HIGHWAYMEN IN FLEET-STREET.

Colonist, Volume IV, Issue 355, 19 March 1861, Page 4

HIGHWAYMEN IN FLEET-STREET.

A letter in the Times relates an attack by highwaymen neat Temple-bar last week, at five o'clock in the afteruoon!

'On Wednesday afternoon last, the 28th November, a gentleman, eminent in the scientific world, was proceeding on' foot from the Admiralty to the London bridge station, en raute for Greenwich. He passed under Temple-bar on the north side, at a very few minutes past five. As he emerged from the arch he observed some men, eight or ten in all, drawn up on each side of the footway. He had not advanced a step, before' they closed in and atiacked him. They drove his hat over ht3 eyes, endeavored to trip him up, and otherwise assaulted him in the most violent manner. My friend is a powerful mail, a little above the ordinary size, and he was fortunately able to prevent himself from fulling, and to keep hia pockets intact. He was, however, forced against the stone-work of the arch, and had hia hand so seriously damaged, th.it when I met him at the Royal Society dinner, on Friday, it was all but useless.

The whole thing was over in a few seconds, and when my friend succeeded in forcing his hat up again, and recovering the light, his assailants had vanished. Of course he had shouted " Police !" with all his mi^ht; but, of course, no police had arrived. He then ran on into ►Fleet-street, and soou found two constables chatting at the corner of Chaucery-laue. He ; told what had happened to him, ami received the cool reply, ." Ah ! yes, Sir, the second attack to-day.'' On this part of the story I mak« no comment, but the jpectacle which I have endeavored to set before you, of a respectable gentleman struggling with eight or ten ruffians, on the foot paverneut of Fleet-atreef,, at five o'clock in the afternoon, in the year 1860, —with cabs, Qmnibuses, and foot-passengers crowding by as usual, —ia, I think, one which will take many of your readers by surprise, aud which certainly ought to be preserved.'