The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-01-30 00:00:00

A HARD CASE.

In the Court of Queen's Bench, "ex parte Walker
in a matter of the Mayor and Corporation of
London," has been brought forward, and was an
application which had arisen out of the great burglary
and robbery of watches and jewelry at the shop of Mr.
Walker, on Cornhill, in the night betwewa Saturday,
the 4th, and Monday, the 6th of February, 1865. On
that occasion 353 watches and a number of gold chains
were stolen. The burglars were apprehended, tried,
and convicted, and in the box of one of them 54
watches and chains were found, and in the box of
another of them, named Casely. a sum of
1:270 was found in rotes and money, which he
stated was the produce of the robbery.
On the 12th of April the burglars were tried and con-
victed, and Mr. Walker applied to the Recorder for the
restitution of the money, the proceeds of the property
stolen, (the watches having been handed over to Alw.
Walker by order of the Recoder.) The Recorder, how-
ever, declined to make the order, and referred the pro-
secutor to the Treasury. The police, however, had
handed over the money to the city authorities, and
to them the prosecutor accordingly addressed
himself. In October, 1865, Mr. Walker petitioned
the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council,
and was invited to attend a meeting of the Law,
Parliamentary, and City Lands Committee, and he ac-
cordingly attended but no ennAusion was come to. Vari-
ous other meetings and discussions had been held, but
still no conclusion was come to until, at last, in 1867, the
Court of Common Council cancelled the reference of
the matter to the committee, and in the result Mr.
Walker had received no part of his money. It ap-
peared that the Corporation had actually been advised
that, under certain ancient charters, giving them the
right to "felons' goods;' they were entitled to retain
the property of Mr. Walker, and this notwithstanding
the enactments on the subject in favour of the right to
restitution, ending with the very recent enactment in
the statute 24th and 25th of Victoria, cap. 96, sec. 100.
Sir J. D. Coleridge, Solicitor-General, now moved
behalfon gd Mr. Walker for a writ of restitution
directed to the Mayor and Corporation of London,
directing them to return to him the property and pro-
ceeds of the property of his which had been recovered
from the burglars. There had been, he said, a long
course of discussions and communications, which had
led to no result—except this, indeed, that Mr. Walker
could not get back his property. The Corporation
had somehow been led to take up the strange notion
that they were entitled to this property as "felons'
goods," although it had never ceased to be his, and the
robbers had been prosecuted to conviction, so that by
the common law and the statutes he was clearly
entitled to it. The money had never become the
property of the robbers; it remained the property of
the true owner who had been robbed, and the recent
statute contained an express provision on the subject
that restitution should be made.
The Court without any hesitation granted a rule s is(
for writ of restitution.

The recent Treasury order relating to the bank-
ruptcy 4 members of the Civil Service is being followed up
by the Admiralty. An order bps been received at Chatham
dockyard directing the suspension of one of the established
clerks in the storekeeper's department, who has recently be-
come insolvent.
Captain Wilmshurst, ILN., was, after his honourable
acquittal, to have proceeded again to the Island of Ascension
by the packet which was to leave England on Wednesday,
but the authorities at Lloyd's have communicated with the
Admiralty, and intimated that proceedings In the civil
courts are to be instituted, which will oblige him to remain
in this country sonic time.