The Sun. — 1867-03-08 (London, England)

CRIME AND REMORSE.—Mary Cole, a young woman, was brought up on remand charged with stealing wearing apparel and other property, valued at £5, from a room in a house No. 14, Wellclose-square. _ _ _  The prisoner obtained admission to the house by means of a false key, and opened the door of the room, which she plundered with another false key. She was about to leave the house with her booty, when another lodger discovered her, raised an alarm, and gave her into custody. Sho had several keys upon her, and could have entered every room in the house. There had been two robberies in the same dwelling before, and the prisoner was suspected to have been concerned in them.  Childs, a police-constable of the TI division, recognised the prisoner as an old offender. She was troubled with remorse after her committal to the House of Detention on remand, and made an attempt to commit suicide, in which she very nearly succeeded. She appeared to be very ill, and was again remanded for a week.  The "Sunday Evenings for the People."  Yesterday afternoon a case was brought before the chief magistrate, Sir Thomas Henry, at the Bow-street Police-court, upon four summonses against the proprietors of St. Martin's Hall, Longacre, under the Act 21 Geo. 111., c. 49, entitled " An Act for Preventing certain Abuses and Profanations on the Lord's Day, called Sunday," for keeping a disorderly house; the specific charge being that upon four occasions " entertainments" were given on Sunday, admission being by the payment of money, or by tickets sold for money. Sir John Bowring and Mr. Jas. Haywood, F.R.S., occupied seats on the bench. The prosecution was conducted by Mr. Poland, instructed by Messrs. Baxter, Rose, and Norton ; Mr. Dangerfield, of the firm of Dangerfield and Fraser, appeared for the nominal defendant, the proprietor of St. Martin's Hall ; and Mr. Besley, instructed by Messrs. Sham and Roscoe, of Bedford-row, for the parties conducting the alleged " entertainment." Mr. Poland, in opening the case proceeded to state that the provisions of the act imposed a penalty of £2OO, recoverable by action at law, against any person keeping a house or place in which entertainments or amusements were provided on the Sunday, and also provided that they might be proceeded against for keeping a disorderly house. Now, the entertainment with respect to which these proceedings were taken was beyond question a musical entertainment, at which also lectures were delivered. He was bound to say that: at all these entertainments there was no disorder in the usual sense. The audience were well behaved. The proceedings were conducted with strict propriety, if lawful on the Sabbath-day. The bills which were distributed stated that the admission was free, and no doubt free seats were provided. The hall held about 2,000, and the free seats, which, of course, were the worst seats, were soon filled, then persons who had been unable to obtain admission to those free seats found that by paying their money or buying tickets they could obtain admission to other parts of the hall. It could not be at all pretended that these entertainments were in any way in the nature of religious services, being clearly matters of amusement. There was nothing in the nature of religious worship, although the music, it must be admitted, was entirely of that class known as sacred music. But if these things were to be allowed they might, after commencing with sacred music, proceed by easy gradations to the secular and profane. The great point to settle was whether these proceedings were legal or illegal. After some discussion as to the fitness of the tribunal before which the case was brought, it was agreed that a case should be drawn up for a superior court, and the proceedings were closed for the present.  In the Foreign and Colonial Produce Markets, during the last few days, there has been a very limited amount of business entered into. Sugars, however, have remained at steady rates ; for coffee late prices have been in most instances well supported ; while rice has been dull, and at rather lower rates. Tallow has been in better demand, and quotations for present and forward delivery tend upwards.