The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-02-04 00:00:00

SERIOUS ATTEMPT TO DEFRAUD.

At the Mansion-house, on Friday, Henry Edwards, 24,
clerk, was brought up on a warrant, issued by the Lord Mayor,
charged with having on the 15th ult. uttered a forged power
of attorney for £350, with intent to defraud the G.veinor of
the Bank of England. Mr: Freshfield, solicitor to the Bank,
prosecuted. Mr. G. A. Sargey, stockbroker, said : I have
known the prisoner for some time as a cloak in a house with
which I did business. Ho came to me to desire me to take
out a power of attorney in the name of Elizabeth Midner. I
asked him the am u,t, and he said he would ascertain that
from Mrs. Midner when she came to town, and desired to
have the power blank as to the sum. I obtained the power at
the hank in that form, and forwarded it to the prisoner by post.
He brought it back about the 14th ult., when it appeared to
have been executed, and instructed me to sell the amount of
stock, £350, stating that he would call and receive the pro-
ceeds. I lodged the power at the bank, and it was there
sopped. Mr. John Berry, clerk in the New Three per
Cent. Office, Bank of England, said : There is a sum
of £1216 standing there in the books in the name of
Elizabeth Midner. The power produced, if genuine, would
be a proper power for the sale of part of that stock.
Elizabeth Midner said : I am single, and in the service of
Miss Cottrell, 1, Queen's parade, Bath. I was formerly in
the service of Lady Dorner. who was mother to Miss Cottrell.
I held some stock in the New Three per Cent Annuities at
the Bank of England. The prisoner is a second cousin of mine.
I employed him to receive my dividends, and to re-invest
them in the same stock, and ho held a power of attorney for
me for that purpose. In January of this year I did not instruct
him to sell any part of my stock, or to take out any power of
attorney for that purpose. I received from the bank a printed
notice that an application had been made for a power of attorney,
and upon that I wrote to the bank, and also to the prisoner
The signature to the power of attorney produced is not in my
writinz, nor was it written by my authority. There are no
such persons as servants to Mr. Mason, es those who appear to
be the subscribing witnesses to the execution of the power of
attorney. I received the letter produced from the prisoner,
in answer to that I sent to him. I believe it to be his writing.
It is as follows :

" London, 15th January.

" Dear Cousin,—l am the wretch who has tried to sell
ycur stock, but I did not mean to rob you. I am deeply
in debt, and was going to borrow some of your money till I
could pay you. I feel lam going mad, while writing this,
but I must tell you all. Olt; to think I should be such a
villain as to rob you, my kindest friend ; but I have done so,
for I received your dividends and spent them. I cannot ask
you to forgive me ; but, kind cousin, pray do not upbraid my
poor dear wife and children, for they are innocent, and know
nothing of my transactions, and they, poor dears, have enough
now on their minds, for I have left them for ever, and shall,
I hope, soon leave this wretched world also. Oh, my poor
father and mother, and dear wife and babes, what they will do,
I know not. lam quite broken hearted, and it serves me
right; but, dear cousin, if I may say so, I did not intend to
rob you, but to return it soon, for 1 should have been able to
get a loan in a few months to the amount I was trying to sell
of your stock, and then I should have put it back again. But
this is too late, and I am deeply sorry for what I have done,
but pray, dear cousin, do not reproach my family with my
faults. lam sure it will break my poor mother's heart. Do
try to forgive me, or, at all events, forget me. Farewell, for
ever, and believe your wretched cousin, " HY. EDMONDS.°
P.S.—May God bless you for ever.

" Miss Mcdrer."
The prisoner, who admitted his guilt, was fully committed
fir trial.

THE AMERICAN ;'ROPOSAL FOR EXEMPTING
PROPERTY AT SEA PROM CAPTURE.

The following memorial has been forwarded to Lord Claren-
don from the Peace Conference Committee. His lordship has
acknowledged the receipt, but offers no opinion on the subject
to which it refers : —" The memorial of the Peace Conference
Committee, sheweth, that your memorialists hail with satisfac-
tion and gratitude the important changes in international mari-
time law, introduced by the Congress of Paris, by which priva-
teering is abolished, enemies' goods aro protected by neutral
flags, while the property of neutrals under an enemy's flag is
exempted from capture. They cannot but earnestly approve
all amendments in international law which tend to bring the
relation of States under the protection of more just end human
princip'es, P? lessening the incentives to war, and hastening the
time when this hateful custom shall be utterly and for ever
abolished. That your memorialists have übserved, with great
interest, a proposal lately made by the government of the
United S'a'es, for carrying forward and completing those re-
forms in maritime law so auspiciously commenced at Paris, by
totally exempting private property at sea from seizure during
war, not only by privateers, but by public armed vessels of the
other belligerents. Your memorialists respectfully submit
that, without this addition, the changes recommended by the
European governments represented at Paris would be both
incomplete and impracticable—incomplete, because they stop
short in the application of a principle so clearly recognised, as
to the inviolability of commerce—and impracticable, because
other powers with small naval forces are not likely to accept an
arrangement which places them at manifest disadvantage in
comparison with great maritime states. Your memorialists
further believe that the proposal in question is commended
to the acceptance of all civilized nations by many consider.
ations both of justice and policy. In the first
peace, it would tend to remove one of the pleas on which
is usually grounded the necessity of maintaining large
naval armaments, which cannot be surely regarded in
themselves as other than a great evil, diverting the resources
of nations from channels where they might be useful and
profitable, to uses that yield no return to the community, while
they keep up perpetual jealousy and disquietude between
nations. Ono of the most plausible pretexts assigned for
keeping up these enormous establishments has been the supposed
services they render in the protection of commerce. Bat if
commerce is permanently placed under the solemn safeguard of
fixed international law, as being always sacred and inviolable
—this plea for large maritime forces must fall to
the ground, and the immense revenues now drained for
their support from the industry and poverty of the people
may revert to more rational and remunerative uses.
Your memorialists further believe that the entire
abolition of the present barbarous practice of employing
armed vessels to prey upon the property of peaceful
non combatants on the sea, will tend greatly to remove
one of the strongest temptations which now exists to
seduce men into war. When opportunities are afforded to
professional warriors to acquire large wealth by the capture
and confiscation, as prizes of war, of merchant ships, with all
their valuable cargoes, it need not be wondered at if they
should wish both to precipitate and to prolong that condition of
things, by which they enrich themselves under the guise of
rendering service to their country ; and thus the most fearful
of human calamities Is made matter of calculation and advan-
tage by an appeal to personal cupidity. Your memorialists
conceive that the only argument which has been or can be
adduced in favour of the existing practice—namely, that the
severities of war are necessary, in order to abridge its duration
—cannot be urged without carrying us back, by legitimate
parity of reasoning, to other practices which, through the im-
proved humanity of later times, have been discontinued by the
universal consent of civilised nations. If we are to retain
barbarous and cruel customs in war, against which the
conscience of mankind revolts, because we may thereby
the sooner disable an adversary or terrify him into submission,
why not for the same reason, revert to the ancient uses of war,
destroy private property on land as well as on sea, ravage the
fruits of the earth, put to death all prisoners of war, and even
women and children ? And it may be very gravely doubted, if
outrages committed on the persons and pessessions of the
helpless and unoffcnding do tend to shorten the duration ; for,
though such practises may inflict loss and inspire terror, they
also extend throughout society, as well as exasperate in degree,
those vindictive passions r.bich form the strongest nourishment
of war. Your memorialists, therefore, respectfully but earnestly
hope that your lordship, and the other members of her Majesty's
'Geyer nment will support the proposal made.by the Government
of the United States, and thus place commerce, which is the
mother of arts, the handmaid of civilisation, and the nurse of
peace, under the protecting shield of the united commonwealth
of nations. JOSEPH STURC}E, Chairman.
RENRT RICHARD, Secretary.