The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-03-14 00:00:00

AN INSURANCE FRAUD.

At the Worcester Assizes, William Jordan, described
as a shoemaker, was charged with forging certain
acquittances and receipts of Edward Augustus Lamb and
Charles Dowell, at Dudley. at various times daring last
year. It appeared that the prisoner was the Dudley
agent of the Wellington Life Assurance and Sick Fund
Provident Association, which carried ou operations in the
way of assurance on a small scale, the object being to
embrace the working classes within its operation. The
prisoner had prevailed upon numerous labouring men and
women at Dudley to insure in the concern, they paying a
weekly sum of from 3d to Is, for which they were to
receive money at death, or sick pay. It was proved that
the prisoner had without authority, caused a number of
blank policies to be printed in Dudley, and having
cleverly forged the names of the directors to them, issued
them as genuine, and had received the weekly payments
from the insurers. The judge, in passing sentence, told
the prisoner he considered ,his offence approximated to
those of Redpath and Robsokt, except that they had robbed
the rich, and he (Jordan) had robbed the poor. He should,
by way of example, pass a severe sentence upon him. He
then sentenced him to fifteen years' transportation. The
prisoner appeared astounded at the sentence, and fell back
fainting into the deck.

I,
TuIS CHURCH ESTATES COMMISSIONERS.—The sixth
general report of the Church Estates Commissioners has
been published. It appears that between August, 1851, and
Mdreh, 1856, the transactions approved by them were 827
in nu ber, and related to esta`es whose value exceeded
£3,300,000. Since that period 255 other cases have been
snueloneo, respecting property exceeding £900,000,
making an aggregate of 1,082 cases, and of property
dealt with beyond £4,200,000. The report suggests that,
as ecclesiastical corporations have not the p)wer of disposing
of lands in possession, the commissioners should be enabled
to authorise them to effect sales and exchanges of such
property.
DAVISON fV. DUNCAN.—PUBLIC CONGRATULATION.—
West Hartlepool, Wednesday, March 11.—At a meeting
of the West Hartlepool Improvement Commissioners, held
yesterday—at one of whose meetings were uttered the
words which formed the basis of the recent action for
libel in the case " Davison v. Duncan," heard at Durham
on Friday last—the commissioners resolved to convey to
the proprietors of the Durham County Advertiser their
congratulations on the victory they had achieved, and to
express their satisfaction of the manner in which they
had vindicated the rights of the press. The following
resolution was unanimously agreed to :—" That this
commission, as representatives of the public of West
Hartlepool, congratulate the Durham County Advertiser,
and the newspaper press generally, upon the victory
which has been gained in the result of the trial Davison
v. Duncan,' consequent upon the observations made by
the commissioners in October last, on the attempt to foist
upon them a license to the Rev. John Hart Burges to
bury in the. West Hartlepool cemetery, which license did
not emanate from the bishop—the question of this trial
being of such importance that the battle fought by the
Durham County Advertiser will, by leading to an alteration
1 of the resent law, prove beneAclA to the outiro pre;ae
grog ritiiira,"