The Sun.
London, England, 1832-09-10 00:00:00

OLD BAILEY-(T111S DAY.)

OLD COURT.

John Jonas Limn, a young RIM of gentlemanly ap.
ear :nre, was indicted for forging and tutoring a cheque
r.r 2001., with intent to defraud 'Messrs. Coutts and Co.,
the bankers.

Mr. Partridge, a cashier at Messrs Coutts and Co.,
sta►ed, that the prisoner came to their house on the 2d tilt.
and presented a cheque for 2001., purporting to be drawn
ly a gentleman named Paxton, who kept an account with
ritness's house. Having reason to believe from certain
•ircumstances, that the cheque was a forgery, the witness
.howed it to a member of the firm, who looked at it, and
then requested the prisoner to walk into a hick room.
Sir Edward Antrobus, a partner in the house of Coutts
and Co., stated that on the last witness handing the cheque
o him, he was of opinion it was a forgery. He then
,equested that the prisoner should walk into the back
a-inting-house. as he wished to send for Mr. Paxton, in
.vhose name the cheque was drawn, fOr the purpose of
ascertaining whether his suspicions were well founded or
not. The prisoner went into the back room and waited
there, at witness's request. Witness, having occasion to
oass the room door, saw the poisoner put a phial in his
•south, and i❑ the act of swallowing something ; wit-
less ran to him, and took the phial from him before he
eould empty it ; and, upon sending for a medical man,
the stomach pump was used, and with effect. The pri-
soner, after partially recovering from the effects of the
contents of the phial (laudanum), was given into the
custody of Mr. Thomas, the superintendent of police.
Mr. Thomas stated that he received the prison.r into
his custody. At the station-house, the prisoner admitted
that the cheque was a forgery. A letter was found on b:s
A.rson addressed to his mother, in which he scrin.d to
anticipate death, and stating, that before she received that
'ester her unfortunate son would b. no more.

Mr. Paxton prored that his signature to the cheque was
a forgery.
Mr. Watts stated that the prisoner had been in his em—
ploy as clerk. On being shown the cheque he stated that
he believed it to have been written by the prsoner.

On the part of the prisoner sever;kl very respectable
persons gave him a most excelent character.
The Jury found him Guilty, but strongly recommended
him to mercy, on account of his youth and good character.
Robert Carr was indicted for the manslaughter of John
Webb.
3(' 1 Mr. BODKIN stated the case for the prosecution.
_

The particulars of this case were fully detailed in tl c
report of the Coroner's inquest, published in the papers ss
rew days back.
The prisoner was an ironfounder at Brentford, and had
been employed by a person named Hughes to make four
small iron cannons ; after they were sent home they
were tried, and one of them burst; that one was sent
back to be re-cast; he afterwards bad 9 more to make up tl.e
dozen, and when they were sent home he saw one that he
had reason to believe was the one he had previously sent
hack. The cannon were intended to be used on oc..iasions
of public rejoicing, and on the first time of their being
used the first one that was fired burst, and killed the de.
ce ised, who was sanding at a distance of 18 yards. This
occurrence took place near Kew Bridge. The cannon
that burst was produced in Court, and it appeared, on
putting the pieces together, to have been burst before, and
repaired, the interstices occasioned by the previous bursting
only being filled up with lead. Indeed it seemed impos-
sible to suppose it could have been fired without the cer-
tainty of its bursting.
For the defence several witnesses were called who were
engineers and iron founder', from whose testimony it ap-
peared that it was not usual to manufacture cannon like
those in question by casting them hollow, but to east
them solid, and the trader who orders them then sends
them to engineers to he bored, and subsequently to he
proved ; that if they be ordered to be cast hollow it was
necessary for the person who orders them to send them to
be "smoothed" inside, a process performed by engineers; and
that none of the processes but casting had to be performed
by the iron fcuneer, of which trade the prisoner was. On
moss examination the witnesses admitted that the art of
boring was introduced by the Dutch many years ago, since
which cannon were rarely if ever cast hollow—indeed it
was considered dangerous to cast it hollow. They also
admitted that they never knew an instance of a person,
out of that trade, for instance an oil and colour man,
ordering cannon of a founder, and that if such a person
were to order them it was not probable he knew how to
perform the necessary processes.
The prisoner's son stated, that when Hughes applied
to his father to make the 12 cannons, his father said it
would be unsafe to cast them► hollow. At last, however,
four were made, of which one was returned as defective,
and Hughes then ordered one to make up that number,
stating, he wanted them to put two on each side of a
sailing b.-at for firing; and he ordered eight others to be
made merely as ornaments on board the vessel.
The July, under his Lordships's direction••, found the
prisoner guilty, and he was sentenced to fourteen days' in -
prisonment.
His Lordship ordered that all the rest of the cannons
should be destroyed.