Dace, a well-dressed young man, who had heen a
teacher of music at Abingdon, was indicted for having
stolen a Gold Pencil-case. It appeared that on the
3rd of August the prisoner visited the house of a Mr.
Davis, for the purpose of tuning a pianoforte. He was
left alone some time in the room where the pencil-case
was. He left as usual, and on the following morning it
was missed from the work-box where it had been
deposited. About the middle of the month the prisoner
offered it for sale to a Mrs. Beckinsall, and she bought
it of him for 10s. Some days after he had sold it he
applied to have it returned, as he feared that "the
person from whom he had had it had come by it dis-
honestly." The police then got a knowledge of the
affair, and the prisoner was apprehended. The jury
returned a verdict of guilty, and evidence was then gone
into of two previous convictions for felony, upon which
the prisoner had been sentenced to twelve months'
imprisonment. The chairman, in passing sentence,
observed that the court did not think that the prisoner,
occupying such a position as he had, would be likely
(having been previously convicted of felonies) to reform
and become an honest man. They therefore deemed it
necessary to inflict a severe sentence, and that was, that
the prisoner be transported for the term of his natural
life. The prisoner seemed astonished at the sentence,
and a feeling of surprise appeared to be felt by the
crowd which had assembled in the court.

William Strange, bookseller, in Paternoster-row, came
up before the Bankruptcy Court on the 10th, on the
question of passing his last examination. His name
had acquired considerable notoriety in connexion with
certain proceedings in the Court of Chancery, known
as the Royal Etchings case. It may be remembered
that Strange having been imprisoned for debt, his wife
wrote to Prince Albert requesting a remission of the
costs for the non-payment of which her husband was
incarcerated. His Royal Highness acceded to the
prayer of Mrs. Strange in a generous manner, and has
since then acted towards the bankrupt in a still more
munificent spirit. Prince Albert is a creditor under
this estate for £200 law costs, but has, through Colonel
Anson, intimated his intention to forego this claim. An
application on behalf of the bankrupt, for an adjournment,
as the balance-sheet was not yet in readiness, was
made and agreed to.

Several cases of Violent Assault with intent to Rob
have occurred in the streets of London.

Mr. Henry Francis Seymour, a retired military officer,
was walking homewards to Hackney through
Shoreditch late on the night of the 18th, when four
men set on him at the corner of a street and tried to
overpower him. He was struggling desperately when
a policeman scared them, and they fled; but Mr.
Seymour caught one, and held him fast. When the constable
came up this ruffian audaciously charged Mr. Seymour
with odious conduct; but the constable knew the
accuser too well, and took him to prison.

As Mr. T. C. Wigs and his little son, a boy of twelve,
were returning home on the night of the 13th, through
Walworth Road, Mr. Wigs was Attacked from behind,
and beaten heavily on the head; but his assailant
presently ran away. A policeman shortly came up with
the offender in custody; and at the police station it was
found that he was Charles Wood, an omnibus driver,
an associate of thieves, and brother of a "proprietor of
omnibuses," who has just completed a term of
imprisonment in Paris for a felony committed there. Close
to the spot where the policeman caught Wood, a whip
made of gutta-percha with a heavily leaded butt was
picked up,—evidently the weapon employed in the
assault. Mr. Wigs has been in a dangerous condition.

As Mr. Leffler, the singer, was going along the
Kennington Road, about 12 o'clock at night on the 16th, he
was run up against by a woman, and a man behind her,
exclaiming, "What do you mean by insulting my
wife?" immediately made a violent attack on him, in
which the woman joined. He defended himself with
his umbrella till a constable came up, when they were
both taken into custody. Next day they were brought
before the Lambeth Police Court, and remanded.

A gang of Swindling Bill-discounters has been
discovered by the Police, and a person of gentlemanly
appearance and manners, calling himself Capt. Routledge,
has been arrested as being their chief. They have for
some years carried on their practices with impunity,
under a variety of designations; Wigram and Co.,
Taylor and Co., Hill and Co., Green and Co., Hankey
and Co., Gurney and Co., and lastly Bruce and Co.
Mr. Richard Johnson, of the flint-glass works, St.
Helen's, Lancashire, was induced by the promising
circulars of "Messrs. Bruce and Co." to apply for their
pecuniary aid; and he received in the way of their
business a bill of exchange for £213. 6s., drawn by
them, and accepted and endorsed by other imaginary
persons; for which he paid £10 commission. Mr. Johnson
got it discounted, and at the time of its maturity
forwarded to "Messrs. Bruce" the funds to redeem it
from the London banker at whose place of business it
was made payable: but the bill was not taken up, and
on inquiry no parties could be found who answered the
description of "Messrs. Bruce;" so that Mr. Johnson
had to pay a second time. The police traced the
swindlers to their retreat in Stoke Newington, and
bursting into the house, discovered Captain Routledge
in the midst of all the paraphernalia of his fraudulent
occupation. Bills of exchange were found amounting
to £3517; money to the amount of £150 in gold and
half-notes; a vast number of pawnbroker's tickets for
pieces of broad-cloth and other goods; and more than a
truck-load of the circulars by which the Messrs. Bruce
offered their pecuniary aid on easy and confidential
terms. It appears from the investigations of the Police,
that the address of the swindling firm has been
successively in several of the suburban streets; that no
number was ever given with the address on the circular;
and that the address given was never that of the street
at the time inhabited, but of one occupied some time
before; and yet that the letters always found their way
by regular course of post to the actual place of business
of the swindlers. These circumstances had afforded
them great additional means of concealment. The
prisoner has been remanded, in expectation that a mass
of additional charges will be made against him.

The protracted and important cause of Thewles v. Kelly
was brought to an issue on the 11th, in the Court of
Delegates at Dublin, when an unanimous judgment
was given in favour of the appellant, Miss Thewles.
The case arose out of the will of the late Mr. Edmond
Kelly, a Galway solicitor and land-agent, who had
accumulated an enormous fortune in real and personal
property, to the amount of £3,000 a-year in landed
estates, and £250,000 in the funds, which was left by the
disputed will to the respondent, who, it is alleged, was
married to him. On the part of the appellants, it was
contended that the will was the result of undue influence,
and the delegates were unanimous in annulling that
instrument. Heretofore, in this long litigated case, the
decisions have all been in favour of Mrs. Kelly, who
had meantime made arrangements for lending £200,000
to the directors of the Midland and Great Western
Railway, charged as a mortgage on the new line from
Athlone to Galway. There had been a previous suit
between Mrs. Kelly and the heir-at-law for the freehold
property, which was abandoned in consequence of an
arrangement; and then the next of kin, Miss Thewles,
instituted a suit for the invalidation of the will. The
respondent was also condemned to all the costs of the
proceedings, amounting to £15,000.

An act of Horrible Cruelty, by which the whole live
stock of a farmer was destroyed, was perpetrated on
Sunday the 12th, at Dagnell near Dunstable. Mr.
Cutler, a small farmer residing in the above village,
was roused from sleep during the night, by the
moaning noise of one of his pigs, and on going into
the yard found the poor animal mutilated in a most
shocking manner, being, in appearance, chopped in
two across the loins with a bill or axe. Fearing that
more mischief had been done to his stock, he went
round his premises, and discovered, to his horror,
that all his cows, six in number, had been cruelly
cut about the hind-legs, the hamstrings completely
separated, and the tail of one of the animals cut off,
Mr. Cutler immediately sent for a butcher, and had the
poor animals slaughtered. Suspicion fell upon a man
who had recently been working for Mr. Cutler. This man