The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-06 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY _MORNING, JANUARv 6, 1844

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT.
OLD COURT.
(Before the COMMON SERGEANT.)
Joseph Redburn, 21, and Peter Peek, 19, were indicted for
stealing a horse, van, and harness, the property of William
Gadbury.
It appeared from the evidence that the prosecutor is a car-
man residing in London Wall, and that he had a van, horse,
and harness to dispose of. The prisoners called upon him and
desired to try the horse, which was permitted, and they drove
off with the whole of the property, forgetting to return, and no
portion of the stolen property has been since recovered.
The prisoners were found Guilty.
The COMMON SERGEANT told the prisoners there were two
other indictments against them for stealing horses and carts,
under similar circumstances, but it was not necessary to go into
them. It was quite clear they had been carrying on a syste-
matic plan of plunder, and the sentence therefore was, that
they should be transported for ten years.
The Court then adjourned until Monday, Feb. 5.

see the manner in which the prisrn van endeavours to obviate
the difficulty. The driver, a verb decent whip, takes a certain
over-righting, the gates are openei, the passage cleared, an I,
whack, whack, whack, the ani•oials—excited by whip and
voice,

PitlOES OF SHARES

IN CANALS, RAILWAYS, BANKS, ASSURANCE
.&ND OTHER COMPANIES' STOCK.

" As when the swift Camilla scours the plain,"
evade the dangerous quicksand ar.,idst the applause of those
who regularly twice a day witness the extraordinary feat with
undiminished admiration.
On Monday last one of her Majesty's justices of the peace
had a narrow escape of being swallowed up in the earth, like
the Roman Curtius. Though aw are of the danger, from the
experience of every day, as well 'Z'.3 from former disasters, Mr.
Broderip, on the first day of the s-ew year, ventured to escape
the mud by driving up in a light cab, but just as he got in
front of the magisterial entrance dvr ln sank the vehicle through
.
the superfieies of loose shingle the subjacent bog. The
horse, in endeavouring to save annself from a similar fate,
made a bound on the asphaltic .00tway and slipped. The
kicking and plunging of the animal, who was with much diffi-
culty treed from the harness,
were more alarming than danger-
ous. The magistrate was immediately rescued from his un-
pleasant and almost ludicrous pos"ion, and the cab, which was
stuck fast nearly up to the naves of the wheels, was, with much
labour and the efforts of several strong men, ultimately placed
on terra firma. Scarcely a day passes without scenes of this
sort. Comment is superfluous.
Mr. BALLANTINE acknowledvd the receipt of 51. for the
poor-box, from "A. A."

I LONDON, FRIDAY, JAN. 5.

On Thursday Thomas Groves, a diminutive boy, 10 years of
age, a foundling, was brought before Mr. Cottingham, charged
with being found in the area of a house with an intent to com-
mit felony. The investigation exatbited the incorrigibly vici-
ous habits of a boy seldom cqualle
It appeared from the statement of a Mrs. Groves, the wife of
a wharfinger in very good circumstances, that several years
ago it was announced in the newsrapers that a child was aban-
doned by its unnatural parents, and left in a basket at the gate
of one of the metropolitan workhcases. Mr. Groves's former
wife being apprised of the eircumnance, and being inconsolable
for the loss of her two children w.-,3 died about that period, on
being made acquainted with the a Jove circumstance, and with
the sanction of her husband, applied for and had the foundling
delivered up into her charge. The child was adopted by the
persons named, and at a proper age was sent to school, and, in-
deed, had every attention paid to it; Mr. Groves intending to
spare no expense in the education :1 his foster child, as he usu-
ally termed him. The boy, however, as he grew up, exhibited
many bad qualities, was in the habit of pilfering from his school-
fellows, and committing other pett it thefts. Every means were
adopted to break him of such v:stious habits, but all to no
purpose ; and frequently would abscond from the dwell-
ing of his protectors and go wandering about the town, and
pilfering whatever he could lay 11;4 hands upon. Not a work-
house in London but he had been the inmate of, being usually
found in the streets almost naked, 4n4 not one word he uttered
was to be believed ; in fact, he necame so incorrigible, and
robbed his protectors so often, teat they found it was quite a
hopeless task to produce a reformation in so hardened yet so
youthful a character. On a recent occasion, he decamped from
home having first broken open a chest of drawers, from which
he took some silver, and he was not heard of from that period
until the preceding night, when a policeman on duty in Allen-
street, Lambeth, hearing a noise in the area of a house, on
casting his bull's-eye lantern down the railings saw the prisoner
crouched up underneath a meat sa'e, arid he got there evidently
for the purpose of breaking it oper- When he was discovered,
as usual, he told a number of falsehoods, but it was at length
found that he had been away from llr. Groves's house for some
days, and that in the interval he had parted with his clothes,
and had scarcely any covering upt.n him.
Mr. COTTI NG HAli said he shodcl commit the prisoner for a
month, and suggested that when the boy came out of gaol, if
he returned to his bad habits, it .vould be then incumbent on
Mr. Groves, if he was robbed, again to prosecute him, and on
his conviction the Judge, probably, instead of transport-
ing him, would send him to the
Itrison in the Isle of Wight,
where he would be taught a trade by which he could earn an
honest livelihood when he came ce:.t.
The prisoner, who appeared qr.ite unconcerned during the
recital of the above circumstances, was then committed.
Six men, in a destitute conc'ltion, were charged with refus-
ing to do four hours' work for the board and lodging afforded
them in Newington workhouse.
It appeared the defendants ha,i been received in the above
workhouse on the preceding night, and the next morning they
refused to perform the work allotted to them.
The defendants said that the-e had nothing but straw to lie
upon, and that the people at th.s workhouse wanted them to go
to work before they had any food. They (the defendants),
however, were so exhausted from previous want that they re-
fused to work without first getting victuals.
The porter of the workhouse said that the plan of giving
there food before setting them tr. work was found not to answer,
and that the guardians had therefore altered the plan.
The MAGISTRATE, on perus'Ag the Act, said that the clause
specified " destitute persons were to do four hours' work in re-
turn for the food and lodging provided them." Now, in the
present instance the Act had net been complied with, and he
should therefore not think of se iding the unfortunate men to
e therefore discharged them all.

FREE TRADE SOIREE and MEET
ING AT BOLTON.

A splendid s-)iree and meeting, in aid of the great League
Fund, took place at the Temperance Hall, Bolton, on Wednes-
day night. Mr. Cobden, M.P., Colonel Thompson, Mr.
R. R. R. Moore, and Mr. W. Evans, attended as a deputation
from the League, and, on making their appearance on the
platform, were greeted with loud and long continued plaudits.
Mr. Henry Ashworth and Mr. Edmund Ashworth. members
of the Council of the League, were also present. The meet-
ing was crowded; there was at least a thousand persons
present. The chair was taken by T. Gregson, Esq., Mayor.
Colonel Tsiostrson first addressed the meeting. He said
to show the enormity of the corn-laws, to show their monstrous
injustice, they might be compared to a law which should be
passed to put an end to the wine trade with Portugal, in order
that wine might be made from grapes grown in our hot-
, houses at home. He said the thing was perfectly practicable,
and would, no doubt, for 1., time work well for gardeners,
k joiners, and glaziers; but would the community stand it?--
(Cries of " Hear, hear.") Yet the law for " the
protection of British industry" as it was called,—
(Laughter)—was just such a law in effect. Such a law could
not stand ; the agriculturists themselves began to see that, and
were preparing to give up the game.—( Hear, heor. ) It was
true, that a small knot of foolish men in Essex the other day
made a feint of establishing a counter agitation to put down
the League ; and, to show how much in earnest they were,
they got one 50/. totesids it.—(Laughter.) But nothing had
been heard of this Anti-Anti-Corn-law League since. If they
have not given it up, they seem to be ashamed of their cause;
and when people became ashamed, and began to despair of
their cause, depend upon it that cause would not last long.
Mr. COBDEN next came forward, and was received with
loud cheers. After passing a high eulogium upon Colonel
Thompson, in this cause, whose efforts, he said, had been
directed to the subject long before either he or his friends
were alive to' its importance, he said he did not come there
to argue the questiiets that night. He thought the people of
Bolton, after the suffering, destitution, and misery to which
they had been so recently sutsjected, did not want convincing
of the impolicy of the corn-laws. Why no class of men, even
those of a certain partylin politics, but had long ceased to believe
that the corn-laws were for the good of trade. But then tllky
had another reason for holding aloof from this agitation ; and
a few of them might be seen coming out of their mills when
the question of repeal was proposed, and shaking their heads—
heads never very remarkable for the quantity tit brains in them
(Laughter)—and these men said, " Oh, it may be very well
far us that the corn-laws should be repealed, it may suit the pur-
pose of those who have mill property, but what is to beconOt of
the agriculturists ?"---( Laughter.) Now these were a fair
sample of the sort of men, and their wisdom, who prided them-
selves on having stuck to their party and opposed repeal. These
poor creatures had got a notion into their heads that it was im-
possible for all classes to prosper at once—they thought one
class must of necessity flourish at the expense of another, and
their saying was '• turn and turn about."—(Laughter.) Why
these men were absolutely to be pitied. The agriculturists,
for whose benefit it was pretended the law, was passed, were
going a-head of these men. The League had already the
. oldest and best families of the aristocracy, the largest and most
wealthy landowners with them—the Fitzwilliams, the Spencers,
)4 the Ducies, the Bedfords, the Radnors, and the Grosvenors.—
(Cheers. ) Yes, they had and would have the best of all
classes with them ; they were fast flocking round their standard
—every day brought with it an accession of strength ; and
114 having obtained the assistance of such men as these, what need
they care about the rest? Mr. Cobden went on to speak of
other topics, and addressed the meeting for nearly an hour,
i% frequently interrupted by loud and long-continued bursts of
cheering.
Mr. R, R. R. Itlooax next addressed the meeting, detailing
the proceedings of the League hitherto, and the course pro-
f posed for the future. He concluded a powerful appeal to the
meeting by showing the futility of all the attempts yet made to
/% counteract their agitation, from the calumnies of the press
which attributed to them the turn-out in the manufacturing
districts of last year, down to the nailing of their tracts on
barn-dtors, and the burning of them by a veracious clergyman
1 in his church at Norwich, who declared to his congregation
that they smelt of blood"—acts which, instead of answering
51,4 the end intended, but stimulated people's curiosity to read
them.—(Applause.) He then announced the following sub-
scriptions, as already received in Bolton, and as intended to
0, head the subscriptions in the room :
Messrs. Callender, Bickham, and Cross (double their sub-
scription of last year), 2001. ; Messrs. H. and E. Ashworth,
' 2001. ; Messrs. J. R. Barnes and Son, 100/. ; Messrs. Robert
;)s and Jos. Lord, 501. ; Mr. Thomas 'Thomason, WO/. ; Messrs.
Arrowsmith and Sons, 501.—Total, 700/.
14 Subscriptions immediately began to flow in from the body of
the reom, and Mr. Moore announced the following:—
Messrs. J. Crook and Son, 50/. ; John Cutler (or Cotterill),
Market-street, 2/. ; Collected by ditto, 12s. 6d. ; Joseph Had-
dock, U. ; John Barnes, 11. ; Baxter, Blackburn-street, 1/. ;
Hervey and Southwark, 5/. ; William Barlow, ss. ; Joseph
Arrowsmith, 10/. ; J. and J. Brierley, 10/. ; Thomas Kirk-
ham, ss. ; James Shuttleworth 10s. ; George Mee, ss. ;
John Mitchell, ss. ; and an immense number of names put
down for small sums.
Mr. Mooste announced at half-past ten o'clock that the
subscription in the room had reached to 5051. 4s. 9d., making
llfs with the 7001. to head the list, a total of 1,2051. 4s. 9d. The
announcement was received with loud cheers.
After votes of thanks to the Chairman and to the Deputa-
i Sion, the meeting separated.