The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-07-13 00:00:00

sirable to give into the hands of anybody should
be destroyed as a rule. My seven lines at the tip,
I presume, were also destroyed. The defendant was
at the office again in toe alternoon when it was going through
the press. lie was there while the prows were being
correc.:ed, and when the editor was also present. The
managing printer who received the manuscriot to put into
type was John Gourley. I never saw any printed document
in the possession ot the defendant, the cheque produced
Is dated June 14, and is drawn on Grin,flay and Co. It ir
payable to C. Marvin the sum l being £2O to the order of
Cap Lam Armstrong. his endorsed by "C. Marvin.' I was
not aware till to-day that such a cheque WAS given, as I have
nothing to do with payments of any kind.
Cro,s-examined It is not in my department to dal with
cash payments. I cannot sAy if £4O was not owing to the
defendant from the Globe for other woik, and this was a 1
payment on account. I knew that he contributed to the
Norning Advertiser. He had told me so. sj have nqadouttX
that there are writers for the Press in every department of
tue State and at the Bar. I had no idea there was anything.
wrong in accepting his contributions. Tnere is no pre- ,
teuee for the_ 811.1=Altal—made • .et.- the- Ir.ifaliftifitielf'
at the-Globe might be charged with con-
spiring with the defendant to procure the information.
Tile defendant never brought anything written on Foreign
Office paper or on their printed forms. So far as I know
there was no stipulation for payment—that would be con-
trary to rule. Re did not stipulate for any sum to be paid
for the information brought on May 30. nor at any other
time—either for the copy or translation.
.I never saw the
printed text till this moment in court. It was all in his own
handwriting. I believe Ministers are In the habit, some-
times, of supplying information. Documents worded "Con-
fidential " are sometimes received from high personages as
private information.

Mr. Vaughan: How can that effect the case, even if per-
sonages in high authority did send such articles?
Mr. Lewis: It might tend to palliate the transaction on
the part of a clerk receiving 10d. an hour.
Mr. Vaughan: I do not see that at all
Mr. Lewis here read the following letter, written by
defendant to the editor of the llorning Advertiser, dated
June 10 :

"Dear Sir,—l have just been able, while engaged upon
temporary translation work at the Foreign Office, to secure
for perusal for a few minutes the agreement, or rather
'projected agreement,' between England aud Russia. I
was aware, even before its appearance in the Globe, 01 the
existence of the document in question, but the terms
divulged were so extraordinary that I thought I would
endeavour to Lest their correctness before informing you
01 the lad. On reading hurrieuly the two memoranda
miming the agreement (i was unaule to take notes)
I found that the Globe version was quite correct,
but the articles were differently arranged, and there
were a few minor points which, with some other infor-
mation from the Foreign Office, I have embodied in
the enclosed letter from Aunts. I thought it better to ar-
range it in this form as it would not attract suspicion
thereby to its authorship, and would carry more weight than
a mere paragraph confirming what the Globe had said. The
Russian part of the letter I received only this morning
iron). St. Petersburg. i will inform you if any thing fresh
transpires at the Foreign Office. As I run considerable risk
in writing this, might I suggest that it should be destroyed
after being readl—Yours faithfully, CHARLES MARVIN,
your Sc. Petersburg Correspondent. —37, Burrage-road,
Plumstead."

Mr. Lewis said, it having been suggested by Mr. Poland
that this information was not accepted by the editor of that
paper, "greatly to its credit," he would ask, Was it not a
fact that on the 10th of Jane the Morning Advertiser did
actually publish it?

Witness: Yes. (Laughter.) Any contributor might have
brought it.
By gr. Poland: I do not mean that any one might have
got such an article as the Memorandum. In the competition
for early news the Globe was doubly anxious to be first in
the field, but I am serious when I say that I did not suspect
anything wrong had been done to obtain it. The article in
the Advertiser did not purport to give the full text, but it
was more than an amplification of what appeared In the
Globe of May 30. II you compare it, you will find that a
good deal is added.
By Mr. Vaughan : The manuscript brought by the defend-
ant was very closely written on four or five pages. I was
surprised at his getting the information, but it did not occur
to me to ask him how he obtained it. I only asked him It lie
was certain as to the accuracy of the lluforwatlon, and be
satibtleu sue on that poult. It was only my business to be
assured of that.

Mr. W. T Madge, printer and publisher of the Globe, and
also business manager, examiued,--1 have known the de-
fenthuit Marvin as a contributor to the Globe for some four
years and personally for about nine months. I did nut
know that he was u.• the Foreign Office till the night of the
30th of May. He was in the habit of supplying articles
and translations, and I knew him, thereiore, to be a
gentleman of education. I was at tile Globe office on the
night of May 30. lhe defendant called there shortly be-
fore eight and asked for Mr. Massey, who had left. He
then told me the object of his visit. He said that he had
an important piece of news—the project of the agreement
between England and Russia—and ne went on to say,
"lucre will be no war now. We ale to have a Con-
gress." I asked him if lie was certain, and he re-
plied "Yes; I have assisted this afternoon in copying
it." I then sent a special messenger for Mr. Massey, and
retained some of the staff who were then leaving.
Knowino• that our Editor was going to the Lyceum
Theatre that evening, I went over there and fetched him
to the office, as Mr. Massey had not arrived. Before
Captain Armstrong reached the office Marvin had taken a
seat at my table in the office and had written on several
half sheets of note paper. Re did not have any document
with him. He wrote out the ten paragraphs which after-
wards appeared in the special extra edition that evening.
Captain Armstrong, on his arrival, questioned the defendant
as to the accuracy of the information, as I had done already,
and the defendant informed him that he had been engaged
in c..py lug the agreement, and that if it did not appear in
the Globe that night, it would be publithed in The Times the
next morning, as it was going to be sent round to the papers
that night. Marvin was there about one hour altogether.
I inferred that he had been engaged at the Foreign Office
that day. Nothing was said about payment. I anew that
he had a cheque given to him about three weeks ago. We
should have preferred keeping the intelligence for the next
day, but for his statement that it would appear in the papers
the next morning. I never at any time saw any printed or
official documents in his possession. I have not got the
MS. of the 30th of May. I destroyed it, I think, on the 17th
of June, when I retkrned from the Continent, after a short
holiday. I found it in my pocket.

Cross-examined : The defendant usually had a current
account at the Globe, and he was paid at intervals. Priority
of intelligence is a very good marketable commodity. There
was Government information in the Daily Telegraph yester-
day which appeared in no other paper.
Mr. Vaughan again objected to the introduction of irre-
levant matters, and, in answer to Mr. Lewis, stated that he
did not see why a man should be dishonest because he was
only paid 10d. an hour. That was quite a new doctrine of
honesty to him.

Mr. Lewis would yield to the judgment of the Court. His
only object was to bhow that the practice of supplying news-
papers with official information was a very common and,
indeed, a very desirable one.

The witness, in further cross-examination, stated that he
was certain nothing was done to tempt or incite the de-
fendant to obtain the information. fie had heart that the
defendant was a writer or lecturer on 6tokes's "Art of
Memory."
Mr. Vaughan: There could be little doubt about the
defendant having a good memory.

By Mr. Poland: The cheque for £2O given to Marvin was
not drawn on the bank used by the Globe. It was drawn by
Captain Armstrong on his own private bank, and I reim-
bursed him for it by a cheque to the same amount on mine.
This was merely done as a matter of convenience, to prevent
my sending cash from the office.

Mr. Vaughan: Can you tell me why you destroyed the MS.
furnished by defendaut on your return from France?

Witness: I had no reason except that I ought to have
destroyed it before I went there, and I did not know that
It was still in my pocket till then. It is the practice to
destroy all MSS of that kind as soon as they are done
with.

Mr. Poland was about to call Mr. Irving, of the Foreign
Office, but, it being nearly six o'clock,

Mr. Vaughan said he could not proceed further with
the inquiry that day. The inquiry must be adjourned for a
week.

7.1.11-e defendant was liberated on bail, one surety in £5O.