The Sun.
London, England, 1857-07-18 00:00:00

ELECTION COMMITTEES.—(This Day

The committees appointed to try the various petitions
against the returns for Falkirk, Maldon, and Weymouth,
met this morning in their several committee-rooms and
proceeded with the evidence on the part of the peti-
tioners. Witnesses were called and examined in sup-
port of the allegations against the sitting members, but
their evidence was uninteresting in both a local and
general point of view. The effect of the evidence was
principally to prove treating at public•houses by direc-
tion of the agents of the sitting members. It being
Saturday the committees did not sit later than three
o'clock.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.— (This Day.

THAMES.

A THIEF DISCOVERING HIMSELF.—SINGULAR ROB-
BERY.—Wiiliatu Hawkins' a singular looking man,
without a c-at and about 40 years of age was brought
before Mr. Yardly charged with stealing a pair of boots,
value ss. ad., from the shop of Mr. Young, boot and
shoe maker of Langley Place, Commercial Road El 4.
Mr. Saunders said he was foreman to Mr. Young.
Yesterday evening about half-past seven o'clock the
prisoner came into Mr. Young's shop with a begging
petition and said he was a boot-closer labouring under
illness and out of employment. The prisoner had a coat
packed under his arm, and although his appeal was
declined he remained in the shop for some time. About
half an hour after the prisoner was gone he missed a
pair of blucher boots from that part of shop where pri-
son er had been standing. About half-past 9 o'clock,
and after the shop was closed, there was a knock
at the door, and upon opening it the prisoner again pre-
sented himself and said, "Have I been in your shop to-
day Witness replied, "Yes, you have." At that
time there were several others who appeared to know
the prisoner, standing in front of the house. Tile pri-
soner said, " Have you lost a pair of boy's boots."
Witness replied, "Yes, I have ; a nair of boy's boots of
the 4 s'ze." The prisoner said, " I have been done out
of a pair of boy's boots, and I should like the right one
to know it. A man named Allen has taken them away
for one of his son -, and has not paid me. I will show
you where the place is." He immediately sent for a
pol.ce constable, and gave the prisoner into custody.
Police-constable Tames Macdonald, 102 H, said the
prisoner told me he took the boots into a beersh .p, and
was " bested" out of them, lie laid down and kicked
me severely, and swore he would do me a serious injury.
The prisoner, after pleading guilty to the charge of
stealing the boots, made a long and plausible statement.
He said he was very ill, and ho was tronbltd with a fis-
tula and two absces,es, one on his neck which the police-
man opened by his roughness and caused it to bleed.
The prisoner, after mentioning the names of the medical
gentlemen who had operated upon him half a dozen
times, said he could not set to his work, and sought re-
lief from his trade.

Mr. Yardley was very sorry if the prisoner was afflict-
ed in the way stated, but was afraid a man who had told
so many untruths in his beg;ing petition would tell
falsehoods about his infirmities. The prisoner had
adopted a most impudent mode of proceeding, and after
stealing the boots went to a beer shop to dispose of them,
and found a man as dishonest as himself The prisoner
then, from the most mischievous of motives', went back
to the shop where he committed the robbery to obtain
the punishment of the other thief. Such a strange cor-
ruption of morals he had never known before. He sen-
tenced the prisoner to be imprisoned and kept to hard
labour for two months.
FRIGHTFUL CABE OF STABBING.—MigneI DeTeHiS,
man of colour, a native of Chili, who has been in cue-
tldy a month on a charge of cutting and wounding two
English seamen named Bishop and Webster, was brought
before Mr. Yardley for the fourth time on remand.
The prisoner stabbed the two Englishmen in Ratcliff
Highway with a long sheath-knife, and without the
slightest provocation whatever, as they were quietly pas-
sing along the street. One man was stabbed under the
left arm-pit and on the right shoulder; the other, Bishop,
was wounded on the thigh and the scrotum. He is in a
precarious state in the London Hospital.
The police-constable, Payne of the H division, who has
eharge of the case, said that neither of the prisoner's
victims could appear.
Mr. Yardley said the prisoner must be again iemanded
for another week, and if necessary, he would go to the
London Hospital tozeceive the depositionsof the wounded
men.