The Sun.
London, England, 1828-07-29 00:00:00

LING AMONGST CHILDREN.

With more propriety may reliance be plac©d on
the neglect of children as a primary source of mis-
chief. Notwithstanding that we hear of schools
having been established, continuing to be munifi-
cently supported, and receiving in each for instruc-
tion from two hundred to three hundred, and even
larger numbers of children ; and notwithstanding that
we find such seminaries existing • in every quarter of
the town and in most of the adjoining districts, we
yet find that in the Parks and outskirts of the me-
tropolis, on each returning Sabbath, and not unfte-
quently on other days, young persons assemble in
numerous gangs or parties for the express purpose of
indulging in the vice of gambling, and continue in
the uninterrupted pursuit of that most seductive and
immoral propensity from hour to hour on each suc-
ceeding day; and, what is still more surprizing, and
perhaps is more appalling, we find that instances are
not unfrequent of parents so totally regardless of their
children's welfare, as to view with careless indiffer-
ence their expulsion, for misconduct, from those se-
minaries towhich alone such parents could look with
any hope ofsaving from ruin their unhappy offspring.
To remedy an evil so glaring becomes an object
of primary importance, but so difficult as to have
hitherto baffled the efforts of all the practical arid in-
telligent persons who have applied their minds to
this interesting subject.
Education may hare done something, but it
clearly has not done enough; for never was juvenile
depravity so unlimited in degree or so desperate in
character ; but still upon that effort of the humane
great reliance must be placed, and on their unabated
zeal in the prosecution of their charitable object the
hopes and expectations of future amendment must in
great measure depend; Police Regulations may be
superadded as a corrective, not unlikely to prove be-
neficial. It has been represented to your Com-
mittee, that were the Day Patrol sufficiently nume-
rous to admit of their disturbing and driving from
their haunts the gambling boys, without at the
same time leaving the streets in an unprotected
state, the disgraceful and mischievous practice might
be rooted out, as is shown in the following evidence
of a Police Officer :

" What are the instructions that you give to your men
with respect to the gambling in the streets?—We always
drive them away, but we do not see it once a month.
" Is the Green Park in your district ?—No.

" Would there be any difficulty in preventing the con-
stant gambling that is going on in the open day-light in
the Green Park ?—lf there were some spirited young men
that could go into it; men that conld jump and ran about,
they could soon put a stop to it.
" Do not yon soe it in other parts of the town ?-1
have seen it; I have seen it near St. Martin's Church ;
but they get into the avenues, and the moment we go
away they ran back again ; there wants to be a man sta-
tioned there."

NECESSITY of FREQUENT SESSIONAL TRIALS.
There is also another measure which has been
pressed upon the attention of your Committee, as
likely to forward the above object, and at the same
time to promote every improvement that may he
introduced in Police arrangements, and therefore
they the more readily recommend it to the serious
and favourable attention of the House. The mea-
sure thus alluded to is the hold* more frequently
Sessions of the Peace within the Metropolis and
neighbouring districts, at which all such prisoners as
are usually tried at the Quarter Sessions may be dis-
posed of. Your Committee are assured that no im-
pediment is opposed to the adoption of such a mea-
sure in Surrey, Kent, and Essex; and that the
point of form which prevents the county of Middle-
sex from immediately participating in the advan-
tage, might be without difficulty removed. The
benefits that would result from abridging the period
between the apprehension and the trial of a juvenile
offender, cannot but be evident ; and if in their sub-
sequent punishment provision could be made for the
total interruption of all intercourse between them
and their depraved associates and careless friends, it
would not be too much to expect, that contagion
' being cut off, the spread of the disorder might be
materially contracted.

In concluding their observations on that part of
their investigation which was applied to a develope-
merit of the origin of the increase in the number of
Commitments and Convictions in the Metropolis,
your Cominittee are concerned that they have elicit-
ed no information which justifies them in reporting
further, than that from a combination of causes it
must be (as it heretofore has been) considered to
emanate ; that every remedial measure which can
tend to weaken the influence of depraved habits and
wicked example, to disturb arid prevent association
of dissolute characters, and to give vigour and con-
sistency to the Police, are the only general correc-
t:Yes on which your Committee venture to predict
that reliance can be placed for affording material
relief.

If by a declaration that such is the conclusion to
which your Committee have arrived, a feeling of
despondency should be excited, let those who receive
such impression, on the other hand, accept as a con-
solatory reflection, that in the opinion of the Com-
mittee, a portion only of the accession to the crimi-
nal commitments is to be deemed indicative of a pro-
portionate increase of crime; and that even of that
portion much may be accounted for in the more fre-
quent apprehension and trial of culprits, in conse-
quence of greater facility of detection, obtained by
various circumstances, and less disinclination to pro-
secute, in consequence of improved accommodation
afforded at the Courts to suitors, and of the indem-
nification from the costs of prosecution; aid that
the Committee (although viewing with regret tht
disgrace and danger to which any community must
be subjected, which can produce within twelve
months, in a space comparatively small, no less than
3,400 committals for criminal offences), cannot
allow themselves to believe, that where there arc
such evident and unquestionable proofs of individual
and general regard for religion, morality, and pro-
priety of demeanour, any deterioration of society can
have taken-place.

RESTITUTION OF STOLEN GOODS, BANKERS'
PARCRLC. &c.

Your Committee have assiduously- directed their
attention to those compromises for the restittnic.” of
stolen property, which general rumour and belief had
represented so often to have taken place. They re-
gret to say that their enquiries have proved thes,
compromises to have been negociated, with an un-
checked frequency and under an organized system,
far beyond what had been supposed to exist.
Your Committee have deemed it advisable, fol
obvious reasons, not to annex the evidence rclatin
to this subject; but they are very desirous, by stat-
ing the general result, to impress uponthe Govern-
ment and the Legislature the necessity of some ef-
fectual stop to this increasing evil. 'These compm.
raises have generally been negociated by Solicitor.
or Police officers, or by both, with the plotters 61
and " fences.' ',['hesta
persons have usually planned the Jobbery, found tin
called,
the
ll
erdo, robbery
"the and
patters
receiverst
ters up,4 or, as they
means, purchased the information necessary, UM

employed the actual thieves ii their agents ; them-
selves running no material risk.
Considerable sums have been paid to regain this
property by the parties robbed, generally stipulated
to be paid in cash, for fear of the clue to discovery
of those concerned that notes might give. These
sums have been apportioned, mostly by a per ventage,
to the value of the property lost; but modified by
a reference to the nature of the securities or goods,
as to the facility of circulating or disposing of them
to profit and with safety.
A great majority of these cases hare taken place
where large depredations have been committed upon
bankers. Two banks, that had recently been
robbed of notes to the amount of 4,000/. recovertel
then on payment of 1,000/. each. In another case
2,200 was restored, out of 3,200 stolen, for 230/. or
240/. This hank having called in their old circula-
tion and issued fresh immediately upon the robbery,
the ditlietilty thus occasioned was the cauee of not
much above :la per tent. being demanded. In
another case, Spanish Bonds, nominally worth 2,000/.
were given bark on payment of 100/. A sum, not
quite amounflng to 20,000/. was In one case restored
fur 1,000/. In another, where bills had been stolen
of 16,000/. or 17,0001. value, but which etere not
c3e9061.r
anfiree
ebart:lkraionntlifiosrcanelie
Ipfolireitlnetl7
-
easily negotiable by the thieves, restitution of 6Pooti
b,,,huettshdoleflocemiri
declined
:01 forffi
advertising a reward of 1,8001. and giv
ing a hoed net to compound, as the conditions Of such
grant. In another ease, 3,0004 seems to have
been restored for 19/. re cent. In another case,
where the robbery was to the amount of 7,0001.,
,tad the supposed robbers (most reeeerious " putters
up" and " fences") had been apprehended, and re.,
mended by the Magistrate for examination, the pro.'
secution was suddenly desisted from in conseristened
of the restitution of the property for a sum not aster,
mined by your Committee. In the case of another
bank, the sum stolen being not less than 20,000/1,
is stated to have been bought of the thieves by ;t
receiver for 200/.; and 2,800/. taken of the legal
owners on the price of restitution. The Committee
sloes not think it *emery to detail all the cases'
which have been disclosed to them ; but though it
is evident they have not been informed of any thing
like all the transactions they have proof Of snore than
sixteen banks having sought, by these means, to in-
demnify themselves for their losses ; and that pro.,
perty of various sorts, to a value above 200,000/.,,
has, within a few years, been the subject of negotisee
tion or compromise. They have found it difficult;
for many reasons, to ascertain in several of the cases
they hare elamined, the actual payments made to the
thieves or receivers, but they have proof of nearly
12,0001. having been paid to them by bankers only,
accompanied with a elearance from every risk, and
perfect impunity to their crimes.
It is perhaps not extraordinary, that bankers,
have lately been so repeatedly subject-to heavy losses,
should take measures to procure indemnity. A
highly respectable banker has said before your Com-
mittee, " I have no hesitation in mentioning, that at
a meeting in our trade, I have heard it said, over
and over again, by different individuals, that
if they experienced a loss to a serious amount
they should compound." This your Committee by
no means consider to be the universal opinion of that
respectable body. They have no doubt that the
society called " The Committee of Bankers" 'sea
formed, by the honourable individuals composing it,
for the purposes ostensibly professed ; namely, of
prosecuting frauds and forgeries, of lessening by
contribution the expenses of such proceedings to par-
ticular houses, and, by vesting the responsibility in is
public body, preventing the lenity of individuals from
impeding the due course of justice. Another object
was, it has been stated, to render the information
obtained in one case, available for the prosecution or
examination of another, which was effected, when
every case passed through the hands of the same so-
licitor. To him, of course, the active agency and
executive proceedings of the Society were conn-
(flitted. For the purpose of furthering their objects,
means of intercourse, or at least of communication,
were sought with notorious " fences," and those who
are vulgarly called " family men," In consequence
of the knowledge thus acquired of thieves and their
haunts, he has been generally employed by the
country bankers upon the loss of parcels, and infor-
mation obtained from him as to the robbery of coaches,
a species of depredation which appears not to be
among the objects of prosecution by the Society,
but which has been so common, that a banker's
parcel is known by the cant name of " a child." It
is not extraordinary, that from such intercourse a
belief should have prevailed abroad, that a regular
channel was thus established, through which offers
might be made and terms negotiated for the restitu-
tion of the stolen property of bankers. Most re-
spectable members of this Society have stated, that
positive directions have been given to their agent to
discountenance all such propositions. That such a
belief, however, has obtained a strong hold, has ap-
peared from the statements and facts alleged by seve-
ral witnesses from anonymous letters offering such
, compromises; and on the whole evidence, the Com-
mittee cannot but express a wish that it had been
more satisfactorily discredited.
(TO BE CONTINUED.)

Captain MITCHELL, of the 64th Regiment,
was tried at Galway Sessions on Wednesday last, for w—
saulting, REDMOND Bunxii, Esq., with a horse-whip.—
The Jury could not agree to a verdict.—Waterfor4
Chronicle•

Mr. ROBERT ADAIR, who has been made a
Privy Counsellor, was appointed Ambassador to Constalsti-
nople during the administration of the late Mr. Fox, and
gave so much satisfaction that he was still continued in his
liplomatic situation after a change of Ministry. It is very
probable that making his appearance in the political scene,
after a lapse of years, is in consequence of the posture of
affairs in the East, as he can afford some useful informa-
tion to Ministers, of which, from their inexperience, they
stand much in need.

We congratulate the country on the extremely
light state of the calendar. From one extremity of the
country to the other the greatest tranquillity and good or-
der prevailed, ease some irregularity incidental to hunsan
nature.— Wexford Evening Post.
About a fortnight since a donkey which was
in a field at Halberton was much annoyed by a
pig that kept rubbing against his legs, which at last so
exasperated the long-cared animal, that he turned sud-
denly rownd on his swinish tormentor, and bit off his tail'
—Exeter Flying Post.
TnetairesdGaryanitaowstn,, ato VTFOinindhaoirl. isnifidfyroinn!
(ant, little more than a year old, for the benefit of sea bath-
DulOnaini,
a young woman from Ross-shire,
to gaol. —lnverness Journal.
Inverness Journal.
andoinfgt
h;
falling
cal
ihnregen
ifi anreoa:r.
htihictehs INsmh- eeowt,,hl.,:rin,
sr,
riding,
,cab:!.k 1:
estarted e
de
tsthuoed
ddwee
anhtleiyel
~1
,wwasithgoa
On Tuesday last week, the body of a new.
born female child was found among some grass on the road
appeared iu onr market on
side, between Lairg and Bonar Bridge ; the wretched mo-
ther
barrel. Oats have been
whoEwhAaa eras
been dLi discovered
lye° Arme ditm tvi ot
committed
T• —A sample of New Beres
p:ro:pc:iieitvon,,
tainketnheb
also cut in .. --- Waterford Chronicle.
' CA VAN.-- \\ c are informed that the festivities
doe 12th, so engrossed the timeof
l'Arreellainesth'elaYCA:thuaeBnrdtYansKloelTdielkoauetnnrt9':4':.
the persons who ge-
nerally serve on Grand and Petty Juries in Cavan, that the
Assistant Barrister (S. MAYNE, Esq.) felt it necessary to
adjourn the Sessions Court from Saturday to Monday. On
that day the Ballyconnell yeomanry joined in the Orange
yKcinaglistauinnifßorm.
13., acriLdAwimouEl:lolifavven
icanmiieiceida.
his MaJEsres arms, were it not for precautions, with
—Dublin Morning Register.
PILCHARD FlSHERY.—Preparations are
now going on briskly for the commencement of the seine
Fishery. The driving boats have been very successful this
week. On Wednesday morning 40,000 very fine pil-
chards were brought in by the driving boats at St. Ives,
which sold at 2s. 3d. per hundred. Vast shoals have been
seen, some very near the shore; the prospects for the ail-
venturers in the seine fishery are therefore very 'gowning.
In Mount's Bay, also, on Tuesday and Wednesday nights,
from two to eight hogsheads offish were taken by etch lima.
Several fishing boats have returned from Ireland, where
the herring fishery has been untitimssfuL—Corirre:ill
Gazette.