The Sun.
London, England, 1859-12-21 00:00:00

THE MOULVIE AND THE LATE BILL

TRANSACTIONS.

Some three years ago, after Lord Dalhousie had
annexed the Kingdom of Oude, London was
amused by a spectacle of Asiatic splendour. A
mysterious lady, who had absorbed a fraction of
about onefive-hundredth part of the dignityof Queen
Consort of Oude, and who was covered with veils
and mufflers enough to excite and baffle all the vulgar
inquisitiveness of London society, had come over to
us to win back by persuasion what the Seraglio
had been the principal cause of the Kim; of (hide's
losing. She had bearers, and kilitn-mtgar:;, and pun-
kaliwallahs, and vakeels, and baboon in her suite,
and an English, or, at any rate, a Eritish master of
the ceremonies, to keep her steps straight and her
dignity untarnished in this foggy and smoky clime.
It was whispered, also, by the few favourite lion-
hunters whcse modest ambition was gratified by the
exhibition of the Princess at some suburban
soiree, and by the multitude who were attracted
by Royal progresses which outshone Mr. William
Cooke's entrance at the head of his piebalds into a
provincial town, that this veiled lady was the pos-
sessor and distributor of unbounded wealth. She
lolled in her carriage among bags of gold mohurs,
which flew playfully about at her command, and
alighted in the waistcoat pockets which she desig.
nated. Diamond necklaces wriggled off like pet
snakes at her command, and snapped themselves
round the neck of the wife or daughter of some in-
fluential senator. Pearl-drops were tossed about
by her like jujubes, and she had shawls enough to
fill up the Valley of Cashmere. She was come—
the Nemesis of India—to buy us up wholesale, to
seduce our whole House of Commons, to obtain
the impeachment of Lord Dalhousie, and the
triumphant restoration of the King of Oude
and the King of Oude's Zenana in all their
old prerogatives of killing and plundering. We
do not say that this was so, but this was the
view of the matter taken by many grave and com-
municative persons who always see further into
futurity than any one else. There was a great deal
of mystery and a great deal of scandal, and prosaic
people who do not believe in Oriental romance were
cried down when they ventured to laugh at the
whole thing. and to predict that it would end in
these impudent Mussulmans being fleeced to the
flesh.

The doings of this cunning Embassy are now re-
vealed. The Moulvie Mohammed Nuseer Ooddeen
Khan Bahadoor—who, upon the strength of this
long string of uncomprehended names and incon-
sistent titles, has been a godsend to many an empty
ig-tin
roontsh—room comeilas before an English Court
todr aN\in]ill co-been cheated out of a bill
of exchange for £6,500. It was a very mean
thing to complain. All his old associates
will be very much shocked to find that he
could do such a thing. It was a breach of
all tacit understanding that so small a matter
should be higgled. at. But let us hear the poor
Moulvie account of the transaction. He came over
here, for what purpose we know ; and, if Mr. Roy
may be believed, lie is in the habit of boasting that
he has found some persons ready to receive his ad-
vances. Somehow or other £140,000 seems to have
slipped through his fingers, and in September, 1858,
the vakeel was au sec. Now, for the father of all
" Men in the Moon" this was an unpleasant predi-
cament. But the Vakeel had friends. There was
Mr. Henry Chard, of Sunbury. The Moulvie there
chatted with the ladies, played with the children,
and " smoked in every room of the house." Mr.
Chard, in some transactions which Mr. Roy calls
" an old story," went by the name of Alleyne, but
probably the Moulvie knew nothing about such
matters. There was also a Mr. Roy, a solicitor of
the highest respectability, who is a solicitor to the
London and Westminster Bank, and appears in the
Law List with stars and daggers, denoting that he
belongs to all the professional societies for putting
down discreditable practices, and. for protecting
everybody against fraud. Mr. Roy was also bro-
theran-law to Mr. Chard. The two brothers-in.-
law were, doubtless, won by the agreeable con-
versation and delightful society of this desirable
Mahomedan, for Nuseer Ocildeen Khan was often
at Sunbury. At last Chard and the follower
of the Prophet made an alliance offensive and
defensive against the whole world. They wrote
an agreement, and sealed it with oaths, that they
would " never cheat or deceive each other, espe-
cially in pecuniary matters." Who suggested
this extraordinary agreement we are not told,
but it seems to have been intended to secure an
advantage to the contracting parties to which the
rest of mankind were not to be admitted. When
this was done Mr. Chard, taking a deposit of some
£5OO worth of railway debentures as a collateral
security, and five signatures in blank to five dif-
ferent pieces of stamped paper, advanced his friend
the Bahadoor £5OO. These pieces of stamped
paper, were as Nuseer Khan understood, to be. filled
up for £lOO each, and then to be completed accord-
ing to the Indian custom of bills of exchange.
Subsequently he borrowed another £6OO, making
in the whole £l,lOO which he now owed Chard.
The reports which this Indian Barillon had made
to his master of his successes among English states-
men drew in due time a further remittance, and
the Moulvie, being now in funds again, wrote to
Chard to come and receive his £l,lOO and give
up his bills and railway debentures. Chard came
and took his money, but forgot to bring the bills.
The usual excuses and promises were made, and
there was a by-play in which the names of Lord
Forth and Mr. Dempster Heming appear. But as
time passed the old }Endo° grew more and more
uncomfortable, and lie seems to have grown impor-
tunate with all the members of that charming coterie
at Sunbury for a return of these five £lOO bills.
Meantime Chard had persuaded him to take his
brother-in-law, Mr. Roy, as his solicitor, and Roy in
that capacity is consulted about arrangements pre-
vious to the Moulvie's ultimate retreat to his own
country. Mr. Roy tells him that the first thing to
do is to pay his liabilities, and then for the first time
according to this ambassador's own account, which
the jury seems implicitly to have believed—Nuseer
Khan heard from Mr. Roy that there was a bill
outstanding in his name to the amount of
£6,500. Mr. Roy was quite sure that ho would
have to pay this bill. In fact, Mr. Roy, according
to his own account, had been the " vaqueel " of
his brother-in-law, Mr. Chard, and of a certain
Mr. Oakeley, in discounting it. This Mr. Oakeley
had travelled in the East, and knew all about the
Oude case. He was a client of Roy's, and he
agreed to discount the bill. He proved that he
had given £5,000 for it to Mr. Roy, who also
proved- that he had handed the money over to
Mr. Chard. Chard is unhappily in such delicate
health that he cannot appear ; but Mr. Roy, and
his partner, Mr. Cartwright came forward to ex-
plain the whole transaction. Mr. Roy was, indeed,
quite certain that before the bill was discounted he
showed it to the Moulvie, who was smoking at the
time, and gave a sort of guttural grunt affinnatory
of the proceedings. It turns out, of course, that
this bill for £6,500 is the present condition of one
out of those five pieces of stamped paper which the
Hindoo signed in blank. There are four others.
Of these, two are satisfactorily accounted for as
being filled up for sums of /1,000 each. What value
the other two may bear, or where they may be,
the report of the trial does not inform us. The
undisputed point in the case is, that the Moulvie
never received any more money than the £l,lOO.
The two points which were left for the decision of
the
e i
junryitws ecrree—atifiorzslt; lav,hlde,thseercotrihdelyb,illwwh
asethr Mr.
efraudu-
lent
Roy, at the time he was acting as solicitor for Mr.
Oakeley, who discounted it, had reason to believe
that it was a fraudulent document which his client
was discounting. The jury decided both these
questions in the affirmative, and upon reviewing
' all the circumstances we can see no reason to ques-
tion the soundness of their decision.
This case is one of the scandals of which the pre-
' sent time is far too rife. We recount its incidents
with much shame, but with no sympathy for any of
the parties concerned. The corrupt Indian jobber
who comes over here with his lacs of rupees to
bribe our public men, and who falls into the hands
of a snug little family party, is certainly neither
by his character, nor by his objects, nor by his
conduct, deserving of any pity. Mr. Oakeley,
" who had travelled in India, and knew all about
the Oude affair," most richly deserved to lose his
money when he advanced it with such knowledge.
Mr. Chard, and Mr. Dempster Homing, and Lord
Forth do not make a figure in the affair in the least
degree creditable to them. But what shall we say
to Mr. Roy, the solicitor of the London and West-
minster Bank, and a member of the Incorporated
Law Society of the United Kingdom ? We must
leave him to be dealt with by his own clients and
by his own colleagues. The moral of this case is
twofold. It shows that a man is never more liable
to be made a dupe than when he overestimates
the corruptibility of mankind. It adds, also, another
blot to the fame of our middle classes, and gives
them one more warning that their respect for cha-
racter is becoming too lax, and their toleration of
doubtful reputations dangerous to public morals.—
Times.

FATAL ACCIDENT TO A SKATER.—Yesterday ai
inquest was held before Mr. Waklcy, at the Duke of
Hamilton Tavern, New-end, Hampstead, on the body of
Mr. Thomas Pryer, aged 20, residing in Bernard-street,
Regent's-park-road, who was drowned in a pond at the
Vale of Health, Hampstead, on Thursday evening last,
while skating. The deceased, in company with his brother,
had been enjoying the pastime from eight till ten o'clock;
and when they were about to leave the ice gave way and
he was immersed. His brother tried to render him some
assistance, but was unable to do so because he was im-
mersed also, but was rescued by means of a rope. When
deceased was taken out he was unconscious, and animation
could not be restored. A verdict of accidental death was
returned,