POLICE.
At the Thames Police Office, on Monday, several persons attended to show cause why warrants to eject them from the houses they hold, now purchased by the St. Catherine's Dock Company, should not be issued. After some desultory conversation, it was understood that the Company are bound to give in all such cases a regular notice of six months after their purchase, if they cannot obtain possession by an arrangement with the holders.
A poor Irishwoman, named -Keefe, who lives at No. 5, Charles-street, Drury-lane, came before the magistrate at Bow-street, on Monday, in great apparent distress, to beg for the assistance of the police to recover her child, a little girl three years and a half old, who had been stolen on tile day pre-' from the street in which she lived, by a tall man in a fustian jacket, who was seen by the landlady of the house about ten o'clock on Sunday
morning with the child in his arms, giving her some sweetmeats. The man was afterwards seen with the child in the next street, since which time she has been missed. The magistrate directed an officer to use every means for the recovery of the child.
Earl Pon;is and two of his servants attended the Marlborough-street Office on Monday, to complain of Amelia Francis, a black woman, wino occasionally indulges in breaking the windows of his lordship's house in Berkeley-square. Several years ago, when Earl Powis was returning from the Government of India. he purchased this female, then a child, at St. Helena, and brought her with him to this country. His lordship had her educated and brought up in
his family as an attendant upon his children ; but as she grew up, she evinced a very vicious and violent disposition, until his lordship was compelled, re- luctantly, to part with her; but he took care to provide her with a situation,
which he procured for her in another family, but he was mistaken ; and in the end, his lordship was obliged, rather than suffer her go to ruin here in Lon- don, to send her home again to her friends at St. Helena, giving her at the same time a considerable sum of money, with an ample equipment of wearing apparel of every description, and every thing else she might want, together
with a free passage home. She did not however remain lung at St. Helena, when she managed to find her way back to England again. and her first visit was to the Earl's house, where she caused such a riot at the door that she
was taken to the watch-house. His lordship, however, very humanely sent her home at his own expense a second time to St. Helena, and a second time she came back again to London, and has since been in the habit of going fre- quently to the Earl's house and disturbing the family by her violence. The prisonec was sent for two months to the House of Correction. In the case of some marble-carvers, who quarrelled among themselves, and came to the Marylebone Office for judgment ; Mr. Rawlinson delivered
an opinion against cobbing—a favourite punishment among the workmen, where the culprit is thrown across a marble horse, and made to undergo that kind of chastisement which a refractory school-boy receives at the hands of his master.
At Bow-street on Tuesday, a respectable looking man, named Vyse, who is the proprietor of an extensive bonnet shop on Islington-green, was fully • committed en a charge of having in his possession, and being concerned in the robbery of some notes, stolen in November from Mr. Greenway, a part- ner in the Warwick bank. Charles Dobson, a f.!erk in the booking-office of Messrs. Waterhouse and Co., at Islington. s-.. to his having frequently changed notes for the prisoner. On Tuesday last he came to him with five one-pound notes of the Warwick and Chipping Norton Banks, which he changed for him. A day or two after, he canoe again with some others of the same Bank for him to change, at the rata of a shilling a pound. and inti- mated that as he had large dealings in the country he should bring more. Thinking his conduct suspicious, the clerk desired him to call again ; and he, in the mean time, acquainted Gardner, a Police Inspector, with the circum- stance, who stood by when the prisoner came again, and took him into
custody. The two notes produced are the same as the prisoner offered him to change.
At Marlborough-street, on Tuesday, Michael Connor, an Irishman, living in Church-street, St. Giles's, was charged with unlawfully harbouring a little urchin, thirteen years of age, and inducing her to commit a misdemeanour. The girl's father stated that she was certainly a bad girl, and left her home to resort with bad characters. The child, a miserable-looking little object, was placed before the Magistrate ; but as she was destitute of all religious knowledge, she was not sworn. She said that the prisoner -met her in the street, and asked her to go home with him to pick potatoes. She went with hitn, and then he told her she must go out and make a curtsey to every lady and ,„oentlentan she met to get something to pay for her lodging. She accor- dingly went out begging, and got a great many halfpence, and gave the whole to the prisoner. He told her to hide herself under a wheelbarrow when her father came to look for her. The prisoner denied the charge of sending the child out begging ; but admitted that she had slept in his house. Mr. Roe told the prisoner, that if the child had been in a condition to be admitted to make the statement on oath, he should have sent him to hard labour for three months. He must be held to bail to answer any charge that might be brought against him at the sessions, by which time the child might receive some re- ligious instruction, and be fit to be sworn;
A young man, whose manners and address bespoke the gentleman, but whose appearance denoted the most abject poverty, applied to the Sitting Magistrate to be passed home to his parish. Mr. Roe—" What do you want ins to do for you ?" Applicant—" To pass me, Sir, to my parish, which, is within a mile of Exeter." Mr. Roe—" Have you no parish in Lon- don—or where did you sleep last night." Applicant—"I have no settle- ment in London ; and I have not lain my head on a bed since I have been in London." The applicant then stated that last week lie had arrived from Dieppe at Brighton, from whence he had set out for London ; that he had walked the whole length of the way, and arrived here on Saturday ; that not possessing- a single sixpence he had not been able to procure a bed, and the last mouthful of food which he had tasted was on Monday morning ; that he was out during the tremendous rains of Monday night, and he was now dying from complete exhaustion. Mr. Roe—" It is not in my power to pass you. You must endeavour to reach your parish. You should have applied at Brighton."
Previous page
