The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-06 00:00:00

Great Burglary in Lombard-street.

Yesterday a discovery was made of a robbery of
bullion, bills of exchange, foreign notes, and other
valuable securities, to a large amount in the
whole, which is supposed to have been effected
some time during Saturday or Sunday night, on

the premises of Messrs. Baum, Sons, and
Co., long established in Lombard.street as bullion
dealers and moneychangers. The manner in which

the burglary appears to have been effected, and
many of the attendant circumstances, are mysteri-
ous, and for the present baffle all the more experi-
enced of the'City police. Thb premises of Messrs
Baum are situated a few paces on the further side
of Birchin.lane, going eastward from the Mansion-
bowie, and on the northern side of Lombard-street.
fhey are upon the ground floor, with cellars below,
and the rest of the house, which is very large and
lofty, is let out as offices to merchants and others.
At night the whole house is in the charge of a re-
spectable elderly woman, the widow of a sergeant
of police, as housekeeper, and with her a niece and
her husband reside, the three occupying the top-
most story. A watch dog has the run of the whole
of the passages and staircases at nights, and is ac.
oustomed to bark on the slightest unusual noise.
He was found yesterday morning with a strap,
which had been used in tying up some of the secu-
rities that had been stolen, hanging loosely round
his neck, but he was still going at large about the
house, and the circumstance of the strap, inexplic-
able itself, unless used in restraining the animal,
which would only have made him the more noisy,
is one of the mysterious incidents connected with
the robbery. Messrs Baum . closed their premises
for the night on Saturday evening about 9 o'clock.
They had then in gold in an iron safe, securely
locked to all appearance, and itself enclosed in a
strong room equally well secured, 62} Spanish and
one Isabella doubloon, 378! eagles (American), 48i
guineas, 7 louis-d'or, 2441 napoleons, 7cz. of ster-
ling-gold, 4 of ancient gold, and 2oz. of melting
gold. Of notes they had £7l Irish ; A.:48
_Scotch ;
2,678 French; 120 Belgian ; 2,647 thalers; 1,802
Russian roubles ; 1,745 florins (Dutch); 750
dodos (German) ; 225 Austrian; two five
pound notes of the Leeds Banking Company ;
£365 in Australian notes ; 465 rupee notes ; 99 Ca-
nadian dollar notes, 37 American : £1 Nova Scotia,
100 Spanish killer notes, £5 in Guernsey notes, and
six Baden bonds of 35 florins. They, had likewise
certificates for shares in the Thames and Mersey
Marine Company, the Alliance Bank, the Mariquita
Mining Company, and the Austrian New Loan, two
Dutch and three Russian bonds, two Lombardo-
Venetian bonds, one Portuguese bond, 57 gold and
37 silver watches, numbers of every description of
foreign silver coins, and many bills of exchange.
Yesterday morning, about 9 o'clock,
one of the part-
ners in the firm opened the premises, and shortly
afterwards went to the strong-room, accompanied by
a boy with a lighted candle. The room is guarded
by double doors with formidable locks. On apply.
ing his key to the lock of the outer door he found
that the scutcheon had been torn off and the lock
itself had been tampered • with. Looking round a
corner of the room he discovered that a hole about
18in. square, and large enough to admit a boy of
ordinary size, had been cut through the solid brick-
work, and an entrance thus made into the room.
The iron safe was open,
three of the looks of the
inner door of the room had been wrenched off, empty
cashboxes were strewn about, and the place was in
disorder in other respects. The way in which the
iron safe appeared to have been opened was most
inexplicable. The door, indeed, had been removed
from its hinges, but although formidable crowbars
were lying about there was no mark visible about
the door to show that any of them had been used in
prising it open, nor were there any-indication of re'
cent use on the crowbars themselves. Not only had
the door of the safe been removed by the hinges, but
a most formidable look inside of it had been broken
in pieces, and the wards scattered about. The safe
was completely empty,
and a couple of morticing
chisels, such as are Used by joiners, and the points of
which had been broken lay on the floor. How the
thieves got into the
premises remains to be ex.
plained. The street door, which is common to the
whale house, opens into a passage, on the right hand
of which is a door communicating with the counting
house of Messrs Baum. The street door cannot be
unlocked from the outside. It is in two halves,
opening inwards, and at night is secured by bolts
and crossbars on the inside, there being no lock
on the outside or the inside. A person leaving the
house after it had been closed for the night might
remove the crossbars and bolts inside the 'street
door, but he could not fasten the door after him,
ailda passing policeman would probably soon find
that it was open as he went his round. To prevent
such a discovery the thieves had recourse to an ex-
traordinary expedient. Before leaving they actually
screwed a spring latch inside the door, and on
closing the door behind them as they passed out it
fastened itself on the inner side, and so presented
after wards an appearance from the outside of being
secure. The robbery and the mystery which hangs
about it have excited a good deal of interest in the
city. The Messrs Baum, or some of them, have been
in business in Lembard.street for 30 or 40 years,
and many of their
ester friends and clients called on them
is the course of yday to express their syme
pathy with them on the occasion. They themselves
estimate their loss, though they speak with diffi-
dence on that point, at less than ZlO,OOO. The
firm has offered a reward of £2OO for the discovery
and conviction of the burglars.
The housekeeper and her nephew and niece, who
are reported to be respectable people, are unabe tc
top of the house, five or six stories from the base-
give any explanation of the affair. They live at the
ment, and had not been disturbed either on Satur.
g t, but that was not at
h
night. The. dog had barked a good
deal at one part of the
day or Sunday
all an unusual circumstance:

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A Board of officers—composed of a field officer, 3d Bri-
gade (president), an engineer officer, and anassist.-surgeen,
members—assembled at the Royal Engineer-office, Alder-
shot, on Wednesday, to report upon the double ball-court
ereoted near Aand,C lines, North Camp.