The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-09 00:00:00

ANOTHER JACK SHEPPARD.

There is at present in Portsmouth gaol a young
man named John Smith, alias George Baker, whose
dee:ls as a burglar, though not so extensive in
their nature, are quite on a par as re-
gards management with those performed by
the Ainsworth iminortalised Jack Sheppard.
This candidate for Government patronage is by trade
a bricklayer, and apparently about 10 years of age,
slim in Make, with a small head and hard features, :with
a simplicity of expression, 'Alicia, but for the strong-
est evidence, wou!d go far towards impressing an
ordinary jury with an opinion of his incapacity for the
performance of such deeds as we are about to mention.
his first. exploit in this locality was breaking into the
house of a clothes salesman, named Byerly, situate in
Ilanover-street, Portsea ; this he accomplished on the
evening of the .sth March (Sunday), by removing
some bricks in a systematic and workmanlike way
from the outer wall of the dwelling ; the hole thus
made. led into a passage communicating with the shop.
But the thief was not rewarded with a rich booty—
merely a fe w articles of wearing apparel and carpenter's
tools, with which he got clear off, notwithstanding
the bundle they formed was a very large one. He
decamped to Southampton, and there offered some of
the articles for sale ; hut Southampton becoming un-
comfortable, he returned to Portsmouth with some of the
articles from Byerly's on his person, which were re-
cognised by a local police-officer, as those described
by Bycrley as having been stolen from his house.
lhe prisoner was lodged in gaol, and brought up be-
fore the borough magistrates on Thursday the 14th of
March, when, the evidence being very conclusive, ho
was committed to take his trial at Winchester next
assizes. On searching the prisoner, at Portsmouth
gaol, about 30s. in silver and halfpence were found
upon him, which led the authorities to suppose that
he had been robbing some till at Southampton daring
his short stay, which circumstanoe being published in
a local paper, speedily brought two persons from
Southampton, who recognised the prisoner at once as
the man who had entered the house of Mr. Maurice
Batchelor, called the Queen Charlotte, in Simnel-
street, Southampton, on the night of the 10th of
march. In this casz, the prisoner had secreted him-
self in the house, and remained concealed until the in-
mates were all gone to bed, When he stole forth, and
after arming himself with a cleaver and a carving
knife, proceeded to the till, which he broke open and
emptied of its contents; he then collected what other
property he could, with the assistance of a lantern, which
be.found in the kitchen, and made good his escape.
The money and property was the same as found upon
him when captured by a local sub-inspector of police,
who searched him. These desperate robberies be-
coming known through the local press, on Thurs-
day evening last a sergeant of local police from
Greenwich arrived at Portsmouth gaol, and asked to
see the prisoner. He was conducted to his sell by
Mr. Hunt, the Governor, and immediately identified
the prisoner as the noted George Baker, who, with
three others, already in custody, have been the terror
of the peaceable and loyal men of the western
part of Kent. They have committed no less than
three burglaries, and One• sacrilege, all in the neigh•
botsrhoxl of Lewisham. At one of the houses broken
into a booty:of 2001, rewarded their desperate exer-
tions; they broke-open the Post-office, cut open the
mail bags, and scattered the letters about, and stole
others supposed to cOntain money. The Portsmouth
prisoner has also, in emulation of his celebrated pro-
totype, made a bold stroke at an escape from the bo-
rough gaol. He had possessed himself of a piece of
iron hoop about -six .inches long, which he sharpened
upon the stone sink of the pump in the yard, and notched
it towards the point like a saw ; with this, and the
assistance of an iron shoe-heel, he contrived to dig
out the mortar from between the bricks on the side
of his cell neat the yard, he had made au incision

found the bricks about eighteen inches in extent, and
in order to prevent the work being seen, he had,
when " done work: filled up the vacuum thus
created by a quantTy of oakum, which he coated
over with the appearance of lime to look like the
other part of the cell. This he accomplished by,
it is supposed, scraping some lime off the wall
and mixing it with his own water. Ills intention
appears to have been to get into the yard
and unhinge the door of the water-closet,
which would have assisted him on to a shed to
which he could have grasped the spouting of the roof,
and by main strength lifted-his body upon the roof,
from which he would have doubtless descended by
some scaffolding poles, forming the various stages of
the new wing in course of erection as a prison for
soldiers. The keen look-out kept by the gaoler, how-
ever, frustrated the deep laid scheme, the successful
issue of which would, doubtless, have been worked,
but for the good watch kept. The prisoner has been
put in irons, and two men are constantly with him
when in his cell, and will remain with him until re-
moved for trial either to Winchester or Maidstone.
It is supposed he will be removed by habeas to the
latter place, especially if the Government prosecute
for the Post-office robbery.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
GLOBE.—The Times of this morning has the fol-
lowing diatribe against the tendencies of the age we
live in :—" For legislating upon utilitarian principles,
—for embodying in public enactments, made for the
benefit (!) not of the law-givers but of others,—
the detestable morality of Hobbes and Hume and
Gibbon ;—for realising in practice that species of poli-
tical morality which holds that man is no more than
an impersonation of capital—a mere representative of
so much labour,'—that charity is only a falsifica-
tion of economy,-7-and that that benefit of the
governed,' which it is universally conceded ought to
be the object of every Government,—is nothing else
than the highest possible state of productiveness' to
which the aforesaid subject multitude may be
brought ;—for legislation of this sort, we say, give us
the days of King William and Queen Victoria, for
certainly never before, since England was a nation, has
this sort of thing been more consistently carried out
within the walls of Parliament." NVould that
any spark of the dry light of intellect of
Hobbes or of Hume—would that any vestige of the
painful and diligent research of Gibbon—were in-
deed, as the Times most monstrously alleges, " con-
sistently carried out within the walls of Parliament."
Of course we have nothing to say of the religious
scepticism of these highly distinguished men—no-
thing except what Bacon, perhaps, might have said—
that they had better have left religion unreasoned
about—have left faith in possession of her rights, and
reasoned where reason could hope to arrive at posi-
tive and practical colaclu-ions. But that a slap-dash
piece-work plasterer of diurnalism should flatter him-
self that he can smear over the great names of Hume
and Gibbon—that he; in his Puseyite muddle-headed-
ness, can obscure all their genius has enlightened—
that he can consign to reprobation all that distin-
guishes modern times from the middle ages—is truly
to concentrate a whole revived Order of Jesuits in
his own little person !
Vite, vite, morbleu!
Eteignons les lumietres—
Et rallumons le feut
It is very true that neither Hume nor Gibbon, nor
any close thinker, nor conscientious researcher of
the last century, traded in clap-trap sentiments. The
fitter prototype of Times newspaper philanthropy was
the hollow-hearted, selfish, canting Rousseau—the
caricaturist, by dint of exaggeration, of every exalted
sentiment—the exemplar of every human depravation
which (self-induced) cerebral derangement alone could
excuse. But when the Times was "pitching into" the
direction impressed on legislative intellect in these our
degenerate day; by the still surviving influence of the
great minds of the last century, why had it no word
of abuse for Turgot ? Because there are names
which even the Times dare not desecrate. Because
the Times, in the thickest haze of its recent High
Church inspirations, has probably a sort of glimmering
idea that in Turgot it would fall foul of a statesman
who demonstrated practically, in twelve years of unob-
trusive provincial administration, the wisdom of the
modern economical principle of" promoting the highest
possible productiveness" by admitting the utmost pus-
sible freedom of industrial and commercial transactions.
No, no !—it has not been philosophical scepticism
(dangerous as we allow that is, when pushed into re-
gions where positive truth cannot be arrived at by
process of mere reasoning)—it is not philosophical
scepticism that makes legislative inroads on social
abundance and happiness. We wish our legislators
had some of the wholesome scepticism of Turgot—
some of his aversion for all presumptuous dogma-
tism, whether philosophical or priestly. The name
of Turgot will be ever identified with all the ra-
tional conquests of the spirit of modern improve-
ment. In his own days he stood aloof, on well-con-
sidered and high principle, from all those clique and
coterie influences on which lesser men lean so instinc-
tively. Turgot was a man of no party, and no philo-
sophical seat. The men of sects and parties of course
took this exceedingly ill in him; and could not under-
stand how any one could be amongst them, and, not of
them. His friends amongst the philosophes reproached
him for not being of their mind : and he reproached
them in turn with the foolish attempt to impose a com-
munity of opinions, and thus assume responsibility for
those-of each other. lie detesta.d all esprit de corps
(philosophical, not less than priestly), because he
found, says his, congenial biographer, Dupont de
Nemours, that even amongst men otherwise estimable,
the sort of fanatacism inseparable from that spirit
seldom fails to alloy the love of truth and justice which
Turgot preferred to everything. The morality of
sects the most scrupulous is never so good as that of
honest individuals ! In this spirit of clique and
coterie Turgot besides found this serious inconvenience
—that it tended to excite animosity and prejudice in
sosiety at large against those little exclusive sects and
societies which form themselves in its bosom, and thus
retarded the success of the good intentions of those
whom their zeal excited to form then confederations.
" It is the spirit of sect," he said, " that provokes the
spirit of persecution." It is certainly true that neither
Hume, nor Gibbon, nor Turgot, would haVe told the
labouring population that law could get them twelve
hours' wages for ten hours' work. Turgot never would
have admitted into our cosmic:colonial arrangements
a fifth quarter of the globe as it were (if 'we may use
the Iricism), and charged our colonial estimates with
grants now for South or West Australia—and now
for New Zealand—at the very time of .declaring we
will not take the corn our colonies can send us !
STANDARD.—The zeal with which the opposi-
tion journals pursue the misrepresentation first started
by the Dublin Evening Mail, proves that the letter,
imputed falsely to Sir Robert Peel by the Irish jour-
nal, possesses more than a local interest. We shall
be excused, therefore, by those least intereeted. in
Irish affairs, if we return to the subject. The utter
falsehood of the Dublin Evening Mail's story is proved
by a passage in the Dublin Statesman of Wednesday
the 4th inst., which the Dublin _Evening Mail of the
following Friday has not ventured to contradict.
The Statesman is a journal of nearly the same
political character as the Mail, but the fact that the
Mail has not ventured to deny that its " appalling
communication' was a hoax, or to contradict the
assertion that its friend and prompter, Mr. Frederick
Shaw, had denounced the utter falsehood of that com-
munication, is decisive. We repeat what we said on
the 22d of March, " There was not one word of
truth in it." The purpose of the falsehood, by
whomsoever invented, is apparent by a passage of a
later number of the Dublin Evening Mail (March 29).
The falsehood, then, wae invented for the purpose of
damaging the Ministry—a purpose which men may
think legitimate or not, but which certainly does not
justify to moralists the use of falsehood as a means,
and will scarcely justify to politicians of enlarged and
patriotic views the formation of an anti-Saxon alli •
ante in Ireland, the arrangement which the falsehood
was intended to promote. As" we are speaking of
a resort to illegitimate means, it may be proper
to note a very irreverent and disgusting parody
which the Dublin Evening Mail of Friday has
thought fit to publish with reference to the
matter of which we are speaking. The Mail
does not, as we have said, venture directly
to support the veracity of its " appalling com-
munication" of March 20, but it presents a
parody of the third chapter of Daniel, in which
Sir Robert Peel acts the part of Nebuchad-
nezzar, and the Archbishop of Armagh (Lord
John Beresford), and other prelates and cler-
gymen are made to represent, Shadrach, Meshech,
and Abednego. We feel scarcely at' ease in shortly
describing such a thing—and we hope that it is as
disagreeable to the most Reverend Archbishop as
it is to us. " About twenty-seven years ago Mr.
Hone was prosecuted for publishing some paro-
dies upon the Liturgy, and none of them was so
offensive in form as this—none of them could be
so indecent as a parody upon the Holy Scrip-
tures themselves. The Liturgy, beautiful as it is, is
still but the words of man, but the Holy Scriptures
are not the words of man. We certainly would not
wish to see prosecutions like that of which Mr.
Hone was the object repeated ; we much prefer trust-
ing to the effect of public opinion for the preventing
of such offences as his, and we have little doubt
that public opinion will prevent a repetition of the
error of which the Mail has been guilty in this par-
ticular.

NOVEL NUTCRAGKERS.—A facetious writer in the
Bristol Times, in his
_reminiscences of the churches of
that city, relates that one of those sacred edifices? hav-
ing been built on a bad foundation, had declined so much
from the perpendicular, that it oscillated very danger-
ously, and that while the bells were being rung, it was
not unusual for boys to insert nuts in the opening cre-
, vices of the was to be cracked !—Very col, this

THE ROYAL HOSPITALS.
The following reports were yesterday placed before
the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor, at Christ's Hos-
pital :
A TRUE REPORT of the number of Children and
other poor People maintained in the several Royal
Hospitals of the City of London, under the pious
care of the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor, Alder-
men, and Governors thereof, for the year last past.

CHRIST'S HOSPITAL.
Children put forth apprentices, and discharged
from Christ's Hospital, the year last past,
193, ten whereaf being instructed in mathe-
matics and navigation, were placed forth
apprentices to commanders of ships, out of
the Mathematical School founded by his late
Majesty King Charles the Second
Children buried the year last past.... ......
Children now under the care and
charge of the Hospital in London
and at Hertford
br tdrltted sentations

193
4

To ,e admi, on pre__
granted to this time. .
The names of all which, as also when and whence
they were admitted, will appear in the said hospital's
books.
The support of this hospital materially depends
upon benefactions and bequests. As that part of its
income which is permanent is far short of maintain-
ing the usual number of children, whose education
quhlifies them for the Church, the naval service, and
for every station in life, according to their abilities;
and as the principles of religion, as well as the due or-
der of civil society, are points to which their attention
is constantly directed, it is hoped .that all charitable
persons will readily contribute to an institution, which
is not only of local, but of national good.
The expense of repairing and keeping up the
buildings of this hospital (many of which were very
ancient, and originally formed part of the old Grey
Friars's Monastery) having been found to be ex-
tremely burdensome, a fund was established in 1802,
by subscription of the Governors and other friends of
the hospital, with a view to the gradual and complete
rebuilding of the whole fabric ; and a great part has
accordingly been restored in a most commodious and
substantial manner, without reducing .the number of
children upon the establishment during the progress
of the works. Much, however, yet remains to be
done; and the Governors regret to state, that the
fund originally subscribed is completely exhausted,
and a very considerable sum has been,: expended from
the general funds of the charity ; but they are willing
to hope that the generosity of the public will afford
the means of completing this great work, and pre-
vent the necessity of encroaching further upon the
permanent income of the hospital, and thereby di-
minishing the scope of its usefulness.
ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S HOSPITAL.
Patients admitted, cured, and discharged,
during the last year, 5,372 in-patients,
16,937 out-patients, and 16,924 casualty
patients, most of whom were poor, sick, and
lame persons ; and many of them, being des-
titute of all relief, have been supplied with
money, clothes, and other necessaries, to en-
able them to return to their several habita-
tions, amounting together to .. . 39,233
Died o ••• .•• • . 377
Remaining under cure, in-patients. 489
t Out-patients 1,865
This being the most ancient hospital in the city and
suburbs of London, and having escaped the great fire
in the year 1666, the buildings by length of time be-
came so very ruinous, that in the year 1729 great
part thereof was necessarily taken down. A sub-
scription was then entered into by many of the worthy
Governors, and other charitable persons, for defray-
ing the expenses of rebuilding the hospital, which
was progressively effected. The funds for this pur-
pose having been exhaused, and the buildings still
being inadequate to the purposes of the charity, it
was found necessary to make a considerable addition
thereto, and the Governors have removed within the
last three years valuable property on the north side
of the principal entrance in Smithfield, and have
erected on the site thereof a spacious surgery, which
is open at all hours of the day and night for persons
requiring medical or surgical assistance, with addi-
tional wards, and an operating theatre adjoining;
whereby a very large sum has been expended, and
the fulfilment of the intentions of the benevolent
Founder, to afford immediate relief to the multitude
of poor diseased or injured applicants, has been more
effectually promoted.
All fees on the admission of patients have been
abolished, the sisters and nurses placed in situations
of comfort better adapted to the nature of their duties,
and the accommodation for the in-patients now so
extended as to admit 550, *while their diet and gene-
ral comforts are very materially improved. The ac-
complishment of these objects, so essent'al to the wel-
fare of the patients, has occasioned a very heavy
increase of annual expenditure. The Governors,
therefore, earnestly represent the strong claims of this
ancient institution to the public, hoping that by
their continued support and encouragement they
may be enabled to render relief to the annually in-
creasing necessities of the poor, and the urgent calls
upon this charity.
ST. THOMAS'S HOSPITAL.
There have been cured and discharged from St.
Thomas's hospital, in Southwark, the last year, of
sick, wounded, maimed, and diseased persons,
3,609 in-patents, and 37,216 medical and surgical
out-patients, including casualties, some of whom
have been relieved with money and necessaries at
their departure, to accommodate and support
them in their journeys to their several habita-
tions 40,825
, Buried from thence, after much charge in . _

their sickness
C In-patients
Remaining under cure",: Out-patients and ca-
sualties

249
429

957

So that there have been, during the last year,
of poor miserable object; under the care of
the said hospital, and destitute of other
proper care, in all .......... 42,460
The Governors think it their duty to state, that
in consequence 'of the rebuilding of London-
brilge, and the formation of its new approaches at
an elevation of many feet above the old level, they
have been obliged to make large purchases of ground
and buildings adjacent to the Hospital, at a consider-
able expenditure of capital, in erder to secure such
ventilation and accommodation as are necessary to the
health and comforts of the patients. They have also
been obliged to rebuild the north wing on a new
site, the former building having been rendered inse-
cure by the removal of the houses adjoining. And
they. lave now rebuilt and opened a corresponding
wing on the south side, which had become necessary
in consequence of the old south wing being 30 dilapi-
dated, badly lighted, and ventilated, as to snake it un-
fit for the reception of patients; thereby they have
been enabled to admit a larger number of patients
within the Hospital. It is, therefore, humbly and
earnestly recommended to all charitable persons, that
they would be pleased, by their contributions, to en-
able the Governors to defray these heavy charges, and
to meet the still greater outlay which will be requi-
site to complete the plan of improvements now un-
avoidably in progress, as well as to continue afford-
ing, and still further extending relief to, the dis-
tresses of the numerous sick, maimed, and diseased
poor, who daily apply, in large numbers, for the
same, as appears from the above and other annual
accounts—particularly in the class of surgical out-
patients, for whose better relief and attendance ar-
rangements upon unimproved plan have been adopted.