the hat should be detained for a certain time, in the station
house; and, if no owner was discovered, that it should be given up to
her. She had, since, made repeated inquiries of the police, but
could obtain no information from them, nor any redress for the false
imprisonment she had suffered.

Mr. Ballantyne asked the applicant if she was sure the hat belonged
to Lord J. Russell.

The woman said there had been a whitebait Cabinet dinner at Mr.
Lovegrove's, West India Dock Tavern, Blackwall, on the night she
found the hat, and Lord John Russell was one of the party.

Mr. Ballantyne: Well, I don't understand how his Lordship could lose
his hat at the corner of the New Road.

The woman said it was supposed that Lord J. Russell had put his head
out of the carriage window, and looked back to see if his friends
were following him, when his hat fell off his head, and, as he was a
Lord, he would not stop until it was picked up again (laughter).

Mr. Ballantyne: What do you want me to do in the matter?

The applicant said she wanted to know to whom the hat belonged.

Mr. Ballantyne: Why, I should say it belonged to Lord John Russell.

The woman said the hat was worth a guinea, and that if she had
accepted 5/- from the policeman, and given it up to him, he would not
have taken her into custody. She thought it was very hard to be
subject to such tyranny because she had picked up Lord John Russell's
hat, for she had done no harm to the crown of it. She supposed Lord
John Russell was in liquor, or he would have ordered his carriage to
stop, and picked up his hat. (Roars of laughter, in which the
magistrates could not help joining.) "You may laugh," said the
woman; "but it's all true what I say; you may depend upon it, the
Ministers don't eat whitebait without drinking plenty of wine after
it, you may be sure. (Increased laughter.) I don't know why the
gentlemen laugh, I am sure. I was locked up all night away from my
husband and children."

Mr. Ballantyne said it was very singular the woman could not
recollect what night it was she picked up the hat, and the number and
letter of the policeman who took her into custody.

The applicant said she was too much alarmed at being locked up in the
station house, and brought before the magistrate, to recollect what
night it wa