The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-30 00:00:00

CLERKENWELL.

Joseph Williams was placed at the bar before Mr.
D'Eyncourt, charged with stealing a quantity of railway
bills from the offices of the Great Northern Railway,
King's- cross.

The defemlant denied stealing the bills in question; he
said he had been engaged by a person, who described him-
self as a clerk on the railway, to deliver the bills to the
public.

The magistrate was not satisfied with the account given
as to the possession of the bi ls, and fined Williams 20s.
for not being able to give a satisfactory account of how the
bills came into his possession.

Helen Hunt was committed to prison for two months,
for stealing a lady's reticule from a stationer's shop.

THAMES.

EXTRAORDINARY CHARGE fO.l. ASSAULT.—WiIIiam
Evans, a ,boultseller, in JUbilSifratreet, Stepney, was
brought bekriS,Mr. Woolrych,; titfged with indecently as-
saulting SoPhia Smeed, a girl aged ten years.
Mr. Gomm, from the office of Mr. Charles Young, soli-
citor, defended the accused.

The prisoner is a pale-fa ced slender young man, and his
parents keep a large bookseller's shop in the Cambridge
Road, Bethnal Green, near the Salmon and Ball, and are
very respectable people, appeared much distressed at the
odious charge preferred against their son. The investiga-
tion commenced yesterday afternoon, and which terminated
this morning went to show that the prisoner had im-
properly assaulted with his hands only, and exposed
14 person to three little girls, the sisters of the com-
plainant, and aged respectively seven, four, and two years,
and he had been severely reprimanded by their mother for
doing so. In spite of these remonstrances the girl Sophia
Smeed, who was 10 years old last May, was invited into
his shop oa. Wednesday afternoon, while she was nursing
a baby. He said he would show her a picture-book. She
went into the shop, and he produced a large and bulky
volume of " Arts and Sciences," and exhibited to her the
plates illustrat;ng the article midwifery, which were very
numerous. The book, a quarto volume of the "Dictionary
of Arts and Science," vol. 2, was produced and laid before
the magistrate. The prisoner, after showing and describing
the engravings to the girl, said, " Mind my shop while I go
down stairs. He was absent a few minutes, and returned with
his clothes in disorder, and exposed himself in a very im-
proper manner to the girl. He then proceeded to commit
the assault complained of with his hands. It was an out-
rage of the most gross description, and which the girl re-
sisted as much as she was able.

Mr. Gomm cross-examined the girl, and was proceeding
to put questions with a view of proving she was a consent-
ing party, when Mr. Woolrych said Mr. Gomm was pur-
suing a dangerous course ; and added, " The prisoner is a
nasty fellow to show the girl the engravings in that book.
He is a person of ill-conditioned mind."

Eliza Smeed, wife of a warehouseman, and mother of the
girl, said her daughter came home to her and related what
had taken place. She then gave the prisoner into custody.
Esther Lunn, a very respectable and intelligent girl, said
she went into the prisoner's shop with another girl, on
Wednesday evening, and saw his clothes in disorder, his
trousers down, and his linen hanging out, and the little
girl Smeed seated on a chair nursing a baby.

Mr. Gomm said the prisoner met with an accident a year
and half ago that injured his head, and since he had been
suffering from want of memory, hallucinations, and night-
walking. He would call witnesses to make out the defence.
Mr. Woolrych—A jury must decide this case.

The depositions having been completed by Mr. Rowdier,
the second clerk, the prisoner was committed for trial.

THE WRECKED STEAMER BALTlC.—Captain 0.
Russell, who was despatched to the wreck of the Baltic
screw steamer (of and from Hull for Riga, which got on
hhore near Dago), by Lloyd's Salvage Association, to pro-
tect the interest of the underwriters, reports that, up to the
13th inst., 360 bales of sound cotton had been saved from
the wreck, likewise the threshing machines, portable en-
gines, iron, and, indeed, moat of the cargo.