The Sun.
London, England, 1860-01-07 00:00:00

POLICE INTELLIGENCE—Jan. 6.

MANSION-HOUSE.—John Skinner, of Shaftes-
bury-street, Walworth, tarpaulin maker, was
brought up for final examination upon a charge of
having obtained canvas and money to tho amount
of 1114 from Mr. J. B. Chalmers, of Leadenhall-
street, by false pretences.
Mr. Salter appeared for the prosecution, and Mr.
Humphreys for the defence.
Previously it had been shown that the prisoner
in July last represented to the prosecutor that he
had obtained an order from Mr. Walker,' store-
keeper to the London and Brighton Railway Com-
pany, for 50 tarpaulin covers, at 575. each, and that
upon his -faith in that representation the latter
agreed to take the job off his hands, by finding him
the necessary canvas, arkl paying him 16s. each, to
make into tarpaulin sheets; that the prisoner from
time to time drew the amount for making up 49
sheets, which he said he delivered, and that subse-
quently the prosecutor discovered that no order had
been given in July, and no goods delivered.
Mr. Walker, storekeeper to the London and
Brighton Railway Company, now deposed that he
had given the prisoner three orders for tarpaulin
sheets at different times, but no order in July for
50 sheets. In April he gave him.an order for two
dozen sheets, which were completed and paid for in
the course of May, and in November he gave an
order in consequence of receiving an application
from the prisoner, to whom the goods were delivered
in on the 6th December.
Mr. Chalmers'was re-examined and said—After
I had ascertained that no order had been given in
July, I went to the prisoner and told him I wanted
him to go with me to see Mr. Walker, upon which
he said he could not go then, but he would go next
morning at ten o'clock. I told him that would nat
do, he must go at once, and then he began to cry.
I asked him what he had been doing, and he told
me that he had not delivered the sheets as he had
before said, and that he could not give me an
account of them, as he had sold most of them for a
mere nothing, but he said he hoped I would not
prosecute him, and that if I would find canvas he
would work it out by making up sheets without

charge.
The prisoner was committed for trial, reserving
his defence.

Mary Heidenmeich, a decent locking, middle-
aged woman, was charged with having deserted her
four children, and left them chargeable upon the
parish of St. Katharine Cree.
Upon behalf of the parish authorities it was
shown that in July, 1857, the prisoner, who was a
widow at the time, obtained an order for the admis-
sion of herself and four children—two being legiti-
mate and two illegitimate—into the City of London
Union, upon which she gave the order to a neigh-
bour, and absconded, leavinr, her children to be
taken to the Union, where they had remained for
the last two years and a half, without her giving
any clue to her whereabouts. Recently, however,
she was accidentally discovered, and was given into
custody.

The prisoner admitted the desertion, but said she
found her children must starve unless they went
into the house, and therefore zhe obtained the
order fcr admission ; but that she could not bring
herself to go in with them, and therefore left them,
knowing they would be looked after by her neigh-
bours.

An officer said her husband was in court.
Mr. Goodman (chief clerk)—Husband! Has she
married again, then ?
Prisoner—Yes, sir, about four months ago.
Officer—The husband is a German tailor, and
cannot speak much English.
Lord Mayor—Well, let him stand forward.
A respectably-dressed man therefore stepped into
the witness box, holding by the hand a child about
two years old, and said—That woman is my wife ;
I marry her four months.
Mr. Goodman—Do you know you are liable for
the maintenance of all the children ?
Husband—l no know it, but some people tell me
so.

Mr. Goodman—Well, you are legally liable, and
although you may have made a bad bargain the law
will require you to keep to it. Did you know she
had four children ?
Husband—Oh, yes ; she tell me four, and I pro-
mise to get them all out of workhouse for her, but I
misfortunate and ill, and so not able to do so yet,
but now will do my best for her and for them. The
child I have here is her child also and mine.
Mr. Goodman—Then that must bo illegitimate
also. However, as you are willing to take the chil-
dren out of the house, I suppose the parish oacers
will withdraw front the prosecution.
The husband then gave the required undertaking,
and his wife was discharged.

BOW-STREET.—A very smartly-dressed young
man, named John Brown, enveloped in a Talma of
the most ample dimensions, and wearing a neatly
trimmed moustache and imperial, was charged with
stealing a watch from the person of Mr. Hughes
(a gentleman from the country), in the passage of
the pit entrance at Drury-lane Theatre.
Sergeant Holmes, of the F diyision, deposed that
he was on duty at the pit entrance when the doors
were opened on Thursday evening. There was as
usual a very great crowd. He saw the prisoner
several times go partly in with the crowd and then
gradually back his way out, and knowing from long
experience what was the meaning of that manoeuvre,
he determined to watch the prisoner. Presently
the prisoner, while attempting to back out, was
carried away in spite of himself, by the force of the
crowd. Witness then went round to the box en-
trance, and passed through the lobby to the pit pay
place, so as to meet the crowd. Ho then saw the
prisoner coming along with the crowd. He was
side by side with the prosecutor, against whom he
was pressing in such a manner as to pin his arm to
his 'side. Witness could not see his hands, which
were, covered by the folds of his Talma, but from
the general position he had no doubt that the pri-
soner was " working" at the prosecutor's watch.
As they had nearly reached the pay place, he saw
the gentleman's chain fall loose and the prisoner
dexterously spring on on© side, so that if Mr.
Hughes had turned round to seize the person who
had been pressing him, he would most probably
have caught hold of a person who had been behind
the prisoner, and who was pressed forward into his
place the moment he quitted it. Bat at the moment
when he exented this little feat witness, who was
Waiting. for him, seized him by
.the collar, and
dragged- him into the side passage. His object in
doing this was to prevent the prisoner from jerking
the watch over the heads of the people behind him
into the street. The prisoner, however, dropped it
on the ground and it was picked up and identified
by Mr. Hughes. The prisober was not known.
Mr. Hughes said be was so pressed in the crowd
that he could not get his hand to his pocket' to feel
for his watch, though he tried to do so several times.
At the moment when the prisoner, so pressing him,
left his side_ he felt for his watch and found it was
gone.

The prisoner cross-examined both witnesses at
length, and with much ingenuity, but filled to
shake their testimony. He sai:= he was a watch-
maker, and had come to town from Edinburgh in
search of work.,
Mr. Henry committed him for trial.

WESTMINSTER—Robcrt Marshall, a big,
powerful fellow, was charged with committing the
following assaults :

Thomas Vine said he was assistant to his brother,
who kept tailors' trimming shops at 19, Tothill-
street, and 22, Dartmouth-street, Westminster.
He was in the latter place the previous afternoon,
when he heard loud screams and cries of " murder"
upstairs. Complainant immediately went up stairs,
and learned that the defendant, a total strange;
had forced his way into the room of one of the
lodgers, and assaulted her. Complainant requested
him to he quiet, when he put himself in a fighting
attitude, and, following the witness down stairs,
struck him a Violent blow on the mouth, without
the slightest provocation having been offered him.
Complainant then procured the assistance of a po-
liceman, and gave bins into custody.
Selina Ann Ellis, the wife of a tailor, a very re-
spectable-looking woman, who exhibited a severe
black-eve, said she lived at 22, Dartmouth-street
and knew the defendant, who had lodged with her
Sister, and he repeatedly came to annoy her and her'
sister.

Mr. Arnold—What for ?

Witness—l cannot say, lam sure.
fir.Arnold—Oh ! nonsense; there must he some
reason.
1V
Mr. t neArnold—What s—l
suppose
diti hto annoy
danonoyyesuteida
us, that's all.
lVitnesson—eHroeocma,thaen thered to see my sister, who
occupied
another.
Mr. Arnold—Does he ever threaten you when
he comes ?
:Witness Yes ; he threatened to knock my head
off, and also my nose.
Mr. Arnold.—Well, if he knocks your head off,
your nose will probably go with it.
Witness—Well, he carne to see my sister, and
meeting her on the stairs forcedher up again. She
went into witness's room. He tried to force his
way into her room, and she would not let him, as
she never did ; and while trying to keep him out,
he put his hand inside, and struck her violently in
the eye. He then got into the room, knocked both
her and her sister down, the latter twice, and then
held witness round the throat by one hand while
be "punched" her repeatedly about the head and
face. He then went down stairs, and she saw him
assault Mr. Vine:

Mary Ann Butler, sister to last witness, said she
was married, and her husband was a baker. De-

fendant was an intimate friend of her husband ; a
" respected friend" he called himself, and he knew
that her husband was away. He came to 22, Dart-
raouth-street: yesterday, and because she and her
sister would not allow him to come into their apart-
ments, he attacked her sister in the brutal manner
described, just as though he were fighting a man
of'his own size.
Mr. Arnold—Did he strike you at all ?
Witness—Yes ; he knocked me down twice.
Mr. Arnold—Had he ever assaulted you before ?
Witness—No; but he has annoyed me many
times.

Mr. Arnold (to defendant)—What have you to
sayD
efendant (sullenly)—Nothing at all.
Mr. Arnold—There seems to be some mystery
about the case. Have you no explanation to give ?
Defendant—Selina scratched my face before I
touched her.
Mr. Arnold—ls this true ?

Mrs. Ellis—No; if I ever touched him it must
have been while he was ill-treating me.
Mr. Arnold—He calls you Selina, and therefore
seems to know you very well. Has he ever been
into your room, or do you know him at all ?
Mrs. Ellis—There is not the slightest intimacy
between us, and I never on arty occasion allowed
him to enter my apartments. He has threatened
me Many times before this. .
Mr: Arnold ssid this was a case he hardly knew
what to do with, as it seemed there was some fact
which had not come out; but, according to the evi-
dence before him, there appeared to have been ex-
cessive brutality used towards the women and Mr.
Vine by the defendant, who had forced his way
into a place where he had no business to be.
Defendant—l was there ten minutes before all
this occurred:

On Mr. Arnold inquiring how this was;
Mrs. Butler said he had been in her room' about
ten minutes. He was then drunk, and going out
came in again much worse, when she determined
that he should not enter her room again. He
frequently visited her husband, with whom he was
on very good terms.
Mr. Arnold supposed that having become very
much intoxicated he committed the assaults because
the women did not want his company. His con•
duct had been very savage, and he should commit
him for two months for assaulting the women, and
fine him 505., or send him for another month, for
the attack upon Mr. Vine.
After being removed to the cells, the defendant
said he wanted to make a statement, but the par-
ties beim', gone, and Mr. Arnold having some slight
doubt about the matter, the accused was remanded.

SOUTHWARK.—Susan Searle, a middle-aged,
respectable-looking female, was brought before Mr.
Combe, charged with attempting to commit self-
murder by taking a quantity of laudanum.
Lewenden, police-constable 228 M, said that on
Monday morning last he was on duty in the Black-
friars-road, when he was called to No. 13, Great
Charlotte-street, and there he saw the prisoner in
an insensible state, and the landlady told him that
she had taken laudanum. He instantly conveyed
her in a cab to the hospital, where the, stomach-
pump was used, and after administering restora-
tives' her senses returned, but she had remained in
the hospital since, and was now in a weak condi-
tion.
Mr. Combo asked what she was.

The constable replied that she was a respectable
married woman, and lived with her husband at
No. 13, Great Charlotte-street. He understood
that she had taken three pennyworth of laudanum,
purchased at different chemists' shops.
The lAndlady of the house here stepped forward,
rnd said that prisoner's husband was a smith, and
went to work very early. She believed that they
had some words together, and that occasioned her
to take the laudanum.

Mr. Combe inquired if her husband way: in court ?
The constable replied that he was not. He did
not wish to attend.

In answer to the charge, the prisoner said she
was very sorry for it, and would never attempt.
such an act again.
Mr. Combo told her that she had done very
rashly, and had had a narrow escape of her life.
He should remand her to gaol for a few days, so
that she might have the advice and attention of
the clergyman and the medical officer. When she
came up again her husband had better be present.

THAMES. Auguste Gustave Gilson, alias
Waston, alias Wastone, alias Gibson, aged 27, was
brought up on remand before Mr. Selfe, and Ed-
ward llettord, alias Do Hatforcl, aged 30, for the
first time, charged with conspiring to defraud a
Brussels artist, named Schendell, of three pictures,
and obtaining one of them, Value 6,000 francs, by
false and fraudulent pretences.
Mr. Lewis, senior, of Ely-place, solicitor, again
conducted the prosecution for Messrs. Bevan and
Whitting, solicitors, 6, Old Jewry, who were in-
structed by the English Vice-Consul at Brussels.
M. Louis Prevot was sworn interpreter. The pri-
soners were undefended.

Mr. Lewis; in re-opening the case, said that,
owing to the report of the first examination of the
prisoner Gilson which appeared in the newspapers,
the picture of which the Belgian artist was de-
frauded had been recovered, and was now in the
hands of the police. The noble Lord de Hatfort,
who patronised the artist, and order* the picture
to be sent to England, was now before the magis-
trate (a laugh), and his title had been so recently'
conferred upon him that he did not know how to
sign his name, and had repeated it on paper and:
practised it over and over again. The noble lord,
as would be perceived by the police-sheet, had
given the name of Edward Ketford, but in the let-
ters he had addressed to the artist he called him-
self De Hatford, and De Hadford, and Dee Hatford.
He would prove that the prisoner, who had repre-
sented himself as a rich English peer, and a con-
noisseur in the fine arts, had gone by the name of
'Edouard,. Anderson, Collins, and others, and that he
had once an office at No. 29, St. Mary-at-Hill,
and that he had liVed in Bouverie-street, and Ten-
nison-street, Lambeth. Hetford had also cards de-
scribing himself as an importer and general mer-
chant, of 63, Broadway, New York, trading under
the name of Anderson and Co , a piece of informa-
tion which might prove very serviceable to our
friends on the other side of the Atlantic. With re-
gard to the charge against the two, he would show
a case of complicity so obvious that he believed
the magistrate would have no hesitation in commit-
ting both for trial for conspiracy. At the lodgings
of the prisoner Gilson a bill of lading for the pic-
ture, a letter from the artist, and a letter of ads,-ice,
were found in his, portmanteau. The landlady of
the house in Bouverie-street, Fleet-street, where
Hatfort, the soi-disant nobleman, deposited the pic-
ture, had written to all the parties concerned, and
they all met in one place. Translations of the
letters sent to the artist by the prisoners, one as
Lord De Hetfort, and the other as a commission
agent, and the letters written by the artist in re-
turn, had been made by Mr. Samuel Brown, and
they would be put in. The originals would also be
produced. A duplicate of one letter addressed to
M. Sehendell by Hetford was found in the pocket-
book of the prisoner, and pencil notes or drafts of
the letters written by Gilson, and -signed by Was-
tom!, were found in his possession. In addition
he might say that Wastone, alias Auguste Gustare
Gilson, was tried in the latter name, or rather names,
at the Tribunal in Brussels, in the early part of De-
cember last, for forgery, and, in default of appear-,
ing, was sentenced to five years' imprisopment and
hard labour, and six months additional in case of
non-payment of costs. It was no wonder that Gil-
son had adopted the name of Wastone in his corres-
pondence with the artist of Brussels, where he was
so well known.

The evidence taken on Saturday last was read by
Mr. Rowdier, the second clerk, and translated to
the prisoner. Gilson was arrested on Friday night
at a respectable toffee-house, N 0.34, Brewer-street,
Golden-square, where he was in the practice of
calling for letters addressed to him in the name of
Wastone. He then said he acted for Wastone, of No.
29A,St. Mary-at. Hill, Thames-street, but gave a very
incorrect description of the room which ho said
Wastone occupied there, and which turned out to
be let to a tailor. Gilson also represented Wastone
to be a-dealer in all sorts of goods.
Mr. Rowdier, the second clerk, asked the name
of the new prisoner called in the police-sheet Ed-
ward Hetford, and he wrote on a slip of paper
Eugene Charles Edouard.
Evidence having been given as to the arrest of
Edouard, and of the facts stated by Mr. Lewis,
Pierre Von Schendell, an artist, of Brussels, wbo
gave his evidence in the French language, said--I
received the four letters produced, marked C, P, E,

and F, from the prisoners. Hero is another One:
In consequence of the receipt of these five letters I
sent over those photographs of paintings. This
(producing a large photograph) is one, and the sub-
ject is "The Visit to the Infant Saviour." The
picture which I sent to England to Lord de Hat-
lord, and for which he was to.pay me 6,000 frnucs,
was the " General in Retirement." Here is a pho-
tograph of that. The third Photograph was a
marine view. 'T sent over the original of the
" General in Retirement" to Lord de flatford, but
I have not received 6,000 francs or any part of it.
If I had known Edouard was not Lord de Hatford
I would not have sent the picture to Englnnd.
Mr. Levis—Yogi
put full confidence hin ti noble
lord?
_ -

Witness—Yes, I thought, I was dealing with an
honourable English nobleman.
Mr. Selfe,said-hc perceived by the correspondence
between the parties that the picture (tableau) was
to come to England at the artist's risk and expense.

If the picture was lost before it came to England
at whose risk must it have been ? The pretended
noble lord said ho would not be at any risk, and
would not pay the artist until the picture arrived
safely in England. The 4oble lord would not pay
until two days after the arrival, and if damaged he
would pay the expenses of freight back to Bel-
gium.
Mr. LeWis—lf the picture had been damaged on
its passage from Ostend to London the General Steam
Navigation Company, in whose charge it was, would
have to make good the loss. The picture was the
artist's up to the moment of sending it-away.
Mr. Selfe—lf that is so there is an end of the
charge of obtaining the picture by false pretences,
and I can only commit for' conspiracy.
Mr. Lewis said in that case he could not indict
for conspiracy without the leave of the superior
court.

Mr. Selfe—Then you must get leave of the court.
M. Schendell said he had seen his picture in the
possession of Spittle, the officer. He had been re•
gularly swindled out of it.
Mr. Selfe—The prosecutor has told me in French
he wishes to avoid all further expense, and take his
picture away and abandon the case.
Mr. Lewis could not allow such a course to be
adopted. Messrs. Bevan and Co., who were repre-
sented by Mr. Samuel Bevan, had taken action in
this matter by direction of the British Ambassador,
and if the prosecution was abandoned, Mr. Samuel
Bevan, and all other parties, would be liable to
actions for false imprisonment.
Mr. Selfe requested M. Prevot, the interpreter, to
inform M. Schendell he might be off to Brussels
that night and come back at the end of a month, but
he could not have his picture until after the trial.
Mr. Samuel Bevan—lt is in the possession of
Spittle, the detective officer.
Mr. Selfe—The prosecutor wants to have an op.
portunity of exhibiting his picture to real lords and
ladies. -

Spittle—Ho can exhibit his picture to whom he
thinks proper. It is in a large room at Inspector
Hamilton's office.

Mr. Selfe—This examination will give the " Ge
neral in Retirement" additional interest.

The prisoners declined asking any questions o:
the witnesses, or making any. deknce, and
Mr. Selfe committed them to Newgate for tria:
for conspiracy.

- - -
METROPOLITAN BOARD OF WORKS.

Yesterday the ordinary weekly meeting of The
board was held in the Council Chamber, Guildhall,
Mr. J. Thwaites in the chair. The net cash balances
in hand amounted to -146,458 7s.