The Sun.
London, England, 1868-04-15 00:00:00

LAW AND POLICE.

A STRANGE CASE. —At Marlborough-street Polfce.
court, Mrs. Jane Marden, residing in Burnham-place,
was charged under the following circumstances :—Mr.
Lanham, assistant to Messrs. Lewis and .Allenby, silk
mercers, Regent-street, said that some days ago the defen-
dant came into his employers' shop and:selected a rich silk
dress, which she said must be made up for her. On the
following day she again visited the establishment, and
selected an Indian shawl worth 45 guineas, and when
asked if she intended paying for them, Mrs. Marden
stated that she never went on credit. The shopman said
that the deposit must be paid before the dress was
made up, to which the defendant replied that she had an
income of £1,500 paid to her through Messrs. Drummonds
and Co. On inquiry at the bank he was told that no such
person was known. The defendant again called at Lewis
and Allenby's, and said that she required some china vases,
but was told that they could not supply her with them, as
the firm had no desire to transact business. Mrs. Mars-
den said this was strange, as she always paid for whatever
she got. Again the defendant visited the shop, and was in
the act of conveying a vase out of the place, but was
stopped and told that she must leave. On Monday she
came again, and was turned out of the shop four times, and
on repeating the visit on Tuesday, she was given into
custody. Inquiries had been instituted, and it had been
ascertained that the prisoner had given her right address,
and was believed to be respectable by her landlord. The
accused was remanded for further inquiries.
DEFRAUDING THE PUBLIC.—At Worship-street Police-
court, John Henry H. Stokes was charged with having
obtained various sums of money by representing that he
was a collector in the employ of the Imperial Gaslight
and Coke Company. Last week the prisoner was com-
mitted for trial on a charge of stealing a purse and five
sovereigns from a house in Queen Ann's-road, South
Hackney, to which he had gained access on the pretence
that he had come to procure the signature of the
occupier of the house to a petition relative to the gas.
—Mr. Alfred Frost, of 284, Kingsland-road, stated that on
the 14th of March the prisoner called on him and repre-
sented himself to be the assistant to Mr. Lefevre,
the gas collector for that district. On the faith
of that representation witness paid him £1 55., for
which the prisoner gave him a receipt. It appeared
that 'the prisoner had obtained, moreover, 9s. from
Mary Ann Marston, servant to Mrs. Olive Turner,
of 16, Hackney-terrace, on the 21st of October last ; and
Bs. from Mr. Richard Morgan, of 101, Halton-road,
Canonbury-square, on the 2nd of November, they be-
lieving him to be the assistant to the gas collector for the
district. It was stated that several more charges of a
similar description:would be preferred against the prisoner,
but Mr. Newton held that there was no necessity for en-
tering further into the matter, ample evidence having been
adduced already wh:ch would justify him in sending the
case to a higher tribunal. The prisoner, who reserved his
defence, was fully committed to the sessions for trial on
all charges.
FIRING A LOATHED PISTOL.—At Clerkenwell Police-
court, James Mitchell, a plumber, was charged with
assaulting Patrick Reilly, and also with attempting to
shoot the same person ; and a-further charge, that of in-
juring a woman, named M`Grath, was preferred. The
case arose out of a riot on the 23rd ult. Reilly stated that
on the day in question he entered a house for the purpose
of taking out the windows, when the prisoner deliberately
fired a pistol at him, saying " You --, I will not
miss you this time." The shot missed him, but
struck another person, named M`Grath, in the
eye, and the latter was much injured, and had to be
conveyed to the hospital. This witness also stated that
there was no tumult or riot existing when the pistol was
fired off, and that he had entered the house quietly. A
large amount of contradictory testimony was imported
into the case, and the magistrate said that he did not
believe that the accused intended to occasion any bodily
harm ; and he therefore discharged him with a caution.

FORTUNE-TELLING. —At Wandsworth Police-court
Mary Pidgely was charged with obtaining by fraud £1 ls.
from Eliza Stevens, a yourig woman employed as a
kitchenmaid at Clapham-common. It appeared that the
prisoner called at the house where the complainant was in
service, and solicited her to have her fortune told. The
simple girl replied in the affirmative, and on the prisoner
saying that she must have gold, gave her £1 Is. The
prisoner then told her' that she would go out on Good
Friday and meet her young man, and where she met him
there would be a present for her of a gold watch. She
also said that she would be married very rich. Com-
plainant further stated that the prisoner told her she would
return the money. The prisoner went away, but returned
the same clay and wanted £1 ls. more or some
clothes. She was, however, given into custody
through the butler, who had been watching her
proceedings. It further appeared that the prisoner
had promised to return the money in eight days, and when
she was taxed with the fraud she gave up 10s. 6d. of it.
The magistrate said it was a case of fortune-telling, to be
dealt with under the Vagrant Act, and remanded the
prisoner for inquiries.—lnspector Egerton informed Mr.
Ingham, before whom the prisoner was placed, that she
was not known to have been guilty of fortune-telling pre-
iously.—Mr. Ingham said that as nothing was known of
her before in that line he should discharge her;, but if she
were ever brought before him again for that kind of cheat-
ing, he would send her to prison for three months.
A ROGUE RIGRTLY PUNISHED.—At the Surrey Sessions
John Beach, aged 25, a tin-plate worker, was brought up
for judgment, having been convicted at the Lambeth Police-
court as an incorrigible rogue within the meaning of the.
Act. The prisoner was apprehended when endeavouring
to obtain entrance into a dwelling-house. The following
previous convictions were proved against him :--February
4, 1856, two months, and whipped as a juvenile offender ;
July 15, two months ; November 24, two months ; March
1, 1858, three months, under the Criminal Justice Act ;
June 30, two months under the same Act ; September 28,
two months ; February 3, 1859, three months ; December
23, one month ; February 10, 1860, three months, under
the Criminal Justice Act ; July 19, three months ; June
17, 1861, twelve months, Surrey Sessions ; July 29, J 862,
three months ; November 14, 1862, six months, under the
Crirninal Justice Act ; June 15, 1863, three years' penal
servitude, Middlesex Sessions; September 1,1866, three
months ;" and January 1, 1867, 12 months at the Surrey
sessions.—,The chairman said it would be useless to deal
lightly with such a person, and passed a sentence of 12
months' hard labour.

KILLING A WIFE.-At the Dublin Commission Court,
Peter Reilly, a cooper, who had pleaded guilty to the
manslaughter of his wife, was sentenced to twenty vane
penal servitude. The circumstances were as follows. On
the night of the 27th January the prisoner returned home
from the pantomime, and found his wife in a state of
intoxication. She ran away from him, and got under ihe
bed. He dragged her out, threw her on the floor, kicked,
and trampled on her body for an hour without inter-
mission. The skull was fractured, and several
ribs broken, whilst her body presented ' one mass
of bruises. This horrible scene was witnessed by the
prisoner's young children, and the reason assigned by the
Crown lawyers for accepting the prisoner's plea of guilty
to the minor charge of manslaughter was, that they were
anxious to avoid placing the children in a position which
would compel them to give evidence which would con-.
sign their own father to the scaffold.

The lime-light has been tried in St: Vincent-
place, Glasgow. The Morning Journal understands there
is a probability of its being soon adopted experimentally
in some of the harbours, squares, and other public places.
• KICKED TO DEATH BY A HORSE.—Thomas
Mullaly, an ostler in the service of Messrs. Busby, was
engaged in his master's stable at Prescot (near Liverpool).
In order to get one of the horses out of the way Mullaly
struck it with a strap, when the animal (which had a
vicious temper) kicked the ostler so violently on the temple
that he died on the following day.

Two weavers, named Hugh Gray and William
Thomson, residing in Pollokshaws, were lodged in Paisley
prison, on a charge of fraudulently obtaining £lO from the
Marquis Townshend, by falsely representing, in several
letters written iu July, August, and September last, that
they, had been instructed by a committee of hand•loom
weavers in Pollokshaws to solicit a subscription from his
lordship towards a fund for assisting a number of the
weavers and their families to emigrate to the colonies.

THE USE OF SEWAGE AT BARKING.—The expe-
riments made in the use of sewage as manure have pro-
duced thoroughly satisfactory results. The farm at
Barking occupied by the Metropolitan Sewage and Essex
Reclamation Company has been eminently successful. It
has been proved that every hundred tons of sewage-really
used on it during the past year have produced, under cir-
cumstances of average favourableness, one ton of grass
over and above the natural and unassisted growth of the
land ; that is, over and above the yield needed to pay. an
ordinary rent and an ordinary farm labour bill. There
seemed to be one, difficulty in the way of the use of manure
by. private persons. The manure is liquid, and cannot
therefore be distributed in the ordinary way. Many,
therefore, naturally concluded that elaborate machinery
would have to be provided which none but a company or
large capitalist would be able to provide. This does not
appear to be so, however, forhr an ingenious arrangement
of ridge and furrows the land is easily, and to a great ex-
tent cheaply, manured. There is one use of manure which
has hardly been developed. It has been found that no
weeding is required, as the sewage at starting kith' an
annual crop of weeds, and if rye-grass gives no
other vegetation as chance of existence.