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Northern Star (1837-1852), 21st August 1852, Edition 2 of 2, Page 7, £383,108 In addition to this, the police...

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      Avgvst 21, 1852. The Gtar Op Freed0m 23

      Avgvst 21 , 1852 . THE gTAR op FREED 0 M 23

      Exposure Of Advertising Swikdlees . On F...

      EXPOSURE OF ADVERTISING SWIKDLEES . On Friday , at the Birmingham Public-office , before Messrs . Thornton , James , and Malins , after the usual business had been disposed of , Mr . Harding , solicitor , rose and said , that he would take that opportunity of laying before the bench some particulars respecting some most disgraceful practices which had come to his knowledge . For some weeks past , some showy advertisements had appeared in tho metropolitan and some of the provincial papers ( carefully avoiding Birmingham , however ) , offering great advantages to persons , and by means of which a great many individuals had doubtless been swindled . One person had , to his own certain

      knowledge ; but he was not at liberty to mention names . The advertisement which was the cause of this mischief was couched in the following words : — " To the unemployed , and all persons in search of a profession : —At the present time , when vast numbers of the people of this country are daily leaving their native shores for America or Australia , with the view of improving their condition , aud many of whom do so , without duly considering the fatigues and vicissitudes

      of the voyage or the dangers and hardshi ps of the enterprise . To all such and to persons of deficient incomes , as well as to those without a trade or profession , the following announcement is important : Hen- Schriber , late of Leipsic , being in possession of some secrets , by any one of which a person of ordinary industry may earn from £ 1 to £ 2 per week , or , if adopted by an intelligent person , who could devote his whole time , £ b per week is not an extravagant estimate . The mode of realising the above will be found , from the directions given , exceedingly easv previous knowled and several

      requiring no ge , of which are peculiarly adapted for females . The most comprehensive instructions will he forwarded to any party sending their address , and four shillings in postage stamps , to Herr Schriber , care of Major Huskisson , Grove House , Birmingham . To parties sending for ( he above , who might afterwards be dissatisfied , or whose expectations may not be realised , the amount will be returned on application by letter , or it will be sent without the money to persons of known respectability , who would , however be expected to remit on receipt thereof . "

      ] S ow , in consequence of that specious document , many persons had been inveigled , and doubtless many more would be , unless the means be adopted to expose the infamous affair were successful . In consequence of observing this advertisement in the paper Superintendent Stephens issued orders that inquiries should be made respecting the merits of the affair . In fulfilment of those instructions , therefore , Mr . Inspector Tandy reported that he had inquired , and found that a man of short stature took one of the houses in Victoria-grove , Benacre-street , about three weeks ago , and gave the name of Major James Huskisson . He said that he was a traveller in the button line , in the employ of a person in

      St . Paul ' s-square . Detective Dean reported that there were four or five men who were in the habit of frequenting tho said house . 55 o one slept there , and none of the neighbours knew who they were . He also reported that there had been one small load of goods delivered at the house ; and he added that he had been informed that they were brought from the Inkleys . Under these circumstances , therefore , the public could perceive what sort of a gang was connected with this infamous affair . The name of " Grove House" had been given it by themselves , doubtless to make it appear more respectable and bond fide . He made the statement in order that it might get into the hands of the puss , and be by them exposed .

      The magistrates expressed themselves greatly obliged to Mr . Harding for bringing the subject under their notice . They said it was a most villanous conspiracy , and the more public it was made the better . Since writing the above we have been gratified with a sight of one of the " secrete" which these kind of firms forward to their credulous correspondents . As our readers may be curious to

      know what these '' antidotes to the bane of poverty ' really are , we will append the substance of the one which wo have seen . It consists of directions for working some kind of crochet ; and adds that , if the person works unceasingly at this peculiar work , and il lie gets a good price for what he does , he may earn from £ 1 to £ 5 per week . After this expose we can have no pity for any person who is so weak-minded as to suffer himself to be swindled in this barefaced and audacious manner . —Birmwqham Journal

      Suicide Of A Convict In Newgate.—Onthurs...

      Suicide of a Convict in Newgate . —OnThursday afternoon an inquiry took place in the dinner-hall in the gaol of Newgate , before Mr . \ V . Payne , the coroner for tho city of London , and a jury , into the circumstances under which a convict ,-named Joseph Hunt , coimnittedself-destruction in the course of Wedneday night . The jury found that the deceased destroyed himself in a fit ot temporary insanity . A Beau Story . —The Portland Argus contains the following account of a bear fight which recently transpired in Audover , North Surplus , Oxford county , Maine : —" Erastus Bean , & young man of twenty years of agewas haying in his field , accompanied

      , by a boy of twelve , named Dunn , when he suddenly perceived near him a large black bear ot the white-faced breed , the most savage of the black variety . Having taken his gun with him to shoot partridges , he took it up and fired at the brute , but with little effect , as the bear immediately began to close upon him . Bean fell back slowly , loading his gun in the meantime , when , just as he had got his charge ' in , his heel caught against a twig and fell backwards , and bruin leaped upon him . His situation now was a frightful one , but his coolness did not forsake him , and he immediately fired againhut with no visible effect . The bear

      , m •» . „« „—*¦ 4 . . „ . /» , „« i „; . >« . V . ?* loft arm hitf Tier throiisll it . and at once went to work , seizing his left arm , biting through it , and lacerating it severely . While thus amusing himself , he was tearing with his fore paws the clothes and scratching the fiesh on the young man ' s breast . Having dropped his arm , he opened his huge mouth to make a pounce at his i ' ace . Then it was that the young man made the dash that saved his life . As the hear opened his jaws Beau thrust his lacerated arm down the brute ' s throat s . n far as desperation would enable him . There he had hum 1 he bear could neither retreat nor advance , though the position o , the besieged was anything but agreeable on so warm a day . Bean

      nov ? called upon the lad to come and take from his pocket a jackknife and open it . The boy was a fitting companion for this brave youn" man . He marched np to the work boldly . But , before * he could * et at the pocket he had to crowd the hears head o \ cr a little to get at it , the beast meantime not being at all ea . s with tuch a huge mouthful in his throat . Having got tno knife , Beau , with his untrammelled hand , cut the bvar a throat from ear to ear , killing him stone dead while he lay on Ins body . Be then threw the beast off , notified his friends , and his wounds drt & ed , and is now comfortable . It was judged the hear weighed nearly 400 lbs . "

      The Metropolitan Police. {From The Edinb...

      THE METROPOLITAN POLICE . { From the Edinburgh Review . ) The Metropolitan Police force consists , besides the two commissioners , of 1 chief superintendent , 18 superintendents , 124 inspectors , 585 sergeants , and 4 , 707 constables , in all 5 , 525 persons . About 3 , 700 men are on duty all night , and about 1 , 800 ail day . During the night they never cease patrolling the whole time they are on duty , being forbidden even to sit down . The police district is mapped out into divisions , the

      divisions into subdivisions , the subdivisions into sections , and the sections into beats , all being numbered , and the limits carefully defined . To every beat certain constables are specifically assigned , aud they are provided with little maps called beat-cards . The business of the constable on duty is to perambulate his beat in a fixed time , according to an appointed route ; as soon as ho has gone over it he immediately begins his rounds again , so that the patrolling sergeant knows at any moment where tho constable ought to be found , unless something unusual has occurred . So thoroughly has this arrangement been carried into eifect , that

      every street , road , lane , alley , and court within the metropolitan police district , that is , the whole , of the metropolis ( except that small part , the city of London , ) ' the county of Middlesex , and all the parishes , 218 hi number , in the counties of Surrey , Kent , Essex , and Hertford , which are not more than fifteen miles from Charing-cross , comprising an area of about 700 square miles , 90 miles in circumference , and with a population of two and a half millions , is visited constantly day and night by some of the police . The beats vary considerably in size ; in those parts of the town which are open and inhabited by the wealthier elates , an occasional visit from a policeman is sufficient , and lie

      traverses a wide district . But the limits oi the heat are diminished , and of course the frequency of the visits increased , in proportion to the character and density " of the population , the throng and pressure of traffic , the concentration of property , and the intricacy of the . streets . Within a circle of six miles from St . Paul ' s the beats are oidinarily traversed in periods varying from seven to twenty-five minutes , and there are points which , in in fact , are never free from inspection . Nor must it be supposed that this system places the wealthier localities at a disadvantage , for it is an axiom in police that you guard St . James ' s by watching St . Giles ' s .

      The district is divided into eighteen divisions , containing , including the Thames , 121 police stations , each . station being the place from which the police duties are carried on within the division or subdivision , where all communications are received , and explanation on po ) ice matters disseminated . A considerable number of the policemen live in the station-house , so that a reserve is always at hand , and here , on the watch like a spider in the centre of his web , an inspector is always in attendance— " All sly slow things with circumspective eyes . " When anything

      occurs in the district worth communicating , the intelligence is conveyed from one constable to the other till it reaches the stationhouse—thence , by an admirable arrangement of joutes and messengers , it passes to the central office at Whitehall , thence along radiating lines to each division , and from the divisional stationhouses to every constable in the ditrict . Tin ' s rapid transmission of intelligence is important as regards the detection of crime , but especially as a means of preserving the city from riot . In a case of emergency , the commissioners could communicate intelligence to every man in the force and collect the whole 5 , 500 men in one

      piace in two hours . Tlie total cost of the metropolitan police was , in 1850 , £ 385 , 744 , which was defrayed in tlie following maimer : — Rate of 6 d . on £ 10 , 486 , 361 , the annual rental of the district , equal to about 2 s . 3 d . per head , £ 262 , 159 Payment from the consolidated fund ... 100 , 325 Payments by public departments for services .. 10 , 507 Miscellaneous receipts ... 10 , 117

      £383,108 In Addition To This, The Police...

      £ 383 , 108 In addition to this , the police courts cost £ 45 , 000 a year , of which about il 1 , 000 is received in fees and forfeitures , and the remainder is charged upon the consolidated fund . All shaves of fines on convictions where any of tho police are informers , and which would be payable to them , are , by a regulation of the commissioners , paid to the police courts fund , lest any suspicion might attach to the evidence of the police from their having a pecuniary interest in obtaining convictions .

      For some years , one branch of the police , that of detection of crime , was undoubtedly defective . In this art , success depends much upon personal qualifications , sagacity in dawing inferences from slight things , fertility of resource , a blood-hound tenacity of pursuit , intimate acquaintance with the habits of thieves , and of their probable mode of acting in particular circumstance ^ and in the knack ( and here real genius di .-plays itself ) of making a cast in the right direction in the search of a clue . The old Bow-street professors of the science had attained to great perfection ; thoy enjoyed great advantages and received great rewards . The peculiar nature of their business made them

      courted by the great , as well as feared by the small . Townsond was an intimate , we may say , of princes . Dressed in his customary suit , a yellow waistcoat , a blue coat with metal buttons , nankeen pantaloons , white silk stockings , and a flaxen wig , he might be seen walking down Constitution-hill in familiar chat with the Lord Chancellor . When the constables of the Bow-street office were merged in the metropolitan police , these worthies , unable to confine their energies within the iron limits of the new discipline , and with conscious superiority , unwilling to obey new masters , retired into private life ; and it is a curious fact , showing

      an extensive demand by private individuals for police services , they never wanted a day ' s work afterward *? . The necessity of such men in the police having been recognised , the detective branch was established in 3842 , by Sir James Graham . It consists oi two !? inspectors and eight sergeants , with assistants in each division . ' They are selected out of the whole force tor this peculiar business ; they perform no other regular duty , but are wholly employed in the actual pursuit of criminals , or in obtaining

      information as to facilities for the commission of particular oneuces , and the haunts and habits of the offenders . Though the value of this branch of police is in a great measure determined by the personal qualifications of its officers , yet the new system has the additional advantage of giving increased means of detection , by the power of combining aud ki epingin continuous and systematic action Use efforts of a numerous body ; * and as this is an interesting part of our subject , and comparatively Utile understood , beyond the admirable descriptions in the Household Words , we propose

      to illustrate it by an outline of the way in which the burglars were detected who broke into Mr . Hchord ' s house in the Heuent ' s-park . To render our account intelligible , we must , however , make some preliminary observations on the habits of thieve :.

      Bomajtce In Heal Life. It Will Probably ...

      BOMAJTCE IN HEAL LIFE . It will probably be recollected by some of our readers that in April , 1843 , a tall , gaunt , aud extremely repulsive woman was brought up at the Mansion-house , before the Lord Mayor ( Alderman Humphcry ) , charged , upon strong suspicion , of having stolen a child , which was believed to be the child of respectable parents , The facts , as they were then elicited , were briefly these : —The woman , who was of the most depraved and filthy habits , had been seen begging about the metropolis and its suburbs with a child about three years of age , which she , notwithstanding its apparent repugnance , continued , or pretended , to suckle . At length , in a state of utter exhaustion and distress , she applied for admission

      to the Asylum or Refuse for the Houseless Poor , where she was attended by a kind-hearted benevolent gentleman , Dr . Bowie , tho surgeon to the institution , who during the progress of her cure was struck with the remarkable contrast between the woman aud tho child , and the evident superiority of . form and feature in the latter , and so great was the dissimilarity that he at once concluded there could be no close relationship between them , and that she had in all probability stolen the child . Acting under this conviction , he , with Mr . Edwards , the chairman of the institution , obtained a warrant for tho woman ' s apprehension , and on her recovery she was at once taken before tho Lord Mavor . On her

      examination there she suid her name was Mary Thompson , and that she was a widow of a Cornish smuggler , who commanded a small craft called the Mary Ann , in which she alleged the child was born in the month of February , 1840 , while out at sea . She made mnv . y conflicting statements , but the one she ultimately adhered to was that the child washers by a man named Holloway , and born before her marriage with Samuel Thompson . The child was taken from her , and on being placed in a hand-omely furnished room at th e Mansion-house seemed to be quite at homo with his lordship ' s children , aud on hearing a piano played

      appeared familiar with its tones , and , approaching tlie instrument , spread his little fingers over the keys and repeated "A , B , C . " On being asked what a gold chain that was shown to him was , he readily gave it its proper , name , aud said it was a watchguard . He said he had two mothers ; iiis mbthcr in the country was very kind to him , and loved him , but the naughty woman whom he called his straw-yard mother heal ; him ami begged for money , i ' onyht , and got . drunk . In his childish prattle with the Lady Mayoress and other ladies he spoke of his

      nice new frock with rows ot buttons flown the front , that , he had when tho woman enticed him from his home with offers of plumpudding . He said his name was Henry Saumarez Dupuis , and that the woman , for whom he evinced the utmost abhorrence , often beat him for saying his name was not Samuel Thompson . He remembered living at Canterbury , and that his good mamma had a room like the one he had seen , with a carpet and a piano in it . In mentioning the cruelty of the wretched monster to him . he said he saw her burn all liis new clothes in the

      fire , evidently for the purpose ot preventing identification . On Saturday Mr . Edwards attended Guildhall justice-room with a respectably-dressed lad , nhoat 13 or 14 years of age , with intellectual face aud handsome features , and stated that the lad was tlie unfortunate child Henry Saumarez Dupuis j that he had been four or five years with a Mrs . Orion ; and during the last three yeais and a half he had been living with , and educated by , at Mr . Williams , in Scotland , at the expense of a few private individuals , assisted with the contributions received at the time . Dr . Bowie had settled in Melbourne , Australia , and had lately sent over for this boy to join him , and he was about to start immediately . Alderman Humphery regretted that the

      extraordinary exertions made at the time had failed in discovering the lad ' s parents . He , however , hoped he would be successful in his new home , and that he would write and let him know how he got on . On inquiring how much money he had in his pocket to start with , the boy said he had only 8 s ., upon which tlie alderman ordered £ 1 from the poor-box to his littl ;* stove , and directed that a further sum of £ o should be remitted to Melbourne for his use , through the ordinary channel . With regard to the woman , it may be as well to state that . on foregoing her chum to the child she was discharged , and has not been seen since , except on one occasion , when sh ? 3 made a futile attempt to get the child again into her clutches .

      Bigamy.—At The Central Criminal Court On...

      Bigamy . —At the Central Criminal Court on , Tuesday , Henry Harford , carpenter , was convicted of marrying a second wife , hia first being alive . He was sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment . Plymouth . —Fire as © Loss of Life . —On Thursday morning " , at about half-past two o ' clock , a fire broke out in a house in Vauxhall-place , Vauxhall-street , in the neighbourhood of Sutton Harbour , whereby three lives were lost . It appears that Mr . Blagdun , who is a brickmaker , was at work at some distance , and

      his wife went to bed leaving tho candle burning . From what wo could learn , it is supposed that the caudle by some accident set the clothes of the bed on tiro , which soon spread over the room . Mrs . lVtngdou and her two children ( a boy and a girl ) were in bed together , aud when the policeman went into tho room the woman was lying partly out of the bed , as if she hud made an effort to get out of the room , and , tho smoke overcoming her strength , she fell back suffocated . The woman is thirty-years of age , the boy three years old , and the infant twelve months * .

      Central Oihinal Court . —Attempt to Muhder . Frederick Weston , 25 , carver , was indicted for an attempt to > murder George Yates and Peter Yates . Mr . Plitt prosecuted and , by the direction of the Under-Sheriff , Mr . J . W . Payne ) watched the case for the prisoners . The facts disclosed were of ai most horrible nature . The prisoner was sou-iu-law to one of the i prosecutors , and brother-in-law to the other . On Sunday , tho 3 16 th of May last , he went at half-past eleven at night , to their residence , and began to throw stones at the window , and the father r went oat and told him to go home ; he would not , and shortlyy after the brother-in-law went out to get some beer , and spoke too

      a police-con & table , and prisoner then came up , and said , " I havee you now ! " and instantly stabbed him in the belly , so that his si bowels protruded , and ho then cut him in the face . He thenn . attacked the father-in-law , stabbing him three times under thee arm , once in tlie face , and then with such force in the head that it ; the knife broke and left several inches of the blade sticking in theei skull , from which it was with difficulty pulled out by the police- ! - ' constable . lie did not attempt to escape , aud , when the policeses had secured him , he coolly said , I have had my revenge ; I It Khali be happy now . Tapping was hung , and so shall I be I" HeLei was convicted , aud transported for fifteen years .

  • Citation
    • Northern Star (1837-1852), Aug. 21, 1852, page 7, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ns/issues/ns2_21081852/page/7/