The National Register.
London, England, 1818-06-07 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER

milted in yortrebaracter of Treasurer of the poor of the Pa.
rich of St. !Matthew, Sctlinal.green; and the other, In your
character of a Magistrate of th►s County. The hrst 'ef these
indictments charged that you fraudulently. clandestinely,
and unlawfully, inserted in your accounts, as such Treasurer,
a stint of 9331. Is. 3.1. and fraudulently, clandestinely, and
oath lolly appropriated it to your own use; and the other
indictment charges you with corruptly and unlawfully
rising certain persons, whose names are mentioned, to keep
public houses in this county. On these two indictments, re.
spectively, you have been found guilty, and upon the discus-
sion that the case has since nntiergone, the Counselvin your
behalf rather strongly insinuated ►teat prejudice might hase
bail a material Intlnence upon. those verdicts which were so
Liven ; and, on that account, it becomes necessary shortly
to detail some of the circumstances of the ease; because it
would make a very material difference in the punishment, if
the verdicts were nut completely to the satisfaction of those
who have to pass the judgmc nt of the Court on you.
[His Lordship here entered into a summary exposition of
the evidence on each indictment, rind thus proceededi

" Now, shortly before the licensieg day, in ISISy you sent
for one of the witnesses to your own office ; it was not there-
fore a casual meeting, and you made to him observations
which were calculated to prevent that disclosure of the cir-
cumstances relative to public Itousts which ought to have
been made to all the Magistrates. lie repro vented to you
that he should have soinetliffieulty with respect to the oath he
was hound to take, and your an ewer on that occasion was a
great and considerable aggravation of your offence ; and in
the presence of Sir 13nuiel Wiiliams, you prevented
front making that disclosure which it was his duty to make.
The same observations apply to another of the witnesses, awd
if a person who is acting under the sanction of an office for
a long sericl of years, as you have been, intimates to a pat ty
that an oath is a were matter of form, cei taiuly the offence is
of as bad and wicked a natore as it well could be.

" The Conrt ha; taken into its Consideration every one of
the circumstances of the case. It is not by any means Mats
tentiVe to the character and situation in life which, down to
this period of flute, you have filled; and it recollects, that the
degradation which you must necessarily suffer by those very
proper convictions on these several indictments, supported as
they have been by the most clear and conclusive evidence,
must embitter, in a great degree, the residue of your life.
That is a permanent punishment; and in that respect the
Court may alleviate the punishment which it is about to
pass. The Court will also feel it their bounden duty to re.
present to the Lord Chancellor, that these convictions have
taken place, and will rep4rt to his Lordship the sentences
that shall be passed, in order to give him an opportunity of
exereiving his discretion whether it will be right that
should any longer till those high and distinguished situations
wlsieh you have hitherto filled. The Court also take into their
consideration what has happened since these convictions, and
they recollect you hare nut only restored the money you so
fraudulently einhezzled, but also restored it with interest.
That operatesas an alleviation to the pecuniary punishment the
Court would have kit bound to inflict ; and taking all the cir-
cumstances of the'ease into consideration, this Court (loth
order and adjudge— that, fur the first of these offences, you
do pay to the King, a fine of 2001. and be imp; isoned six ..Vel•
lender months in the pr.son of this Court ; and fur the other
of these offences, that you be imprisoned twelve calendar
mouths, to be computed from the end of the former six
111011titS ; and that you be further imprisoned until the close-
said bur be paid."
During the whole of this proceeding the defendant ap.
peared deeply affected, and quilted the Court in the ensfuly
of the blastoffs, under evident impressions of considers it
emotion. Hu was ►mmediately conveyed to th.. kkim;'s Bench
prison.
THURSDAY.

On the entrance of their Lord hops into Court this morning, Lord
Elhaaborough stated, that an application had been made to loin :•,,t.r‘e
days ago, oo the part of a person named Bruce, who was iattirtz
Court on a writ ui Habeas Co:pus, in writt ais.asart;e
from Orison. He did not ntein to go into the statensen .. mate by
that person, as perhaps it was not Fader Lacy aaoai i oa re;n•ated -
Mr. Bruce said tie had deposited in C-urt to.: amount of tae debt*
fur which he was detained, and if so, Ste was ..-atitted to a rule to spew
cause why he should no: be set at liberty. lie had statA, that there
was a conspiracy
.against him, and that he could get nu er.e at the
liar to move for hint. This was a shatter on the iidr, and m. (Lord
Ellenhorough) should not mention it, were it not fur the purpose of
shewing why he introduced the subject. I:- Mr. Seariat was in Court,
he should put his name to a rule for Mr. Bruce, as st was improper to
have Isiin in attendance from dayto.day, or to have the Court taken up
with much frequent applications on the subject, as [tare Viati not a day
since the commencement of term on wuich sonic al:pile:mon had not
been made. Perhaps in the absence of Mr. Scarlett, souse other
gentleman would put leis name to a stile for the purpose.
Mr. Topping said, he could nut mote for a rile our the gentleman,
as he was counselagainst him.
. . .

Mr. Clarke said, to had no oblcction to move for the rule.
Lord ElLuborongh—Very well. It is necessary that there should
be counsel to sh.ie the ease, as the party would, if allowed to spi:ak,
go into irreicvaut mattet.