The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-07 00:00:00

I4AW AND POLICE.

EXTRAORDINARY CHARGE.-At the Central Criminal
Court, on Tuesday, a very singular case was heard by the
Recorder. Samuel Benjamin, a woollen merchant, was
charged with stealing various sums of money belonging to
a firm of which he was a partner. The Legislature has
now made it an indictable offence to rob a partner, and
under the new Act the case was tried. The charge was,
that in the absence of Cohen, his partner, on a journey,
Benjamin sold all the stock, and drew the money
belonging to the firm out of the bank. The prosecutor
returned sooner than was expected, and found the
warehouse shut up. The prisoner came up, and was given
into custody by his partner. His answer was that he had
put £l,OOO into the concern, and had taken the money to
recoup himself, finding there were more debts than he
expected. After hearing arguments on both sides, the
Recorder summed up, and observed that the Act of Par-
liament under which the charge was preferred required
great care in the administration of the law. The jury
returned a verdict of Guilty, and sentence was deferred,
and the money was ordered to be given up to ""-
assignees.

EXTENSIVE ROBBERY.—Three men were charged on
Tuesday at the Criminal Court with breaking into the
warehouse of Alfred de Prima, and stealing a quantity of
feathers, value £3OO. On the night of the 19th February
the prosecutor's premises in Whitecross-street were broken
into, and about £l,OOO worth of ostrich feathers abstracted.
The prisoners were proved to have taken part in the
robbery, and were sentenced to seven years' penal servi-
tude, and twelve and eighteen months' hard labour respec-
tively. A woman in whose possession 3,000 feathers were
found was sentenced to three months' hard labour.
THE BOARD OF WORKS.—On Tuesday, at the Central
Criminal Court, Mr. Edward Hughes, late chief
accountant in the employment of the Metropolitan Board
of Works, was tried on a charge of embezzling two sums of
money, amounting to £778. These amounts were duly
entered in his pass-book, but the cheques themselves had
been paid to his own private account. Mr. Serjeant
Parry, in his speech for the defence, declared that
the prisoner had acted in a fair spirit, and
several witnesses gave testimony to the high character
which he had always borne. The question to decide was
whether the prisoner had made a mistake or was guilty of
wilful appropriation. The jury returned a verdict of Not
Guilty, and the prosecuting parties are to consider
whether they are to proceed with the other charges.
CURIOUS CASE. -A singular case has been tried at the
Gloucester Assizes for the recovery of £360 for the main-
tenance of the defendant's wife by her father, the plain-
tiff, during 180 weeks. The plaintiff formerly kept a
beerhouse, and his daughter went, in 1864, to live as cook
to the defendant's father, who was an ironmaster. The
defendant, who was very young, eloped with her, and
married her at a registrar's office, to the great
annoyance of his family, who had him arrested
on the charge of stealing his brother's boots, which
he had put on by mistake. The defendant told
his wife to go back to her father's, and tell him to
keep her in her own room, not taking any part in the
business, and he would pay him handsomely. The father
had maintained her on that footing since that time. The
defendant was persuaded by his parents to go to America
for three years, from whence he had only just returned.
Nothing was contributed by the defendant or his father
towards his wife's support. The jury found for the plain-
tiff for £225.

A petition to the Home Secretary, praying for
the reprieve of Charles Wiltshire, convicted at Gloucester
of tho murder of Harriet Nurse, at St. George's is Ling
got up.

CHURCH CONFERENCES. The council of the
Church Association have resolved on bolding a series of
conferences in May next. Amongst the business to be
done will be to consider a memorial to the two arch-
bishops, stating the precise points settled by the late
judicial decisions, and praying that the same may be
enforced ; and further, appealing to them on the question
raised on the 24th and 25th of February, 1809, on the
subject of the Lord's Supper in the Houses of Convoca-
tion of Canterbury and York by Archdeacon Denison
and Archdeacon Churton. A scheme for joint action
between clergy and laity, and olker practicalwAttelv,
will be_conisiderel '3."4