The Sun.
London, England, 1860-04-30 00:00:00

7HE PULLINGER FRAUDS.

William George Pullinger, the perpetrator of the
gigantic frauds upon the Union Bank of London,
is the son of a deceased gentleman, who was a mer-
chant in the City, and largely engaged in the East
India trade, and was a highly respected member of
the Clothworkers' Company. In the earlier part
of his life he served a short time in a merchant's
office, and resided in the neighbourhood of Stepney-
green. He then became a clerk in the banking-
house of Sir Claude Scott and Co., where he re-
mained for some years with great credit to himself,
and in 1847 he left for a more lucrative situation
at the Union Bank. It appears that up to the
period of his being promoted to the office of chief
cashier, five years ago, his conduct was irreproach-
able. In his new capacity, however, he had greater
command over the funds of the bank, and could not
withstand the temptation which his new position
gave him, and which he carried on with much in-
genuity and disastrous consequences to the bank.
During the last few years, and up to the time of
his arrest, Pullinger lived at 30, Ampthill-square,
Hampstead-road, and from all we can hear his style
of living was not beyond that which might be ex-
pected of persons in his situation of life with an
income of £6OO a year.
i The house was well fur-
nished, but nothing to indicate extravagance, as in
the case of Itedpath ; and he had very rarely com-
pany, his circle of acquaintances apparently being
small.

The directors are prosecuting an inquiry which,
it is hoped, will end in the recovery of a portion of
the missing capital. It is known that Pullinger
was a considerable loser by speculations on the
Stock Exchange. In one instance he asserts that
he was swindled to a large extent ; but, the party
being deal , there is no likelihood of any portion bein g
disgorged. It, is well understood that Pullinger was
the means of putting several firms " on their legs ;"
but whether he will make a full disclosure of the
assistance he has rendered remains to be seen.
Pullinger also dabbled largely in betting on horse-
racing. He was on very intimate terms with a con-
fectioner in the City and a trainer at Newmarket,
and at the latter place a flue stud of race-horses,
with an extensive range of new buildings and other
out-houses, suddenly turned up which excited some
attention as to where the means came from. Since
his incarceration in Newgate he has not hesitated
to converse freely upon the frauds charged against
him ; indeed, he has evinced rather an anxious de-
sire to lay bare his delinquencies and unburthen his
mind. For a long while he knew that a crisis must •
come which would terminate in his imprisonment
for life, and his only regret now is that he should
have brought so much disgrace upon other parties.
It appears that shortly after his arrival in Newgate
the rev. chaplain of the prison addressed him upon
the enormity of the frauds, which apparently im-
pressed. Pullinger with the idea that the rev. gen-
tleman wished him to divulge the full extent of his
crime to him (the chaplain). He replied that that
was a matter between him and the bank authorities
mid at present did not come within the course of
duty of the rev. ordinary of the prison. He has ex-
pressed his perfect readiness to give the fullest in-
formation with a view of assisting the directors in
their investigation of the frauds. Hearing that one
of the clerks, Littleton, had been apprehended on
suspicion of being a confederate, he repeated his re-
gret that he should have been the cause of bringing
so much disgrace upon the young man and dis-
credit upon the officers of the company. It has been
said that the peculations of Littleton took place a
day after Thillinger's apprehension, but that is not
the case. The deficiency in his till occurred some
time previously, for Littleton, when asked- at the
police-station what he had had, observed that Pul-
linger asked him fur the money out of his till, and
he gave it him; but he added that he knew he had
done wrong. Littleton's salary, as one of the
cashiers, was £250 per annum.
Pullinger has been visited by his wife, a very
lady-like person, two or three times in Newgate,
and he has expressed himself in rather strong
terms at the conduct of the clergyman, at whose
church at Hampstead he was a regular attendant,
in visiting her, and, under the guise of consoling
her, endeavouring to persuade her to make a full
revelation of her husband's sin. He declares most
solemnly that his wife was wholly unconscious of
his treacherous conduct to the bank; and although
he h-ad obtained permission for the clergyman to
visit him, in accordance with her request, he had
since informed the governor that he declined to see
him. He thought that as Mrs. Pullinger had sub-
scribed to the different charities connected with the
parish, the clergyman had inferred that it must
have been money belonging to the bank. He de-
clared, however, that all the gifts came out of his
salary, and not a fraction from the frauds on the
bank. In alluding to his turf transactions, and to
what he called the " accursed gambling by bet-
ting," he said that, although he was a great winner
on many of the races, and he mentioned names
(which we obviously omit), yet his sacrifices in
betting were beyond hie calculatioa. His circum-
stances, when the frauds were detected, and he was
arrested, would ecem to show that his means were
exhausted. he had effected a bill of sale upon his
household furniture, and appears to have borrowed
of his friends. Is is clear that when he was searched
at the Bow-lane police station, all the cash that
was found upon him was 3d. His house was exa-
mined at the same time, but no money was to be
seen. Pullinger has been asked several times
whether he intended to employ a solicitor to de-
fend him, He replied that he did not wish to give
the beak any trouble, and intended to plead guilty.
He had quite made up his mind that he would never
have his liberty again. He will be brought up with
Littleton next Friday at the Mansion-house, but
from the mass of accounts which will have to be
gone through, the• proceedings will occupy several
days.

Much has been said as to the apparent lax way
the affairs of the bank have been managed, in
allowing such a series of gigantic frauds to go on
so long undiscovered. A rather amusing anecdote
is told of its chairman, Sir Peter Laurie, who, when
the Redpath speculations on the Great Northern
Railway Company were made public, commented
from the judgment seat at the Mansion-house upon
the management which could allow such a state of
things, and said that it must have resulted from a
want of proper vigilance on the part of the officials,
adding that it was impossible that anything of the
kind could happen at the bank (Union) with which
he was connected.

THE DISCUS,UO v" IN THE PRUSSIAN
CHAMBERS.

The late decision of the Prussian Government
against the authority of the Federal Diet is re-
marked on at some length by the Constitutionnel,
which looks on the determination in question as a
very grave proceeding
"On the part of a petty State such an act would
only have been a revolt ; but og the part of Prussia
it is almost a revolution. The discussion in the
Chamber on the matter was opened by an explicit
declaration of Baron de Schleinitg himself, to the
effect that, ' whatever happens,' the Government
was detetrhitted to persist with firmness in the path
on which it had entered. After him several mem-
bersspoke, and all, putting aside more or less the
preliminary Veil Which enveloped the vote of the
Diet, discussed the question in the point of view of
the rivality of Austria and Prussia. To cede to
Austria now,' M. iiuncker said, would be a more
shameful and more dangerous defeat than those of
Olmutz and Bronzell, in 1850 !" The blow di-
rected apparently against Hesse was,' said M.
Mathis, in reality, against Prussia.' And, in
order more strongly to express what he thought,
this speaker recalled to mind the remark of a man
whose observations have sometimes served as warn-
ings to Europe We must degrade Prussia, in
order to demolish her !".rhe man who made that
remark:was the Prince de Schwarzenberg."
After commenting on the incidents of the late debate
in the Prussian Chamber, the writer comes to the
following conclusion on the conduct of the Berlin
Cabinet :

"We will not say that Prussia has cast down the
glove to Austrian Germany ; or that the Reformists
of Gotha who yesterday could hardly agitate
their flag, and were obliged to emigrate with
it from town to town, saw it hoisted in the
Prussian tribune by M. de Vinckc. Still less will
we say that the edifice of the Diet, restored
thirty years ago by Austria, has become visibly
weakened, and that the support which it formerly
received has also become shaken ; that, in short, the
new policy which restores to the populations a part
of the sovereign power is becoming acclimatised and
takes root in independent Germany. We will say
nothing for fear of quitting the domain of facts, and
of losing ourselves in the regions of Germanic re-
veries.
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