A curious case was heard at the Middlesex Sessions on
Monday. John Wright was employed to take an inventory of some jewellery in the house of the late Earl of Cadogan. He stole one, a bracelet given by Charles II. to a Cadogan, and valued at fifty guineas. He took it to Mr. Atteuborough, the great pawnbroker, said he had bought it at a sale, and asked 15/. The assistant in the -shop offered him 10/., which was accepted. The stones were imme- diately forced out, and the gold sold to be melted down. The stones alone fetched 18/. The assistant allowed that the prisoner -was a stranger, but said it was a "matter of principle" with them to break up old things at once. Mr. Attenborough, in a letter to the Times, denies this, and it is a little difficult to see how a pawn- broker, when offered goods by a respectable-looking man, is to hint -that he stole them. The real evil is the practice of melting so .quickly, which ought to be stopped by law.
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