The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-14 00:00:00

conversed with him, and thought him to be a per-
son of sound mind.
Cross-examined—He had seen Mr. Windham
only once since 1858. He never saw him acting as
a linkboy and lighting people to their carriages.
By the Master—The last time he saw Mr. Wind-
ham was on the 18th of last month. He met him
accidentally in Palace-yard, and said he supposed
it was an anxious time for him, and asked him how
he thought the case was going on. Mr. Windham
replied that he was not making himself very miser-
able, and that he had no doubt about the result. He
seemed to be in good spirits.
The inquiry was again adjourned.
Yesterday the jury intimated in writing their
unanimous opinion to the Court that counsel should
not be present at their interview with Mr. Wind-
ham, but no final decision was come to on the
matter.

FORGERY 01 _RUSSIAN BANK-NOTES.

Yesterday, at the Justice-room of the Mansion-
house, before Mr. Alderman Mechi, who sat for the
Lord Me yor, three foreigners, named respectively
Woolf Harwitz, 22 years of age, and described as of
4, Little Prescott-street, Goodman's-fields, commis-
sion agent; Cholm Reichberg, about 35, of 12,
Haberdasher-place, Hoxton, jeweller ; and Abraham
Josephson, 32, of 28, Primrose-street, Bishopsgate,
travelling jeweller, were placed at the bar, in the
custody of James Brett, detective officer, charged
with being concerned in a systematic forgery in
this country of Russian rouble notes. They
were men of whom Inspector Hamilton, of the
city detective force, acting in concert with In-
spector Leonard, has been in quest for the last
three months, and their arrest is attributable
in the first instance to the receipt, on Thursday
last, by the Russian Minister here, of a telegram
announcing the capture at Brody, in Austria,
of two men, with a number of forged 10-rouble
notes in their possession, and documents compro-
mising one at least of the prisoners. The court was
crowded, and the case excited great interest.
Mr. Sleigh, instructed by Messrs. Oliverson,
Lavie, and Peacbey, of Old Jewry, attended to con-
duct Le prosecution. Mr. M‘Dennell, barrister, de-
fended Harwitz and Reichberg ; and Mr. Hope, of
Ely-place, the prisoner Josephson.
Mr. Sleigh, addressing the Court, said he at-
tended on behalf of the Russian Government to pro-
secute the three prisoners on a charge of forgery,
under circumstances which he should briefly relate.
The Court would be aware that, by a clause of an
Act of Parliament which was re-enacted in the Act
of last session for consolidating the statutes relating
to forgery, it was provided, inter dit, that whoso-
ever, without lawful authority or excuse, shoUld en-
grave, or in any wise make upon any plate or other
material, any bill of exchange, promissory note, die,
for payment of money, in whatever language, relat-
ing to any foreign Prince or State, or should use er
knowingly have in his possession any plate or other
material upon which any such bill or note should
be engraved, should be deemed guilty of felony,
and on conviction liable to penal servitude for not
more than 14 years and not less than three, or im-
prisonment for not more than two years, with or
without hard labour, and with or without solitary
confinement. He had to charge the prisoners, under
that statute, with forging and having in their pos-
session plates for the manufacture of notes of
the Russian Empire, of the denomination of five
roubles and ten roubles. For some time past
it had been well known to the authorities in
this country of the Russian Government
that the manufacture of notes of the Empire had
been extensively carried on here, and some persons
who had been detected in the act had been prose.
cuted and punished. The manufacture had not
only been practised by persons in this country, but
abroad, and tha notes fabricated here had been
transmitted to Russia for circulation. He should
on a future occasion be able to satisfy the Court be-
yond all doubt that the prisoners had been con-
cerned in a very clever scheme for the manufacture
of plates for striking off Russian notes in this coun-
try, and that their proceedings had been charac-
terized by great skill and ingenuity. The prisoners
had made their appearance, together or separately,
at the premises of different persons skilled in cop-
per-plate printing whom he should call as wit-
nesses, and to whom the public were much in-
debted for the manner in which they had conducted
themselves in this matter, He should call engra-
vers from various parts of the metropolis, who
would tell the Court that the prisoners had em-
ployed them to make one portion or another of a
plate for the production of a rouble note, and that
after the plate had been so prepared the prisoners
had taken it to other persons to have proof impres-
sions struck from it. He should also show that
where no proof was struck off they would not even
allow the " make-up sheet," as it was technically
called, to remain with the person striking it off.
i
The agents of the Russian Government n this
country had had their eye upon the prisoners for
some time past, but it was not until Saturday that
two of them were taken into custody. On one or
other of them were found rouble notes and portions
of such notes, with papers showing a guilty know-
ledge ; but, I'o2 the present, he should content him-
self with patting in evidence the circumstances
under which they had been arrested.
As only two of the prisoners could speak Eng-
lish, and that imperfectly, the subjoined evidence
was interpreted to them by Dr. Rehorst.
George Scott, a detective officer,—About half-
past 9 o'clock on Saturday evening, I was in com-
pany with Brett and Legg, two other officers in the
Minories, where we saw the prisoners Harwitz
and Reichberg together. We took them into cus-
tody, and charged them with forging Russian
rouble notes. On searching Hurwitz at the police
station I found in his trousers pockets a package
of type and a quantity of foreign correspondence ;
both of which I produce, Yesterday (Sunday),
about 2 o'clock, I went, in companywith Brett and
Legg, to 28, Primrose-street, Bishopsgate, where I
saw the prisoner Josephson standing at the street
door. I told him we were police-officers and wished
to speak to him. He took us upstairs to a room on
the first floor. Telling him we had some questions
to ask, and that the answers he gave might be made
evidence against him, I asked if ;he knew a man
named Reichberg, residing at 12, Haberdasher-
place, Hoxton. He said he did. I inquired if he
had done any business with him. He replied he
had. I asked him what business. He said he was
a diamond-setter, and had done various things for
him in his trade. I asked him if he (Josephson)
had got any copper or zinc plates engraved for
Reichberg. He said—"No, never." 1 then said
we must search his place. He replied—" Oh,
search anywhere you please. By the by (he added)
I must tell you, about three months ago I was at
Liverpool, where I met a man named Mercer, who
asked me my name and address, which I gave hint.
Mercer, producing an engraving on metal, asked
me if I could get it engraved on a copper plate. I
said, I will try,' and brought it to London." He
added that Mercer also gave him an engraved cop-
perplate as a pattern for that which he wished to
be done. He (Josephson) then fetched the copper-
plate I produce from a cupboard from below some
papers. [This plate had on it an engine-turned
engraving of the ornamental part of a Russian
rouble note.] I had just before asked him where
that plate was. He said, " Oh, it is here" (point-
ing to the cupboard); "he has not got it ; I have
sent him a proof on paper from it to the post-office
at Liverpool." He did not produce the plate until
I had asked him for it. I inquired where the en-
graved copperplate which he had brought from
Liverpool was. He said he had sent it back again,
and had never seen Mr. Mercer since. The plate
produced is that which he got done in London-wall.
I took him to the police station and charged him.
I found on him some papers, which I produce. I
may also state that we went to 12, Haberdasher-
place, and to G, Bevingden-street, both of_which

are occupied by the prisoner Reichberg. At Haber-
dasher-place I found a great many engraving tools,
a galvanic battery, some colouring matter, and a
number of papers, which I have locked up. In a
cellar or underground kitchen at 6, Bevingden-
street, where Reichberg works, I found a lithogra-
phic printing press. He sleeps at Haberdasher-
place. I have not yet completed my search of the
place in Bevingden-street. If a remand be granted
I believe further evidence will be forthcoming.
Mr. Heard, a gentleman from the Russian Con-
sulate, in Great Winchester-street, said he was well
acquainted with Russian money of all denomina-
tions. The plate produced—that given by the
prisoner Josephson—resembled the ornamental por-
tion of a 10-rouble note, and the type found on Har-
witz would make the ornamental border or edge.
On being shown a printed paper found on another
of the prisoners, witness said it resembled the border
of a rouble note.

By Mr. M'Donnell—The plate produced was
simply the ornamental design on the front of a
rouble note, and contained no figure or letter.

John Brett, detective officer-LI took the prisoner
Reichberg into custody on Saturday evening in
company with Horwitz, and charged him with forg
ing Russian rouble notes. 116 made no reply. Ido
not think he understood me. At the police station I
searched him, and found two 100-rouble notes, two
10-rouble notes, and a number of papers and letters
in a foreign language, and which I have not yet
had interpreted. I also found in his portmonnaie
the paper which the previous witness has identi-
fied as resembling the border of a rouble note.
Yesterday I went with the witness Scott to Haber-
dasher-place, and in a box which I took from below
hip (Reichberg'o) bed I feud, a quantity of Wax, Cal