The Sun.
London, England, 1850-01-23 00:00:00

MIDDLESEX SESSIONS, Jan. 22.

(Before Mr. Sergeant ADAMS, Assistant Judge, and

a Bench of Magistrates.)
Tire adjourned sessions for the month of January,
commenced-this morning at Hicks'-hall; Clerken-
well-green.
The calendar contains a list of about 70 prisoners,
of whom nearly the whole are indicted for the com-
mission of felony.
The Learned JUDGE briefly addressed the grand
jury.
W. Anderson, a boy of 14 years of age, was indicted
for the following robbery :
It appeared from the evidence that about the middle
of the day of the 10th inst. the prisoner went into the
shop of a baker of the name of Cooper, in William-
street, Stepney, and asked the wife of that person,
who happened to be standing behind the counter, for
a halfpennyworth of bread, and at the same time he
placed a penny piece on the counter. As Mrs.
Cooper waa in the act of giving the boy the change
he threw a handful of pepper into her eyes, and in-
stantly jumped up on to the counter, and began to
help himself out bf the till, which had been only the
moment Ix fore opened by Mrs. Cooper. The boy,
however, having possessed himself of 31., heard a noise,
which induced him to desist and make his escape.
He was, however, pursued and quickly overtaken by
the prosecutor in an adjoining street. No sooner had
he been secured than the boy turned round, and held
out the 31. to his pursuer, remarking, " Oh, its only
31., so it's not worth running for, so I gives in ; but
you would not have nabbed me if it had been more."
The prosecutor, of course, gave him into the custody
°Fa policeman, and he was now put upon his trial.
Tlle jury found the prisoner Guilty.
l'Airrin remarked, that the prisoner appeared
to have ad ~rated the new mode of enabling a man to
commit a robbery. It was only the other day that a

jeweller in Fleet-street had been robbed of a watch
under precisely similar circumstances.
One of the police now intimated to the Court that
the boy at the bar had only been released two days
previously from the gaol at Ilford, where he had un-
dergone an imprisonment for the commission of a
highway robbery.
The Learned JUDGE—For what robbery, do you
say ? The policemen—For highway robbery, my
Lnrd. The prisoner, with three others, stopped a
chaise on the turnpike road ; and one of the party, but
not the prisoner, fired a pistol at the driver. They
succeeded in effecting the robbery they intended, and
then made off, but the prisoner was afterwards taken.
The Learned JUDGE observed• that the case of this
boy presented a fearful instance of depraved juvenile
precocity. The best course of treatment that could
be applied to such a case would have been to have
sent him to Parkhurst ; but it unfortunately hap .
poised that he had not now the power to pass such a
sentence as would have the effect of obtaining his
admission into that establishment. All that he could
do, therefore, was to sentence him to six months'
imprisonment and hard labour in the House of Cor-
rection.

cr. Newbound, aged 24, was indicted for having
stolen two silk handkerchiefs, of the value of 10s., the
property of Richard H. Teller.
Mr. Cullyer appeared fur the prisoner.
The prosecutor stated that on the evening of the
17th inst. the prisoner had come into his shop, where
he had asked to be shown some silk handkerchiefs.
Of course, regarding him as a probable purchaser, the
request was complied with, but, in consequence of
there being a peculiarity of manner in the way in
which the prisoner handled the handkerchiefs, after a
short time had elapsed he accused him of having
secreted two out of the lot. Upon this charge being
made against him the prisoner took the two missing
handkerchiefs from under his coat, where he had, as
he imagined, concealed them without his having been
seen to do so, and threw them down upon the counter.
Those handkerchiefs, added the prosecutor, formed a
portion of the parcel which had been exhibited to the
prisoner for him to make a choice from.
Mr. COLLYEIt addressed the jury on behalf of the
prisoner.
The Learned JUDGE left it to the jury to say,
whether, upon the evidence they had heard, they en-
tertained any doubt iu the case. If they did, of
course they would give the benefit of such doubt to
the prisoner.
,The jury returned a verdict of Not Guilty.
Two persons of the names of Squires and Weeks,
who had been convicted at the December sessions of
an assault, were now brought up for judgment.
It will he remembered that a colonial agent of the
name of Hardwick, residing in South-street, Fins
bury- square, had purchased two pianafortes from the
defendant Squires, for one of which he paid at once
upon its delivery, but that on his complaining that
the instrument which had been sent in some days
afterwards was of an inferior quality, Squires, ac
companied by the other defendant, with his van, and
several other persons, bad gone to the prosecutor's
house, where, after they had assaulted him because he
endeavoured to prevent their removing the instrument
which was the better of the two, and that whiCh had
been sent in the first and had been paid for, they by
force carried both of the instruments away.
Mr. PARRY, who appeared for the prosecutor, now
said that the parties had entered into an arrangement,
in pursuance of which the defendant was to repay
the prosecutor the sum which he had given fur the
first pianoforte, namely 231, and also to pay a further
sum of 101. for coats. At the same time it was a
matter of anxiety with the prosecutor, that the Ciurt
should be informed that the defendant Squires had
withdrawn and retracted every offensive expression
which he had on a former occasion given utterance to.
The Learned JUDGE was extremely glad that so
wise a course had been taken. He could not but
compliment the prosecutor upon the spirit he had
Manifested throughhut the whole transaction.
The defendant Squires then paid the 33/. ; and
The Learned JUDGE thereupon passed a nominal
sentence upon the defendants, both of whom were
,hen discharged.

POLICE IN TELLIGENCE.
GUILDHALL.

A respectable-looking woman presented herself be-
fore the magistrate to complain that some authoress
had been making use of her name in applying for
some relief from the charity-box, an account •f
which had appeared in some of the papers, and v.liich
was calculated to alarm her friends in the country, if

uccontradieted. This person was represented by the
newspapers to have said she had nearly finished a vo-
lumnious poem, and to have given her name as Anna
Maria Jones, the authoress of some well-known
works of fiction. Tne fact was that she (the appli-
cant) was the Anna Maria Joues referred to, and she
handed up a list of her works.
Sir P. LAURIE, in looking over the list, said—

Why, did you write the whole of these ?
She replied that she did. They made thirty-eight

volumes.

Sir P. LAURIE said—But you are not the authores,
of the " Scottish Chiefs," for that is the work o
Anna Maria Porter.

The applicant replied, that one work was called the
" Scottish Chiefs," and the other the " Scottish
Chieftains." She was not answerable for this seem
ing piracy, for it was the bookseller's device, to
which perhaps she weakly yielded. The taste of tha
public had so completely altered since she began
novel-writing, at nineteen years of age, that she could
get nothing for such labour now.
Sir P. LA.URIII said she was not the only literary
character who was complaining of the entire change
in the public taste, and had been thereby reduced to
straitened circumstances.

She said, that was unhappily her case. She could
no longer support herself in comfort by her pen, and,
to increase her distress, her husband, to whom she
bad looked fur support, had become of impaired in-
tellect. •

Sir P. LatiatE:asked what her husband's name was ?
She replieJ, that it was Lowndes, and he was in
business for a long time as a dramatic bookseller,
but he failed in trade, and that misfortune preyed
upon his mind. Although she was in straitened cir-
cumstances, she was not reduced to beg charity at a
police-office, and she was afraid the account would
alarm her friends in Monmouthshire, where sh 3 had
resided a great many years.
Sir P. LAURIE had nu doubt the newspapers would
set her right with the public.
Mrs. Lowndes thanked Sir P. Laurie for his at-
tention, and then retired.