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Northern Star (1837-1852), 21st August 1852, Edition 1 of 2, Page 7

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      Untitled Article

      ' EXPOSURE OF ADVERTISING SWINDLEES . On Friday , at the Birmingham Public-office , before Messrs Thornton , James , and Malms , 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 the 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 Ms own certain knowledge ; but he was not at liberty to mention names . The EXPOSURE OF ADVERTTSrNTfi . RWTNtht ? dq

      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 ,-and many of whom do so , without duly considering the fatigues and vicissitudes of the voyage or the dangers and hardships 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 : Herrbchriber late of Leipsic , being in possession of some secrets , by any one of which a person of ordinary induct ™ may earn from £ l to £ 2 per week , or , if adopted by an " intelligent person , who could devote his whole time , £ 5 per week is not an extravagant estimate . The mode of realising the above will be found , from the directionsgiven , " exceedingly easv requinngno previous knowledge , andseveral of which are weculiarladapted for femalesThe most

      y . comprehensive instruc tions will be forwarded to any party sending their address , and four shillings in postage stamps , to Herr Schriber , care of Maior Huslusson , Grove House , Birmingham . To parties sending for the abiove , 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 monev to persons of known respectability , who would , however , be expected to remit on receipt thereof . " *

      Now , 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 a ^ o and gave the name of Major James Huskisson . He said that lie 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 the said house . No 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 circumstauces , 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 press , and he 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 " secrets" 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 , v ? e 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 if he 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 . —Birmingham Journal .

      Untitled Article

      Suicide os a Con yict in Newgate . —OnThursday afternoon an inquiry took place in the dinner-hall in the gaol of Newgate , before Mr . W . Payne , the coroner for the city of London , and a jury , into the circumstances under which a convict , named Joseph Hunt , committedself-destruction in the course of Wedneday night . The jury found that the deceased destroyed himself in a fit of temporary insanity . A Bear Story . —The Portland Argus contains the following account of a bear fight which recently transpired in Andover , North Surplus , Oxford county , Maine : —" Erastus Bean , a young

      ihan of twenty years of age , was haying in his field , accompanied by a boy of twelve , named Dunn , when he suddenly perceived near him a large black bear of 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 eifect , 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 , hut his coolness did not forsake him , and

      he immediately fired again , but with no visible effect . The bear 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 flesh on the young man's breast . Having dropped his arm , he opened his huge month to make a ponnce at his face . Then it was that the young man made the dash that saved his life . As the bear opened his jaws Bean thrust his lacerated arm down the brute ' s throat as far as desperation would enable him . There he had him . The hear could neither retreat nor advance , though the position of the besieged was anything but agreeable on so warm a day . Bean

      now 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 young man . He inarched up to the work boldly . But , before he could get at the pocket he had to crowd the bear ' s head over a little to get at it , the beast meantime not being at all easy with sneb a huge mouthful in his throat . Having got the knife , Bean , with his untrammelled hand , cut the bear's throat from ear to ear ., killing him stone dead while he lay on his body . He then threw the beast off , notified his friends , and his wounds dressed , and is now comfortable . It was judged the bear weighed nearly 400 lbs . "

      Untitled Article

      ROMANCE IN REAL LIFE . It will probably be recollected by some of our readers that in April , 1843 , a tall , gaunt , and extremely repulsive woman was brought up at the Mansion-house , before the Lord Mayor ( Alderman Humphery ) , 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 beeu 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 stale of utter exhaustion and distress , she applied . for admission to the Asylum or Refuge for the Houseless Poor , " where she was attended by a kind-hearted benevolent gentleman , Dr . Bowie , the surgeon to the institution , who during the progress of her cure was struck with the remarkable contrast botween the woman and the 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 the woman ' s apprehension , and on her recovery she was at once taken before the Lord Mayor . On her examination there she , said her name- was Mary Thompson , and that she vas a widow of a Cornish smuggler , who commanded a small craft called the Mary Aim , in which she alleged the child was born in the month of February , 1840 , while out at sea . She made many conflicting statements , but the one she ultimately adhered to was that the child was hers by a man hamed Holloway , and born before her marriage with Samuel Thompson . The child

      was taken from her , and on being placed in a handsomely furnished room at th e Mansion-house seemed to be quite at home with his lordship ' s children , and on hearing a piano played appeared familiar with its tones , and , approaching the 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 , and said it was a watchguard . He said he had two mothers - , . his mother in the country was very kind to him , and loved him , hut the naughty woman whom he called his straw-yard mother beat him

      and begged for money , fought , and got drunk . In his childish prattle with the Lady Mayoress and other ladies he spoke of his nice new frock with rows of buttons down the front , that he had when the 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 his new clothes in the firo , evidently for the purpose of preventing identification . On Saturday Mr . Edwards attended Guildhall justice-room with a respectably-dressed lad , about 13 or 14 years of age , with intellectual face and handsome features , and stated that the lad was the unfortunate child Henry Saumarez Dupuis ; that he had been four or five years with a Mrs . Orion ; and during the last three years 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 hoy said he had only 8 s ., upon which the alderman ordered £ 1 from the poor-box to his litths store , and directed that a further sum of £ 5 should be remitted to Melbourne for his use , through the ordinary chanuel . With regard to the woman , it may be as well to state that on foregoing her claim to the child she was discharged , and has not been seen since , except on one occasion , when sho made a futile attempt to get the child again into her clutches .

      Untitled Article

      Bigamy . —At the Central Criminal Court on , Tuesday , Henry Harford , carpenter , was convicted of marrying a second wife , his first being alive . He was sentonced to twelve months' imprisonment . Plymouth . —Fibb and 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 . Blagdon , who is a brickmaker , was at work at some distance , and

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

      Central Criminal Court . —Attempt to Murder . — Frederick Weston , 25 , carvev , was indicted for an attempt ' to murder George Yates and Peter Yates . Mr . Plutfc prosecuted and , by the direction of the Under-Sheriff , Mr . J . W . Payne watched the case for the prisoners . The facts disclosed were of a most horrible nature . The prisoner was son-in-law to one of the prosecutors , and brother-in-law to the other . On Sunday the 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 tho father went out and told him to go homo ; ho would not , and shortly after the brother-in-law went out to get some beer , and spoke to a police-constable , and prisoner then came up , and said , " I have you now ! " and instantly stubbed him in the belly , so that his bowels protruded , and he then cut him in the face . He then attacked the father-in-law , stabbing him three times under tho

      arm . once in the face , and then with such force in the head that the knife broke and left several inches of the blade sticking in the skull , from which it was with difficulty pulled out by the policeconstable . He did not attempt to escape , and , when the police had secured him , he coolly said , "I have had my revenge ; I shall be happy now . Tapping was hung , and so shall I be 1 " H <* was convicted , and transported for fifteen years .

      Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      ^^ == ~"' 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 , 797 constables , in all 5 : 525 persons . ^ About 3 , 700 men are on duty all night , and about 1 , 800 all 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 , and 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 he 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 effect ., that

      every street , road , lane , alley , and court within the metropolitan police district , that is , tho whole of the metropolis ( except that small part , the city of London , ) the county of Middlesex , and all the parishes , 218 in 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 clay and mght- ^ 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 classes , an occasional visit from a policeman is sufficientand he

      , traverses a -wide district . But the limits of the beat 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 circlo _ of six miles from St . Paul ' s the beats are ordinarily traversed in periods varying from seven to twenty-five minntes ,, aiid 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 police 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 routes 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 . This 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 place in two hours . The total cost of the metropolitan police was , in 1850 , £ 385 , 744 , which was defrayed in the following manner : •—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 courts cost £ 45 , 000 a year , of which about £ 11 , 000 is received in fees and forfeitures , and the remainder is charged upon the consolidated fund . All shares of fines on convictions where any of the 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 .

      Eor 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 d awing 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 circumstances , and in the knack ( aud here real genius displays itself ) of making a cast in tho right direction in the search of a

      clue . The old Bow-street professors of the science had attained to great perfection ; they 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 . Townsend 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 afterwards . The necessity of such men in the police having been recognised , the detective branch was established in 1842 , by Sir James Graham . It consists of twof inspectors and eight sergeants , with assistants in each division . They are selected out of the whole force for 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 offences , 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 and keeping in continuous aud systematic action the efforts of a numerous body ;" and as this is an interesting part of our subject , and comparatively little understood , beyond the admirable descriptions in the Household V / ords , wo propose to illustrate it by an outline of the way in which the burglars were detected who broke into Mr . Holford's house in the liegent's-park To render our account intelligible , we must , however , make some preliminary observations on the habits of thieves .

  • 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/vm2-ncseproduct1692/page/7/