The Sun.
London, England, 1851-10-07 00:00:00

LAMBETH.

'Yesterday James Bell and Sarah, his wife, were
placed at the bar before the Hon. G. C. Norton, on a
charge of obtaining money by false pretences and
pretending to tell fortunes.
Some idea of the extent to which the prisoners car-
ried their practices may be formed from the fact of
the officer who apprehended them finding at their
house nearly 10,000 printed bills and cards, of which
the following is a copy :
" Your Destiny.—Any lady or gentleman wishing to
know their fate through life can have their nativity cal-
culated or questions answered correctly and in a superior
manner relating to the past, present, or future—respect-
ing love, marriage, friendship, or any other important
affair of life. Ten questions answered on receipt of a
letter stating age and sex and containing a directed en-
velope and thirteen uncut postage stamps. Mr. Bell is
a qualified professor of astrology of many years' practice,
and may be consulted personally at his residence from
ten in the morning until nine at night. Advice given in
all cases of law proceedings; missing, lost, or mislaid
property; and in cases of doubt, trouble, or difficulty.-
1, Holland-place, Camberwell New-road."
Sergeant Quinnear, 1 P, upon being sworn, said—
In consequence of a letter forwarded to the magis-
trates of this court by a gentleman, and the instruc-
tions I received from my superintendent, Mr. Lund,
to apprehend the prisoners, I on the 3d of October
got two women to go to their house to have their for-
tunes told, and gave them some marked money to pay
them. The women acted as I had told them I
myself subsequently, accompanied by a friend, went
to the house of Bell, and the door having been opened
by the female prisoner, she, in reply to a question of
mine, said that Mr. Bell was not within. On pro-
ducing one of the printed cards, however, myself and
the person who accompanied me were admitted into
the parlour, and Mr. Bell immediately afterwards
made his appearance. On his entering the room I
said, " I presume you are Mr. Bell?" and he replied
" Yes ; what is your pleasure ?" I told him I had
been speculating and had been unfortunate, and hav-
ing a few pounds left, and hearing of his being a
clever man, I wished to know what I should do. He
asked me my age, and where born. I told him my
age was 38, Rod that I had been born in Glasgow;
upon which he said I was a countryman of his own.
Mr. NORTON—He did not discover either by his
pretended supernatural knowledge or your accent
that you were an Irishman ?
Quinnear—No, your worship, he did not discover
that, but said I was a countryman of his, when I said
I was a native of Glasgow.—(Laughter.)
Mr. NORTON—WeII, go on ; what further did he
say ? Quinnear—Well, your Worship, he then pre-
tended to look attentively at a globe that was placed
on the table, and said, I had been very unfortunate
these last two years, and there was a promissory note
or bill of exchange that I should not be able to meet,
and that as I thought of emigrating I bad better cut
away immediately. I told him I had a son I did not
like to lose sight of, and he asked me his age. I told
him his age was ten years ; upon which he again con-
sulted the globe, and said, "He ia very delicate, and
will not live long."

Mr. NORTON—Is it a fact that you have a son ten
years of age, and that he is delicate ? Quinnear—
Not at all, Sir. Bell then recommended me to go
to Port Philip, Sydney, or New Orleans, as places
that would suit me very well. My friend then told
his case, which, like my own, was perfectly imagi-
nary, and he told him he would be in possession, in
a short time, of 60,0001. My friend replied that he
did not think that he should be in possession of quite
so much, or in so short a time as a few wec-ks, upon
which Bell appeared to consult a map with several
figures on it, and repeated that he would. I then,your
Worship, told the prisoner we had learned all we re-
quired then to know, and asked the prisoner what his
charge was. He replied, " I don't generally charge
gentlemen anything, but receive anything they wish
Ito give," and therefore we might give what we liked.
I then said " I am a police-sergeant, and your destiny
is to go with me to the police-station ;" upon which
he said, " Indeed 1 what for ?" I replied, "For ob
taining money under false and fraudulent pretences
from two women about half an hour since," and he
made no further reply. I then took him into custody ,
and also Mrs. Bell, for acting with him in defrauding
their victims. (uinnear added to his testimony that
the house i❑ which the prisoners lived appeared to he
elegantly furnished, and there were some bottles in
the window to give it the appearance of an apothe-
cary's. He also said he had no doubt, from the
vast number of letters found, from different parts of
the country, and directed to the male prisoner, that he
carried on a most extensive system of fraud and de-
ception.
The male prisoner, who said that he had been un-
fortunate in business and adopted fortune-telling as a
means of existence, was remanded to a future day, and
his wife was discharged.