The Express.
London, England, 1861-10-24 00:00:00

tie fads cf the ewe their appeared to him to be in a
very resew comma& There was no doubt that ono time
a marrimpe was ecekmplated between the parties, but that
it was broken off, and Miss Johnstone wished to have the
letten she had written to the prisouer restored to her, sod
that she agreed to give him 2,00111. upon that restoration
being matte. This was 'Miss Julinstout's statement, and
the only question. as it seemed to him, was whether they
believed it er not i f they thought she was speaking the
truth the prisoner was guilty of the offence imputed to
him ; but if they had soy doubt upon the point, the pri-
soner was entitled to OH acquittal.
The jury, after coesulting two or three minutes in the
box, 1111/d they should like to retire for a short time, and
they accordingly left the court. They returned in about a
quarter of an hour and found the prisoner Realty.
Mr. Chambers said there was a second indictment against
the prisoner of constructive larceny ; but after the verdict
that had just been pronounced he thought it was unneces-
sary_ It., proceed with it.
The Lord Chief Boon, in passing sentence, said that the
prisouer had been fouol guilty, by the verdict of a jury, of
the "denimof obtaiuing money by false pretences, and the
case appeared to loin to be one of the clearest
that had ever been presented to a jury in a
court of justice. The evidence of Miss Johnstone,
who appeared to bin to be altogether worthy of
credit, made out the charge distinctly, and all the sur-
rounding circumstances tended strongly to confirm her state-
moot. The defence that had been attempted on behalf of
the prisoner was, in Lis opinion, a very great aggravation, in
respevt of the imputation that the prisoner sought to out
upon Miss Johnstone, that she had fabricated the l in
question, led stolen the letter that was con • in it in
order to give a colour to the deception, and had used another
. seal similar to the one that wee in the possession of the
prisoner, with the same object of doiog him an injury. He
felt it his duty to allude to this subject, because he was
certain that each a defence mud be looked upon with
indignation by all honest men, and he repeated that
it was a aggravation of the prisoner's conduct
that he should have instructed, and, as it appeared,
compelled his counsel to make inch a defence. The
offence of which he bad been convicted, although
perhaps strictly speaking it might be considered as coming
under the description of cheating, had, by a recent altera-
tion of the law, been declared to amount to the offence of
larceny, and was put upon the same footing as that offence.
By pretending to deliver these letters to the pmeecutris he
had got from her 1,91ag., and he was quite sure that in the
eye of every hottest man his crime was just the same ea if
be had gone into Mum Johastooe's own house, and
had broken open her escritoire and taken oat the money.
The crane, too, was committed under must aggravated or-
CUMIMIDODI in this respect also—it was committed against
a parson who had given him previously large sums of
money, who had acted towards him with the greatest
generosity, and towards whom he should have been
bound by all the ties of gratitude not to have com-
mitted such an offence. Ile (the learned judge) looked
upon the offence aci ono of almost an alarming cha-
meter, and one which called for a very severe punishment.
For a much inferior minis persons in humble life and in
poverty suffered beery punishment. It did not require any
knowledge of the law to be aware that such an set as he had
committed was illegal, and could not be tolerated--every
gentleman. every man at all acquainted with the social
arrangements of society, must be perfectly well aware of the
serious nature of such an offence, and he felt it hie duty
under all the circumstances to order him to be kept in penal
servitude for the space of three years.
The pnwoer, who did not utter a word throughout the
pros iced but who seemed very much astonished at the
result, was then removed from the bar.
Upon the application of Mr. Chamber, the money and the
letters that were in the poommka of Sergeant Tanner were
ordered to be delivered op to the proaecutrix.