The Express.
London, England, 1855-01-04 00:00:00

CHAIOI OF nuxerasuto ♦ HALL MARX.

Richard Rusts dared to take his trial upon an in-
dictment which charged him with having fraudulently and
feloniously transferred the mark of the Goldsmiths' Com-
pany from a certain article of gold ware to a baser metal,
1 with intent to defraud.

Mr. Clarkson and Mr. Cox= conducted the prosecu-
tion ; Mr. M. Chamber', Q.C., Mr. Ballantine, and Mr.
Sleigh, were counsel for the defence.
This was a prosecution instituted by the Goldsmiths
Company under the provisions of several statutes passed
specially for the purpose of preventing frauds of the descrip-
tion specified in the indictment. It appeared that the ',li-
mner carried on the business of &jeweller in Goswell-antet-
road, and that in the month of July last a person named
Themes Austin applied to him to manufacture a
signet ring, which he desired to be of the weight of eight
pennyweights, and to be of the fineness of eighteen carats
of pun gold to the pound trey. The prisoner undertook to
make the required article at the price of three pounds,
and the case on the part of the prosecution was, that he had
furnished an inferior quality of gold, and that he had trans-
ferred an old Goldsmiths' Hall mark from some other ar-
ticle into the ring he gave to Austin, and this was the
fouodation of the present charge. It was admitted, how-
ever, that there was a very slight modulation in the quality
of the gold of which the ring was really composed, and that
although it was alleged that the fee to the Goldsmiths'
Company for stamping had been saved by the operation,
the additional profit to the prisoner, supposing the alleged
fraud to hare been substantiated, would only have been& few
shillings.
William Thomas Austin, an Irishman, upon whose eel.
deuce the charge appeared mainly to rest, was examined,
and he deposed to the facts above stated, and also said that
the prisoner told him distinctly that be was going to send
the ring to the Goldsmiths' Hall to be stamped, and he at
the same time showed it to him in an unfinished state.

The witness was subjected to a very searching and
lengthened cross-examination by Mr. Chambers, and the
account he gave of himself appeared to be certainly rather
extraordinary. He said that he bad originally been in-
tended for the medical profession, but did not follow it ;
bat early in life he was appointed to the Irish constabulary,
and since 1832 he bad been in the employment of the go-
vernment for several years, but was now living " private."
He had been a warder in the Model Prison at Pentouville,
and afterwards was appointed to the situation of auperin-
tandeat of convicts in Australia, having before this
been an inspector of polies at Manchester. After
his return to this country he received half-pay from the
government for some time,•and his present moans of sub-
sistence were an annuity of 861. • year which he was en-
titled to in right alas wife, and assistance he'derived Prom
his relations. His wife, he said, died in 1850, and he ad-
mitted that in 1861 • person named Murray lived with him
ruble wife, and that she was a married woman with a
grown up family. He denied having ever represented
himself as the brother-in-law of this pima; but said he was
cot ►ware what representations she herself might have made
upon the subject. He was once, he said, given into cus-
tody by the husband of Mrs. Murray for having obtained a
sovereign by false pretences in his name, and he uadirrwent
two examinations upon that charge at the Themes police
court, but he declared there was no foundation for the charge,
and he said that, although he was remanded to the House of
Detention to undergo a second examination, the proceeding
war not an unsatisfactory one to him, because he thought it
would• enable him to make out a better case
in an action for false imprisonment which he in-
tended to have brought against the gentleman from whom
the money was obtained if he had signed the charge sheet.
He NW Mrs. Murray as a witness or him upon the se-
aled bearing, and upon her evidence the charge was dis-
mieseL He said he remembered some time ago having
puesbeeed a pair of pistols which had the crest of a
emblems upon them, and that be took them to
use working engravers in a garret in North-
ampeem-etreet to have the cued removed, and his
own initials eubstitutsde but he declared he had not
the nest MOM sesseilesties uf 'apt,* to those men that it
would be a geed spenlation to go to Australia and make
enereigu. Hu said be bed obtained hie knowledge of the

quality of gold used in articles of this description from read-I
tog an article is the Logsdon 'ozonic!, and this, he said, en•
shied him to describe the particular quality he required,
and he also stated that immediately after he received the
ring from the prisoner, be took it to the shop of a surgeon
and weighed it, and found that it weighed more than eight
peanyweights. He said that he was not aware that on the
very day when he took the ring to Goldsmith's-hall to be
examined, Mrs. Murray went to the shop of the prieoner,
but he admitted that the had, as he said, confessed having
donee* afterwards, bat he declared that he was Ignorant of
the object she had in going, and that to wee no party to the
proceeding.
The Lord Chief Justice, at the close of the croes-eiramin-
&lion, asked Mr. Clarkson whether he was in a position to
gin any verbal corroboration to the evidence of the wit-
ness who wee the principal support of the ptomains ?
Mr. Clarksoa said he could show that the ring was in the
possession of the witness on the day he stated he bad
received it from the prisoner, and also that the hall mark
was undoubtedly transposed.
The Lord Chief Justice said of course he was aware of
these circumstance, of corroboration, but what he referred
to was to ascertain whether there was any corroboration of
the statement of the principal witness as to what occurred
between him and the prisoner. Undoubtedly, upon the
statement of the witness, a strong cue of suspicion was
made apparent, and the Goldsmiths' Company bad acted
moot properly in instituting the prosecution, in order to
protect the Queen's subieets, who were not always in a
position to protect themselves in matters of this description
He must say, however, that, looking at the demeanotir
of the witness, and the fasts he had admitted, he really did
not think the jury would feel themselves justified in finding
a verdict of guilty, unless the evidence this person had given
was corroborated by other testimony.
Mr. Clarkson said the company for whom be had the
honour to appear had no other object than the interest of
justice, and, after the observations of his lordship, he was
authorised by the solicitor for the company at once to with-
draw from the prosecution.
The jury said they were unanimouly of opinion that they
could not have acted upon the testimony of the witness
Austin unless be had been corroborated, and they imme •
diately returned a verdict of Not Guilty.
There was an attempt in the court to applaud the verdict,
but it was repressed by the officers in attendance.