The Sun.
London, England, 1827-05-12 00:00:00

able to do any longer. The father was as well dressed and
good-looking a waiter as ever an unfortunate girl set eyes
upon, and was well off as all of them were in that tavern;
yet when he came before the magistrates to settle for his
babe, he appeared in a ragged jacket, and dirty scullion-
looking dress. With his smooth tongue, he over persuaded
them, as he would any body, that he could get no money ;
so they let him off with only two shillings a week. She
was unable to pay her share any longer ; and when she
told the parish-oEficers, they told her to go and leave the
child with the father, at the London Tavern, and she did.

The LORD MAYOR said, the parish officers had given
her exceedingly improper advice. His Lordship dischar-
ged her horn custody, and gave her instructions to make
another application to have the father brought up and ex-
amined a second time, as to his capability of paying.
MARLBOROUGH-STREET.---Mr. Win. Allenby,
a confectioner by trade, appeared yesterday at this office
before Mr. CONANT, the sitting Magistrate, under a war-
rant, charged with assaulting an officer of the army, who
gave his name Capt. Edmond Wentworth Pearce.
Captain Pearce, the complainant, a remarkably tall,
erect, and gaunt-looking personage, covered with a profu-
sion of flour and pomatum, and altogether presenting a
most eccentric and Quixotic appearance, stated, that the
defendant came up to hint in the street two days ago, and
after charging him with hating fraudulently got into his
debt, seized him by the collar with great violence, and
brought him before the Magistrate at this office upon the
above charge, which, however, the Magistrate declared to
be totally groundless, and dismissed it altogether, and this
was the assault complained of.
In reply to this charge, Mr. Allenby stated the real his-

tory of the transaction to be this :—About two years ago,
when he kept a confectioner's shop under the Opera Col-
lonade, this Capt. Pearce, whom he had never seen before,
came ace day into the shop while there was no person in
attendance there but a little girl, and without any ceremony
began to help himself to jellies, nine of which, at Is. each,
he devoured in less than no time. He then attacked vari-
ous other descriptions of confectionery, which he dis-
patched with equal expedition, until in the end he bad
consumed, without even once sitting down, 18s. worth
of the contents of the shop ; and not satisfied with
this havock, he stuffed his pockets with cakes, &c. &c.,
to the value of 6s. more ; and then, without saying
one word about payment, he shuffled very quickly out of
the shop, carrying with him, inside and out, no less than
245. worth of perishable goods. The poor little girl in
the shop was so amazed and bewildered with; astonishment
at the whole proceeding, that she was rivetted to her seat,
and totally unable to pursue her customer, or, indeed, to
form an idea as to what she ought to do. At this critical
moment he, Mr. Allenby, happened to return home, and
on learning from the girl as well as her fright would allow
her to describe it, what had taken place, he pursued the
consumer of jellies, and was fortunate enough to overtake
him in St. James's-square. He immediately charged him
' with the trick he had played, and demanded payment for
his eaten property, but the complainant, who was then
totally unknown to him, said, in a very off-hand manner,
that he was very sorry that he did not at that moment
happen to have any change about him, but he would call
the next day and settle the amount; he was very well
known, he said, and Mr. Allenby need not be alarmed about
his debt, fur that his, the complainant's name was Wellesley
Pole. Mr. Allenby not knowing the person of Mr. Wel-
lesley Pole, believed what the complainant had said, and
suffered him to go about his business. The next day,
however, and many succeeding days, passed away without
the complainant making his appearance to pay for his lunch,
and Mr. Allenby began to suspect that it might not pos-
sibly be Mr. Wellesley Pole that he had been dealing with;
and on inquiring, he learned that his customer had
been playing the same trick at the shops of various other
confectioners, and tradesmen of different sorts ; and,
in short, was told that his name was Captain
Pearce, and that he was nothing better than a swindler.
From that time Mr. Allenby saw nothing of his customer
until two (lays ago, when he accidentally met him in
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doing so, be (Mr. Allenby) certainly did seize him by the
collar, and brought him to this office, on the charge of ob-
taining the jellies, &c. under the false pretence of his
being Mr. Wellesley Pole ; but the Magistrate decided
that, as the Captain had consumed the property before he
represented himself to be Mr. Wellesley Pole, there was
no false pretence used to get at them.
Mr. Allenby now appealed to a swarm of confectioners
and other tradespeople who attended at the office, if the
Captain had not practised similar tricks upon them, and
they all declared that he had; and closing round the Gal-
lant Captain, they seemed so wrathful, and applied to him
such unmeasured epithets, that the Captain suddenly with-
d,•ew his charge against Mr. Allenby, and as suddenly with-
drew himself from the office; and thus the affair ended.