The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-09 00:00:00

Charge of Fraud on the Stock-Exchange.

Yesterday at 1 o'clock a young Hungarian, named Sig-
mund Ditrichstein, of gentlemanly appearance and manners
was brought before the Lord Mayor and Mr Alderman
Waterlow at the Justice-room or tho Mansion-house,

charged with unlawfully obtaining by false pretences cer-
tain foreign securities for a large sum of money,with intent
to defraud Messrs Borthwick and ethers, of Gresham-
house, Old Broad-street. The prisoner was described as of
Pesth, in Hungary, and a commission agent, and he had
that morning surrendered to a warrant emanating from the
Mansion-house, and which had been granted upwards of a

year ago.
The prisoner is the person for whose apprehension, and
for the recovery of the money alleged to have been fraudu-
lently obtained, a reward of £l,OOO was offered in Septem-
ber last. He was then described as of the Jamaica Coffee-
house, Cornhill, and of Worthing, and as having absconded,
after procuring by means of fraud in London £8,370 in Bank
of England notes—namely, two for £5OO, six for £2OO, 32
for £lOO, 39 for £5O, and 51 for £2O. He had been last seen
in London on the afternoon of Saturday the 29th of August,
1863, and was supposed to have fled to the Continent. On
the discovery of the alleged fraud the matter was placed in
the hands of a firm of solicitors of high repute as criminal
lawyers, and the city detective police were F. in motion,
with a view to the arrest of the fugitive. One of the most
experienced of that body, Sergeant Moss, was despatched
to the Continent for the express purpose, accompanied by
Ignatius Pollaky, a private detective and linguist, and the
aid of the Foreign-office was also invoked. The photograph
of the alleged defaulter was circulated far and wide, to aid
in hie apprehension, and the artist, at or near Worthing,
who happened to have a negative from which the impres-
sions were taken, is said to have realised a little fortune by
the transaction. Eventually Ditrichetein was traced to
Pesth, his native city, and apprehended with about £1,200
in his possession. There he was detained a long time, for
reasons which were stated during the proceedings of yester-
day, and which accounted for his subsequent appearance in
England. It is presumed that he had reason to reckon upon
the forbearance of the prosecutors in returning to this
country, or he would never have exposed himself to the risk
of a criminal prosecution by voluntarily placing himself in
their power, and the lees so as he had been exonerated by a
tribunal in his own country. The case yesterday excited
much interest, and the court was crowded during the pro-
ceedings.

Mr Sleigh, addressing the Bench, said he appeared before
them, instructed by Messrs Mallows and Muliens, in refer-
ence to the case of Sigmund Ditrichstein, the person who
then stood at the bar, and who had surrendered to a war-
rant which was granted by Mr Alderman Waterlow on
Sept. 1, 1863, charging him with unlawfully obtaining from
the prosecutors, Messrs Borthwick and Co. and Messrs
Hutchinson and Co., stockbrokers in this city, Egyptian,
Turkish, and Brazilian bonds, to the amount of about £9,000,
with intent to cheat and defraud them. The defendant,who
was an Austrian, had resided in this country, and had en-
tered into certain transactions with stockbrokers to a con•
aiderable amount for some short period before August 29
last year. On that day, having secured for himself a cer-
tain amount of credit and confidence, he obtained from the
gentlemen whose names had been mentioned securities of
the value, in the aggregate, which had been stated by giv-
ing them checks on the City Bank, he having in the bank
at the time a mere trifling amount of money relatively
speaking. Those checks were afterwards dishonoured, but
before they were presented defendant had absconded. On
information filed a warrant was granted for his apprehen-
sion, and he was traced to Hungary and arrested there. He
was afterwards transferred to Vienna, upon which an ap-
plication was made by the solicitors to the prcsecution to
the English Government, who interfered and claimed his
extradition to this country, but there teing no treaty be-
tween Austria and England the Austrian Government de-
clined to part with the defendant. By the laws of Austria
it appeared that the tribunals had power to try an Austrian
subject for any offence he might have committed in any part
of the world. That sounded somewhat strange to English
ears, but so it was. The Austrian Government instituted
a proceeding against the defendant, using all the informa-
tion they could obtain, and all of which was furnished by
the solicitors to the prosecution in England. That proceeding
in Austria extended ever a period of several months, and in
the end the decision was that in the opinion of the Court
there was not sufficient evidence on which to place the de-
fendant on his trial so as to secure his conviction, and upon
that decision he was set at large, That being so, he (Mr
Sleigh) had to call attention to certain matters which he
should detail, and when he had done so he trusted ho should
have the sanction of the bench for the course he was about

to adopt. It appeared that defendant's friends and himself,
through his legal advisers, communicated with the gentle-
men who represented the prosecutors on this charge, and in
the ultimate result a letter was written by the defendant to
the prosecutors themselves, which he should read. It was
dated Vienna, April 11, 1864, and was as follows :
" Gentlemen,—No one can regret more than myself the
disastrous termination of my transactions with your firms;
but I am now willing to do all that lies in my power to repair
the wrong which was committed. I have been informed
that a considerable sum has been recovered or received by
you towards the liquidation of my debt to you, but that
many of the Bank-notes obtained by me by pledging your
bonds are still outstanding. lam ready to assist you in the
recovery of these notes, and authorise you to retain and
apply the same in further liquidation of your claim. What-
ever balance shall remain due to you respectively after cre.
dicing whatever has been or may yet be received I do most
solemnly promise you that I will pay as soon as my pecu-
niary circumstances will enable me to do so.—l remain,
Gentlemen, your obedient servant,

" SIGMtiND DITRICIISTEIN.

"Messrs. Hutchinson and Co.

" Messrs, Borthwick and Co."
It was but right to state that through the assistance given
by the prisoner about £6,000 had been recovered and re-
stored to the prosecutors. Upon its becoming known to
them that the defendant might probably return to England
they, through Messrs Mullens and Mullens, laid the whole
of the facts before a most eminent Queen's counsel—his
learned friend Mr Bovill—and himself. All those facts re-
ceived their most careful and anxious attention, with a view
to determine whether, in their opinion, after what had oc-
curred, after the lengthened proceeding in Vienna, and
after that which was substantially a dismissal of the charge
by the authorities there, they would be justified in recom-
mending the prosecutors to put the criminal law in force
against the defendant on his arrival in this country. They
thought it due not only to the magistrate by whom the war-
rant for the prisoner's apprehension was granted, but to the
whole commercial community of London, in the face of
whom a great fraud was alleged to have been committed, to
give this matter their most deliberate and serious considera-
tion before they came to a conclusion, and that conclusion
was embodied in the opinion whioh he should read to the
Bench :

" After the failure of the proceedings in Vienna, and
under all the circumstances which have occurred, we think
that if Ditrich.stein be prosecuted the prosecution would
probably fail ; and, upon the whole, we are of opinion that
the brokers ought not now to prosecute.
"W. BoVILL,
"W. CAMPBELL SLEIGH.

"Temple, Aug. 27."

They had, ho said, thought it their duty to appear there,
out of respect to the Court, and to the commercial commu-
nity of London, to state those facts, and to say why they
were bound to withdraw from this prosecuticn ; and he
trusted, under all the circumstances, that they would have
the sanction of the Bench for the course they had adopted.
Mr George, solicitor, said he desired to address the Bench
for the prisoner, but before he did so perhaps the prisoner
would be allowed to leave the dock.
Mr Sleigh remarked that there was no case before the
Court.

Mr Alderman Waterlow said if the prisoner's solicitor
wished to speak ho must do so before the prisoner was dis-
charged, for after ho was discharged there would be an end
of the ease. The application for a warrant having been
made there in private, as was usual in such cases, he thought
it only fair to afford the prisoner or his attorney an oppor-
tunity of stating what they might think it desirable to say
in reference to the matter.

Mr George said he was instructed by the prisoner to state
that he was entirely guiltless of the charge that had been
made against him, that he had never defrauded the prose-
cutors at all, and that witnesses were in court to prove that
as far as ho was concerned he had been a victim and not an
offender. He might bo permitted to say that he had known
Mr. Ditrichstein and had acted for him as solicitor for
several years, and he believed ho was perfectly incapable of
such an offence. There was one part of the case which
assumed a very serious aspect against his client—namely,
the Vienna letter, and he asked that it might be produced.
The Lord Mayer, interposing, observed that the case
might go on it the prisoner's solicitor wished that it should
proceed.
Mr Sleigh said Mr Bovill and himself had thought it

was the more merciful course, after a man bad undergone a
protracted trial in another country, not to press the crimi-
nal law too severely against him.
Mr Alderman Waterlow said the Lord Mayor and him-
self had felt it right to permit the prisoner's solicitor to
speak, because they thought when gentlemen of standing
and respectability came before a magistrate and made a pri-
vate application, as in this case, for a warrant to arrest a
person on a criminal charge, the magistrate having no rea-
son to doubt the bona fides of the applicants, if it was after-
wards found that the evidence was not sufficient to have
justified the warrant being granted, the person against
whom it had proceeded should have an opportunity of mak-
ing any explanations he might think desirable. He did not
by that remark mean to cast the slightest imputation on the
bona fides of the applicants in this case. On the other hand,
he would caution Mr George not to say plaything then with
reference to any ulterior proceeding, for when the prisoner
left the bar he could institute such ulterior proceedings as
he might think proper.
Mr George said he was perfectly satisfied with the course
the prosecutors had taken, He admitted they had been

wronged, but his answer was that they had not been wronged
by the prisoner, for he was entirely innocent.
Mr Alderman Waterlow said, whatever ulterior proceed-
ing might be in contemplation, it was now only his duty,
under the circumstances, to discharge the prisoner.
The prisoner was liberated accordingly, and loft the court
with a number of his acquaintances.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TlMER.—Perhaps the rule of living well and
wisely cannot be better or more concisely given than
in the advice to limit your claim to something short
of what you believe to be precisely due, and never
to strain your power over another to the full ex-
tent to which it is possible to exert it. Such a rule
is, indeed, little more than a paraphrase of the fun-
damental doctrine of Christianity, for assuredly the
line of conduct which we recommend is precisely
that which we should wish others to adopt towards
ourselves. We ought to distrust our own notions of
what is absolutely our due. We ought to consider
that we are judges in our own cause, and that we
are therefore peculiarly liable to be mistaken. We
are not likely to undervalue the merits of our own
case, and shall probably demand all that is our due
if we ask much lees than that to which we conceive
ourselves entitled. But there is still a better reason.
Every one, the strongest as well as the weakest,
has an interest in maintaining those principles
which exist for the protection of those who may be
so unfortunate as to fall under the absolute domi-
nion of others. It is the folly of power to suppose
that because it is strong now it can never meet with
a stronger than itself, and that it has no interest in
preserving the equitable principles which command
us to respect weakness and to temper strength with
moderation. These principles are the truisms of
common life. How far are they from having be-
come the guides to the policy of States! Look at
what is passing now at the Conference of Vienna. A
small State has presumed, relying, no doubt, on a
strong conviction of its own rights, to refuse obedi-
ence to the commands of a State twenty times more
numerous in population, and probably at least as
much more extensive in territory. The result which
everybody must have foreseen has occurred, and
Denmark, wounded and bleeding, lies at the feet of
her enemies. We have often seen this before. We
have seen Piedmont at the feet of Austria after the
battle of Novara; we have seen France herself, after
ravaging and devastating all Europe, and wasting
the lives of a whole generation in the pursuit of
glory, twice obliged to receive such terms as the
victorious Allies chose to impose. In this case, had
the voice of the Prussians been listened to, those
terms would have been of the hardest and most hu-
miliating kind ; but wiser and more generous coun-
sels triumphed, and in this as well as in other
instances the overthrow of the military force of the
State was not followed by the ruin of the State
self. The victors remembered that they were men,
and, as men, subject to that law of eternal vicissi-
tude from which nothing human is exempt. But
how has Denmark been treated ? Much in the same
way as France would have been treated had Prussia
exercised the same predominant influence over the
alliance of 1814 as she does over the alliance of
1864. Harsh, arrogant, overbearing, puffed up with
triumph in a contest in which it was physically
impossible she could do anything but triumph,
Prussia tramples upon the usages of nations and the
principles of international law with the same inso-
lent disregard of the opinions and feelings of mail.
kind with which she sets her foot on the neck of
her fallen adversary. She treats a whole kingdom
like a city taken by storm, and moulds the whole
practice of war upon a single one of its most appal-
ling and revolting incidents—upon the dark excel].
tion to those rules of mercy and justice which in
other cases even the flushed soldier, rough and
hard of heart, professes to make the guide of his
conduct. These two terrible words, " Ville gaunt-8,
are supposed to let loose the human mind from
all considerations of mercy and justice, and to
Prussia all Denmark is a besieged town under the
inability to resist her armies, and captured by assault.
The first plan, indeed, was to charge Schleswig
and Holstein with the expenses of their own libera-
tion—to mortgage them, in fact, to Prussia as a
pledge for the expenses incurred in the war. But
this plan, as may be supposed, failed to conciliate
the assent of Schleswig and Holstein themselves,
which seems to have thought it hard to be required
to pay the expenses of their own liberation. This
policy, therefore, underwent a complete change, and
" eventuated," as the Americans would say, in an
exactly contrary conclusion—in the determination
not only to make Denmark pay the expenses of the
war, but also to give Schleswig-Holstein a rateable
share in the property of the State, as, for instance,
in the price paid to Denmark for the extinction of
the Sound Dues. As regards the demand of an in.
demnity for expenses, Prussia can no doubt pro-
duco strong and well authenticated precedents. No
country in Europe knows better than Prussia what
kind of war the great Napoleon, whom she is now
adopting as her model, was in the habit of making,
and how logically he deduced and how strictly he
applied the inference that as in war the conqueror
wins all, so, necessarily, the conquered lose all.
But Napoleon, if he occupied and plundered Prussia,
left her at least her existence, left her the power of
deserting his foriunes when they began to turn, and
siding with the enemy against whom she had fol-
lowed him as a humble auxiliary. But this demand
of Prussia, countenanced though it may be by pre-
cedent, goes not to the humiliation, but to the abso-
lute destruction of Denmark. Part of the territory
she takes by force ; the rest she allows to remain
only on condition of paying for it a sum equally
above Denmark's powers and its own value. The
second proposal is still more outrageous. Prussia
tears from Denmark two provinces, not by any
colour or claim of right in herself, but by the power
of the sword, simply because Denmark, by not ac-
ceding to her demands, has put her to the trouble of
enforcing them. Woe to the conquered ! Bat it is a
refinement of iniquity for Prussia to identify herself
with the provinces which she has snatched from
Denmark, and to make claims in their name which
might have been just and reasonable had they con-
tinued part of the Danish monarchy. Schleswig and
Holstein might have had a right to be considered in
the expenditure of the money received in compensa-
tion for the Sound Dues, for they formed in some sense
part of the Danish monarchy, and might claim a
common benefit in consideration of their bearing a
common burden; but when they are violently sepals
rated from the Monarchy, when the King is com-
pelled to renounce his sovereignty over them, and
they to renounce their allegiance to him, it is a
grotesque exaggeration of tyranny to claim for
them rights which they could only possess by virtue
of their forming part of the Danish Monarchy from
which they are severed. Let Prussia remember
what it was that brought the Allies to Paris, and
she will find that it was not, after all, so much mere
material force as the opinion of Europe and of all
mankind, shocked and irritated by the constant and
outrageous use of victory. The Prussian Monarch
may believe himself exempt from that slow but un-
relenting tribulation that overtook the Emperor
Napoleon in the vigour of his intellect and the
zenith of his glory. Napoleon fought great battles
and overthrew great Powers. Prussia has gained
an easy conquest over an insignificant enemy, and
may perhaps think the reaction will be slight be-
cause the action which provoked it was trivial. But
she should not forget that though her exploits have
been small her injustice has been gigantic, thatthe
world contains much more than Denmark and Gera
many, that alliances cemented by a common iniquity
are not generally steadfast or durable, and that her
Monarchy has already twice within the present cen-
tury found itself at the feet of a hostile Power,with
which it was obliged to capitulate on the most humi-
liating terms. These things might inculcate pru-
dence if they cannot teach moderation, and the day
may not be distant when Prussia may find herself
compelled to implore that merciful consideration for
herself which she now so ruthlessly refuses to ex-
tend to others.
PosT.—While the war in America seems as far as
ever from a decisive issue, American politics are has-
tening to a crisis. Mr. Lincoln's reckoning day
comes with all the inevitability of death itself, and
for good or evil he must meet the verdict of the
remarkable people whose national honour and
material interests have for nearly four years been
at his mercy. His presidency will stand alone in
history. There has been nothing like it before. It
is only possible that there can be anything like it
again. It has illustrated the reductio ad absurdum
of federal government. The passions rather than
the wisdom of a great republic have been exhibited
by it, and the world has learnt what flagrant go-
vernmental abuses may be perpetrated in the name
of popular liberty. Mr. Lincoln will go down to
posterity as the man who could not read the signs
of the times, nor understand the circumstances and
interests of his country ; who went to war for an
idea, and that an impossible one ; who could not
calculate his own resources nor appreciate those of
his enemy; who had no political aptitude; who
plunged his country into war without a plan ; who
failed without excuse, and fell without a friend.
Such, we believe, will be the verdict of posterity
upon the administration of the last in the long roll
of presidents of the American Union. So he must
he regarded, for the world has already made up its
mind that, whatever new combinations may obtain
on that vast continent, the reunion of North anti
South on the basis of past days is almost as im-
possible as it is improbable. Mr. Lincoln found the
Union distracted, he will leave it disintegrated. He
found it out of health, and his own policy turned a
comparatively slight ailment into a mortal sickness.
He taught the high-spirited men of the South that
there was no healing to bo looked for during his
presidency—that they must bend or fight. He did
not know the stuff of whir's the Southerners are

made ; he thought them like Yankees, and nevi'
allowed for the existence of qualities which, if not
so dashing as smartness, have more chivalry and
public virtue, and are cap Able of indefinite tension.
He plunged, therefore, into war, expecting to crush
out the soul of the best born people on the whole
continent in ninety days with seventy-five thousand
men. Instead of doing this, however, he has sacrificed
a million of the flower of American manhood, carried
death into nearly every family, loaded the country'
with an enormous national debt, and shown to the
world how powerless is a house divided against itself.
Such crises put the American Constitution to a
terrible test. Federal government itself is on its
trial, and thus far comes out of it but sadly. It is
proving itself incapable of bearing the strain put
upon it. However it may have succeeded in the
early days of the Union, when States were more
dependent on each other than they now are, and
common ties were closer, it seems certain that it is
wholly unequal to the duties of government on a
large scale. The larger the territory and the more
rapid the increase of population—especially if it be
a mixed population largely aided by immigration---'
the greater will be the multiplication of separate
powerful interests, and the generation of distinctive
qualities, habits, and modes of life. As long as
these can be harmonised to a common note, aed
swayed to one cantre, so long a Federal Government
may prevail, but the moment interests clash, and
powerful provocations arise, government is power'
less, and passion rules the day. We have seen all
this in recent American history. The American con-
stitution is good for an industrious people in time
of prosperity and peace, bat when internal discords
arise it has no power of repression or self-rectifice
tion, and civil war is the logical result. It is tin'
fortunate for Mr Lincoln that all this has happened
in his time. It must have come sooner or later, but
it might have come under the auspices of a more
sagacious or a less stubborn man ; and then though
nothing could have cured what was inherently'
wrong, a wiser administration might have averted
the terrible struggle which has thrilled the world
with shame from one end to the other, and is still
apparently as far as ever from a peaceful terrains'
Lion. A portentous cloud in the North West—very
small at present, but fast working its way up the
sky—bids fair to give the Union as much trouble
as the fierce tempest that has stained with blood
the valleys of Virginia. While the shoddy traders
and contractors of New York—a purely commercial
city—are revelling:in the gains which the war has
brought to their door, the productive States are
groaning over the loss of profitable labour, the
stagnation of markets, the grievous interruptions
to industry, the price of gold, and the consequen
ti
discouragement of commercial enterprise. While
a shoddy aristocracy in the commercial capital i 0
squandering greenbacks in the purchase of extrave
gent luxuries, the farmers of the North-West are
becoming anxious about the necessaries of life. The
conscription and the taxation are as yet hardl9
realised ; but a conviction is gaining ground that
both will be felt before long in terrible force. An°,
this makes the States of which we speak feel that
they must either press for peace or secede from the
Union. Dear as the idea of the origieal Union rag
be, it is not so dear as life. Loyal as the North'
West States may be, they are not prepared to seal'
fice all the hopes that ever led them to settle whet°
they are for a theory that flies in the face of circuta'
stances and mulcts them of the fruit of their in;
dustry for the sake of -keeping up the commercial
prosperity of a single city. These, then, may 1/
counted amongst the opponents of Mr Lincoln, all
to them must be added an enormous aggregate ,
the best representatives of property and inteliigenc°
in all the States, who feel that if the war could be
prosecuted to success in a proper way it ought n°,
to be interrupted ; but that, it the term of anothe`
President is to be spent in slaughters as terrible,:
taxation as serious, expenditure as ruinous, 004
results as barren as those which have marke d I°,
, reign of Mr Lincoln, the result is not worth the
cost ; and that eommon prudence dictates that whiw
, the toleration of Mr. Lincoln has been a folly, per'
severance in his policy would be a crime.