At the Old Bailey Sessions, on Thursday, William Davis, a
lad of seventeen, was indicted for maliciously stabbing his master, James Hutchins, a cabinet-maker, residing in Tudor Place, Tottenham Court
Road. It appeared that the master and his apprentice had a quarrel and a scuffle together, in the course of which the latter stabbed the master in the thigh and hip. The boy said that his master commenced by kicking and beating him' and he had his lip cut also. In the course of his cross-examination by Mr. C. Phillips, the prosecutor admitted that he bad taken his apprentice to a National Political. Union. Chief Justice Denman, in summing up, remarked, that to take the boy. to the Political Union, was not the way to make a good servant of him. The Jury acquitted the prisoner, because they thought that the prosecutor struck him first. The prosecutor hoped that he should be allowed his expenses. Chief Justice Denman said—" No, indeed, I will not allow you them. You ought not to have taken your apprentice to Political Unions. That was not the way to bring him up." [Can any one in- form us in what year of our Lord it was that Chief Justice Denman imbibed his horror of Political Unions ?]
Mashall, Evans, and Taylor, were indicted at the Old Bailey yester- day, for the wilful murder of Robert Paviour. Marshall applied for the postponement of tba trial till Monday, on the ground that, as they had only been committed to Newgate the night before, they had not had sufficient time to prepare for their defence. The Chief Justice said, that he saw no reason to object to the postponement of the trial to the next Sessions. It was settled that the time of their trial should be fixed, as soon as the counsel for the prisoners, who was absent, should come into Court ; but nothing further was done in the matter when the Judges left the Court at five o'clock in the evening.
A person named Leveridge applied, on Saturday last, to Mr. Dyer, at the Marlborough Street Office' for a warrant to apprehend Captain Gronow, the member for Stafford, for attempting to commit a felony. Mr. Leveridge, it appeared had been one of Captain Gronow's elec- tioneering agents at the late contest for Stafford, and he had received a bill from the Captain, payable at Coutts's, for 42/. in part of his ex- penses. The bill was dishonoured ; and although frequent application had been made to Captain Gronow for payment of it, Mr. Leveridge complained that he could get no money. At length his wife, who is a remarkably powerful, Amazonian woman, called at the Captain's residence to demand payment. She was introduced to him, and he asked to see the bill : as soon as she produced it, he endeavoured to snatch it out of her hand ; and it was for this attempt "to steal" the bill that the warrant was applied for. Captain Gronow appeared on Monday to answer the charge. He said that, on the occasion alluded to, he merely wished to read the bill, and that he had used no violence whatever. The charge was dismissed as unsupported by evidence, and being in itself excessively improbable. A great deal of abusive lan- guage passed between the parties.
A General Postman, named James Lewis, who was charged with having committed several frauds in the course of his occupation, hanged himself, in prison, on Wednesday morning.
At the Thames Police Office, on Monday, George Staines was charged with being drunk, and assaulting Patrick Costello, a Police- man. The complainant stated, that be accidentally ran against the pri- soner at the corner of a street in Shadwell, and that the prisoner struck him and abused him grossly : he then beat him with his constable's staff in self-defence. The wife of the prisoner came up while they were struggling together, and be also struck her a violent blow on the cheek with his truncheon. Mr. Broderip said, it was evident that Staines had been very severely beaten, and that the assault on the woman was quite uncalled for. lie should discharge the case without prejudice to either party. [This seems a singular mode of dealing out Justice. A scuffle ensues between a Policeman and another man, and the Magis- trate cannot decide which is most to blame—that be should discharge that part of the case "without prejudice" may be all very well; but why should the unprovoked assault upon the woman go unpunished? does the circumstance of being a Policeman confer the right of beating women with impunity ?] At the Hatton Garden Office, on Wednesday, Mr. Shearman, pro- prietor of one of the Birmingham stage-coaches, was summoned by Rawlins, an informer, for having carried three more passengers than his licence allowed. ft appeared that the passengers were convicts, and that Mr. Shearman ha taken out a supplementary licence, to en- able him to carry more than the usual number of passengers on par- ticular occasions, which privilege obliged him to pay a halfpenny per mile extra. The Magistrates dismissed the summons. Rawlins said the licence was calculated to lead the public astray. Mr. Sergeant Sellon- " It has evidently led you astray." Rawlins went away grumbling at the inconsistency of the law, according to which coach proprietors had painted on their coaches licensed to carry eight outside, while they car- ried eleven.
At the Union Hall Office, on Saturday, a Policeman named Gill was charged by the landlord of the Crown Inn, Church Street, Lam- beth, with extorting money from him, under the threat of giving infor- mation against him for admittiug people into his house during service- time on Sunday. He had paid him 2/. 5s., and the affair was kept quiet. Gill was suspended from his office in consequence. This is only one out of many similar charges made against the Union Hall Officers, which are now under investigation.
A well dressed man, said to he an adept at window-breaking, on Thursday afternoon made an attempt at robbery, at the shop of Mr. Lii Plaisterier, the French clock and watch manufacturer on Ludgate Hill. The fellow thrust his hand through a large pane of plate-glass, and made a grasp at two valuable gold watches; when the cuff of his coat was caught by a hook, so that be could not withdraw his hand; and he was seized on the spot, and handed over to a Policeman, who conveyed him to Giltspur Street Compter. As the Grand Jury are now sitting, the prisoner will probably be tried during the present Old Bailey Sessions.
Thomas Perrin, the bell-ringer at Allhallows Church, has been com- mitted by the Lord Mayor, on a charge of stealing the communion- plate from that church on Sunday last. He and some accomplices, it is supposed, secreted themselves in the church in the morning, and car- ried off the plate that was laid out for the service.
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