The Sun.
London, England, 1851-10-27 00:00:00

TRANSPORTATION OF A FORTUNE.
TELLER.

A woman, named Charlotte Morris, aged 39 years,
was indicted at the Southampton quarter-sessions last
week, for having, on the 18th of July last, feloniously
and unlawfully received .55., the property of Isaac
Blandford, well knosing the same to have been fe-
loniously stolen, and further with inciting Mary Anne
Blandtord to commit tee same felony. It appeared
that the woman had been what is commonly called a
fortune-teller, and some time in the course of the year
a girl by the name of Anne Blandford was most im-
prudently taken to the house of this woman, and sub-
sequently was in the habit of going to have her for-
tune told. About the middle of July the girl was
talking to the women about the Exhibition, when she
expressed her desire to see it. The woman asked her
if she or her father had any money, and she answered
that her father had some ; she eventually went to her
father's house, and took from his hard-earned
savings between 51. and Cl. She went back to the
prisore.r's house, and asked her advice respecting
her visit to London, and put down ss. ou the
table whilst the prisoner turned her face to the
wall, as she said she would neither see nor touch any
money, whether it was a sovereign or a shilling, until
the girl had gone out of the house, and then she could
say with a Blear conscience that she had never taken
anything from her; but it was proved sufficiently for
the ends of justice that she had received the money,
as she gently moved the money away. The woman
asked her if any one had seen her enter the house,
and she answered that she thought not; when she
was let out, she went home for the money she had
left behind, but on her way she was met by her father,
who took her upstairs, and she told a woman named
Elcock the whole circumstances of the case. When
they returned to the fortune-teller's house, the money
was found to have been pushed further along the
table under a piece of needlework. It appeared that
the girl bad been watched, and her little sister having
discovered the money which her elder sister had left
upon the bed, had told her father of it, and thus the
plot was stopped, and they, on going to the house of
the prisoner, found the ss. she was now charged with
stealing. The jury found the prisoner guilty. The
Recorder said the offence was one of such a very serious
character that he should consider it his duty to inflict
the highest penalty the law allowed ; the sentence of
the Court was that she be transported beyond the seas
for the space of 14 years. The prisoner, on receiving
her sentence, immediately fainted.

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 61. 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.
Aston, 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
before, was in
bank for changhee
Newcastle, and applied at the district
for Irish provincial notes. Un-
successful in
she was leaping the
ronacpptealNicepanetvidenher on the shoulder and
bank, when some
accepinted
p oofferedsai wtaos assisttha n
khfeurlilny her object. The pro-
suggaensdte suggested
no had thing. thheery f
rwi
esnrde
erbeefore repaired toa neigh-
bouring of
passing down Grey-street she
that a pint of beer eeTrhweyoutlhd
course assented.
tap—the Shakspeare or the Ducrow—
they had their beer ; and then they proceeded to the
Commercial Bank, where the notes were discounted.
His kindness not yet exhausted, the stranger accom-
panied her to a grocers shop on the Sandhill, to
,
mmusitsutal tesherprionbtuaytionsing goods ; and they parted with
of good-will, which were
converted on the lady's pert, 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, was Cl. short. Mr.
4Yton, she positively swore, was the man, and no de-
nial of the charge had the least effect in mitigating
her (2, •
bstmacy
of denying th. She wondered that he could think
they
e, Nvere b if
hto pay for e fact. He must recollect so well that
ous
"
and tab
an hour together in the public-
, when she pulled out her parse
himself." Thei3 beer, he insisted upon paying for it
of the aectosticalvias. her constant reply to the denial
tile wow= seeming to think that !

LON DON,

if Mr. Ayton had forgotten his delinquency, the re-
cital of his tap-room liberality must refresh his
memory. Witnesses from the bank and the grocer's
shop assured Mr. Ramsay that Mr. Ayton was not the
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. ihd the incident occurred to a gentleman in a
place where he was a stranger, the consequences
might have been serious.—Gateshead Observer.