The Sun.
London, England, 1840-12-18 00:00:00

LAW INTELLIGENCE.

COURT OF COMMON PLEAS, DEC. 17.
THOMPSON V. LEWIS.

The trial of this issue, which occupied the whole of
Wednesday, was resumed at the sitting of the Court,
and the case for the plaintiff was not concluded until
two o'clock. The plaintiff claimed to be the real owner
of two horses, which were seized and sold by the Sheriff
of Middlesex, under an execution at the suit of the de-
fendant against a person named Holding. The princi-
pal evidence in support of this claim was William Hold-
ing himself, who stated that he had formerly been a
wine merchant, and resided at No. 60, Quadrant, Re-
gent-street. Immediately after the death of .his mother,
who owned the house No. 26, Connaught-terrace, he
gave up business, and since that time resided in diffe-
rent parts of the counties of Kent and Surrey. His
family consisted of a Miss Atkinson, the step-daughter
of his brother, his son (a little boy), and the plaintiff,
who was a young gentlemen about twenty-five years of
age, the son o a coachrnaker in Long Acre. He
had taken Thompson under his care, in cense-
quence of that gentleman's having had unfortunate
differences with his father. Of the six horses that
were seized, only two (an old chaise-horse and his boy's
pony) belonged to him. Of the others, two belonged
to the plaintiff, and two to Miss Atkinson. The young
lady had plenty of money. Witness's mother gave her
3001. as a present a couple of days before her death ;
and her own mother often sent her a good deal of money.
Miss A.'s mother travelled about the country teaching
ladies to model flowers in wax, and it was out of the
money she remitted to her daughter the horses were
bought. In his cross-examination Holding said that he
had formerly been connected in business with Probert,
the wine-merchant, who was hanged for horse.stealing,
and who had been the associate of Thurtell and Hunt.
Witeess occupied Gas-hill cottage, near which the
murder of Mr. Wee::: tee! .•erpetrated, before it came
into Probert's possession. Tile house of witness in the
Quadrant was a club-house. h was a gaming-lieuse, and
the defendant bad been his partner in it. He denied
that Thompson was anything more than his servant in
that establishment. Thompson ens not the bonnet, that
was a gentleman who received 2/. a-week and drank his
wine, for the purpose of inducing pigeons to play.
Witie•iss would Dot swear that ha had not been
ten times a prisoner in the King's Bench. He
had been a prisoner in the Fleet, and in White-
cross-street. Ha was a bankrupt in 1816, and
again ia 1822. Tiic Commissioners committed him to
Newgate, where he remained twelve mouths, until he
satisfied his creditors, and suspended the commission.
Ha subsequently took steps to pass through the lose!.
rant Debtors' Caurt, and he paint.° his schedule ail the
debts that had been incurred for thoroughly furnishing-
the house in Connaught-terrace, and idea debts to a
considerable amount contracted with brewers, bakers,
butchers, &e., in his name, although the house was his
mother's, net his, and he never resided there. In say-
ing that, be meant he never slept there, nor kept his
clothes in it. His mother, before his death, made over
the Ileum and furniture to his little bey, and Miss
Atkinson had the letting of it. Witness had nothing
to do with it. Mr. Thoinion and Miss A. resitlea with
him at Beckenham, Redhurn, and Langley Firs, at
which latter place their horses were seized. He him-
self went by the name of Atkins, and Thompson was
ended Mr. Alexander. In the course of the very se-
vere cross-examination by Mr. Huinfrey, which excited
repeated burst's of lat,;hter, and seine manifestations of
indignation, Helding admitted that he left unpaid seve-
ral bills for the keep of the horses in question, which
were incurred in his assumed name of Atkins.
For the defence, a horse-dealer, named William Mil-
ton, stated that the horses claimed by the plaintiff (and
by Miss Atkinson, in another suit). were bought by
Holding, Miss A. and the plaintiff having no money or
property of their own, whilst they lived with Holding.
The horses were bought by that person from him ; and
in the course of January last, shortly before the seizure,
fielding, in the presence of the plaintiff, induced him
to destroy the receipts for the several payments, and
draw others, substituting the names of Miss A. and
plaintiff for his (Holding's) name, to frustrate Lewis, if
he should enforce the execution.

Several witnesses proved that the horses were always
considered • to be the property of Golding, who bad
been heard to give orders that Thompson, who seemed
to be a dependent of his, should not be allowed to ride
the horses. Other witnesses swore that Lewis never
had any connection with the gambling-house, and that
Gelding acknowledged that he stated Lewis to have
been his partner, only to put down Mr. Humfrey.—
(Laughter.)
Mr. Sergeant HALCOMBE replied at considerable
length, and the Learned Judge having summed up, the
jury, after ten minutes, deliberation, found for the plain-
tiff, that he had proved his ownership of the two horses
which he claimed.

COURT OF BANKRUPTCY, DEC. 17.
(Before Mr. Commissioner HOLROYD.)
IN RE WRIGHT AND COMPANY.S BANKRUPTCY.

In consequence of the former fiat issued in this case
having been set aside by the Court of Review, with .the
sanction of the Lord Chancellor, a new fiat was to-day
opened before the Learned Commissioner, by Messrs.
Dyneley and Coverdale, solicitors, of Bedford-row.
The firm of the Messrs. Wright and Co. are des-
cribed in the fiat with the following particularlity as
" Anthony George Wright Biddulph, John Wright,
Henry Robinson, and Edmund William Jerningham, all
now or late of No. 6, Henrietta-street, in the parish of
St. Paul, Covent-garden, .in the county of Middlesex,
bihkers, dealers, and chapmen, carrying on the trade or
business:of bankers in co-partnership together, at No. 6,
Henrietta-street aforesaid, under the firm Wright and
Company."
The petitioning creditor is Edward Martin Foshan,
of Na. 18, South Audiey-street, in the parish of St.
George, Hanover-square, architect, and Mr. Edward
Edwards is continued as the official assignee.

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT.

OLD COURT.

FORGING RUSSIAN BANK-NOTE-S.—Paul Mazeauz,
44, )George Ramuz, 41, described as painters, and Jules
Rault, described as a merchant, 32, were indicted for
feloniously making and engraving a plate, bearing the
characters of a note of the Commercial Bank of Russia,
for the payment of 25 rubles.
Mr. Piatt, Mr. Bodkin, and Mr. Duane, appeared
for the proseoution, and the prisoners were defended
respectively by Mr. Phillips, Mr. Clirkson, and Mr.
Chambers.

Mr. PLATT stated the case on the part of the prose-
cution, and called the following witnesses :
Henry Salt deposed that he was an engraver, and
knew the prisoners Ramuz and Mazeauz. These pri-
soners carried on the business of lithographers in
Church-street, Soho, and he had engraved several ar-
ticles for them. On the 91.11 of August, the prisoner,
Mazeauz, came to him, and produced two pieces of
paper, with printing on them, and asked him if he
could engrave a plate to correspond with them. Witness
looked at the paper, and seeing a water-mark
upo • it, he told him that this would occasion
n
some difficulty, and the prisoner said that the party who
wanted the engraving would find the paper. Witness
conferred with a person named Gould, who was in his
employ, and he then told the prisoner that he would un-
dertake the engraving ; and the prisoner said that the
price was no object, and went away and left the papers.
Witness on the same day made a communication to a
Mr. Smart, a refiner in Prince's-street, and, in conse-
quence of what there took place, he went to the Rus-
sian Consul, and informed him of all that had occurred.
The witness then went on to state that after this he had
several interviews with Ramuz and Mazeauz, and re-
ceived money from them ; and he went on engraving the
plate, and gave them upon one occasion a rough impres-
sion of the plate, and he saw Mazeauz transfer the im-
pression to a lithographic stone. He also stased
that Ramuz told him that they did not wish it
to be known, but that the papers to be
produced from the plate were to represent
real money, and he also said that this real money had
been taken from a drawer, and the other was to be put
in its place. Upon on© occasion Mazeauz told him that
the person for whom the plate was heing en raced was
in hit parlour, and he watched and saw the prisoner
Itault come out of the how° a short time after,vards.
The witness then detailed the several proceedings that
had taken place in reference to the delivery of the plates
to the prisoners Itzmuz arid Mazeauz, and he also
proved that Rank was frequently in their employ.
Cro.is-examined—Had done other jobs for he priso-
ners about the same time. He had engraved card and
door-plates for them in the way of their business. The
prisoners said all along that they were employed by an-
other person to get the plate engraved, but he did not
ask who that person was, as ho did net think it was
any part of his business to do so. ile suspected that
he bud undertaken an improper job, but still he did not