The Express.
London, England, 1855-04-12 00:00:00

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT.

OLD COURT.—Aram 11.
UP= 14 MIMICS ZILL

Arsood Blunts, El, was charged with having while is the
employment of the General Post-o Mes stolen a letter sow
tainting a 201. Bank of England note, sad other valuable
securities, the property of the Poetniamer-General.
Mr. Clarkson and Mr. Bodkin conducted the prosecution 1
the prisoner was defended by Mr. Sleigh.
It appeared that the prisoner was a letter carrier, end
that he was also employed is garde' the letters that arrived
from the country at the General Post•offee. On the 4th of
March Mr. Turner, a traveller in the service of Messrs.
Southey and Co., of Parker-street, Lineehi's-ian.fields. re-
mitted to his employers from Manchester a2Ol. Bank of Meg-
land note, a 61. musts, note, and seven! bills of is:change
in a letter, and this letter never came to hand. Inquiries
were, aiming, set oa toot, but nothing was board of any
portion of the content* of the letter In question until the
14th of Marsh, when the 21. note was presented at the
Bank of England. It had been stopped, and the nand in-
quiries were made, and the note was traced to a person
named Eadey, who, on being questioned, at once said that be
had neeived it in Figment of a bet he bad made
upon a horse nes with a person whom he only
knew under the initials of C. 8., bat who he believed
was connected with the pat-office. This person was im-
mediately taken to St. Martin'isle•Grand, when he had an
opportunity of geeing ell the letter-nrrien and upon hie
seeing the prisoner, he at one* identified him as the person
from whom he had received the no is. The prisoner him-
self did not deny having given the note to Badey, and he
attempted to mount for having it in his poesessioo, by
stating that he had picked it up in the Strand.
The jury found the prisoner but recommended
him to mercy on account of his previons good character.
Mr. Justice Ede said that however willing he might be to
give effect to the recommendation to mercy by a jury, yet
be could not, consistently with his duty to the public, avoid
penis, a severe seances for an offence of this aerie a
character. Every one employed by the post-offce would
necessarily be persons of good character, and their position
enabled them to commit depredations which were of the
most mischievous and injurious character, and it was
essential for the protection of the public that a severe ex-
ample should be made in all such cases. Be then nateneed
the prisoner to be kept in penal servitude ford years.
Goorge BOOM Richardson, 17, a respectable looking lad,
pleaded guilty to a chugs of a similar character.
Sentence was deferred.
Rmesa Bryant, 18, a miserable-looking creature, de-
scribed as spinster, was charged with the wilful murder of
her child.

Mr. Cooper prosecuted. The prisoner was defended by
Mr. Sleigh, through the kind interferon's of the sheriffs.
It appeared that the child whose death was the subject
of inquiry, was about seven weeks old, and the evidence,
which wits gone into very brit fly, went to show that the
prisoner was with the infant in the neighbourhood of Isle-
worth, and on t►e 25th February the child was found is the
snow, quite dead. There was nothing to show under what
olnentastanoes the child had been abandoned, and the sur-
geon whi made the post mortals examination, stated that
the death was occasion, d by congestion of the lungs, and
that this might have been the result of exposure to the cold.
He at the same time, however, said that it might have arisen
from a variety of other musts.
The learned Judge, upon this statement, said he did not
think the jury would be inclined to say that the act of the
prisoner was the cause of the death of the child, when there
was another alternative consistent with bee innocence ; sad
the jury, concurring with his lordship's view of the case,
returned a verdict of Noe Coate,.
George Joeksors, 40. and Jonathan Craeknell, 39, were
indicted for uttering a forged Bank of England note for 101.,
with intent to defraul the governor and _company of the
Bank of England.
The prisoner Jackson pleaded guilty to this and to two
other indictments of a similar dissever.

Mr. Clarkson and Mr. Bayley prosecuted ; Mr. Sleigh was
counsel for the prisoner Cracknell.
The guilt of Jackson was of course sufficiently established
by his own oonfesseion, and the case was proceeded with
against the other prisoner. It was proved that be bad
passed forged notes in several instances, but the elrcum•
stances under which the utterinp took place tended rather to
negative the supposition that there was any guilty know-
ledge on his part, or that he was even aware that the instru-
ments wen forged.
Mr. Sleigh, in his address to the jury for the prisoner,
urged, with good deal of earnestness, that all the probe
bilitics of the case tended to show that he bad been made
the dupe of the other prisoner, and he proposed to call him
asswitness on behalf of his client.

Mr. Justice Erie said he did not t►ink that this course
ought to be taken until the case of Jackson wu finally
disposed of, ea ►e might be induced to make admissions
while under examination that would tend to agg►avate his

sentence.
After • short discussion upon the point, Jackson was
called up for judgment, and evidence having been given of
' a previous conviction for felony, he was sentenced to be
transported for 16 years.
When the sentence bad been pronounced, Jackson wee
sworn to give evidence on behalf of the other prisoner, and
he stated upon his oath that Crseknell had passed the notes
innocently at his request, and that he bad no reason to be-
lieve they were forged.
The jury then expressed themselves satisfied that the
charge bad not been established against Cracknell, and they
the, eters returned a verdict of Not Guilty.
Edward Backky, 30, was charged with cutting sad
wounding Henry Robinson with intent to murder him.
Mr. Clarkson conducted the prciecution on behalf of the
Li. toted Victualler.' Protection Society ; Mr. Sleigh de-
fended the prisoner.
It appeared that the prosecutor was barman at the Jolly
Gardeners' 01We-house, Lambeth-walk, and on the day
named in the Indictment, the prisoner, who was drunk, went
into that house and demanded liquor. The prosecutor
refused to serve him, and upon this it seemed that the
prisoner attacked him in a very brutal manner with an in-
strument called • "lung arm,' which is • hook at the end of
a stick, and he afterwards struck him with a soda-water
bottle, and inflicted considerable injury upon him.
The jury found the prisoner Guilty of unlawfully wound-
ing, and he wit untanned to be imprisoned and kept tabard
labour for nine months.