The Sun.
London, England, 1832-11-13 00:00:00

UNION-HALL.

Under the head of this office it will be recollected ,
that a poor woman, named Porter, attended before
the Magistrates, about 10 days ago, for the purpose
of giving an account of her son, a lad between 14
and 15 years of age, having been missing from home ,
under rather mysterious circumstances. The boy
had left his mother's which is within a short dis-
tance of the office, on last Thursday week, and pro-
ceeded to the shop of a grocer at Walworth to
inquire after a situation. Having been unsuccessful
in his application he had scarcely left the shop
when he was accosted by a tall gentlemanly looking
person, who having inquired whether he wanted a
place, and being answered in the affirmative, he then I
desired the boy to meet him at the LBee Hive, near
the Zoological-gardens, the same afternoon, and that
he should then take him home,and that all that would
be required of him was to clean hoots, and occasion-
ally light the fires in the house. The lad Porter
went to the place of appointment, and although he
had strict directions from his mother to come home
the same evening for his clothes, and to acquaint
her where his new master lived, yet he neglected
doing so, and his absence creating alarm, the poor
woman came to this office, and upon mentioning the
facts to Mr. Murray (the presiding Magistrate), he
sent Pople, the officer, to make inquiries into the
affair. When Pople commenced his inquiries, the
boy was then nearly two days away from home,
and the former went to the Bee Hive in the ex-
pectation of obtaining some clue to him, but
upon inquiry there ascertained that neither of
the parties alluded to had been at that house.
By dint of inquiry, however, the officers at length
discovered that the boy had been taken to a small
cottage in a by-court in the neighbourhood of the
Zoological-gardens. Pople subsequently met the
boy himself, and brought him up to this office, and
upon the lad being questioned as to the reason he
absented himself from home without acquainting his
mother, he gave such an account of the treatment
he experienced at the cottage in question as to leave
no doubt that he had been inveigled there by a
wretch for purposes of brutality, and that a capital
offence had been committed. Upon this informa-
tion no time was lost in despatching an officer to the
cottage to apprehend the offender, whose name is
Henry Nicholl, a Captain on half-pay, formerly be-
longing to the 14th Foot, but it was too late; for it
appeared that he, suspecting the boy had divulged
what had happened to him, had absconded. The officer,
however, found two young men in the cottage, and
upon questioning them relative to Captain Nicholl,
their answers were so contradictory and full of equi-
vocation, that he took them both into custody, and
brought them to this office. One of them said that
he lived in the service of Captain Nicholl, and
the other said that he had come there to see
his brother. When the officer entered the cot-
tage, which was miserably furnished, arid only
one bed in the place, the prisoners were wash-
ing clothes in a tub. They still remain in custody,
as it is suspected that a gang of miscreants have
made the cottage their place of rendezvous. Subse-
quently to the apprehension of the two men just
mentioned another individual, named John Goode,
who represented himself to be clerk to a tailor in
Regent-street, has also been taken into custody
under these circumstances. When the boy Porter
was brought to this office, shortly after he had been
questioned by the Magistrate, Goode called at a
public-house in the neighbourhood, and in anin-
terview with a person who is in the habit of at-
tending the office professionally for parties, said that
he was recommended to him, and that he was de-
puted to engage a solicitor on the behalf of the boy
Porter, who, he said, it was understood had been
taken into custody on some charge. During the
conversation, he assumed to be ignorant of the na-
ture of the affair upon which the boy had been there,'
but told the person to whom he made the application
that friends would be ready to pay whatever ex.
penses might be incurred in defending the boy. In
the mean time, the metropolitan police having re-
ceived information of the charge against Captain
Nicholl, an inspector of the A division took
Goode into custody, and it was discovered that he
had been in communication with Nicholl from the
time of the alleged offence ; and that he had
been to that person's agent in Fludyer-street,
Westminster, to obtain an advance of half-pay
to liquidate the expenses that might be incurred
in obtaining legal advice for the boy, as the Captain
at that time imagined he would not have divulged
the nature of the outrage committed upon his per-
son at the cottage. When Goode was brought be-
fore the Magistrate he admitted that he was ac-
quainted with Captain Nicholl, and also that he had
received written instructions from him to call at his
agent's, in Fludyer-street, to obtain his half-pay.
He (Goode) intended to have paid the Captain's
debts with the money. The letter containing these
instructions was put into his hand by a messenger,
and he had not seen Nicholl since last Friday week,
upon which day he (Nicholl) called on him in Re-
gent-street. A letter found on the prisoner was pro-
duced, dated from Folkstone, in which the writer
directs him to sell off his property immediately. It

purported to be from Captain Nicholl. An officer
was despatched to Folkatone in quest of Nicholl,
hut no trace of him has been discovered since he
first absconded from the cottage, although officers of
the old and new police are employed in looking af-
ter him. Nicholl previously inhabited a small cot-
tage in an obscure place in Lambeth, and removed
from thence in consequence of the suspicions thrown
out by the neighbours, who, never observing any
but men enter the place, imagined that they were all
" smashers." The three men in custody have been
remanded.

BANKRUPTCY COURT, Nov. 12.

EX-PARTE PATTEN IN RE HAMEL

Mr. WALCOT stated that this was a commission
issued so long ago as 30 years. The assignees, the
solicitor to the commission, and many of the credi-
tors, were dead, and every thing respecting the
commission was forgotten, when the bankrupt dis-
covered a short time back that there were 5001.
and upwards lying in the banker's hands, part of
which consisted of unclaimed dividends, and part,
it was supposed, of the residue of the bankrupt's
estate. The bankrupt informed what creditors he
could find of his discovery, and a fiat was obtained
from the Lord Chancellor in the nature of a renewed
commission. Under this fiat a creditors' assignee
had been chosen, and an official assignee appointed;
but the Commissioner had declared himself incom-
petent to order a dividend of the fund to be made,
and two of the creditors now petitioned the Court
to direct the Commissioner to make a division of it.

The COURT feared it could not assist the peti-
tioners.

Mr. WALCOT said that the official assignee had
made every possible inquiry in the matter, but could
not obtain the wished-for particulars ; and it was to
be feared, that unless the Court ordered the distri-
bution of the money, it must remain in the banker's
hands another thirty years. _ _ _

His Honour the CHIEF JUDGE said that all the
Court could do was, to order the money to be in-
vested in the funds at compound interest, so that it
might be increasing.
An order to that effect was accordingly made, the
applicants being allowed their costs out of the estate.

INSOLVENT DEBTORS' COURT, Nov. 12.

Charles Michael Magan was supported by Mr.
COOKE, aad opposed by a Mr. Carpenter, in person.
The opposing creditor was a dissenting minister.
His claim was for 2p/. ss. for board and lodging fur-
nished to the insolvent, and the ground of opposi-
tion the having made a false representation as to his
means Of payment.
The dissenting minister called a witness to prove
that a representation had been made as to the in-
solvent'a having married a " rieh widow," but his
witness completely negatived the statement which
he wished to establish, and in the course of the case
it came out that the insolvent had admitted the
amount of the debt to be seventeen pounds, and
that his wife had been willing to pay that amount
at Christmas next.
He was ordered to be discharged.

Joseph Welsh, who has already taken the benefit
of the Act four times, now made his fifth applica-
tion to the Court for his discharge from prison. His
debts amounted to 4001. His case was adjourned,
for one of his places of residence, which had not
been stated in the schedule, to be advertised.