The Press.
London, England, 1855-12-15 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

attempting, while being in Balaklava, to embezzle
five bags of Government biscuit. It appeared from
the evidence that the Salucia was laden with a cargo
of biscuit, and that, on the night of the 28th of
September, five bags were secretly put into a boat
and sent on board the Equator. Suspicion was
aroused at the lot's, information was given, and
the authorities in Balaklava searched the Equator
and found the five missing bags. The various
depositions of the Balaklava witnesses having been
read, the magistrates committed the defendants to
take their trial at the Winchester Assizes, but

accepted bail in 6001. each.
A CASE OF FORGERY AGAINST • CLERGYMAN of
high connections was tried before Mr. Baron
Martin, on Tuesday, at the York Assizes. William
D. 13eresford, cousin of Lord Decies, was charged
with having, in November, 1848, forged an endorse-
ment to a bill of exchange, purporting to be drawn
by Major-General Marcus Beresford (now in India),
at that time Adjutant-General of Ireland. The facts
of the case were simple. The prisoner, on a visit to
Mr. Kay, of Manningham-hall, near Bradford, in
October, 1848, presented the bill of exchange at the
Bradford bank. The manager, being unacquainted
with the prisoner, declined to discount the bill with-
out the endorsement of some person known in the
neighbourhood. Mr. Beresford, returning to Man-
ningham-hall, asked Mr. Kay's son to endorse the
bill. Mr. Kay refused, and Mr. Beresford, leaving
the ball, returned to Bradford. Two days later,
having written to Mr. Kay to forward to the bank
a letter left behind at the hall, Mr. Beresford called
at the bank, and opened the letter, which proved to
contain the bills of exchange endorsed with Mr.
Kay's name. This name was forged. From that
date to the 10th of April last the prisoner had not
been met with, although known to be living in
London. Mr. Kty, on that day, meeting the pri-
soner, gave him into custody. Mr. Kay in evidence
denied ever having endorsed the bill, and swore to
the forgery. The defence set up turned upon the
length of time which bad elapsed since the commis-
sion of the offence, that there was nothing to prove
that the bill was not a good bill, and that throughout
the whole transaction the prisoner bad given bis own
name without concealment. The learned Judge
summed up briefly, and pointed out to the jury that
the sole point to consider was whether the endorse-
ment was forged or not. The jury, after a short
consultation, found the prisoner guilty ; and the
learned Judge briefly sentenced Mr. Beresford to
" tran sportatio for life."
ALICE GREY, who was brought up at the Birming-
ham Police court on Saturday last, was removed by
order of the Treasury to Wolverhampton to answer
the charge of perjury in the case of the two boys,
Perry and Randle. The proceedings, which were of
a formal character, resulted in the prisoner being
remanded to Stafford Gaol for a week.
JOHANNA DUTTON, who was charged under circum-
stances of peculiar brutality with murdering her own
child in September last, was tried at Nottingham on
Tuesday. The jury returned a verdict of "Ac-
quittal."
MR. WALTER GORRINGE, the collector of St. Mary's
Hospital, charged with embezzling large sums be-
longing to the trustees, was re-examined on Wednes-
day betore Mr. Broughton at Marylebone and com-
mitted for trial.