The Sun.
London, England, 1857-09-10 00:00:00

THE ROYAL BRITISH BANE.

It has been pretty generally rumoured, within the last
few days, that the trial of the directors, and the other
persons charged with being concerned in this gigantic
swindle, would take place at the October or November
session of the Central Criminal Court, and that the
ordinary session would be specially adjoured to a parti-
cular period for that purpose, as in the case of Palmer.
It appears, howevsr, that the officials of that court have
not received any notification on the subject, and there
is very little doubt that the trial will take place in the
Court of Queen's Bench during the November term. No
indictments have been at present preferred4Wtinst any
of the defendants in the ordinary form, but the Attorney
General, in his official capacity, has informed the Court
"That certain persons (whose names ho mentioned), he
had reason to believe, had been guilty of a misdemeanour,
in having unlawfully conspired and combined together
t ) obtain divers large sums of money, by means of false
and fraudulent pretences." Upon this information the
Court of Queen's Bench issued its process for the appre-
hension of the persons named in the information, and
Mr. Humphrey Brown, Alderman Kennedy, Mr. Came-
ron, manager of the bank, and several others, were
wrested and held to bail to answer the charges made
against them. Under ordinary circumstances, a charge
of this character would be properly brought for inves-
tigation before the. Central Criminal Court ; but the
Court of Queen's Bench, being the highest court in
the kingdom both in criminal and civil matters, hav-
ing initiated the proceedings against the parties,
would not delegate to an inferior jurisdiction the power
t ► dispose of the matter, and the trial will there-
fore no doubt take place in the Court of Queen's
Bench before Lord Chief-Justice Campbell. During the
interval that has elapsed since the former inquiry into
the affairs of the Royal British Bank, it is understood
that a close investigation has been instituted into all the
accounts with a view to ascertain whether there is any
case of securities having been made away with that were
Atpresent, it
deposited with the bank with writtan instructions. This
is made a felony by a special Act of Parliament, and Sir
that to
a support John Paul and his partners were convicted under that
Iplowrteualdharge of
bu
that C betp,
r in
e.
appearsstat u t e ,
thatand sentencede no
such
case t o transportation.ha been
discovered
the
edveesnctr description, there
o being
evidence
pre-
ferred before lt is probable
the grand jury at the Central Criminal
e trial Court. It is said that whenever th
al shall be ap-
pointed to take place, the defendants wr.. •'1
naa.ka An appli-
cation to be tried separately, the object of this Ricceeding
being to confine the evidence to the partictagi person
under charge, and thus exclude a good deal of evidence
as to the fraudulent intentions of the parties, and the
general combir.ation between them. The application will,
doubtless, be strongly opposed on the part of the Crown,
ar d it is to be hoped, for the sake of public justice, that
no technicality will be allowed to interfere to prevent the
whole of the facts connected with this disgraceful affair
from being brought before the jury and the public, in
order that those persons proved to have been
the punishmentooncerned
in these enormous frauds may receive
they so justly deserve.