The Express.
London, England, 1866-10-08 00:00:00

THE POLICE COURTS.

MANSION-HOUSE.
John Henry Perry, a respectable-looking young man,
was brought before Alderman Luak, M.P., who presided
in the abeenoe of the Lord Mayor charged with forging
and uttering an order for the delivery of a quantity of
silk, value 161., with intent to defraud Messrs. &urea
and Co., London yenta for Mesas. Finney and Co. silk
merchants of Manchester, and of Bread-street, Cheapside.
The circumstances of the case were very peculiar, and
exhibited the facility with which innocent persons may be
brought into very serious scrapes, and subject themselves
to severe punishment. It will be recollected that on the
22nd of September &person named George Brown presented
an order at the warehouse of Messrs. Scurron and Co. for the
delivery of some raven silk, the value of which was 151. The
orderpurported tocome from Mews. Dibben and Co., ware.
housemen, in St. John-rtreet-mad, and it was written upon a
printed form very similar to the genuine one of the
flan ; and the fraud would have been successful but that
the warehouseman to whom it was presented saw that it
was not signed, and therefore directed the porter to
accompany Brown to Messrs. Dibben's warehouse with the
goods ; he was, however, told that there was no necessity
to go to the warehouse, as Brown was to meet a man at
the Post-office, who had employed him to carry the order,
and who was to give him Is. 6d. for his trouble. The porter
accordingly accompanied Brown to the place he had indi-
cated, but no man made his appearance to claim the gooda,
and Brown, therefore, was very naturally suspected of
being the author of the intended fraud, and was given
into custody and examined at thiscourtupon the charge
on the following day, and the case appeared to be con-
elusively made out against him. Brown, however, persisted
in declaring his entire innocence, and said that he was at
the Talbot public-house on the day when he presented the
order, and that he was employed by a respectable-looking
man, who described himself as a commercial traveller, to
take the order for the goods, and he was to meet him at
the Post-office to receive them from him, and he promised
to pay him 3a. 6d. for his trouble. The earnestness with
which Brown asserted his innocence led to further in-
quiries, the remit of which was that it was ascertained
that he was a respectable man, that no criminal charge
had ever been preferred against him before, and
that there were good grounds for supposing that
he had been made a dupe by some designing per-
son. The presiding alderman, therefore, consented to
allow him to go at large upon his own recogeizances,
and with the understanding that he should render all the
assistance in his power to discover the person who
had given him the forged order. In consequence of these
inquiries it appeared that on Friday evening Raven, the
constable who had taken Brown into custody in the first
instance, accompanied that person to No. 14, George.
street, Mansion-house, which is let out as offices, and they
there found the prisoner Perry, who was employed as
housekeeper. Brown immediately recognised him as the
man who had given him the forged order, and he addressed
him and said that he owed him 3s. 6d. The pri-
soner at first replied " Well, !suppose I do ;" but
he suddenly appeared to recollect himself, and
then denied all knowledge of Brown, or that he had
ever seen him before. The prisoner was then
taken into custody and conveyed to the police-station,
where he was formally charged with having uttered the
forged order, and the waiter at the Talbot was sent for,
and he immediately identified the prisoner as the man
who was at the Talbot on the 22nd of September, and who
had employed Brown to take the order to the warehouse in
Bread-street. The entire innocence of the latter was thus
satisfactorily established, and the prisoner was now
charged with being the guilty party. With regard to the
mode by which the prisoner was enabled to commit the
offence, it appeared that Mr. Farington, a solicitor, occu-
pied offices at No. 14, George-street, and that this gentle-
man acted professionally for Mews. Dibben, and it was
suspected that the prisoner had got possession of one of
these genuine bill-heads, and had obtained a copy of it.
The prisoner, who said he could prove an alibi, was re-
manded.
A young man, named Charles Bushmaster, was charged
with stealing a quantity of India rubber combs, the pro-
perty of Messrs. Kohn and Co., merchants, Threadneedle-
street.
Mr. G. Lewis appeared for the prosecution.
The prisoner, it appeared, was employed to take some
goods to the London Docks for shipment to Sydney, and in
consequence of previous losses he was watched, and seen
to break open one of the cases, and take nearly the whole
of the property it contained out of it.
Alderman Lusk observed that the offence imputed to the
prisoner was one of a moat mischievous character. Goods
were shipped, and when the vessel arrived abroad they
were missed, and the consigners, the consigneen, and the
people belonging to the ship were all brought into trouble
through the dishonest conduct of people like the prisoner.
The case was remanded.