The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-09-06 00:00:00

THE FORGERIES ON THE BANK OF
ENGLAND.

Commenting on these great forgeries, TA 6 TimeB has the
following leader :

Since the trial of Fannthroy, in 1824, DO cane of
forgery has created so great a sensafion as that just
terminated at the Central Critnimil Court. It may,
Indeed, be doubted, notwithstanding the impres-
sions of ..ne of the convicts, whether the " business "
which he was so expert a practitioner has of
late years made such "very great strides" as he
deecrilxd. Fauntleroy'e achievements in that line
surpassed those of the American forgers, so far,
at any rate, as these are known. He was
said to have actually embezzled no less than
£400,000, though the Bank only prosecuted for
E170,t4,0 ; and be had carried on his nefarious
practices undetected and unsuspected for years to-
gether. His work, however, consisted simply in
the repetition of ane particular crime. Strange to
say, be kept an account of the proceedings in his own
handwriting which exceeda in plainness of confession
even the statement of George Macdonnell. The police
found in his desk a detailed !Int of transactions in-
volving sums to the amount of £120,000, at the foot of
which was an acknowledgment that all the money
had been realise i by sales of stock belonging to other
partief —absi specified—through forged powers of
attorney. There was no organised conspiracy in the
matter. Fauntleroy had no acssimplices. He simply
committed one forgery after another, in the same way
and for the KAM@ purpose until he was discovered—a
consummation long retarded by the presumed in-
tegrity of hie character and the unquestioned
respectability of his position. There was more "art,"
It may be admitted, in the operations of the four
men just convicted. Their work could hardly have been
executed except through the resources of a confederacy.
Fauntleroy forged the names of his own friends and
customers, constituting himself their attorney for deal-
big with their funded property, ansi when he had
turned this into money he had his own bank through
which to pass the proceeds. He needed but two
qualities for the conduct of the biudness—diehotesty
and audacity; whereas these forger. of our own day
had • variety of difficulties to surmount. Their de-
predations, too, as cannot be doubted, and need not
ha disguised, were prosecuted over half the globe;
indeed, it is curious to observe how much Macdonnell
incidentally and undesighedly cohfesses in the Ade-
meet intended to qualify his own doins;s and efface the
guilt of others.

When "we first came to England," said he, it was
without a preconcerted scheme for the perpetration of
the fraud- The "we," as he had previously observed,
comprised the two Bidwell.) and himself. Why, then,
did these three "come to England," and whet was
their errand? After a short stay they left this coun-
try, without, as he declares, any intention of returning.
They did, however, return, '• circumstances " having
"occurred "to change their minds. What circrunet Imes
were these? They proceedel to the Continent, with the
design, as he quietly stated, of doing "certain business
between Vienna and Frankfortom the-Main." Circum.
dances, hcwever, prevented that business also, and
again Macdennell found himself in England, being
obliging enough presently to inform us that "in
the coarse of one operations on the Continent,
between Vienna and I rankfort, lust autumn there
"was a good amount of money left uncollected."
What where these "operations," and how had the un-
collected money been realized! He and his friend went
also, he says, to South Amen us. What was their
business there? To these inquiries, suggested as they
are irresistibly by the convict's own words, some tiler-
ably clear replies can be gathered from evidence
alleged to be in the possession of the prosecution.
When the three confederates left England for the
Continent Mandonnell and Austin Bidwell went to
Berlin and Dresden, while George Bidwell proceeded
alone to Bordeaux, Marseilles. and Lyons. They took
with them forged letters of introduction and credit, and
by means of these documents obtained • sumof £i,ooo
with which they returned to London. They did sail
afterwards for South Am. ice, as etated, and there
again, by means of forged letters, they realized £lO,OOO,
It was after these "operations" that the three met in
London once more and entered upon that plot which
ham just been brought home to them. The prisoner Noyes,
It was said, only arrived in Englatet from America in
the month of December last, and obtained his situation
as a clerk to Austin Bidwe'l by advertising in a news.
paper. Very possibly ; but what had been his °cap
nation in America, and what character did he bring
with hiss? He had been undergoing, it is stated, a
sentence of seven years' impris merit in the State ,
Prison in New Jersey for forging a check upon a bank,
but had been released, through the intercession of
friends, before the expiration of his term. This was
In March last year, and it wee within ten months f
his discharge from gaol that he took service with
Bidwell. We should add also, on the Mlle authority '
as above given, that all the four convicts are nnele r-
stood to have been well known to each other in the I
United States ; nor ought we to conclude without re-
minding the reader of the previous history of one of
the prisoners, as told in the American papers at the
time of his extradition. Only by the light of these
statements can the character of the gang and the
nature of their "business" be properly appreciated.
Perhaps, however, one of the strangest incident, of
the whole affair is the plot formed for their escape from
prison, if not from the dock itself. Prison-breaking,
Indeed, had been already amoug their accomplish.
meats. Austin Bidwell escaped from custody in
Havannah, and something was said of similer exploits,
If we remember rightly, in the United States. An
American journal, indeed, frankly expressed a hope,
as well as a belief, that British law and British gaols
might at length prove too strong for such slippery
culprit! • and yet it might possibly have been other-
wise. True, it is hard to imavine bow such clever
offenders could, after their recent ex) erience, build
with any confidence upon such • scheme. Three
reit of the four had actually got clear away when
their crimes were discovered. They had the advanta;e
of a good start, concerted ?lens, suitable disgui ec
and abundant means. N v .rthelese, they yre trackre' e-1
through every step of their paths, captured "no after
another, and brought at last to justice in spite of every
obstacle legal ingenuity icould devise and unlimited
money make available. Could they, then, with any
reason now expect to elude nur-nit with every chance
against them? It is difficrilt to accept such a con-
clusion ; but, if the chance was desperate, their
position was desperate also; they had friends or accom-
plices still at large. and there was still money at com-
mand. The escape of the two Fenian prisoners, Kelly
and Deasy, shores what things are possible, though in
that came, no doubt, a large number of person were in-
terested in facilitatimt the rescue. On the whole, how-
ever, there may be reason, wo imagine, to reidce that
the application made for the poetremement of the
trial was not anccesefril. With • few weeks more at
command such expert and well-befriended conspirators
might possibly have organized some dangerous, if not
hopeful scheme of escape. As it was, th-y were
dnven into a corner, although it seems believed that
justee one week ago an attempt was actually to have
n made. The commercial world is certainly to be
oongratulated on the euppreseion of this predatory
organization ; but, as it is prabable enough that other
weak points are to be discovered in our mercantile and
monetary arrangements by those who look for them,
the interval of security resulting from these convictions
might be teofitsbly employed in diminishing thoee
"facilities" for crime by *high the chief criminal on
this occasion was, as he himself &melees us, induced to
plume and develops his plans of plan ler.

In connection with this subject, the Fall Mall Uozette
also remszki

It is a common remark that the Bank forgers who
have just been sentenced to penal servitude for life
may esteem themselveo fortunate that the law is more
merciful now than formerly, and that they are not
called upon to expiate the crime they have committed
on the gwlows. lithe men are capable of appreciating
consolation of thir kind it may comfort them to re-
flect that, in the early part of loot century, they
would have been liable to even a more terrible
punishment than death, and that those who were banged
for forgery ht.d also reason to congratulate themielves
on the alteration in the law which oubotitnted death
for the pillory and corporal punishment as the peaalty
for that crime. The old fashioned method of dealing
with forgers is thus minutely described in a London
periodical publication for the year 1731 :—" June 9th.
—This day, about noon, Japhet Crook, alias St. reter
Stranger, was brought to the pillory at Cnoring.croso,
according to his sentence for forgery. He stood
an hour thereon ; after which a chair was set on the
pillory, and he being put therein, the hangman with
a sort of pruning knife cut off both his ears, and
Immediately a surgeon &apt a styptic thereon. Then
the executioner, with a pair of ocisoors, cut his left
nostril twice before it was quite thringh, and after-
wards cot through the right nostril at once. He bore
all this with great patience; but when, in purottance
of his sentence, his right nostril was sewed with a red-
hot iron, he 1,1011 in ouch violent pain that his left
nostril was let alone, and be went from the pillory
bleeding. He was conveyed from thence to the King
Bench Prison, there to remain for life. He died in
confinement about three years after."

On Saturday Auetin and George Bidwell, Gee,rge
Yacdonnell, and Edwin Noyes, were removed from
the gaol of Newgate to one of the convict ezteblieh-
went. to utdergo • portion of their eenter,ce. Bet ore
they left Newgate they were idiom of their beanie and
whiekers and clad in prison garb, and no one, it is raid,
could have recognized them after thia ctange in tagir
appearance had been effected,