The Sun. — 1845-10-04 (London, England)

WORSHIP-STREET.  On Thursday Mr. Vann, the solicitor, attended before Mr. Broughton, accompanied by Mr. T. Auvache, a master weaver, living in Manchester-street, Bethnal-green, on whose behalf he solicited the magistrate's advice and assistance under the following circumstances : Mr. Vann stated that his client, Mr. Auvache, had given some important evidence at the trial of James Tapping, the man who was executed at the Old Bailey in the early part of the present year for the murder of Emma Whiter, a young woman to whom he had paid his addresses; and after adverting to the fact which had been elicited during the preliminary investigation of that melancholy case, that the mind of the wretched criminal had been in the first instance inflamed and exasperated against his unfortunate victim by receiving a number of anonymous letters affecting her character, the Learned Gentleman proceeded to state, that the subject of his present application referred to a series of similar communications which had been sent to his client, referring to a young woman named Brooks, to whom- Mr. Auvache had for a considerable period paid honourable attentions, and was shortly to be married. The anonymous correspondence of which he complained dated its commencement from the very week in which Tapping was executed, and the letters having been for scme time confined to mere vague, but virulent imputations, upon the young woman's reputation, which his client was perfectly satisfied were wholly false, he paid no attention to them ; but their ;concealed author having lately given expression to alarming invectives against the object of Mr. Auvache's affections, and in the most direct and unambiguous terms incited him to murder her, his client felt that it was high time to take some decisive steps for the discoveg of the offender, and to obtain legal assistance for that purpose. His anonymous assailant, however, appeared by some means to have become apprised of the course he had adopted; for on the day after his client had placed the matter in his (Mr. Vann's) hands, he had received another letter of a very alarming tendency, in which the writer, after declaring the most deadly vengeance against the applicant's intended wife, expressed his determination, should Mr. Auvache proceed Any further in the matter, or " attempt to raise his hand or voice" for the young woman's protection, to lie in wait for him and dash out his brains, and concluded by declaring that he was fully prepared to expiate the crime upon the scaffold, and advised him to take this as a serious and final warning if the author's intentions. The system of malignant and unrelenting persecution to which his client and Miss Brookes lead been subjected had occasioned the greatest apprehension and alarm both to themselves and their respective familes, tnd, considering his own and the young woman's life to be laced in imminent danger, he had determined upon seeking `lie advice of the magistrate as to the best measures to adopt 'o insure their personal safety. Mr. Vann then handed to the magistrate a large bundle of letters, all, he said, relating to the subject of the present applicat, n, and after perusing some of them, Mr. BROUGHTON asked the applicant if his suspicions )ointed to any particular person as likely to be the author of hem? The applicant replied, that he had not the slightest idea who could have written them ; for, although he had certainly been threatened with personal violence by a near relative of Tapping, immediately after tha latter's execution, for the evidence he had given upon the trial, the threat he had used to appeal to the law for protection appeared to have been effectual, as the annoyance had ever singe been discontinued ; and he was, therefore, quite at a loss to say from what quarter the threatening letters had emanated. Mr. BROUGHTON said, that the feelings of apprehension under which the applicant was labouring were certainly entirely justified by the menacing tendency of the letters which had been produced, the last of which in particular contained a direct threat against his life; and he should therefore order Fitzgerald, the warrant-offic.r, to use the most vigilant efforts to discover the author of them, if possible, in which event he would instantly issue a warrant for his apprehension. The applicant thanked the magistrate for his attention, and left the court with his solicitor.