The Statesman.
London, England, 1821-09-07 00:00:00

.J.

STA°MEIMAN.

FOLIC'S.

OvnotiaLL.—William Cleveriet, a journeyman
sboeutaker, who has undergone efreral examinations
epos thetcharge of illegally disposing of 'Materials,
the property of his employer, entrusted to him to ma-
nufacture, was yesterday brought up for a final bear-
leg, before Mr. Alderman Atkins. The prisoner, it
appeared, was what in the trade is termed a closer,
and Lad been entrusted by Mr. Moxam, his master, I
with 48 pair of shoe upper leathers to close, the pri-
soner working in his own private lodging. The I
work having been kept a most unreasonable time,
atoxam went at length to inquire after it; not a
Vestige, however, of the property was to be found at
the prisoner', lodginel, and all he could learn respect- I
lug it was, that six pair of the upper leathers bad been
stolen away, and the remainder given to a man of the
name of Jessop, who was also a journeyman shoemaker,
from whom the prisoner had borrowed some money.—
This was the prisoner's own story, and as far .0 re-
lated to the property given to Jessop, appeared to be
confirmed. The latter having been seen in the act of
offering. the goods for sale, a warrant had been granted
thereupon for the purpose of bringing Jessop up. but
be had absconded, and was no where to be traced.—
As there was no evidence as to what had become of
Vie property besides this confession of the prisoner, by
Which it appeared that there was no felony upon the
part of Jessop, and as it could not be proved that Cie-
verley had actually sold the property to Jessup, or au-
tlioris him to sell it, but had merely placed it in his
110kul be redeemed when he could pay the money
be rowed, this, it was considered, would not
amo o such an embezzlement or disposal of the
properly for his own benefit, as would constitute an
offence under the statute. Recourse was therefore had
to an old Statute, the 9th of lieo. I. cap. 27, whirl'
is still in force, and which seems to have been made
expressly to meet cases of this sort : reference bring.
had in the Statute to the disposal, in any improper
way,, of goods or materials intrusted to journeymen
shoemakers more particularly, to manufacture„by their
en►ployers.
Mr. Alderman ATtaxa, after expatiatint.e. at some
length upon the frequency atul gr.'s, enormity of the
offence with which the prisoner was eltarzel,
pro-
ceeded to point out to him the situation in which be
had placed himself. Ry the statute quoted, the Ma-
,
•gistrate before whom any such oirenticr was brought
was nntborised and directed to cause reasonable com.
Pe.nsation to be made by the offender to his empiover,
for the value of the property thus disposed of: and in
default of immediate payment, to levy the same by
warrant of distress upon his goo:ls and chattels; anti,
upon failure of sufficient distress, to order the offender
to be publicly whipped within the parish or place
where the offence was committed.

The prisoner tiavinic nuthinz to offer why the stat.tte
should not he enforced agair,st him, and !r. V.oxam
conceiving him to be 4 lit object for pnnislinient as an
example to others, the Alderman called neon him ti
state the, value of the four doxen of upper leathers co-
tlvsted 40 the prisoner, Which he accordingly did at 31.
The pris.ner was then sentenced to pay immediately
the blllll of V. as a compontution for the value of the
and the trouble and expence incurred in this
hasint”ls.

The prisoner stated his total inability to pay the
same, otherwise than by instalments. The Alderman
replied he could have nothing to do with instalments;
the payment must he immediate. This being totally
impossible for the prisoner to ilo, a warrant of distress
was issued against his goods and chattels ; as, how-
ever, be lives in ready furnished lodgings, and has no
other property in the world except what he stood np-
right in, the distress must necessarily fail. The Al-
derman, however, would not proceed upon the hearsay
evidence of the fact, and the prisoner was therefore
detained until the officer entrusted with the execution
of the warrant should make his report thereon; it
being the intention of the Magistrate, in the event of
there hell; no effects to levy upon, to put the act in
full force against the prisoner, and cause him to Le
publicly whipped.
Maxstos-llousr.—Yesterday a man and his wife,
named Joseph and Michael Aarons, were brought be-
fore the Lord Mayor, on a charge of having stolen a
piece of snpet fine woollen cloth from the warehouse of
Mr. Lester, a Blackwell-hall factor, or wholesale
woollen-draper, in llasinghallistreet. Complaints
have been made for a length of time at the Mansion-
House, front a number of woollen cloth irarebonses in
the city, that they hail been robbed of cloth to a con-
siderable amount, the officer's were set to watch, and
after ninch patient attention to that duty, were a for-
' tunate as to find that in apprehending the two prison-
ers, there appeared to be a likelihood of eheGking touch
activity in this species of plunder. The examiaation
was not fa:ly entered into, in order that the numerous
warehousemen of the .city, who have been robbed,
might have an opportunity of ascertaining whether the
-prisoner bad remembered them in the extensive notice
they have taken of those ho had something to lose.
From the eviden.-e brought forward, it appeared that
yesterday morning the two prisoners went into the
warehouse of Mr. Lester, where the male prisoner ex-
pressed a wish to see some cloths of a particular de-
scription. He bad been at the warehouse the week
before with his wife for the roue purpose, and repre-
sented himself as a foreign dealer. On that occasion
a piece of cloth of the value of 30 guineas was missed.
11 Mist the male prisoner was looking over the cloths
with the warehouseman, the fr.una'e, who is far ad-,
vanced in pregnancy, remained at the front of the
warehouse near the door where there were pieces of
cloth piled up. She had not been .long in the ware-
house when she made some complaints of the heat of
Vie piece, and went out.
The Porter in the warehouse depsed, that he bad
watched the female prisoner, anti observed that she
went out with a peculiar gait or waddle, which led
him to suspect that she had something more ah.,ut ber
person then site carried into the warehouse ; he there-
fore followed her and brought her back. On entering
the warehouse she appeared in the greatest agitation,
and to the amazement of the witness and • the ware-
houseman, let fall a large piece of cloth 20 yards
long, froui under her clothes. An officer was imme-
mediately sent for, and be teak them iutu custody.
The officer found sixteen sovereigns upon the assn.
•. He did nbt search the fe eale. The male .prisonet:
• with difficulty made himself understood in his answers
to a few lueitious.—Both prisonlrs were; Ventinded
(Or 'farther examitiation. • • '

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