Police.
The Times, 1824-07-16T00:00:00

BOW-STmnrE,..--ThenotoriousDickc Bowcrs, a well-lookingyoung I fellow with a wooden Itg; who has appeared at the bar of this office in all sorts of characters dairing the last seven years, together with a Jew youth, named Joel Bond,and three others, were brought up by Herring and others of the day-police, charged wfith being common theatg. The arrest of these men, and the resist2nee and noise they made ti being taken, collected 3 large mob together, and Bow-street and the office wve! literally cranmed. It appeared fronn the statement af fferring and his party, that the prisoner had for somne fi&6 curried on the tradeofdrIfflng,as it is call- ed-that is, imposing upon the unwary& by seUing g6ods of English nianufactureas the prodcctions eofforetgncounties-very successfully iD and about Piccadilly. They had, it seers, hired an up-stair room in a ptiblic house in Titchbourne-strcet, fot the purportes of their trade, and they were all day long loitering about in search of ,fils or easu cstomers, wheni lSey took en their depot, and eased oftheir loose cash, by selling things at tih rate of 300 or 400 per cent. above the-r value The officers had repeatedl'y warned them to desist, and threat- ened to take therm before a magistrate, bnt they were laughed at and defied ; axid Dick Bowers bade them not trouble him with their i.n- Pertilnence, for he would not be interrupted in his lawfal occupation by any robin,eNdlbreast (in allusion to the red waistcoats worn by the day police) In the kingdom. At length Herringdetermined upon a cottpde mauzb against these fellows, and on WVednesday aftere noos he and his men were on the watch. Bond was first seen to " pick up a gentleman, who accomnpanied him to the depot'; and in a iew noments Rfter, Dick hailed another, and prevailed upon him to go also and look at his " beautiful collec:sorn of run goods." The officers followed closely, and having entered the public house, they found Bowers and his gult wraiting upon the stairs, the former having informed the latter, with a due appearance of my- stery, that so-ae one else was in the private room looking at some thimigs, and it was not safe to adi it two at once. The officers went up stairs and there found Bond b6 .iy engaged in showing the odlier customer a quantity of shawls and other goodse The gentleman seemed dreadfully annoyed at being caught in such a situation, and was so anxious to escape,that the officers thought at one time that he would have leaped from the window. He declined appearing against the prisoner, hut gave his card to be presented to the magistrate. We did not learn, the name of this gentleman, but his rank it that of a Commnissary-(General ! i The prisoners and their #oods were taken, and the gentleman on the stairs came with the officers to the This gentleman did not give his name. He stated that Bowers asked him in the street if he wanted a few French gloves,and he went with bim out of " mere curiosity-nothing further." Bond, in Iis defence, denied that he had committed any crme. He was alicensed hawker, and the goods which he sold were of the best quality manufactured in this country. H's had committed no fraud, and wondered why he should be brou.,t there. At hinendraper was sent for to see if there wvere any foreign goads among them, with a view to ascertain whether anv offence had been committed agajt the Exciselaws. Be said that the goods were English, with the exception of one piece of cambric, which was French. Bond observed,thatwlithout saying whether the cambric wasFrench or English, he should like to know what offence therawis in having French cafmbric in his possessiori. There was not a linendraper in London that had notplenty. of it. This point was conceded2 and Bond then said, " Now, your Wor- ship, I wil tell you that this is not French, but Scotch cambric, and itis a proof of the superior quality of my goods when here is an ex- perienced draper who pronounces it to be Freach." Bowers, who is a fellow oi' most consurhmmate impudence, said he should like to'lcow why he was brought there? X ewaspengaged as A servant to Mr. Bond, and did his best to dispone of jlisgco5ds- The gosd,it was tzuel were English, but people hadau&i nktch for amythiing, furaigny that nothing was so sure A mode ~fgofting rid of Ynierebandiaethan persuading them that it came " frosm over the- F*ater." '-Now.f"~ ..continued Bowers, " if people wIl be:sofond of srnu'ggled goods, how an 1 bhelp it ? Why tha,t very ,genttemnan; wh~o row atpcars against us, was willing to buy a btrga.ka jp $4.at way, and was actually negotiating with me for two tabs a rilt brandy, when the officers crme.a The gentleman (who is six feet high) rose at hearing this, arnd in a voice of thunder said, " Ylou ernMliar ! You infetial liafr! which expressive phrase he repeated about a dozen tinres, evideptly in a great pas-:^-. Bowers onCLudtd a long harangue, by decaring that Eerring, in apprehendaing him, was actuated &uly by spite. He owed him a two-year-old grudge. With respect to the resistance spokcn of, it was " all stufF' He (Bowers) did not like to coine through Leiceater-square, because of the crowd, "for you hnow, your lWarship, that to a man of charac&cr it is extremely uaplcasaznt to be brought through a great thoroughfare in the gustody of poEce. officers, and followed by a mob." A long conversation took place between the magistrates and offl cers, and finally, the former expressed an opinion, that na specifib offence had .leen proved, and the prisonersm nstbedischarged. Tht' officers had, however, done their dut pro erly, and perbaps the public exposure of the system of frau wou d be an effieceal remedy against it. The prisoners were discharged, and Bowers left the bar declaring that he would bring an action against the officers for false imprisorinment. MAULBOXtotIGw.sTREET.-A gentleman of respectability was charged at this office, on 1U onday last, before 3Mr. RoE-, the nuagis- trate, by a feUow namcd WFi iatn Slcr p, residing at No. 4, Vinegar_ yard, and who is son tO a man well known about town by the name of "; The Flying Pie-man," with havinBg attempted to seduce hir (Sbsarp) into the commnission of en abominable offience. A vaechma., stated, that, about 11 o'clock the night Wore, Sharp came to him on hls stand near Torrigrlon-square, and told him there was a gentleman over the way who oiFred him a sam of money to submit to the eommission of a detestable crime, the watchman crossed over, and found the gentleman lean:ng against the wan; with a part of his dress in a state of disvrder;* and he thought it his beat duty to take both him and the complainant to the watch-housc. The gentleman w?as, he said, at theime verv much intoxicated. Sharp now repeated what he had told thewatchman betorc tbe lla. gistrate, and said, that the gentleman had actually given him some U..u,nu ),nu.nhoD=. L)LIa U. 2415W CCUU I; ,,: WULCCU CUlCJl. Mr. HARMER, the solicitor, who attended *ith theaccused gen- tleman, cross-examined this fellow, and elicited from bim that, al- though he himself had never made a similar chargebefore, yet comn- panions of his had, and he had bimself beew charged with various offenees of a felonious nature, and had passed a great nartof histime in differentprisons. The zentleman accused now stated. with a great degree of agita- tion, arisingfron the horror of having such an offence charged against hirn, that the whole was a most abominable and .false accu- sation. The fact, he said, was, that he had been on thenight before to Vauxhall.gardens with his rnother, sister, and a party of other friends, with whom he supped there, and having unfortunately dranl- more freely than'he wtas accustomed to, he by sone aceident or other got separated from hnis party, and cruid not tnd them &ftcr. He the.s got into aihackney-coach, tortheparposeofreasliing home; but he had a p>erfect recollecton of the coaclhrzm having stopped on the war, antI lut a strange man into the csach, who, he said, was a fried. He (the gentleman) soon fel asleep, and when he got out of the coachi near Torrington.square, he founLd that he had been robbed (he supposes by the man put Itilo the coach by the driver) of his gold watch, chain, and seals, and every farthing of mney he had about hin, to the amount of near 71.; so ti,at, in fact, he had no money either to gi ve or offer to the fellow whe r*ade thisi eharge. The constable of' the night said, that this was tbM fact-the gen- tletnan had no money about hitn when brought to the watchbhoese * Ir. HARXaER now said, that altlough he was sure thse maisntrate already thought it unnecessary, he should put the characder of this fellow, Sharp, beyond all doubt, and called Horrigan and aotbse patrol, of St. Giles's, Nwhe deposed, that they have knowr .Sha?, from his childlhood; that he is a common thief, and ha's ben a. ver since he was able to pici; a pocket; that bis constant associates atv- thieves and prostitutes; that he has no visible means of living; and that he has been repeatedly in custody on charges of felony, and is totally unwortlhy of belief Pople, tbe gaoler of Tothlill-fields, said, that he knows the com- plainant well; he has been a constant custonmer of his, and was only discharged from prison three days ago, on a charge of felony. Mlr. ROE said, that he could not, for a moment longer, listen tce this charge, and told the gentleman that he need not make himfelf in the least uneasy upon the subject, as no one could believe a .yl- lableof the accusention, and he was, of course. disebarged, withoutthe slightest impnutation. Mlr. ROE then advised the gentleman to en- deavour, if possible to find out the coachman, who had, no doubt, been implicated in robbing him. The Magistrate theu cautioned Sharv how he continued to follow these practices; he could not succeed; his chaacter, as he mrut perceive, was too well known; and if he did not change his habits, the gallows was sure to be his end. Yesterday the same Wirn. Shiarp was brought to the office, charged with pick-ing a gentleman's nocket of a silk bandkerchief, in com- pany with a gang of thieves, in Regent-street, that morning. The case was clearly proved against him, and he was fully committed. POLICE.