The Sun.
London, England, 1856-02-23 00:00:00

To be published Feb. 21d,

WYLD'S TREATY MAP, showing . the
Territorial Limits of Russia, ..Turkey, and the .differe,nt
States of the World, with the Boundaries according to the various
Treaties, including an Enlarged Map of the Boundaries proposed at
the Conference at Par.s: with Tables of the Dates of the Treaties,
Acquisitions, &c. In sheet, 33. ;in case, ss.
James Wyld, Geographer to the Queen, Chafing-cross East, next
door to the Post-office, and 2, Royal Exchange.

MR. JOHN
_SADLEIR, ALP.-THE LATE

ASTOUNDING bISCLOSUR,ES.

(From the Morning Advertiser.)
We have this day to announce the most startling facts
which ever perhaps appeared relative to the extent of
frauds and forgeries committed by one individual. We,
ourselves, have no recollection of ever having heard or
read of anything, in the form of frauds and forgeries,
which could be at all compared with those which we are
about to specify as having boen committed by the late
Mr. John Sadleir. As yet, the full extent to which the
practice has been carried by the late member for Sligo,
has not been ascertained ; but there is every reason to
believe that when all is known, it will be found that the
amount of the frauds and forgeries of which he has been
guilty will not he much under 1,000,000/.
First of all, it has already been ascertained, beyond
all question, that Mr. Saneir had forged no fewer than
50,000 Royal Swedish Railway Company's shares and
obligations, for 51. each,--on which large sums of money
were raised. This forgery alone is to the nominal sum
of 250,0001.—0n1y it is net yet known what amount Le
was able to raise on the shares and obligations.
In addition to these forgeries, there are forgeries of
several deeds and mortgages of estates in Ireland. As
regards these, however, the extent is not yet known.
But perhaps the boldest and most daring forgeries of
all, are those which relate to deeds for the purchase of
property in the Encumbered Estates Court of Ireland.
These forged deeds purport to bear the signatures of the
Commissioners, the Regiserar, the Chief Clerk, the soli-
citors in the various causes, and the Commissioners' seal.
The extent to which this awes of forgeries has been com-
mitted, may be inferred from the fact, that the stamp
duty alone on the deeds amounted to several hundreds of
pounds.
A considerable number of forgeries on private indi-
viduals also have already been discovered, and there is
every reason to believe that others yet remain to be
ascertained. Those which have been detected are sup-
po-ed to amount to nearly 100,000/.
In addition to the classes of forgeries already enume-
rated, Mr. Sadleir has been guilty of the assignment o
deeds held in trust by him, to an enormous amount.
The drafts of all the forged deeds and mortgages are
in Mr. Sadleir's own handwriting. The forgeries of sig-
natures are in every case remarkably successful. 'Those
of the Encumbered Estates' Commissioners are said to be
so perfect that the most experienced eye could • not de-
tect the forged deeds from the ,genuine.
The act of selfelestruction was, it is believed, preci-
pitated by the circumstance of one of the holders of deeds
relative to the purchase of one of the encumbered estates,
who had advanced 10,0001. to M. -Futaleir, having on
Saturday last gone over to Ireland with his solicitor, for
the purpose of having the deed registered. Mr. Sadleir
endeavoured to frustrate the intention of the party, but
failed. Hence, it is presumed, the commission of suicide
at the particular time it took place—longer concealment
of his ciiines being seen to be impossible.
On Saturday afternoon, at five o'clock, Mr. Sadleir
met a large speculator in the City, as lie was in the act
of starting for home. He shook his City friend cordially
by the band, and said to him cheerfully, on parting,
" Good bye ; I am going to make a long journey, and
we may not meet for some time."
The consternation iu City circles, where further ap-
palling disclosures of Mr. Sadleir's unparalleled misdeeds
are looked for every hour, is described as being intense.
On the Continent, too, where his transactions were to
an enormous extent, greater alarm prevails. It is sup-
posed that frightful as is the amount of his frauds and
forgeries already ascertained a very small portion only of
them has yet been discovered. He points to this him-
self, in a letter which he is supposed to have written
immediately before leaving Gloucester-square for Hamp-
stead-heath, where he put an end to his existence. In
that letter—the last which ho wrote—he declares that,
without the knowledge of any human being, unaided
and unassisted, he committed the most diabolical crimes
of which it was possible to be guilty—that these crimes
must now be discovered, and as they would involve the
ruin of hundreds of innocent families, had preferred to
die rather than witness the sufferings which they must
endure.
The crime of suicide must have been contemplated by
Mr. Sadleir some time before he committed the act ; for
lie had purchased " Taylor on Poisoning," a large thick
volume, and bad evidently read it through until be came
to the chapter on the " Essentisl Oil of Bitter Almonds,
when he turned down the page, as if lie had made .up
his mind that that was the means to which he would
resort for putting an end to his existence. Every one
knows that it was by a large draught of the essential oil
of bitter almonds that he did commit self-destruction.
We repeat that, in the history of the world, there is
no case on record in which frauds and forgeries have
been committed to the same extent as in that of the late
Mr. Sadleir. Those of Sir John Paul, Strahan, and
Bates, are not only much smaller in amount, but they
are tame compared with his. No ingenuity or manage-
ment was required in their frauds compared with what
were necessary in his. Though large in amount, they
were common-place in character. Here we have a com-
bination of criminality, boldness, inger.uity, versatiity,
and tact, such as the world never before wit, e sed. If
anything could be ;more wonderful than the fact that
fraud and forgery should have been going on, on this
enormous scale, for years, without being detected, it
would be the other fact, that a man could be found who
could eat, drink, seep, and mix in society, just as if
nothing were the matter, with so frightful an amount of
guilt weighing on his mind, which was sure, sooner or
later, to be discovered, and which might be 83 at any
moment,—bringing,' when detected, disgrace and a
felon's doom on himself, and absolute lain and wretch-
edness on hundreds of innocent families.