The Sun.
London, England, 1857-03-05 00:00:00

POLICE INTELLIGENCE—March 4.

BO W-STRE ET. —THE MILITARY BEGGING-LETTER
IMPOSTOR.—WiIIiam Wilson, the old man who stood re-
manded on the charge of having obtained 8/. from Lord
Rokeby, under false pretences, was brought up for final
examination.
The prisoner had been twice retpanded, the first time
fur the purpose of inquiring as to his antecedents. It ap-
peared that he had gone by the nathe of Major Talfrey,
but no former offence was established against him. He
was apparently much agitated, and declared that Talfrey
.was his real name, -and that he had been an officer. He
was then again remanAed, at his own request, as he ex-
pressed a wish to bonsult his solicitor, and said he be-
lieved he could produce Mrs. Duke, on whose behalf he
had obtained the money.

Mr. Henry now said that he had received a letter from
the prisoner, admitting that he could not produce Mrs.
Duke, and that his solicitor could not &Vend. He must
therefore come to the conclusion that the prisoner having
in some way heard of Mrs. Duke had made use of hfr
name to obtain the money for his own purposes. Lord
Rokeby and his brother officers would be glad to assist
Mrs. Duke if she were living and in.distress, but they
had reason to believe that she was dead.

The prisoner—She is living, sir.
Mr. Henry—lf so, why not produce her and clear
yourself ?
The prisoner—l cannot without inculpating others. I
have nothing more to say, except that I hope that in ap-
portioning my punishment yon will take-into account my
advanced age, and the malady I am suffering under.
Mr. Henry—You may be thankful that Lord Rokeby
does not wish to prosecute you at the sessions, in which
case you would get a much heavier punishment than I
can inflict.

Committed for three months.
Barney Levy and George Williams were charged
with breaking into the house of Mr. James, of Cleve-
land-square, and stealing 501. worth of jewellery.
On the night of Jan. 29, the prosecutor's servant,
Charlotte Cockett, was alarmed by a man passing along
the parapet In front of the window. of her room (the
front attic.) On going down stairs she found that her
mistress's jewel case bad been stolen from the dressing-
table. It was found that an entry had been forced by
an attic window adjoining that of the servant's. Foot-
steps were traced between that and an empty house a
few doors off, and a man named Leonard came forward
and stated that he had seen three men come out of that
house. A few days after the prisoners were taken into
custody for an attempt to enter an empty house in
Keppel-street, and a jemmy and some hktleton keys
were found on them. One of the keys fitted the door of
the empty house near St. James's ; the jemmy corre-
sponded with the marks on the forced window, and the
prisoners were identified by Leonard as two of the three
man he had seen leaving the house.—Committed for trial.

MANSION-HOtTSE.—Margt. Cochrane rvaajbroughi
before the Lord Mayor, charged with having stolen a
51. note.

Mr. A. Appleton, clerk in the accountants' bank-note
office of the Bank of England, said—l produce a
Bank note, No. 22,901, dated Dec. 12, 1856, which was
paid into the Bank on the 25th of Feb. last. It is en-
dorsed Cochrane, 17, Mark-lane.
Elizabeth Fletcher, wife of a cheesemonger in Fore-
street; thipplegate, said—The endorsement is in my
handwriting. About the 9th or 10th of February the
prisoner brought the note to me, and bought s, me bacon
to the amount of 4s. 6d. or 55., and I gays her the
change. I was very particular about changing the note,
and asked her questions, which she answered by saying
that she and her husband were taking care of offices in
Mark-lane, and the latter had received it as a part ahis
salary.
E. H. Long, clerk to Mr. Shotbridge, of 17, Mark-
lane, wine merchant, said—The counting-house is on the
ground floor, and we have an iron safe in the front

counting-house, the key of which safe is in a degk in the
office, which is kept locked at night. We are in the
habit of keeping the money in a box, which is not kept
locked, in a drawer in the iron safe. On the 28th of
Jftnuary last I received two 51. notes from Messrs.
Currie, and on the same day I paid one of them to the
Customs for duty. The other I put into the cash-box,
which I placed in the iron-safe drawer. I bad no oc-
casion to open the box aizain till the morning of the 30th,
and on opening it I missed the note I had put in on the
28th. The prisoner was employed to clean the counting
house, and it is my duty to pay her. Her husband is
not in our employment. I did not pay the bank-note
to her. We have repeatedly lost money from the cash•
box.

➢ir. Chipp, also a clerk in the house, confirmed the
statement of the last witness.

Foulger, 568, said—Mrs. Fletcher pointed out the
prisoner to me and Bassett, another officer, and I took
her into custody, and told her she was charged with
having stolen a ;$l. note. She said that she had picked
up the note as she wont to light the gas.
Bassett, 593—1 asked her if her husband knew any-
thing about it, and she said "No, he knew nothing at
all about it She also said that she had up stairs the
money she had not spent, and she subsequently handed
to me the saving bank book produced and painted to the
entry of 41, saying that that was part of the money.
The prisoner —I found the note. I never stole it.
Remanded.

SOUMWARK.---COMMITTAL OF TWO BURGLARS
—Cornelius Callaghan and William Clark, two rough
looking young fellows, connected with a gang of thieves
frequenting a low lodging-house in Kent-street, were
brought before Mr. Combe for final examination, charged
with breaking into the warehouse of iMr. Jones, whole-
sale tallow-chandler, Kent-street, and stealing therefrom
three boxes of sperm candles and other property of con-
siderable value.

George Bensor, 121 M, said that about 3 o'clock on
the morning of Tuesday, the 24th ult., he was on duty
in Church-street, near the end of Kent-street, when he
sa v the two prisoners, with another, come out of a court
adjoining Mr. Jones's warehouse. Callaghan was carry-
ing a box, and Clark had a bundle under his arm. As
so nse they raw witness, they all ran off. He called
p 'lice-constable 126 M to his assistance, while he pur-
sued Callaghan, and after a smart chase took him into
custody, he having dropped a box of candles in the street.
After he had secured him he went back to the prosecu-
tor's premises, and went with 126 M into Jones's-build-
ings, where they found Clark, when they were also
secured. After that he turned on his lamp and found &
box of candles lying in the court which adjoins Evans's
lodging-house, where the prisoners lodged. On examin-
ing the prosecutor's premises he fou❑d that the door
leading to the passage had been forced open and the
warehouse entered.
Police-constable 186 M said he went to the assistance
of last witness, and took Clark into custody. The third
man made his escape.
Sergeant Roberts, 26 M, said he was called to the pro-
secutor's premises after the prisoners were secured and
in the back part which adjoins Evans's lodging-house,
witness found three boxes of candles which had evidently
been dropped by the thieves. Witness believed that
there must have been four or five persons engaged in the
burglary.

William Higgins, foreman to the prosecutor, said he
lived on the promises, and when he went to bed at ten
o'clock he secure ly fastened all up. Shortly after three
in the morning he was roused up by the police, when he
discovered that the warehouse had been broken into and
robbed of several boxey of candles. He identified those
produced as his master's property.
The prisoners who declined making any defence, were
committed for trial.

WESTMINSTER.—MORE WILFUL DAMAGE AT TOT-
HILL-FIELDS BRIDEIVELL —Ann Riley, a prisoner in Tot-
hill-fields House of Correction, was charged with wilfully
breaking windows and destroying prison property.
Having misconducted herself in one of the wards she
was remanded to her cell, where she broke all the win-
dows ; on being removed to another she tore up her mat-
trese, rugs, &c.
Mr. E. Allan, the storekeeper, proved the amount of
damaze, and said that prisoner had been sent to thegaol
for destroying property in St. Martin's Workhouse.
She had since received an additianal month's imprison-
ment for assaulting one of the female officers. Her con-
duct was altogether very refractory.
Prisoner, who made no defence, was committed for
two months.

MARLBOROUGH-STREET.—CRUSADE AGAINST
CAMIEN.—The time of Mr. Beadon, the sitting magis-
trate, was occupied for upwards of two hours in hearing
summonses against cabmen for plying for hire and ob-
struction, taken out by the police. These summonses
appear to have grown gradually into an established por
tion of the business of this court. The average is about
40 or 50 a month, and as in nearly every instance costs
or costs and a fine varying from 3; to 103. are inflicted,
a very considerable tax is thus levied on a very poor
class of persons, and it sometimes happens that, in ac-
complishing the payment of the fine, articles of first ne-
cessity,. even to the clothes of wife and children, are
obliged to be sold or made away with. One of the
effects of these periodical batches of cab-summonses is to
delay important public business, while the magistrate is
deciding as to which side the testimony preponderates
in such matters, as whether the cabman held out his
whip or his finger to some person in the street, or whether
be was standing near the kerb waiting to take up a fare
by whom he had been hired, or only in the hope of
catching a fare. The following case occupied much time
yesterday.
Henry Wisdom was charged by police-constable
Gummer with plying for hire in Jermyn-street at twelve
o'clock at night.
The constable said he saw the defendant hold up his
finger to some gentlemen. He had seen the defendant
do the same thing in Regent-street.
The cabman denied the charge. He saw the police-
constable taking his number on the plea that he had plied
some gentlemen in Jermyn street. He instantly went
up to three gentlemen who were standing in Jermyn-
street, told them what the constable was doing, and
asked them in the constable's presence if he had plied
them. The gentleman said he had not, and they were
present to repeat their denial.
Two gentemen here came forward, and declared the
driver did not ply them.
The constable said these were not the gentlemen plied
by the defendant.
The gentlemen positively declared there were no other
gentlemen but themselves near the cabman at the time,
and further, when they told the constable they had net
been plied, the con-table replied he had seen the cabman
ply while going through Regent-street. They then said
to the constable that such a charge was a very vague
one, and that no cabman could rebut it, even if innocent.
The constable said there were about thirty persons in
the street at the time he tcok the cabman's number.
The gentlemen who were plied by the cabman holding
up his finger were neither of the gentlemen in court,
they were two gentlemen at the corner of the street.

The gentlemen said they were positive the only
persons together were themselves.

Mr. Beadon bad no doubt that the gentlemen stated
all they knew about the matter correctly, but it was
clear the constable referred to circumstances of which
they had no cognisance. Fined five shillings, and two
shillings costs.

SHOCKINO BARBARITY.—John A. Williams, a carrier's
cart driver, was snalmoned by the Royal Society for
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals for shocking cruelty
to a horse.

Jabez Hopper, an officer, saw the defendant in Ox-
ford-s.reet lashing a horse in a carrier's cart most un-
mercifully. The horse was doing its best. It was, how-
ever, in poor condition, and unfit for work. The de-
fendant stopped ‘to- deliver a parcel, and he then went
up, and examined the animal. He found that its flanks
were literally cut to pieces, and that with ingenious
cruelty the defendant having tied what is termed a
blood knot in his whip, bad lashed the horse on an
unmentionable part, drawing blood. It was one of the
worst cases of cruelty be had ever seen.
The defendant admitted the horse was doing all he
could, and that he had hit him two or three times pretty
smartly. The blood on the whip had been caused by.
some sheepskins in the cart.
George Parlett, the master, said the horse did not look
as if it had been ill-used when brought home. He was
quite satisfied with the defendant, as he got more work
out of his horses than any man he had ever employed.
Mr. Beadon inflicted a fine of 10s. and costs.

LAMBETH.—Tam WHOLESALE PLUNDER AT THE
CRYSTAL PALACE.—Mary Webb, Mary Kingett, and
Harriet Westfold, kitchen maids at the Crystal Palaci,
who were apprehended on Saturday night last, when
freighted with no less than eighty•two pounds weight of
all sorts of the good things which the kitchen of that
establishment affords, the property of Messrs. Staples,
the contractors for refreshments, and James Scull, a
waiter, were brought up and placed at the bar before
the Hon. G. C. Norton for final Exlmination for stealing,
and Alfred Kingett and George Webb, the husbands of
two of the female prisoners, were also finally examined
on a charge of receiving articles of property btl'nging
to the Messrs. Staples, found at their respective dwell-

ings.
No additional evidence was entered on beyond the
statement of one of the waiters swearing that he had
placed a cross on a steel he had been accustomed to use
at the Crystal Palace, and the steel produced, and which
had been found at the lodgings •f Kingett, he believed

to be the same.
In cross-examination the witness admitted that he
could not positively (gay that the steel produced was the
one he had marked.
Mr. Lund informed the magistrate that since the for-
mer occasion he had made inquiries, and found that for
three years the male prisoner Webb had done no work,
nor could he ascertain that he had any visible means Qf
subsistence.
Mr. Binns, who attended for the prisoners, address(d
the bench at some length, and his speech, which was of
a most comical character, led some of the auditors to
laugh with, while it evidently caused others to laugh at
him, and the learned gentleman laughed heart ly him_
self ; altogether it was a most singular display. ge
expressed a hope that the waiters Scull,
©h
had been
against
for upwards of two years t service of Dlessrd.
Staples, would be discharged with an admonition, as he
had borne a good character up to the present transace
if any, evidence tion ; and also that the other male prisoner's,
whom there was but very slight,
guilt. With respect to the females, he could not" ofy
much, but still hoped that Mr. Staples would tAkeee
lenient view of the case, knowing, as he must, that there
uvestryhadvi,e.
scle winkedrve(i
th that
tiut hre. i rStaples dishonesty.hadce
were others, their superiors in position, who'
been
aware Norton ef
ao
position to deal leniently with the prisoners,, ande so had' 1
he (Hr. Norton) ; but finding as he did that' the system

of plunder had been carried on systematically and to a
ruinous extent, he felt constrained to punish the prison-
ers, though not to the c xtent they deserved, still to such
an extent as would act as an exampl- to the other and
numerous servants in the empltiment of the Messrs.
Staples. In the case of the prisoner Scull, there was
some difference from the others, and he should makebis
punishment lighter. That person he should commit to
the House of Correction for one month, arid the other
five to two months each with hard labour.
John Frewin, a man of respectable appearance, who
has for ;many years held situations of great trust under
Messrs. Staples, and in whose character for honesty these
gentlemen had placed the greatest possible reliance, Wee
next placed at the bar, on a charge of embezzling four
different sums paid to him on four different occasions by
Sergeant White, of the P division of police, for knuckles
of ham, and for which he had not given any account.
From the statement of Mr. Thomas Staples, Mr.
Lund, and other witnesses, it appeared that the prisoner
was gatekeeper at the entrance leading to the kitchen,
situation of considerable trust, and it was his duty to set:
that nothing was taken away without a regular acneun!
being kept ; yet he permitted the three females in the 13"
case to pass freighted as they were, arid from circure'
stances that had reached the officers he must have bee°
aware of what was going on.
After a lengthened < xamination,
Mr. Norton expressed it to be his opinion that the
case was not one of embezzlement, but one of conspirseYd
to carry on an c xtensive system of plunder, and remande
the prisoner fur a week.