The Sun.
London, England, 1861-07-10 00:00:00

Lord Palmerston was drawn up with great delibe-
ration, and was approved in May, 1860. The wit-
ness then gave a detail of what took place when the
deputation went up to Lord Palmerston, and a long
letter from the Master of the Rolls to Lord Pal-
merston, dated Nov. 1,1859, was also read, it having
been read in the presence of the deputation. It was
in answer to a letter from Lord Palmerston, and de-
tailed the duties of Mr. Turnbull, discussed the
question of the safety of the State papers in his
hands, and defended his appointment. The witness
continued—Previous to this matter I was aware of
the constitution of the Jesuits, and that they were
bound to render implicit and unquestioning obe-
dience to the orders of the superior. The extracts
from various works in my letters are correct, and it
is true, as stated there, that I have in my posses-
sion " a long list of papers in the Record-office re-
ferring to various plots by the Jesuits."
Cross-examined—l had made no inquiries about
Mr. Turnbull when I sent out a circular saying of
him, " It is more than probable that he is a Jesuit;"
but I had read his!' Legen dm" and his' Southwell ;"
and his excessive admiration of Garnet, Southwell,
and Babington led me to this conclusion. Ido not
know as a matter of history that on a man being
charged before Lord Mansfield with being a Catho-
lic priest and saying mass and acquitted, the zealous
Protestants were much scandalised, and his lord-
ship was charged by many with being" a Jacobite,
and some even supposed he was a Jesuit." (A
laugh.)
. . . _

Sir.'Karslake—That statement is made in the
" Lives of the Chief Justices," by Lord Campbell.
(Laughter.)
Witness—l have many books in reference to the
Jesuits, but I do not know that I have any in praise
of them. (Laughter.) Before I prepared the me-
morial to Lord Palmerston, Mr. Nugent, a very able
record scholar, who had frequented the Record-
office for 20 years, had made statements to me; but
nobody had been sent on behalf of the Protestant
Alliance to examine the foreign records.
Re-examined—l circulated the memorial by order
of the committee of the Protestant Alliance, and
previous to this I had read articles in the Morning
Advertiser of the 7th October, 1859, and in the St.
James's Chronicle of the 13th October, strongly
condemning the appointment of Mr. Turnbull, on
account of his bias in favour of the Jesuits.

Mr. Bovill summed up on behalf of the defen-
dant, and Mr. Karslake replied upon the whole of
the case.

The further hearing was then postponed until
to-morrow.

CEN2RAL CRIMINAL COURT, July 9.

OLD COURT.

David Basset, who surrendered to take his trial,
was charged with unlawfully obtaining goods three
months before he was adjudicated a bankrupt, under
the false colour and pretence of carrying on bis busi-
ness, and with intent to defraud his creditors of the
property that was so obtained. The indictment also
contained counts charging the prisoner with obtain-
ing money by false pretences.
Mr. Metcalfe and Mr. Carter conducted the pro-
secution. Mr. Ribton and Mr. Hume Williams
appeared for the prisoner.
Mr. Metcalfe, in opening the case to the jury,
said that the prosecution was instituted by the direc-
tion of Mr. Goulburn, one of the commissioners of
the Court of Bankruptcy, in consequence of certain
disclosures that were made in that court in refer-
ence to the bankruptcy of the prisoner, and the
offence that was imputed to him was that he had
obtained a large quantity of property, and also
money to a very considerable amount, under the
pretence that he was carrying out a legitimate trans-
action in trade, whereas, in point of fact, the pro-
perty was not obtained for that purpose, and the
real object of the prisoner was to defraud his credi-
tors of their property. The learned :counsel then
proceeded to give a narrative of the circumstances
under which the charge was preferred, and it ap-
peared that the prisoner resided at Uxbridge, and
for many years carried on an extensive business as a
corn merchant at that place and at Mark-lane, and
the greatest confidence appeared to have been re-
posed on him. The prisoner signed a declaration
of insolvency in the month of November last year,
and the amount of his debts was £15,000, upon
which a dividend of 3s. GEL in the pound only has
been paid. It appeared that in the months of
August, September, and October the prisoner sold
a large 'quantity of corn, by samples, to a miller
named Dives, who gave him cheques for more than
£4,000 for the wheat so purchased. The prisoner
had represented to Mr. Dives that the whole of the
wheat he so sold to Mr. Dives was in his possession,
or in his control; but it turned out that this was not
the case, and, shortly before his bankruptcy, the
prisoner, who had only sent a portion of the wheat,
admitted to Mr. Dives that he could not send him
any more, and at this time it appeared Mr. Dives
was entitled to receive twelve hundred more quar-
ters of wheat, for which the money had been paid,
It also appeared that the prisoner had purchased
large quantities of wheat of Mr. Nash, a farmer
living near Uxbridge, and also of a gentleman
named Way, residing in the same neighbourbead,
for some of which he agreed to pay 68s. per quarter,
and for other portions 725. per quarter, and that
the moment the wheat came into his possession he
sent it to Mr. Dives, in order to supply the con-
tracts he had entered into with him, each transac-
tion being attended with very serious loss, as the
price at which the prisoner was to have supplied
the wheat to this gentleman, under his contract,
was only 595. per quarter. The prisoner, when
under examination in the Bankruptcy Court, ap-
peared to have admitted nearly the whole of the
above facts ; and, as already stated, directions were
given by the Court that the present prosecution
should be preferred against him,
A good deal of formal and documentary evidence
was gone into in support of the charge, and the
case occupied a great many hours. It was elicited
in the course of the inquiry that the prisoner had
carried on a very extensive and respectable business
for a number of years, and that he was regarded as
an honourable and respectable man. It also appeared
that the official assignee had reported that the pri-
soner's books were well kept, and that there did not
appear to be any evidence of concealment of stock
or anything irregular in the mode in which the pri-
soner had conducted his business, and it was also
admitted that during the last year, owing to the
unfavourable season that prevailed, there was a
great rise in the price of wheat, and that it had gone
up from 525., the price at which it stood in April, to
78s. in November.

Mr. Justice Wightman, at the close of the case
for the prosecution, expressed his opinion that the
counts in the indictment charging the prisoner with
obtaining money from Mr. Dives by false pretences
were not supported by the evidence, and they were
therefore withdrawn from the consideration of the
jury.

icir. Ribton made a long and able address to the
jury on behalf of the prisoner, and he contended
that the case was one that had never been contem-
plated by the act of Parliament under which the in-
dictments had been preferred, and that there was
not a title of evidence to show that the prisoner had
been actuated by any intention to defraud his cre-
ditors or any one else. He said there could be no
doubt that the prisoner had carried on a most ex-
tensive business until last year, when in consequence
of the bad season it appeared that he had got into
difficulties, and all that he seemed to have done was
to make a desperate struggle to retrieve his position.
This might have been an imprudent act on his part,
but the question was whether, by acting in the man-
ner he had done, he had brought himself within the
scope of the law; and he submitted to the jury with
great confidence that he had not done so. The
learned counsel then urged upon the attention of
the jury the facts that the official assignee had re-
ported that the prisoner's books were well kept, that
his expenditure had been moderate, and that at the
end of the year 1859 he was solvent; and he also
said that there was nothing to show that the pri-
soner had personally gained the slightest benefit
from these transactions.

A great number of highly-respectable witnesses,
some of whom had known the prisoner for more
than 20 years, were called to speak to his character
and they stated that he was always looked upon as
a man of the strictest honour and integrity.

Mr. Justice Wightman having summed up, the
jury retired to consider their verdict, and in about
three-quarters of an hour they returned into court,
and found the prisoner not guilty.
There was some applause when the verdict was
given.
Mr. Metcalfe said there were several other indict-
ments against the prisoner, but as they involved the
same facts he did not think, after the decision the
jury had arrived at, that he ought to proceed with
them.
Verdicts of not guilty were consequently taken
upon all these charges, and the prisoner was' dis-
charged from custody.
Thomas John Smith, 19, a Post-office letter car-
rier, was charged with stealing two letters, one of
which ' contained a bill of exchange for £22.
another for £l5, and a cheque for £2 4s. 4d., and
the other a cheque for £32 155., the property f the
Postmaster-General.
Mr. Clark and Mr. Metcalfe conducted the pro-
secution.
It appeared that on the 19th of June the letters
in question were posted at Manchester by the clerks
of two mercantile firms in that city addressed to
Mr. John Paterson, 104, Wood-street, e
and in due course they would have
arrived at the
, about 5
General post-office, St. 111artin's-le-
Grand
o'calsoacklertetrh-cearmrojerrniinagthoef
Wood tiThe.2? th
district,h e pr i o
andne r
w
street
it would kayo been his duty to have delivered those