Star.
London, England, 1809-08-23 00:00:00

Puzcs.

GUlLDHALL.—Yesterday Harriet Jago was brought
up for her second examination, upon acbarge of being
an incorrigible vagrant and impostor, having endea-
voured, under false pretences, to inculcate a belief
of her being abandoned by a most respectable family,
to whom she alledged herself to be closely connected,
and that she was thereby driven by despair, to at-
tempt her own destruction by opiuM : in order, by
such indirect means, to interest the compassion of the
credulous, and to obtain charitable contributions.—
Such a mass of information was adduced in illustra-
tion of her character in this way, as to skew that she
has been rarely, if ever, paralleled in the annals of
imposture.

It appeared, on the statement of Mr. Kirby, a re-
spectable bookseller, of London House-yard, tl.at on
the night of Sunday, the .6th instant, he was informed
by the head beadle of his parish, who lives next door
to him, that a lady in distress had fallen down at the
door of Mr. Thbetson, proctor, Bell-court, -Doctors'-
Commons, and was actually dying of the effects of
opium, or some other deleterious drug which she had
swallowed. Thither Mr. Kit by immediately went,
with the beadle,' and found the unhappy object in the
situation described : he had her removed to his own
house, in London House yard, in order to procure
for her some medical assistance ; and he accordingly
sent to Mr. Hurlocic, a respectable surgeon and apo-
thecary, in St. Paul's Church-yard, from whence an
assistant came, and after an attendance of nearly six
hours, and the administration of emetics, a quantity
of opium was discharged from ber stomach, wh;ch
this assistant declared must have killed her, had she
remained three hours longerwithout proper remedies.
She told Mr. Kirby a plausible story of her high
connections ; said she was born near Aberdeen, was
a near relation Of the Gordon family ; that she was
the daughter of Colonel Sir William Maxwell ; that
she had three sisters, Mrs. Dupre and two others,
now at Brighton ; that her brother, the younger Co-
lonel Maxwell, had lost his arm at the battle of Co-
runna, and was now at Aberdeen ; that her family
had abandoned her, which had driven her to despair,
and urged her to the rail act she had committed.—
She said she had been of late permitted by the house-
keeper to sleep at the house of Lord Fife, in Privy-
gardens, Whitehall, where she had slept the night be-
fore. The reason why her family had abankloned
her was, that she had been seduced by the Marquis
of Huntly, with whom she had lived some time at
Blackheath, and had a son by him, who is now at
the school of the Res'. Dr. Horne, near Chiswick ;
and that she had but a short time before broken out
of a mad-house at Gravesend, where she had been
confined by her friends. She mentioned a long list
of names and high connections, to whom she stated
herself to be related : and after being somewhat re-
covered and refreshed, she expressed a desire to go
away, which Mr. Kirby permitted her to do, in care
of the beadle, to conduct her to the protection of her
friends ; but finding herself watched in her retreat
down Ludgate-street by the beadle, she told him it
was in vain to fetThive her, for nothing should prevent
her from putting an end to her existence. A nich
was collected, to whom she made her appeal, and the
beadle was very roughly handled, for zatempi.ing t;)
conduct her out of his parish. But in the result 01
the disturbance which took place, the lady was con-
ducted to the watch-house, and brought next day be
fore Alderman Wool).

Mr. KIRBY procured the attendance of Lord Fife's
and the Hon. Mr. Fordyce's house-keepers from
Whitehall, by whom she pretended to be known and
befriended, but both positively denied any knowlede
of her. She, however, persisted then in her story cf
being the daughter of Col. Sir William Maxwell, and
in the cause she before pretended for attempting self-
destruction. Mr. Alderman Wood, at that time, or-
dered her to be taken care of, until proper enquirit s
should be made of her friends, and yesterday she was
brought up for further examination. She affected
much agitation and poignant distress ; insisted she
was the daughter of Sir Wm. Maxwell, though not
born in wedlock ; that his abandonment of her, and
the cruelty of her fonily, were the causes of her dis.
tress of mind ; that she was-in the habit of takini;
opium as the means of relief; to assuage her pain,
and quiet her perturbed spirits ; that she had often
taken it, and if she was to be taken up and commit-
ted to prison every time she took opium, or if that was
a crime that deserved punishment, her wish was, at
once to be tried, and sent to Botany Bay, for she must
still continue to take opium so long as her pain and
anguish of mind continued.
Mr. Alderman Wool), who was now present, cross-
examined her with great mildness, touching the truth
of her story, in which she still persiSted. He asked
her if she had not a brother named Greaves, who
drove the Salisbury mail-coach, or whether that bro-
ther had not appeared as an evidence against her,
some few years since at the Exeter Assizes, where
she was tried at a vagrant and convicted ? She de-
nied positively any knowledge of Greaves, and said
she never was at Exeter; that she was not in Eng-
land five years ago, having been abroace many years,
and only returned within the last two. She said she
had two brothers, one of whom died at Cape Coast,
in Africa, and the other was in Scotland. Mr. Al-
derman Wood, however, had, by proper enquiries,
well ascertained the fact of her trial and conviction
at Exeter, and the appearance of her brother Greaves,
the rnaibcoachman, as a witness there against her,
and stated several other circnmstances of her having
applied for pecuniary aid to several respectable per-
sons in the vicinity of London, under false pretences,
respecting her family connections, and partieularly to
Mr. Adams, who keeps a naval academy at Edmon-
ton, to whom she stated herself to be the near relation
of Lady Madelina —, and daughter of Colonel
Sir William Gordon, and allied to several other per-
sons of distinction ; but that Mr. Adams had written
to those persons, who denied any knowledge whatever
of such a woman, and said she must be an arrant im-
postor.
Mr. COTTRELL* one of the Magistrates for the
county of Middlesex, also attended, and stated that
the prisoner was one of the most consummate im-
postors alive ; that she had imposed upon the credu-
lity of his own family, whose protection she enjoyed
for several days, and he found she had told them a
thousand lies : for being induced to make some en-
quiries respecting her, he had written to several of
the persons before mentioned, and also .to Lady
Cornwallis, to whom she had-also claineed near rela.