The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-07 00:00:00

Forging by Photography.

At the Mansion House Police•court, yesterday, Peter
Rivaldi, a foreigner, underwent a final examination before
the Lord Mayor on a charge of being concerned in a forgery
on the Imperial Bank of Vienna.—Mr. Sleigh was counsel
for the prosecution, and the prisoner was defended by !Jr.
Gleed, an attorney.—John M'Quire, a photographer, at 4,
Aldgate, said the prisoner, who was a stranger to him,
called upon him about 7 o'clock on the evening of Thursday,
the 18th of Tune, and asked to see some specimens of pho-
tography. Witness, who was then in a back room on the
first floor, showed him several specimens, and after inspect-
ing them the prisoner said he would not have his portrait

taken then, but would call the following day. He left, and
next day, about 12 o'clock, he called and had his portrait
taken. That done, he asked if witness could copy works of
art, " Oh, yes, anything," was the reply. He said he had
been making inquiries for some time about witness's abili-
ties as a photographer, and would call and speak to him
next day, adding that he was staying at an hotel about a
mile distant in the east part
during
fhe town. Mrs. M'Quire,
se
witness's wife, was part of the interview.
The prisoner, producing a
is
eher one-gulden Austrian note,
offered it to her in payment for 1
if he bad no silver, and on his replyingportrait. She asked
thatav he
had not, she
halfa Napoleon
returned him the note. He then g
in payment, and, on receiving the change, went
next day (Saturday) he called again about nooanw.ay'ihTe e
The
were some customers present, and he said ho would wait
until they had gone. On their leaving the prisoner said he
wanted to speak privately to witness, who replied, "Ail
right ; I'm ready." He told witness to fasten the door, which
he did. The prisoner then took from a pocket-book a one-
gulden note, and asked him if he would copy it. 31rs.
M'Quire being in the room, the prisoner asked if she was his
wife, and was answered in the affirmative. On witness
telling him that he could copy the note, the prisoner said
he would give him an order for 1,000 copies, and t hat if he
liked the manner in which it was done he would bring him
two notes of greater value to be copied. Ile then asked
witness if the paper could be procured in London, and, en
being told that it could, the prisoner said that, in that event,
they could make their fortunes ; bu 4., if it could not, he
should get it from abroad. He charged witness not to allow
any living being to see the note, except his wife, who had
seen it. Witness told him that he should see an impression
of the note on Monday morning. The prisoner then left,
and witness went to the Seething-lane police-station, and
made a communication on the subject to the inspector on
duty. In accordance with the prisoner's instructions he
made the photograph now produced of the note upon glass,
and from which impressions could be taken by a certain
process. On Monday afternoon he saw from his shop the
prisoner walking about on the opposite side of the street a
long time. The prisoner did not come in, but, about nine
o'clock in the evening witness was standing at his shop
door, after he had left off work, when the prisoner came up
and shook hands with him. Witness asked him if he would
go and take a glass of ale; upon which the prisoner pulled
him on one side and said, "We must not let them hear,"
alluding to some people in the shop. Witness and he went
towards Jewry-street, and on the way the prisoner asked him
if he had copied the note. Witness said he had ; upon which
the prisoner inquired if the impression was a good one.
On being assured that it was, he said ho had got some
more notes of greater value for him to do. " Very good,"
was the answer; and having taken a glass of ale together
at a tavern witness asked him to go to his house with him
and look at the impression, which he did. He compared the
' copy closely with the note and approved it very much. Ho
then asked witness's wife to shut the door, saying he did
, not wish anybody to seo them. Remarking that it was a
" dry job," he gave witness half a crown, and asked him
to go and got a bottle of gin with it. Witness left for
that purpose, but was detained some time. The prisoner
met him in the street and said he had left six gold
Napoleons and a half with his wife, together with a five-
gulden and a ten-gulden note. Of these notes he asked
witness to make photographic impressions, and then get
the impressions engraved on copper, and also that of the
note which witness had already copied. He then talked
about their travelling together and making their fortunes in
six months. He chat god witness to be careful not to let the
police know, or they should both be ruined. Witness said,
" 0, no, I'll take care of that," and they parted. On going
home his wife showed him the two notes and the six and a-
half Napoleons. About 9 o'clock next night the prisoner
called on him again. Witness was sitting with his wife in
a back room on the first floor. The prisoner fastened the
door when he came in. Mrs. M'Quire remarked that they
thought they had lost him. The prisoner said he had been
lying in bed all day, for he had heard something, and was
afraid the police had become acquainted with the affair. Ho
asked if witness had said anything about it. Witness re-
plied that was not likely. The prisoner then asked if he had
taken the other two impressions. His wife said he had been
too busy. The prisoner began talking about their travelling
with him on the continent, and after they had made their
fortunes, going to America or Australia, where they would
be safe from discovery. Just at that moment a knock was
heard at the door, and detective Scott put his head inside.
Witness turned round to see who it was, and then followed
the officer down stairs and made a communication to him.
Scott, accompanied by Monger, another detective officer,
then returned into the room with him and took the pri-
soner into custody. Tho impression on glass was then on
a table in the room, as were also the notes in an envelope.
On being cross-examined, witness said the impression on
glass was not what was called a negative, but he could turn
it into a negative and tako copies from it._ Chevalier Igna-
tius de Schaffer, chancellor and director of the Austrian
consulate general in London, said he was conversant with
the currency of the Austrian empire, The paper currency
consisted of gulden notes of different denominations, and of
which the five-gulden and ten-gulden notes produced were
specimens. The value of a gulden was about 2s. in English
' money. The three notes referred to by the witness M'Quire,
were genuine notes of the National Bank of Vienna, which
issue
was the only bank authorised to
such
was a represennetatetsiOn oTfhae
photograph on glass produced
one-gulden note. There was a printed warning on the
e.i‘tihG,eQe °lip.
irriSoseeoanntetra,
gulden notes,
that
osvffica
s to
et
sittingf, forgo them
deposed d thati nawt,isholaen takinge ri
n—
withl
detective police
room of the first floor of the house.
ihnistowciufestoindy,lim back
He was afterwards searched at the police-station, and 42
in gold and other money found
wife
of ArQuire corroborated his eviNapoleonsd
upon him,—The
ence, and deposed
to some other fresh circumstances. On comparing the
genuine note with the impression
said he would take 1,000 copies, and on glass the prisoner
would bring other gen-
tlemen who would each take 5,000 or 6,000 more. On the
night when her husband was getting the gin the pri-
soner offered to advance her
.. out
saying a pound £5O, She declined to take it,
or two would be ample, upon which he left
the gold Napoleons with her. On that occasion he said ho
had just had a telegram requiring him to go to Paris, and
that probably her husband would make the copies before
e a
he returned, where he said they could communieate with
him in the event of his
.not returning. Witness, on being
asked in cress-examinat why she took the money when
she knew her husband had communicated with the police,
said that was her businesss.h Besides, it was usual in such
cases to have a deposit,
took £5 or £4.—Mr. Josephe might have had £5O, but only
Gatti,. a chocolate manufac-
turer in Aldgate, spoke to the prisoner, whom ho had pre-
viously known as a casual customer, coming to his house
on the evening of Thursday, the. 18th. June, and staying
there a day or two, and toy;hcie
asking
ho felt on the
prisoner calling him aside a
ono in London, who could con
be produced. lle ordered Lye
and the prisoner left at five o'clock
he was going sk ing him if he knew any
three Austrian
quitnotes which
prisoner to his house,
next morning, saying
to Boulogne.—On this evidence Mr Sleigh
applied to have the prisoner committed for trial, which
was
done accordingly.

MORMON CONVERTS.—Within the last two weeks
nearly 1,500 Mormon emigrants have landed at New York
en route for Utah. Ono company of SOO was made up of
seven different nations, another of GOO was principally from
Scandinavia, with all the indications of the honest thrift of
the labourers of Northern Europe—American Paper.

CRIME OF 1862.—The indictable crimes com-
mitted in England in the year ending Michaelmas,
102, so far as known to the police, were 53,225 in number
—an increase of 41 per cent over the previous year, The
catalogue includes 124 murders, 63 attempts to murder, and
698 instances of injuries done with intent to do serious
harm ; all these are considerably larger numbers than in the
previous year. In Lancashire the increase was S per cent.
By an inconvenient arrangement these police returns are
for the year ending at Michaelmas, but the return of crimi-
nal proceedings is for the year proper, ending with Decem-
ber, This latter return shows that in 1862 20,000fp9e.risponers
were committed for trial in England—an incrienasleB6l.
But
cent, following an increase of 12'7 P
in each of the years 1858, 1859, and 18e6rOesettnhiltelree
lhitatdlebbeeelnowa
decrease, and the numbers for 1862 i
nacrreease of population.
those of 1857, notwithstanding
1 was estimatedl4 '5,
population. In Lancashire the m 21.8,
The commitments in 1862 were
.1a
etnro
01;001
8
in Essex 13 per cent ;
in Yorkshire 15.4, in Midtdhlees ee
fr
1t the
extremee north, in the south-
west,there was a decrease
finthe
midland counties. In offences
and in several o
st the person there was an increase of 74 per cent, in
"in so-ainst property with violence 171 per cent, in
offences
against property without violence 7.9
offences ffences against property (arson, per cent, in.
malicious o &c.), 51'7 per
.
cent. The commitments for burglary and housebreaking
increased 33 per cent in Lancashire, 48 5 per cent in Middle-
sex.