The Sun.
London, England, 1861-03-27 00:00:00

GREAT SILK ROBBER}.

A very extensive consignment of silk, stolen
from St. Katherine's docks, London, the property
of Baron Rothschild; has just been seized in Derby,
under the following circumstances :—At a late hour
on Tuesday evening in"last week two strangers went
into the George Ibn, Station-street, near to the
railway station, Derby, kept by Mr. Rowbottom.
One of them attempted to, pass as a foreigner, and
in broken English he asked the landlord to read a
banknote for £lOO which he had in his possession,
and tell him if it was genuine. The landlord told
him it was a good one; but his suspicion being
aroused, he sent his servant for a detective officer,
and later in the 'evening. Inspector Fearn and De-
tective Vessey, of the Derby borough force, arrived
at the George. The strangers, however, had left the
house, but the officers met them at midnight on the
platform at the railway station, waiting for the mail
train to start to London. Fearn and Vessey intro-
duced themselves to the strangers in their usual
agreeable way, and commenced asking them ques-
tions. The answers not being satisfactory, the offi-
cers desired to see the contents of their pockets. The
strangers thought such a request most unreasonable,
but the officers' curiosity was excited, and upon one
of them they found three Bank of England £lOO
notes and two sovereigns. The other one had only
a halfpenny about him. Inspector Fearn asked them
how they had become possessed of the notes, and
after some hesitation they replied that they had'ob-
tained them in the, way of business from par-
ties in Derby. On' 'being further pressed they
said they had received the notes in payment of
silk they had sold to Newton and Co., of Derby.
The officers then took them into custody, and on
arriving at the Town-hall one of them gave the
name of Debock, Slater-street, Spitalfields,
London, silk merchant ; and the other Barker,
No. 2, Hope street, Spitalfields, (brother-in-law
to Debock). Fearn and Vessey the same even-
ing proceeded to Newton's mill, and there found
about 10 cwt. of silk which had been delivered
that day, and the police were further persuaded
that some robbery had taken place. Mr. Newton,
sen., said he had bought the silk of two men named
Agg and Hunter, of London, Hunter being a dealer
in silk, and keeping the Red Deer publichouse,
Cambridge-heath, Bethnal-green ; and Agg also
keeping a publichouse, the Clown, near to Sadler's
Wells Theatre. On Wednesday morning Debock
and Barker were brought before the Derby magis-
trates, and on the application of Mr. Hilton, head
constable, they were remanded for a week. On
Thursday afternoon Messrs. Hilton and Fearn pro-
ceeded to London and paid a visit to the
public-
houses kept by Agg and Hunter. They were both
at home, and the officers ascertained that they were
also in the silk trade ; and from the answers they
gave to certain questions put to them by the police
the latter felt positive that something was wrong,
and proceeded to the Leman-street police station,
where they ascertained that 10 bales of silk had
been missed from St. Katherine's Dock, but it had.
not at that time been reported as a robbery. The
officers then went to the St. Katherine's Dock and
saw Mr. Munford, the superintendent of police at
the dockyard, and it was then found that a great
quantity of silk, the property of Baron Rothschild,
had been stolen, and the number of trusses and the
description exactly corresponded with those found
at Newton's mill at Derby. Early on Friday morn-
ing Messrs. Hilton and Fearn paid a second visit
to Agg and Hunter's publichouses, but both land-
lords had absconded and have not yet returned.
They then went into Spitalfields, and found that
Debock and Barker lived up a second story, and
that one of them was a shoemaker by trade, and
that on the Monday previous Pickford's van had
fetched away 10 bales of silk from Barker's house.
On Saturday Inspector Fearn and some of the
Loudon police apprehended a man named Cane, in
the employ of Mr. Drakeford, a silk dealer l on_ a
charge of being concerned in the robbery. 1-P1
turday evening the officers returned to _Derby.
The silk at Mr. Newton's mill was seized, and
taken into the possession of Mr. Hilton.

A SLIGHT DIFFERENCE.—11l the year 1803,'Mr.
Jay preached a sermon before the Society for the Propaga-
tion of Christian knowledge in the Highlands and Islanda
of Scotland ; and was requested to permit the same to be
printed. Such permission was given. The text was " Skin
for proobffeos
rhfeoesutknsiof ;
the
eee
toeturhwahteaardempsaerninntt
has
oda
stAhlre. willJ textahye
for skin; yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life."
thus
a, all
When the
nrivo Instead of correcting the error in ti
usual vrrTA:he:he'iSisaink:huni
Tdenevwpe.er:on'irtdeAsGionnE the margin, underlining the woe!
A eTirocumstances.' AUSTRALIA.—The.
splay,
20 tons, purchased in England by Mr. M Therson,v,f Hobart
Town, had arrived at that city from Greenock under the
charge of Captain E. Wyse, an intrepid and .s',ble seaman,
with a crew of six men, after a passage of 3:20 days, in-
cluding detentions at Madeira and the Cape,T without having
been once hove-to. The following are the e particulars of
this remarkable voyage :—The cutter yacht , Spray left Lain-
lash, on the Clyde, on Sept. 7, and hay :bag called at Ma-
deira, sailed thence on the 21st, and are,ved at the CaPe on
Nov. 13. After eight days' detention there she sailed on
the 19th, and had an excellent rvln dt )wn to this port of 48
days. To the Cape she beat all the vessels that left Eng-
land with her by ten days-65 days :being occupied in, per-
forming this part of the voyage. Efer greatest day's run
good health on the voyage,—.4i4strat
was 195 miles, and the shortest 11.
7,:l:olra;fewxcallw
Zealand
1 Gazette,