The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-14 00:00:00

UNION•HALL.

William Johnson, alias William Fellows Illarhness,
was brought up for re-examination, charged with
robbing a great number of hotels, coffee-houses, and
taverns, in all parts of the metropolis. The office, as
on the former examination, was crowded with the
proprietors of establishments in the above lines, who
had been plundered of plate by the accused, under cir-
cumstances similar to those already detailed in a
previous police report.
Mr. COTTINGHAM, addressing the parties in attend-
ance, said that four cases out of the number would be
sufficient to send for trial. The magistrate added that
it was quite time the prisoner should be sent out of
the country, for it appeared he had been tried and con-
victed of robbing hotels and taverns of plate, and sen-
tenced to six months imprisonment.

He was then committed.
CROYDON.

Inspector Collier, of the P division of police, brought
to the attention of the presiding magistrates, Messrs.
Adams, Lucas, and Barclay, a case of imposition,
which, it is feared, from the ingenuity displayed in it,
has been very successful as a means of defrauding the
humane and charitable.

It appears that, on Thursday, a document, pur•
porting to be the certificate of the magistrates of the
Croydon bench, and which represented that a trades-
man, mimed James Brown, who resided at Croydon,had
been robbed by burglars of property to a large amount,
and was thereby reduced to a state of poverty, was
enclosed in a letter, addressed to Mr. Howell, of the
firm of Howell and James, in Regent-street, an
application, at the same time, being made for assist-
ance. Mr. Howell not being in town, the petition
was sent down to Croydon, for the purpose of inquiry
being made respecting it, when it was, of course,
discovered to be a fraud. _ _

The inspector handed the document referred to to
the magistrates for their inspection ; it was of rather
a singular character, and well calculated to disarm
suspicion. It was headed by the Royal arms; on the
left-hand corner were the printed words " Croydon,
Surrey, to Wit ;" and below them the words
" Whereas, the bearer hereof," printed in old English
characters ; and the paper had all the appearance of
the ordinary forms of process issued from the police,
offices. It went on to state that the magistrates,
having fully investigated the circumstances of the
robbery, which had reduced the pretended James
Brown from a position of respectability and comfort
to poverty, and deeply commiserating him, had in-
structed their clerk to draw up the statement, in the
hope that it would be the means of inducing
charitable persons to assist him, and enable
him again to enter into business. The docu-
ment was represented to 'be signed by Mr.
George Penfold, the clerk to the bench, at the re-
quest of the magistrates, and a sum of 51. was also
placed as having been contributed by him. In addi-
tion to this, there were very excellent imitations of
the signatures of Mr. Reid, Mr. Barclay, and other
magistrates who usually act in this district; as also
the signatures of the Rev. Mr. Lindsay, the vicar,
Lady Hoare, Mr. T. L. Robinson, and others. The
name of Mr. J. Drummond, the solicitor, also ap-
peared, and he was represented to have paid over the
sum of 211., which he was stated to have received for
the use of the unfortunate Mr. Brown. It was evi
dent that the projector of the fraud had taken great
pains to get it up well, as he must have obtained
means to copy the genuine signatures of the gentle-
men whose names appeared on the paper, the whole of
them being so excellently imitated.
Mr. ADAMS, having looked over the document, re-
marked that it was a very well got-up thing, but
there was one circumstance connected with it which
would immediately have made him doubt its authen-
ticity if it had been sent to him.
Mr. Lucas asked what that was.
Mr. ADAMS drily observed that the paper repre-
sented two lawyers to have subscribed—one 51., and
the other 211. ; and this alone would have excited his
suspicion.—(Laughter.)
Mr. Penfold remarked that perhaps this was what
excited distrust at Mr. Howell's, and which led to the
petition being forwarded to him to be inquired into.
The MAGISTRATES observed that it was fortunate the
fraud had been discovered, and it would now, in all
probability, be put a stop to; and they at the same
time gave instructions to the police with a view to the
apprehension of the party, if he should again make
his appearance.

CAUSEWAY ACROSS THE SEYERN.—A writer in the
Hereford Journal proposes, what he acknowledges "in
other times would be considered an extravagant and
chimerical undertaking, no less than the blockade of the
Severn at the Old Passage." He says, " Let the Great
Western Railway Company, the Severn Navigation
Company, the contemplated Company for a Railway
through Newport and South \Vales, and the Post office
department of the Government, unite for the purpose of
forming a causeway acro-s the Severn at the spot men-
tioned. After the proportion of expence that each is to
bear shall be decided on, the engineering part at the
commencement is simple enough, by loose stones thrown
overboard, or sunk in tanks, until they rise to high water
mark. The part of the Severn above this breakwater
will then form an immense lake of transparent water con-
taining about fourteen thousand acres, or twenty-two
square miles, below Gloucester, the entrance to which,
by vessels of any size, should be by a lock from the Wye
at the narrow isthmus where the figure 3 (miles from
Chepstow) is marked on the Ordinance Map, which is
only three hundred yards across, and the mouth of the
Wye will be a good roadstead or soft mud-bed for
ve-sels bound up the Severn. A weir will, of course, be
formed on the breakwater of sufficient capacity for the
River Severn in its greatest floods, and for the passage
of the Salmon, and over all is to be a causeway for a
railway, from Bristol through South Wales. The ad -
vantages contemplated by the proposed plan are as
follows :—First, with respict to the Post-office commu-
nication with South Wales, the letters are at present
detained in Bristol four hours after the arrival of the
London mail, because the passage (always dangerous)
can seldom be crossed in winter before daylight—but ex-
cluding this objection, Bristol alone will still be the
London of South Wales, requiring the most direct com-
munication with the principality. The navigation up the
Severn will be greatly facilitated, as the water will
always remain at the same level, with but little or no
perceptible current, and the present " boar" up the river,.
with all the other annoyances occasioned by the rapidity
of the tide, be annihilated. The passage into
natlow as be
the
Severn
Lake, by the Wye, being landloc ed,ll
free
from danger and
always
difficulty, which cannot be said of the
entrance to the Berkeley Canal; and last, though not least,
the
lake of transparent water
will add greatly to the
beauties and attraction of the neighbourhood.
A CENTENARIAN —There is now living under the
•
an old man of the name of Richards, who has
coalirse
coiftyJ,ames Adam Gordon, Esq., of Naish House, in
attained the extraordinary age of 109 years. He was
born at Broadelist, Devon, in the year 1735, and is a
fine tall, intellectual, merry-hearted old fellow, possess-
ing a most benevolent countenance. The old gentleman
is at present visiting one of his sons at Tiverton, Devon,
and he walked on Sunday last to that town from Col-
inceptor), a distance of six miles.—Bristol Gazetta.

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windy spasms. No medicine had been 'if any service
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