The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-03-06 00:00:00

REMA IIKA•BLE CASE OF SHOPLIFTING.—Shocking cases of
shoplifting, by three sisters, daughters of a man at Edithweston,
and all married women, were investigated at the Town-hall, in
Stamford, on Monday and Tuesday last. It seems that the
three women', residing in parishes several miles apart, have long
been in the habit of meeting at Stamford on market days, and,
dressed in large cloaks, going together to -drapers' shops, and
stealing whatever articles they could secret amongst them. They
were all three in the shop of Mr. Knight in the afternoon of
Friday last, when one of them, named Webber, of Boston, was
detected in stealing a roll of cotton print : and other stolen
goods (as well belonging, to Mr. Knight as to Mr. Brown dra-
per) were found upon her. Her two sisters (Wood, of Colly-
weston, and Broughton, of Edithweston) escaped from the shop
before the relationship was known ; but, joining Webber after-
ward, when, she was- in custody at the station-house, sufficient
passed between them to authorise their detention also, and war-
rants were granted to search the houses of their husbands. At
Boston and at Edithweston an immense quantity of drapery
goods, of all descriptions, were found concealed under beds and
in boxes. Woods, being far advanced in pregnancy, was al-
lowed to go home on, Friday evening before the search-warrant
was executed at Collyweston, and nothing was afterwards found
there; but, from confessions since made, in which each sister
charges the others, it seems that all three were in the habit of
partaking of the plunder, which, in one instance, consisted of a
whole piece of linep cloth, containing 68 yards, and weighing
more than &Abs. ! This they stole from the door of Mr. Brown,
of High-street, in the middleof the day, on Friday. The prac-
tice was, after stealing goods, to go together to a public conve-
nience under the market portico, and there to make a division
of them, each sister taking a share, or selecting articles of most
use to' her. The scene at the Town-hall, on Tuesday, night,
when the women ascertained that each had separately made •a
confession implicating the others, can hardly be conceived. Each
attributed to the ill counsel of her sisters her own criminality,
and one laid her melancholy situation to the want of care of
her education and, habits by a dissolute father! They were all
committed to gaol, fur trial at the Quarter Sesions in April.
Besides drapery. goods, stolen shoes, ironmongery, and other
articles, were found on executing the search warrants.—Stam-
ibrd.Mercury.

AUSTRALIAN WOOLS.—It was only in the beginning of the
year 1.7&?, that the first convict vessel arrived at Botany Bay,
and Van .I)ieman's Land was not taken possession of by the
British till the year 1803.. Previous to 1806 there were but few
sheep it♦ c,iittfer colony. In that year, however, Mr. M'Arthur
left England, convinced of the capabilities of New South
Wales as a Wool-growing country, by his previous acquaintance
with it, and the proof of the wool he'had long brought over with
him. Determined to increase and improve the breed of sheep
as far as possible, he sailed with a few ewes and rams, selected
from the most approved flocks, on board a vessel appropriately
christened for the occasion "The Argo." And certainly, cool-
pared with the results of this enterprise, the famous expedition
of old in search of thegolden fleece may well sink into insigni-
ficance. In 1810, the whole imports of wool from bc.th of these
colonies amounted to only one hundred and sixty-seren pounds.
In 1820, they amounted to ninetv-nine thousand four hundred
and and fifteen pounds. By 18.32, they' had increased to ten
thousand six hundred and thirty-three bales, and this year they
amount to nearly three times even that quantity ! The history
of coluinerre furnishes few parallel cases to the establishment
and increase of such a trade in a country before scarcely known
by name, a trade too which there is every reason to believe is
still destined to progress in an increasing ratio.