The Sun.
London, England, 1827-06-29 00:00:00

LAW INTELLIGENCE.

COURT OF KING'S BENCH, JUNE 28.
THE TING V. MILLS, CLAVERLEV, AND MILBURN.

Mr. Alexander Milburn, a solicitor, Mr. Mills, and Mr.
Claverley, a linen-draper, were brought up to receive the
sentence of the Court upon a conviction on an indictment
charging them with conspiring to give an undue preference
to Mr. Mills, who was a creditor of Claverley and Hut-
chinson, linen-drapers, over their other Creditors. The
defendants were tried at the sittings after last termn, before
Lord Tenterden, and were convicted, principally upon the
evidence of Hutchinson. Affidavits in mitigation and ag-
gravation were read, after which
Mr. BROUGHAM, for the defendant Claverley, in miti-
gation, allowed that the offence of which the defendants
had been convicted was one more frequently committed
than punished, that it was one which, in a great trading
country, was in general peculiarly deserving reprobation ;
but there was an absence of all aggravation in the present
case, which was even accompanied with circumstances of a
mitigating nature. Claverley had begun business with a
small capital, and, like other persons who do so, was under
the necessity of becoming obliged to his friends. He had,
with his partner, applied to Mills for assistance at a time
when they had no doubts of their own solvency, and on his
own account Mills had been induced to lend them his ac-
ceptances to bills for 688/., which bad all been paid by
Mills. When he found that, notwithstanding this aid, he
was on the brink of bankruptcy, his reflections were, that
the kind friend who had assisted him on his first setting
up business, was about to lose a large sum, which he had,
through his miscalculation and instigation, prevailed upon
him to lend. It was, no doubt, the defendant's duty to
have let Mills come in with the other creditors, but still
this was a very different case from the ordinary case of un-
due preference; and he, Mr. Brougham, submitted, that
it was not a case calling upon the Court for a heavy pu-
nishment.

The Commorr SERGEANT, for Mills and Milburn, said
that Claverley had represented his case to Mills, and Mills
had related it to Milburn with all the partiality with which
persons invariably state their own case. Mills acted under
the advice, received from his attorney, and thought that he
could legally become the proprietor of so much of the goods
of claverley and Hutchinson as would cover his own debt;
and Milburn, who was not present at the removal of the
goods, consulted Mr. Basil Montagu, and when that gentle-
man gave his opinion that Mills was not entitled to the
goods, and advised him to return them to the assignees,
Milburn immediately acted upon that advice, so that the
creditors were not wronged. Mills had paid 688/., the
amount of his acceptances, and had proved under the
estate, which only paid ss. in the pound, so that he was
already a loser of upwards of 500/. The transaction was
not imbued with any thing highly criminal ; and as the
parties had already suffered most deeply, he trusted that the
Court would not be averse to the prosecutors taking a
more lenient step than calling for the judgment of the Court.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL said, that the prosecutors had
not been influenced by any private motive, their object was
only to obtain public justice, and after consulting with his
client, consented that the judgment of the Court on all the
defendants should be postponed until another day, with an
understanding that they were to go before the Master.

BOW-STREET.— Wm. Flannigan, a remarkably
ill-looking young fellow, was, placed at the bar and charged
with having committed a highway robbery of a very daring
nature, and at noon-day on Thursday, in George-street,
St. Giles s, within 100 yards of Great Russell street.
A Mrs. Mary Macpherson, a respectable married lady
residing in Rockingham-row, Kent-road, was passing the
corner of George and Bainbrid s-streets, at 12 o'clock on
214- 1 %b. asy serzed rouna

the body from behind with great force, and at the same
moment a pull was made at a reticule she carried in her
left hand; but she retained her hold of it, and it was
again pulled with a force that brought her backwards to
the ground; even then she did not loose her hold, and
she was dragged along the pavement for some distance
till the strings of the reticule broke. She was then
able, for the first time since the attack, to look round
for her assailant, whom she saw running away with
the reticule, which contained forty-seven pounds in notes
and gold. She saw enough of him to be aware that he was
the same man whom she had observed leaning against a
post on the footpath the instant before she was attacked.
She pursued him along one or two streets, but he darted
up a court, and she lost sight of him ; and although she
cried " Stop thief" as she ran, no person took the least
notice of or attempted to assist her. She swears positively
to the identity of the prisoner, whom she says she took
particular notice of, from his having looked at her and the
reticule in a very sinister and peculiar manner as she
passed him. There were two other men standing near,
but when she looked up after being knocked down, they
had totally disappeared. From the description she gave of
the man who bad robbed her, the prisoner was appre-
hended by Duke, of this office, who knew him to be a
doubtful character.

An alibi was attempted to be set up by the prisoner, and
le was remanded until Saturday, when further evidence is

:o be forthcorniug.

MARLBOROUGH-STREET.—Yesterday a young
fellow, named John Hooper, was brought from the watch-
house of St. George's parish, Hanover-square, before Sir
GEORGE FARRANT, the sitting magistrate at this office,
charged with attempting to break into the house of Au-
gthuestnuigs
hAtibaenfnorein,g,wiEthsqa.n, No. S,
Mr. Manning stated, that between one and two o'clock,
enrmtfmoaidt-astrrenebtb,etAyl.ayfair,
his attention was attracted by a noise in the front of his
nBt,tolic
house, under his bed-room window; and on his cautiously
raising up the sash to ascertain the cause, he observed a
light in the front area, close to one of the kitchen win-
dows. Suspecting immediately that thieves were endea-
vouring to enter the house, he determined to adopt the
best means of securing them ; but just as he was withdraw-
ing from the window, he accidentally let fall a boot hook
into the area, which alarmed the prisoner, who immediately
ascended the area stops, and, climbing over the iron railing
with great expertness, ran off as fast as he could. Mr.
Manning, however, Called out for the watch and stop thief,
ml after a short chase a watchman secured the prisoner.

t Intta
shis r time fhe ne ceh
aadt
nw
downa tch-htohuse e
at
,17a, phi thathad
merely gone there for the gall:lnt purpose of paying a noe-
.titgr tel!atsaihde.
noc-
turual visit to one of the female servants at Mr. Manning's
house, with whom he had been a long time acquainted,
and who had appointed him to come to the house at that
liour on that night.
In consequence of this statement at the watchhouse, the
girl named by the prisoner attended at the office yesterdays
when the prisoner repeated his defence; but the girl posi-
tively declared that she had never made any appointment
whatever with the prisoner at any time, or that she had
ever given him any invitation to the house. She had, she
acknowledged, known something of the prisoner as a slight
acquaintance for a short time; and she now recollected
that on one or two occasions he asked her some questions
as to the particular situation of some parts of Mr. Man-
ning's house, but she thought it mere curiosity at the time.
Besides this decided and, no doubt, true contradiction,
by the girl, of the prisoner's excuse, there were found, un-
fortunately for his cause, a crow-bar, some phosphorous
matches, &c., in the area, just close to the spot where the
prisoner ISMS first discovered ; and marks of the crow-bar
were visible on the outside of one of the kitchen-windows,
where an effort had been made to foxe it opera
The prisoner denied any acquaintance with those imple-
ments, but he was, notwithstanding, committed to take his
trial on the charge. _

A fashionable looking female, of the name of Caroline
Douglas, appeared before the Magistrates at this Of-
fice, to charge another married lady, named Rathbone,
with having feloniously (as she contended) removed a
quantity of valuable furniture from a house in Bruton-
street, Berkeley-square,
to a house in Bird-street, Gros-
venor-square. It appeared that the furniture in question,
which is worth 1,5001., was the property of Mrs. Douglas,
to whom it had been assigned in consideration for a debt ;
and Mrs, Rathbone, the defendant, was permitted by Mrs.
Douglas to reside in the house in Bruton-street, for a tern-
poraryss)
afterwards nearly the whole
of the furniture was
period, in order to prepare it for her (Mrs.
Douglass) reception. Airs. Rathbone, on these
took possession of the premises, and
shortly
condi-
tions,oo
rtllya
accordingly