The Sun.
London, England, 1829-09-16 00:00:00

GUILDHALL.

A middle-aged gentleman, named Easterly, was
brought before Sir PETER LAURIE yesterday,
charged with assaulting James Gibbons, a watch-
man, of St. Andrew's, Holborn, about half-past one
o'clock that morning, opposite St. Andrew's church.
The complainant saw the defendant in hot dis-
cussion with a watchman on the other side of the
street, the watchman having ordered him and a
loose girl to " move on," and the defendant insist-
ing that they would stand there as long as they
pleased. The watchman sprang his rattle, and wit-
ness as soon as he had crossed received a violent
blow from defendant, which set his mouth bleeding,
and he also received sundry blows on the head and
body from defendant's umbrella. Having secured
him, he was as violent in the watch-house as ever,
threatening to wring the nose of the constable of
the night, to let him know the law, to report him
to Mr. Peel, and challenging him to fight a duel.—
(A laugh.)
The solicitor asked if the whole of this charge had
not been disposed of at the watch-house, and if the
defendant was not detained on some subsequent
ground ?—The watchman said, the striking of him
was all he had to complain of.
The solicitor said this was one of those infamous
attempts on the part of the watchmen to obtain
money, for which their body were notorious.
Sir PETER asked if defendant was sober ?—Mer-
chant, the night constable, inferred from his conduct
that lie was not perfectly sober. He had been for.
given all his misconduct, and allowed to leave the
watch-house, but he stopped at the door to abuse
him (the officer of the night), and among other ag-
gravating things, said lie was an ass—(a laugh),—
and he therefore brought him in again and locked
him up.
Sir PETER asked the defendant for his account of
thebusiness ?—Defendant said, that as he was passing,
the young woman appealed to him for a penny, and
her request being so humble he stopped to inquire
into her story, which was deplorable indeed. She
had been out of place only four months, and he had
taken her address, intending to call on her former
mistress, and try to induce her to receive her again,
and he was just parting with her when the watch-
man ordered them to go on. He said, "I am giv-
ing this woman some advice, allow me to finish, and
then I shall walk on."

Sir PETER asked him if he was accustomed to
give advice to strange young women in the streets
at such an hour ?—Defendant hoped Sir Peter did
not consider, that to give good advice at any hour
would be bad.

Sir PETER LAURIE said, defendant had committed
two mistakes—the first being, that he had stopped
to listen to a long story from a strumpet, and had
taken her address in his pocket-book. The second
mistake was, that when the watchman had given up
his charge, and the defendant got out of the watch-
house again, he did not quietly walk away as he
might have done ; and from these mistakes he in-
ferred the defendant must have been spending the
night convivially. He was sure defendant would
not now stop to give " wholesome advice" to a
woman of that cast. If there had been any design
to obtain money from him, he would have been de-
tained, and not forgiven, when first taken to the
watch-house; but he was so delighted with his sup-
posed victory, that he renewed the attack, offending
the constable's dignity, and, indeed, he (Sir Peter)
did not hold that he was bound to submit to be re-
viled. He should now discharge defendant. He
did not know what use he would make of the ad-
dress in his pocket-book—( A laugh),—but he
would strongly recommend him to avoid stopping
in the street at one o'clock in the morning to do
such works of charity again.—Defendant was then
discharged.