The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-13 00:00:00

Cbtrb VErittion

TH FUNDS—(CLOSING rtticEs).
• BRITISH FUNDS,
Bank Stock ................ 200% Indian Stock '-- Pin
9 per Cent. Rect. ..... ..... 99 Mtn Bonds
9 per Cent. Cons. ..... .... 100)4 Ditto Old Annuities
9% Ott gait. Red "...... 1034 Ditto New Annuities —
New 3%-per Cent...." 101% Ex. Bills, 1,00C11.1101... 74 put.
New 5 per Cent............ Ditto 5001 ........ ....... 74 pin.
Long Annuities to expire Ditto 5ma11.... .....
.1. 1860'........... 12 7.16 :Bank Stock for Acct....
o*t. 1659............ 12% Consols for Acct.......... 1001,
Jan. 18604.......... 12 India: Stock for Acct ...
OREIGN FUNDS.
Austrian. S per Cent ..., ..... -- ;Portuguese, 5 per Cent —
Belgian, 5 per Cent —i Ditto, New Ditto
Brazilian Bonds .............. .Prussian, 5 per Cent ...
Buenos Ayres, 6 per Cant... , Russian, 5 per C,ent
Cblilian, ft per Cent .......... Ditto, Metallic .........
Colombian, 6 pee Cent....." 15% Spanish, 5 per Cent 26%
Ditto, 1824......... '-% .... ..... . Ditto, 3 per Cent 37
Cuba Bonds, 6 per Cent"..... 99 !Ditto, Deferred 15%
Danish S per Cent ... 'French, 5 per Cent...." —1" —e•
. ......
Greek, 183, 5 per Cent — ;Exchange —f. —c.
MeXican, 5 per Cent
Ditto. n per Cent., 183'1.-- 'Dutch, 2,/, per Cent...... GOla
Peruvian, 1825, 6 per Cent — , Ditto, 5 per Cent .... ..... 100%
SHARES.
,1 Birmingham and Derby (100 paid, e2)4
Birmingham and Gloucester (100 paid)... ...... ...... Iv%
... Ditto -New !17% daid)
Chester and Holyhead ( spaid)
51 Du4ln and Cashel (2).i paid)
12ti
• • iriatera Counties (23 laud)
14%
' . Ditto Registered (1116 s 8d paid)
/Edinburgh and Glasgow (50 paid)
great Western (75 paid)
• Ditto Half Shares (50 paid)
Ditto Fifths (12 paid)
Harwieh (Braithwaite) (2 paid)
Will and Selby (50 paid)
Lancaster and Carlisle ( 5 paid) 7
Liverpool and Manchester (100 paid) 227
Lonion and Brighton (50 paid)
London and Greenwich (121.1!:s. 4d. paid) ......
London and South Western (411. 6s. 10d. paid) B4
Manchester and Birmingham
Midland Counties (100 paid)
Newcastle and Darlington Junction (13 paid)
North Midland (100 paid)
Norwich and Brandon ( 2 paid) 7%
South Eastern and Dover (35ths 4d paid) ......
York and Scarborough Branch (2)s paid)
Paris and Orleans (20 paid)
Strasbourg and Bale (14 paid) II%
, .. _

THE WILLS FORGERIES.
CRIMINAL COURT.-(T HIS DAY.)

OLD COURT.

(Continued from our Afternoon Edition.)
Mr. Gnza.vits then proceeded to address the jury in de-
fence of Fletcher. He commenced by adverting to the diffi-
culties with which the jury had to deal in. a case of so
complicated nature as the present, and pointed out that the
evidence was not to be considered in the same way as evi-
dence in ordinary cases, where it applied to only one person
orao:one state of circumstances. But here the evidence was
Of a most varied nature, part of which could not be consi-
dered as having any reference whatever to his client; and
the parts which did apply he begged them to look upon in
the light of evidence affecting a man who, up to the present
time, bore an irreproachable character. The prosecution, he
admitted, was most fairly and candidly opened, but he
begged the jury not to allow themselves to be swayed too
much by that opening, for men were really likely to suffer
themselves to be carried away by that which appeared fair,
open, and candid. He contended, notwithstanding the observa-
tions of the Learned Attorney-General, that the ends of justice
would be best obtained 'by a separate trial. His Learned
Friend, in opening the case, had said it was an indictment for
forging a bond, but had abstained from stating why he thought
it forgery. The Learned Gentleman then defined what he
considered forgery, and proceeded to argue that his client
was not liable to any charge of the nature of forgery. It
was quite a fallacy to hold this in the light of a pro-
seoution for. forgery of a bond, when it was clearly
a prosecution for ()Veining money from the Ftinds• under
false pretence& The Learned Gentleman then proceeded to
address himself to the evidence adduced for the prosecution,
and contended that the evidence which had been brought to
prove that John Stewart was a native of Scotland had failed,
and 'there was nothing adduced which shntild lead to the
belief that John Stewart Was not borwrin Marylebone.
There had been no such direct and plain evi-
dence -of his being a native of Scotland as wa=
in: the •:power of the prosecution to give by
.show-
ing( that his accent was that of a Scotchman.
With, respect to the part of the evidence referring to the
lady named Stewart, ne submitted that there was no proof
'whatever of his client ever having known that lady, save by
the name of Stewart. Letters came to her in that name,
and,: his client had no ' other means than they
furnished of ascertaining her name. The evidence of
Hartwell was conclusive in this respect,
and he submitted that this was a most important considera-
fibs_ in favour of his client. The Learned Gentleman dwelt
at'considerable length on this part of the subject, and con-
cluded that the -evidence in this part of the case must be
cnnstrued in a favourable light to his client. One of the
charges which had chiefly been brought by the prosecution
to fasten on his client was, his having incited and stimu-
lated, the old lady to commit the forgery of the bond.
It was a strange thing to charge a man with inciting another
to- forge. a bond, when there was no proof whatever that lie
thought such a bond necessary at all. Why should he make
the Woman forge the bond, when.he did not consider such a
bend requisite ? Besides, there was no proof, he submitted,
that his client had; incited the old lady to commit the alleged
forgery ; at least there was not enough of evidence to warrant
the jury in coming,-to the conclusion that Fletcher wa.
aiv accessory Before therfact of the forgery, for that was the.
charge brought against him, and not that he *as a principal
in that alleged crime. As to the question of transfer of Stock.
he would not advert to it ; because there was no proof that
his client had been to the Bank on such business. But with
respect to the conversion of the notes into gold by Fletcher.
his having openly put Mrs. Stewart's name upon them showed
that-he was not conscious of any guilt in the transaction.
After dwelling at some further length on the minor points t
the evidence. the Learned Gentleman concluded-by request-
ing the jury, if they had any doubts whatever on the ques-
tion of the guilt of his client, to give him the benefit of those
dotibte,..and by assuring the Court and jury, that he left the
case in their hands, with the most unbounded confidence in
their sense of justice, in, whatever decision they might
come to.

Mr. E. JAMES then proceeded to address the jury for Mrs.
Dorey. He asked them, looking at the confession which his
client had made, whether that document showed a guilty
Nrticipation in the subject-matter of the present charge.
The criminal law of the land was clear on the subject, and it
was also compatible with - common sense, and with natural
justice- ft was not only necessary to prove participa-
tion in the crime charged, but also participation in
it, with felonious and guilty knowledge at the time that
the crime charged.was intended to be committed. That wa,
the law of the land on the subject, and as such .it was laid
down in a recent case by Mr. Justice Patteson, in the
clearest terms. He alluded to the case of the Queen v.
Crew, 8 Carrington and Payne, 541,. where the party ac-
oused was criminal ; but as it was not proved that
he had a guilty knowledge of the intention to commit
the crime at the time, Mr. Justice Patteson decided
that guilty participation was not proved. There WAS
therefore the highest authority for his position, that guilty
participation could not be proved unless guilty and felonious
knowledge of the intended crime at the time was also proved
It Was necessary, therefore, to look at the precise part which
his client had taken in the matter.
(The trial, was proceeding when we went to press.)

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM TM? MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAT.
TIMES.--If there ever was a judicial appointment
which might have been expected to pass as of course, and
against which nut a voice,_even of the most furious par-
tisan, could have been raised, we should have pronounced
it 10brtnight ago to be that of Sir Frederick Pollock to
the vacant Chief BarOny of the Exchequer. An At-
tortiey-Genetai is appointed upon the clear, though tacit
tinderstaoding, that unless circumstances arise during his
iture- of office which betray his manifest unfitness for
Itni,tation of a chief Judge, he shall be promoted to that
traitW bit the first opportunity. It often happens that
the leading. advocate of the day, whose services the Go-
vernment have found it necessary to secure as Attorney-
. General, from the bent of his mind or the keenness of
hie polities, ia, or is thought to be, peculiarly unfitted
for judicial employment. He has, nevertheless, been al-
ways appointed. On the present occasion no such diffi-
culty exists. In legal knowledge, in temper, discretion,
%rid integrity, Sir F. Pollock is eminently—nay, com-
pared with many law officers of the Crown, perhaps un-
usually, fitted for the office of judge ; and his uniform
conduct in the obnoxious office which he has occupied
• durieg a somea hat trying crisis will be acknowledged to
.fu;nish no ordinary guarantee against the partisanship
'which is sometimes to be feared from a promoted At-
t4)rney-General. A Wbig Contemporary, has been
_pleased, with a creditable desire of making mis-
chief if possible, to discover the extreme impolicy and
impropriety of not conferring the vacant appointment on
one of the existing piisne judges, and has paid Baron
Parke—of whom, in his judicial capacity, it is impossible
tO speak too highly—the compliment of selecting him as
.4person foolish enough to take offence, if the ordinary
rules of promotion are not suspended in his favour.
/cow, the immediate practical question appears to us to
lie fist a nutshell. It is necessary for the public service
;that tbe. office of Attorne -General should be ably tilled.
.Thin ha's to be pai4 for; andY
part of the payment is the
Iwiereleu of the great le al offices. The prospect 01
those enables the Crown tog command, as it ought to do,
the services of tho great lawyers of the day. The
prospect of these is their inducement to incur the risk
and the sacrifice which aro often consequent on the ac-
ceptance of this (Ace. There is no doubt that Sir F.
Pclleek, upon this understanding—not indeed reduced
to writing, signed or sealed, but distinctly recognised
, both, by the Minister who nominated him and the pro-
fession from which he was chosen—vlid actually sacrifice
ii-reat part of his income arising from circuit practice
in .the interval between his resignation of Office in 18:35
an'l the accession of the present Ministers to power. In
honour and equity, though not in law, the case is simply
- tme of contract. Tho Attorney-General has performed
, his en,agernent to the public—it now rests with the
public to perform theirs to him. Any attempt to evade
.
its performance on the plea of a supposed inconvenience
n of the contracting parties would be mere
fraud.:-7' '
The bargain, if it was a bad one, should have
protested
when it was concluded; it is too
-Alit.? to complaina4.noli‘rvistt het we are called upon to act upon
We are not of those who think that the nation
made to be swindled, or that the same care, atten-
v•tiovi, and economy are not to be required from public as
• from private 'errant.. But neither do
hwpeecoone throughnlsiderthat
the nation is privileged to swindle.
their Government have the capacity of involvingthem-
'ocadves in every species of direct and indirect engagement.
e Without such a capacity, the body politic could not exist
~Ifer, a month. By the acts and engagements of their
• agent,, the people must abide ; and among such engage-
', meats. musebe reckoned all those various understandings,
i tacit or express, by which the public business is carried
on. It is not enough to show that the bargain might
have been more conveniently, or providently, or advan-
tageously struck. It has been concluded by authorised
parties. Unless fraud or collusion can be shown, it is
kifinding, stud we must perform it in the shape in which
• our telpresentatives have fixed it upon upon us. Sir F.
. Pollak is likely to snake a very good Chief Baron, and
itis'tbere fore factious as well as disilOnett to oppose his
-•• osevation to that office. But were his qualifications far
satisfactory than they are, it would still be:•e-ne of
thosemanymin where publiC lionbbisLotild require
,jitifilo.,lB4.47iilW of public t.# privrae. iateruwi.
.1 44u.