The Sun.
London, England, 1828-10-31 00:00:00

EXTENSIVE FORGERY.

Another extensive forgery, or rather series of
forgeries, has been discovered in the city, under
circumstances of a very peculiar and remarkable
nature, such as may probably (fired general at-
tention to the state of the law as regards the
punishment for this crime, the inefficiency of
. which is now proved by almost daily recurring
instances. The particulars of the present case
are as follows :—The person who has committed
the forgeries was in some credit as a merchant,
and resided in one of the lanes leading into
Fenchurch-street. He contrived, through the
medium of a friend, to obtain an introduction
to an eminent monied house, • with which he
established by degrees a regular connexion for
discounting such bills as were presumed to be
created in the course of his business, and which
were uniformly drawn on persons of the high-
est credit and respectability, chiefly residing
in the north of England. As these bills
were regularly taken up when they arrived
at maturity, the arrangement went on unsus-
pected for a very long time, and new bills, as
the old ones disappeared, were regularly pre-
sented for discount, the bowie which gave the
accommodation, however, having constantly a
large amount of them, between 5;-11,0/. and
6,0001., on hand. It chanced that a banker
with whom the partners, who are all members of
the Society of Friends, are intimate, was shown
one of the forged bills, which was drawn' on an
eminent manufacturer in the north, whose busi-
ness in London this banker had been accustomed
to transact. To his surprise he found that the
hill prod:iced was made payable at another hank-
ing-house. He conceived no suspicion on that
account that the bill was a forged one ; but wrote
to the manufacturer to learn wily he had broken
off the connection with his house, whose an-
swer of course exposed the true character of the
transaction. The holders of the bill now dis-
covered that the whole of the bills received,
from the same quarter were forged ones ;
but in the hope of being spared the pain of a
criminal prosecution, they resolved to keep the
discovery to themselves, expecting that the bills
would be provided for, as had heretofore been
the case, when due. All the bills which had
been passed by them into other hands they sent
for, and paid the amount. The person who
had committed the forgeries had not, mean time,
the least suspicion of the discovery, but sent a
fresh batch of bills, through his former agent,
for discount, in order to raise funds for taking
up those becoming due. The house which dis-
counted them could not of course go on, and
they communicated to his agent that the bills
were all forgeries. The individual who brought
the bills, and who knew nothing of their being
forged, offered to assist in any steps that might
be thought advisable for bringing the o.Tender to
• justice, and the forger was sent for to his office,
where the partners of the house which had been
defrauded met him, and charged him with the
crimes lie had committed, which he could not
deny, but threw himself on their mercy. The
most extraordinary part of the story it to follow.
The sole study of the individuals who had
him thus in custody, though what will be
characterised every where as false and mis-
taken notions of humanity, was, not how
to bring him to justice, but how to
save from him the consequences of his offence.
His friends were sent for, that means might be
devised for taking up the hills which were' in the
hands of other persons, from whom the same
lenity could not be expected as from themselves,
and having effected all that was possible in this
way, they unlocked the door of the room in
which the culprit was confined, and bade him
go forth and seek his safety where he could, for
that no considerations should induce them to
incur the reproach, for any such cause, of taking
away the life of a fellow-creature. Had any
punishment short of death been awarded by the
law for this crime, they would not have held
back from a duty to society, but their reluctance
to the other alternative was not to be overcome.
The criminal therefore has escaped, and as this
scene occurred nearly a fortnight ago, is pro-
bably by this time far on his way to America.
The house which has practised this extraordinary
forbearance, is a loser by his forgeries of more
than 5,0001. ; the only other bill out, and which
could be brought forward as proof of forgery, is
about 900/. and is in the hands of a banker near
the Ro a g
E h
' c ane.
They extent to which forgeries have recently
been carried in the city is past all belief'; for
owing to the abhorrence felt to the punishment
inflicted for the
crane, the parties in a great ma-
jority of cases are suffered to escape. In the
course of our inquiries after the particulars of iJ
the forgery detailed above, we met with several I

well-authenticated instances. One banker, only
in the present week, suffered a bill to be taken
up at his counter, though he had a full proof at
the time that it was a forgery, and that the cri-
minal himself was at that moment presenting the
money for it. Others, by the Importunities of
the families of the criminals, aided by their own
feelings, have been induced in other cases to
hold back from prosecution. The bankers are
almost in despair at the dangerous situation in
which these repeated forgeries place them ; but
the predominant feeling in the city is, neverthe-
less, averse from a criminal prosecution.— Tames.