The Sun.
London, England, 1853-03-02 00:00:00

FORGERY.

'Killian Henry King, 50, Thomas Wyatt, 35, and
Charles Hildebrand, 69, carver, surrendered to take their
trial on an indictment charging them with forging and
uttering a certain deed, purporting to be an assignment
of a judgment debt of 5661. 55., with intent to defraud
Mr. J. Jackson Lee, an attorney.
Mr. Ballantine and Mr. Metcalf conducted the prose-
cution, and Mr. Parry and Mr. Repton defended the
prisoners.

On the application of Mr. Ballantine a verdict of ac-
quittal was recorded as to Hildebrant, in order to enable
him to be examined as a witness on behalf of the prose-

cution.

Tt appeared from the opening address of Mr. Ballantine,
that King called himself a clerk to Mr. Lewis, a solicitor at
Barnard's-inn, Holborn, but virtually carried on business
as an attorney for himself, Mr. Lewis, who was a regu-
larly admitted attorney, living in the country, having
merely allowed him to use his name, that being a prac-
tice which was not uncommon in the profession. Wyatt
was a kind of clerk or companion to King. In 1846,
Mr. Lee, the prosecutor, hearing that Mr. Lewis had a
deed to dispose of, entered into communication with him
upon the subject, and at length called at the office at
Barnard's-inn, where he saw King, who represented
himself as the managing clerk of Mr. Lewis, and who
told him that a person named Gibbons, residing in
Piccadilly, had a judgment debt for 566/. ss. against
Lord Geo. Loftus, the son of the Marquis of Ely, and
that if he (the prosecutor) was disposed to pur-
chase it, he would get Gibbons to make it
over to him by a regular assignment. Though the
judgment debt was for so large a sum, it was
comparatively of little value to• those who dealt in such
securities, as Lord George Loftus was in very embar-
rassed circumstances, and as the prospect of obtaining
the payment of the money was somewhat distant. Mr.
Lee only offered, therefore, the sum of 701. This was
accepted, and the debt was made over to Mr. Lee by a
formal instrument, which purported to bear the signa-
ture of Mr. Gibbons, who was said to carry on the
business of a carver and gilder in Piccadilly, the pur-
chase money being handed over to King by Mr. Lee, in
three separate instalments of 50/., 10/., and 10/. No
suspicion as to the genuineness of the document entered
Mr. Lee's mind until about 6 months' ago, when he made
inquiries both personally and in the newspapers respect-
ing Mr. Gibbons, but could find no trace of him, and it
turned out that he was entirely a fictitious person.
Hildebrand would prove that King requested him to at-
tach his signature to the deed, and that when he was
about to sign his own name, he told him to write the
name of Gibbons, which he consented to do. It would
be seen further that, in order to make the transaction
appear a genuine one, King had entered Hildebrand in
his diary as if he were a Mr. Gibbons.
At the conclusion of the evidence for the prosecution
Mr. Parry addressed the jury for the prisoner King,
and Mr. Ribton for Wyatt.
The learned Judge having summed up,
The jury, after consulting for some minutes, returned
a verdict of not guilty against both prisoners.

RAILWAY PASSENGERS' ASSURANCE COM.

PANY-(THIS DAY).

The seventh half-yearly meeting of this company was
held to-day, at their offices, Old Broad-street ; Sir John
Dean Paul, chairman. After the usual preliminary pro-
ceedings, the report was handed to the shareholders.
It set forth that the total amount received for premiums
during the half-year was 4,356/. 4s. 5d., and the entire
income for the year 1852 7,422/. 12s. 6d. against 7,352/.
18s. for 1851. The latter sum included, however,
5491. 17s. 6d, for insurance of railway servants,
which had not been renewed, and which should be
deducted in order to estimate the actuaul increase
of business from passengers during the past year.
The business since the close of the year, bore a fa-
vorable comparison with the similar period in -1852,
shewing an increase of 2041. 4s. 3d. on the seven weeks
of the present year over that of last year, exclusive of
the term and life policies, the premiums on which are
285/., and warrants the belief, that notwith-
standing the numerous difficulties the company has
had to contend with during its progress, it is
now firmly grounded in public estimation, and
its sphere of usefulness will continue to be enlarged.
The directors had great pleasure in stating that the di-
rectors of the London and South-Western Railway have
consented to the company's tickets being issued at their
stations, whereby a new and extended field is opened,
from which they have hitherto been excluded. The
chairman moved the adoption of the report. The direc-
tors who retired on this occasion were G. 33. Harrison,
Esq. ; J. Clay, Esq., M.P. ; and the Hon. A. Kinnaird,
M.P., who being eligible, offered themselves for re-
election, and on the motion of Mr. Beattie were re-
elected. The auditors T. C. Bates, Esq., and A. Scrut-
ton, Esq. also retired from office at this meeting, and
were re-elected nem. con. After a vote of thanks to the
chairman, the meeting then separated.

REPRESENTATION OF BLACKBURN.—Mr. Eccles hav-
ing been unseated, Mr. W. llornby is spoken of con-
fidently in the Tory interest, and Lord Duncan and Mr.
Fielder (son of the late Sir W. Fielden) are mentioned
as likely to offer in the Liberal interest.
THE GREAT EXHIBITION OF 1851.—The following five
members of her Majesty's Government have been elected
ex officio members of the Royal Commission for the Ex-
hibition of 1851, in pursuance of the charter giving it
powers to carry out the surplus scheme :—The President
of the Council, the First Lord of the Treasury, the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer, the President of the Board of
Trade, and the First Commissioner of Works. Mr. Dis-
raeli has also been elected a member of the Commission.
SUSPICIOUS DEATH IN THE STREET.—Yesterday
morning, between one and two o'clock, the dead body of
a gentleman was found lying on the pavement in the
Waterloo-road. The deceased a fine-looking man, about
60 years of age, was seen by the police on duty to enter
a coffee-shop in the Waterloo-road, with two well-known

girls of the town, appearing perfectly sober. They saw
no more of him until -two o'clock, when one of the
policemen found his body near the end of Tower-street.
A stretcher being obtained the body was conveyed to
the Tower-street police station. A messenger was im-
mediately despatched to the divisional surgeon, and his
assistant immediately attended, who, upon examining
the gentleman, pronounced him to be quite dead. Upon
searching him they found in his pockets a bunch of keys,
upon the ring of which the following was engraved :
—" T. P., 19, Trinity-square, Borough. Reward 10s."
This inscription was the means of enabling the police to
trace the friends of the deceased gentleman, and from
them it was learned that he had left home with a sum of
money, a gold watch, and other articles of value in his
possession. His watch-guard remained, but the gold
watch had disappeared, and the swivel by which it had
been attached appeared to have been cut or broken. No
money whatever was found upon him, but he still had a
gold pencil-case and an eye-glass, and a diamond ring
and a plain gold ring remained upon his fingers. He
was removed to St. George's Workhouse, in Mint-
street, Borough, and subsequently information was given
to Mr. Payne, the coroner, who ordered Mr. Odling of
Guy's Hospital, to make a post-mortem examination and
analysis of the contents of the stomach.
THE EARLDOM OF OXFORD.—The following is so re-
markable a coincidence that I am sure many of your
readers will be obliged to me for bringing it under your
notice, particularly those who are interested in heraldry.
The same individual who had been for many years the
nearest male heir to Aubrey de Vere, twentieth and last.
Earl of Oxford of that family, who died in 1702, has
become by the recent death of Alfred, sixth Earl of Ox-
ford, and Mortimer, the nearest heir male to that race
also—which title islikewise extinct. Notes and Queries.
CALIFORNIA.—Francisco papers to the 15th of January,
possess a painful interest. Famine had done its fell
work within the snow-beleagured gorges of the moun-
tains, and some of the miners had absolutely died of star-
vation. The destitution was not confined to solitary and
scattered instances, but it seems to have effected en-
tire communities, situated in remote districts, which
had been rendered almost inaccessible from a number

of causes, the principal of which was the inundation of
the roads and the destruction of bridges by the immense
floods. Each flood on its arrival at the port of San Fran-
cisco, presented a bill of mortality that was truly alarming.
On the passage of the steam-ship Cortes from Panama
to San Francisco, no less than 27 of her passengers were
consigned to the rolling waters of the Pacific, all of
whom died from dysentery and fever, diseases which
were engendered in the transit across the isthmus. On
the steamer S. S. Lewis, eleven deaths occurred ; on the
steamer Panama, there were eight deaths ; and on the
California, five ; besides four on the Winfield Scott, and
a number on sailing vessels.
THE LORD RECTORSHIP OF MARISCHAL COLLEGE,
ABERDEEN.—In consequence of the Right Honourable
Benjamin Disraeli not having intimated his willingness
to attend in person, for the purpose of installation, his
name has been withdrawn from the list of nomination,
and that of the Earl of Mansfield has been inserted in-
stead. The Earl of Carlisle is, however, the favourite
candidate, and it is expected that he will win the
election by a sweeping majority. The election, which
the other morningjournals represent to be already over,
takes place this day (Tuesday), Ist of March.
DREADFUL SUICIDE AND ATTEMPT AT MURDER.—A
most painful state of excitement has been produced in
Canterbury, in consequence of a man, named George
Worsley, a millwright by trade, having made an attempt
upon the life of his wife, and then committing suicide by
cutting his throat nearly from ear to ear. It appears
from what we have been able to learn that the deceased

has evinced a slight aberration of mind for some days
past, but that he retired to rest with his wife on Sunday
evening apparently much better than he had been.
Nothing particular occurred until shortly after five
o'clock yesterday morning, when the wife of the un-
fortunate man was awoke by his attempting to cut her
throat with a razor ; she immediately cried out, "Oh,
dear George, what are you doing of;" and, rushing out
of the room, ran to the house of a neighbour of the
name of Nott, the blood at the same time streaming
profusely from the extensive gash made in her neck.
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man was lying a corpse surrounded by his own blood,
having nearly severed his head from his body.