The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-23 00:00:00

THAMES POLICE.

Yesterday Thomas Anson, a man about twenty-five
years of age, who appeared to be in much pain from a
severe wound in the hand, was brought before Mr.
Broderip on a charge or stealing a portable writing-
desk, containing ten sovereigns in gold, 21. in silver, nine
silver spoons, and various other articles, the moneys
and property of Daniel M'Beath, the landlord of the Ro-
bart's Arms, Devonport-street, Commercial-road.
The prisoner had lived in Mr. Beath's service as pot-
man for nine months, and during that time property
to a considerable amount had been stolen from the

house. On e 28th ult., the prosecutor went to
Gravesend, and on the evening of the same day Mrs.
M‘Beath directed the prisoner to go up stairs and fetch
his master's desk from the bed-room, where it was de-
posited. He brought
handed it to his
and mistress he shook it, and said he could
hsheaakreherandlecskaeid theret
chain, and then gave it another
Mrs. M'Beath said wastii plenty of money in it too.
, and tehraet i was
fas both
plate in the desk,contained
all moneyshe
andan d
inhreei I,vni
ladinclif h
de shepn es.
xi
deposited
was d totahy o,
her husband were possessed
lose it, they would be ruined.
whencon-
tents r;fmr.ai‘,intel3deainth'threetbuarre-epdarhleo.i:t desk and its
desk in his bed-room again. On the Ist of
two sovereigns in it, and on the feol,leowefinagd afternoon
entered his bed-room for the put )
to his board, when he missed his desk. Ile immediately
called in Murray, police-constable No. g aoth6B, IC, whos
suspicions at once fell upon the prisoner, whom he knew
to keep very bad'company. No, one had access to the
bed-room but the prisoner and the family, and on the
night previously to the prosecutor missing his desk the
deAnifrilt:lrrlinohoe
prisoner absented himself. He was apprehended, and
detained for a fortnight, when the magistrate, for want
of evidence, was obliged to discharge him.. Orr Satur-
day morning last, Murray was -passim along, a no-
torious place, called-Vinegar-lane, St.:Gorge's-in-the-
East, when he met the prisoner with his right hand .I

dreadfully shattered and bleeding. The palm of the
hand was carried away, the thumb broken, and the
wrist severely injured. Murray asked the prisoner
what he had been doing ? and he said he had just been
firing off a pistol, which he had loaded to the muzzle
with powder and shot, and, owing to the powerful na-
ture of the charge, the barrel of the pistol was dislodged
from the stock, but did not burst, and the stock itself
was broken to pieces. The prisoner also stated that
he had another pistol loaded in a similar manner, and
plenty of powder and shot. Murray immediately con-
veyed the prisoner to the London Hospital, and, in his
way there, asked him what he had purchased the pistols
for ? The prisoner first said he intended to shoot birds,
and afterwards declared he intended to shoot the woman
who had brought him to ruin. After the prisoner's hand
was dressed, and while he was labouring under great
pain, Murray was about to leave him, when the prisoner
called him back, and said he would tell him all about the
robbery. The prisoner then confessed that he had
stolen the desk, and after taking out the money and
plate, had thrown the desk into a water-butt. Murray
asked him if he meant the water-butt of the house,
No. 41, Vinegar-lane, where he had been lodging with
some loose women. The prisoner replied, "No, you
will find the desk in my master's water-butt. I com•
mitted the robbery, and have spent all the cash on the
- woman." On searching the water-butt the desk
was found there, as the prisoner had described, with two
pieces of iron in it. to keep it down. There was nothing
else in it. except a butter knife.
Mr. M'Beath identified the desk as his property, and
said he had been a great loser since the prisoner had
been in his service.

Mr. Buotwalp—lt is my duty to commit you for trial
fur this felony.—Committed.

THE NEW FACTORIES BILL.

Last night the new Factories Bill was read a second time.
This is one of the stages of the affair which was to have
been performed in dumb show, in order that nothing might
detract from the solemnity of the final struggle. In consi-
deration of the "free and gentle passage of arms" arranged
for the 3d of May, we were warranted to have not a single
jar, or squabble, or skirmish in the interim. The two hosts
were to pile their arms, and repose on the plain, while the
leaders were to stand surveying one another, with that deep
and silent reverence which brave must ever feel for brave.
But, alas, for the uncertainty of all human expectations !
One army, at least, has all but disbanded, as if the fighting
was all over, and the armistice was a peace or something
worse. But, instead of one war, we have a dozen. The
battle array is broken up into guerilla bands. The head and
centre are gone. The spirit has evaporated. In spite of the
contract between the two belligerent chiefs, the second read-
ing has been almost drowned in the clash of mutinous arms,
the, charges, and threats, and recriminations of combatants.
In the first place one of the chiefs himself, viz., the Home
Secretary, rather spoilt the repose and mutual confidence
which there was to have been, by letting out that he was
not aware of anv arrangement except such as Lord
Ashley had publicly, singly, and spontaneously pro-
claimed. Then Mr. Ward took care the House should not
forget his motion against all interference with labour what
ever. Then, Mr. Roeuck announced his intuition of pressing
his motion for an instruction to the Committee, notwithstand-
ing the strong opinions expressed as to the disorderliness of
that proceeding. He might be unwise for doing so, but he
had a right to do so, and was quite satisfied with the course
he had chosen. On this, Mr. buncombe, considering him-
self as much at libeaty as anybody else, informed the House
that he meant to move for a Select Committee up stairs.
Such a measure certainly was not calculated to bring the
question to an early and decisive settlement ; but under pre-
sent circumstances there was no hope of this, and, as we cer-
tainly were booked for a protracted deliberation, we might
as well have a thorough one, and give the operatives an op-
portunity of conferring with their legislators. At this crisis,
Mr. Stuart Wortley judiciously interposed to add the horrors
of anticipation to present discomfte. It struck his far-
seeing mind that it would be exceedingly inconvenient to
have all these motions discussed at once, and he thought it
would be as well if the Speaker settled their precedence. The
Speaker assigned the palm of priority to Mr. Duncombe's mo-
tion, after which he said any Hon. Member might move a reso-
lution, so long as it was to the purpose. On this cruel
hint Mr. Stansfield spoke, and announced several alterations
and amendments in the Bill. It was now the order of the
day for every one to do what was right in his own eyes; sc.
Mr. Ross gladly improved the occasion to announce an altera-
tion and amendment, not prospectively, in the Bill, but
already taken place in his own mind. Starvation, not over-
working,
is the malady of Ireland; and Mr. Ross's Irish con-
stituents, whom he had consulted, had given bins quite a
new view of the case. So, without further ado, he marched
off to the lines of the enemy. That the present leader of this
cause may achieve some great and sudden mastery over his
present difficulties—that he may impress a noble conclusion
upon the minds of his hearers, as deeply as his opening
speech impressed the gloomy premises of his argument; is
just possible. It is never known what there is in man till the
hour of trial. Till then no one knows either what he can
do or what he cannot do. We know not which of these
two discoveries it is reserved for Lord Ashley to make. For
the present the dry rot has seized his cause; not the cause of
the factory women and young persons, which is too vital for us
to doubt its imperishableness—but the cause of Lord Ashley.
He has tied his own hands without tying any other person's ;
and now discovers that it is easier to answer for him-
self than for others. Mr. Roebuck had already done his duty
to the powers that be in the above melee; and if his forward
affections had been content with the modest rule, nulla dies
sine lined, he might have retired for the evening. But he was

anxious to be more than ordinarily servicearde. Without
any notice, therefore, without giving the least ground, of
expectation, he suddenly put Mr. Ferrand on his defence'for
having " charged a Minister of the Crown with the use of
his power as a Minister to induce an officer employed by the
Government—viz., an Assistant Poor-law Commissioner-to
make a false report to this House, for the purpose of
crushing a Member of this House." The attack once
begun, Mr. Ferrand was forthwith assailed on all
sides for what he had said, for what he had not
said, for what others had said, and for what nobody had said.
Sir James Graham is singularly favoured in possessing so
warm an advocate in the very ranks of his political foes.
We know not which of his own party feels for him so keenly,
so thoroughly understands his wishes, and so exactly antici-
pates his intentions, as the Hon. Member for Bath. Scarcely
for any one of his own party, scarcely for himself, could
Mr. Roebuck have been so touched, so emphatic as he
was for the Home Secretary. The subject, with which
our readers are already familiar, is one the rights of which,
it is evident, never can and never will be dragged
from official obscurity. A false report, containing false
charges, against an opponent of the Government by an officer
of that Government—the report unexpectedly and trium-
phantly used by a Minister of the Crown—inquiry long re-
fused, and only by a necessity granted—that officer long and
almost indecently shielded—a fresh inquiry, in the shape of
returns, with difficulty obtained—the charge proved false—
the officer dismissed in time to prevent a thorough investi-
gation—all this may not carry conviction of downright con-
spiracy to all minds, but may very well leave in the most
candid an impression of some culpable, though indefinable,
management. That Mr. Ferrand, who, through believing
what he has publicly stated—through suspicion of a sort of
conspiracy, and also by dint of the greatest determination,
succeeded in clearing himself from a false charge, should
still believe what he then believed, is of course most natural,

if not inevitable. The correctness of that belief is another
question ; as also is the proof of it to the world. Mr. Hoe-
buck, however, in his blind zeal for the Home Secretary,
cannot see how a man may thoroughly believe what he has
not certain and undeniable proofs for. " If," said he, "it
should turn out that the charge is false, I want to know the
value of the authority of that gentleman who should thus
employ his powers as a Member of Parliament in propagat-
ing such a falsehood." This was rather strong language,
and, as it was humanly certain to provoke a retaliation,
might, in prudence only, have called for a measure of that
official rebuke, which the retaliation, when it came,
did not escape. By the help of Mr. Hume and Mr. H 1 G.
Ward a speedy transition was made to Mr. Ferrand's account
of what he witnessed when Mr. Hogg " haggled and higglo"
at his explanations about the return of the Nottingham Elec-
tion Committee. We are far from distressed to find from
Mr. Hogg's own words that an article on Mr. Ferrand's stMe-
ment, last Thursday week, has given it prominence in that
gentleman's eyes. As Mr. Hogg's ann., as well as Mr.
Mott's, is to be brought before the House more deliberately
this evening, little need now be said of the former. An elec-
tion committee, a troublesome member whom it would be
convenient to unseat, a chairman with the name of a lawyer
and the offhand decisions of a partisan, the report and its
long explanations received with surprise by the chairman's
own side of the House, and singly cheered by the hostile
Minister,—these, and other more unmentionable circum-
stances, will have their weight so long as man is man,
and not a mere abstraction of the law of evidence. Of
course, they can be shown to go for nothing, to
have no kind of relation to one another, to be
barren, insulated facts. Of course, Mr. Hogg can defend
himself. The misfortune is that his view of the case, is
too legal. his defence is too Parliamentary. It proyes
too much. It covers with its ample protection the
returns of all the election committees that ever sat in the
chambers of St. Stephen's. An unjust return, he says, aided
by Ministerial influence, is the grossest and vilest perjury.
The least suspicion of it should and will banish the miserable
wretch from the respect and society of the House of Com-
mons ! Here I am, respected and conversed with, and here
I sliall remain to be, for all you can ever prove against me.
If we could forget a thousand election committeess the de-
fence would be valid.; but who can forget the almost uniform
certainty with which their returns have been predicted from
the prevailing opinions and interests of their members ? So
to-night is to be a night of questions and answers; of charges
and explanations. Impertinencies are to be the etiquette of
the evening. Mr. Ferrand is to be the general butt ; with,
however, the liberty of rejoinder, and answering questions
with other questions still more difficult, if he can think of
any. This is the time for some curions person to ask Mr.
Hogg whether he did not (as was stated in the papers), some
time about the above-mentioned return of the Nottingham
Election Committee, apply for a Certain important office ?
If the report was without foundation, Mr. Hogg will doubt-
less be obliged to anybody for such an opportunity of con-
tradicting it.— Times.

Contous EXPERIMENT.—The Courrier Francais
states, that " an experiment calculated to excite the greatest
interest was made in Paris, in that part of the river opposite
to the Quai d'Orsai. Towards five o'clock in the evening of
Wednesday last, Dr. Payerne placed in an enormous metal
bell, weighing several hundred kilogrammes, descended un.
der this heavy apparatus to the bottom of the river. The
Doctor remained more than half an hour under water. He
had under his bell a chemical apparatus, with the assistance
of which ho absorbed the carbonic acid gas, and produced
oxygen and azote to render the air fit for respiration. The
experiment succeeded completely, and we are assured that
with this bell, of a new construction, a person may remain
under water for an indefinite period at a depth of 50 yards.
An instrument of a similar construction, placed in the hands
of our pearl and coral fishers, would be of vast importance."

BRIDGEWATER CABAL.—We last week stated that
preparations were making for carrying on an extensive trade
in salt between the mines, atNorthwich, in Cheshire, and the
port of Hull, through the medium of the Manchester and
Leeds, the Leeds and Selby, and the Selby and Hull rail-
ways. This communication, it is said, is to be completed by
converting the I7uke of Bridgewater's canal, which was con-
structed about the year 1760, under the direction of Mr.
Grindley, the engineer, into a line of railway from the telt
mines to Manchester, to join the railways passing eastwards
and communicatingwith the German Ocean.— L eeds Mercury.
Tn WEATIIER.—For some days past we have had
glorious spring weather. Vegetation has made a rapid ad-
vance. The cherry, pear, and plum trees are literally'
perfectioncft
ah()eve covered
rr
aebdlrli Itvihikbacyn productions blossoms;tohf e
colour
auvroet
fhateiehde wall-flowers
aakloe-plflavuoe
nrwu- egd
thisraes
doaefcralebi
ma
are
ouaoentn
nle
f;oagral lrnmeeddaa
greater
many
a year.

Masoxs.—Bishop Philpotts hath refused to allow
the Freemasons to go .m_procession and hare a masonic ser-
Tice la Airminster church.— 'Feuer?' Times.