The Sun.
London, England, 1829-01-19 00:00:00

;FROM THE SUNDAY HERALD.)

I Among the numerous and highly interesting arti-
cles which will be found in our paper of this day,
the report of the meeting of the Surrey Magistrates
is that which claims the first attention, as ►t is de-
: cidcd!y the most important. The speeches tvhich
were made on that occasion on the Game Laws, do
the greatest credit to the liberality and good sense
of the Magistrates, and we trust that the deliberate
opinions which they have given upon the subject,
will speedily lead to an alteration of the law; for of

all the causes which will fill our gaols with criminals,
the Game Laws are, next to the c2or Law system,
decidedly the greatest, and throw into insignificance
ell often. • To have a virtuous population, the
people must not only be liberally paid, in order that
they may live in comfort, but such temptations to
commit crime as the Game Laws afford) • must be
done sway with—puismits which are not ferbidden
by a naturt...l settse or ;:ii;Mite
,11f1In ie'rMitted to
them) as fa'r as the Wetfia ef 'society will allow ;
and in th'e 'Age o the Barre Laws this might not
only lYe 'R...etie without any injury to the enjoyments
Of good sport by the country gentlemen, but actually
in furtherance of it. Lord Radnor, in fact, has
proved this to be the case.. He has given unlimited
permission to all the farmers on his Lordship's estates
to kill game; and th Consequence is that the game
is well Veservcd—better indeed than formerly,
When his tenants were restrained---and that not a
single poacher ever dares to intrude upon them.
After this proof of the beneficial influence of such a
'system, it will be disgraceful to the Legislature. not
to introduce some modification of.laws which had
their origin in barbarous times, and are themselves
still more barbarous.
(FROM TIIE EXAMIYER.)

OF THIEVES IN GENERAL.--In compliment
to the Police, we talk of the escape of Ste-
phenson, but more strictly we should describe
it simply as a departure, such as the Morn-
ing Post might insert in its list of " Fashionable
Changes." The affair, indeed, wears no character
of efCape. Mr. Rowland Stephenson set off for a
voyage across the Atlantic by a direct route, and
travelled some miles in his own carriage. Officers
followed, but having omitted to take with them some
salt to sprinkle on the banker's tail, he sailed off,
not only without molestation or trouble, but in a
leisurely style, which does immortal honour to the
slow and dignified measures of our police. Let it
be observed, that the culprit's partners took the
alarm on the 26th December, and 011. the night
of that day he left town in his own carriage for
Bristol ; on the 27th .the hue lied cry was raised,
and the alarm was spread by the evening's post
through the whole country; nevertheless he is nn-
captured at Clovelly on the 30th, again on the 2d
of January, and finally he quits an English harbour
on the sth, that is, ten days after his easy " fashion-
able departure" from his house in town. Ten times
honoured is our Police by this dry fact. Ili this bit
of an island, with such rapid means of communica-
tion, a criminal of whose track there are excellent
clues, may have ten clear days for effecting an es-
cape, if• escape we must call that which has really
been no escape at all, for from the statements before
us we can perceive no prospect of capture, bad he
amused himself with cruizing about the Bristol and
Irish Channel, and visiting their ports for ten days
more. The shame of the affair belongs mainly to
the system. The Police acts, if we may so express
it, by jets. An offender flies from London, and the
Police dies after him, that is to say, two men follow
his track in a post-chaise, a machinery which argues
extraordinary activity. An efficient police should
not thus more from a centre, but ramify through the
whole country. It should not only follow, but also
meet, and every where await the fugitive. Wherever
there is a constable, there should be in his person an
agent or servant of the police, ready to act upon tiny
general order issuing from the head-quarters of the
department. We make no doubt there was a con-
stable at Clovelly, but he probably only rooked on.
at the proceedings of the mysterious visitors, want-
ing specific instructions. A great increase of force
is obviously obtained by unity of operation. The
strength of our Police is frittered away by divisions
and subdivisions, and at its present total cost we
might have a well-organised establishment, less
numerous, in fact, than the existing one, and incom-
parably more efficient. Let the number, uselessness,
anti aggregate charge of the parish watchmen and
constables be considered, and the improvement of
superseding them by a body of regulars, acting un-
der one head, will scarcely require ergument for its
recommendation. The application of the Irish Po-
lice called the_Peelers, has been too often tyrannous,
but the greatness of its power, arising from its or-
ganization, admits of no question. We have regular
troops to be counted by scores of thousands, though
we have no enemy to encounter; and we have, as
it were, a volunteer and militia Police to cope with
the WE rims of dexterous thieves who wage incessant
war against society. Protection is the first -object
of the social confederacy—protection against possible
foreign foes we have in ample force, and et ample
charge, but the protection against the domestic
enemy, against the thousands and tens of thousands
in fingers against us, is yet to be. provided. His
Majesty in his speech to Parliament *ill, according
to custom, express his satisfaction at the continued
peace with all Powers, but we earnestly wish he
were advised to declare hostilities against his own
loving rogues. To be sure, if too. comprehensively
expressed, this might be construed as levying war,
a-la-Stuart, against the two Houses of Parliament;
but that incivility might be guarded against in the
expression, which may limit the hostility to handi-
craft thievery, and draw the necessary distinction
between the vocal and the instrumental performers
in the great concert of knavery. There is obviously
a vast difference in morals, between robbing a whole
nation of thousands, by saying Aye, and picking the
pocket of one of its members of a handkerchief,
value half-a-crown, with a crooked finger. The
handicraft makes the thing disgraceful. There is
alsoanot her consideration, which prudence admonishes
us to hint rather than to expLiin. To kill is cri-
minal, except in his Majesty's service, when it is
heroism. To
also in his Majesty's service, when it is ministerial.
We see bodies regularly organised to kill, and also
bodies as regularly appointed to ---; we may
not express it, its name is never heard; in conjtmc-
tion with such actors; our pen's forbid to write that
too-familiar word: When we see how especially
honourable an office it is to make free with other
people's money, in a certain place and manner, and
how base the same prOeeeding is accounted under
different circumstances, operating on a minor acme
to the same end, the mind seeks iu vain for an ex-
planation of the apparent solecism in morals. We
have sometimes been tempted to believe that to the
shame of robbery a contact is necessary, as in gal-
vanism. Let the thief touch the booty, and we
have the tertia»z quid produced, a disgraceful crime;
but if this touch be avoided, the affair may be an
orderly matter of public business, nay, it may be
graced with the name of duty. Thus, if three hun-
dred out of five hundred men betray a nation's trust,
for the benefit of each other or their kith and kin, a
common advantage is procured, and that without the
spoiler's touching the spoil. Two hundred and
ninety-nine thrust their fingers into the great purse,
and give a booty to the three hundredth man, or his
son, or nephew, or kinsman. The takers in this
case derive no immediate profit from what they
take, and therefore it is not called robbery. The
galvanistic contact of felonious fingers with booty is
wanting, and the common quality of the action is not
elicited. There may be something religious as well
as chemical in these peculiarities is morals. The
Scripture says," Help one another," and it may be
read that Hououratble Persons should, in accordance
with this injunction, " Help one another" out of a
people's purse. But whither are we wandering ?
We b.,ese with Stephenson, the Hoinsurable Mem.-
ber for Leominster; from him we passed to the in-
efficiency of the Police, from that to thieves in ge-
neral, and from them to the best company in the
land. We shall make a rondo of t!.is article, and
conclude with our first subject. Mr. Welsh's letter
reminds erne of the scene in Foote's Lame Lover,
in which Sir Luke confesses to his friend Sergiant
Circuit, a detail of a crim. con, With his wife, ending
each particular with the interrogatory; "Was it my
fault ?" After the communication of the climax, he
says,"
Was it my-fault? What could I do? Put
yourself in my place; I must have been more or less
than man to resist." Upon which the reasonable
husband answers : " Your fault, Sir Luke ! No, no,
you did but your duty—hut as to my wife! The
public, like the Serjeant, will agree that Mr, Welch

did but his duty id eloping with the naughty banker;
but we do rather marvel at the simplicity of his
belief, supposing that he really did credit Stephen.
son's hypocritical pretence of poverty, accompanied
with that pathetic exhibition of a sixpence l Did it
not occur tf., Mr, Wel.Th tint gtephenson could
hOt irtvjt hhn a‹,ist his flight, if avowing the
fitisse'ssion of money, which mist have been the
money of other people, Sri ?:out paying him the com-
piimeut of supposing him as unscrupulous a person
as himself, it was necessary to Mr. Welch's credit
that Stephenson should describe himself as destitute,
lie could not with a very god grate Say; " S have
booty; help tee to eseape with it." We have not
the slightest doubt. that the Houourable Gentleman
had an excellently well-stocked purse. He must
long hare been feathering his nest, and his debts
were matters of prudence. Every shilling he owed,
was a shilling saved to his American fortunes. All
the sums he borrowed were so many additions to his
income. The attempt at suicide is a very- pretty
tale, and his readiness to reeite it to Mr. Welch in-
dicates its character. Mr. Stephenson had profited
by his dramatic pursuits, and infinitely preferred the
coup de theatre to the coup de pistolet. A man
who had a desperate mind to shoot himself, need not
set about it at the door of a pawnbroker's shop, nor
need he be deterred by one miss of fire, which with
clean arms and new flints seldom indeed occurs, un-
less one has the prudence to shake the priming out
of the pan. The attempted suicide was got up to
encourage a belief of destitution.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

GUILDHALL

ROBBERY AT Mg. Ptvmuer's.--On Saturday

Forrester, the young man charged with breaking
the shop window of Mr. Plumley, jeweller, Ludgate-
hill, and carrying off a quantity of diamond pins,
was brought up for re-ex4mination before Alderman
BIRCH.

Mr. Short stated, that hearing the cry of " Stop
thief," and seeing the prisoner running, he joined in
the pursuit. The prisoner turned up Crescent-place,
Bridge-street, and got as far as the end of it, when
finding no egress he was returning, and was secured
about the middle of the passage by the witness and
Mr. Grimen.

Langton, a watchman of Saint Bride's, stated that
a little before eight o'clock on Thursday night he
saw the prisoner standing against Mr. Plumley's
window. At this time there was no one within
several Yards of the shop at either side* when the
watchman heard the crashing of the glass, and saw
the prisoner immediately run off is the direction of
Bridge-street.
Alderman Bluctt—Did you see him break the
window? Wet chntan—l did not.

The shopsian of Mr. Plumley said that he was
inside the counter settling his account-book when he
heard the window glass broken, and saw a hand
thrust in. He did apt see the cushion taken away,
as he supposed at first the watches in the window
were the thief's object.
The prisoner is slid to be most respectably con-
nected. He was fully committed for trial.
COUNTERFEIT SOVEREIGNS.—Two women,named
Mullins and Gylaghan, were charged by Mr.
Hughes, cheesemonger, Fetter-lane, with offering in
payment of some butter a counterfeit sovereign.
Mullins, accompanied by the other prisoner, came
into Mr. Hughes's shop, and tendered the sovereign,
which Mr. Hughes instantly saw was a bad one.
They were detained, and an Aker sent for; and,
during the few moments that they were sitting in
the prosecutor's parlour, was Mullins's propen-
sity for crime, that, notwithstanding being only
just arrested for the com:nission of a serious offence,
she•contrived to secrete a handkerchief belonging to
Mr. Hughes, which was on the chair on which she
was sitting. As soon as she was conveyed to the
Compter she sold the handkerchief to one of the
women, by which means it was discovered. Both
prisoners were examined, but no more bad money
was found upon them; and, although they were
well known, the solicitor for the Mint declined pro-
secuting.
The Act of Parliament under which the offence
of attempting to pass base coin is punished requires
evidence of a guilty knowledge in the party tender-
ing the counterfeits as essential to a conviction.
This guilty knowledge is inferred from the offenders
haring in their possession at the time more bad
money than the piece they offer; and so well
aware are the persons employed in this traffic of
how much their safety depends upon this circum-
stance, that in no one case out of a great number
which have been within the last few weeks at
this office has any of the prisoners been ifound with
more than one counterfeit—the one they offer in
payment—in their possession.
The public should be especially on their guard
against five shilling pieces, as the majority of the
cases hare been of persons attempting to pass
pieces of that amount. The base crown-pieces, when
rubbed, emit a strong smell resembling that of soot.
TILE MARCH ARITHMETIC.—Mrs. Barclay, a
stay-maker, whose years would hold oat the ex-
pectation of finding more honesty in the old lady,
was charged with attempting the following fraud
upon her employer, Mr. Gold, CheJpside :
Mrs. Barclay was in that gentleman's employ, and
on Saturday morning, received from Mr. Gold's
foreman a cheque for 25., which on presenting in the
counting-house, she was to be paid. A very brief
period elapsed from the time she received it until it
was presented by a little boy, her son, to Richard
Thomas, the clerk, who officiates in the counting-
house, but so altered, that instead of entitling her to
25., it purported to be an order for 6s. 10d.; but
though we hear a good deal of " the schoolmaster
being abroad," yet he seemed to hare paid but little
attention to Mrs. Barclay's accountant is the present
transaction, for in introducing the 10d. the " 0" was
placed
_before the " I.' This new arithmetical ar-
rangement excited the suspicion of the clerk, and in
consequence of this, lie referred to the foreman,
when the fraud was discovered. On referring to
some former bills paid to the prisoner, one was dis-
covered belonging to a former week, which she had
altered from 2s. 3d. to 115..3d.; this was pretty
well executed, and the l ls. 3d: paiel by Mr. Gold
himself.

The prisoner was remanded until Monday, to giro
Mr. Gold time to attend.

BOW-STREET.

On Saturday a young farmer, residing near Bed-
ford,appeared.before the Magistrates respecting two
colts, stolen from his father's stables on Thursday
week. He stated that he had traced them to the
possession of respectable persons in London, to
whom they had been sold; and the Magistrate pro-
mised that means should be taken to have them re-
stored. The applicant also stated that they always
kept a capital watch-dog in the stable; but on this
occasion the dog was of no use, as the thieves-
stopped his barking by some ingredient which they
carried with them, and which was so loathsome to a
dog, that he fled the moment lie got scent of it.
Many robberies had been committed by means of
this material: the dogs would not go near where
it bad been.