The Sun.
London, England, 1829-07-28 00:00:00

BOW-STREET.

Yesterday Mr. Corder, vestry-elerk of St. Paul's,
Covent-garden, Mr. Callaghan, the collector of rates,
and one of the overseers of the parish, appeared be-
fore Sir R. BIRNIE and Mr. HALLS, to support a
summons calling upon the proprietors of Covent-
garden Theatre to show cause why they had ne-
glected to pay an arrear of rates and parochial taxes
amounting to 896/. This was the second summons
obtained by the parish officers against the pro-
prietors of the theatre to enforce payment of the
rates in question, and, as on the first occasion, no
person came forward on behalf of the proprietors.
Mr. Corder having stated the object of his at-
tendance,

Sir R. BIRNIE said, that Mr. Robertson, the
treasurer of Covent-garden theatre, had waited upon
him in the course of the morning, and stated that
Messrs. Const and Harris had written to say that
they were quite willing to accede to any arrange-
ment that might be entered into which might tend
to relieve the theatre from its present embarrassed
situation. They also stated that a meeting would
be held on Friday next, when an arrangement
would be made which they hoped would give satis-
faction.

Mr. Corder, on behalf of the parish, said, that
there was no disposition whatever manifested by
those under whom he acted to press hardly upon
the proprietors of the theatre, in proof of which he
begged to say, that on the 29th of last June a com-
munication was forwarded to Mr. Robertson, say-
ing, that if the proprietors paid up their arrear of
poor-rates, ample time would be given them to pay
the other rates. IlJr. Robertson replied by stating,
that he had no authority to accede to this proposal,
and that in fact there were no funds to which he
could apply. Mr. Corder added his belief that
Messrs. Kemble, Willett, and Forbes, had done all
they could to satisfy every fair demand against the
establishment.

Sir R. BIRNIE believed it was the case, but it
was useless to struggle against circumstances. If
there was not sufficient property on the premises to
cover a distress, where would be the use to issue
one ?

Mr. Corder said that if a distress-warrant were
issued, and men put in possession, it would furnish a
ground to the proprietors for an application to the
Court of Chancery, in order that the demand might
be satisfied out of the funds in that Court. He
believed the proprietors themselves would not have
any objection to the adoption of such u course. It
would certainly relieve all parties from a most dis-
agreeable situation.

Mr. Corder, seeing Mr. Richardson present, who
holds the situation of Collector of the King's Taxes,
asked him if it were true that he bad that morning
put in a distress at the theatre for an arrear of taxes ?
Mr. Richardson certainly had done so, in conse-
quence of the reports which he had read in the
papers relative to the present application.
Mr. Corder again pressed the Magistrates to sign
the warrant, assuring them at the same time that it
was not intended to put it into execution imme-
diately, much less to do so to the injury or loss of
the proprietors.

Mr. HALLS again observed, that in his opinion
they would not be acting legally, unless the pro-
prietors were in the first instance summoned for
each rate. At least it would be necessary that the
summons should express each respective rate. '
Sir R. BIRNIE—Let a fresh summons be issued
according to Mr. Hall's suggestion, and if no one
appears to answer the demand of the first rate, we
can then proceed seriatim, and issue a warrant for
the whole amount. It was accordingly determined
that the proprietors of the theatre should be sum-
moned once mor?, and that the summonses should
be returnable
The Act obtained last Session for regulating the
next Thursday.
affairs of this parish has, we understand, been most
defectively drawn up, and before it was five days in
force, the parish officers were obliged to take cann-
a some of its clauses.
bore The evidence to the Actg
sel's
mopaigniisottrlatttepsonyetshteerbdzetayri n
as being a most clumsy piece of legislation.
A young lad named James Fell was charged upon

suspicion of having, in conjunction with other!,
committed a burglary on Saturday morning, at the
residence of Mr. De Burgh, Mornington-place,
Hampstead-road.
The prisoner denied the charge, and said that he
was on his return from Canterbury to his father's
house when he was taken into custody.
The house of the prisoner's :father was searched
by the officer, but nothing was found to justify
suspicion. It was found, however, that the pri-
soner's .shoe corresponded with some foot-marks
discovered near the kitchen window; but as these
proofs were not sufficient to warrant the prisoner's
detention, he was ordered to be discharged.
fitARLBOROU GH-STREET.

A youth, who gave his name John Courtier, about
17 years of age, dressed in the first style of fashion,
and exhibiting a degree of assurance and self-pos-
session but little corresponding with his year=, and
very juvenile appearance, was brought before the
sitting Magistrate, charged with having dishonestly
possessed himself of a 201. note and a 10/. note of
the Bank of England.
It appeared that Green, an active beadle of St.
Giles's parish, chanced to see the prisoner and an-
other youth whom he (Green) very well knew, in
company together, coring out of a jeweller's shop,
and observing that they were both very elegantly
dressed, although he knew the other youth to be the
son of a very poor couple in great distress in St.
Giles's, and that a few days before the lad himself
had not a shoe to his feet, be (Green) immediately
suspected that they had come by a supply of money
in some dishonest manner, and he therefore went
into the shop from which he saw them come, and
there, learning that they had changed a 101. note,
and purchased some articles of jewellery, he in-
stantly pursued them, and succeeded i►► apprehend-
ing the prisoner, but the other lad made his escape,
and he (Green) had not since been able to find him,
although he knew his person well. The prisoner,
Green said, he did not know any thing of beyond
his being in company with the other, who was the
constant companion of thieves and other bad charac-
ters about St. Giles's, but on searching the prisoner
he found in his possession a part of the jewellery
that had been purchased at the shop, and a 20/.
note of the Bank ofEngland.
The prisoner, on being asked by the Magistrate
to account for his possession of this 20/., and the
10/. note he had changed at the shop, thrust his hands
into his trousers' pockets, and strutted up and down
the dock where he stood in a most astonishing fit of
indignation. It was, indeed, a frightful state, he
said, to which the liberty of the subject was now
reduced in this country, when a gentleman like him,
of birth and station, could thus shamefully be dragged
about and imprisoned like a felon, for no reason
upon earth but because he thought proper to make
use of his own money; for the 20/. note found upon
him, as well as the note he had changed, he had
only received, he said, a few days before from his
uncle, a man of rank and opulence, who supplied all
his wants abundantly.
The Magistrate inquired who this uncle was that
had given him the money ?
The prisoner, with a toss of his head, replied, that
indeed he should not tell his uncle's name to satisfy
the curiosity of any one, nor drag forth so respect-
able a relative to mix up his name in such a concern.
Suffice it to observe, he said, that his uncle was a
gentleman by family, station, and property, and that
the money found upon him (the prisoner) was his
own, and had been given to him by that uncle : so
that the sooner the Magistrate let him go about his
business, the better and safer it would he for all
parties concerned in his arrest and detention.

The Magistrate said that this impudence of the
prisoner's, in assuming so mighty high a tone, was
really too bad, when it so happened that the gentle-
man was then present in the office who had been
robbed of the very notes alluded to.
Mr. Morris, a mercantile gentleman in the city,
then stepped forward, and stated that a few days ago
he called at the bank of Messrs. Currie and Co., in
the city, to receive payment of a cheque, and in
part payment of which he got a 201. -and a 101. note
of the Bank of England, which he put into his
trousers pocket ; but he had not gone far from the
banking-house when he missed the whole of the
money from his pocket, and he could not imagine
how he had lost it. The 201. note found on the
prisoner and now produced, and the 10/. note that
had been changed and was also produced, Mr. Morris
said were the same that be had lost, the numbers
find dates of which he procured immediately after, at
the bank where he received them.

Upon hearing this evidence the prisoner burst
into an immoderate fit of laughter, but said nothing
more about the respectability of either himself or his
uncle.

Ile was remanded, and Green was directed to use
every diligence in searching for the prisoner's com-
panion.

A young lad, an Italian, one of the itinerant exhi-
bitors of monkeys, &c., was charged as a vagrant,
with collecting money from the passengers in the
streets, by playing an organ as he went along. As
the prisoner could speak no other language than that
of his native country, Mr. Verrey, the confectioner
in Regent-street, at the request of Sir George Far-
rant, the Magistrate, attended, and acted as inter-
preter, and through this medium the prisoner, on
being questioned, stated that the organ did not be-
long to himself, but was the property of his master,
a foreigner, who resides near Shoreditch, and who
brought him, the prisoner, to this country, together
with a great many more Italians of both sexes, for
the purpose of sending them about the streets to
collect money, by the exhibition of birds, white
mice, monkeys, &c. Each person, he said, on being
sent out every morning, is supplied by the master
with one means or other of exhibition or exciting
compassioß, and is obliged every night to bring home
Is. to the master as his share of the profits of the
day but all that they collect over that sum belongs
to themselves, out of which, however, they are to
provide themselves with food. Lodgings are pro-
vided for them by the master, but of the most
wretched kind, in a place where they are all hud-
dled together in one room, and the animals are also
fed at the master's expense, but as these creatures
get an abundance of food of one sort or other given
to them dui ing the day by children and others in
the streets, their support can cost the proprietor but
little.

This master, by the prisoner's account, has im-
ported a gang of boys and girls, no less in number
than about 60, which he disperses about the town
every morning, and each being compelled to bring
him home a shilling, this master imposter must be
collecting at the rate of N. per day, cr 1,1001. per
year.

Sir G. FARRANT discharged the prisoner, but de.
tained the organ, and told the prisoner that it should
not bd given up until the master, the owner. of it
came for it himself.

The prisoner then departed without the organ,
for which it is not expected the real owner will
ever call, as it would not be politic in him to appear
before a Magistrate for the sake of an old crazy
organ not worth half-a-crown.