The Sun.
London, England, 1845-01-22 00:00:00

thus deprived him of his liberty on such a trumpery
charge, he begged the magistrate would allow him to
have the name and address of the complainant as it ap-
peared on the police-sheet:
This was granted, and the defendant was then dis-
charged.
CABMEN'S FROLICS.— Thomas Scully was charged with
having assaulted Thomas Dell.
The parties are cabmen, and the assault occurred on
Monday evening, in Conduit-street, in consequence of
some " larking," commenced at the Coaoh and Horses
public-house.
It appeared that a number of cabmen were engaged
in a new game called " one off behind"—the main fea-
ture of which consists in approaching a person unper-
ceived, and by a smart blow on the rim of the hat be-
hind, causing it to fall off backwards. The complainant
and defendant were of the party, and as there was an
old grudge between them, the play very soon ripened
into earnest.

According to the defendant, the complainant com-
menced hostilities by throwing a pewter pot at him.
The complainant, however, denied this, and asserted that
the defendant followed him out of the house, and knocked
him down repeatedly.
A good deal of conflicting evidence was brought for-
ward, but as the defendant did not succeed in clearing
himself from the charge of having acted with great vio-
lence, Mr. Maltby inflicted the penalty of 40s.
MARYLEBONE.

His Excellency the Belgian Ambassador, residing in
Portland-place, attended at this Court, when the follow-
ing charge of extraordinary conduct on the part of a well-
dressed young man, named John Julius Koch, was gone
into before the sitting magistrate, Mr. Rawlinson.
The prisoner is a young man of foreign parentage, and
is the son of a gentleman holding a highly respectable
situation in a large mercantile house in the City.
Susanna Bryan, nurse in the family of his Excellency,
deposed, that fur a long time past the prisoner had, been
in the habit of following her whenever she went out with
the children, and that his conduct was altogether of a
very annoying nature. He would frequently come be-
hind her and, by making horrid grimaces, frighten an
infant which she was carrying in her arms. The oc-
currences which she had last alluded to took place six or
seven months ago ; he had since annoyed her repeat-
edly, and on that morning, when she went with
the children into the broad walk of the Regent's
Park for an airing, he (prisoner) was there. He spoke
not a word, but kept close to her wherever she went.
Witness concluded by stating that she at last contrived
to get away from him and reach home without any fur-
-1 ther molestation.

Mr. ItAwLiNorr-T-During the whole time of his acting

in this manner has he never assigned any reason for his
behaviour ? Witness—None whatever, Sir. Ile has
never offered a single word in explanation.
Hardwick, 80 D, corroborated the first witness's evi-
dence as to the conduct of the prisoner in the park ; he
(Hardwick) had received information of what had been
going on, and was employed by his superintendent to
keep watch.
Stanley, 48 D, stated that in November last he saw
the prisoner follow the witness Bryan, and the children
who were with her. He informed his Excellency of it,
who then declined to give him (prisoner) into custody.
Witness added, that on that day he saw the pri-
soner in Portland-place, and by his (the Ambassa-
dor's) directions took him in charge.
The Ambassador here stepped forward, and said that
the prisoner once spoke to him as he was leaving home
of an evening, but what the purport of his address to him
was he could not say ; he (prisoner) was the son of a
foreigner, and his father, who was a highly respectable
man, seemed unfortunately to have no control over him.
The Ambassador concluded by expressing an opinion,
that the state of mind of the prisoner was defective, and
that he might, unless restrained, do something of a serious
nature. The Ambassador was about to enter into fur-
ther particulars relative to himself and his lady having
been annoyed by the prisoner, when
Mr. RAWLINSON desired that he might be sworn,
His Excellency objected, stating he would not be al-
lowed to take the required oath in this country, holding
the situation which he did as one of the corps diploma-
ague.
Mr. RAWLINBON (to whom this doctrine seemed quite
new) asked his Excellency if he, while residing in Eng-
land, and therefore under the protection of the laws of
this country, would, in the event of his pocket being
picked in the street, or his house being robbed, object to
give such evidence upon oath as might have the effect of
bringing the guilty party to justice?
The Ambassador signified in a few words that he
should, from the position which he occupied, object to be
sworn.

Mr. RAWLINSON (to the prisoner)—What is your ob-
ject in annoying the Ambassador's family in this way?
Prisoner—l must acknowledge my fault; I have no
more to say.
Jones, usher of the Court, said, a few months ago the
prisoner was brought up charged with firing off a pistol
in the Regent's Park, and that for that offence he was
fined.

The prisoner was remanded, and will be brought up
again next Tuesday; and, ad interim, an examination
will be made by the surgeon of the prison as to his state
of mind.

QUEEN. SQUARE.
Yesterday George Gilson, John White, and William
Burgess, three boys of about sixteen years of age, were
charged with misconduct at St. Luke's Workhouse,
Chelsea. . . .

Mr. Sutton, the master, said that about seven o'clock
on the previous evening, having missed the defendants
from the house, he watched for their return, and just be-
fore the hour of going to bed he saw them get over a
wall from the churchyard. As he had frequently cau-
tioned the boys he gave them into custody.
Prisoners made no defence, and were committed for
•
fourteen days.
Mr. Sutton observed, he was quite at a loss to know
what to do with the boys. They set the authorities at
complete defiance, and, notwithstanding that he had re-
sorted to every means in his power to keep up proper
discipline in the house, they were in the most insubor-
dinate state. How the present state of things was to be
remedied he really did not know. Punishment in the
house, or punishment inflicted by the magistrate, did not
seem to check the evil ; several of these boys had been
brought by him before the magistrate a few days ago,
and on hearing their sentence of fourteen days' impri-
sonment, they laughed at him, and on being removed to
the cell set up a shout of defiance. One of the three de-
fendants in the present charge had been concerned in
the desperate attack on him a little time back.
Mr. BOND said he should have mentioned the circum-
stance before.

Mr. Ryder, the chairman of the board of guardians
of St. Luke, Chelsea, hoped he should be excu.ed for
offering a few observations on the subject. How to
maintain that diseipline so necessary in a large
establishment with such a refractory set of boys was
indeed a matter of great difficulty. All their efforts
to restore order were unavailing, and they were
placed in the most unenviable position. But a short
time since a number of the most desperate of them were
charged with a premeditated attack upon the master,
and, although that person was half murdered by them,
and it was shown at the last Middlesex Sessions that
their conduct had been of the very worst description, Mr.
Sergeant Adams had sentenced several of them to 24
hours' imprisonment. He had committed—it was true—
two, he believed, for three months, and three to two
months' hard labour ; but there never was a term more
falsely applied than this term " hard labour." The very
slow pace at which the wheel turned, with the circum-
stance of their scarcely having to raise their feet, added
to the fact that they were not on for more than a quarter
of an hour, or at most twenty minutes at a time, ren-
dered it anything but the term which had been misap-
plied to it ; he would undertake to say that there would
be more hard labour in running three or four times up
Oae-tree Greenwich Park, than there would be in
working at the tread-wheel. He would also make an ob-
servation with respect to the food. He had been over
Coldbath-fields prison, and had been informed that the
allowance of food to the prisoners was twenty ounces
of wheaten bread per day, and meat four times per week,
while that in Chelsea workhouse was twelve ounces per
day, and meat three times per week ; and it was con-
sidered that the paupers fared better (and he made the
observation with thegreatest respect to the ratepayers)th nil
many who were compelled to contribute towards their
support. After such decisions as those to which he had
adverted, he would ask what protection there was to any
one administering the New Poor-law ? The parish
authorities had difficulties of no ordinary character to
contend against ; it was their anxious wish to treat the
poor with kindness and liberality, but it was at the same
time their desire to keep up proper discipline and order
in the house. After the triumph these boys considered
they had gained the law appeared to have no terrors for
them, and the authorities were perfectly at a loss to
know what course to pursue.

It having been suggested by the clerk tlytt when they
had been guilty of such gross misbehavour it would per-
haps be the best course not to re-admit them,
Mr. Ryder observed, that the magistrates had said
that in some cases they should adopt that course ; in
others that they should visit the boys with corporal
punishment. If they refused to admit these boys, and
they were found in a destitute and starving condition in
the stre:ts, the authorities would be held up to public
odium and contempt, and stigmatised as monsters in
human form. The view he (Mr. Ryder) took of the de-
cision to which he had before alluded was concurred in
by many masters of workhouses whom he had spoken to
on the subject.
Mr. BOND said he should be happy to assist the autho-
rities in enforcing proper discipline in any way that lay
in his power. It was perhaps desirable that boards of
guardians should have more power to punish within their
own hands.

Mr. Ryder repeated his regret that such a sentence
should have been passed for so brutal and premeditated
an attack. After contrasting the sentence passed at
this Court a few days ago of 14 days on some of these
boys for insolent and disorderly conduct with that
awarded by Mr. Sergeant Adams at the Sessions, he ob-
served, with a smile, that he only wished that gentleman
would undertake the office of master of a workhouse for
one fortnight.
Mr. BOND, having repeated his desire to assist the au-
thorities, requested that Mr. Sutton would in future in-
form him as to the previous character and conduct of the
parties accused.
Mr. Ryder thanked the magistrate, and withdrew.
SOUTHWARK.
Gcorge Elliott, described as the secretary of a public
school at Battersea, was charged with violating the per-
son of a woman named Wilson, a widow, advanced in life.
The complainant attended at the Court on the pre-
ceding day, and made a statement to the effect that an
outrage of the above description had been committed on
her the Friday before, by a person named Elliott, at a
house in Wellington-street, Walworth. When ques.
tiened by the magistrate as to the reason she had not
given information before, her reply was that she had
been so ill since the occurrence, that she was unable to
leave her.room. Mr. Train directed the woman to re-