The Sun.
London, England, 1803-01-17 00:00:00

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116.

,Lewis Riebileds was indieted for uttering- a Bill
of• Exchange for 4501. with an Indorsement upon it
forged, he,' at the time of uttering •such Bill, well
-knowing such •Indorsement to be forged..
The short statement of the case was this: the Pri_
soner,• who had been in the Army for some time,
and was called Capain Richards, went into the
King's Bench Prison for debt, and became what was
called the Chum of a person of the name of M'Con.
net, A Bill of Exchaoge -Was transmitted from
New Hampahire, in America, to a Gentleman of
, the"name of M'Connel, in London, direCted John
M'Connel, Esq. London; the direction being so ge-
neral, the person to•wfwm this letter was designat,
ed could not be found, and therefore the letter was
placed in the proper department at the Post. Office,
and the. direction Of it inserted in the LiSt which. is
put up. in the Yard of the Post-Office, to be claimed
in the .'usual form : some time afterwards, the words
King's• Bench," were written in pencil opposite
to the dircaion so put up, signifying that the let:
terbelonged to a person in the King'Cfidoch Prison';
accordingly it was given to the Posit= whode.
livers the letters there, and it was by him delivertd
to Jas. 'M'Connel, Esq. No. q., in 5, King's Bench
Prison. This Bill was drawn on- the House of
Dickenson and Co. and it being presented to them
for acceptance, they accepted it.—Afterwards, by
somebody or other, an Indorsement was made on
this Bill, purporting to be the Indorsement of the.
Payee. M'Connel applied to the
;Prisboer to get
this Bill discounted fur him, they being Very inti.
mate. with each other, having -been for several
,months Chmns together •in prison : Richards, the
Prisoner, now at the Bar, having applied to be dis.
charged under the Insolvent At, anti having sue'.
ceeded, Jas. M 'Cannel made a similar ;gap) IC4 ionitnit
was remanded. Richards undertook to try to get
- the. Bill discounted he had-some dealings with a
Gentleman in the City, of the••name of Hog, and
had owed hint the sum of tol. for which Mr. Hog
sued him; and the costs amounting to three guineas,
Richards agreed to arrange matters, and gave to
Mr. Hog a 13111 of Exchange for 131. 139. This
Bill was not paid when it became due. Some time
afterwards Mr.,,i-fog•met Richards on Snow
and accused him of •miscondutt, in not paying his
13111 when it became due ; -to • which he answered
that he had a Bill for 4501. accepted by a perlea.
ly respeetable house in the •City, and which had
-some time; to run, and if Mr. Hog would discount
it, he should be paid his Bill immediately. Mr.
Hog said, that if the • Bill was a good one, he
should have no °Nation, and desired Richards to
leave the Bill with him at his house, that he might
inquire whether the Bill was:a good one or not.
• Richards brought to Mr. Hog the Bill, who took
it to the acceptors, where he was told the Bill was
perfectly good, and therefore Mr. Hog agreed to this.
count the Bill, on condition of having his own de.
taunt paid.'He had, however, no more Morley on the
instant than 4001. and a traction, and therefore
chards"agreed, by way of accommodation to Mr.
Hog, to take that sum, and a Bill of his, payable
at a future day, which teas done accordingly. Some
tune after this, the real payee of the Bill; John
'l4l,COnnel, .Esq. having received a duplicate of the
caused inquiry to be made at the Pu3t-Office,
froth which the Bill was traced, by -Means of the
above letter, to Jas. M'Connel, Na. 4,' in 5, King's
Bench Prison, and..then the forged indorsemetit was
.Macaw-red ; and on inspection it appeared to be in-
dorsed Jas.:M.o.mnd, although the real payee was
• John M'Connel. „
:..There was not the least conneaion 'whatever be.
• eween James M'Connel, the Prisoner in the Ring's
Bert h, anti Mr. John M'Connel, the real payee of
this Bill ; they were not so much as known to each
other. The single question io this case was, whe.
they Richards, at the time he uttered the Bill, that
is, when he • :got it discounted by Mr. Hog, knew
the indorsement upon it to be a forgery or nut ? His
defence was, that he had had many dealings with
-James McCOnnel while they were in Prison together,
and that upon the balance .of -accounts; James
M'Connel owed him soh That he always under.
stood James Monne' to be a man of large property,
he knew that in his schedule he kid stated to his

Creditors an account of property to the amount of
40,0001. That he had said, some time before this
letter arrived with the Bill:in questioni,he expeCted
n rethittance to a considerable ,amount, and that
%then it came, he •thought,every thing was fair.—•,
James Cannel applied to him to get the Bill ac..
.cepted, which he did, and aftewards applied to have.
it discounted, which ha did of Mr. Hog, with whom
he had had some dcntir.gs before. That be might
have seen that the indorsetnent was par,, M'Cormel
instead of John, who ..WAS the real payee, but that
it was not wonderful it escaped him, since the same
oversight happened to- Mr. Hog, who was a man of
business.. That when he brought the money- to James
he paid him 51. on account of his balance,
&c. That he knew nothing of the Bill, further
than he was informed by James M‘Connel, and that
he afted in the Whole matter 'merely as James
MiConnet"s agent, &c.
A woman of the name of Sarah Hawkes swore.
thagshe heard a conversation in the King's Bench
Prison between Jas. MiCOnnel and the Prisoner
Richards, to the died iiow stated by Richards,
and that she saw J. IVllConnel give the bill to
Richards, and afterwards' Richards pay M6Connel
the money, &c. but her evidence was liable to much
observation, she lived a hang' time on a footing of
intimacy. with b,tli the Prisoner and J. MlConuel,
and was 11011/VIITICS called" by the name of M'Con.
hel, &e.

It appeared also that there was a long correspond.
tnce between • Richlirtia after he came out of the
King's Bench Prison and James M'Connel, and that
they were minutely acquainted with many of each
others pectiniary concerns, and that Richards had
most- extravagantly misrepresented to Mr. Hog,
the circumstances of James M'Connel,, saying his
schedule was +otoool., by which Mr. Hog thought
iris effects amounted to that bum, and that he had

• -I
I. gone into the country, leaving me Management of
his taffairs to Agents in _London, when he ,-knew
perfectly that he was a Prisoner in the King's Bench
Prison, &c.
The ti r BARON ,of the EXCHEQUER observed
to the Jury, that this was a Case depending entirely
on circomstances, there:being no direct proof either
that the Prisoner saw the forgery of this; Indorse-
ment committed, or that, he knew it was committed ;
but circumstances, when they were all* dear and
consistent, and tending to one conclusion, were
as satisfaCtory as clear pOsitive proof, and often
more so, because they were more difficult to fabri-
, •cate than a short tale of positive proof.—With •
regard to circumstantial Evidence lie took the Rule
to be., this, that when circumstances were related by
those whose. testimony was not incredible, and all
tended to one rational concluiion, without any
mixture of doubt, and that they were absolutely
inconsistent. with the innocence of a person accused
of •a crime, the only fair inference in such a Case,
was, that the accused was guilty. But if it appeared
that although all the circumstances related be true,
they were not absolutely inconsistent with the inno..
cence of a Prisoner, but that it was possible he might
be innocent, although all Circumstances stated against
him be true ; then, however doubtful the case might
be, the accused was entitled to the benefit of such
a doubt, and so acquitted. So the Jury would ap.
ply this rule to the present cage. If they thought
that, from all circumstances in proof befoi.e them,
it was possible 'for the Prisoner to. be ignorant ut'
the forgery of this Indorsement, and that in the
falsehoods he had uttered concerning jamesMeConnel,
were merely out of attachment to him, to vamp up
his credit, when, if the truth had._ been known, it
wok;ld have been difficult for him to obtain -any,
why then, whatever cheating may have been in this
case, the Prisoner was not guilty of, the crime
puted_to him, and therefore he would be entitled to
his acquittal. On the other hand, if, from all the
circumstances, the Jury were satisfied that he =IA
have known the Indorsement to be a FOrgery, it
would be a duty to the Public to find him guilty._..
Hie Lordship summed up the whole:evidence to the
Jury, and made many suitable observittinns on the
.11300 L material parts,, leaving the question of guilt
1- or innocenceentitely to them.
The Jury withdrew, and, in half an hour, return;.
ed
,a verdict of Not . ~„.

William Joan was charged' with the capital
offence highway robbery, by forcibly taking
from the person of Joseph Thompson, on the 27th
of September, on the King's highway, two one
pound Bank of England notes, the property of Joseph
Thompson the elder.
Joseph Thompson, a boy about twelve years .of
age, stated, that he was in the employ of his uncle,
Mr. Thompson, a Merchant in Lombard-street
that on the evening of, the 27th of September last,
between five and six o'clock in the evening, he was
sent to pay two pounds in notes to John .Heseltine,
a servant of his uncle's, who lodged at the Saracen's
Head, in Camomile-street ; he saw him at the door,
and just as he was delivering the notes, the Prisoner
came up, and snatched. them nut of his hand : there
were one or two other persons near.the door at the
time, but he was positive it was the Prisoner who
snatched the notes out of his hand. Heseltinc lin-
mdiately caught hOld of the Prisoner—the notes
were instantly dropped, and the .Witness picked
them up : one of the notes was very much torn.!---
The Witness told Hcseltine of the circumstance,
who said to the Prisoner. "I insist upon your mak-
big this note good." The Prisoner said, heft would
do so, if he, Ileseltine would come with him to his
master's ; the Witness kept the 'notes until the
next day—Hesel tine and another person accompanied
the Prisoner : on the next' day he delivered the,
notes to Heseltine. He saw. no more Of the

saner until the 16th of December, when he' was
in custody at Bow street ; he instantly recognized
him, and was now positive of his identity.
The Witnesses were examined apart.
John Heseltine was then called in, sworn, and re-
lated as follows On the evening of the 276.4
September, I was standing at the door of the Sara-
cen's. Head, it was on a Wednesday-7-the Saracen's
Head is a public. house in Camomile_street ; the
Prisoner, two other men, and a woman came up
near the.door. Soon after, Joseph Thompson, my
master's nephes,O., came to pay me some notes—when
the boy took them our, the Prisoner rushed in be-
tween us two, and. snatched them out of the boy's
hand—theY were taken at one snatch. I (laugh
the Prisoner by the collar, he instantly dropped the
mites—the boy picked them up, and said to mei.
"John there is one.of them almost tore to pieces."
Of course I said to the Prisoner, •I insist upon your
making that note •good. The ,Prisoner said, he
would if I would go with him, to his master—l went
the Prisoner, one of tine incdcaipe with us.

We ,tven t down 'CiftriOntilt-s t rev( ; itt the boi tdrst of
,►he street I met Benjamin Mayo 4 he asked me
where I was going ? I told him with this man (mean.
ing the Prisoner) to his master's to get a note tee.
titled, which he tore Out of my master's .nephew's
hand.—Mako said he would go with us- and see me
righted.—The Pliioner took us into a narrow alley
called Skill alley, .across Houndsditch—ive could
not walk abreast in iiHthe 'Prisoner went first--I
followed .; Mayo followed me, and the Prisoner's
companion walked last.--A little way Up.the alley
there was a turning to the right hand, at the second
door beyond that the Prisoner knocked two or three
times; as soon as he had knoCked, he turned sod.
denly round, 4nd drew out a knife, or some sharp
cutting instrainent, appareritly!skint of the sleeve of
his coat—l immediately turned to Benjamin Mayo,.
and said " there is 'a knife."---I dropped a 'little
back, on which the Prisoner advanced, and struck
the knife-through Mayo's cheek, into his mouth,
saying at the time, 11 There you bloody --,
tha►'s my master !" The Prisoner's companion
then knocked me down-with a stick, or the butt
end of a bayonet, I could not tell which, and beat
me with both his hands very much.—While I was
down Mayo mid the Prisoner had a scuffle together;
the Prisoner's companion, in running to assist him,
jumped over Me. I then endeavoured to get up,
when, just as I was rising
.on my hands and knees,