The Sun.
London, England, 1869-09-23 00:00:00

A DESPERATE BURGLAR.

At the Central Criminal Court on Wednesday, before the
Common Serjeant, William Bentley, a respectably dressed
man, was indicted for burglariously entering a dwelling-
house at Peckham. lie was found Guilty. A retired
officer of the police said he had known the prisoner for
five-and-twenty years as a desperate thief, and had proved
convictions which sentenced him to two years' hard labour
and ten years' transportation. P.C. Ranger stated that he
had long known the prisoner as ono of the most dangerous
Allie thieves, and that he had been sentenced to
six years' penal servitude for a burglary at Bath. On being
taken into custody duplicates of jewellery, the result of a
burglary in Derbyshire, with various housebreaking tools,
were found in his possession. The judge sentenced him to
twenty years' penal servitude. On sentence being passed
loud screams were heard in the court; the prisoner's wife
was removed in a state of insensibility.

LIFE ASSURANCE DODGES.

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An evening contemporary publishes a letter from a corres-
pondent, which it says " throws some light on the extra-
ordinary expedients to which some of the assurance offices
are in the habit of resorting for the purpose of extending
their business at all hazards and any cost." The correspon-
dent has furnished our contemporary with the name
of the company in question, and is by no
means a small or obscure one. The following is the
substance of the communication :—About four months
since a friend called on me, and, presenting me with a
ticket, asked me if I would dine with him in the City that
evening at eight o'clock. I had no objection to the dinner,
but naturally asked the occasion of the festivity. He
replied that lie was quite ignorant of the cause of the
spread, as he termed it, or the name of the host, and that the
tickets were given to him by a gentleman whom he casually
met at the bar of a tavern, and with. whom he had a few
minutes' conversation on general topics. We went, and
found a dinner laid for about twenty, and fifteen or sixteen
gentlemen sitting almost in solemn silence, for they were
nearly all strangers to each other, and, like ourselves,
seemed in ignorance as to why they were brought together.
We all seemed to be waiting for our mysterious host, but,
with the exception of an energetic young gentleman who
rushed in and out, and at about half-past eight ordered dinner
to be served, no one appeared whom we could honour as
the founder of the feast. We dined, and a very good din-
ner it was. No wine ; that, I think, was a mistake, for
wine opens the heart and muddles the brain, and the
Company might have reaped a profit on the invest-
ment of a dozen of port. The cloth was cleared, a collec-
tion made for the waiters, grog ordered, and then the
murder came out—our lively friend appeared with a lot of
reports, &c., a venerable gentleman favoured us with a
long discourse on the advantages of life assurance and of
the Life Assurance Office in particular, and finished
by calling on all of us who were not already assured
to do so at once in their office, adding that in a private
room upstairs gas and a medical man had been laid on for
our special convenience, and a clerk from the office would
assist us in making out our proposals for any sum up to
£lO,OOO. We with difficulty resisted the voices of our
charmers and escaped, after promising to give the
Life Assurance Company the preference whenever we
insured our precious lives."