The Sun.
London, England, 1857-02-05 00:00:00

MR. MAYHEW AA D THE TICKET-OF-
LEAVE MEN.

At the Marlborough-street P. lice-court yesterday Mr.
Henry Davies, of No. 22, Buckingham-street, Strand,
solicitor, made an application to the magistrate for a
summons against the writer of a letter signing himself
"Ned Salmon," a ticket-of-leave man. The letter
upon which this application was based had been sent
to the private residence of his client, Mr. Henry May-
hew, and was of so filthy and coarse a description
that he would not attempt to read the whole of it to
the court, but he would confine himself to those pas-
sages which he thought would justify the magistrate
in granting the summons he applied for. The writer
began by avowing himself to be the same person who
attacked Mr. Mayhew at the last ticket-of-leave meeting,
held at Farringdor Hall, the Earl of Carnarvon in the
chair, and concluded with the following threat "Some of
us will meet you when you least expect it—you and the
likes of you ; and the -- parsons may preach about
our black deeds and garotting. They know nothing
about such. They may save themselves any trouble
about me. Blast you, and the whole set. You would
all give us over to that respectable gentleman, Mr. Cal-
craft, the hangman. Now, old ft-now, old -- gentle-
man Mayhew, look out for squalls, for we will have a
watch upon you and your designs. If you should
happen to be garotted, you would not come off so well
as a good many. Why don't you give us some tin."
Mr. Davies said that he held in his hand a letter from
Earl Carnarvon, dated Jan. 10, requesting Mr. Mayhew,
as a favour, to call this meeting for him, as his lordship
wished to inquire into the subject previous to the meet-
ing of Parliament, and Mr. Mayhew had complied with
the request in the hope that the men might be benefited
by the proceeding. Mr. Davies further stated, that to
show the animus of the speaker at the last meeting and
the writer of the present letter, he had come provided
with a second letter threatening proceedings in the County
Court against Mr. Mayhew unless he paid a further sum
of 3/. 2e. 6d. for the board and lodging of a returned convict
wbom his client bad been keeping for a considerable
time at his own expense. Mr. Mayhew had already
paid 101., and finding it had been applied to no good
purpose had declined to submit to further extortion ;
and that, he (Mr. Davies) believed, was the sole cause
of the malice of the speaker at the meeting and the
threat of the writer of the letter.
The magistrate, after reading the letter handed in,
observed that it was so gross and brutal a threat, that
if Mr. Davies was in a position to prove the handwriting,
he should feel it his duty to grant a warrant rather than
a summons against the man.
Mr. Davies replied that he was unfortunately not able
to produce evidence of the handwriting, but he wished
the magistrate to understand that if the opinion got
abroad among the ticket-of-leave men that Mr Mayhew
was a spy among them, and went among them solely to
injure and degrade them still more in public estimation,
it would be as much as his life was worth to visit them
in their haunts again.
The magistrate, in reply, remarked that he sat there,
not only to do justice to Mr. Mayhew, but to the
ticket-of-leave men as well. He had carefully read the
whole account of the meeting, and from the feeling
manifested by the men against the speaker, it was pro-
bable that the letter had originated from some of those
present, as a spite against the man who had made the
charges against Mr. Mayhew. Under these circum-
stances he was obliged to refuse the application.