The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-19 00:00:00

MANSION HOUSE.

CHARGE OP EMBEZZLING £4,000.--Captain Robert
Boyle Miller, Lane's Hotel, St. Alban's-place, Haymarket,
was placed before Sir R. W. Carden, charged with em-
bezzling (within the last three months) the sum of £4,000
and upwards, received by him as servant to Richard
Rylands and others, shipowners, Grosvenor Buildings,
Tithebarn-street, Liverpool.
Mr. Maynard, for the prosecution, said the prisoner was
formerly in the employ of Messrs. Rylands and Siddon, of
Liverpool, shipowners, and was captain of the ship
Richard Ryland, which sailed in the month of July
last from Liverpool, to Calcutta, with a cargo of cork.
It would be his duty to sell the freight, receive the
money, disburse the expenses of the ship, and then trans-
mit the proceeds of the voyage to the owners at Liver-
pool. The ship Richard Ryland, of which the prisoner
was master, sailed from Liverpool for Calcutta with a
cargo of cork, The cargo was sold, and the prisoner
received the money at the Mauritius, but the owners
have never received any portion of the £4,000 received
by the prisoner, neither had they since heard anything
of the ship commanded by the prisoner belonging to
Messrs. Ryland, which was of the value of £25,000 He
should merely submit enough evidence to enable the magis-
trate to send the prisoner to Liverpool to meet the charge.
Mr. Maynard then called,
Sergt Spittal, who said—ln consequence of instructions
received from the Liverpool police, I, in company with Pack-
man, took the prisoner into custody, and charged him with
embezzling the sum of £4,000, the property of his employers,
Messes. Ryland, Seddon, and Co., the owners of the ship
Richard Ryland. He said the charge was false. We took
him to the Bow-lane Station, where he was searched by '
Sergeant Packman. I told him where ho had received
the money, but he said it was untrue. The prisoner this
morning said he was surprised the firm should suppose
that he was guilty of anything wrong—that the bill he got
in the Mauritius for the money deposited in the bank, he
had obtained and changed for safety for his employers. If
he had intended anything wrong he had a great deal
more money in Calcutta; that he intended to go down to
Liverpool and settle with his employers next Saturday.
Alderman Carden—Any question, Miller, to ask witness ?

Prisoner—Oh no, sir, what he says is perfectly correct.
Sergeant Packman—l was in company with Spittal
when we apprehended the prisoner yeaterday at Lane's
Hotel. When at the station I searched the prisoner. On
his person I found £6 10s 7d, and in his room I found £49
in cash, two £5O Bank of England notes, a deposit note on
the Stockton Bank for £I,IOJ, dated May 12, in the name of
Robert Miller. I also found a bank book, showing a credit
for V,BOO, in the name of Robert Miller.
Alderman Carden—Did he say whose money it was ?
Witness—He said it was his own. On his way to the
Mansion-house he said, "I cannot think how they think I
intend to do wrong, because if I had wished to do so I could
have done so when I was in the East Indies, and had plenty
of money. I intended to go to Liverpool on Saturday, but
I've been fool enough to stop in London a few days. He
said nothing about where he received the money.
Mr Walter Partridge, of the firm of Fletcher, Parr, and
Co., Leadenhall street, said they were agents to Ryland and
Seddon, of Liverpool. They own a ship called the Richard
Ryland. The duty of the prisoner would be to disburse
the debts incurred by the ship, and transmit the balance to
Liverpool. The owners ought to have received intelli.

gence from Calcutta relative to the money three months
ago. The ship sailed in July last. We charge the priso-
ner with having embezzled the £4,000.

Alderman Carden—You ought to have written to your
owners long before this.
Prisoner—l wrote them four or five letters.
Witness—Nothing has ever been received.

George Peacock—l went with the prisoner to a bill bro-
ker. I saw a bill for £4,000 produced for Captain Mi!ler's
endorsement. The bill was endorsed. Captain Miller told
me the motry was to be handed over in hard cash for ship-
ment to Bombay.

Alderman Carden said he did not think it very possible
that the prisoner could require bullion for the purpose of
taking it to the owners. lie should order the prisoner to be
taken to Liverpool to be dealt with there. He thought the
City police deserved great credit for getting hold of the
prisoner before he could leave London.

The prisoner will be formally brought up again to-mor,
row, but it will be merely for the signing of the depositions.

MARLBOROUGH STREET.

FORGERY BY A CLERK OF THE LIBRARY COMPANY...-.
Joseph Bingham, a young man, clerk, in the employ of the
Library Company, Pall-mall, was charged before Mr Knox
with forging and uttering an order for the payment of the
aum of £37 15s 4d.

Mr Thomas James, jun., clerk at Messrs Ransom's Bank,

1, Pall-mall East, said that on the sth of April last the
prisoner presented the cheque produced and asked him to
cash it. He did so, the Library Company having an account
at the bank. The amount of the cheque was £37 15s 4d,

Mr Henry Fowler, secretary of the Library Company,
said the cheque was not endorsed by him as it purported to
to be. All cheques were endorsed by him; no other person
connected with the company had any business to do so.
In answer to Mr Knox, Mr Fowler said the prisoner had
been in the employ of the company nearly a year.
Sergeant C. Robinson, of the detective department, Scot-
land Yard, proved taking the prisoner into custody at New-
town, Merionethshire, and said that on showing prisoner the
cheque he admitted writing the whole of it himself, stating
that he was very sorry, but that he had been drinking at
the time.

Mr Knox said the writing on the cheque did not look
.ik that of a man who bad been drinking.
The prisoner, who had no questions to ask, was committed
Lo the Central Criminal Court for trial.

THE ENCOURAGERS OF DISHONESTY AMONGST SER.
VANTS.—Mr Knox received the following letter this morn•
ing

" May 18.—Sir,—May I ask you to lend your aid in sup-
pressing another evil which is very prevalent at the West-
end of London at this season, and is also disseminated by
means of handbills dropped into areas of an evening. As the
system alluded to is profitable to the servants of families,
it is not likely that it will be made public as the other
has been [handbills dropped down areas respecting
an astrology imposture] through the magnanimity of " a
servant." I refer to the bills which state that the " best
price" is given for every conceivable article of transfer in
the household, from glass, china, broken silver, down to
bones, fat, rags, &c. There is no address on these hand-
bills, but an intimation is given that a call will be made in
the morning for anything that may be got ready. The
police might do much to check the system, if
they had instructions from their superiors to
direct their attention to it, and the press—always
ready to expose abuses of the kind—may be of great service
in opening the eyes of the heads of households to the
existence of these practices.—l am, Sir, yours, &c.,

"PRO Boxo PUBLICO,"
Another letter has been received from a person complain-
ing of the hand-bill nuisance, and requesting that the
scamp whose natte it bears may be exposed. The hand-
bill is headed "Your Destiny, Matrimony Made Easy; or,
How to Win a Lover," and the fellow who issued it calls
himself a "qualified professor of astrology," and seems to
be in great want of postage stamps,