Sir Richard Birnie declined on Tuesday to sanction the binding
of two boys as, apprentices to a chimney-sweeper. Sir Richard stated that it was the wish of Mr. Peel to Introduce sweeping-machines as much as possible.
Samuel Larcomb was fined in IL at Bow-street on Tuesday, for assaulting two policemen. A Mr. Mouls, a publican, had been cited as a witness, but not being able to leave his shop at the moment when the dignitaries of Bow Street required his attendance, he incurred their severe displeasure, and received a hint that at the next renewal of licences, he should not be forgotten.
William Turner was committed at Guildhall on Tuesday, for having robbed the manufactory of Mr. Armstrong, of Jewin Street Crescent, of 300/.
John Spencer, a porter, was committed on Saturday at the Mansionhouse for sterling a chest of tea from the India Company's yard, in October last. Joseph Sharp and William Hart, the latter one of the new police, were com- mitted on Saturday at the Mary-la-bonne Office, for having swindled Mr. Bennet, a publican in the neighbourhood of Cavendish Square, out of several pounds, by forging a note in the name of one of his acquaintances, requesting a loan to that amount.
Charles Hamilton accused himself, on Saturday, at the Queen Square °Mee, of stealing a watch. His object, he said, was to get transported. Edward Gordon, a drover, was brought before the Lord Mayor on Thursday, by the parish officers of Aldgate, to answer for having refused to maintain an ille- gitimate child. He offered to marry the young woman ; but she refused to accept of such a brute as he had proved himself, for a husband. The Mayor commended her firmness, and the drover was locked up in default of sureties.
At the Lambeth Street Office on Thursday, there were, as usual, a number Of applicants for relief from the parish of Bow. Among them was an old Irishman and woman, man and wife, who begged of the magistrate, Mr. Walker, to grant them some relief. Upon being 'asked by Mr. Walker how many children they had, and the age of their eldest, the woman said that their oldest child was seven, but they had another ten, and the middle child was thirteen.—Times.
The driver of Mr. Cloud's Hammersmith omnibus has been fined in 5/. by the Magistrates at Bow Street, for conveying a gentleman from Somerset House to Albemarle Street, Piccadilly.
Mary Charden, who contrived to excite so lively an interest in her favour some weeks. ago, bya story about her having been decoyed from her relations near Canter- bury, to a brothel in town, has been exhibiting at Union Hall in the character of it thief. She had upwards of forty duplicates in her possession, and she seems to have been engaged inshe trade of robbery for upwards of a year. An old man, who stated that he was a brother of Mr. Munden the comedian, with his wife, who is nearly eighty-nineyears of age, applied on Tuesday at Hatton Garden for an order to be admitted into the workhouse of St. Andrew's Holborn. The old man had been a pressman, employed by respectable printers, but the introduction of machinery had thrown him out of employment. The appearance of the old couple excited a good deal of compassion ; and on the statement being made to the Magistrates that they had resided for twenty-five years in the parish, and were spoken of with great respect, an order was instantly granted for their admis- sion into the workhouse.
There was another application at Bow Street on Wednesday, for an investiga- tion by the Magistrates there, of the circumstances connected with the death of the late Mrs. Phillips of Finchley. Her trustees made the application ; and Mr. Phillips, and the medical men, were in attendance during its discussion. Mr. Halls was disposed to meet it as he met the former, by the objection that there was no specific 'charge on oath against any indit idual before him. We bold that nothing could be more preposterous mi.-. s osso...r Ow duty or .t magistrate of police. Public suspicion has been excited for months past in regard to the death of a person by foul means ; and some of the most useless forms and fictions in the law of England have been opposed to the adoption of the only process by which this suspicion can be set at rest. Nay, the Magistrates, by their adherence to their narrow interpretation of the law's spirit, have aggravated its naturat defects as a regulator of judicial inquiry. No one has seemed all along more anxious for investigation than Mr. Phillips ; and in his peculiar situation he*was entitled to it, on the score of humanity. We are glad to perceive that Mr. Halls has relaxed a little from the rigidness of his views on this point, and agreed to assist in conducting an examination on Wednesday next, when written evidence will be received. Mr. Paillips has gone so far as to pledge himself for the neces- sary funds. Sir Richard Birnie, by the way, entered the field as a partizan ; and we cannot profess admiration of the appearance which he made. He asked Mr. Phillips, whether he had ventured to accuse him (Sir Richard) of partiality, and added, that the man who could lay partiality to his charge must be—an abandoned: character. We do not see that this Bow Street dignitary was called on to defend himself; and we question much whether his "pace's privilege" warrants the use of such language in such circumstances.
On Wednesday, a boy brought a forged check to the banking-house of Messrs. Wright and Co., in Henrietta Street, Covent Garden. It bore to be drawn by Sir W. Pringle, and was for 90/. It was immediately discovered to be a fOrgery. The boy, when examined, stated that he had been sent by a gentleman whom he had never seen before, to Stratford Place, with a packet addressed to Slr W. Pringle ; that at the door of the house to which he had been directed, he met. another gentleman, who claimed the packet, and despatched him to his first em- ployer with an answer ; and that the latter had scat hint to the banking-house with the substance of that answer—the cheek in question. The boy's character was found to be good, and he was dismissed.
A Mr. Hollis appeared at the Mary-la-bonne office on Wednesday, to complaid of the conduct of an officer of the establishment. The officer stated, that he had occasion to call, in the course of his duty, at the }anise of a lady, whom he found Mr. Hollis treating rather roughly, and hat.' accordingly interposed. The lady herself then appeared, and stated that the coenplainant persecuted her with his addresses ; and she admitted, that though she did rot like the man, she liked his presents. These he wanted her to return, and had assaulted her in censequence of her refusal to surrender them. The Magistrate thought she could not do better than return them,.-.and Mr. Hollis stated that he asked no more: but this the lady refused to do; and instead of getting satisfaction, Mr. Hollis was bound over to keep the peace towards her. The drivers of the omnibuses to Greenwich were fined in ten shillings at Union Hall, on Wednesday, for driving furiously along the road.
Edwin Harris was sentenced, at Hick's Hall, on Saturday last, to six months imprisonment for an improper assault upon a female. Mr. Whitmore, a surgeon, who attended both the prosecutrix• and Harris, published on Thursday a letter in the Morning Chronicle, in which he states, that had he been examined, he could have established the impossibility of the offence alluded to having been perpe- trated by Harris or any one else ; but his evidence had not been adduced by the prisoner's counsel, because of the counsel for the prosecution having subpcenaed hint, and by this master-stroke impressed his antagonist with the belief that his evidence would be hostile to Harris. The Ifforniv chronicle indulges in some Weighty remarks on the indifference to truth—on the indifference, in fact, to every thing but professional victories—which the structure of our courts of law, and our judicial system, generate in counsel. Thomas Brown, a lad fourteen years of age, was charged at the Thames Police on Thursday, with having stolen a valuable knife-case, which he had been trying to sell. He admitted that he had lived by theft for some time, and added, that he meant to have " done" a very extraordinary robbery next morning. A writ of habeas corpus was a few days since granted by the Court of King's Bench, to bring up .Isaiah Smart, of Brydges Street, Covent Garden, from Don- caster gaol, to which he had been fully committed for robbery, in order that he might be present at an application which was made before Mr. Justice Bayley, in chambers, to admit him to bail. After hearing the depositions, Mr. Justice Bayley decided, that, from the nature of the evidence which had been adduced, he felt it impossible to admit 'he 'prisoner to bait: he was therefore taken away in custody to be forthwith conveyed to York Castle, to which he stands fully corn- rafted for trial at the next Assizes.
Mr. Thomas Powell, a respectable inhabitant of Stepney, was proceeding along High Street, St. Giles's, between eleven and twelve o'clock on Monday evening, when a ruffianly-looking fellow came up to him and inquired the hour. Auother of the same gang, approached, and exclaimed," Its no use asking him, don't you see he has no watch ;" and he was forthwith joiced by two others, who knocked Mr. Powell's hat over his eyes, and robbed him of twenty-three sovereigns.
A person of dashing appearance, calling himself Thomas Wood Gascoine, was charged at Bow Street yesterday with an attempt to rob a gentleman on Wednes- day night, at the pit door of Covent Garden Theatre. He was recognized as one of the "swell mob," and remanded.
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