The Statesman.
London, England, 1820-12-22 00:00:00

POLICE.

PURIM' OFTICE, Bow STllFET.—Yesterday, Mr. Fre-
&rick Avert—, the celebrated Lecturer on Practical
Chemistry, it .1, brought to the office by Bishop and Ni-
cholls, the officers, front his house, in Compton-street,
Soho, where he has resided for about 30 years, charged
with rubbing the Royal Institution in Albemarle-
street. to it hid' the prisoner was a subscriber, and
had hoot so for mane years. Ile emit- went an ex-
amination before Rirliard Birnie, Esq., the sitting
Magistrate. It appeared from the evidenre adiliterd
in support of the that Ilse Royal Institution
possc,seil it very superior library, particularly in ge-
twat scientific honks, lint that the rharacter and esti
ination of the hoolis have been reduced considerahl
for ...to, rearq past by their being nutilrrell imperfect
or in...nip:eh., not by stealing or destroying the bo/il;s.
lint br tearing nut leaves fr on the books and stealing
them. 'I his practice has been stipposed to have beet.
rani...! tilt for :•onte years before it was discovered:
and at first, when one book and then another was
pointed out as imperfect, it was conjectured to have
been Iry accident ; bus at length it was discovered
that Itich were found to he imperfect by leaves
brio!: deficient, had been ascertained to have been coin-1
pletely perfect a very short time before. The num-
ber of the detective Looks increased, particularly
scientific and valuable works, so much so, that
lir. John titers, the Assistant Librarian to the
Royal institution, made a lyrical statement to the
Managers of the circumstances, and at the same
time mentioned the prisouer's name as the gen-
tleman lie suspected, and stated, as the ground of
Isis suspicion, that the hooks which lie had discovered
leaves to have been taken out of were boo!,s that the
prisoner Aas in the habit of reading, and that after
the prisoner had lift the lostittiti,in, he had examined
the Sallie hooks he had seen in his hands, and had
found leaves taken out of them. Mr. Stert was di-
rected to watch the conduct of dm prisoner when he
came to the Institution, which he accordingly did,'
The prisoner's hours in general of visiting the Insti-
tntion were front s little after live o'clock in the after-1
noon till past seveu, time hours best calculated to pur-
sue such mat-practices, as there are fewer subscribers
there then than at ulh. r hours. On Wednesday
evening the pri-iini r was at the Institution during his
ustril boors of between 5 and 7, when Mr. Stert
weelted him very closely, and had no doubt that he
hail torn some leaven out of some books he hail been
looking :-1, but owing to a pile of hooks which was
between them he could not be positive, and therefore
he was afraid to interfere. After the prisoner had
left the Institution, Mi. Stert proceeded to examine
the books which lie bail particularly noticed the pri-
dna had been looking at, when he found a periodical
scirntifie work, called Nicholson's Journal, defective
of live leaves, which lie was positive was entire and
complete last week. Strongly suspecting that the
prisoner had taken them, he determined on taking
steps against Lim; he reported the whole of the cir-
euntstances to Mr. Mingle, the Sitting Magistrate,
who, after doe cototider ttian, determined on issuing a
search warrant to search the prisoner's house.
Bishop and Nicholls, the officers, accompanied Mr.
Stert to the prisoner's house in Compton-street. with the
search warrant, anti found the prisoner at home. Mr.
Stert proceeded to exae:ine the different papers in the
house, and identified a ontether whirl, had been torn out
of books beloagitig to the Ititval Institution. While this
was doing, the prisoner walked up and down the room
in great agitation.
The °dicers seised the leaves, Sr. identified by Mr.
Stert as belonging to the proprietors of the Royal In-
stitution, and them and the prisoner they brought to
the afire before Mr. filmic, when 31r. Stert identified
sundry leaves, which corresponded with books belong-
ing to the Royal Institution that hail been mutilated.
All the hooks which had been plundered of leaves were
those which the prisoner was in the habit of reading
when he was at time Royal Institution. Three leaves
found in his house corresponded with the first volume
of it' i Ili ch's Coniestic Encyclopaedia, which Mr. Steil
said lie had no doubt belonged to the volume in the
library of the Royal Institution ; also three leaves,
containing from page 421 to 426, of Cullen's Materia
Medico, which had been missed from that 'cork be-
longing to the Institution. The officers produced a
number of other leaves, ansonittiog in the whole to
about 30, small and large, which M r.Sted said he bad
doubt belonged to books in the library of the In-
stitution.
The prisoner, in his defence, said the leaves seized
by the officers in his house, and produced before the
Magistrate, belonged to books. which be had at home.
State book!, however, belongiog to the lioNlSoslOn were
produced, in which the leaves matched to the places
where leaves had been takes out, as to. the pages,
type, &c.

The Magistrete, after hearing the whole of the car
nisi it was of great consequence to the property nt ~u
Institution of such importance, and especially as
in-
jured or despoiled by one of its own subscribers; hot
to constitute a felony, the property stolen must be if
some value, and however valuable the books might be
from which the leaves found in the prisoner's boner,
and identified by Mr. Stert, has been torn, yet tie
leaves separated from them were only waste paper,
and it was doubtful whether the smallest v.ilue (.0,1;4
be put upon the different le.ives produced ; if they had
weighed r pound, be would have committed the .r;.
soner for the value of a pound of waste paper, but as
that was not the case he discharged hint.