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London, England, 1856-11-19 00:00:00

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TUESDAY NIG/T.
As time advancss, and as fresh opportunities pre-
sent themselves for inquiry, it becomes more and
more astonishing how a man who had gone through
such an extraordinary career during the years pre-
vious to his appointment as a clerk in the Great
INorthern Railway could have had so much trust
reposed in him, and been advanced to a position
for which the strictest integrity and the most irre-
proachable life should have been indispensable con-
uitions. In the various positions be has occupied
during the last years there seems to have been
no inquiries into his conduct by those who have
relied upon him, and the consequence has been
that he has forced himself on from bad to worse
until he has crowned all by a series of gigantic
frauds which find few parallels in the comwercia 1
history of the country.
When the Peninsular and Oriental Company was
nMder. srNo Vni,ictohxe present chairman
, M.P. for South-
ampton,arynsdtalrp. promoters,
Company. In this service
A Palace started, it being then rather a private concern than
a public company, Redpath was engaged as a clerk
ohfy theit
Crystal
particular is remembered of him, nor is it
ute that he
known exactly under what circumstances he left
the Messrs. Willcox and Anderson's employment. Before he ceased that connexion he obtained an in-
troduction to Mr, T. F x,- the extensive and well-
sktureoewtnNlVipit}
was a highly respectable and honourable young man,
and that he was about to marry the daughter of
oilns er
to e rand
whom e sitta
wasteag ie.eup ,
e r rsq Bishopsgate-
e'
one of the directors of the company in which he
was a clerk. There is every reason to believe that
this was a false representation, inasmuch as it may
be supposed that if he had formed such an alliance
lie would never have been reduced to the state of
poverty which marked the next few years of his
eventful and chequered life. Upon his introduc-
tion to Mr. Fox, Redpath informed him that in
anticipation of his marriage he had taken a house in
Dartmouth-terrace, a row of somewhat quiet but
still fashionable houses, on the main road leading
from Deptford on to Blackheath-hill. After NOM
little hesitation Mr. Fox supplied him with furni-
ture to the amount of between 5001. and GOO/.
Redpath was soon afterwards married, it is thought
to a ;person in humble circumstances, and he then
left his employment and started in business as a
ship insurance broker, and transacted business
generally as a steam navy agent for the sale of
shares, &c. This business he carried on at 44,
Lime-street, City. Meanwhile he lived in good
style at his suburban residence at Blackheath, and
seems there to have first entered upon that appa-
rently religious and charitable course with which,
up to the time of his capture, he was so intimately
identified. The time which he could spare from
his commercial pursuits he devoted to the advocacy
of the claims of charitable institutions, to the dis-
tribution of religious tracts and to other objects of
a kindred character, which soon ra.ioed him in the
estimation of his neighbours, by whom he was re-
garded as a most exemplary person. This delusion
tie successfully maintained by contributions of a

[-PRICE 4D. STAMPED SD•

T,llO ELACTION OF MR. BUCHANAN.

(Prom the Times.)
There is one assurance in the long and able letter
of our Pennsylvanian correspondent of Saturday
last which we should receive.with the most extreme
satisfaction were it not overthrown by the commen-
tary which he appends to it. Mr. Buchanan, as
President, he 'tells us, will not only be superior to
Mr. Pierce, .bist must not be. measured by the
standard of ,the Ostend manifesto. We desire
most earnestly.to believe this. It is our wish that
America- should have for her chief magistrate a
man in every way calculated to secure the respect
and promote the best interests of the community
over which he presides, and nothing could more
disentitle bins to that respect, or more entirely
compromise those interests, than an adherence
to those doctrines of the supremacy of might
over right, and of the justification of violence by
an arbitrarily assumed political necessity, of which
Mr. Buchanan has unhappily made himself the ex-
positor. But when we seek for proofs in support
of these flattering assertions they are entirely ,
wanting, We are told that Mr. Buchanan settled
all questions between the English and American
Governments during his residence as ambassador
here, and that he cannot choose his Ministry ex-
clusively from the South. The first assertion is
rather rasiily hazarded, when we remember that
not only did Mr. Buchanan not settle the Central
American and enlistment questions, but that he
kept them alive, and omitted in one instance to
transmit to his Government the offer of mediation
distinctly made to him by Lord Clarendon. As
for his Administration, we agree that it is not likely
that it will all be formed from the South, but that
is of little moment to us if it be formed, as it is sure
to be, of men who, whether Southern or .Northern,
are pledged to the extension of slavery and &vet d
to the policy of annexation. Those slaves, says an
American political satirist, that the South make
the most out of are all north of Mason and Dixon's
line. Mr. Buchanan's principal adviser will pro
hably be Judge Douglas, senator for the Northern
State of Illinois, the repealer of the Missouri Com-
promise, and the ablest and most unscrupulous
advocate of slavery extension. The South has
never been without obsequious admirers in the
North, ready, after having made a reputation by
denouncing slavery, to employ the reputation so
made in its support, and to employ against the
interests of those who raised them to power the
very power which they owe to them. Such men
are known to America, from the flexibility of their
political countenance, by the homely but expressive
name of " Doughfaces ;" and it matters little, so
far as the interests of freedom within and tranquil-
lity without the State are concerned, whether the
now President's Cabinet be filled by Southern
men such as Jefferson Davis and Senator Toombs
or by Northern Doughfaces, only too happy to be
employed as their obsequious and unscrupulous
agents. .
We do not derive much comfort, therefore, from
the assurance of our correspondent that Mr.
Buchanan's Cabinet will not be exclusively South-
ern, still less from the fear which he expresses that
slavery will be extended, that Fillibusterism will
be feebly resisted, and that there will be a want of
respect for foreign rights and political ethics. This
is just what Mr. Buchanan's previous career would
lead us to apprehend, and these are strange rea-
sons why we should form of his Administration
better hopes than of that of Mr. Pierce. Nor are
we much reassured by being told that Cuba will
probably be annexed, but must be purchased, like
Louisiana, for we fear this same " must" expresses
a moral, and not a physical necessity—a species of
sanction which has no binding force at all to men
wanting in respect for foreign rights and careless
of political ethics.
Passing over, then, the remarks of our cor-
respondent, whose premises seem not a little at
war with his conclusions, let us try to make out
for ourselves, not from the invectives of party or
the declamation of disappointed ambition, but
from a fair consideration of the case as it stands,
what are the prospects of this country and the
United States from the election of Mr. Buchanan.
In the first place, there can be no doubt that it
will bo regarded, and justly regarded, by the South
as a great and signal victory, its importance being
mea-ured by the terror felt by the victorious party.,
*item the defeat ins Maine, by the enormous exer-
tions by which alone it has been obtained, by the
fact that it was gained over the North for
the first time active and united, and by the
great probability that this triumph, signal as
it is, unless improved to their advantage, may
be thei very last which the South is destined
to obtain. The victory has been one rather of
superior organisation and dexterity than of greater
force ; it has required all the influence of Govern- '
ment to secure it, and has been mainly promoted
by threats of disunion, which cannot be used with '
similar effect on every succeeding occasion. All '
these things tend to enforce upon the Southern
mind the necessity of using the next four years so
as to make the very utmost of their success, and
place a party inferior in numbers and intelligence
on a footing of superiority, which nothing but a
revolution and civil war can destroy. They have
the President and the majority in both Houses ;
their political existence is at stake, the quarrel
with the North is henceforth irreconcilable, the
struggle has begun in earnest, and on either ban-
ner " Vce victis" will soon be inscribed in very
legible characters. We are therefore justified iu
expecting that, so far as the internal policy of the
Union is concerned, the course adopted by Mr.
Pierce will be persevered in and carried out with
even still greater violence. Now or never is the
time to increase the number of Slave States, to ad-
asit Kansas, to subdivide Texas, and to seek
wherever it may be found fresh territory in which
to plani; the institution, the extension or repression
of which ie henceforth the only issue of American
politics. Whatever be Mr. Buchanan's personal
predilection for reasonable and moderate counsels,
we believe that he will have great difficulty in
standing against the violence of the men by whom
he is surrounded, and who are committed to an ex-
tent which admits of no increase to the propaga-
tion of slavery and the counteraction, by whatever
means, of the free spirit of the North.
As regards foreigx policy the prospect might at
first sight appear to be equally gloomy. The
election of Mr. Buchanm n over Mr. Fillmore,
agreeing, as they essentially do, in home politics. is 0,
a declaration on the part of t:s'e Americau nation
in favour of the foreign policy of the former over
that of the latter—that is, a declaration in favour
of aggression and annexation. Moreover, the spirit
of annexation is essentially Southern,
;:avints, re-
ference to the necessity of obtaining nee'' Slave
States, to counterbalance the accession of Free
States from the North. Still, we are disposed to
be much more sanguine as to the foreign than as
to the domestic policy of the new President, and
we are convinced that his election by no means im-
plies hostility to England on the part of the De-
mocrats. An aggressive foreign policy, carried out
in the spirit of the Ostend manifesto, means a
foreign war, and a foreign war is iu the present
state of the Union a contingency which North and
South would be equally anxious to avoid. The
South would view with dread a chance of a rising
among their slaves, in the suppression of which
they would have little to hope from the sympathy
of the North, and, having little accumulated capi-
tal, would suffer severely from any restriction of
their power of exportation. The North would
view with increasing disfavour the prosecution of
foreign conquests, which they would justly regard
as really made over themselves, and would natu-
rally refuse to aid in operations entailing upon
them great immediate loss, and ultimately destined
to counterbalance or undermine their influence in
the councils of the Confederation. The breach be-
tween North and South is henceforth declared and
open ; and though by the forms of the constitution
one party may govern, it cannot hope to carry on
a war, which is a matter not of abstract rule, but
of practical, and very apt to redress by the sum-
mary process of revolution inequalities which the
indolence of peace has left untouched. We also
hope that Mr. Buchanan may rise more nearly
than he has hitherto done to the level of his posi-
tion, and, discarding after he has obtained power
the questionable arts by which it was secured,
rise above the dictation and exigencies of his
party, and think more of the great trust placed
in his hands than of the :instruments and the
assurances by which that trust has been ob-
tained. For ourselves, we can -truly
say that we
shall respect the choice of the American nation in
a matter so peculiarly of domestic cognisance, and
never allow any objections we may ',have entertained
to Mr. Buchanan's principles or professions to pre-
vent us from dealing with respe ct and candour
with the acts of the chief magistrates of a great, a
friendly, and a kindred people.

liberal character to the institutions in which he
evinced an interest. He gave at the same time
considerable orders to tradesmen, which were un-
hesitatingly performed, so high did Mr. Redpath's
character stand, and so conspicuous were his vir-
tues. This portion of his career was a short one,
for in less than three months he was made a bank-
rupt, and it was then found that he had incurred
debts to the extent of 5,0001.--amongst his creditors
being pianoforte makers, musical instrument
makers, dealers in articles of bijouterie and vertu.
Mr. Fox applied unsuccessfully for his money, it hav-
ing been understood that it was to be a cash transac-
tion, and upon calling personally upon Mr. Red-
path ho found that some of the tradesmen were
taking away the goods they had supplied. He then
made Mr. Redpath a bankrupt on the 20th April,
1840, and the case was disposed of by the late Mr.
Commissioner Merl vals, the papers relating to the
fiat having passed from the hands of the late Mr.
Gibson and the late Mr. Green, who were succes-
sively the official assignees, into the hands of Mr.
Pennell, of No. 3, Guildhall-chambers, who now re-
tains them. Redpath's effects were sold by auction,
at his residence in Dartmouth-terrace, and the re-
sult was, that, after payment of the customary ex-
penses, the estate realised two dividends, one of ls.
6d. and the other of is. In the course of the same
year Redpath obtained his certificate, under circum-
stances which showed that even at that time he was
au adept at clearing himself from difficulties. He
obtained his certificate by getting the signatures of
two-thirds of the creditors to his petition, not, how-
ever favouring Mr. Fox with an interview on the
subject, although that gentleman was the principal
creditor, and it was the proceeds of the sale of the
good of which he had been defrauded which mainly
provided the dividend for the other creditors. Be.
fore the Court of Bankruptcy Redpath was extremely
insolent, and was severely reprimanded by the com-
missioner, and on the strength of Mr. Fox's oppo-
sition he was sent back.

From this time and during the period of railway
speculation which resulted in the " mania" of 1845,
although a man without character or means, Leo-
pold Redpath managed, like many other shrewd
men of his class, to pick up a precarious living
amidst the bewildering excitement which then pre-
vailed.

While the Great Northern Company were strug-
gling with a rival company in Parliament for their
bill Redpath was of great assistance to them in pro-
moting their cause, and when they started as an
organised company he was engaged as a clerk. For
some time he occupied lodgings in Cumberland-
market—an obscure locality, lying between the
upper part of Regent's•park and the road to Cam-
den-town. His finances indeed were at this time
of such a limited character that in order to
meet their expenses his wife was obliged to accept
a situation as companion to an invalid lady resid-
ing in Cumberland-place, Regent's-park. In course
of time his circumstances began to improve, and he
then removed to lodgings at 43,
Upper Albany-
street, after which he took the house No. 2, Park
Village West, where his taste for elegance and his
extravagant habits first began to develope them-
selves. He lived in a style which was very far
beyond the means of a man who bad a salary of
5001. or 6001. a year, his own receipts from the
being at that time less than 1001. a year.
company
Inj
June, 1852, and while residing at Park
Village, Redpath's house was broken into, and a
number of valuable articles were stolen. Of these
a vase, worth about 30 guineas, was traced, and.
two men—one a man named Jacobs, a dealer in
such articles, and the, other named Lawrence, a
beer-shop keeper, of liberties-street, Tottenham-
court-road—were prosecuted by Redpath, •at the
instance of Inspector Shaw and Sergeant W . Smith.
They were convicted at the Old Bailey, and sen-
tenced to ten years' transportation.
This day (Tuesday) fresh frauds to an enormous
extent were discovered. Since the examination of
the books commenced last Monday week every
day has revealed forgeries of the most startling
character, wkich makes it almost a matter of cer-
tainty that Redpath's frauds will far outstrip the
amount originally stated. It is a fact beyond dis-
pute that the company have been for a long time
past paying dividends upon 200,0001. of capital the
existence of which they have been unable to trace.
Many of the fraudulent entries which have been
discovered, unless some very clear explanation is
given, show a complicity in the transactions on the
part of Kent. One singular fact in connection
with this young man man be mentioned. Upon
his marriage, which took place not long since, he
his
life the whole of his household furniture, is
life policy, and all the other property he possessed,g
of his being
found his wife, so that in the event
~ , it is a
found guilty, in connection with Redpatn
question whether the company Will
upon what he may De found to possess.
fraudulently.
[ It has beenascertained that Redpathhe have a claim.
charitable in-
stitutions trafficked
within the
we
hvotes os fivsaosmet some
oo of t
It appears that, in addition
its committee of ma
Christ's Hospital, he was being a governor of
almoner, and one of
extentnagena of Redpath's transactions
As a proof of the e
g , it may be stated that he
on the Stock
Exchange,
the leading brokers engaged.
had constantly three o
for him.
Herald says :—" Mrs. Redpath, the
The Essex Hera
who is now in
wife of Leopold Redpath, .
custody,
forgery, and converting to his own
charged with
Great Northern
Railway, was the
use shares in the
late Major Sherman, in the service
daughter of thec
any and sh
the East India omp , e was described
of
at the period of her marriage as a young lady of
considerable personal attractions. Major Sherman
resided for teeny years, and up to the period of his
death, five or sr.x years since, at Maryland Point,
Stratford. Mr. Redpath was known in the neigh-
bourhood of Stratford from his frequent visits to
Major Sherman's residence, both previous and
1 subsequent to his marriage."

CONVICTION OF STOWELL, THE INFORMEB.—Yeaterday
at the Surrey Sessions, Thos. Stowell, described as an
attorney's clerk, was indicted for obtaining by false pre-
tences 5/. from Harriett Perry, with fraudulent intent.
The circumstances of the case have already appeared in
this journal. The jury returned a verdict of guilty, and
there being former convictions against the prisoner fox
misdemeanour he was sentenced to 12 months hard
labour in the Wandsworth House of Correction.

A. slight modification of the law relating to the oen•
sorship of the
press has just been made in Russia, al-
towing more latitude than has hitherto been conceded to
historical discussions and criticisms of the policy of
foreign GovernmentF.