The Sun.
London, England, 1862-09-08 00:00:00

MR. W. ROUPELL.

Within the last few days a notification has been
made to Mr. Avery, the clerk and principal legal
officer of the Central Criminal Court, by the solici-
tor to the Treasury, that it is the intention of the
Government to take up the prosecution against Mr.
Roupell, and copies of the depositions have been
furnished to the Home Office that were taken by the
magistrates at Guildford against the prisoner. It is
understood that two bills of indictment will be pre-
ferred ; one charging the offence of forging the
signature of the deceased Mr. Roupell to the deed
of gift of the Kingston estate, which was the sub-
ject of the action of ejectment tried at the Guildford
assizes, and the other charging the same offence
with reference to the supposed last will of the
deceased under which the prisoner came into the
possession of the property. Until a recent period
both these offences were capital, and even after
the punishment of death had been removed
from ordinary cases of forgery, it was retained
in the case of forgery of a will, which has
always been regarded as an offence of a most
heinous character. As the law at present stands
the offence involves the punishment of penal servi-
tude for life, or not less than four years, or im-
prisonment with hard labour, accompanied, if the
court shall think fit, with solitary confinement, for
any term not exceeding four years.

Since Mr. Roupell has been confined in Horse-
monger-lane Gaol he has not exhibited the
slightest depression of spirits. Like all other
prisoners before trial he is permitted to provide
provisions for himself, of course under certain re-
strictions; and he eats and drinks heartily, and
does not at all seem affected by his position. He
has not been visited by any of his relations, neither
has he received or made any communication to
them. He has been visited by an attorney, with
whom he has had long consultations, the nature of
which is, of course, strictly private. It is generally
believed, however, that he will plead guilty, as he
is fully aware that it is only by persisting in his
admission of forgery, and being convicted and suf-
fering the penalty for that crime, that he can hope
to succeed in his object of securing the restitution
of the property to the heir-at-law. Under ordinary
circumstances Mr. Roupell would be removed dur-
ing the ensuing week from his present place of
confinement to Newgate, with the rest of the
prisoners charged with the commission of of-
fences in the county of Surrey, but as he is in the
custody of the sheriff of that county under a de-
tainer for debt, it will be necessary, before he can
be removed that a writ of habeas corpus should
be applied for. The detainer is for the sum of
of £6OO, and is at the suit of a lady whose name it
is needless to mention. In all probability the bills
against the prisoner will be sent before the grand
jury on the first or second day of the session, which
will commence on the 22d inst., and if true bills
should be returned by the grand jury, a writ of
habeas corpus will then be obtained, and he will be
brought up for trial.

The public is aware that at present the only evi-
dence in support of the charges of forgery consists
in the proof that while under examination upon
the trial at Guildford Mr. Roupell admitted that
he had forged the name of his father to the deed of
gift and the pretended will ; but in addition to this
a great deal of evidence will be laid before the
grand jury for the purpose of showing that those
signatures were, in point of fact, forgeries, and the
admission made by Mr. Roupell himself that they
were so will be given as confirmatory testimony,
although some technical difficulties may arise that
will render this statement inadmissible.
Since the termination of the cause at Guildford
it appears that the advisers of the heir-at-law,
Richard Roupell, have not adopted any active pro-
ceedings against other parties who had purchased
portions of the property from the prisoner ; and it
is said that no further steps will be taken until the
charge of forgery shall have been disposed of. It
would seem from inquiries that have since been
made that in every case the different estates dis-
posed of were absolutely alienated by sale, and in
almost every instance the purchasers appear to
have been satisfied with the title of William Rou-
pell. In some of them, however, it appeared that
the solicitors for the purchasers took the precaution
of requiring that Mrs. Roupell, the mother of the
prisoner, should be a party to the conveyance of
the property, and that she should also guarantee
the title, and in all those cases, if the heir-at-law
should recover possession, there will be a personal
remedy against her. Some of the parties who have
purchased portions of the property are placed in a
very painful and unpleasant position in consequence
of the discovery that has taken place. In one in -
stance, where a sum of £12,000 that had been left
by a professional gentleman, and which were the
proceeds of a long course of honourable exertion,
for the benefit of his family, the parties are now
unable to obtain any rents, and are, of course, liable
to be called upon at any moment to defend an ac-
tion of ejectment. In several other cases, also,
where the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway
Company had made agreements to purchase the
property they required for their extension through
the parish of Christchurch, they have refused to
complete until they can obtain a more secure title
than the one that could, under existing circum-
stances, be granted by the present holders of the
property, so that the greatest possible doubt and
uncertainty exists in reference to the question
among all the parties who are involved in this most
extraordinary affair.

WE EXTRA ORDINARY CASE OF
WHOLESALE POISONING.

Sir George Grey, the Home Secretary, has at
length determined that the prosecution of Constance
Wilson, alias Catherine Taylor, shall be assisted by
the Government, and within a day or two the soli-
citor to the Treasury has obtained copies of the
lengthened depositions for the purpose of preparing
for the prosecution, and it is believed that Mr.
Chipperfield, who has so laboriously conducted the
prosecution to the present time, will continue to
assist the Treasury solicitor. The prisoner, it will
be recollected, has been fully committed for trial on
two distinct and serious charges of wilful murder.
The first in having caused the death by poison of
Mrs. Soames, a respectable woman, the widow of a
piano manufacturer in the month of April, 1856 .
and the second with causing the death by the same
means of Mrs. Ann Atkinson, the wife of a highly-
respectable tradesman at Kirkby Lonsdale, West-
moreland, and her trial is fixed to take place at the
next session, to commence at the Old Bailey on
Monday, the 22d inst.
It will be recollected that the prisoner is strongly
suspected of having caused the death of three other
individuals on whom she was in attendance at the
time of their death, and whose deaths took place
under precisely the same circumstances, and labour-
ing under precisely the same symptoms as those of
her victims Mrs. Atkinson and Mrs. Soames. The
prosecution, therefore, being one of considerable
importance, will be, it is said, conducted by the
Attorney-General in person, but with a sufficient
staff of able assistants, but it has not yet transpired
who the counsel for the defence are to be.

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