The Sun.
London, England, 1834-06-05 00:00:00

GUILDHALL.

Yesterday ten Italian boys were brought before Mr.
Alderman ATKINS by the officers of the Mendicity So-
ciety for begging in various parts of the city.
Mr. Heath, the Sardinian consul, and Mr. Capper,
from the Alien-office, attended at the request of the
magistrate.
Mr. Alderman ATKINs had sent for those gentlemen
to consult with them on the best means of putting an
end to the nuisance of those boys begging about the
streets with their monkeys and mice. He considered
them objects of pity rather than punishment, for if they
were sent to prison for a term, what could they do, on
being released, to avoid repeating the offence ? They
ought not to be dealt with as vagrants, because it was
right to discriminate between parties who begged as
preferring begging to labour and persons 'who were
foreigners, perhaps ignorant of our laws, deceived and
lured to our country, and who might 'imagine they
would starve if they did not beg. The difficulty was,
how could these be protected, and the evil remedied ?
The Consul said none of these boys came from the
state he represented, and he did .not know that any
,thing could be done beyond punishing them as
vagrants, applying the money found on them towards
sending them home, and confiscating their monkeys
as unsafe to be carried about the streets. This severe
treatment might deter them from coming over. Fif-
teen years ago this country was inundated with beg-
gars from Genoa, but at the instance of the British
government the authorities in Genoa were written to,
and they carefully prevented such characters• from
leaving, and now there were none here. It was from
the states under the government of Maria Louisa that
these boys came. This was the most wretched part of
Italy, and the people were in a state of the greatest
destitution and debasement.

Mr. Capper had been in communication with Prince
Esterhazy and Baron Neumann on this subject for
several weeks past. He had had twenty interviews with
the Baron without hitting on a remedy, but a formal
representation had been forwarded to Prince Metter-
pich, which it was hoped would lead to some satisfac-
tory result. He thought the Mendicity Society might
do some good by enforcing the law against the har-
.bouring of such vagrants.
Mr. Alderman ATKINS thought the consul of the
state to. which these vagrants belonged ought to send
them home.

Mr. Capper said Mr. Rothschild was the consul,
but his answer would be that he was only an agent for
the protection of commerce, and that the matter was
not within his province, but that of the minister.
Mr. Heath also said the matter was not within the
limits of the consul's duties, as it would cost 51. a
head to send these vagrants home.
It was suggested that if all the boys were appre-
hended and detairied as vagrants, perhaps the Admi-
ralty would sanction their removal gratuitously in some
government vessel.
Mr. Capper thought it was not probable, because
the boys, though aliens, could not, be forced to leave
this country. The power which the government
used to possess of compelling foreigners to quit
was not continued on the renewal of the Alien Act in
1826.

' Mr. Heath said if the boys could be shipped to
Genoa, he would endeavour to facilitate their trans-
mission inland to Parma.

Mr. Alderman ATKINS would remand the boys for
a week, in the hope that Mr. Heath and Mr. Capper
would consider in the mean time how they could
be sent home, and how their future visitations could be
best prevented. •
After interrogating the boys about their masters and
residences, without gaining any information, they were
remanded.

QUEEN-SQUARE.
Yesterday two blackguard fellows, named James
Cook and John Macdonald, were charged with the
following cowardly outrage on a young female named
Elizabeth Smith, and also violently assaulting Mr.
Thomas Absalon, of Brandon-street, Walworth.
On the previous evening the complainant, Eliza-
beth Smith, was returning home, when on passing- by
the open space of ground fronting the New Bedlam,
Lambeth, the defendants and a number of other idle
blackguards came against her and pulled her about in
a cowardly and indecent manner. Mr. Absalon, who
chanced to be passing at the time, indignant at seeing
a defenceless female treated in such abrutal manner,
interfered, and seized Macdonald, determined to
rescue the female from the hands of the ruffians by
whom she was beset ; in so doing he was, however,
most violently assaulted and struck over the head and
face. The timely arrival of the police, however, dis-
persed the vagabonds, and the two defendants were
secured ; the rest made their escape.
Several witnesses said that the conduct of Cook
was the most aggravated towards the female, and
The Magistrates fined him 5/. and Macdonald 40s.
Macdonald was also fined 51. for the assault on Mr.
Absalon. In default of payment they were committed
for two months to the House of Correction.

A VORACIOUS Fox.--Last week a fox was
killed on the farm of Moniac, near Inverness, whilst
engaged in his vocation of plunder. So industriously
ha
Reynard been pursuing his calling, that at the
moment of his death he was carrying off three fowls
and a lamb I—Edinburgh Paper.

NEW ROAD TO THE INDUS.—In August,
1829, Lieutenant Conolly started from London, and
passing through France and the north of Germany,
sailed up the Baltic and the Gulph of Finland to St.
Petersburgh, from whence, journeying rapidly through
the ancient city of Novogorod on to Moscow, he crossed
the dreary Steppes at the foot of the Caucasian range,
and made the passage of the mountains into the vast
desert that lies north and east from the Caspian Sea.
A tone of good sense pervades the pages of his narra-
tive, which exhibit an intimate acquaintance with the
customs and manners of that part of the east to which
it relates. " Lieut. Conolly's ' Travels to the Indus '
ought to find a place in every good library, as a worthy
companion to the labours of Elphinstone and Frazer."