The National Register. — London, England, 1818-12-14 00:00:00

. --...„ • .... .. - -r• - rwank---.- - - — ",111111,1114110M00011 • .. ' ./ r / - 1;•":15401 4' . ............ ___ Y.., Our tting, onfititution anti No. 566.—V0L. XI.. MONDAY, DECEMBER 14, ISIS. DOXITLCAL DISQUISITION. ON THE DECENT ADQU,LTTAL OF PERSONS TRIED FOR IITTSRING FORGED BANK OF ENGLAND • NaTE/i/L• THIN seatatkal went segicittala at the ()Id Bailey, of of The deli away ton .of verdicts, the .tted ; nume- nisi' the fabricator. The public would take no harm if the note should circulate-for ever: it would pass as the representative of twenty shillings as long as the Bank stood; it is (nineteen times out of twenty) only when taken to the Bank itself, that proledion to the holder .fails. It is then only that loss is sustained, and not by the public, but by one man. Wt again say; there is but OM sufferer; and that that'one suferer, upon every principle of humus justice and British juriSpru (knee, should be the prosrcutor. This, we apprehend, is the only instance wherein the person aggrieved fi'net, either in his owu name, or in that of the King, .the identical party also who Las recourse to the law. If the Bank pays the note, let the Dank prosecute the offence: it has been damnified, let it obtain redress. But we again say, that it is must absurd tluit the Bank, which is the only party that can sustain no loss, should be the only party which steps forward to inflict punish ment... anticipated: . "•••1t is mid, that a " persist outcry has been raised 4 4`only withits the tag twelve manthsagainst convictions " fee &rot?, as ifthat piatiphay crime was entitled to " peculiar. sympathy." MOO lkot literally, though it is !severally, true. The assilis thus :—esecutionssand punishments for forgery, sPoiljit uttering forged notes, hare of hate excessivelritteremed, yet have the crimes ;0. cotemporancously increase 4 also ; and hence, more than a popular outcry (fr some of the wisest and most ex emplary men in the nation have joined in it) has been ;Asa against legal severities, which have produced no good effect; and peculiar sympathy has been excited towards criminals whose execution has obviously so asseleasty to prevent others from committing the some 'nen gee*, offenee. We are aware that a week advocate does harm to a souse; and as we certainly have, with the nation at large, thought the system pursued towards forgers and titterers erroneous, we, in order to put it down, shall 'just quote one of the arguments gravely advanced in support of it :••••••" We confess we are so dull, that we " 4 cannot see any mitigating circumstances of distinction between the man who commits a fraud by uttering a •" fined note, and he who picks a pocket to same " amount. Yet, we . h ave hitherto been spared the " folly of imbecile lamentations over the convicted " thief." But are pickpockets hanged ? Yet forgers • are executed without exception ; and utterers, after a repetition of. their offence, are subjected to the same fate. _ _ . have shown and being under no obligation to pay forged Owes, •oan sustain no loss, and that such loss must be sustained by sonic individual, foolishly and by way of exaggeration called the public : yet, when the inspector of the Manic was required by the jury on Williams's trial to deplore how he knew a forged front a real note, the question was resisted on the principle that "it would lead to • . . . " great inconvenience if the Bank were obliged to de " dare the private marks by which it could determine "on the gennineneu of its motes." By this.4aetriie, then, it follows that individuals, who are alowe.inte rested in the genuineness of notes, are kept in igncs. ranee of the marks by which the true can be distin guished from the false ; and the Bank, who are not obliged to pay the false ones, retain to themselves the. exclusive faculty of discerning them. We have made these remarks in no hostility to that eminent corporate. body, the Bunk of Englan4. It acts, we believe, and arc ready to allow, with' as match lenity as the abs►►rdity of the existing system will permit, and ►will probably be benefited by any rational change.— As to the dictum, or,general theorem upon which the lams against forgery are founded, that we are a com mercial country, and therefore forgers ought to be hanged ; the fillaey of this theorem has long been s hown and pro►ed. Holland was once as commercial a country as England, and yet never executed fur thrgery. The Quakers of England are a highly commercial body, and yet are they, as such, most grievously adverse to inflicting capital punishment on all forgeries ; and aro now exerting themselves warmly for the repeal of laws so san.gttinary. What follows, thaugh upon a painful subject, is ab solutely ludicrous We imagine no one will deny • " •that . he who forges a Bank nate is a rogue; that be Avhil utters it, knowing it to be forged, is a rcgus : " and that a rogue, when discovered, ought to be malted "—that is, Of course, he ought to be hanged ! In this, we answer' „alit; public is not agreed ; but is very etrongly of opinion, that the system at present adopted towards offenders of that particular class .of which we are speaking, has not been proper ; and is now indisputably obvious that a change will lake place. Leaving, therst'ore . , arguments like the above to do alt the harm 'they -most to the eanse which they art brought, to: anyport, we new proceed to notice with great temper a few of the errors and inemeisten- . CPI of diat tysteni as it tit present exists. The indict metitit for forgery all ran that the crime was committed' "ivith inteht to defraud the awernor and Company or the littik of , England." But the witnesses on the part of the Ralik, their own solicitors, searchers, and in sPootPrs or notes, as universally swear, that the prose.' cutiots 'is instituted in order to protect, not the Hank, bag the plait- : and - it iti certain that, whomaneyer the not 6 mey lire been drawn with the inknition to defraud, , . . • . ...au Raw; a ,oikty party dun taunot and will not be defrautied; /fir it will not pay the forged note to the On Thursday last the 3d instant, the Assitse Court of St. Omer condemned to fioe years' forced labour in chains, to branding, and public exposure, Alexanticr Sinclair (otlterwise'.Nlidgrave), for utterinu forged Bank of England Notes . the ncigixsurhood-of St. Omer. Dunkirk, and Gala's- The prisoner repngented himself to be a British nivat °nicer, connected' with the , „Dud:- chatloni, anil tva.4 tiLvontpani t Al by a Feot.th woulati, tv)iou!.l►e rerrcaentedtu be 1 i 1 wife. ." 4 i .---' . , . . .., . • . 1i I , • $ , .. A, * ' 1 10 If , , , e ..i,, a I - I io n _.... vt, „ t "VieThr, - • its. •Isr.orrue•- ~~ , • Paler, Sid. necessity . Avengelly admit. ted Tdr. Jacks ,only • , against. it ; .04 it' iv: unanimously agreed, that *that dabs *our& , be presented is both li ',ll, t, founded sari and embodying the of the mover, Mr.: Fa4cll. Thf s Committee far General Purposes prc.,.. seated a oltcp9ht, recommending an application to Pap. / lianiont, in the , ensuing Session, for extending doom. . _ power, of the Cburt of Requests to 101. &c. ; amending and consolidating the several laws now ht, force relating thereto `.; which were agreed to, and the ; Committee directed to - prepare the draft ofa Petition .to• the /louse of Commons, and of the Bill, and 114, as' same before a future Court for consideration. The. ' Wellington,-11 calling on you, to express my sense of the obligation I het, for the attention which my army has unifbrasli experienced at your hands, since it has been. under your orders. No words can do justice to what I feel. As little am I able . to express my admiration, and the. high gratification you afibrded. me, at the late review of our troops, especially by the finest military move... mont I ever witnessed—the advance. of the British Guards when attacking the heights of Father !-...1 havw therefore to desire that you will gtenait use to.nominatt you a Field Marshal of linssia.', The Duke bowed assent. and expAssed his deep sense of the distiigaished honour intended him by his Imperial IgAjesty. The day after- Ibis interview, the Emperor, on meeting the Duke, Said, You must dine with use.to r dey its the the , safform.'—' Sire,' replied the Duke. I have not yet been able to furnish myself with a coat That shel l net be wanting,' said the ' Emperor, if you trill wes the beat in my wardrobe.' In half an hour the Empti r ror's own uniform !oat, which he had wnrii the.tley 4 bailee, was sett to the Duke, who appeared in it at dinner, with the order of a Russian Field Marshal, and a magnificent sword presented to his Grans by his im perial Majeity, 'on 'the occasion. The manner in which .tho. Emperor conferred this high eriiitary honour, is perhaps the mon flattering peisenel odmpliment which the lien) of Waterloo has yet received, and it. had the additional glace of being given with all the cordiality and kindness of an intimate friend. Ou Wednesday, the General Committee of the thane' _Society "for the' Education of the Poor, in the principles of the tstehlished (:hurch, held their aneet ing at the central School, his Gnice the Archbishop . sSi` Canterbury in the Chair. Twenty fresh Schools were united to the Society, and several grants were mails towards the erecting, enlarging, and fitting up i:f School rooms; building the School in Spitultie.bl4, intends t for bOVS and .1( 1 0 girls. Afterwards his Grow by the Cotinuttee, entered the School sided- at the -half-yearly Yublic l'hildren, who acquit:4:d th e nisei vex 'satisfacto.7 to the company assembled Amongst others present, were two ywing men, natives of New Zealand, re:itlerit for seine rno.ials in Cu'iti country, l~; . pairoiS*ol , m limps of uttering forged Bank 1.01111101111110,010001pi1l rroutaphstion. TI subject, wo.sre awilre, oile.of considerable de' 9tcy; dinner the ip f aoc i O na l )lave taken much awl ifrom it leant quil; itat ploons is the indiscretil *cit has beta elmmitted l+.ooguPPoced partisans the Rank, in moving the itatiolilaration of the verdic and in attempting to briog'o . 'ee public, through ti Riess, to try the contluc i tnrhe, juries who acquittal tee for the public has long ` looown to view the num tons prosecutions for forgerp: , ind uttering fined not Yeah aversion; its opinion, therefore, might have be .e is seethes ineemeistattcy, also, iu the mow which wsustteet , ed 'sr the late !eh& Re own that the Bank; by mowing its AtVettes, innocent helderof it. klut a few words upon the sub- COURT OF COMMON COUNCIL. ject of the public, whom it is said the Beak means to , Thursdays Court of Couninni.Omacil was .kel et protect by these pstmeeutions. Who is the public ? at Guildhall, for the purpo4,ll, considering the pr,,-. This will soon be man from the. filiewing 'statement : ptiety of petitioning Parlisunent,:toievise and alter the , .., A forges aU. note, and puts it off to B, who is igno- Penal Lawa,.iw order to decrease the =tube; of "' i, .41 I rant of its oriilin ; Bto C, Cto D, and so on through pitul peniallmenta for minor .offenosa; and to mule • punishing** ,generally more eettiel*lrsto tn 4114 ' .... 4 , 4 1 the rest of the alphabet. It is 'v id e os thiti wherever dis ma l. l egion . of stialt....The. R A 1444011 hating: this ft iief* Alm ins mikolßltelli Paz. but t .•. - , i 41410111011 iaii.44ool,o r • man ; that, therefore, only ohs inlet at the malt die. by i, eh he 'bigot !brined 1 wook• . • --- . . be pnt;eeted in this instance; 'ma that the Bank will bar of a and arguments to show how seees... ,4 ) .. of ,_ ,_ not protect him in the only possible or sensible way, sail it was. to obtain a . leg:llmo 4y * n tste , m , w, W . hi gulattion. The mom* Mr. Vill-,. ' namely, by paying the. imitative note to the honest Hams, and the. subject was debated at twat . length Ly : i . 1 holder, not neglecting proper means to detect and pu- ! Mr. jacks, Mr. Taylor, Mr. Dixon, and others. The • - i 1 nisi' the fabricator. The public would take no harm if necessity of a revision seemed to be universally admit. . t The. following is given sultan' authentic statement of, circumstance whiah has already berm briefly noticed. , in the Ohne prints:—When the ttprer Maunder arrived at Aix-la-Chapelle, .(which in the middle. of the night) after the late gribia military review near , Valenciennes, his Imperial Majesty went early the next morning, without, am previous notice, to the . hotel of the Duke 'of*/ w lin was breakfast with his • The entered the mew ariAlaseireariniftlly, but in ° tart • Ater shaking Ada Orace by the 1 , 4'. ' very cordially, he addressed him nearly in the followitt words: Duke of Wellington,—l lase not a moment is 1., intcndc I 14 703 ►tlrace, accumpattiatt hool.roont, ago F,xaraillati . I . llr, • a in a alann bled ass the two very i -No land, who ountry. • r • . notes been i.•. - POI •