The Sun.
London, England, 1844-07-05 00:00:00

THE LATE WILL FORGERY
CASES.

it is well known that the convicts Barber and Fletcher
have been some time on board the convict-ship Agincourt,
lying off Woolwich, under orders to sail for the penal settle-
ments on Thursday, the 4th instant. On Wednesday morn-
ing Barber's attorney, Mr. Peckham, received the docu
ment of which the following is a copy from the officer in
charge of the convicts, and instantly hastened to the Home-
office in order to submit it to Sir J. Graham.
Up to a late hour on Wednesday no answer had been re-
ceived :

" FURTHER DECLARATION OF JOSHUA FLETCHER.

"It may be• proper that I should add, in furtherance of
the declaration I made on the 28th day of June last, that to
the best of my knowledge and belief, William Henry Barber
had no knowledge of Mrs. Richards other than as Miss
Stewart, of .Mrs. Dorey than as Miss Burchard, of William
Saunders than as Thomas Hunt, or of Lydia Saunders than
as Emma Slack, they having respectively represented them-
selves to him in my presence as Elizabeth Stewart, Eliza
Burchard, Thomas Hunt, and Emma Slack.

." With reference to the will of Ann Slack, he could have no
knowledge whatever of it until Mrs. Saunders, personating
Emma Slack, produced such will to him' in my presence ;
and from the manner in which the several matters were in-
troduced to him, and appearances preserved, there was
nothing to excite the suspicion of a prudent solicitor.
" I was a client of Barber's of some years' standing, and of
. - sibue
first became my solicitor. He read the will with attention,
and asked several questions, which Mrs. Saunders answered
without any apparent embarrassment, and to satisfy his in-
quiries she produced to him a certificate of the registry of her
aunt's death at Pimlico; and I feel further bound to state,
that Mrs. Saunders presented herself to Mr. Barber disguised,
wearing light hair, and affecting to have the gout in her
hands and feet, which seemed to support her alleged relation-
ship with the assumed testatrix, who appeared from the cer-
tificate produced to have died of gout. And to the best of my
knowledge and belief, Mr. Barber had no share of, or other
participation in, the proceeds of the above transactions, or
either of them, beyond the proper and usual professional re-
muneration.

" I shoal also state, that he has been concerned for me as
my solicitor generally, and that I had employed him to nego-
tiate terms with several parties whom I had traced out as the
true owners of unclaimed dividends, and who were put into
possession of such property ; so that he had no reason to sus-
pect any of the cases for which he has been prosecuted to be
in the slightest degree irregular or improper.
" It was under my instructions that he wrote to Captain
Foskett, and the object of which was to ascertain if his sister-
in-law was the owner of the stock. I reported to Mr. Barter
that she was not the owner of such stock, as her handwrit-
ing was totally dissimilar, and as the owner of it had executed
a power of attorney upwards of ten years before, which Capt.
Foskett's sister-in-law was then incompetent to have done,
she being at that time, from Captain Foskett's own statement,
a minor. The report Iso made was grounded upon informa-
tion which I received from Christmas, the Bank clerk.
" If the application made by Mr. Barber, to be tried sepa-
rately, so that he might have elicited the whole truth by call-
ing myself and the other parties accused, had not been re-
sisted by the prosecution, he must have been not only ac-
quitted, but completely exonerated from the slightest cul-
pability.
" As I understand it has been stated that I have refused to
admit .Mr. Barber's innocence, I feel called upon to contradict
this, and to state, that I had only objected to sign or declare
that which might have a tendency to prudice myself.
" JOSHUA FLETCHER."

" The above statement was committed to writing by me
from the instructions of Joshua Fletcher,
" WILLIAM M'CALLUM."

" Signed by Joshua Fletcher, in presence of
• " CHARLES HENRY FULLER, Surgeon, R.N.,
Superintendent Agincourt convict-ship.
" On board the Agincourt, 2d day of July, 1844."

POST-OFFICE .ARRANGEMENTS.—In our paper last
week we stated, that after the 6th instant, the mails going
northwards from London would start an hour earlier in the
mornings and evenings, and that there would be no altera-
tion of the time of the mails leaving Edinburgh, Glasgow,
and the intermediate post towns. However, it turns out that
further arrangements have been made, for the mails going
southwards from the metropolis of Scotland and other places
will start nearly two hours later. This arrangement will
afford the people in the north an opportunity of answering
their London letters two hours earlier than usual, for now
they cannot do so within five or six hours after their arrival
in the north. The Post- office authorities are using their
best endeavours in facilitating the expeditious transit of let-
ters, which Will be duly appreciated by the public.

LICENSED VICTUALLERS' SCHOOL.—The dinner
of the supporters and subscribers to the funds by which this
school is partly supported, took place on' ednesday, at White
Conduit-house, Pentonville. It was very numerously at-
tended, nearly 1,200 persons sitting down to the good things
provided by Mr. Rouse, the proprietor, beneath an immense
temporary building of wood and canvass, decorated with
flags, devices, and pictures emblematical of benevolence and
charity, evergreens, flowers, &c. In the gallery were some
hundreds of ladies who enlivened the proceedings by their
presence. The musical arrangements were under the direc-
tion of Mr. Ashton, assisted by upwards of a dozen profes-
sional vocalists. Mr. Toole, the toast-master, kept the order
of the drinking, and announced in his usual manner the com-
mands of the chairman, Mr. W. Wigram, of the firm of Reid
and Co., supported by Mr. Octavius Wigram, Mr. W. Reid,
&c. There were also present many persons of high respecta-
bility connected with the beer and spirit trades. The healths
of the Queen, of Prince Albert, and of the other members
of the Royal Family, of the Army and Navy, of the Chair-
man, and the toast of the evening, " Success to the School,"
&c., were drunk with great loyalty and enthusiasm, and se-
veral speeches were made, but so great was the noise of
thousands of voices, that excepting to those close to the
speakers, it was impossible to catch the words of the
speakers. The amount of subscriptions was considerably
above 1,0001., the chairman giving 501., and Messrs. Reid
and Co. 1001., it being the thirty-second subscription of an
equal sum. In the course of the evening the children edu.•
cated at the school entered the room, and one of the boys
spoke an address written for the occasion. The whole of the
boys and girls than sang a hymn, and retired. The company
did not separate till several hours after. _

SERIOUS ILLNESS OF MR. J. SbHOLEFIELD, M.P.
--We regret to hear that serious apprehensions are enter-
tained of the ultimate restoration to health of the Honour-
able Member for Birmingham, who, we lament to state, is so
dangerously ill that his family has been summoned to his
chamber. We understand that the Honourable Gentleman
was seized with a paralytic attack on Monday week, the
24th ult., the result of which has been the loss of the use of
one side. Op Sunday last the worst fears were entertained,
but on Monday his medical attendants considered him some-
what better. On inquiry on Wednesday we were informed that
Mr. Scholefield had passed a restless night, and was rather
worse. Mrs. Scholefield and the members of her family are
in town with the Hon. Gentleman, as also the family physician
from Birmingham.
A NUT FOR THE PARIS CHARIVARI.—The Prince
of Join Ville is in great dudgeon that the Emperor of Russia
should be lauded for contributing 5001. to the Wellington and
Nelson statues. " What is it compared to what we did?"
observed his Royal Highness to Admiral Mackau. " Didn't
we contribute the bronze?' "—Punch,