The Sun.
London, England, 1828-07-11 00:00:00

POLICE INTELLIGENCE•

MANSION-HOUSE.—Eight inhabitants of the Ward
of Farringdon Within were summoned by the Ward
officers for •having refused to pay the rate called " the
watch rate," levied by the ward.
It was agreed up4;a both sides that the question should
be referred to a higher tribunal. The defendants refused
to pay the rate upon the ground, that as they are within
the precinct of Whitefriars, they are entitled, by a charter
upwards of 200 years old, to watch and light their own
immediate neighbourhood; and the Ward authorities have
thought it expedient to take that office into their own
hands, and to make the said inhabitants pay.

110 W-STREET.—In consequence of a sworn informa-
tion made yesterday morning before Sir R. BIRNIE, that
it was the intention of Mr. Long Wellesley and Mr. De
Crespigny to fight a duel, warrants were immediately
issued against the parties, and placed in the hands of Led-
better to execute.

A man named William Lawrence, by trade a book-
binder, strangled himself on Wednesday night in St.
Clement's watch-house. Three boys having accused him
of an indecent assault upon their persons, the unfortunate
deceased was locked up in the black hole until morning.
The watch-house-keeper, Ingram, came before Sir R.
BIRNIE yesterday morning to state the fact. He Paid that
the prisoner told him he lived at No. 33, Stanhope-street,
Clare-market. He did not deny the accusation, but said,
when about to be locked up, " If I am brought before a
Magistrate, I ens ruined for ever."
Two wretched little urchins, the accusers of the de-
ceased, then stood forward, and underwent a severe ex-
amination by the magistrate. They confessed that they
had often been ()Wird to stay in the streets all night,
having no borne to go to. On the night previous, they
said, they were accosted by the deceased, who said he
would treat them to some gin, which, however, they re-
fused. The boys then said that the deceased offered them
money to allow him indecent liberties, upon which they
gave him in charge.
A watchma❑ said, that he discovered the deceased in the
cell where he was confined on his knees, with his back to
the wall, suspended by two silk handkerchiefs to the bars
of the window.

Sir Ricii. 131n' An censured the watch-house-keeper for
not visiting the deceased between the time he was locked
up and when he was discovered dead.

Both boys arc of bad character, and well known to the
police.

MARLBOROUGH- STREET. --YestA ay Thomas
Webster, a footman in the service of Lord Lyndhurst (the
Chancellor), was brought to this office before F. A. Rosa
Esq., the sitting magistrate, under a warrant charged with
assaulting Ballard, one of the officers of this office.
About ten o'clock in the moruir, before the hour for
commencing public business, the Cord Chancellor himself
came to the efface in his carriage to see the magistrate on
the subject of the charge against his servant ; but the ma-
gistrate not having yet arrived, his Lordship drove off
again, without waiting any time. Soon after the arrival
of the magistrate, however, Lady Lyndhurst came also to
the office in her carriage, and had an interview with Mr.
ROE on the occasion ; and again, before the case was gone
into, a gentleman came with a letter to the Magistrate
fiein his Lordship, then sitting in the Court of Chancery.
The case being called on, Plank, the chief officer of this
office, was sworn, and stated that on Monday night last lie
was with Ballard and other officers on duty, to keep order
and regularity at the Duke of Wellington's house, whete
there was a grand assembly. It was the particular direc-
tions of the Duke that the steps of the hall door and the
approaches to it should be kept perfectly clear, and no
person permitted to stand there ; and there were seats
placed all round the court-yard for the servants in attend-
ance to sit on until called for by the parties they belonged
to. In violation of these regulations, the defendant placed
himself upon the steps of the hall-doer, and refused to move
from them, although repeatedly required to do so, not only
by hint (Plank) but by the Duke of Wellington's servants,
who were in waiting at the door. It was repeatedly
pointed out to him that there were seats near at hand
where he might sit down ; but so, he would not stir, he
said, an inch from where he stood, until he (Plank) pro-
vided a chair for him. This, the officer said, be did not
think it part of his duty to de ; and he then laid his hank
gently on the defendant to desire again that he would re-
move front a spot where he was causing much obstruction,
but he no sooner did so than the defendant threw himself
into a fighting attitude, but did not strike any blow, al-
though he showed every disposition to do so. Ballard now
came up, and laid hold of the defendant to insist on his
coming down the steps, and had dragged him partly down,
when the latter struck repeatedly at the officer with some-
thing that he held in his hand, and Ballad,himself from the blows with his staff, caught the defend-
ant, in defending
more accidentally than otherwise, with the end of the
staff across the eye, and in an instant he was covered with
blood. He was then removed without further resistance
on his part from the steps ; but from this time forward,
the conduct of all the other servants, some hundreds in
number, was of the most outrageous nature. Plank said
that he did not think it necessary to have the defendant
sent to the watch-house as others had been, because he
knew the man very well, and repeatedly told him so, and
that when Lord Lyndhurst should hear of his conduct, he
would be highly displeased.
Ballard said, that he repeatedly requested the defendant
is the most civil manner to come down the steps before he
laid a hand on him, and when he even did so, at first, it
was quite gently, but the defendant said he would not move
an inch, and then he (Ballard) dragged him down the steps ;
upon which the defendant aimed several blows at him, not
only with his fist, but with a pair of wooden clogs which
he carried ; in defending himself from these blows the
officer said he accidentally caught the man across the eye
with the end of his staff, in a back-hand manner, which
cut him severely ; the blow was not at all designedly give°,
for if it had been, with such a staff, it would have laid
open, if not fractured, the defendant's skull.
The servants of the Duke of Wellington's household at •
tended, and stated that the Duke had given directions to
keep the steps and approaches clear, as described by Plank,
and that the defendant refused to move although repeatedly
asked to do so before any force was used towards him.
Plank spoke to him m the most civil manner, and told him
that he knew hint, and that he would may get himself into
trouble if be did not move; but he still refused until the
other officer came up, who also civilly asked hint to come
down the steps, and when he refused seized him by the
collar,
and
him
down. The defendant then struck
at the officer cut him in return with the
the
officer,t iragagnedd
staff, but whether by design or accident they could not say.
The defendant said, in his defence, that the reason be
stood on the steps
was,
that Lady Lyndhurst was just then
coming out, went up to the steps to meet her
a and he
Ladyship and hand her to her carriage. He admitted that
but he denied entirely that he struck Bid-
he refused, for the same reason, to move when desired to
dlaordsodesbyigin'edlail'ake, On the contrary, he said, that when the
Ps, he stumbled back-
owtlailcdear, darna gdg ead
pairhim downnf lad i
et
sh,ed
ns
gt
which he held in his
hand, were lifted suddenly up, and chanced to touch the
officer, who immediately struck him with his staff, and
cut him in the severe manner he appeared. (Here the de-
fendant pointed to a large platter under his eye.) He now
called as a witness the coachman of Count de Ludolf, the
Neapolitan Ambassador, who stated that he saw the officers
drag the defendant down the steps, when the defendant
suddenly stumbled, and his hand rising accidentally struck
the officer, who immediately cut the defendant across the

face with his staff. The witness said that he had a full
view of the proceeding, as he was on his coach-box at the
time, setting down the Countess de Ludolf at the door.
Plank said, that the defendant must be quite wrong in
saying that he expected Lady Lyndhurst out at the time he
was on the steps, because her Ladyship did not come out
for four hours after that time, and indeed had only arrived
a short time before. He (Plank) wished, however, to say
of the defendant, that generally speaking he was a well-
behaved man, as compared with most other servants.
In the present case Mr. ROE said that as the defendant
seemed, by the officer's account, not to he generally an ill-
behaved man, and Lord Lyndhurst spoke very favourably
of his character, and moreover, in consideration of the
severe cut he had received, which mist be some punish-
ment to him, he should only be fined 20s. mid the costs,
with a caution to be in future guarded as to his conduct
on such occasions, and to impress on all of his class the
penalties they were incurring by their scandalous and out-
rageous behaviour.
The gentleman who attended from Lord Lyndhurst paid
the fine, and the defendant was discharged.

HATTON-GARDEN.—An elderly man, of the name
of James Cocker, a Methodist preacher, well known at
Barnet and its surrounding neighhourhood, was brought np
by the parochial authorities of St. Pancras, upon the com-
plaint of Amelia Joyce, an interesting young woman, who
deposed that he is the father of a child of which she is now
enciente.
Mr. Coulthart, one of the overseers of the parish, stated
to the Magistrate that the means used by the defendant, to
accomplish his purposes upon this inexperienced female, and
lull to sleep all 1-Kr apprehensions of the moral guilt at-
tached to her connection with him, as also to remove that
delicacy which she naturally entertained upon the ground
of her character with the world afterwards, were the most
abominable and unholy that were ever practised by man.
Me never knew a case, he said, of a more aggravated nature,
for the sacred Bible was made the instrument by which all
this was to he effected. Cocker, whenever he made his
appointments with the complainant, always came armed
with this book, selected out of it all those passages of the
ancient scripture, and the law of nature, which he imagined
were calculated to suit his views, and impressed them so
forcibly upon her mind, that she at last yielded en easy
victim to his importunities.
The Magistrate heard this statement with a degree of
unutterable surprise and indignation. He ordered the de-
fendant to find bail, and in default thereof committed him
to the New Prison, Clerkenwell.