The Sun.
London, England, 1829-04-16 00:00:00

MURDERER.

Thi
of his
,sibeiy
sltsei‘h.tvsl wretched criminal paid the earthly penalty
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Jonas
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confessed
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joihgaefetrr
Ansell,oNh hhll
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about
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the
our gaol. He was visited on Saturday by the Rev.
f
d
guilty, not only of the crime for which he was to
suffer,
d
been missed for several days. This confession, as
it affects other persons, still at large, was retained
by Mr. Smyth ; but the main facts were subse-
quently divulged by the prisoner to others.
Partridge was one of a family of 18 children, of
whom 15 are still living. His parents, who have
always borne a good character, and five of his bro.
thers and sisters, visited him on Sunday morning,
His fathet: had heard on the road the report of his
confession, and said to him, " Why, George, Ted
Partridge (the man acquitted on the charge of air-
ing over a woman at Waldinfield) says you killed
little Jonas." Ihe prisoner said, " Yes,- father, I
killed both the boys." " Good God, George,"
exclaimed the unhappy father, " how came you to
do that ? I would have laid my life you never did
it." ",oh,`father I" said the prisoner, "my ruits
was all from being acquainted_with them girls, the
" (persons living near his father). He then
stated that he had been repeatedly connected critni.
nally with these three girls, but in particular with
Bet, who was within a few days of her confinement
when she married; that this woman (for what rea-
son he did not then state, but it is understood in
consequence of Jonas Ansell having been a witness
of more than they approved) urged him to kill- the
boy, which he at first refused, but that she after-
wards gave him a knife, and promised to yield to
his wishes as often as he liked, for nothing, if he
would cut the boy's throat; that In consequence of
this he went in search of the boy, and found
hitn sitting on the brow of a ditch,' without
his jacket, near the ozier-ground, where lie stabbed
him ; that the poor child made some little noise,
but was soon dead. Whilst committing this
cold-blooded crime, he saw two boys, bro-
thers of Bet playing at some distance,
but thought they did not see him. The boys,
however, found the body, and went and told their
sister, who as the prisoner believed, dragged the
body into an oat-field till night, and then put on the
jacket a-id carried it into the ozier•ground. Bet's
mother, as he supposed, thinking the children might,
get into trouble, went and, helped her daughter iu
removing the body. The prisoner stated that he re,
turned the knife to the fiend that tempted him to the
crime, and who, he said, from that time always kept
him poor by extorting his money under threats of
informing against him. The prisoner persisted
declaring that he did not steal Mr. Poole's cosset
lamb, and his father said he believed him; for lie
had never brought any mutton into their house, as
he knew it would not be taken in, and he had no
other place to cook it, and he had of late been tin-
' able to pay ss. a week for his board, as he used to
do. The prisoner also denied at that time that be
had intended to do any violence to young Hawkins,
son of a respectable farmer in the parish, who was
waylaid by him some years before, as lie was re-
turning home from Bildeston with change for a 10/.
note, about dusk.
On Sunday night, however, about 10 o'clock,
this monstrous villain told Mr. Orridge that lie had
something more to say to him, and he then acknow-
ledged that, in consequence of young Hawkins
having checked him about going along with" those
girls," he had intended to murder him ; that he
pulled him off his donkey, and was feeling for Itit
knife, but could not find it, when he was alarmed
by some person coming up. The culprit informed
Mr. West that he had latterly been in the habit of
attending a Methodist Meeting, frequently three
times on a Sunday, though his parents went to
church. He declared that he went with serious
motives himself, but that the abandoned women
before alluded to, resorted there for no other pur-
pose than to meet with young men.
Earnestly do we wish that this man's fate may
be productive of salutary effects upon the minds of
the young of both sexes; but it is a melancholy
discouragement to the hope of such benefit that
George Partridge, with the guilt of one murder
already on his conscience, was actually a spectator
of the execution of Corder.—Bury Post.

EXTRAORDINARY INSTANCE of MENTAL

HALLUCINATION.

PARIS, APRIL s.—ln an action for alimony,
brought before the Court of First Instance here by
a Mrs. Walker against her husband, an eminent
English glover in the Rue Richelieu, the following
extraordinary instance of mental hallucination, on
the part of the plaintiff, was related by the defend'
ant's. Counsel :—Mr. Walker married a Miss 011iver,
a native of England, like himself; a large fortune was
promised, but never paid him. The happiness of the
new married couple was not of long duration. Airs.
Walker, who belonged to a family which counted
amongst its members, in by-gone ages, an Archbishop
of Canterbury, looked down with all the pride of
birth upon the humble trader, and instead of attend-
ing to the management of the house and the shop,
found it necessary to pay frequent visits to her noble
relations in England, from whence, in her letters, she
was fond of repeating " that the noble blood of the
011ivers ran in her veins." This folly, however, led
to no serious disturbance between her husband and
herself until 1809, when facts of the most extra-
ordinary nature led to a change in the relations of
the parties. At that period Bonaparte had attained
the summit of his glory. Mrs. Walker, dazzled by
the victories of this hero, conceived the most vio-
lent love for him. This she gave vent to in the
most burning letters and passionate declarations,
which rapidly succeeded each other. She was pre-
sent at all the Emperor's reviews, and sought every
possible occasion to see and be seen by him. She
was fully persuaded that so devoted a love must
meet with a return, and, recollecting that she was
descended from the illustrious house of 011ivcy,
she was led to hope that, by means of a divorce, she
might be called to share the imperial throne with
the object of her love. The extravagance of her
conduct, so publicly exhibited, at length attracted
the attention of the police, and she was ordered to
quit Paris and reside at Versailles. Change of
place, however, produced no change of sentiment ;
on the contrary, deprived of the preseixe of Ler
hero, her imagination took but the wilder flight.
She renewed her epistolary declarations and profes-
sions of passion, and became so pressing, that at
length a rendezvous was given her in the Park of
Versailles. She hurried to the appointed place in a
state of the most intense agitation. Instead of the Em-
peror she found one of his pages, who handed her into
a brilliant equipage, which took her, alas 1 not to the
Palace of the Tuileries, or the groves of St. Cloud,
but to the madhouse of Charenton. Here she was
treated as a maniac, and, for a long time, continued
under the illusion of her love and imaginary gran-
deur. She could not be made to believe that it
was by order of her beloved Emperor that she was
confined there; and she was only convinced of the
ingratitude of him whom she loved when, after his
divorce from Josephine and second marriage, the
news of the birth of the King of Rome was
brought to Charenton. This so calmed her heated
imagination, that, in a short time after, she was
pronounced to be sane, and set at liberty. She
then sought to return to her husband, but he re-
fused, after such extraordinary conduct, to receive
her. What became of Mrs_ Walker from that
period until the present application the Counsel
did not explain. The amount of alimony demanded
was 2,000 francs a year; but the Court, though de-
ciding in favonr of Mrs. 'Walker, awarded her only
960 francs a year.

SPIRIT 01. THE LONDON JOURNALS.

Mr. Peel made his motion last night for the
amendment of the criminal jurisprudence of the
metropolis. The Right Hon. Secretary gave some
statements which are curious. Whilst crime, it ap-
pears, increases in the cities of London and West-
, .
rninster in a much more accelerated ratio than po-
pulation, its increase does not keep pace Keith that
of the populationi in the country. Here are, there-
fore, topics both for grief and congratulation. Of
the increase of crime in the metropolis, vat ions
causes are assigned. We may hat ird one :—the
removal of the poor, by the construction of fine
streets, into by and obscure ones, where they
are congregated together in greater numbers.
The distress of Spitalflelds is said to he occa-
awned, not by the slackness of the silk trade only,
but by the number of the artisans from other
manufactures who flock thither ; arid if the
distress he thus increased, so oho will be the
crime. Be this, however, as it may, it is remarkable,
if Mr. Peel's statement by accurate, that about one
in every 383 persons living in London and Middlesex
has been committed to prison for crime during the
year 1828. Has the extinction of the small notes,
which was operating with great activity during the
latter end of last year, had any thing to do with the
increase of crime in the mctropoi ? We doubt it;
for there has been no fall of wages in London, but a
scandalous one in the country, where still crime has
diminished. We shall have occasion to speak of
the Bill itself hemafter. We ought to mention,
that we have taken the proportional decrease of
erme in the country on Mr. Peel's spewing only ;
cur tort, information, would lead us to a different
concl:usion.—Times.

In Mr. Charles Grant's speech on Tuesday even-
ing, there were two or three particulars adverted to,
which are worths, of serious consideration. The
Right Hon. Gentleman enforced the argument of
Mr. Vesey Fitzgerald, by stating that so far from
the measures of 1823 and 1824, having checked the
progress of the silk trade, the import of the raw
material and of thrown silk together had swelled, in
the very first cit.:aster of the diminished duties, from
432,00011-ss. to 1,085,000ib5.; or had been rather
hnt, than doubled! Mr. Grant asserted, that so
far from the activity of the trade having been dis-
couraged, the same class of men—viz., the silk
ilealers--who had been deafening ne country with
their clamour against the removal of the pro-
hibitory laws, had plunged with such eagerness
into speculation for a more extended manufac-
ture in cetesesquence of that removal, as to out-
strip the demands, however large, of the in-
rreaved consumption, and to invite the industry
thousands of throwsters and silk-weavers,
'whom they could not continue to employ at
reasonable wages. This, we ought to remem-
ber, is net the first time that the weavers have
been reverely distressed. Daring 1816 and 1817
the prohibitory laws (and, no donbt, the smugglers)
were in full vigour; and did they preserve the weaver
from suffering? So fir from it, that during those
years above 40,0001. was subscribed to relieve the
weavers of Spitaltields only. So far from prohibi-
tory laws being a security to the weaver, there was,
every three years during their existence, a renewal
cf the weaver's misery ;—so far, again, from the
abolition of those laws being chargeable with the
peculiar sufferings of the English silk-weaser, the
silk-weaver of Lyons has, almost ever since their
enactment, been afflicted by equal wretchedness.
Again, let 1:3 ask, is it the imposition of an average
duty of 40 percent. on foreign silks in England that
halt produced the sufferings of the cotton trade,
'Which Mr. Grant declares to be even more deplor-
able than those of the silk-weaver himself? With
regard to Spitalfields, we are informed by the
Right Honourable Gentleman, that from the extra-
ordinary cheapness of lodgings Zin that quarter, it
is crowded with poor of all descriptions, who flock
thither when out of employment elsewhere, and who
take to weaving as a temporary expedient for sup-
port, but on the least suspension of the silk trade
nee the foremost in the ranks of destitution, and
thus multiply the numbers of nominal manufacturers
of silk who appeal to public charity. As for the
general, allegation against Mr. Huskisson's mea-
sure,—that it has created the distress complained of,
—it is best answered by a single question,—narnely,
is the whole consumption of English silk goods by
the country at this moment less than it was before
the repeal of the prohibition ? If that consureption
be not lessened by the " free trade," (as it is ridi-
culously called), the case of the complainants is
at once rebutted. If the consumption (as is Tinto-
riotte) has much increased on the whole, then Mr.
Huskisson's case is established irresistibly. If, again,
the increased consumption has been accompanied by
a fall in the price of silks, then the country has a
more extensive enjoyment at a more moderate
price ; and if that were even at the expense of
the silk dealer, why we should say that the public
had a better right to be accommodated than he
had. But, in fact, it is sot at his expense; for, first.
he pays but 3d. per lb. tax on his raw material,
instead of (are we correct ?) 3s. 7d.; and, se-
cond, he manufactures at a less cost for labour, ow-
ing to the novel and successful application of ma-
chinery to divers branches of the art. We really
see no ground for the silk-manufacturer to stand
upon, in his late attempts to importune, bear down,
or mystify his Majesty's Government. Failing in
these laudable enterprises, and seeing that if he con-
tinees to prosecute the trade he must do so on the
principles already prescribed to him by Parliament,
he will try, no doubt, to lower his pretensions,—to
become an active, intelligent, and emulous manufac-
tnrer, instead of a monopolist, at once lazy, inso-
lent, and clumsy ; and will learn at last that it is the
interest as well as duty of a man in business to give
his customers some fair value for theirmoney. There
is a wide and important branch of the silk question
on which we shall feel it necessary to aserve here-
after :—we mean that portion of it which relates to
the importation of the raw material from China and
from India, and which bears a sort of mixed relation
to the subject of the all-grasping Company's mono-
poly, and to that which the English silk-manufac-
turer would, in the genuine spirit of Leadenhall-
street, impose, if they knew how, upon this gulled
and bestridden people.—lbid.
Mr. Peel introduced last night to the House tire
subject of the Police of the Metropolis. In his
outset he efiaracterized the present system " as
calculated for no other purpose than to eecourage
depredations upon property, and to increase the
danger to personal security." It is certainly high
time that we abandoned the criminal-nursing sys-
tem, and set ourselves fairly to diminish the security
of criminals and increase the security of those who
pass for honest men. At present a thief is one of
the best trades in London, considered with refer-
ence to duration of life. In the establishment of a
better system, great difficulties are to be combated;
but every thing must have a beginning. However,
we shall return to this subject.—.2l4Orning Chron.
It is lamentable to observe what a great propor-
tion of the criminal business on the several Circuits
arises out of the existing state of the Game Laws.
It is curious that those laws, which are founded on
an artificial principle of crime, and not on natural
justice,--laws which are enacted to punish offences
which, as lawyers express it, are only mala prohibita,
and not mala per se,—should be, in general, more
rigorously enforced than any other. It is seldom
that a man who is convicted of an offence under the
Game Laws, is not sentenced to the utmost punish-
ment that the law allows. Formerly, the County-
Magistrates, at Quarter Sessions, were considered
particularly vindictive in executing the penal Sta-
tutes against poachers ; but latterly, we regret to
say, some of the Judges of Assize have partaken of
this spirit, and would sooner mitigate the terrors of
the law in favour of a horse-stealer, or a breaker
into his neighbour's house, than an unqualified killer
of hares and partridges. Yet, what is the result of
this excessive severity ? Is it the decrease of poach-
ing ? Far from it. The offence, instead of being
diminished, is greatly on the increase. Suds is the

effect of extreme severity, when public opinion does
not go along with the- law, but, on the con-
trary, sympathises with the offender. The Game
Laws have done more to tempt the peasantry into
lawless habits than any vicious system of legislation
that ever was devised. The prohibition of the sale
of game raises the price of the article, so as to esta-
Llis4i a very high premium upon poaching; and who
can wonder if that premium should prove irresisti-
-I,ly attractive to a large proportion of the ill-paid
and ill.fed labourers of this country ? Who can
wonder that the neighbourhood of great preserves is
the scene of constant violence, and that whole dis-
tricts are kept in a state of civil commotioH by san-
guinary conflicts between organised bodies of game-
keepers and gangs of 'poachers? No small number
of the culprits tried for serious crimes at each As-
size,, are men who commenced their irregularities
by merely setting a spring to catch a hare, and, be-
ing thrown into prison for that, have become fami-
li:a• with the worst practices of felons, and, saturated
with the moral infection cf a gaol, regain their li-
berty only to follow their example. Thus are these
laws in their present state, and as at present ad-
ministered, a fertile source of rural demoralization—
spreading misery and crime among the people, and
entailing great expence upon the country.—Morn-
ing Herald. . . _

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

MANSION-HOUSE.

DISTRESSED PRISONERS FOIL CHIME AND DEBT.-An
unfortunate prisoner, who had been acquitted at the Old
Bailey, upon being tried for some petty theft, applied at
the dustiee.recm for some little assistance. He had, he
said, no place in which to cover his head ; he had no em-
ployment ; he had no character, and yet those in com-
fortable circumstances said, " Why don't you be honest
and get into a good employment?" as if the bar of the
Old Bailey was a recommendation instead of a complete
check to an unfortunate.
The LORD Mayon expressed his regret that there was
bat too much truth in the statement of the applicant. One
of the great penalties attached to the commission, and, in
some instances, to the suspicion of crime, was, that the
accused was thrown helpless and an outcast upon the world.
Mr. Sheriff Copel md, who happened to be present at
the time, represented to the Lord Mayor that the Sheriffs
hal co means of supplying poor pi koners upon their dis-
charge from prison with more than a mere trifle ; but if
the public knew the good that might be done by the
Sheriff's Fund being made adequate in amount to the
claims upon it, he was satisfied that large sums would be
subscribed, and many a your creature would be saved from
destruction.
The LORD Maros lamented that there was no sufficient
fund to relieve the distressed prisoner, who was acquitted
at the bar of justice, and out of his private purse gave the
applicant temporary relief, who expressed his gratitude,
and left the Justice-room.
A gentlenttn named 2darch, who resides in Rolls-
buildings, Fetter-lane, was brought before the LORD
Mayon., charged with having, as the watch-house book
represented, as'aulted a watchman in the performance of
his duty. The case excited some surprise and merriment
The watchman said, that as he was walking up and
down his beat, the defendant and another gentleman ap-
proached him, and made some insulting observations
about the buttons of his coat as they passed along.
Mr. Hobler—lnsulting observations ! Watehtnan—
Yes ; he made remarks as he had no right to do. He
jeered at my buttons—that is, he laughed at 'em.
h. Bohlen—Well, and did that make the buttons fly
off pair coat—(A laugh. )—Watch man—No, your honour;
but it was unbearable.. Whit was my coat and buttons to
him ? It was quite untolerable.
The LORD MaYoa—Well, go on—come to the assault.
The watchman said, thd when the defendant accused
the buttons of his coat, he (the watchman) told him to
move on, according to orders; but instead of moving on,
the defendant stood still, and there was'nt a bit of the coat
in which the buttons were that he did not abuse, both
behind and before.--(Laughter.)
Mr. Hobler—Very well. That was certainly a heavy
offence, but diti'nt he hut t you any more than he hurt the
coat ? The watchman said, he would insist upon it that
nobody had a right to laugh at his buttons, whatever size
they might be.
The Loan MAYOR was quite of a different opinion. Ne
thought that a watchman might wear such buttons as any
other man might be justified in laughing at.
Mr. Hohler said, that he did not know whether it
might be owing to any new regulations in the Police, but
certainly some watchmen cut very laughable figures. It
was certainly very injurious to the character of a watch-
man to be laughed at, but it was not high treason,
,nor
was it an offence fur which a gentlen:an deserved to be
locked up all night.
The watchman said that that was not all, for the gen-
tleman called him by a name that sounded very ugly, and
it was far altogether that he took him to the watch-house.
Another watchman (the comrade of the first) also told
the story about the buttons, and assured the Lord Mayor
that the defendant's language was terrible.
The Loan MAYOR desired to know what the guardian
meant by " terrible?" The witness said he meant
"It want the genteel thing. It wa'nt respectable to the
man what it was meant for."—(Laughter.)
The constable of the night, who spoke as if he had gone
to school with the watchman, said " the conduct of the
gentleman was quite obstropolous, and more nor a city
watchman could bear. The gentleman, in fact, acted in

the watch-house as if he know nothing of the place
he was in, or who he was afore." (Laughter.)
Watchman—Not by no means, your Lordship. There
was myself and the constable and some other watchmen,
and the gentleman cared no more about us nor the dirt iS
his shoe, and was very rude to us all.—(Laughter.)
Mr. March complained that he had been very harshly
treated. As he and his friend walked along, the cut of
the watchman's coat appeared to him to be deserving
of ob,ervation, and he told his friend that he should
like such an one. The moment he said so he was in
the fellow's grasp, and after a few words was dragged
to the watch-house. Ile denied having used any aggra-
vating or unpolita expression to the gentleman whose
dignity he had unfortunately, but unintentionally, wound-
ed, and he hoped that the Lord Mayor would at least
reprove the person who had imprisoned him for the night.
The Loan MAYOR said that he could not do any thing
in the matter, except mention his regret that the defendant
had experienced so much inconvenience and annoyance,
and told the watchman that he was not justified in taking
such revenge for being laughed at. He at the same time
must say, that watchmen ought not to be subject to ridicule
at all times. It should be considered that they had duties
to perform.
_ _ _ _ _

The defendant then retired.
Mr. Mohler.—As for you, Mr. Constable, we'll " write
you down a most excellent ass."—(Loud laughter.)