The Express.
London, England, 1862-11-13 00:00:00

TES BASE PAPER ROBBERY.

Some very extraordinary pruceedinp have come to
light in reference to the robbery of the Bank paper from the
mills, and the subsequent attempta at forgery ; and isho the
circumstances under which the detection of the prisoners
took Sue, whioh, in a matter of such grave importance to
the public interests, will doubtless be read with interest.
There appears to be no doubt that for a very considerable
period a " plant," as it is termed, was made upon the mills '
by the professional bank note forgers, with • view •
to get ion of some of the genuine note
paper, a it may be stated that one of the principal
difficulties that has stood in the way of these
persons putting forged notes into circulation has been the
piper, a spurious note being detected almost instantly by '
anyone acquainted with the matter, by the difference ex-
hibited in the touch and substance of the paper, and it was
thought that if this could once be overcome forgery might •
be carried on to an almost unlimited extent. In reference
to this subject it may be taken as • positive fact that one
of
the persons now in custody is known to have expressed
his opinion, after the genuine japer bad been obtained ;
possession of, that • forged note might be taken te
the Bank of England and gold obtained for it over
the counter. Every endeavour, therefore, was made by
the gang to effect this object, and from ioquiries
that have been made there appears to be no doubt that for
a very long period, extending over several months, schemes
of all sorts were resorted to with a view to tempt some of I
the workmen employed about the works to betray their
trust, and, unhappily, at length these proceedings were suc-
cessful, and the long wished for moment arrived when the
parties found themselves in possession of :the genuine Bank
not* paper, which they believed would enable them to be-
come the possessors of boundless wealth. It appears, how-
ever, that the gang were very cool and cautious in their
proceedings, and although they had succeeded in
the object they had so long, contemplated, nothing
was done precipitately, but they set about deliberately
to make all the necessary arrangements fora greed coup.
It may be stated that Bank of England notes are all en-
graved upon • different description of paper, • certain de-
scription being employed for 51., another description for
101., another for 501. note', and so on ; sod before anything
was done, the forgers resolved upon having a full supply of
each kind of paper, so that " the business" might be done
in a regular and systematic manner, and it is quite certain
that the genuine Bank note paper was in their possession for
a considerable time before any attempts were made
to engrave forged notes upon it, and it is probably
owing to this great caution on their part that •
much greater amount of mischief was not effected, for,
owing to the delay in the operations of the gays
very few notes were printed on the genuine paper, and
through the activity of the police and the energetic steps
taken by the officials of the Bank of England, the whole
affair was discovered before the extensive system of forgery
contemplated could be carried out,
It would not be prudent to state the circumstances which
led to the discovery of the proceedings that bad taken place
between the forgers and the persons employed at the paper
mills, but immediately the discovery of the robbery took
place it was palpable to the officers employed that
some one engaged upon the premises must have abused
his trust, but the difficulty was to obtain a clue in the right
direction. The detectives, however, by the most persevering
inquiries, and a determination not to be baffled, at length
obtained information which led to the apprehension of the
boy Brown, and when he found that he had no chance of
escape, and that the officers were in possession of informa-
tion upon all his proceedings, he expressed his readiness to
make a clean breast of it, and from this time the officers
bad • comparatively easy task to perform, although from
the wily character of the offenders they had to deal with, •
good deed remained to be done, and much caution was neces-
sary to be employed, before full success could be hoped to
be obtained.
The affair of the robbery having, to a certain extent,
been settled, the next step was to endeavour to trace out
the parties who were guilty of the more serious offence of
forgery, several forged Doke, principally of WC and 51.,
engraved upon a portion of the stolen Bank paper, having
by this time come into the Bank of England, and the in-
quiries made by the detectives speedily led them to Bir-
mingham, where the man Griffiths was taken into custody.
This man appears to be an extraordinary character. It
will be remembered that when be was taken he was found

in the act of engraving forged Bank of England notes, and
wlipe he saw that the gave wee up he freely admitted his
guilt, at the nine time stated that he had been engaged
in the same nefarious pursuit for a period of seventeen
years. It will be hardly credited that the ostensible
occupation of this prisoner was that of • farmer, and
bejoccupied a small farm • few miles from Birmiegham,
where all his forging operations were carried on, and
although the detective officers of Birmingham, who
are probably as shrewd as any men of their class,
entertained someawspicion as to the nature of his proceedlogs,
it would seem that they did not consider there wee sufficient
to justify them in interfering with bim until the present
occasion.

THE EXPRESS,