The Sun.
London, England, 1860-05-30 00:00:00

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.—May 29.

MANSION-HOUSE.—George Deal, a nice-look-
ing boy, despite the soiled clothes he wore, of the
tender age of 9, was charged with robbing his
father of £8 9s. under painful circumstances.
A feature in the description given of the prisoner
in the charge-sheet with great exact: a 1,. w-s, that
his height was " four feet ono ;" and, in truth,
his head was barely vi-',1,1e above the bar. Befell
him lay a mimic sword and rifle, and a small silver
mounted whip, with which the little fellow was
armed when taken under the protection of the
police, and on which he was supposed to have ex-
pended a considerable sum, and his eyes were
swollen with weeping.
The prisoner is the son of George Deal, who de-
scribed himself as a funeral coachman, living at 60,
Castle-street, Leicester-square, and on the previous
afternoon Henry Mills, a city policeman, had his
attention directed to him when on the Old Shades
Pier, London-bridge, by some gentlemen, before
whom he had exhibited a sum of money in gold.
The boy, on being questioned by the constable, ad-
mitted that he had several sovereigns in his pocket,
but refused to say how many. He subsequently
produced a portemonnaie, and on being asked what
he was going to do with it he said he was about to
take it to a fish salesman in Billingsgate-market,
whose name he mentioned, but which the constable
could not now remember. He accompanied the boy
round the market, but no salesman with the name
he gave could be found there, and not liking to
leave the prisoner in the street alone with money
in his possession, he took him to the station for the
sake of protection. The constable afterwards went
with the prisoner to a house in St. Martin's-street,
Leicester-quare, where he said his father lived, but
his story turned out to be false in that respect. Af-
fecting not to be able to find his father's house in
several of the adjacent streets into which they wan-
dered, the policeman took him to a school in St.
Martin's-court, and confronted him there with the
children of the school, several of whom recognised
him in a moment, and mentioned his name, but
could not tell where he lived. Finding he was about
to be locked up, he stated at last where he lived,
confessed that he had taken a sum of money from
his father's desk, and £5 18s. 6d. being found upon
him, he said that was all he had taken. It seemed
that after purchasing the gun, sword, and whip
with which he was equipped—in the Lowther Ar-
cade as was suggested—he went in a halfpenny
steamer from the Adelphi Pier to London-bridge,
and on landing there his appearance attracted the
notice first of the people on the pier, and then of
the police.
The boy's father, a well-dressed man, about
40, on being examined, said he (the father) had on
Monday week £l5 in a lccked box in his house,
to which £2 10s. was afterwards added, and on
opening the box on the evening on which the
boy was missing £8 9s. was wanting. His wife
had left home that afternoon to see her sister, and
during her absence the prisoner had taken from
the pocket of a dress she had put off a bunch of
keys, with one of which he had opened the box
containing the money.
Mr. Goodman, the chief clerk, addressing Deal,
the father, asked what he wished to have done with
him ?

Deal said he should like him to go into some re-
formatory.
Mr. Goodman—l dare say you would. How
many children have you ?
Deal—Only two. He has robbed me repeatedly
before. I have done all I can to cure him of this
propensity in the way of education and advice, but
in vain.
The Lord Mayor—Have you ever given him a
sound whipping ?
Deal said he had more than once, until " weals"
appeared on his back. He had talked to him on
" religious matters." He had kept him on bread
and water, he had sent him to a school in connexion
with Dr. Cumming's church, but all in vain. He
found he had only been three days at school in six
weeks, when he thought he had attended every
day.
Mr. Goodman—ls the prisoner not a child by a
previous marriage ?
The father said he was.
The Lord Mayor—Aye, I thought so. That ac-
counts for it all.

Sarah Deal, the second wife, a respectable-
looking young woman, 'with a baby in her
arms equally, well dressed with herself, was
called, and corroborated her husband's state-
ment as to the money having been stolen during her
absence. She bore testimony, with much apparent
good feeling, to the incorrigible habit the boy had
of pilfering and running away from home, and to
the anxiety her husband especially, and she also,
had shown to reclaim him. She said that she had
always gone out of the room when his father chas-
tised him, because she could not bear to be present.
She added, with some emotion, that she had a great
respect for the child, because she knew his poor
mother. (The prisoner wept at, this reference to his
mother.
Mr. Goodman asked the father if he wished the
boy to be dealt with by the; Court under the Act of
Parliament or to be sent for trial.

The father said he shouhd not wish him to be sent
for trial. He would prefer to leave the matter in
his lordship's hands.

Tho Lord Mayor (addressing the father)—l am
not satisfied with the ca:,e so far as you are con-
cerned. If a child of this tender age had been pro-

perly trained he would never have been seen here.
Ile appears to have been brought to this by inat-
tention and want of care on your part. As a parent
you owe a duty to him which I cannot believe you
have properly disch4rged. I am not sure whether I
shall not order the child a whipping; if I do, it
shall be a sound one ; but. I would rather leave it to
you to inflict that punishment. Can't you send him
to some school where he would be educated for £lB
or £2O a-year, rather than have him running an
outcast about the streets ?
The father said he had been tinned out of two or
three schools.
The Lord Mayor—l am sorry to hear so bad an
account of him.
The father said he wished to save the child from
ruin.

The Lord Mayor (emphatically)—So do I.
The father said the boy had deceived him times
out of number; nobody could believe a word he said.
Eventually the prisoner was remanded until Fri-
day, Mr. Goodman suggesting for consideration in
the meantime that he should be sent to the indus-
trial school in the Euston-road.

THE PUBLIV _HEALTH.

(Front the Registrar-General's Weekly Return.)

The total number of deaths registered in London
to the week that ended last Saturday was 1,087,
and nearly the same as that of the previous week.
For the 10 years 1850-59 the average number of
deaths in the weeks corresponding with last
week is found after correction for increase of popu-
lation to be 1,133. The present return is, there-
fore, so far satisfactory, that it gives a number less
by 46 than the average rate of mortality at this sea-
son would have produced.
Twenty-four deaths were recorded in the week as
caused by smallpox, of which 7 occurred in the
Smallpox Hospital. From measles 51 children died ;
from scarlatina 26 • and there were also 8 deaths
from diphtheria. Seven of the fatal cases of measles
occurred in Islington, and 4 in Chelsea; but the com-
plaint seems chiefly to prevail in the south districts,
where 21 are returned, 6 of which occurred in Ber-
mondsey, 4 in Newington, 3 in Rotherhithe.
Phthisis carried off 171 persons, the corrected ave-
rage for corresponding weeks being 157. Three
persons died from purpura, 2 children from noma ;
a girl, aged :one year, from tmnia solium. Four
children were suffocated in bed. The son of a lin-
man, aged 3 years, was burnt fatally by his clothes
taking fire; the son of a carpenter, aged 2 years,
also by his clothes taking fire. Two children, one
aged 2 years, the other only 7 days, were burnt by
means not stated. The daughter of a porter, aged
2 years, was scalded by falling into a pan of hot
water ; and a man who had been a butcher, 62 years
old, was scalded at the workhouse in Bethnal-green
by being put into a bath of boiling water " through
great negligence." A remarkable and also a lament-
able fact contained in this return is that eight in-
fants were found murdered. A boy, aged 5 years,
died by manslaughter ; a man from the bite of a dog.
last week the births of 842 boys and 838 girls,
in all 1,680 children, were registered in London.
In the ten corresponding weeks of the years 1850-59
the average number was 1,606,
At the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the mean
height of the barometer in the week was 29-850 in. ;
on each of the first three days the mean reading
was above 30 in. The highest barometrical read-
ing was 30.22 in., and occurred on Monday ; the
lowest was 2921 in., on Saturday. The mean tem-
perature of the air in the week was 59 deg., which
is 4.8 deg. above the average of the same week
in 43 years (as determined by Mr. Glaisher.) The
mean daily temperature was above the average
throughout the week; but this excess was the
greatest on the first four days. The thermometer
in the shade fell to its lowest point, 45.3 deg., on
Monday ; it rose to its highest, 76.5 deg., on Wed-
nesday. The range of temperature in the week
was therefore 31.2 deg.; but the range attained on
Wednesday alone was 31 deg. The mean daily
range was 24.7 deg. The difference between the
mean dew-point temperature and air temperature
was 10.4 deg. That difference on Tuesday was 14
deg., showing great dryness of the air. The
greatest difference on the same day was 23.9 deg.
The degree of humidity of the air was 57 on Tues-
day, complete saturation being represented by 100.
The mean humidity of the air in the week was 67.
The mean temperature of the water of the Thames
was 60.2. The thermometer in the sun rase to 130.8
deg. on Wednesday. On the last five days the
wind was chiefly in the south-west. The whole
amount of rain in the week was 0.20 in., nearly all
of which fell on Saturday. A thunder-storm oc-
curred on the afternoon of that day.

COUNTRY MARKBTS.