Star.
London, England, 1821-10-22 00:00:00

POLICE.

GUILDHALL.—Thomas Johnson, the son of a man
who professes to get his living by letting out carts
and horses, in King's Arms-yard, Whitecross-street,
was brought up on Saturday for final examination,
before Alderman &HOLEY. The charge against him
was the being a party in a robbery of the most daring
nature. The prisoner and two other men drove
up in a small cart about six o'clock one evening last
week to the door of Mr. Green's carpet and blanket-
warehouse, in Bread-street, Cheapside, and after
waiting at ashort distance for a few minutes, watched
their opportunity and conveyed into the cart a large
bale of blankets, value £24 10s. and drove off. They
were, however, fortunately for Mr. Green, observed
by the shopman at a neighbouring warehouse, who
thought the circumstance suspicious, and on his
giving the alarm, the cart was followed and stopt in
St. Paul's Church-yard, with the bale in it, and the
prisoner driving. Two men walking near the cart
were seen to make off immediately on its being stop-
ped. The prisoner, in his defence, stated, that he
had been regularly employed by the two men who
were with him, but whom he did not know, to re-
move the goods to avoid an attachment. 'This state-
ment was also corroborated by Johnson, the father,
who said the parties applied to him, and he took
them to his son in Smithfield, and gave him direc-
tions to go with the Gentlemen and do the job: Ile
did not know the names or address of either of them.
The prisoner has been in custody a week, in which
time inquiry has been made respecting him, and the
result being by no means favourable to his character,
he was committed.to take his trial for the robbery.

MISTAKEN HoNia NI rIf.—JOSC/M and Thomas Gray,
father and son, the latter a child only 13 years of age,
whose examination at this Office, on a charge of frau•
dulently obtaining two pair of boots from Mr.lledges,
bootmaker, 92, Dorset-street, Salisbury-square, on
Wednesday last, was reported in our Paper of the
following day, were brought up again on Saturday,
before Mr. Alder man SCHOLEY. The tears and ex-
cessive emotions of the child, the aprarently deep
and unaffected contrition expressed by the father, his
anxious supplication that the weight of punishment
might fall only on himself, and the melancholy story
he told of the distressing state of his family, to relieve
which he had been tempted to this his first and only
crime, excited at the previous examination the strong-
est feelings of commiseration in the minds of the Ma-
gistrate, the prosecutor, and every individual pi esent
and in the participation of this feeling, added to the
possibility that the man might be restored to his fa-
mily, and yet become a worthy member of society,
we were induced to suppress the names and residence
of the prisoners in our report of the case. It now ap-
pears, that, with the exception of the distress of hi;
family, the whole exhibition was a well-acted trick
to excite compassion, and ecape punishment. The
residence given by Gray, the father, No. 5, Cebutg-
, row, Westminster, proves to be correct ; he has, how-
ever, lived there scarcely three months; he is not a
milkman, and the clumsy explanation given for that
pats of his story was, that they were wishing to get a
; by his own account he has not worked
at his trade of a bookbinder for more than a twelve-
month, his last employ in that trade being with Mr.
Fearman, Catliviii.e-street, Strand ; and from the
evidence addticed on Saturday it is evident that the
support of himself and family for the whole of that
period has been procured by the commission of simi-
lar frauds to that for which he has at length been ap-
prehended. His plea of " a first and only offence," is an
ingenious mental reset vation ; this, from all accounts,
being the first and only experiment in this line with the
boy. When the prisoners were placed at the Bar on Sit•
tuiday, an anonymous communication to the Magis-
trate was read, which stated that numerous book-
sellers and stationers had been defrauded of at titles
to a considerable amount, in exactly a similar m:ut-
ner to that practised upon Mr. fledges. Sever al persons
were in attendance to give evidence against the elder
prisoner, but two cases only were gone into. The first
charge was made by Mrs. Wiggins, a straw-bonnet-
maker, in Tottealiam-court-road, who stated, that
six months ago Gray came to her shop with a pre,
tended message from a Lady, who wanted to see her
and give her an order for some straw bonnets. Mrs.
Wiggins was about to send her shop-wmi,an, but the
prisoner said it was the Lady's particular desi.e to'
give the order to herself. Mrs. Wiggins accordingly
accompanied the prisoner, who soon contrived to give,
her the slip. She found no such Lady ; and on her
return home she was astonished at hearing that the
prisoner had been there as if with a message from
her, and had obtained two of the best Leghorn bon-
, nets. Mr. Keys, the bookseller, Coleman-street, de-
posed; that some time since the prisoner came to his
shop, and told him there was a Gentleman in Fins-
bury-square, who was going into the country, and
wanted to give• Mr. Keys an order for some Books to
take with him. Mr. Keys accordingly went with the •
prisoner, who, on their coming to Finsbury-square,
pointed out the house, and said he must himseif go
to a trunk-maker's near at hand, to order a portman•
teau for his master. Mr. Keys found there was no
such person living at the house, and ran home as
fast as he could, but was just too late. The prisoner
-had returned to the shop, saying to Mrs. Keys that'
he had been sent by her husband to fetch the best
folio Bible, and the guilty) edition (..f Dr. Johnson's
Dictionary, which was in the window, which Mrs.
Keys did 'not hesitate to let him have. Several others,
were anxious to relate examples of the prisoner's ad-
dress in his profession. The Magistrate thought it
unnecessary to multiply charges against him; and as
Mr. Hedges's scruples abcut prosecuting were re-
moved by the• accounts given of the prisoner's long
practised frauds, he was bound over to prosecute, as
was also Mr. Keys ; and the prisoner was fully
committed.
Bow-mum—Saturday, James Eddows, a notori-
ous housebreaker, underwent an examination before
the sitting Magistrate, 6. R. MI NSH tiLL, Esq. charged
with burglariously breaking and .entering the dwel-
ling-house of Lucas Bull, a master basket-maker,
residing at N 0.6, Paradise-row, St. Pancras. He was
committed for trial.
• QUEEN-scuiAae.—Saturday, a desperate fellow,
named Aaron Pond, a well:known character, residing
at No. 19, Crown-street, Westminster, was committed
from this Office on two separate charges of assault.
The-first charge was preferred by a AUNume, a re-
spectable tbetnAveperin Chaxles-street.Wesvign-..

ster, who stated that the prisoner came into his house 1,
on Wednesday, with a large dog, and set it upon his'
cat, which it. killed almost instantaneously. He at-
tempted to save the animal, it being a favourite, but
:was abused by the prisoner, whom he ordered to leave
the house, which he refused to do, and struck him a
violent blow. He attempted to turn the fellow out,
and was knocked down by him, and he set his dog
upon him while he lty on thetround, and but for a
constable who came in at the moment, and struck the
dog on the head with his staff, the furious animal
would have torn his face. The constable attempted
to secure the prisoner, but was knocked down, and
the prisoner and dog escaped. Mr. Nurce applied for
a warrant against Pond, which being granted, Hand-
ley, Gillmore, and Dew, police officers, were dis-,
patched to the prisoner's house to execute it. On en-
tering the premises the prisoner set three dogs at
them. Handley seized the prisoner, and was as-
saulted with great violence. One of the dogs also
seized him by the leg, and he was compelled to let
the prisoner out of his grasp. Dew also seized the
prisoner, but he was bitten by the dog and beat by
the prisoner. Gillmore made an attempt to secure
the prisoner, but had cause to repent his temerity:—
he was bitten and assaulted. So determined was the
prisoner's resistance, that his clothes, even to his shirt,
were torn from his back. While the prisoner was re-
sisting Dew, Handley shot one of.the dogs, and the
rest slunk off. The prisoner was eventually secured:
he had suffered in the conflict considerably. Commit-
ted for trial on both charges.
iiATTON.-GA lIDEN.—Marg, otherwise Tom Jones,
was charged under the Vagrant Act. The prisoner,
who was pregnant, was sitting on the steps of a Gen-
tleman's door, in Gloucester-street, Queen-square, in
a fainting fit, sunounded by a great crowd, when two
officers of the Mendicity Society took her to their
rooms, where it appeared she had been relieved three
times, and each time passed to Birmingham, her
parish. In her defence, she gave the following extra-
ordinary account of her own life:—She was a soldier's
daughter ; her father was killed ; she was dressed in
boys clothes, and at the age of twelve years she en-
listed in the 47th Regiment of Foot, in which she
selves! seven years as a drummer, when her sex was
discovered, and she was discharged. At nineteen,
she man ied a soldier in the 7th Dragoons; her hus-
band was killed at the battle of Waterloo, where, as
a volunteer, in men's clothes, she fought by his side,
and received a sabre wound across her nose, a bayonet
wound in her left leg, and a wound from a musket-
ball in her right. After the action, she found her
Captain, dreadfully wounded in the head. She had
him removed, and he recovered ; he now lives in
Sloane-street, and allows her a shilling a day : she
also had nine pence a day from the King, which has
since been taken from her on account of drunkenness;
-after which she was married to her present husband,
a soldier in the Guards, with whom she lives. Being
taken with a tainting-tit, she sat on the steps of a
door to rest, some humane persons threw halfpence
into her lap, and she was •tal:en into custody for beg-
ging. The officers could not prove that they saw
her begging, and she was discharged.

The Sessions for the Borough of Southwark corn
menced at the Town-Hall on Friday.
. ISWliiret Ladd, a decent looking rning man, was
indicted for a violent assault upon Elizabeth, the wife
of Thomas Humphries, a smith, in Barron's-place,
Illackfriar's-road. The prisoner, it appeared, had
lodged with Mr. Humphries, and was in arrear for
rent to the amount of 1.3 17s. 3d. They gave him
notice to quit, and finding at length that Ile would
not go, and that there was no chance of getting paid,
they locked the door against him, and refused him
admission. The prisoner gave theth no annoyance
at that time, but. about six weeks afterwards he came
and demanded a tub, which Mrs. Humphries said she
had sold : he, however, got sight of it in the coal-hole,
and insisted on having it, and in his endeavours to
obtain. it struck her several violent blows, particu-
larly on the abdomen. She was pi egnant at the time,
and the violence committed on her brought on pre-
mature labour. In consequence of the blows the
mother had received, she was considerably bruised,
and it was stated .in evidence that the child, when
born, exhibited similar appearances of violence to
that on the mother.
The prisoner, in his defence, denied having struck
her, and said the bruises on her arms, &c. were oc-
casioned by herself in her _struggles to prevent his
getting the tub. The Jury found the prisoner Guilty,
but recommended him to mercy. Sentenced to twelve
months imprisonment.
Stephen Tyler was indicted for an assault on the
wile of Mr. Newton, a respectable builder, of Welling-
ton-street. The prisoner was going along the Borough-
road, on the evening of the 13th of March, drunk,
amusing himself with beating the lid against the side
of a four-gallon saucepan, which he had just bought.
The prosecutrix unfortunately happened to come out
of a passage at the moment the prisoner was passing,
and he, without any provocation, struck her a violent
blow on the temple, which felled her to the ground
in a state of insensibility. The prisoner attempted to
make his escafe, but was stopped and secured by the
watchman. Mrs. Newton was in the eighth month
of her-pregnancy at the time of this outrage. She
was put to bed with every symptom of premature la-
bour the same evening, and suffering great agony
for four days, was at -length delivered, when, as in
the former instance, the child was found to exhibit
marks of violence similar to those that appeared on
the mother. That side of the temple corresponding'
to the part on which Mrs. Newton had received the
blow, shewed marks of, violence, and the eye was
turned in its socket.
The prisoner's Counsel had nothing to offer in his
defence, but in mitigation of punishment, pleaded the
state of intoxication he was in at the time, to which
alone this wanton act was to be attributed. He had
been annoyed in his way home by some girls of the
town, at.d, drunk as he was,. his rage had been in-
discriminate. He.waa a married man, and had a
wife and three children entirely dependent on him
for support. He had already offered the only recom-
pence in his power, that of his services in the way of
his trade as a . painter, to any reasonable amount,
which had been -refused.
The Jury, without hesitation, convicted the pri-
soner and the Court, taking into consideration his
Tenitence,_ and the' belplerd situation of his family,
sentenced hw to only six months inwrisoltment.