The Sun.
London, England, 1845-09-13 00:00:00

SOUTHWARK.

Yesterday Jane white, a young and stylishly-dressed woman,
was brought before Mr. Cottingham, charged with stealing a purse
containing SI. 135., from the person of James Dalby, a printer, at
Wa'worth.

The complainant, an aged man, stated that being engaged until
late in election procee.lings, and having made rather too free with
the bottle in the course of the evening, he set out at a somewhat
late hour for home. On his way he was accosted by the prisoner,
and they entered into conversation oa the subject of the contest for
the borough, she taking a very decided part for the candidate for
whom he was interested. As they were walking along the pri-
soner expreeed a desire for a little refreshment, and as she advo.
cated the " right principles," said the complainant, he accordingly
escorted her into the Rodney's Head, where he treated her to the
best the house afforded. After quitting the place, they continued
their route along the Borough until they arrived at rather a dark
passage, up which they walked, and stopped about the middle of
it for a short time, when, all at once, his companion quitted him,
as he imagined, in a very abrupt manner. From that
circumstance it flashed across his mind that some.
thing was wrong, and he instinctively thrust his hand
into his trousers pocket, and missed his purse and money. As the
prisoner was not out of sight he pursued her, and when he came
up with her he accused her of having " ramped" his pockets, a
charge which she most indignantly denied, declaring that she was an
unprotected young lady,.and that it would be worse for him if he
persisted/ in his attempt to defame her character; adding that
thou,h she had condescended to accompany him into a tavern, still
that her fair fame was not to be tarnished by such an unfounded
accusation, and that she would make him pay dearly for his conduct
in the transaction; The complainant, pursuaded In his own wind
that his purse was safe in his pocket when he first met with the
" lady," expressed his intention to give her into custody if she did
not return the money, promising that he would take no more notice
of the matter if she consented. She however still persisted that she
was " innocent as a babe," upon which the complainant, finding
that she kept her har.ds firmly clenched together, with difficulty,
and after a hard Woggle, succeeded in obtaining possession of his
purse and a 51. note. The prisoner then extricated herself from his
grasp and ran away, but the cry of " Stop thief " being raised, she
was pursued and stopped, when the silver was found in one of her
hands, but the three sovereigns had nut been recovered. She was
then taken to the station-house.
Mr. Games, for the prisoner, asked the complainant if he was
not very tipsy, and dropped his purse while he was in the public-
house. The reply was, that he admitted being what is termed
" muddled," but still he was not drunk ; that he had n•r remem-
brance of having dropped his purse; for he had no occasion to take
it out, having loose silver to pay the reckoning.
The complainant, addressing the magistrate, said that having
recovered the 51: note and the silver he was not desirous of
pressing the charge any further, particularly as his services
would be required that day on the hustings, and as the affair alto..
tether arose out of the election, he would prefer letting the matter
drop.

The prisoner was remanded in order that inquiries might be
made as to her previous character.