The Sun.
London, England, 1851-10-22 00:00:00

SOUTHWARK.

Mary Reddington, a woman of the town, was placed
at the bar before Mr. a'Beckett, charged with stealing
a watch and chain, value 141., from the person of Mr.
Charles Hobson, an engineer, residing in New-street,
Southwark-bridge-road.
The complainant stated that on Sunday evening
last, after coming out of Rowland Hill's chapel, he
met a friend named Snelling, and they went and had
some refresement at a public-house in Union-street.
After quitting the house and taking leave of his friend,
as he was walking towards home, he was suddenly
attacked and knocked down, and while lying on the
ground the prisoner snatched the watch and chain out
of his pocket and ran away. He added that he had
an opportunity of seeing the features of the person
who robbed him, and had no doubt the prisoner was
the person.
In reply to Mr. A'BECKETT, the complainant said
that he had no previous conversation with the prisoner;
that he believed it was some of her associates who
knocked him down ; that when he was on the ground
she then came up and stole the watch ; that he called
out when on the ground, but no one came to his as-
sistance ; and that he afterwards gave a description of
the prisoner at the station-house, and that she was
taken into custody. lie could not be mistaken with
regard to the prisoner's identity, and knew that the
charge was one of a very serious nature as affected
the prisoner.
Mr. Snelling was then called, and his account of
the transaction was, that on the night in question he
and the complainant went to two public-houses after
chapel, and that he observed the prisoner, who was
very desirous the complainant shouldaccompany her,
for a length of time following them about. Soon
after they left the Crown and Anchor, where they
had their parting glass, he (witness) again saw the
prisoner when they came out, and she again intruded
herself into the complainant's company. He (wit-
ness) then left them and went home, and when he
saw his friend the next morning, he informed him of
his having been robbed of his watch by the woman
that he saw in his company on Sunday night.
Mr. A'BECKETT remarked on the discrepancies in
the statements cf the complainant and witness with
respect to the circumstances attending the alleged
charge, and said that he should not commit the pri-
soner for trial on the evidence as it stood, but the
complainant might have a❑ opportunity of indicting
her before a grand jury, who were then sitting at the
Sessions House.

It will be recollected that a few days since two sis-
ters from Ireland, named Suban, made an application
to Mr. a'Beckett, relative to their distressed condi-
tion, and asserting that their father had been a butler
in the family of the Marquis of Lansdowne; that
subsequently to their parent's death they had inha-
bited a cabin on the Marquis of Lansdowne's estate
in the county of Cork ; and that about two months
ago they were advised by his Lordship's agent to
quit their home, and to come over to London, where,
they were informed, they would be enabled to make
out a comfortable livelihood ; that, acting upon such
advice, they did give up their cabin, and came to
London, but found that they could not obtain any em-
ployment, and would have been reduced to a state of
starvatio❑ had it not been for the kind sympathy of
a Mrs. Johnson, who assisted them with shelter and
food as long as she was able, and who accompanied
them to this court to make the circumstances of the
case known with a view that something
,might be
done for them. On the occasion of the above appli-
cation, Mr. a'Beckett perceiving the improbability of
two such persons as the applicants, both being far ad-
vanced in life, obtaining situations by which they
could earn their bread in London, advised their imme-
diate removal back to Ireland, a step which has since
been carried into effect. In the course of yesterday
Mr. a'Beckett received a note from the Marquis of
Lansdowne, in reference to the subject above-men-
tioned. It ran thus:—
" Bowood, Oct. 20.
" Lord Lansdowne presents his compliments to Mr,
a'Beckett, and his attention having been called to a
report a few days ago of the proceedings at the South-
wark Police-court, in which it appeared that two
women of the name of Suban represented themselves
to be daughters of a person who had been butler in
his family, and that they had been sent from a cabin
on his estate in the county of Cork,—he therefore
thinks it right to prevent Mr. a'Beckett and the public
being imposed upon by stating that he never had a
butler of the name of Suban, and that he was never
possessed of an estate in the county of Cork.
" G. A. a'Beckett, Fasq., Southwark Police-office."

LAMBETH.
Mr. Theodosius Williams, the proprietor of the
Post. office Coffee-house, 26, St. Martin's-le-Grand,
was brought up on a warrant for having neglected to
pay to Mary Ann Tinlin the sum of 20s. towards the
support of his illegitimate child.
From the statement of the complainant, a respect-
able-looking young woman, who had been brought
up:in the family of the defendant, it appeared that she
had sworn the child to Mr. Williams, at this court,
three years ago last February, and that ever since
then she had exprerienced the greatest possible diffi-
culty in obtaining from him the payment of the ma-
gistrate's award of half-a-crown a week. Such, she
said, was the repugnance of the defendant to keep up
his payments of this paltry sum, and her difficulty:in
obtaining it, that she lost at least eighteen months'
money, by allowing that length of time to elapse be-
yond the thirteen weeks for which alone the law en-
abled her to recover. His excuse against paying the
eight weeks at present due was the assertion that the
child was dead, and for this she had been put to the
expense of having the child brought to town from a
distance of 200 miles. She sent word to the defend-
ant where he might see the child if he thought proper,
but he declined to do so.
The defendant, when asked what he had to say to
the charge, replied that he conceived the young wo-
man bound to produce some evidence besides her own
to satisfy him that the child was living, more parti-
cularly as he could produce evidence of the fact of
her having said it had died.
The complainant, who seemed very much affected,
admitted that she had said so to Mr. Williams's
housekeeper, but this was at his own earnest solicits-

tion, and his going on his knees to pray that she
would do so, to procure for him peace and quietness
at home.

Mr. Williams did not reply to this, and
Mr. ELLIOTT, remarking that the case was made
out to his satisfaction, told the defendant that, unless
he paid 1/. 53. 61., the claim and costs, he must com-
mit him to prison for one month.—The money was
paid.

GRAVESEND PETTY SESSIONS, Oct. 20.
(Magistrates present—R. OAKES (in the chair), E.
TICKNER, and C. SPENCER, Escpl) _ _

William Henry Carlin►, of Ludgate-hill, London,
tobacconist, against whom a warrant was issued on
the 16th inst., charging him with violently assaulting
Ellen Bishop and violating her person, on the night
of the Bth of July last, appeared this day to answer
the charge. The court, by the direction of the bench,
was cleared of all but the friends of Mr. Carlin, the
reporters, and the parties concerned in the hearing of
the case.

Mr. Humphrey, solicitor, of London, attended for
the defence.

The first witness called was

Mrs. Charlotte Wills, who deposed that she was a
widow, residing at 151, Windmill-street, Gravesend,
in which house she was in the habit of letting fur-
nished apartments. Ellen Bishop, the prosecutrix,
had lived with her for a period of seven years at
Gravesend and other places, and she had all that time
considered her to be a modest and correct girl. On
the 16th of June last the prisoner (Mr. Carlin) took
her furnished apartments for himself and his wife for
three months, and came into occupation of them
on that day. On the following day (the 17th) she,
after leaving Ellen Bishop in charge of the house and
instructing her to be careful in her conduct and at-
tention to the lodgers, went to Brighton for change
of air. The three months, for which time the lodg-
ings were taken by the prisoner, expiring on the 16th
September, she came home on the 15th but did not
sleep in the house that night, as no bed had been
prepared for her. On the following morning, in
consequence of a communication made to her by Ellen
Bishop, on her*(witness's) return.home, she had an in-
terview with the prisoner in the sitting-room he occu-
pied, and she accused him of having committed a rape
on the body of Ellen Bishop, her servant. He said
in reply to the accusation that he was drunk at the
time, and incapable of doing any injury to the poor
girl, and added—"you, as a married woman, Mrs.
Wills, ought to know that." The prisoner's wife
was in the room over the parlour, and might have
heard the charge made against her husband. Fie
called his wife down, and told her to go down the
street and fetch a chaise, as they were prepared to leave
at the time. Witness then called up Ellen Bishop, who,
when she came into the room, accused the prisoner
of having forced her into his bedroom, and
kept her there for five hours; to which he replied,
" You must have been dreaming, girl ;" and she re-
plied that she had not been dreaming, and that she
well knew she was telling the truth. The chaise then
came to the door, and the prisoner on going out said
to witness, " If you want to carry the matter farther,
send your solicitor to me, and I will face him ; but
take care of what you are about, or I may bring an
action against you for conspiracy." Witness told him
her character was too good a one, and nobody would
believe her capable of being guilty of so base an act ;
and that she fully believed the girl's statement to be
true. Prisoner then left the house. There was no
other witness present when Ellen Bishop repeated her
charge against the prisoner.
Cross-examined by Mr. HUMPHREY—The girl
Bishop told me of the assault on her by Mr. Carlin,
on the evening of the 15th of September, shortly
after I returned home. The interview I had with
Mr. Carlin on the following morning lasted about half
an hour. He paid me his bill short of 165., which he
disputed and refused to pay, saying it was an over-
charge. We had some words about it, and I threatened
if he did not pay the 16s. that I would ;summon him
for it. He has not paid it since, but I will make him
do so. The girl was not in the room, but she might
have heard all that passed, as I told her to be on the
stairs in case I should call her to make her charge
against Mr. Carlin to his face. There were no other
money matters between the prisoner and me. It was
after the dispute about the 16s. that I made the
accusation against him about the girl. I did not say
to him, " Give the girl 51. or 101. and settle the
matter with her." This I positively swear. I had
been to the house on either the let, the 21, or the 3d
of August, but I cannot recollect which of those days.
I saw Ellen Bishop, and asked her how she was get-
ting on ? to which she replied, " Not very well
ma'am; I have something to tell you, if von can
stay." But I could not stay, as I was afraid of being
too late for the two o'clock boat, by which I was to
go to London on my way back to Brighton. I had
come to the house that morning, and did not stay
long. I remarked that the girl seemed scarcely able
to walk. I was not at the house again till the 15th
of September, or at any time but on the occasion 1
mention, between the 17th of June and the 15th of
September. The parents of Eden Bishop are living,
and residing at Goole, in Yorkshire.

Ellen Bishop, a plain and modest-looking girl, de-
posed that she was twenty-one years of age, and had
been seven years in the service of Mrs. Wills, nearly
the two last of which they resided in Gravesend. Mr.
Carlin and his wife came to reside in her mistress's
house, No. 151, Windmill-street, about the mid,lie of
June, and left about the middle of September last.
Her mistress left home on the day after they came,
leaving her in care of the house. Mr. Carlin used to
go up to London every other evening, and coma down
the following morning. Mr. Carlin slept in the house
but on two occasions, when Mrs. Carlin was not there.
Heard of a ball to be given in London to the Queen.
On the Monday before the ball, which she heard was
to be on the Wednesday (July 9), Mr. and Mrs.
Carlin went to London, with the intention, as they
told her, of going to the ball. On Tuesday night,
at about eleven o'clock, Mr. Carlin came to the
house, and said he had come down by the last
train, and would stop the night. He bad some
brandy and water in the dining-room. He did
not go out again that night. She was sitting
up ; there was nobody else in the house In
about a quarter of an hour after he went up stairs
as if to go to bed. She went up stairs in a short
time after to go to her bedroom, which was on the
same floor with that of Mr. Carlin. He was standing
at the top of the stairs when she went up, and he asked
her to come and sleep with him. She said she would
not. He then caught her by the shoulder, and said,
"you must," when she straggled, and got away from
him, but he again caught hold of her and dragged
her into his bedroom, and wanted her to undress her-
self. She refused to do so, and he opened the upper
part of her dress at the back, and at length undid all
of her clothes and pushed her into the bed. She had
nothing on but her night-gown. He was undressed
and got into the bed. (Here, after considerable hesi-
tation, the witness detailed circumstances confirma
tory of the criminal charge against the prisoner.)
She added that she had resisted all she could, but did
not cry out as she thought it useless, there being no
one in the house, and the door of the room was locked
by the prisoner previous to his getting into the bed.
He held her so fast she could not get out of the bed.
She remained in the bed till five o'clock in the morn-
ing, but did not go to sleep. She was very ill. Be-
lieves the prisoner slept. He was asleep when she got
up and left the room.
To the BENCR—The prisoner had gone into her
room when she was undressed and brought her her
night-gown. She did not then try to leave his room,
as he locked her in. When he pushed her into the
bed she got under the bed clothes. She struggled as
much as she could against him. When he went to
her room for her night-gown, she might have followed
him out.

Mr. Humphrey was proceeding to cross •ezamine
the witness, when
The CMAIRBIAN, after a short consultation with the
other magistrates, said that there was in the opinion
of the Bench no evidence to support the criminal
charge set forth in the warrant. independent of the
discrepancies between the prosecutrix's statement to
the magistrates at the time the warrant was obtained,
and her present statement, it appeared to the bench
that, according to her own evidence, she was in some
degree a consenting party to the violation of her per-
son ; and whatever their opinion may be of the con-
duct of the prisoner in taking advantage of her un-
protected situation, they felt bound to dismiss the
case. The Bench then told Mrs. Wills that her con-
duct in bringing the case before the magistrates was
creditable to her; she was bound to protect her ser-
vant from injury, and especially so iu a case like the
present.