The Sun.
London, England, 1865-01-27 00:00:00

Charge of Conspiracy

Yesterday, at the Justice-room of the Mansion-house'
;hree respectably-dressed men, named James Arnett. Wm.

Sedgwick, and Charles Thorne, the first two of whom were
described as wharf-foremen, and the last as a clerk, were
brought before the Lord Mayor, in the custody of Detective-
sergeants Michael Haydon and James Brett, who had ar-
rested them over-night on a warrant. The charge against
them was that they did in the month of December last, in
this city, unlawfully conspire, combine, confederate, and

agree with other persons by divers false and fraudulent pre-
tences to acquire.and obtain to themselves of and from the
Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation, and other insu-
rance and assurance offices, a large BUM of money with in--
tent to cheat and defraud them.

Mr. Giffard, instructed by Messrs. Humphreys and Mor-

gan, of Newgate-street, solicitors, was counsel for the pro-
secution ; Mr. Moss, solicitor, defended the prisoner Thorne
—the prisoners Sedgwick and Arnett were undefended.
Mr. Giffard said he appeared to prefer a charge against

he prisoners of having committed an extensive fraud on se-

veral of the principal insurance-offices in the city of London.
It would be in the recollection of the Lord Mayor that in

December last a very destructive fire broke out on the pre-
mises of Messrs. Barry, who are extensive wharfingers at
Dockhead, Bermondsey ; that the fire raged more or less for
some days, and that an enormous quantity of commodities
of various kind, but principally jltte, was burnt. Subse-
quently claims for property alleged to have been destroyed

were made upon a number of insurance-offices. He repre-

sented on this occasion 12 or 13 of those offices—viz., the

Royal Exchange, the Sun, the Northern, the North British
and Mercantile, the Royal, the Liverpool aid London, the
Globe, the London Assurance, the Queen, the Manchester,
the Imperial, and others. It was the custom when goods
were destroyed by fire at a wharf for the proprietors of the

they should not be seen. I shifted in the same way a
quantity of other bales by various vessels. I took a tally
off one of each stack, and I believe the total quantity either
having the tallies taken off or turned as I have described
was about 500 bales in the new warehouse. I made a com-
munication to the office of the North British and Mercan-
tile Insurance Company on Friday, the 6th of January, and
was referred to Messrs. Brown and Roberts. I saw Mr.
Roberts on the following day,and once or twice afterwards,
and accompanied him on the 11th of January to Messrs.
Barry's premises. I went into Mr. Alfred Barry's room.
The prisoner Arnett, Mr. Whiting, Mr. Roberts, and Mr.
Radmall were present. Mr. Radmall handed me a list which
contained about 495 bales, which I stated did not belong
to the firm, although they had them in their warehouses.
This included the bales by the Onward and the Botanist,
and some others. Mr. Whiting asked Mr. Barry what
he had to say to it. Barry turned to Arnett and asked
him whether the list was true. Arnett replied that it
was. I said to Mr. Barry, "I challenge you with having
about 100 bags of rice in No. 11 warehouse, and there are
only seven down in the fire insurance return as being
on hand." Mr. Whiting said, " Now, Mr. Barry." Mr.
Barry said, "Now, Arnett." Arnett said it was true. I
afterwards went over the premises with Mr. Radmall and
two other gentlemen from the fire-offices ; they took a list
of all the bales saved all over the warehouse. I counted
them all, Mr. Field and Mr. Gatehouse being present to
check me.
Mr. Roberts, in cross-examination, said the prisoner
Thorne was bookkeeper at Messrs. Barry's wharf, as did
also the witness Fage.
Sergeant Michael Haydon deposed that he apprehended
the prisoner Thorne on Wednesday evening about 7 o'clock.
He told him he was a police-officer, and that he held a war-
rant for his apprehension. He read it to him, and prisoner
said in reply that he had no answer to make to it then. The
prisoner asked if he was selected as one of the principals in
the matter, and witness replied that he was.
Sergeant James Brett deposed that he took the prisoner
Arnett into custody on Wednesday evening at his residence.
Sergeant Haydon was with him. He told him who they
were and read the warrant. The prisoner said " Can't Ibe
taken to-morrow at the wharf ? I wish to see some gentle-
men there." Witness replied that he could not. He took
him to a police station, and found on him a bunch of keys,
which he said were the keys of Messrs. Barry's wharf.
Witness also took the prisoner Sedgwick into custody, and
on reading the warrant to him he said, " All right," and that
he would accompany them:
Sergeant Hayden, in reply to Mr. Giffard, said if time
were given he believed he should be able to produce addi-
tional evidence against the prisoners.
Upon that the Lord Mayor remanded the prisoners until
Friday, the 3d of February, and declined to entertain an
application to admit them to bail.

wharf to certify in writing to the extent of the property
burnt, and on the production of those certificates properly
signed the insurance offices on which the claims were made
paid as a matter of course. Claims to a very large amount
had been made in this particular case on various offices
under circumstances which would be put in evidence. It
was the custom among wharfingers to affix " tallies" of wood
or of starched calico to the different bales of commodities
on their premises to indicate the vessels by which they had
been brought, and in the manner in which the tallies had
been used and manipulated in this case lay the fraud of
which the prisoners were accused. Without suspecting
anything wrong the insurance offices on this occasion had
paid many thousands of pounds in satisfaction of claims
made upon thenl. One merchant alone had obtained £19,000
in respect of goods destroyed by the fire. Eventually a

of London, was present.

statement was made by a man named Fage to one of the
insurances offices, from which it appeared that a great
number of bales of jute had been returned to the various
offices as having been destroyed by the fire which, in fact,
were now in existence, and in order to avoid inquiry into
the matter the identity of the tallies had been destroyed in
some instances and false ones used in others, making it ap-

pear that certain commodities had come by the ship On
ward, which in point of fact had come by the City of Dub-
lin. That had been done with regard to jute to the amount
of several thousands of pounds, and very extensively with
respect to rice and other commodities. Inquiry would arise
as tomotive, and it might be suggested that suspicion might
arise that the prisoners' employers were mixed up in the
transactions. No doubt it was a serious thing, prima fade;
Messrs. Barry's names were signed to the warrants, stating
that certain goods had been destroyed, whereas they were
now in existence ; but it was right to say that evidence
would be adducedto show that the prisoners had been heard
conversing as to the devices by which the tallies had been
changed and the identity of the commodities destroyed.
The evidence, he thought, would leave no doubt on the
mind of the Lord Mayor that a great fraud had been com-
mitted by the prisoners, with what motive they alone could
tell. That was an outline of the case, and he believed in
the end the Lord Mayor would be of opinion that it had
been so far made out as to justify him in sending the pri-
soners before another tribunal.'
Mr. T. A. Roberts, 22, Throgmorton-street, said—l am
an auctioneer, valuer, and assessor of fire losses, and a mem-
ber of the firm of Brown and Roberts. A fire took place in
the month of November last at Meriton'e-wharf, Dockhead,
of which Messrs. Barry Brothers are the proprietors or oc-
cupiers. Several merchants had goods, as I am informed
and believe, warehoused there, which goods, or some of
them, were insured against fire in various insurance-offices
in London ; among others, in the Royal Exchange, the
Northern, the North British and Mercantile, the Royal, the
Liverpool and London, the Globe, the London Assurance,
the Queen, the Manchester, the Sun, the Imperial, and
others. Since the fire numerous claims have been made by
different merchants upon the offices named for large sums
of money, amounting to several thousand pounds, for goods
said to have been destroyed by it. Many of those claims
have been paid by the offices upon the delivery of war-
rants issued by Messrs. Barry Brothers, as titles to the
goods said to have been burnt; and after they had been
paid, a man named Josiah Page, a labourer, lately in the
employment of Messrs. Barry, gave information that cer-
tain frauds had been committed in respect of some of the
goods warehoused there. I went in consequence to Meri-
ton's-wharf, where I met Fage by appointment, and we saw
Mr. Alfred Barry, one of the firm of Barry Brothers. At
that interview Fage stated that there were about 350 bales
of jute which had arrived by the shiplOnwarcl, alpored in the
new warehouse from which he and others had torn off the
tallies. The front bales had new tallies, with "the City of
Dublin" on them, and if the stack were broken down we
should find the inside bales had no tallies on them at all.
200 bales, besides the 350, were delivered since the fire,
and there were 100 bags of rice of which Messrs. Barry had
given no account, but which were removed after the fire by
Mr. Alfred Barry's orders, by a man named Buckett from
No.lo "Extension" warehouse to No. 11, where they would
now be found, and that they were " bunce." The prisoner
Arnett admitted such was the case. Mr. Alfred Barry asked
what "bunco" meant. Fage said that Arnett knew that it
was " overs" for the firm. Arnett observed that he hkd
heard the word used. Fage said it was well known among
all the men. Fage also said that after the previous fire in
June there were 164 bales of jute by the Sebastian Cabot,
74 by the William Cole, and 10 by the Alameda put into a
barge called the Cat. Those, he said, were knocking about
in the dock about two months, and having been ultimately
stored in No. 45 warehouse were burnt in the November
fire, and the Barrys had given no account of them in the
burnt list. Fage challengedthe prisoner Arnett to deny this
statement. Arnett at first said it was false, and afterwards
admitted the jute was lying in the Cat, and was stored in
No. 45, as stated by Fage. Fage further said several times
that Arnett was not to blame, but the firm was. He also
said, with respect to the Onward, that Arnett told the men
when the tallies were being torn off, that Mr. John Barry
was very uneasy about the jute, and if it was known there
would be a "row" about it, or words to that effect. On
being challenged; Arnett said he might have used those
words, or some to that effect. Page said a man named Cal-
haen and the prisoner Sedgwick knew all that. When the
200 bales by the Onward were delivered, Sedgwick said, in
reply to a question by one of the men, " Oh ! never mind,
anything will do, as this completes the ship." On the 13th
Dec. last Mr. Albert Barry called at 22, Throgmorton-
street. I saw him in my room, and asked him who checked
the list of saved goods, and whether it was taken from the
stock in the warehouses. The reply was that Arnett, his
foreman, went through the warehouses and took the ac-
count, and Mr. Thorne, his bookkeeper, checked it. My
clerk, Edwin Radmall, and others, went through the pro-
perty remaining on the premises of Messrs. Barry, and
found upwards of 2,000 bales more than those represented
by Arnett and Thorne to have been saved.
Josiah Fage was called. He said—l am a labourer. I
live at No. 31, East-street, Bethnal-green, and was till lately
in the employment of Messrs. Barry Brothers, wharfingers,
Meriton's-wharf, Dockhead. I had been in their service
nearly two years up to Christmas last. I received notice to
quit about a week before Christmas in consequence of their
being slack. I did not go on the Tuesday after Christmas-
day, being indisposed, and at the end of that week I left.
One part of my duty was to take the weights of the bales on
their being landed and then to stow them away. I also
occasionally tallied jute on its being landed and weighed.
I tooli the landing weights of the bales of jute which ar-
rived by the ship Onward in the summer. I entered the
weights in the landing book and marked them on the tallies.
I saw a great number of the tallies afterwards put on the
bales, and the bales were then removed into the yard to be
stacked. I don't think any were removed until after the
fire, when I helped to break down 200 for delivery. That
was about a fortnight before Christmas. Burgess,
labourer, asked the prisoner Sedgwick if he should look
out any particular weights. Sedgwick went away and
came back in a few minutes saying "Take the bales as they
rise ; this 200 will finish the cargo, and the rest are for us."
About two or three days afterwards Calhaen received in-
structions from Sedgwick in my presence to take the tallies
off the bales of jute in the yard, and pointing to the stack
he told us to uncover it. Sedgwick had a bag with him,
which he put on a piece of timber and said "Put the tallies
in here carefully ; don't lose any of them, and when the
job's done we'll burn them." Calhaen and I did so and took
about 300 tallies off, which Calhaen put into the bag ..After
this, as the tallies were taken off, the bales were removed
by trucks into the new warehouse, and about a dozen men
were so employed. I think 210 were put in the bottom
floor and the remainder upstairs. I saw some of them
being stowed away. At the time the men were taking the
bales into the new warehouse I saw the prisoner Arnett
and Mr. Alfred Barry looking at them on the stack, and
later in the day I saw Mr. John Barry in the yard, close to
the bales, while we were picking up some that had fallen
down. I had never been employed to take the tallies off in
this way before. A man named Buckett tallied them on the
stack in the warehouse. I noticed the last day I was at.
Messrs. Barry's, which was the Friday after Christmas, that
fresh tallies had been put on the outside bales, marked
" City of Dublin," and the weights. I think the hand-
writing on the tallies was that of Martin, a labourer. I
went upstairs, and saw that the bales there were not tallied
in that way. Burgess asked me as I was coming down
what I had been doing there. I said, " Why do you ask ?"
He replied that Sedgwick had told him to do so. About
two or three weeks before Christmas Sedgwick gave me also
directions to shift some bales which had come by the
Botanist. There were 15 of them, and he told me to turn
them so as to put the tallies against the wall in order that

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, JANUARY 27, 1865.

The Builders' Discharge-Note.

A meeting of the carpenters and joiners in reference to
the withdrawal of the builders' discharge-note was held in

the Odd Fellows' Hall, Birmingham, on Wednesday night.

Therewas a large attendance ; Mr. Robert Applegarth,
secretary of the General Amalgamated Carpenters' Society,

The CHAIRMAN (Mr. John Oxford) said that since their
last meeting the discharge-note had been well considered by
all parties, and on the part of that society he could say that
after the close of the quarrel as little rancour would be left

as possible. That the men were in the right had been ad-
mitted. The masters had found out that they were in the
wrong, and it would have been better when they did so
had they frankly acknowledged it ; instead of which they
held a hole and corner meeting, and allowed nothing to
ooze out except that they would no longer insist on the
discharge-note. The masters had attempted to introduce
that in the winter which they would not have dared to do
in the summer ; but the men had resisted, and would

stand out until an honourable settlement of the dispute was
vouchsafed them by their employers. The masters having
come to a determination at their meeting last Friday ought
to have communicated with the men formally ; but they
had not done so. No special information whatever had
been givexi to the men. The press had taken up the case
of the men, from Printing-house-square to the smallest

paper in the country, and had assisted in bringing about
the issue in which the strike was likely to result. He hoped
that would not be a barren victory, but that the men would
form themselves into co-operative societies.
Mr. WALTER Jos moved—
" That the meeting approves and confirms the second
resolution passed at the meeting of carpenters and joiners

held on the 6th Dec., 1864—namely, ' That we, the car

penters and joiners of Birmingham, pledge ourselves not
to resume work until the master builders come to a perfect

understanding with our committee, pledging themselves to
withdraw the discharge-note, and not to introduce it at
any future time.' "
Mr. W. SAYER, in seconding the resolution, said he was
satisfied there was no intention to withdraw the discharge-

note unconditionally.
Mr. LAST, of Manchester, supported the resolution, and
advised the men not to take notice of the patronising arti-

des in the Times, that paper never having cordially taken
the part of the men. The conduct of the mastecs had been
overbearing and contemptuous towards the men.
Mr. ROBERT APPLEGARTIi said that he could not sup-
port the resolution. The strike had arisen (he said) out of
the announcement by the Master Builders' Association of
their intention to introduce a certain discharge-note.
The men, without waiting for its actual introduction, con-

ceived it to be their duty to strike. He differed at the time
as to the wisdom of that strike, as it enabled the opponents
of Trades' Unions to utter the slander that the only power
the working man could use was physical force. However,
the men having struck, it would have been madness, in view
of the object of it, if the men elsewhere had withheld their
support, seeing they were equally interested in the
defeat of a note so odious to every intelligent me-
chanic and decent working man. Although he did
not agree with the wisdom of it, he personally ren-
dered all the essistance he could to bring it to a suc-
cessful issue. Now, the resolution pledged them to re-
main out on strike until such time as a definite understand-
ing was arrived at between themselves and the masters.
Now, he questioned the wisdom of this, and he should op-
pose it for no other object than to bring out information
and argument in support of it, for he always dreaded when
men all pulled one way that they would fall into error.
He would remind them that it was against the introduction
of the note that they struck. It was because notice of the
discharge-note was posted in their various shops that the
men turned out. He was not aware that any official inti-
mation on the subject was sent to any society in Birming-
ham. There was simply the notices in shops and the an-
nouncement in the public papers. Now, as publicly as it
was announced that the discharge-note would be intro-
duced, so publicly was it announced last Saturday that it
would be withdrawn ; and he thought it was a serious
thing for that meeting to consider whether they were
justified in considering themselves entitled to, or whether
it was worth their while standing out for, an offi-
cial communication of that which was blazed all over
the country. He would ask, in the first place, if the men
had applied for an official communication.
The CHAIRMAN replied that they had called upon Mr.
Stinton several times, but had not been able to get an in-
terview with him.
Mr. APPLEGARTH said he was glad that application had
been made ; perhaps it would have been wise if the masters
had sent an official intimation to the men, but perhaps they
thought that as they did not send any official intimation of
the introduction of the note, they would not feel called upon
to send any official notice of its withdrawal. In preference
to passing the resolution that had been moved, he should
suggest that a deputation should be appointed from
that meeting to wait upon the general body of employers,
to ask if they were prepared to withdraw the
discharge-note, and give them official notification
of the same. He did not see the force of passing
the resolution. He told • them honestly that if ho
had been in the Birmingham strike, he should have felt it
his duty to place himself at his bench side on Monday
morning last. (Groans and hisses.) He had studied the
question as well as those who hissed, and he thought he
understood it as well. He thought the meeting ought not
to pledge themselves to continue on strike, but rather ap-
point a deputation to ascertain from the masters whether
they intended to withdraw the discharge-note and not to
introduce it at any future time. In reference to the code
of rules proposed to be drawn up, he did not believe the
country would support them if they stood out while that
was being done.
Mr. LAST urged the meeting to pass the resolution, as
did also Mr. SAYER, who said it had been published in the
papers that the note had been withdrawn ; but no commu-
nication had been made to the men—indeed, the resolution
of the masters did not say it was withdrawn, it said "with
the view of withdrawing the note."
Mr. MAYES asked why the masters had not posted a no-
tice in the shops to the effect that the note had been with-
drawn absolutely.
After some further discussion, the resolution was put
and carried, one hand only being held up against it.
Mr. G. DALTON moved the following resolution, which
was carried unanimously—" That we take this opportunity
of returning thanks to our fellow workmen and the public
generally for the support they have hitherto rendered us,
and to the press for the very impartial manner in which
they have discussed the merits and demerits of the dis-
charge-note."
The following resolutions were also passed—" That the
meeting considers it is the imperative duty of the ope-
ratives of England, and especially of the building trade,
to avail themselves of the great benefits resulting from
combination in trades' unions and co-operation." And
That with the view of testing the sincerity of the an-
nouncement which has been published in the daily papers,
as to the withdrawal of the discharge-note, a deputation of
two or more be appointed from the meetings to wait upon
the Master Builders' Association, and that Mr. Stinton be
written to as to when he would meet such deputation."
A deputation consisting of three of those present was ap-
pointed.