33. JOSEPH WOOLLEY proceedingsdefend was indicted for feloniously stealing, on the 20th day of November last, two cloth coats, value 10 s. three muslin neckcloths, value 2 s. two waistcoats, value 5 s. one pair of nankeen breeches, value 5 s. two shirts, value 5 s. and one hat, value 1 s. the property of Charles Austen proceedingsvictim .

CHARLES AUSTEN < no role > sworn.

I live at the Cock in Grafton-street ; I lost the things mentioned in the indictment, on the 29th of November last, I went up stairs to get my dirty things, about twelve at night; and I found my box broke open, and my things gone; I told my master and mistress; my box was all safe in the morning at seven; the prisoner was there then; the prisoner slept in my room; and I met him that evening about seven; he came in and desired me to deny him if any body asked for him; and I told him I would; I then went to bed, and in half an hour the prisoner came home, and I was called up; I then came down, and he was sitting in the tap room, and my master had a hat which was mine; I charged a constable with the prisoner, and the next day at Litchfield-street he confessed breaking open the box, and selling the things to a Jew in Westminster; no promise was made to him of any sort; there was a shirt which he owned taking the Thursday before, which I did not miss; and he told the constable where it was pawned; nothing else was recovered; he said, he did it to go to Botany Bay; for he was tired of the military law, and was determined to go there.

THOMAS BRAINWELL < no role > sworn.

The prosecutor is my servant ; and the prisoner was quartered with me; he came in about one, with a hat on his head which my servant owned; he was going to strike me; and was much in liquor.

(Deposed to.)

EDWARD NUGENT < no role > sworn.

I am corporal of the Coldstream regiment; about one o'clock on Thursday the 29th of November, I took up the prisoner; he missed some duty, and was in liquor; I asked him to go with me, and he said, he had broke open a box, and taken out two coats, and two waistcoats; I confined him, and next morning he broke out; he did not say why he did this; I stopped him about one in the day; he confessed taking the things out before the Justice, and sold them to a Jew.

John Gosling < no role > , a pawnbroker, received the shirt of a woman for five shillings.

WILLIAM PICKERING < no role > sworn.

On the 28th of November I was at Mr. Brainwell's house; the man came down stairs and said, he had been robbed, and about one the prisoner came in, and Brainwell took the hat off his head, and gave charge of him; I took him to the watch-house; he said, the things were all sold, except the shirt, which was pawned at Westminster, and he went and got the duplicate, and I went with him and took out the shirt.

Prosecutor. My hat hung up in the passage.

Prisoner. I have nothing to say.

GUILTY .

Court to Prisoner. You have been convicted upon clear evidence, added to your own express confession, of a very considerable crime, that of breaking open the box of the man in whose room you lodged, (a base breach of trust, added to felony,) and stealing away all the property that was in it; there is this peculiar circumstance in your case, that you have avowed the commission of this crime, with an intention of being transported to Botany Bay, prefering the ignominious punishment of being transported from your own country, to an honest life in it; the Court will indulge you in your desire of being transported, but you will be disappointed in the place, you shall not chuse your place of destination; and therefore the sentence of the Court is, that you be transported for seven years to Africa : and the Court wish it to be understood, that if there are any persons so infatuated and lost to all regard to the laws of their country, as to prefer transportation in an ignominious manner to a distant place, from whence they have no hope of returning, the Court will disappoint their expectations, by changing the place of their transportation.

Tried by the second Middlesex Jury before Mr. RECORDER.