Middlesex Sessions.
The Times, 1824-04-23T00:00:00

xetelrtay the Adjourned gesliont 18*r hid *t Clor)rwel, be. fore FRsAces CoNST, Esq. A young man, nzmedFellowis, *ho is a painter, and in good business, was tried upon an indictment, charging him with having extorted the sam of 3s. from a poor old man, named Calf, a real ob. jctof compassion. Calf said, " I am 77 vears of age, and very poor inideed. I was going along the street vvith my barrow, upwards of-12 months ag, ana 1 suppose I might have Tolled it on the Pavement; but the pri- soner comes to me irn the moming and says Lam an officer.' He produced a staff, and says to me, ' Johnsotr has ieezi you, and he'll pull you iip; but I'll get you over for 401. l-had not 4ts. in the worla, God ielp me; and I told him so. Oh, then savs he, you must go to gaol for 21 days, an) so he was going to have me up, and end my days in that way. It was on a Sunday morning, and the day was bitter cold. I have three children to support, and I wac bringing home to them. a bit of meat and bread; and all I had in the world, was 3s. 2d., and I was going to lay out part of that to'buy cAoals to warm Us. I told him it was all I had, and he still threatened me with the gaol, and said he had a warrant; and I said to him, 'For the Lo4's sake don't do it, Sir, you shall have all I have ;' so I gave him thle 3s. 2d., for he would not go without something. He then wrote soniething upon a bit of paper, and put a bit of blue paper upon it to make it look conse- quential, and told me, if Johnson came to me, to slow it to him. and it would be all right. We had no fire on account of the loss; but I began to think that it was odd for a magistrate to grant a war- rant on a Sunday, and as he told me that IlIr. Rawlins6n granted it, 1 went off to him, and asked him. 'What do you mean ' savs 1r. Rawlinson, and when I told him, he sent after Mr. Fellows, but we have been hunting him now upwards of a year, and lie shirked away from place to place. At last I caeht hlim, with the assistance of the chief constable, and here he is." The prisoner asked the old man whether he had not ofrered to set- tle the matter for a 61. note?-" Never," replied Calf. In his defence, Fellows said he had been with an officer when the | old man rollea. his barrow on the pavernent, and that the officer in- tended to have him up, but lie (prisoner) interposed, and prevailed I upon the officer to take less money than the poor man would have been fined under the act. As for the production of the staft, his worship would see nothing at all in tbat, as the fact was, it was a -wooden :t.f. and therefore had nothing to do with the police. Here the prisoner, who is a very able-bodied young man, began to cry. He could, he said, prove that his chazacter was a good one and tbat he was in excellent business. Two respectable persons stepped forward tegire him a character, and they certainly proved that necessity did not compel him to comn- mit the fraud. His father also appeared, but the assurance of the prisoner's abi- lity as a workman, and the condition of his circumstances, were rather calculated to make the case worse.--The jury immediately found him guilty. The CHAUSIMA then addressed the raffian, who continued to pipe his eye" the whole time, and told him, that he had been found gUIltr of one of the most atrocious frauds that ever was committed, as the person whom he had ch?ated was a podr, infirm, and aged man. The Chairman was about to pass entenee on him, when an- other prosecutor, namned Tomkins, made his appearance, and said that the prisoner had cleated him out of 2s. The case was immediat<ly gone into. Tomkins, a poor ignorant creature, stated his barrow was before his door, and the prisoner came up to him and told him that he (prisoner) vras a public officer, and connected with Johnson, the notorious informer. who was pulling up the whole town. " liowever," sars the prisoner, " I'll get you a transference that will protect you from Johnson and all others, for the sum of 5s." Witness had not 5s., but he civillv in- vited the prisoner into his cellar, and told him all the money in the house was 2s. So the prisoner pulled out a pack of parchenents, and wrote a receipt, promised to bring the transference, and took away the 2s. The CHAIR.stAc.-.What did he mean by the transference? Witness.-" I can't tell: but I suppose he meant to cheat me. However, he never brouzht the transference to me." The Jury found the prisoner Guilty. The CHAIR.sMA"r then said that a yeir's imprisonment for each ofience would be as little as stoch a scandalous impostor deserved. He, however, hoped that a quarter of that punishment would have a proper effect; and sentenced Fellows, whno condinued to blubber, to imprisonment for three months for cach offence in the lfouse'of Correction. -- M!DDZLRSX. DD^SSrs.,