The Express.
London, England, 1851-10-28 00:00:00

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT.

OLD COURT.
Joseph Hillman pleaded guilty to an indictment charging
hint with %caw and corrupt perjury.
Mr. l'arry, oho appeared for the defendant, urged, in
mitigation of punishment, that he had been under the in-
fluence °la person in whose service he had been for ten
ycar4, and who, he said, undoubtedly possessed great power
over hint from that circumstance, and had taken advantage
of it to inane,: him to commit the offence. The court would
remember that the prisoner had been called as a witness for
that person, and iu consequence of the evidence that he
gave turning out clearly to be false the court had ordered
the present indictment to be preferred against him. He
trusted, however, that the fact of the prisoner being • very
young man, and the position in which he Wail placed, as
well as that he had already been two months in prison,
would he taken into consideration, as well also that there

had been no failure of justice owing to the proceeding of
the prisoner, the party for whom he was culled as a witness
having been convicted and sentenced to transportation.
Mr. Ballantine said lie was also instructed by the pi ose-
eutors to recommend the defendant to mercy, as they be-
lieved that he had been made the dupe of a much older and
more designing person, who had taken advantage of the
influence his position with regard to the defendant gave
him over him to induce hint to give false evidence in his
favour
_ . . .

The Recorder, in passing sentence upon the defendant,
said that he never remembered a more infamous attempt to
defeat justice by intimidation and perjury than had been
resorted to by the man for whom lie had been called
as a witness. It appeared, however, that he had been
in that person's service since he was very young,
and there was no doubt that this circumstance had been
made t.w• of by his master to induce him to come forward
and state in his favour circumstances which he must have
known were false. The srime of perjury could not but be
looked upon as one of the most serious character, and under
ordinary circumstances he always felt it to be his duty to
inflict a very• severe sentence, but in the present instance,
taking into consideration the peculiar circumstances of the
ease, and the fact that he had been alreadj in prison for two
months, Le considered that it would be a sufficient punish-
ment to order him to be further imprisoned for one month,
and ho hoped that the present proceeding would be a
warning to him in future, and that he would never again
attempt to tamper with the course of justice or the sanctity
of an oath.

Alr.randrr Gordon John Bishop, a young man of gentle-
manly aopearanee, surrendered to take his trial upon a
charge of misdemeanour.
Mr. Clarkson, in opening the ease, said that the defendant
who, he understood, was a clergyman of the church of
England, was charged with a misdemeanour under the
Pawnbrokers' Act, and another statute haring reference to
the same subject, in having unlawfully made a false decla-
ration before a magistrate upon the subject of some pro-
perty that had been pledged by him at the shop of MC,ITI.
Vaughan and Cottcrell, pawnbrokers, in the Strand, the
declaration implying that he had lest the original
duplicates relating to the property. The prosecu-
tiou was instituted by a person named Cussitt,
who, it appeared, had been on intimate terms with the de.
fendant, and who had advanced him two different sums of
money upon the security of the duplicates iu question, and
these duplicates were in his possession at the time the
defendant made the declaration which was alleged to be
false. The effect of the declaration made by the defendant
was to enable him to obtain the property from the pawn-
brokers, and the present charge was, varier these circum-
stances, preferred by the prosecutor against him.
Mr. R. P. Cussitt deposed that he carried on the business
of an oilman at lioaton, and he had for some time been
acquainted with the defendant, who he believed was a
clergyman, and they had had money transactions toge-
' ther. In August and September, 18.10, be received from
the prisoner two duplicates, one referring to a pistol
and case, and tie other to two guns and a case
—all of which articles had been pledged at the
shop of Messrs. Vaughan and Cotterell, and at the request
of the prisoner he hut him money to the amount of five or
six pounds upon the security of these duplicates, which it
I was understood he was to retain in his possession until the
money he had advanced was repaid him. At the time the
prisoner male the declarations to the pawnbrokers the du-
i plicateswaerso7tge fart.lirihis poasessiou, smell defendant must have
been aware

The prosecutor was subjected to a very severe cross-
examination by Mr. Puny, and in the course of it
he said that he had received other duplicates from the
prisoner as security (or money he advanced him,
and among them were some that related to pictures.
He redeemed one of the pictures and sold it for 181. ; but
the prisoner never charged hinkwith haring done so impro-
perly and without his authority. He believed the prisoner
was very respectably connected, and that he expected to
come into possession of a considerable fortune. He had
been to races twice with the prisoner, but he did not remem-
bar introducing him to " 31r. Broome" at Ascot. lie had