,—a
fact which called forth the following just ex-
pression of indignation from one of the Com-
missioners :—" I must say, that if any mischie-
vous demon had invented a system on purpose
for the destruction of the city, he could not
have devised anything more horrible." We
have not yet seen the end of the inquiry, and
shall probably have some further remarks to
make on the evidence when it is completed, but
in the meantime we must not omit to state that

a part of the worshipful corporators, who al
first protested against the authority of the com•
mission, have, on the disclosure of the ahomi•

liable corruption which it has brought to light,
thought proper to publish in the Tory papers a
document which they are pleased to call " a
complaint and remonstrance" against the conduct
of the In this case the majority
of the corporation is not concerned, the Mayor
and several of its other members having as-
sisted the inquiry with honesty and zeal. The
names of the dissentients who have subscribed

the paper are not given in the journals to which
we have alluded, but they are probably those
implicated in some of the transactions which the

investigation has exposed. Whoever they are,
however, they have proved themselves to be very
wise and deeply read persons, by comparing an
open inquiry before two commissioners, whose
authority they profess that they themselves had
it• in their power to resist with perfect impunity,
and whose object was information only, and not
vengeance or punishment, to the secret and
arbitrary proceedings of the tribunals " of the
Star Chamber and Ecclesiastical Commission"
in the time of the Stuarts. What more could
they have said if Commissioners Long and
Buckle, to whom they address their remon-
strance, had, as of old, ordered their noses to be
slit and their ears nailed to the pillory, instead
of hearing the testimony of respectable witnesses
to the existence of their malversations which are
destined only to establish the necessity of cor-
porate reform ? Times.

The Conservatives must labour under great
delusion or depression of spirits, and be at a sad
loss for working men, when they strive so hard
to obtain a spurious political reputation for Mr.
Sadler. The ex-nominee of the Duke of New-
castle was one of the mushrooms of the Bo-
roughmongers and Ultra-Tories. He was
" brought into Parliament," as the phrase was,
to " talk" against Catholic Emancipation, at a
period when no man of common sense of any
party could resist the necessity of that measure.
His debut was so far effective, that he deli-
vered the funeral oration over the legislative in-
terment of the last remains of civil disabilities,
unquestionably in florid language, and to the
great consolation of the small body of mourners
who attended to the grave the dead body of reli-
gious bigotry. All his subsequent senatorial ex-
hibitions were ridiculed by the Unreformed Par-
liament, and in the new House of Commons his
quackery failed to procure him a seat, or even the
confidence of any Nobleman retaining " borough
influence." In Leeds he was signally defeated—a
borough where his merits as an old inhabitant
(if any) ought to have been best appreciated.
No vacancy has occurred since the election of
the new Parliament for which Mr. Sadler has

I not been " put. forward." Every species of
vulgar popularity has been in vain sought by
him as a passport to the favour and prejudices
of a popular constituency, but in vain. The
" poor factory children," and now the " Trades'
Unions," have been espoused by this versatile
political courtier. Anti-Free Trade—Currency
anti-Malthusian doctrines of population—every
circulating medium of error, have been enlisted
in his service. He is the Harlequin of political
parties, and appears on the " saw-dust" in an
infinite variety of character. The friends of
the worthy gentleman have now provided
him with two strings to his bow ; he is to
be started for Leeds and Huddersfield, anti
it seems by the Standard that " twelve cities"
will contend for the honour of such a dis-
tinguished representative. Indeed we shall not
be surprised if our good " business actor" should
be also launched as a candidate for Berwickshire.
The Tories and the Radicals, it is said, will
unite to support this Proteus-like individual.
But the political imposter will not succeed. Mr.
Sadler was generally viewed by all parties in the
last Parliament as an active enthusiast, and many
doubted his political sincerity. His speeches
were notoriously the signal of empty benches ;
and if the Ultra-Tories were wise, they would
not send into the Reformed House of Commons
a man whose orations were voted a bore, and
who never did, and never will, influence a vote
in a British Legislature. Such is the public
individual whom the Standard, with simple
partiality, terms " the most popular and de-
servedly the most popular man in England." Is
our contemporary in jest ? He cannot surely
believe in the imposition, however convenient
at this particular moment to dress up a large
doll. The Leeds Mercury, well-informed at
the last election, pronounces the cause of Mr.
Sadler hopeless in both boroughs ; and we sus-
pect that the sensible portion of the Tory con-
stituency feel much perplexed by the proposition
of a candidate whose notions on commercial
subjects are wild and dangerous, and whose po-
litical opinions are obsolete.—Morn. Chronicle.

The Norwich Corporators have issued a pro-
test against their exhibition before the Corpora-
tion Commissioners, but " a day after the fair."
They object, it appears, to the publicity of the
inquiry—its great merit in the eyes of the
country. The Corporators give themselves a
most excellent character ; but. their reputation,
out of doors, appears on their own showing to
be somewhat equivocal. They proclaim that
whatever share they may have taken individually
—in their private relations—in the corrupt
muncipal and Parliamentary elections of their
city, they have never appropriated the " public"
funds to the purposes of corruption ; a back
stroke at their Leicester and Cambridge brethren,
who resisted the Corporation Commission, be-
cause it laid bare the scandalous perversion of
municipal revenues to these purposes. The
Norwich papers are filled with reports of the
investigation, which appears not yet to be com-
pleted. On the termination of the inquiry, we
shall exhibit the real merits of the gross muni-
cipal government of this notorious city, and our
readers will then judge how far the Corporators
deserve the eulogies they have thus unblushingly
bestowed on themselves. Can they not procure
a more disinterested and unsuspicious testimony
to their public characters, and municipal virtues ?
—Morning Chronicle.
We point the attention of our readers, with
great pleasure, to an advertisement in this day's
paper, of the intended publication of a magazine,
the sole object of which is the abolition of the
greatest, as well as the most disgraceful, monopoly
which exists in this country—that of the corn
laws. The object of the society which has been
established for putting an end to this grievous
lax, is in every respect as legitimate as it is
moderate in its pretensions. It does not advo-
cate an immediate and total abolition of the
duties now levied on foreign corn, but simply,
we believe, that foreign grain should be
always admissible upon the payment of
a fixed duty, whereby the foreign grower
would be enabled to judge, one the on hand,
of the extent to which he might cultivate for
the British market—and the British cultivator,
on the other, of the pride which he would re-
ceive for his grain, and the rent which, in the
course of a long lease, he could afford to, pay to
his landlord. At present both the foreign and
he home grower are completely at sea upon the
subject. The corn trade is neither more nor
less than a gambling lottery, in which both the
home and the foreign merchant are alternately
great sufferers ; but a fixed duty, commencing at
a rate which, for the present time, would be
allowed by all parties to afford sufficient pro-
tection, and descending gradually until the first
necessary of life should be wholly free from
taxation, would remedy the evil at once, and, by
remedying it, confer an especial benefit, not only
upon the foreign grower, but also upon the British
farmer. That such is the object of the society
we are very confidently informed ; and it shall,
in consequence, be a special object with us to
promote its views, and to advocate its interests.
In order to be successful, however, it must be
supported by the public ; and we would, in
consequence, invite every one who deems the
corn monopoly to be obnoxious, to lend his aid
to the society, by subscribing liberally to its
funds. The Committee have already, we under-
stand, received the most favourable communi-
cations from the manufacturing towns and cities
in the north upon the subject ; but the metro-
polis, which suffers the most of all from the
monopoly, ought to take the lead in a matter
so important, in every respect, to the comfort
of its inhabitants, as well as to their general
welfare.—Morning Advertiser.

lhe Memorial Bordelais of the 6th inst.
announces that the Duchess of Berry is again pregnant.

A young man, about nineteen or twenty years
of age, middle sized, very clean in his appearance, dark
yes, thick lips, and very black hair, cut short behind,
and curling in front, was found, a few days ago, not far from
Lutterworth, nearly naked, and apparently dead, being
stiff and cold. He was taken to the inn, and a doctor sent
tor, who stated him to be in that state from cold and
hunger. Every care was taken of him by the overseers,
and on Monday he was taken to the House of Industry at
Lutterworth, to he taken care of until an answer could be
received from a person in London, whom he called his
re
tow
Iwfiaagentleman bad written to make
irmorning of the day on which the answer
ti ,e
inquiries.
and
The
was expected, lie scaled the spiked gates, and made his
escape, and was afterwards seen on the road to Leicester.
Ho spoke broken English, and stated himself to he a Pole
from who h,:,hndebeceenhe wenteducatedto Copenhagen, at the English college at Lisbon,
and from thence,
nine months ago, to Portsmouth. He stated that he bad
gained his livelihood in London by playing the harp at
Drury-lane Theatre, and told an extraordinary story of
having been stripped and robbed in a lodging-house in
Leicester of three sovereigns and 17s. and his harp. The
same trick of feignin4 illness at Coombe Abbey hod been
played by the some, or some other iiepostor, the day be •
fore, but in that case a cure was effected by a hoserwhip.
after the due administration of which the fellow jumped
up, swore, and run away.—Northampton Mercury,

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

MANSION-110 USE.

The LORD MAYOR has of late received many
letters, recommending to his charitable considera-
tion the cases of poor persons. Several of those
communications were from gentlemen well able to
relieve their distressed fellow-creatures by just
dipping their hands in their own pockets ; but, in-
stead of accomplishing the work of charity in that
way, they take the trouble to write long details of
misery, and conclude with an appeal to the Jibe-
F rality of the Lord Mayor of London on behalf of
wretched applicants, whom by such humbug acts
of compassion they contrive to get rid of. Amongst
these munificent correspondents his Lordship has
recognized some acquaintances, and he yesterday
took the opportunity of thanking them and other
economical distributors of relief for giving to him
the monopoly, and of begging them, at the same
time, as his fun ls were rather low, and the claim-
, ants who could not be refused were numerous, they
would be so good as to share tl'e expense, and spare
themselves the labour of endeavouring to work
upon his sympathies by long letters of commise-
ration.
Mr. Hobler informed his Lordship that his pre-
decessors often received similar favours at the hands
of gentlemen who were well able but extremely un-
willing to do anything but give their own pity and
recommend the objects to the pecuniary sympathies
of others.—(A laugh.)
These observations had scarcely been made,when in
walked a young man with a letter to the Lord
Mayor, recommending the bearer as an object of
charity.
The LORD MAYOR—The writer says he is a
friend of mine. I don't know who he is. Applicant
—He is a Squire, and lives on Clapham-common.
The LORD MAYOR—He has written a very long
letter about you. Did he give you any money ?
Applicant—Not a halfpenny, my Lord.
The LORD MAYOR—Nor any thing to eat ? Ap-
plicant—Nothing.
The LORD MAYOR—I thought so. I dare say
he gave you most excellent advice 2—(Laughter.)
Applicant—Yes, my Lord. He always advises me
for my good.
The LORD MAYOR—WeII, that is very kind of
him ; but do you go back to him, and give him the
Lord Mayor's compliments, and say the Lord Mayor
agrees with him that you are an object of charity,
but hands you over to him. I have looked into the
lists of our charitable institutions often for the
names of those pious persons who are so fond of
investigating and recommending, and I never yet
have seen one of them down as a contributor. But
perhaps that arose from the neglect of the printer.
—(Laughter.)
A man named Duval, who was about nine years
ago tried for having attempted to murder his wife,
by shooting at her with a pistol, and who was ac-
quitted upon the ground of insanity, was drought
before the LORD MAYOR.
A constable of Shoreditch stated that he had re-
ceived information that he had escaped from Suf-
folk, where he had been confined in a lunatic asylum
as a criminal lunatic, by the authority of the King.
The prisoner had been apprehended at Clerkenwell.
The prisoner was justified in leaving such a place
of confinement, as he was in as sound mind as
ever man enjoyed, and he did not wish to continue
to be a burden upon the parish, who were obliged
to pay for his support in the madhouse.
The vestry-clerk of Lambeth stated, that the pri-
soner belonged to that parish, and that he had been,
in the first instance, sent to Hoxton, where he per-
fectly recovered from his malady. The authorities
of the parish thought proper, under such circum-
stances, to apply to Mr. Capper, of the Secretary
of State's office, to procure his liberation ; but they
were informed that persons handed over as criminal
lunatics were never allowed to be at large.
Prisoner—l have got my faculties now, my Lord,
and am disposed to make a proper use of them; but
if it pleases his Majesty to keep me confined, why
I must go back and stay there. I admit that I
escaped, but my object was, to get into work for
myself.
The LORD MAYOR asked how it was ascertained
that the prisoner had escaped ? The officer said that
his (witness's) brother happened to have been in
the same place, and sent word that the prisoner had
escaped, and that there was a reward of 201. offered
for apprehending him.
The vestry-clerk knew that none was offered by
the parish.
The officer—Oh yes, there is.
The LORD MAYOR—If you did not think so, we
should not have the man here.

The officer—Certainly I should have brought him
here, my Lord. I didn't go after him for gain.
The LORD MAYOR-Oh, nonsense; you took
him for the 201. Where's the use in pretending to
all this disinterestedness ? It won't do here.

The prisoner was then ordered to be taken to the
place from which he had escaped. He has, it seems,
been perfectly sane for years.

BO W-STREET.

Yesterday James Mayhew Underwood,alias James
Wood, the begging-letter imposter, after serving 12
weeks in Reading gaol as a rogue and vagabond,
for endeavouring to obtain money under false pre-
tences from Sir Herbert Taylor, at Windsor Castle,
was brought in custody before Sir F. ROE, by Fall,
the °facer, on a charge of a similar description.
The prisoner has been known to the Mendicity So-
ciety since 1821, as the most accomplished and suc-
cessful begging-letter writer they ever had to deal
with, and it is supposed that during that period he
has been in the receipt of at least 5001. a-year, from
the contributions which he contrived to levy on the
purses of the humane and charitable.

Mr. Tooke, M.P., the honorary solicitor to the
Mentlicity Society, in the absence of his friend Mr.
Gambier, the honorary counsel, was instructed to
charge the prisoner under the provisions of the sth of
George IV. c. 83, with endeavouring to procure
charitable contributions from Earl Amherst under
false and fraudulent pretences.
Earl Amherst, in September last, received the
two letters now produced, one of which was signed
" Martha Cromwell," and the other " William
Hands," together with a writ for 131., directed to
the former, and he had reason to believe from what
he had since learned, that the letters in question
were not genuine.
The letter signed " Martha Cromwell" was then
read by the clerk. It was dated " London, Sept. 11,
1833." It stated that the writer, a young, inex-
perienced, and unfortunate female, had walked from
Greenwich to London that day, with the intention
of waiting on the Earl of Plymouth, who was
related to the noble person she had the
honour to address, when she was grieved and
shocked to hear of the sudden death of his Lord-
ship, who was well acquainted with her family,
and to whom she intended to have made known
her melancholy situation. The letter then proceeded
to state that she was descended from a respect-
able family, who lived at Bromsgrove, in Worcester-
shire, and that while on a visit last Christmas at the
house of a friend of her father, she became ac-
quainted with a person calling himself a gentleman,
who solicited her hand in marriage, and although
she declined to favour his suit, she was prevailed
upon to accept an invitation to visit his friends for
a single day, and after dinner she became so stn-
, pified with wine and water, in which she was con-
vinced something poisonous was mixed, that she
became insensible, and remained in that stave until
next day, when she found herself shut up in a bed.
room with the insidious wretch by whom her ruin
was effected. Afraid to return to her parents, she
reluctantly consented to accompany her seducer to
London, and thence to Greenwich, where they took
lodgings. He had previously sworn in the most
solemn manner to marry her, but he falsified all his
promises, and he at length wrote to her, stating that
he had been arrested for debt, in consequence of a
gambling transaction ; but, or► inquiry at the
offices of the sheriffs for Kent, Essex, Mid-
dlesex, and the City of London, she found that no

such person was in custody, and that the story was
fabricated to furnish her seducer with an excuse to
get rid of her. To add to her miserable situation,
she had lately been turned out of her lodgings, and
her trunks seized for an arrear of rent, so that she
was actually without a change of linen, and she
expected every day to be incarcerated in prison,
having been served with the copy of the writ which
she enclosed for 131., being a debt incurred for the
necessaries of life, the greater part of which were
supplied before her heartless seducer had left her to
her fate. Being thus without home or support, she
was entirely depending for existence on the sale of
the few articles of jewellery which she had brought
from home, and all that she had now left was a
gold ring. The wretch by whom she was seduced
was 35 years of age, very accomplished, and with a
person and address well calculated to effect the ruin
of the young, virtuous, and inexperienced. She was
herself only 19 years of age, and she hoped his Lord-
ship, in mercy to her youth, would excuse the step
she had taken in eloping with a man who had proved
himself so utterly unworthy of her attachment
or respect. She could safely say, that up to
Christmas last her character was free from the
slightest blame, a fact which could be verified by a
gentleman residing at Bromsgrove, who was ac-
quainted with the late Earl of Plymouth, and to
whom she meant to apply to intercede on her be-
half to her father. She implored his Lordship not
to reveal her situation, for the disclosure of her
imprudence might injure the future prospects of her
dear and innocent sisters, as she feared it would
almost break the hearts of her kind father and mo-
ther, who were, as yet, unconscious of her fate. In
conclusion she earnestly entreated his Lordship to
pause ere he negatived her application, for on his
answer depended more than the human mind could
possibly imagine.
It was signed " Martha Cromwell, Post-office,
Greenwich."

The letter from the supposed seducer, which ac-
companied the above, was to the following effect :
"My dearest Martha—lt is really most revolting to my
feelings to be obliged to tell you that through sf,me
gambling transactions in which I have hren unfor-
tunately engaged, I have been arrested, and am now
locked up in a sponging-house for a debt I am
wholly unable to pay. I care but little for myself, my
dear gill, but for you I feel most deeply, and am wholly
at a loss how to advise you for the best. I know well
that I merit your anger for what has passed, but the re-
proaches of my own conscience are, I assure you, sufficient
punishment for the injury I have done you. If fortune
should ever shine upon me I will acquaint you with it,
and fulfil all my pledges. Pray endeavour to console
yourself, my dearest Martha, and lose no time in endea-
vouring to return home, in order that no greater evil may
happen to you. Ple.tse give the bearer my pocket-book,
which contains some memorandums and a bill of exchange
which would be of no use to you. In my portmanteau you
will find a new case of surgical instruments, which you
can convert into a little money for your immediate use.
" I have the honour to remain, my dearest girl,
" With unalterable truth, your unfortunate
" WILLIAM HANDS.
George-street, Blackrriars-road, July 11.
" P. S. Don't ask the bearer any,questions respecting

me. '

Mr. Tooke then called forward William Sturgeon,
an officer in the employment of the Mend city So-
ciety, who gave the prisoner in charge on the 17th
of September last, in the Kent-road, and on search-
ing him took from his person a paper, on which
was written " Miss M. Cromwell, P. 0. Gh. K.—
Amherst." 'Witness judged that the letters stood
for " Post-office, Greenwich, Kent," and following
this clue Lord Amherst was written to, who imme-
diately forwarded the letters he had received from
the supposed Miss Cromwell.

Sir F. RoE—I commit you to Maidstone gaol
for three months, as a rogue and a vagabond.
It appeared, that a short time before his appre-
hension in September he addressed a letter to the
Duchess of Kent, stating that he was a jeweller,
who bad unfortunately failed in business, and that
he had had the honour of being employed by his
late Majesty George IV. and the lamented Princess
Charlotte. Having parted with his valuable stock,
all that he had sand out of the wreck of his fortune
was a very beautiful armlet, which he implored her
Royal Highness to purchase from him for the Prin-
cess Victoria, adding, that he would do himself the
honour of waiting on her Royal Highness in order
that she might inspect it. The Duchess of Kent,
on the receipt of the letter, had it forwarded to the
Mendicity Society, who, on seeing the handwriting,
immediately recognized it as the prisoner's.
There are several charges still pending against
him, and it is intended to indict him when he has
served his time in Maidstone gaol for obtaining
money from Lord Skelmeredale ender similar cir-
cumstances.