The Sun.
London, England, 1849-03-24 00:00:00

THE MAIL ROBBERY ON THE GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY.

.--- -
Henry Pool and Edward Nightingale were placed at
the bar charged with having feloniously stolen twelve
post-letters (containing various articles), the property of
the Postmaster-Generalott St. Thomas's, in this county.
In other counts the robbery was laid to have been com-
mitted in Somersetshire.
Mr. Rogers, Q.C., and Mr. Poulden, prosecuted; Mr.
Cockburn, Q.C., Mr. Stone, with whon was Mr. Collier,
defended the prisoners.
This case created the greatest interest, and the court
was crowded to excess.

'lt appeared by the, evidence that on the night of the
Ist of January last, the mail• bags for the west were dis-
patched from the Post-office' • St: Martin's-le-Grand,
London, in the usual manner, under the care of a guard
called Leonard Barrett, to the Paddington station of the
Great Western Railway, to be disratched by the mail
train. They were then placed in the mail tender. It
was the custom for the guard to remain in the mail ten-
der with the mail-bags until the train arrived at Bristol,
where a carriage is attached to the train called a tra-
velling post-office, to enable the letters going further went
to be sorted, the west mail being carried by the railway
as tar as Laira-green, near Plymouth. Two clerks of
the Post-office always went down by this travelling
post-office to tort the letters, and they were also as-
sisted by the guard of the mail, who left the tender
at Bristol and went down by the travelling post-
office on the night in question. The train arrived at
Bristol in due time, all safe, and on the guard leav-
ing the mail tender all the bags were safe.
He gave the Bristol bags to the Post-office porter, and
put them into the tender, and
arranged them; and then, as was his duty, went into,
the travelling post-office. He was there joined by the,
received the down bags,
two Post-office clerks, whose duty it was to sort the
letters in the travelling post-office, whose names were
Silk and Bircham. When he got into the travelling
post-office he was informed by the clerks that a robbery'
had been effected of the mail bags of the up-mail train
from Exeter. Barrett upon this was anxious about his
bags, and again went into the tender, and found all safe.
He returned to the travelling post-office, and the train
backed out of the station where it arrives, and was run
down to the station from whence the express trains start
and from which, also, to save time, the mail trains start;
At this platform the two prisoners, Pool and Nightin-
gale, got into the train.. The train when it started con-,
sisted of the engine and tender, then two second-class
carriages, then the travelling post-offices; next to thii
was the Post-office tender carriage, and then one
first-class carriage, containing four compartments;
two of which were divided in the middle
by doors with windows in
.th. em, the othet
luggage van. When
.the prisoners
Iwo compartments being undivided. The only,
other carriage was a
Come, gentlemen, get inp•
got into the train they looked into the different cord-
got into a compartment whicb
partments, and the train being about to start, the guard
named Andrews, a solicitor at
(wRe ycnahne,
cant
r t)
stay;s I d
and to
them,th they
was divided. In the compartment nearest to the plat:-
Modbury. The prisoners passed through this first divi-
sion of the compartment, and went into the inner divi-
sion. They shut the door, and pulled. down the blind. At
this time Mr. Andrews observed a piece of string clinging
to the foot of one of them, and part of it removed in the
division in which Mr. Andrews was. He picked it u*,and pulled off the piece which remained in his division
of the compartment. The train started, and did
not stop, as is the custom with the night mail train,
until it arrived at Bridgewater. Barrett, the mall
guard, then went into the mail tender, and imme-
diately discovered that some of the mail bags
bad been disturbed and opened, the strings with which
they had been tied cut, and the seals broken. They
had been tied up again, but not resealed. On making
this discovery, Barrett immediately communicated the
fact to the two clerks, Silk and Bircham. They then
communicated with the two guards of the train, Ryii-
heart and Thomas, and also
the policeman at Bridga-
water. Inquiry
was immediately instituted, and no one
allowed to leave the carriages, which were watched of
both sides. The carriages were then examined. In tbe
first compartment of the first-class carriage only one
gentleman was found; in the next there were Mr. Bar-
low, a director of the Great Western Railway, and also
Mr. Hennet, the contractor. They were known to the
guard. He informed them what had happened, and
• they came out. In the third compartment persons were
heard talking, the blind being down, and it must be
here mentioned that the train stops at the contrary side
of the line to that which it does at Bristol—both
the up and down train running into stations on the
same side of the line, but a little distande
from each other, there being a crossing from
the down line ; consequently, the division into
which the prisoners bad got was nearest to the platform
although it had been the farthest at Bristol. On the'
door being opened twoi persons were found in the divi-
sion. The guard insisted on all the persons in the car-
riages being searched, and he entered into the compart-
ment where these persons were, one of them was dressed
in a large cloak with a Jim Crow hat on, and a hand-
kerchief up to his face, and this person was lying curled
up with his head to the platform. The other had a