The Sun.
London, England, 1865-04-22 00:00:00

Mr, Edmunds and the Patent Office•

Yesterday were published, in a blue book of 259
pages, various reports, accounts, minutes, &c., re-
lating to Mr. Edmunds's case at the Patent-office.
Most of the facts mentioned here have already found
their way into the public journals.
The " preliminary report " to the Lord Chancellor
and to the Commissioners of Patents, of Messrs.
Greenwood and Hindmarch, was dated the 12th of
July last. These gentlemen, it is stated, had been
prepared to recommend Mr. Edmunds's removal
from his offices on account of his offensive, harsh,
and unnecessarily severe conduct towards his sub-
ordinates, and his serious neglect of his duty, when
their attention was drawn to more serious matters.
Various details are gone into respecting the defal-
cations and incorrect accounts, the inquiry commis-
sioners bringing against him, in substance, as the
result of their investigations, the following principal
charges :-1. That Mr. Edmunds had, from the
year 1852, withheld from the public purse large
sums of money which he ought to have accounted
for and paid quarterly in every year from that time
to the present. 2. That he had in 1853 advanced
£5OO out of the public moneys for the purchase of
stamps, and had in 1863 taken £5OO (in purported
repayment) out of public moneys, and put it into
his private pocket. 3. That he had purchased
stamps at wholesale prices, sold them in the Patent-
office at retail prices, and put the difference into
his own pocket, instead of crediting the amount to
the public, the purchase having been made out of
public moneys. 4. That he had drawn large sums
out of the public moneys of the office to his own
use, and had given no account of such sums. 5.
That he had withheld a sum of £399 7s. 4d., for
which he ought to have given credit to the Trea-
sury, and had three times passed his accounts,
while that sum was in his hands, without noticing it.
On the 20th of September Mr. Edmunds submitted
a lengthened statement to the Lord Chancellor. At
the outset he reminds his lordship that in the early
part of 1863 he (Mr. Edmunds) applied for leave
to resign his offices of Clerk of the Patents and
Clerk of the Commissioners of Patents, requesting
at the same time his lordship's kind assistance in
obtaining from the Treasury the allowance to which
he was entitled. Upon the perusal of Messrs.
Greenwood and Hindmarch's report, "my previously
existing desire for retirement," says Mr. Edmunds,
" revived with additional force. It was evident to
me, for reasons which I will explain more fully pre-
sently, that I could not hope to retain, with advan-
tage to the public service, the offices of the Clerk of
the Patents and Clerk of the Commissioners of
Patents; and an intimation was, therefore, made
to your lordship that I was prepared to resign those
offices. In answer, I was informed, by a written
communication from your lordship, that if I thought
proper to surrender the offices, and would under-
take forthwith to account for and pay over to the
Treasury all sums of money due from me as Clerk
of the Patents, the proceedings fixed for the Mon-
day following would not be taken. It was, how-
ever, added, The Lord Chancellor will take the
opinion of Lord Cranworth and Lord Kingsdown
as to the course which, under all the circumstances
of the case, it will be the duty of his lordship to
adopt with reference to the office of reading clerk
and clerk of the private committees held by Mr.

The next papers in the blue-book are the obser-
vations, separatelymade, of Mr. Greenwood and Mr.
Hindmarch upon Mr. Edmunds's statement. Mr.
Greenwood says that not one of the charges contained
in their report is denied by Mr. Edmunds. Hestates
plainly that they have been compelled, by what has
taken place, to discredit Mr. Edmunds's word, and
Mr. Greenwood adds that the inquiry is at present
(29th October) by no means exhausted. Mr. Hind-
march, taking the same ground as Mr. Greenwood, in
a report of much greater length, dated November 1,
mentions incidentally that they had held 11 sittings,
each of several hours' duration, and that they had
found great difficulties in obtaining information. He
makes various charges against Mr. Edmunds of at-
tempting to divert them from the course of their in-
quiry, and accuses him of making various assertions
opposed to the truth. " The violation of his duties
to the Crown and pxblic," says Mr. Hindmarch,
" and the gross misconduct of which Mr. Edmunds
has been guilty, appears to me to deserve the
severest reprobation, if no greater punishment.
The statute 24 and 25 Victoria, c. 96 (the
Larceny Act), by section 70 provides (amongst
other things), that whosoever, being employed
in the public service of her Majesty, and en-
trusted by virtue of such employment with the re-
ceipt, custody, management, or control of any
money, shall embezzle any money entrusted to, or
received or taken into possession by him by virtue
of his employment, or any part thereof, or in any
manner fraudulently apply or dispose of the same
or any part thereof, to his own use or benefit, or for
any purpose whatever except for the public service,
shall be deemed to have feloniously stolen the same
from her Majesty. Mr. Edmunds will have great
reason to congratulate himself if, through the
leniency of the Crown, he shall not be deemed to
have acted with a fraudulent intent of such a
description as to make him chargeable with offences
against the provisions of the statute above cited."
On the -17th of December Mr. Edmunds forwarded
to the Lord Chancellor a reply to Mr. Greenwood's
observations, and this is followed in the return by a
second report of Messrs. Greenwood and Hind-
march, dated the 31st of January last, completing
their inquiries into the conduct of Mr. Edmunds
and Mr. Ruscoe in the Patent-office. This report
occupies 15 pages of the blue-book. With regard to
Mr. Ruscoe's case, we may state that though the
commissioners say that " perhaps with such an
example before him it cannot be wondered that Mr.
Ruscoe should have followed such a course," yet
from his gross misconduct he ought no longer to
remain in the office which he holds under the Com-
missioners of Patents. "We are not in a position
to say precisely how much of the money withheld
from the Exchequer has been taken by Mr. Edmunds
emi hrwr mud, by Mr. Thisenc. Vnstly lnrecrr
amount has been taken by Mr. Edmunds."
Upon the whole Messrs. Greenwood and Hind-
march are satisfied, and find that the following sums
payable to the Consolidated Fund and Suitors' Fee
Fund respectively, and for which Mr. Edmunds was
responsible, were withheld by him at the commence-
ment of their inquiry :
Balance of money due for fees payable to
the Consolidated Fund, exclusive of tho
amounts of 128.10 d. deducted per skin £8,764 3 6
Aggregate amount of sums of 12$. 10d. per
skin abstracted from the moneys re-
ceived in the offico for account of tho
public
Amount of discounts taken for the private
use of Messrs. Edmund and Ruscoe, for
stamps purchased with public money
Deficiency in payments duo to Suitors' Fee
Fund

5,131 13 6