The Express.
London, England, 1862-09-29 00:00:00

THE ROUPELL FORGERIES.

Although the charge of forgery against the pri-
soner William Roapell has been thus far disposed of by his
pleading guilty and his being sorionsed to penal servitude,
there appears to be very little doubt that there will still be
a large amount of litigation before the matter is finally dis-
posed of, and as, in all probability, Mr. Reopen will have
to appear on many future occasions as • witness, it is ex-
pectedthat he will remain in Newgat• for • very mini-
ira
e time. Since his oonviction he bee been treated in
just the same manner ea ordinary persons would be nader
similar circumstances, and the late M.P. for Lambeth has
each day his task of oakum.picking assigned to him,
and he will be so employed all the time he motional is
the gsol of Nee/gate.
In some respects, it would) seem that the fact of the pri-
soner being sentenced to penal servitude for life is rather an
advantage to him than otherwise. The rule that is acted
upon in thew matters appears to be, that where prisoners
are senteoced to only short periols of penal servitude, they
are sent either to Portland or the Millbank Penitentiary,
or some other of the government prisons in England
where the discipline is very severe and the confinement
most irksome ; but in the case of a primmer sentenced
to penal servitude for life, he is, unless very much advanced
in yesra, invariably sent to one of the colonies, where
after the lapse of a certain period, ranging between eight
and ten years, if his conduct is good, a ticket of leave is
generally granted to him. These tickets of leave are, how-
ever, always given with the special condition that the pri-
soner shall not return to England. If that condition Is
broken he is liable to be tried for felony in being at large
before the expiration of his sentence, and be would be sent
back to complete it. The chances therefore are that in the
course of a few years Roupell will be again • free man, sod
in his position it is not likely that he will consider the condi-
tion of not returning to this country, where he has attained
such au unenviable notoriety, • very great privation.
Now that the prisoner stands formally convicted, and
under sentence for the forgery of the will, by means of
which he was enabled to make away with the great
bulk of his father's property, there is no doubt that the
proceedings that were initiated by the heir-at-law in the
trial at Guildford, to recover possession of the Kingston
retitle, which was the subject of the deed of gift, will be
costumed, and that as endeavour will be made to triple
possession of the whole of the property, or at all eve its
to induce some of the prompt bolder, to consent to a omit.
promise. It appears, however, that this is not likely to be
effected so easily as was at fir imagined. It would seem
that some portions of the property were sold by Mr Rem-
pell in comparatively small amounts, under 5,001.1., and the
holders of these portions may possibly be rrvdy to agree to
some term+ of compromise, rather than incur the expense
of defending an action of ejeotment, and possibly losing the
whole of the property they had purchased. In a good
many instances, however, it appears that very large sums of
money have been advanced by insurance companies and other
large corporations of the like kind upon portions of this pro-
pel ty, and it is said that they are determined not to lose
their money without • struggle. and that they intend to
take the opinion of • jury upon the question whether Mr.
Roupell has spoken the truth in charging himself with
forgery, or whether, after haring squandered his inheritance,
he has not resorted to this extraordinary scheme with •
view to procure a restitution of the property to his family.
The will and the deed of gift that were the subjects of
the indictments against the prisoner at the Central Cri-
minal Court have been ordered by Mr. Justice Byles to be
retained in the custody of Mr. Avery, the principal offioer
of that court, io order that they may be forthcoming an any
future occasion when they may be required.