The Sun.
London, England, 1828-12-16 00:00:00

BOW-STREET.

Yesterday, re decent-looking man was brought in
custody to this office, and charged before it R.
BIRNIE with stealing two valuable horses, under the
pretence of levying a distress warrant.
A gentleman who attended for the prosecution
stated, that a sham warrant of distress had been
executed at the house of a clergyman in Berkshire,
who was very nearly related to a noble family. The
parties who levied the pretended distress,
one of
whom was the prisoner, forced open the stables, and
seized two horses, with which they took the road to
London. Pursuit, however, was instantly made,
.and the parties were traced as far as Pancras turn-
pike, where the parties were detained, and the pri-
s-oncr given into custody.
Sir R. BIRNIE a,ked if a warrant bad been pre-
viou-ly obtained in Berkshire for the prisoner's ap.
prehension ?
The gentleman replied in the negative, and the
Magistrate reproved the officer for taking charge of
the prisoner without a. warrant. He then told the
gentleman that he had better have the prisoner eon.
veyed at once back to Berkshire, where the case
might be in yew igated by one of the local Magistrates.
This office had no power to interfere with ofTences
occurring in Berkshire.
A letter Was forwarded some time ago to Sir
Richard Bit We, from a persen who stated that he
could, if his own safety were gliarain„d, bring to
justice the perpetrators of the robbery and outrage
at the house of Mr. Vi'grrington, West Nioulsey.
Of this letter, however,
the 31agistrate took no
notice. A second letter, from the game individual,
offering the required information upon .21milar con-
ditions, was received by Sir Richard Birnie a day or
two ago. The Magistrate, in making public the eir-
cumstance, stated that if the writer of these- letters
came forward, and was the Means of bringing to;
justice the parties concerned in the above robbery
and outrage, he might be certain of his persotud
safety.

AI A R LBO ROU G H_ST REET.
Yesterday an elderly and rather respectabl:'e-look-
ing man, who gave his name Spencer Hannington;
was brought before the sitting magistrate charged
with sending a begging letter to, and under false

pretences obtaining money from, that excellent and
humane nobleman Earl Fitzwilliam.

It appeared that from the well-known benevolence
of the venerable Earl, his Lordship has frequently
been the object of fraud and imposture with persons
of the prisoner's description, until at last his Lord-
ship found it necessary, in order to do justice to real
objects of his Lord-hip's bounty, to refer all applica-
tions of a similar kind in future to the otlicers of the
Mendicity Society, to have the true characters of the
parties applying properly investigated. On Friday
morning last, it appeared that the prisoner called at
the noble Eat l's house, in Grosvenor-square, and de-
livered iu to the porter a letter addressed to Earl Fitz-
william, describing the writer as a native of Peter-
borough, in Northamptonshire, where he had very re-
spectable relations still residing, and who were very
well known to his Lordship; that the writer had been a
respectable tradesman in London for many years,
but that owing to misfortunes and the affliction of a
rupture, which disabled him from working at his
trade, he was reduced to the utmost state of distress;
and as he was only desirous of procuring some peel'.
niary assistance, to enable him to make his way
down to his friends at Peterborough, he hoped that
his Lordship would afford him a small sum for that
purpose; the letter also assured his Lordship, that
this was the first appeal that the writer had ever in
his life made to the benevolence of any one.
On receiving this letter his Lordship immediately
had it forwarded to the Mendicity Society, and one
of the clerks of that establishment attended at his
Lordship's house, with a constable, in the evening,
at the hour that the prisoner left word with the
porter that he should call again for his Lordship's
answer, the mendicity officers having recognized the
letter the moment they saw it, as the handwriting of
an old offender in this line. At the appointed time
the prisoner called for his answer, and as had been
previously arranged, Lord -.Fitzwillittm sent him
down by the porter a small sum of money, which
the prisoner had no sooner accepted of than he was
taken into custody by the constable, who was in
waiting for the purpose.
The clerk of the Mendicity Society now produced
all the requisite documents to show that the pri-
soner, who in his letter to Lord Fitzwilham, stated
that ‘i he had never before appealed to the benevo-
lence of any one," was committed to prison, and in-
flicted at the sessions two years ago in conjunction
with another man, who was transported at the time,
for obtaining money then under similar false pre-
tences to the present from her Grace the Duchess
of Buccleuch.

The prisoner adLitted this to be true, but said
that the reason of his applying then to the Duchess
of Buccleuch was, because his father had just then
died in her Grace's service, having been killed by
falling accidentally from the top of her Grace's
house, where he had been doing some repairs, The
contents of the present letter to Earl -Fitzwilliam he
declared were perfectly true, with the exception al-
luded to, for he was afflicted, he said,' with rupture
in a very bad degree, and his friends were, as he had
described them, very respectable, and residing at
Peterborough, on Lord Fitzwilliam's estate, and
they are all very well known to his Lordship. One
relation alone'of his, he said, at present residing 46 at
Peterborough, is worth 40,000/. every morning he
gets out of his bed, and is a person of great influence
and consideration in that town, as Lord Fitzwilliam
well knoxs.

The MAGISTRATE asked the prisoner what might
be the name of this influential relative of his at
Peterborough? Prisoner—His name, your wor-
ship, is .Tohn Browne.
MAGISTRATE—John Browne I Why, that is the
na4le of the man with whom you were indicted two
years ago, and who was transported.
Prisoner—Oh, it is not that John Browne I
mean;your worship, but another of the same name,
and quite a different man. Lord Firm:Main knows
who I mean very well, your worship.
Earl Fitzwilliam, who attended the examination,
accompanied by Sir Charles Wentworth and another
g;mtleman, said, on hearing this, " John Browne !
jolt» Browne I I am lure I know no person of the
name of John etrawne at Peterborough. I have no
recollection of having even heard the name there."
The prisoner, with the greatest effrontery, said,
" fiewnd upon it, your Lordship is mistaken, for
your Lordii4 knows the John Browne that I mean
quite well at Petelborptigh."
Earl Fitzwilliam.—" Well, I am sure I cannot at
regokiect having ever heard of such a person there,
and I think I know the town pretty well." His
Lordship was then sworn, and he identified the
letter produced as the same that had been delivered-
to his Lordship at his house on "friday last, and, in
consequence of the receipt of which he sent down
some money for the person who brought it, when
he shouid ill the same evening for an answer.
The porter of hia Lordship's house was also sworn,
and proved that the
.Flsiwr was the person who
delivered the letter in questiori, rnl4 who, on his
ceiling for an answer in the evening, reetjyed the
money c,2nt down by his Lordship ; and upon this
clear evidence, a)e prisoner was convicted as a rogue
and vagabond, and omitted for three months to
hard labour in the House of correction.
A plug fellow, named lu/in navi,s7 was also
committed ice three months to the Operation of tlie.
tread Mill, boycott been found at twe o'cloek in the
morning lurking about bend-street, with a quantity
trf skeleton keys, a crow-bar, g 4.4 a dark lantern in
his posf,ers,on.
An attortiq's clerk attended on his behalf, hpt
could urge nothing ;1‘: ftvour of his client, and there-
fore left him to his fate.