A ROMANCE OF LONDON CRIME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7383, 18 July 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

A ROMANCE OF LONDON CRIME.

A DOCTOR BY DAY AND A BURGLAR BY NIGHT. Along with De Quincey's description of murder as "one of the fine arts," burglary must now be classed n,9 a career of romance and adventure. Peace's exploits will still be remembered. Only last week one of his followers came under the grip of the hangman ; and now thd police are busy tracing the antecedents of another, who for boldness and originality ha 3 scarcely been out-

done. Many may remember that during 1579 and ISSO the neighbourhood of Greenwich and Biackhealh was kept in a state of excitement owing to the numerous burglaries. Great relief followed the capture of the thief, who, under the name of Charles Montague, was in ISSO eentenced to rive years' penal servitude at the Central Criminal Court; no lees than eighteen charges being alleged against him. The prisoner's release on a ticket-of-iesve took place in August last year, and subsequently many mysterious burglaries vcompletely puzzled and ballled the police. Montague is said to have been suspected ; butk though ho frequently passed the very men Who were looking for him, he was never rocogni&"d, and of course took care not to make known. While the ticket-of-leave man to devote his nights to burglarious pursuits he moved freely about during the d»yv*s a medical gentleman. Taking a well-furnished drawing-room in a respectable part of I'ioiHco, he was only known to tho landlady amf> inmates of the house as Dr. Harvey, a rising\physician, with a good and increaiiug practice. The (doctor, by all who kuew him there, believed to be a counoisseur of the fine arts, for he was constantly bringing home valuable paintings, prints, and good books, curiosities in goid and silver, jewellery, plate, anV* art treasures of various descriptions. He ateo supposed to have a laboratory and otfrer chemical appliances for scientific investigation, in wnieu sometimsa he was busily engaged. Dr. Harvey was, it appears, irii reality a frequent visitor to the houses of fcbje sick, for he seems to have had a great; Ability for discovering dwellings which, throug-h illness and the temporary removal of families, were hhut up. His visits, however, werieV not to the patients, but in the night for the]; goods they had left behind. Thus, at one.fi'lace at Holloway where, owing to an outbneak of small-pox, thu house was shut up, h\ took charge of the gentleman's bank-book, filled up a cheque for over a hundred pound s, and also endeavoured to realise considerftfel 5 sums of money on a quantity of negotiable stock he found. His stock of valuables increased so rapidly that kindly pawnbrokers were induced to take charge of many things i and tho doctor was thus enabled to a supply of cash. A knowledge of books V a3 not among the "physician's" acccomplpsliments, and when ho proceeded to dispose! °f certain bibliographical treasures to a b'ot'kseller in St. George's Road, Southwark^(t e was not aware of the suspicions excited I' ll it 3 being noticed that the front leaves, whit B names might have been written, were icissinpAs Dr. Harvey called several times, the bookseller at length requested that in the event «?f any future purchases he might be allowed t(° fetch them from the house. To this thP seller would not consent, and the objection i was deemed singular enough to be communl' cated to the police. Hence it happened when the doctor paid another visit to th e bookseller's, detectives were in waiting* Sergeant Jupe went so far as to arrest him* when he in the most solemn manner said h e had bought the books and come by then) honestly, but under no circumstances woulc* he give his name or addrese. This, difficult/ was, however, overcome, and on the ap" pearance of the police the landlady waC greatly surprised to find that her eminent' medical lodger was Charles Montague, alias 5 Charles Grant, a notorious burglar and ticket-of-leave man. His rooms were founoto bo stored with valuables believed to bP stolen from some forty large houses in the suburbs. On going into the doctor's labora-, tory the police found chemicals for testing gold and silver; hit) scientific apparatus! consisting chiefly of a furnace, with the ,, , necessary appliances for malting the precious V metals. Besides proving successful for sof many months, Mr. Grant's disguises seem toP have made him appear more youthful, forp his age is now entered on the charge-sheet* as 35, whereas when convicted in ISSO he) acknowledged to 43. No doubt this, andmany other incidents of his strange careen'" will be cleared up before he is finally of by one of Her Majesty's judges. /