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A meeting of advocates of Complete Suffrage was held on Monday, in the Hall of the National Association. Mr. Joseph Sturge was called to the chair, and delivered a long address on the subject. He explained that he had been induced to adopt a new name for his object, instead of at once joining the Chartist Association, because he found that many had so great a horror at the very name of Chartism, as to refuse to think of it or examine its points one by one. By adopting a new name he had induced them to do so ; and some late elections proved the pro- gress which the principle had made— He understood that one of the candidates at Southampton openly and boldly avowed that he was for universal suffrage; and that at the close of the poll it appeared that 500 votes were recorded for him and that he was not more than three or four behind the Whig candidate. Next, it was admitted that if an election had taken place at Reading, nearly one-third of the electors would on principle have voted for universal suffrage. This was avowed by the Times newspaper itself. At Ipswich, a person who was identified with the People's Charter, who had no one to canvass for him, and who employed no polling- clerks, nevertheless polled at that election no less than 472 votes. It might appear rather personal to allude at all to Nottingham. ("No, no ! " and cheers.) When he was first asked whether he would have his name put in nomination for that borough, he was told, as a reason why he should consent, that there was no prospect of his being returned, but that by permitting his name to be used, it would afford an opportunity to the honest electors to re- cord their votes and he confessed that he entertained such a feeling with re- spect to the House of Commons, that if he thought he could serve his country as well by going a certain number of hours to Newgate as to that House, he would quite as soon go there—(Cheers and laughter)—and he was not sure that he should not meet there with as many honest men. Nottingham was a place where corruption had done its worst ; and yet out of upwards of 3,600 votes, he polled 1,1301 votes, and his opponent, with all his influence and all the cor- ruption which was used, was only 84 ahead of him. And that occurred al- though he had been for fifteen years a determined Teetotaller, and although be was an Ultra-Peacemaker, opposed to a standing army, while his opponent gave breakfasts, and so got his men first to the poll, and at last fairly resorted to the old system of bribery. He would challenge any one to prove that a single shilling had been given, directly or indirectly, by himself or his friends. Mr. Sturge alluded to the late outbreak, which he denied to have any connexion with politics— While admitting that when the masters, as in the iron-districts, united to lower the men's wages, the men Lad a right to unite peaceably and say they would not work for less than a given sum; while fully admitting this, he was perfectly satisfied that they never would obtain any political object by a strike for wages. It was a step attended with so much danger, that he could not, as a political movement, be a party to recommend or encourage it. How. ever, the self-devotion which had been exhibited in endeavouring to carry out their object had been so great, that he thought it was a fair omen that the time was not far distant when the people would be prepared to make sacrifices in order to attain peaceably and triumphantly full political rights for every one. He saw two friends the other day who were manufacturers at Hanley in Staf. fordshire, and who employed 1,200 hands ; and one of them told him that he was fully ready to go with him for the suffrage ; and be said, that on applying to his men to act as constables, without being sworn in, all except two willingly came out to preserve the peace. He put the question to one of the servants, what was the opinion of the leading working men of the trade with respect to the Charter ? and he declared that nineteen-twentieths were in favour of it.
He referred with some indignation to the prevention of a meeting which he lately convened in Birmingham ; urging the right of the people to meet for peaceable discussion. He suggested a mode of passive resistance— The people of Ireland agreed not to pay tithe. When the cattle was dis- trained, they agreed not to buy. Upwards of 50,000 bead of cattle were on one occasion turned out by those who seized them ; but not being able to sell them, they at last drove them to the barracks. The officers so sympathized with the people, that they declared their barracks should not be made a cattle-pound for the )clergy. What was the result ? The tithe was not paid; and a million of money was actually taken from the country at large to pay the Irish clergy. He believed that the time would come when individuals would have to put in force this principle of resistance—a calm and peaceable resistance—consisting in a firm determination not to obey unjust laws. [Cheers. Some one asked, "Can you tell us what the penalty will be?" at which there were cries of" Turn him out!"]
Resolutions were passed, declaring that the House of Commons proved itself to have no sympathy with the people, its members having retired to field-sports in the midst of destitution ; that the great vice of our in- stitutions is class-legislation, the remedy being to give every man a di- rect control over the making of the laws ; expressing satisfaction at the results of the Ipswich and Nottingham elections ; and calling on all true Reformers to promote union of the middle and working-classes, "with- out which it is impossible effectually to contend against our powerful, selfish, and sordid aristocracy, but with which the giant evil of class- legislation would be speedily annihilated."
At the Central Criminal Court, on Tuesday, William Stringer, alias Fitzgerald, alias Kales Bill, and Charles Newstead, alias Smith, alias Nell Gwynn, were indicted for assaulting Mr. John Ellis Churchill, with intent to rob him. Mr. Churchill is employed in the establishment of Messrs. Evering,ton and Ellis, in Ludgate Hill, and is nephew to Mr. Wynne Ellis, M.P. Stringer was the person who seized Mr. Churchill on the 11th of last month, in Hyde Park. Mr. Churchill related how Newstead accosted him, asking the way to some place in the City : they walked on in the same direction, while conversing on the subject ; and before they had proceeded twenty yards, Stringer came up, seized the prosecutor, and made an atrocious charge. Mr. Churchill raised his cane to strike Stringer ; when Newstead seized his arm, and advised him to go quietly to the Stationhouse. They went towards Oxford Street, out of the Park. Mr. Churchill asked Stringer to go to his (Mr. Churchill's) own house in Marlborough Street ; and while Stringer was saying something about terms, they saw a Policeman ; upon which he altered the course he was taking, and turned down another street. Newstead was then near them. In Davies Street, they met a body of Police: Newstead had then gone; and Stringer, putting on an air of greater violence, seized Mr. Churchill by the collar, and dragged him towards the Police. He stated at the Stationhouse that he had been in the em- ploy of Messrs. Sutton and Sheppard, stationers in Foster Lane. A friend of Mr. Churchill, who called on Mr. Sheppard, found that another person named Fitzgerald (whose name Stringer bore when he preferred the charge) had been in their service five years ago ; but Stringer never. On the following day, Mr. Churchill, at the recom- mendation of Mr. Sheppard, preferred a charge of assault against Stringer ; and he then said, "You shall have Newstead, the man you assaulted, against you in the morning ": this was the first mention of Newstead's name. In his cross-examination of witnesses, Stringer en- deavoured to make out that he had said Macarthy and not Newstead; but Mr. C. Wallis, a friend of the prosecutor, and a Policeman, bath overheard him. It was also proved that he, and Newstead, and Charles Fitzgerald, (who was on the same day convicted of a similar offence,) were associates and fellow-lodgers ; that Stringer was a returned con- vict ; and that Newstead and Stringer were in company together at six o'clock on the evening of the 11th. The Jury found them guilty ; and they were sentenced to transportation, Stringer for life, and Newstead for fifteen years.
Charles William Stringer Fitzgerald, who was committed from Bow Street on Saturday, was charged with assaulting Henry Watson, patting him in bodily fear, and stealing from him one shilling. Mr. Watson was a hairdresser, living in Cow Cross Street, Smithfield. On the 25th of April, as he was looking in at a printseller's window in the Strand, Fitzgerald accosted him, and persuaded him to come to his house to look at some books and prints ; and he took him to a house in Stanhope Street, Clare Market. They went up stairs without a light ; and after they had entered the room, and Mr. Watson had asked for the books, Fitzgerald said, with an oath, "I have got neither books nor prints : what do you mean to give me?" and he seized him by the trousers. In this way he extorted Is. ; but on being refused more, he tore Mr. Watson's clothes, and threatened to give him in custody on a revolting charge. With difficulty Mr. Watson got out qf the house, and gave Fitzgerald into custody ; and he was committed from Bow Street for trial : but Mr. Watson was so much affected in his mind, that he was unable to appear at the Central Criminal Court in support of the pro- secution; and he was afterwards confined in St. Bartholomew's Hospital. The trial was postponed till June; but the prosecutor was still too ill to appear, and Fitzgerald was discharged. He was seized again when coming out of a public-house in Chandos Street, on the 20th of last month. The prosecutor said that he was innocent, and that he had a good character ; but he called no witnesses to that point; and he was convicted, and sentenced to fifteen years' transportation. Martin Woods, a boy six years of age, was convicted, on Saturday, of stealing 6s. 6d., the property of John Main. Hid father was in a
madhouse, and his mother was in custody for begging ; and his brother and another boy promised him something if he would take some money out of the till in the prosecutor's shop; which he did. Sentence was deferred until it was ascertained whether something could not be done for him.
William Taylor, a plasterer, was convicted, on Monday, of baying re- sisted Police-constable Collins in the performance of his duty, at the Chartist meeting on Bennington Common, on Monday week ; but re- commended to mercy on account of good character. He was sentenced to three months' imprisonment, with hard labour.
The Reverend Stephen Aldhouse was convicted, on Wednesday, of feloniously: marrying Hephzibah Roberts, his former wife, Frances Morse, being alive. The main facts of the case have very recently been recapitulated. Mrs. Roberts was married to the prisoner in 1837. She gave up a business as publican to do so •' she had had two children by him ; but she left him in consequence of ill-usage. Mr. Morse, of whose brother the true Mrs. Aldhouse is a natural daughter, stated that ill-treatment had also made her separate from her husband ; and she had kept herself concealed from him lest he should avail himself of her property. The prisoner was sentenced to transportation for seven years.
At Bow Street, on Thursday, Thomas Addy, who was described as an assistant Sheriff's-officer, was committed for an assault with intent to rob Mr. Henry Bellamy Webb. He was connected with the gang to which Newstead, Stringer, and Fitzgerald belonged; and he had made a charge against Mr. Webb, which was to have been investigated on the 228; but he did not appear in support of it. He pleaded fits of insanity, which made him unconscious of what he did ; and the same cause made him forget every thing about the charge against Mr. Webb.
At Clerkenwell Police-office, on Monday, Mrs. Ma ilda Tebbitts was charged by Frederick Penn Tebbitts, her husband, with assault. The Reverend Thomas Boddington, the late Chaplain at Giltspur Street Compter, was associated with Mrs. Tebbitts in the charge ; but he did not appear till Tuesday ; when the case was again gone into. The facts seem to be these. Matilda Miller was sent to the Compter for robbing furnished lodgings; but Mr. Boddington, finding her to be well-behaved and "a very pretty reader," put her under care of the matron, en- deavoured to obtain a situation for her after her release, and, failing, ap- pointed her nursery-governess in his own family. George Dawes, who had been a fellow, odger with Mrs. Tebbitts siuce her marriage, said he had heard that Mr. Boddington "fell in love" with Miss Miller at the Compter ; and Mrs. Mary Ann Case, who was the sister of a girl that had been convicted with Miller, and who took her to his house, ex- pressed her regret that she had done so ; saying to him, on Tuesday- " I am now sorry I had any thing to do with it : before you knew her you were a good man, and respected ; but since you have met her I am sorry to say it is otherwise." Tebbitts is a linendraper's assistant. He became acquainted with Mr. Boddington five years ago, at a coffeehouse. More recently, Mr. Boddington advised him to go with him to Sydney, promising employment in selling some linendrapery, and recommending him to marry ; at the same time pointing out Miss Miller as a suitable wife. He married her on the 2d of May, Mr. Boddington giving her away. They at first lived in Mr. Boddington's lodgings ; but Tebbitts, disappointed of the Sydney business, accepted a situation at Pimlico, and he took lodgings in that neighbourhood, leaving his wife at lodgings in White Conduit Grove. He heard unpleasant things ; and for five weeks he lost sight of her altogether, until he found her lately at Spencer Place, in Goswell Road. He procured entrance into the passage, and tried to go into her apartment ; but she repulsed him, and "seemed cross"; and when he "stroked her fondly down the head," she said that she would have none of that nonsense, and struck him with the bellows ; adding, that presently somebody would be there "to settle him." Presently, Mr. Boddington did supervene, and pummelled Mr. Tebbitts, while Mrs. Tebbitts tore his hair. Such was the plaintiff's account of the assault ; while Mr. Boddington maintained that he merely interfered to protect Mrs. Tebbitts from her husband's violence. Letters were produced to the lady from the clergyman ; who insisted, however, that Mr. Tebbitts had no cause for injurious suspicions. The woman conducted- herself with much effrontery ; calling Tebbitts "that monster," "that wretch," and the like. The prisoners were committed for trial at the Central Criminal Court.
During the heavy rain-storm, on Monday, a sewer in Northumbtz- land Street, Strand, exploded with a loud noise, tearing up the ground and throwing the stones of the foot-pavement to a considerable distance. The sewer had been partially stopped, and had become choked with rain.
During a smart thunder and rain storm on Monday afternoon, a poor woman was struck by lightning in Trafalgar Square, and was picked up insensible. She was carried to Charing Cross Hospital, and means were taken for her restoration ; which soon began to give hope of her recovery.
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