The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1819-05-07 00:00:00

CONSPIRACY.

now Erase, James Pyre, Mary Pyre, and Cello
Fran,, were charged with a conspiracy, the object of which
was, the defrauding of the public by the fabrication awl
issuing of bills of exchange of no value, and with having,
in pursuance of this design, paid a bill to Thomas Bromlit,
purporting to be of the value of 3W. with an intent to cheat
and defraud him The Prisoners were per.ous of a respect-
able appearance, and their inaneers comported with the ids a
of their having once moved in that sphere of life, the ap-
pearance of which they bad recently a..suined, fur the pur-
poses of fraud.
Mr. Mauui, io stating the law, said it was no legal of-
fence fur an individnal to !my away a bill drawn by is man
of straw, a person known to poseer.s no Nude; but that if
two or more persons combined together lo fabricate and
estate bills of that description, with the intentions to rhea'
and defraud, it then beranie au of eoce punishable lay the
haw; the jet of the offence was oat the issuing of worthless
bills, but the conspiring to do it with a fraudulent intent
Mr. Maude then proceeded to state the circumstances of the
case ; but these, as far as they relate to the female Prisoners,
have been so fully laid before the public, that we shall
merely remind our readers, that these Indus clinic to heeds
early iu February last, and paid a bill to Mr.Thos. Hi unfit, of
the aminel value of 3111. fur the !Hoechst..e of carpeting to
the value of Ilf. receiving the differenee in rash; they
paid a similar bill to Mr. Bamforth, and attempted to nego-
tiate two others; the result was, they beraine suspected, and
made a precipitate retreat, but were followed to Selby by
Mr. Ramforth, who was fortunate enough to obtain a return
of his goods and mousy; from Selby they weld to Hull, and
from Hull to Sheffield, ',hese they were apprehended; on
searching the trunk of these ladies, other bills, drawn by
Robert Turner, and endorsed by the two male Prisoners,
were found. Having thus veiy briefly recapitulated the
facts, which have been before detailed to the public, we
shall shortly state the evidence as it atlixted the tau male
Prison( re.

Robert Turner slated, that he was a fustian cutter at
Manchester, misil lately kept a public-house there, but
which lie gave up from the circuinstanoe of his having
had to pay the rent twice ; he was formerly in an eaten-
sive line of business, but lust all his property by the failure
of a large liankiug.house in London ; since then he hal
not been possessed of any property. On the 17th October
last, witness was ism-minced to the men, Evans and Pyle,
at a public house at Manchester, by a person of she
name of Fugsn, who represented them as must respectable
merchants from Liverpool. Witness was invited to dine
with them, and It was nut until stone time after diluter when
Fogan asked the witness if he could accommodate them with
a few bilk, as they had rather overdrawn their banker's
account; hut they were respectable porter-merchants, and
would lake care that the bills were duly provided fur alien
they became due; witness agreed to this proposal, and ilia/li-
ed his name to a hill whin was drawn by Pyle. They did
not like his hand-writing, other stamps were therefore pro.
cored, in which the uatne of the witness was termini by
Pyre, he [sassing a dry pest over it afterwards -••2 501. and
two 201. bills were drawn in this nissimer. Witness afterwarde
saw Pyre and Evans again at Manchester, when they • idled
to have a written authority fruit' him to drew bills in bas
name, and witness signed a paper which they had 'hewn
op.—Mims this paper, which was tumid in the possession
of tba male Prisoners, was read, it purported to be an au-
thority to draw bills, at a date not less than two mouths, fur
a suns not eaceeditig 11101.1—Witness said when it was lead
to him, he understood it to be mily Mr 9W. Some engraved
plates of the house of Josses, Lluy4l, and Co. were wormed
by the Prisoner', hut it did not appear in evidence that any
use had heeu made of them. Witness, who seemed sensible
of the infamy of his conduct ise these tiansactions, endea-
vuured to palliate it by alleging that be was so much iu li-
quor as hardly to be conscious algal he was doing.
,lames Pyle, who had taken nutes of the (miaow., and
had frequently made observations upon it in the cones.. of
the trial, addressed the Jury in brhalfof himself and Whew-
prisoiters. Hr eutiteadell that the bills were not drawn with
any fraudulent intention, and if their common et,l spvenla.
hems had not heel, entirely deriseged by their appeelß.lllolllll
and long Oltifint itirot, they ve5,4114 all have been provided
for as they became due; .1t all events, he insisted that their
wires, who acted by their dovetails and under shill intl.'.
race, were entitled to ass acquittal. He complained 4.f the
psuceedings against them, which he said were butts Wish
and illegal, and had produced their entire ruin ; and tic
at-
trnbnted much of the evil they bad endowed to ilw para.
graphs which had appeased its the Newspapers, and winch
bad entirely deranged the *link plan of their operations.
The Krcoonert summed up the evidence, and stated the
law with his usual accuracy and peispicuity
The Jury retired for a very short time, and to their re.
tutu into Court returned • verdict of Gailly 'sound all the
Prisoners.

The Cot r, cutisideiing that the Lathes haul acted tinder
the thiset of their Inisbandr, Hilly a.utruced thew in pry
a fine of one 'hitting and be disehaiged; the tussle lorisneoes •
Isere sentenced to be imprisoned ctx 11/I{llllllll in the House of
Unreel' at IVakefit

The trial I'ollllllll nerd at It,, O'CIOCk iu the mortsisig, and
did riot Terminate until two o.lllllk w the nftuituuu. `lhe
Court vas uticiiimasuely vruwded.