The Sun.
London, England, 1844-09-27 00:00:00

MIDDLESEX SESSIONS.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE
(YESTERDAY.)

MANSIOII'-HOUSE.

Two persons appeared before Alderman Johnson,
for the purpose of complaining against the officers of
the General Steam Navigation Company, under the
following circumstances :
They stated that they had taken and paid for, to the
individuals acting for the Company, their passage in
one of the vessels to Hamburgh, and they were in-
formed that the vessel was to sail at six o'clock in the
morning. They accordingly went to the place at
which they supposed they should see her lying, a
quarter of an hour before the appointed time, and to
their surprise and great disappointment they found
she was gone, and were told that she had taken her
departure a considerable time before they attended.
As no fault lay with them as to punctuality, they con •
sidered of course that they were entitled to the resti-
tution of the passage-money, or to be accommodated
in another of the Company's vessels, but they could
obtain no satisfaction of the kind.
One of the clerks of the Company stated the com-
plainants were informed of the exact hour at which
the vessel had been appointed to sail, and she did sail
at that hour, and they were therefore entitled to no
part of the passage-money.
Alderman JOHNSON asked in what manner they
were informed that the vessel was to sail ?
The clerk replied that they had been, according to
the custom of the office, informed regularly by one of
those in attendance.
The complainants stated that they could produce
five persons who could prove the correctness of their
statement, and they handed to the Alderman the re-
ceipt for the passage-money, on which no time for
starting was specified, but a blank was left for the
hour.
Alderman JOHNSON expressed his great surprise
that so loose a practice was allowed to exist at an
office in which business of such importance to the
public was transacted. It was quite evident that the
blank should have been filled up with the time of ap-
pointment; and the fact that it was not so filled up,
was calculated to mislead, and therefore to impose
upon persons.
The clerk said, if parties wished to have the blanks
filled up, there never was any objection made ; but
the complainants had never made any application of
the kind.
Alderman JOHNSON declared that it was the duty
of the Company to write down the hour of starting,
whether a request to that effect was made or not ;
and he would not hesitate to say that the complainants
were entitled to receive their money back.
The clerk stated that he should intimate the opi
nion of the Alderman to the authorities.
As the complainants did not return:to the Mansion
house while the Alderman was sitting, it was con
jectured that the money was returned to them.
BOW-STREET.
_ _ _

A fashionably-dressed young man, who gave his name
as Robert Beechcroft, was charged before Mr. Hall with
the following violent and most unprovoked assault on
Mr. Chatterton, of St. Peter's-court, St. Martin's-lane.
The complainant stated that this morning, at about
five o'clock, the prisoner came to his house, knocked at
the shop door, and asked for Mr. Chatterton. He said
he wanted to be introduced to the family, as he
had known them in Paris. The complainant, seeing
that the prisoner was drunk, and not knowing him at
all, shut the door. The prisoner then went round to
the private -door, and commenced knocking loudly.
The complainant went to the door and opened it, and the
prisoner said he was determined to go into the house.
Mr. Chatterton said he should not, and then the prisoner
immediately struck him a blow on the head Kith a loaded
stick, which felled him to the ground senseless, where he
lay for some time bleeding. The household, by this time,
were roused, and the prisoner was given into custody.
The prisoner, in his defence, said he had been to
Vauxhall-gardens ; he was quite drunk, and had no
recollection of what he had done. He could not, there- ,
fore offer anything in extenuation of his offence.
Mr. HALL inquired what he was? The prisoner—I
hold a Government situation.
Mr. HALL said he had only power to fine the prisoner
SZ, and that he did not consider sufficient ; he would,
therefore, recommend Mr. Chatterton to prosecute at the
sessions.
Mr. Chatterton said he would do so.
The prisoner was accordingly committed for trial.
MARLBOROUGH-STREET.
On Wednesday a Jew, named Abraham Myers, late
keeper of a saloon in Great Windmill-street, was
placed at the bar before Mr. Maltby, charged with
having wilfully wounded Mr. Robert Clayard, livery-
stable keeper, Lisle-street, Leicester-square.
It appeared from the evidence that Clayard and
Myers were in the habit of meeting at the house of
Mr. J. Banks, the Crown, Cranborne-passage, Lei-
cester-square. On Tuesday evening they met as
usual, together with several other persons. Some
altercation took place between the prisoner and Cla
yard, and blows were exchanged. This occurred in
front of the bar about 7 o'clock. An apparent recon-
and all parties went
ereal conversation was iciliationparlour,afte r afterwards ds
whoretoo kg
epnl ae
car-
ried on, without any reference to what had occurred
in the bar. About 9 o'clock Myers went out, re-
questing some one to take care of his great-coat till
his return. Having been absent ten or twelve
minutes Myers resumed his seat, and no apparent
change had taken place in his demeanour. Clayard, who
Aby,
there should be no ani-
mosity sitting in a chair at the opposite end of the room
to Myers, addressed the latter, saying in a familiar
mtoonsei,ty"
bCeotmweee, come,nus,here is hand, and with it my
heart," at the same time extending his right hand.
Myers, without the slightest hesitation rose from his
seat, and approaching Clayard, took hold of the ex-
tended hand with his own left hand, and then said, " I
freely accept your hand, but I'll have your heart's
blood ;" and suddenly drew from his coat pocket a large
butcher's knife, and made a desperate lunge at his in-
tended victim. Clayard caught sight of the weapon,
and, in order to turn the point from his side, to which
it was directed, seized the knife with his left hand,
when Myers violently drew it through the hand, cut-
ting through the ball of the thumb in the most danger-
ous manner. Myers again riised the knife, and re-
peating his threat, made a second stab, which inflicted
a flesh wound just above the left breast. The fact of
Clayard being seated in a chair enabled him to throw
himself backward, and to this may be attributed his
fortunate escape, for the prisoner's determined pur-
pose was evident to all present, who interposed as
speedily as possible. The prisoner then dropped the
knife, and was making his escape from the house, but
was stopped by a waiter, and given into custody. A
surgeon was fetched to the wounded man without loss
of time, and after the blood was somewhat stanched,
he was carefully conveyed home.
Wednesday the policeman who took charge of the
prisoner handed to the magistrate a certificate from
the medical attendant, which was to the effect that the
present removal of the wounded man would be unad
usable.

Mr. Smallwood,
solicitor, who was present to watch
the case on the part of the prisoner, did not at all in-
terfere in the proceedings, nor offer any opposition to
the magistrate's determination to remand the prisoner,
who was accordingly put back till Saturday next.
The knife with which the attempt was made was
exhibited in court. It is nearly a new one, and of
the largest size butchers use, being altogether from
eighteen to twenty inches long.
WORSHIP-STREET.
Wednesday James Lewis, a shoemaker, and Sarah
Hayman, a woman with whom he cohabited, were
brought up before Mr. Broughton, charged with
deserting their male infant, a child six weeks old, in
the public streets, whereby it had become chargeable
to the Spitalfields Union, and since died in that work-
house.

It will be recollected that the infant, which was
rolled up in a bundle of dirty rags, was found at ten
o'clock at night, on the 31st of May last, lying upon
the flag-stones in Henry-street, Commercial-road, by
a married woman, named Mary Gray, who took it
to her own house that night, and on the following
morning delivered it to the parish authorities, at the
workhouse. At the former examination, the infant,
which was exceedingly ill, was produced by a work-
housenurse, and several of the witnesses then in
attendance distinctly swore to it as being the child of
which the female prisoner had been delivered, and
identified also the clothing upon it as belonging to
Hayman. It was now intimated to the magistrate
that the unfortunate child had expired in the work-
house at fuur o'clock in the morning of the 20th inst.
and that a coroner's inquest had returned a verdict of
"Died frog natural ewes."

GOVERNMENT PROSECUTION.—CRUELTY TO A CHILD.
—Catherine Stewart was indicted for assaulting Clarissa
Tyler, a child of tender years.
Mr. WILDE, who appeared for the prosecution, which
was instituted at the instance of the Lords of the Trea-
sury, said that the female was living in prostitution Kith
the father of the child on whom the assaults were com-
mitted, and that the case had been taken up by the Trea-
sury, in consequence of the poverty of the complainant,
and the aggravated circumstances with which it was
I surrounded. The mother of the child died about three
years ago, and from that time the child had been treated
with the greatest cruelty by the prisoner. On one occa-
sion she threw a quantity of boiling liquor over the head
of the poor little creature, and at another time kicked
her violently in the eye. She at all times gave her the
most spare diet.
The prisoner admitted her guilt.
Mr. WILDE observed that it would greatly enable the
solicitors to the Treasury efficiently to perform their
duties if the committing magistrates gave them a little
more time to look into the cases sent to them. In this
particular case, instructions to prosecute only reached
them on Monday, and they were obliged, without inquiry,
immediately to attend at the sessions, fearing that the
case might be called on, or the grand jury discharged.
The COURT concurred in the suggestions thrown out
by Mr. Wilde, and sentenced the prisoner to three
months' imprisonment.
The case of John Tolfree, an Excise officer, indicted
for assaulting and cruelly ill-treating his son, was, on the
application of Mr. Wilkins, postponed until next sessions.