The Sun.
London, England, 1828-03-14 00:00:00

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

BOW-STREET.—Yesterday John Peters, a silk-
braid-manufacturer, residing at No. 82, Sebright-street,
Bethnal-green-road, was charged by Mr. William Marshall,
of Silver-street, Wood-street, Cheapside, a dealer in silk
and worsted lace, with having in his possession a quantity
of silk lace, his property, of which he was deprived on
Monday last, under the following circumstances :
Robert Liddell, a young lad, clerk to Mr. Marshall,
stated that on Monday last about half-past one o'clock in the
afternoon, he was carrying two boxes containing about
40/. worth of silk lace, belonging to his employer. On
passing St. Sepulchre's church, on the top of Snow-hill,
a man with a white outside coat tapped him on the shoulder,
and directed his attention to the door of the church, where
he saw a gentleman in black, standing without his hat,
with a paper-parcel in his hand. The gentleman beckoned
him to approach, and, upon doing so, he told him to go to
the adjoining coach-stand and call a coach, and he would
give him a shilling, adding, '‘ You can leave your boxes
bete, until you return." The lad said that he hesitated at
first, but conceiving that the gentleman belonged to the
church (a laugh), he left the two boxes in his possession,
and went to the stand to call a coach, as he was directed.
Upon looking round, he saw the gentleman make a signal
to somebody near the church, but, never suspecting the
trick that was played upon him, he continued for a few
moments in discourse with a coachman. On returning to
the church, he found that the gentleman in black had dis-
appeared, together with the two boxes.
Mr. Thomas Venables, silk-mercer, of No. 108, High=
street, Whitechapel, stated, that on Wednesday last he pur-
chased of the prisoner 19 gross of silk twist, for which he
paid him 71. 14s. 6d. The silk now produced, he said,
was part of the parcel so purchased.
Mr. Marshall, the prosecutor, swore that this was part
of the identical silk of which his boy had been robbed on
Monday. He knew it, he said, not only by the colour and
texture, but by a peculiarity in the manufacture.
Sir R. BIRNIE asked if Mr. Venablea had paid a fair
price for the quantity he purchased ?—Mr. Marshall re-
plied that he had purchased it considerably under the re-
gular price. The silk which he bought of the prisoner
was worth at least 121.

Sir R. BIRNIE strongly deprecated this irregular and
untradesmanlike manner of purchasing goods, and he said
that such a practice was of all others the most likely to lead
to fraud.

The prisoner, in his defence, said that he had paid 12/.
for the goods last Tuesday, and he did not expect to make
more than 2/. by the purchase. He could bring three or
four persons forward, he said, who saw him purchase the
goods.
Sir R. BIRNJE—Of course you know the person from
whom you Lought them, let us hear his name.—The pri-
soner said that he knew the man by appearance extremely
well, but he was quite ignorant of his name.
Sir R. rhaNir—ls it your custom, then, to buy goods
of this value•from persons of whose names you have no
knowledge 7—The prisoner replied, that nothing was more
common in the silk business. " Was it likely," he said,
" that he who was in the habit of making 100 gross of
braids daily, should be guilty of purchasing goods knowiug
them to be stolen ?"

" Whether it is likely or not," said the Magistrate, " I
shall feel it my duty to detain von; at the same time you
shall have every opportunity you require of proving that
you purchased those articles without a guilty knowledge."
The prisoner was then remanded.

MARLBOROUGH-STREET.—The following case of
extensive robbery by a female servant has been under
investigation before F. A. Roi, Esq., the magistrate at
this office, for 'upwards of a month, but it was not until
yesterday that sufficient evideece could be brought forward
to warrant the committal for trial of the principal parties
concerned, and only then by converting one of the persons
implicated into a witness for the prosecution. The greater
part of the day was occupied in going through the evi-
dence, of which, however, we have only room to give an
outline:—

It appeared that, a short time since, Mr. Bartholomew,
a composer and teacher of-music, residing in Foley-place,
took in his service a girl named Elizabeth Smith, and on
Saturday, the 2d of February last, Mr. and Mrs. Bartho-
lomew (the latter being also a musical teacher) went to
the Bishop of London's, to give lessons in music to the
younger branches of the family, leaving the girl Smith
alone in charge of the house; and on their return they
found the place had been robbed of jewels, plate, and
wearing apparel, includinethree beautiful Cashmere shawls,
the whole value about 3001. ; and on questioning the
servant, she not only denied all knowledge of the rob-
bery, but declared that no one whatever had visited the
house during the day. She was, however, given into
custody on suspicion ; and on the same night, an elderly
woman, named Susan Thompson, the laundress of Mr.
Bartholomew's family, was taken to St. Giles's watch-
house, having been found by a watchman reeling drunk in
the street, with a quantity of property in her possession,
which turned. out to be a part of that stolen front Mr.
lartholomew's house, and the detention of this woman led
to the apprehension of her daughter, a girl of colour, and'
a young man named Wm. Wood, vi.ho cohabited with the
latter female ; and, after various examinations and strict
investigations by the Magistrate and officers into the charac-
ters and extent of guilt belonging to all parties, it was
deemed proper and necessary to admit Wood as evidence
for the Crown. This young man, who is of very decent
appearance and demeanour, and *hose friends are under-
stood to be respectable at Manchester, was, it seems, trans-
ported from that place at the age of 17, for some connexion
with the radical riots there some years ago. The term of
his exile was 14. years ; but so correct was his conduct,
and good his character, for many years in New South
Wales, that the Government remitted a great part of his
sentence, and he was suffered to return to England,
which he did a few • months since, and was very
favourably received by Mr. Capper, of the Trana-
port-office, who gave him 5/. to take him home to his
family at Manchester. • Unfortunately, before he could get
out of town, which seems to have certainly been his wish,
be fell in with this girl of colour, who lived with her pa-
rents, and he became so infatuated with her, that he spent
all his money, neglected returning to his friends, and con-
tinued to live with her up to this robbery at Mr. Bartho-
lomew's, without, however, being, it appears, chargeable
in the time with any other offence ; and it was under these
circumstances that he yesterday gave the following evi-
dence, in the presence of Elizabeth Smith the servant, and
Susan Thompson the elder, and Sarah Thompson the
younger, who were placed at the bar.
He said that the Thompson family, being acquainted
with the girl Smith, were in the habit of visiting at 11r.
Bartholomew's house, in. the . absence of the family, and
lunching, supping, and drinking tea there; but he (Wood)
had never gone to Mr. BartholomeW's house before the 2,1
of February. On that day Sarah Thompson the younger
brought him a message, that Elizabeth Smith wanted to see
him that evening at a public-house near Mr. Bartholo-
mew's, without naming the business. He accordingly
met her there, and she said to him that she was happy to
learn from Susan that he was a returned transport; and
had she known that when she was
.at her last
place, she could have given him a vast quantity
of plate, belonging to the family where she lived ;
and as it wax, he, .should have all the property
she could collect at Mr. Bartholomew's house to dispose
of. She then took him to the house, and gave him two
bundles to carry away, that she had already packed up.
At this moment the old woman Thompson came in, and
Smith told her to carry the bundles, because she was the
laundress of the family, and would not be observed, as peo-
ple would suppose it was dirty linen she was taking away.
The old woman did accordingly carry them, and he (Wood)
walked behind until they got home. Here the property
was divided, and a part given to the old woman to carry
by one direction, while he and the girl of colour went by
another with the remainder of the property, to a public-
house, in Golden-lane, in the city, called the Lion and
Lamb, where they were all to meet, and proceed from
thence to a "fence," a receiving-house Tor .stolen goods, in
'the neighbourhood, to dispose of the booty, The old woman
however, got drunk on the way, and was unable to make
for the city, before she was lodged, as before stated, in the
watch-house, with the property. He (Wood) disposed of
the part he carried, at this " fence," for a fourth of its
value, and then returned home. The " fence" was
pointsd out to him by a person be met at this public-
house, which, it seems, has been lung known as a re-
sort for thieves. There were various strong circumstances
as given in evidence by Clements, the officer, who had
the' case in hand, awl a variety of other witnesses, which
greatly confirmed the statement made by Wood ; and vo-
luntary statements were also made by the Thompsons, very
much to the same effect, but they, in the end, with the
girl (Smith), who stoutly denied the truth of all, or that
she ever saw Wood in her life before that day, were fully
committed for trial.
smith is, however, to he brought up again on Thursday
next, in consequence of .a number of pawnbrokers' dupli-
cates found upon her for valuable plate; a beautiful shawl,
&c. which Wood said she told him she had robbed from a
family where she once lived, and the Magistrate said that
publicity of this fact might bring forward owners.
Clementi said, that he bad traced this girl to have lived
in several families, every one of which had been robbed
while•ehe was there, but no part of this pledged property
belonged to them. These families were a Mrs. St, Julian,

a Mr. Lane, a Mrs. Sutton, Ms. White, and a gr•
Stringer ; but it was clear she must have been in other4`
not yet disCoVered. Smith is a native of £alishury,
very slender make, and rather shOrt stature, a very pale'
complexion, and has a large pearl on the right eye.