PETERSFIELD.
CAUTION TO THE PUBLIC.—AN AGENT OF THE MARINERS’ FRIEND SOCIETY.—At the Magistrates’ Office, on the 5th inst. (present, Hon. J. J. Carnegie (chairman), Sir J. Clarke Jervoise, Bart., MP, and J. Waddington, Esq.),
Richard Smart was brought up on remand, charged as a rogue and vagabond, and with obtaining money under false pretences. The case was partly heard in Petty Sessions on the previous Tuesday, and reported in this paper at the time. P.C. Henry Elderfield now deposed to having visited Wapping last Friday, where it was alleged the Mariners’ Friend Society had a chapel, called ‟The Bethel.” He there found a building which appeared to have been a warehouse or large shop. The shutters were closed, and across them were painted the words ‟Mariners’ Friend Society.” On entering he found the room fitted with forms and a raised platform, and was informed that services were held there at stated times. He also called on the Rev. M. Bradford, whose name was attached to prisoner’s credentials as secretary to the society, and who lives at No. 12 Queen’s-road, Cambridge-road. He there found a small brass plate on the front door, on which was engraved ‟Mariners’ Friend Society.” Mr Bradford showed him some books, letters, and papers relating to the society. The letters were mostly old and dated some years back. There was one from the Earl of Carlisle, requesting that his name might be removed from the list of patrons. The books contained entries of meetings, &c., and in one case those entries there was a formal appointment of Richard Smart, at a salary of £80 a year. After hearing this evidence the Chairman addressed the prisoner to the following effect: ‟Richard Smart, you were brought up before the magistrates in Petty Sessions on Tuesday last, charged under the Vagrancy Act with going about obtaining money under false pretences; you were remanded till to-day to afford opportunity for making further inquiries; the result of those inquiries is that the case will not be carried further, but I must remind you that your detention in custody for this length of time has been entirely owing to your own conduct. The fact of one of your own witnesses (Mr. Enos Couch) having sworn that a certain certificate of your appointment, written on the inside of the cover of your receipt book, and purporting to be signed by him, was a forgery, coupled with the fact that no counterfoil was found in your receipt book corresponding with the receipt which you had given to Mr. Pocock, together with the further fact that three counterfoils had been torn from this book—these facts left the magistrates no alternative but, in the interests of justice, to detain you in custody. You are discharged.”
See also 2-Feb-1867