At the Bow Street Office, on Wednesday, a known thief,
named Woolley, was charged with robbing a Polish gentleman of his purse, containing upwards of 10/. in Chancery Lane, and with assaulting the constable and others who took him into custody. The facts were proved; and Mr. Halls, the Magistrate, committed him for trial, and ordered the complainant to be bound over to prosecute. The gentleman said, it was quite impossible that he could become the prosecutor, as he was to embark for Russia on Saturday, and should be liable to a heavy fine if his absence were prolonged. Mr. Halls said he could not help that, though he regretted the inconvenience he would be put to.
He felt himself bound in justice to the public to call upon the prosecutor to enter into his personal recognizance in the sum of 401.; and under the peculiar circumstances of the case, he must further call upon him to find two sufficient sureties in the sum of 20/. each, to answer for his appearance at the Sessions to prosecute the prisoner.
The complainant said, it was utterly out of his power to find bail ; so the Magistrate ordered him to be locked up. Soon afterwards, Mr. Halls was told that he was behaving with great violence ; where- upon he was ordered into the Police-room again; and Mr. Halls said that
. . . in consequence of what had occurred since he bad been locked up, he felt bound to increase the amount of the recognizances be had before demanded. He therefore called upon him to enter into his own security for 1001., and two housekeepers in the sum of 50/. each, to insure his attendance at the Sessions to prosecute; and in the event of his not finding the required bail, the Magistrate Informed him that he must be committed to prison until the trial of the prisoner.
He was again removed in custody.
On Thursday, Lord Dudley Stuart call at the office, to intercede for the poor fellow ; and suggested that his sworn deposition might be taken ; but Mr. Halls said that the ends of justice would be defeated thereby. So there the matter rests.
[ This is evidently the same case as that which we had noticed among the Topics of the Day, under another title. Does it not prove, in the strongest manner, the necessity of appointing a public prosecutor.? According to the present law, the person robbed may undergo what is to him a severer punishment than that which the thief is subjected to. In the island of Cuba, when a crime is committed, all the parties, the accused, the person injured, and the witnesses, are thrown into gaol together. Consequently, when a person is robbed in broad daylight, all who see the offence committed, scamper off as fast as possible, with the police after them. We are not much better off in this country. Unless a num is known, and what is called "respectable," it is ruinous to attempt to obtain justice. Tbe unlucky Pole will rue the day when he came to England, where the Magistrates are so careful to "prevent the ends of justice from being defeated." We wonder not at the violence of the complainant : he must think this a fine country for robbers, and wish himself again at Warsaw.]
Isaac Linton, a soldier in the Coldstream Guards, was remanded from the Marlborough Street Office on Monday, on the charge of stab- bing a person named Trindel, with his bayonet. Christopher Bunbury was committed from the Marylebone Office on Wednesday, on a charge of attempting to poison his wife, who lived apart from him with another man.
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