The Sun.
London, England, 1858-08-05 00:00:00

defendants if.they were at any.future time guilty of similar
donduct and were brought up to be dealt with by the Court.
Mr. Bodkin appeared on behalf of the_parish authorities •
-Mr: Sleigh for the-defendants.
(Before Mr. Payne.) _ .
Richard Walker, a young man, 23 years of age, was
indicted for having assaulted Maria Mills. He surrendered.
Mr. Orridge conducted the prosecution; Mr. Sleigh and
Mr.. M'Donnell were counsel for the defendant.
This case lasted a considerable time, and caused a good
deal of amusement in the court, from the circumstance of
the assault the defendant was charged with having been
committed on the day of his marriage, and was the
cause of his passing his bridal night in durance vile,
in one of the cells of the House of Detention, and it
would have lasted a great deal longer—there being
a number of witnesses for the defence—bad not a kind
of compromise been entered into at the close of the case for
the prosecution, by which the defendant pleaded guilty, by
the advice of his counsel, to a charge of common assault,
and was discharged on entering into a recognisance to
appear for judgment when called upon. When it was stated
that this arrangement had been made, several of the jurors
said they thought the evidence did not make out a case of
common assault at all; others said they were of quite a
contrary opinion. The prosecutrix was the wife of an
engineer residing at Dalston, and on the afternoon of the
21st of July the defendant and two others were in the
garden of the second house from hers "larking" with a
broom, which was thrown into the next garden. Mrs.
Mills was in her garden at the time, and made same
remark about their proceedings, and shortly afterwards
there was a knock at her door. She was just then poking
the fire, and went to the door with the poker in her hand.
She found the defendant at the door. He made some
inquiry about the broom, and seeing the poker in her
band, he snatched it, and struck her on the arm and across
the breast. She cried out, and a Mr. Whitby and his wife
went to her assistance. The defendant struck at them
right and left. Ultimately the defendant was given into
custody; and he stated, in answer to the charge, that as
he was swinging the broom in the air it tiew not of his
hand, and on his going civilly to to zsk Mrs. Mills for it, she
came to the door with a poker in her band and threatened
to use it about him if he did not take himself off. To pre-
vent that he seized the poker, when he was set upon by
Mrs. Mills and the other witnesses, and what he did was
in his own defence. He wee married that-morning, and
the wedding was kept .at a friend's, two doors from Mrs.
Mills'. One of his friends said that Mrs. Mills fought like
a inane
The defendant having entered into a re cognisance, con-
ditioned as above-stated, was discharged.
Robert Payne surrendered to take bis,trial upon an in-
dictment charging him with having steles three wheels,
and ether articles used in the manufacture of perambulators,
the property of Charles Burton, his master.
Mr. W. Cooper prosecuted; Mr. Ribeon appeared for the
prisoner.
In consequence of having missed a quantity of materials,
the prosecutor, a psrambutator maker, 505, New Oxford-
street, employed DO eiarnan, 08 E, to watch, and the
prisoner was taketi to custody. At his lodgings, 26,
Glo'ster-place, Camden-town, a variety of articles, some of
them marked and identified as the prosecutor's property,
were'found. The prisoner said most of them were his own,
and belonged to a p..2rambulatOr he was making on his own
account, but admitted that one or two trifling things he had
picked up at the prosecutor's, bat they were so valueless
that brides not done so they would have been sNept away.
The jure( eund the prisoner guilty of stealing a portion ;f
the property, and be was sentenced to six months' bard
1 abour.
William Wales, 48, and William Makepeace, 26, the
latter a Custom-house officer, were tried on Tuesday—
Wales for stealing, and Makepeace for feloniously receiving
with a guilty knowledge, two :hells, the property of the
East and West India Dock Company, the employers of the
first-named prisoner.
Mr. Sleigh, instructed by the solicitors to the Dock-Com-
pany, prosecuted; Mr. Metcalfe defend: a, fit kttre C j
Wales defeneed himself.
From the evidence of William Long, one nfh. 7, et leo
of the Eastiand West India Dock, it appeared'ititte''
psi osier alakepeace was leaving the dock on .the 2.1 It- f
:iffy; etiontanid-day, be was stopped, in consequence of it
betbg s6r(ect6t7 from the awkward manner in which he
was teee'reigi-• his hat, that there was something
in it. When questioned be said he had a shell,
but on his hat being taken from his head two
shells were found in it. They were worth 34. He said they
were given to him by the mate of a vessel, whom Le did not
know exactly ; and on his ackeoNlerlging that he was an
officer of her Majesty's Custerns, the constable told him that
be Ras astonished at a person in his position attempting to
tike things out in that way, and that if they were legally in
his cu•totly he must go back to the mate and get a proper
pass for them. He went back as if to do so, and gave a
false name, John Spring. Two hours elapsed, and as he
did riot return the constable went in search of him, and
after a w found him on the Rum-quay, where he was
engagel drawing samples. When asked why he had not
returned with tne pass, he equivocated, saying that he
could not find tote mate; that it was no use looking for him
any longer, and that he did not know him; but the con-
stable settled the matter by taking him to the police-office,
and then he said be received the shells from Wales, who
was employed in the cotton warehouse. Wales, on being
confronted with Makepeace, said he had given them to
him, and that he had picked them up in the warehouse,
where they were knocking about. Wales had been em-
ployed in the shell warehouc, and from a cask there 16
shells were mis,ing.
Mr. Metcalfe urged that there was an absence of felonious
intention, and the jury retired to consider their verdict.
Af er being absent some time, they agreed to a verdict of
guilty, with a recommendation to mercy.
Mr. Payne sentenced each of them to one month's hard
labeur. _ _ _

Doting this session the inconvenience arising from the
Second Court being held in the committce•rootn has been
grewer than usual, which is saying a good deal. The door-
way has been so bucked up by persons interested in the
trials that it was nib the utmost difficulty that those pro-
fessionally cmcerned cool I obtain atitu6sion, and the atten-
tion of the Court being called to it, a partial remedy was
the result. The officers, it should be stated, carried cut
their instructions properly.