The Sun.
London, England, 1859-02-01 00:00:00

POLICE INTELLIGENCE,--(THIS DAY.)

MARLBOROUGH-STREET.

A CASE FOR A REFORMATORY.—Jarrtes Cattley, a boy
about 15, was charged with stealing a si trgical instrument
from the shop of Mr. Joseph Frans Pratt, surgical
instrument maker, of 420, Oxford-street

The prosecutor said he was sitting at the back of his
shop on the previous afternoon, writing, when he saw the
prisoner and another boy looking in at the door. They
went away for a short time, and fatme back, and the pri-
soner pushed open the door, darted in, seized the instru-
ment in question, and rushed out of Vile shop. He pursued
him, and at length he was stopprA by a gentleman, and
just as he came up he saw him. drop the instrument. He
then gave him into custody. Th•e other boy made his escape.
Gowan, 13, C, said he belieT:ed the boy was known.
In answer to Mr. Boadony the boy said he was sent in to
take it by another boy.

Mr. Beadou-committect 'him for three months with hard
labour.

The mother, a decent4ooking woman, here stepped for-
ward, and said that she was a widow and was left with
eight children. She had done her utmost to bring the boy
up properly, but could not. She had tried to get him to
sea, and she wished he could be got into a Reformatory.
FURIOUS DurvncG.—Charles and Frederick Jackson,
the former of the Fulham-road, furniture-dealer, and the
latter of Park-walk, Chelsea, were charged with beirg
drunk, and furiously driving in Piccadilly, to the danger
of passengers,

Police-constable 71 C, proved seeing the accused, Charles
Jackson, driving a horse attached to a cart, at the time
galloping at the rate of eight or nine-miles an hour, when
they came in contact with a cab, din wheels of the two
vehicles becoming locked. The cabman requested them to
wait that he might see what damp, was- done, but they
drove off.

Charles Jackson was fined 20s. ; the other, ss.

THAMES.

Suor LIFTING.--Charlotte Murray and Mary Ann
Stevens, the latter a well-known thief, were brought before
Mr. Yardley charged with stealing a card of black lace and
a piece of ribbon in the shop of Mr. George Emery, linen-
draper, in the Commercia2.-road, near the George Inn.
Sophia Pettitt, a younc; lady in the service of Mr. Emery,
said the prisoners came into the shop of her employer and
selected a small quapity of ribbon, which came to 81d.
only, and then asked to be shown some lace. While they
were looking at the lace Stevens took a card of black lace,
value £1 125., off the counter and put it under her dress.
Witness called Mr. Emery, and search was made for
the lace, which was found under Murray's dress, on
the floor of the shop. A piece of ribbon was afterwards
found upon Stevens by the female searcher at the station-
house.

Mrs. Randall, female searcher at the station-house ad-
joining the court, produced a plece of ribbon found upon
the prisoner.
Stevens—l bought that.
Miss Pettitt took up another piece of ribbon, and said,
" This is what you purchased."
Roche, the gaoler, said that Stevens had been twice
charged with shoplifting at that court, and been convicted
on each occasion.

Mr. Yardley—Discharge Murray, and take the deposi-
tions against Stevens.
The prisoner Stevens no sooner heard this than she set
up a dismal howling, and implored mercy for the sake of
her poor, dear, helpless, fatherless babes, and said poverty
made her commit robberies.

The depositions having been completed, Mr. Yardley
asked Roche where the prisoner had been convicted.

Roche—Here, sir, twice.

The prisoner—l plead guilty.
Mr. Yardley—lt appears you are an incorrigible thief. I
convict you of larceny. You are sentenced to six months'
imprisonment and hard labour. This is the last time you
will be summarily convicted. Next time you are brought
here I will commit you for trial.

THE DISASTROUS FIRE AT

SHEFFIELD.

, The Sun of yesterday contained a brief announce-
ment by telegraph of a very disastrous fire, which
broke out on Sunday evening on the premises of
Mr. Charles Unwin, timber merchant and furniture
dealer, of Westbar, Sheffield. At one o'clock
yesterday morning, when our telegram was
despatched, the fire was beginning to abate.
Six or seven fire engines were in full operation,
and by extraordinary exertions on the part of the'
respective fire brigades, the fire was from that
time gradually brought under control. In a few
hours the flames were wholly extinguished, and at
eight o'clock yesterday morning the fire was limited.
to a large smouldering mass, upon which the en-
gines continued to play during the remainder of the
day. Mr. Urwin's premises consisted of a large
shop, fronting Westbar, an extensive timber-yard
in the centre, and a triangular range of workshops
and stores, extending along the rear and the south-
west side. Both the front shop and the buildings
behind were three stories high and were crammed
with furniture, timber of various descriptions, and
machinery. In the yard the timber was piled
up in immense stacks, some of them even higher
than the buildings. The stock was the accumula-
tion of more than 20 years, and consequently much
of it was in an extremely dry and inflammable
state. No one lives on the premises, which were
locked up at 11 o'clock on Saturday evening and
not again visited until the fire broke out. A smell
of fire had been perceived by persons living in the
neighbourhood during the greater part of Sunday,
but no clue to its cause was obtained until about 10
o'clock in the evening, when one of the neighbours
saw a slight flame in the rear of the front shop and
gave an alarm. The watchman on the beat sprung
his rattle, and immediately a dense crowdeollected.
In a few minutes after the alarm was given the
flames burst through the windows fronting into
Westbar, and a current of air being thus let in, the
whole premises were, in less than quarter of an
hour, enveloped in one terrific mass of flame, the
heat of which was so intense es to be almost un-
bearable to persons on the roof of the Surrey
Music-hall, from 80
.to 100 yards distant. The
fire-engines had by this time arrived, but all
hope of saving any part of the extensive
stock was at an end, and. the firemen di-
rected their efforts to preventing the spread
of the flames to the adjoining property.
Not only was the whole of the contents of Mr.
Unwin's premises destroyed, every room being
gutted, but the great portion of the buildings
were also burnt down. Of the furniture shop

fronting Westbar every wall has fallen, as also
those of an adjoining clog shop which formed
part of the same block of buildings, and was occu-
pied by Mr. Clayton. Only portions of the walls
of the workshops in the rear remain standing, and
they are so much injured as to necessitate the:r
being taken down. The whole of the buildings de-
stroyed belonged to Mr. Unwin, but Mr. Clayton's
shop and several cottages in the rear were not in his
occupation. It is considered remarkable that so
extensive and fierce a fire, which at one time

threatened to destroy an immense range of bui.icl.-
ings, should have been kept within the limits of
Mr. Unwin's premises, but this result is in a great
measure owing to the fact that those premises were
surrounded by lofty walls, some of them erected
expressly as a precaution against such a catastrophe,
in consequence of Mr. Unwin's premises having
been on fire several times previously. As we s:,ated
yesterday Mr. Unwin estimates his damage at
£lO,OOO, but great losses have also been sustained
by the occupants of adjoining property. A lar3e
number of ruffians, under pretence of saving Le
furniture and stock of several adjacent shopkeepers,
smashed the furniture to pieces by throwing it out
of the windows, and destroyed and carried off much
of the stock. The furniture was also removed from
a number of cottages in the rear of the premises,
and much of it destroyed. The crowding and dis-
order were so great that but for the fortunate
arrival of a detachment of the 24th infantry, who
saw the fire from the barracks, a distance of nearly
two miles, and at once hurried to the scene, the
efforts of the fire brigade would have been seriously
impeded. The military, however, quickly restored
order. Altogether the fire is a much more alarming
and destructive one than has occurred in Sheffield
for the last 10 years. Fortunately no serious per-
sonal injury has been sustained. The cause of the
conflagration is as yet involved in mystery.

BIRTH IN A RAILWAY CARRIAGE.—On the ar-
rival of the London and Brighton Company's up train from
Hastings at Forest-hill station on Sunday evening, some
excitement was occasioned among the passengers by an in-
timation that a lady in one of the carriages had been taken
in labour. Inquiries were made in all directions for a medi-
cal man, and most fortunately for the patient it happened
that a doctor, who holds an honorary position under the
company, was a passenger in the tram. He at once gave
his aid, and between Forest-hill and London accomplished
all that was necessary for the comfort of the lady. It
transpired that the birth was premature and the infant
dead.
THE NEW GOVERNOR OF MADRAS.—When the
new governor of Madras, as Mr. Trevelyan, was assistant
to the president at Delhi, be did not quit that city without
leaving a lasting memorial of his labours. Delhi was in-
creasing, in spite of high prices and deficient supplies, and
the lower classes suffered much from the exorbitant house
rent demanded of them. Mr. Trevelyan, in order to remedy
this, applied for 300 beegahs, or acres, of waste land, and
sold the leases,_on certain building conditions, at low rates
to the ryots. From his own funds he contributed enough
to secure a fine broad street through the centre of the new
quarter, and thus, to the great benefit of the inhabitants,
arose Trevelayanpur. Curiously enough, the erection of
this quarter of Delhi, a benefit in itself, led to one of the
greatest benefits that has been conferred on India. From
it sprung the abolition of the transit duties. Finding that
the trade of the place was strangled by these vexatious im-
posts, the founder set on foot a series of inquiries, which
resulted in his appointment by Lord William Bentinck to
inquire into these obstacles to trade, and the appearance of
his reports in the newspapers of Calcuttegave the final
blow to a system which public opinion had already eon-
, deemed,—Honfeward Mail.