The Sun.
London, England, 1829-11-06 00:00:00

GUILDHALL

RELIGIOUS TRACTS AND IRRELIGIOUS TRICKS.—
James Wilson, a sleek little personage on the Wrong
side of fifty, his hair combed smoothly down over his
forehead, as beseemed those who " labour after the
things of the sprit," his white neckcloth twisted
round in plain folds and tied behind in the same
saintly fashion, and his countenance beaming with
all the celestial serenity of one who had subdued the
lusts of the flesh, was charged with administering
beer and biscuits to two female children about ten
years of age, the said Leer and biscuits being admi-
nistered as aforesaid for certain very wicked and
naughty purposes.
From the evidence adduced it appeared that the
children belong to Sr. Patrick's charity school, and
between nine and ten o'clock on Wednesday morn-
ing were sent together to school. On Blackfriars-
bridge they were met by the prisoner, whose
" bowels yearned with compassion towards the little
innocents' at seeing them exposed to the wet, and
he, in consequence of the said " yearning," took
them under his special protection to treat them to
some coffee. He took them from public-house to
public-house for the greater part of the day, substi-
tuting beer and biscuits for the promised coffee, until
at length suspicion was excited that the " flesh" had
more to do with the good man's humanity than the
" spirit ;" and at length, after he was snugly moored
in the parlour of a public-house in Giltspur-street,
one of the witnesses saw through a window which
gave light at the top of the parlour to the stairs
. . . . Ia delicacy to the saintly feelings of our
Clapham and Camberwell readers we must hang
out what a modern poet terms " dead lights" over
the remainder of the evidence, and merely add that
it was such as'called forth expressions of disgust and
abhorrence from the Alderman, and excited a cor-
responding feeling in every one who was prrsent.
" Where are you from," asked the Alderman,
" and what are you ?" " I live at Camberwell,
and sell books," responded Mr. Wilson, in a slow
and solemn voice, accompanied with the usual
twang heard in conventicles.
" Religious books—tracts, I suppose ?" rejoined
the Alderman.

" Yea !" twanged forth the godly sinner at the bar.
" What a monster you must be," said the Alder-
man, " engaged in a work of a seemingly religious
character, and commit this infamous attempt upon
two children, whose grandfather you might very easily
be !"

" I did no harm unto them," replied the sinner
with all the self-righteousness of his sect.
" Did them no harm !" indignantly exclaimed the
Alderman, " and this is all the compunction you
feel for the offence ? It is matter of much wonder
to me that nothing will teach these book-distributing
societies the folly and inutility of their pursuits in
employing such as the prisoner, the only effect of
which is, that under the pretence of disposing of
their religious tracts they find their way into private
houses, and turn the heads of every female servant
in it. The nuisance in my neighbourhood is intole-
rable. (The worthy Alderman resides at Clapham.)
The prisoner was ordered to find bail, himself in
404 and two sureties in 201. each; he was locked
up until the same be forthcoming.