The Sun.
London, England, 1844-12-05 00:00:00

CHAMSERS said, that in obedience to the order of
the Chief Judge in the Court of Review, the bankrupt
had attended that day before the Hon. Commissioner to
be examined touching the accuracy of his balance-sheet,
and he (Mr. Chambers) protested, against the unusual
course adopted by Mr. James, of making, in fact, an ac-
eountant, however talented or however respectable, usurp
the functions of the Learned• Commissioner, and adjudge
the case by the evidence he advanced on the occasion.
He, submitted that the Learned Commissioner could only
'found his judgment upon the examination of the bank-
rupt himself, and not on the opinion advanced by the
accountant.

Mr. JAMES_ replied to the objection, which was ulti-
mately. overruled by the Hon. Commissioner.
Th.e bankrupt was then placed in-the witness-box, and
examined by Mr. JAMES.—He had no vouchers for any
,part of the 90,000/. He never had a book of bills re-
ceivable. The date of bills due cod/ be ascertained by
.the cash-book. The dates in that book were not
'always correct, but he could not explain why they
should not be so. In some cases " lumping sums" were
set down to certain accounts, which might balance them
exactly, Ile did not put thim down, nor did he intend
that they should be so balanced. His intention was to pay
General Wyndham's bills when they became due. He
had not done so. They were all dishonoured.
, After some further examination the matter was ad-
journed for two months, in order that the bankrupt
might furnish vouchers, where that c.,uld be done, or
give the names of the parties to whom the amounts had
been given, and the dates at which those payments were
made.

MIDDLESEX SESSIONS.
Before the ASSISTANT JUDGE end a full Bench o

Magistrates)
A seafaring, man, named Thnmas George Chalk, was
indicted for stealing three sheets and a blanket, the
property of William Green. In another indictment the
prisoner was charged with stealing the same articles,
being the property of the governors and subscribers of
the Sailors' Home Asylum.
It appeared by the evidence of several inmates of the
asylum, that the prisoner gained admission to the insti-
tution as a casually destitute seaman, on the night of the
27th of. November, and when leaving the room in the
morning where he slept, he was observed to take from off
the bed the articles named in the indictment, which he
tied up with a piece of tape, and walked down stairs, for
the purpose of leaving the asylum. Information was,
however, given to some of the officers of the institution,
and the prisoner was brought back, when he endeavoured
tq get rid of the property by hiding it behind a bed in
the corner .of the room.
The jury, after a consultation of nearly an hour, re-
turned a verdict of Guilty.
' The ASSISTANT-JUDGE, in pronouncing sentence upon
the prisoner, commented strongly upon his base ingrati-
tude in attempting to.rob an asylum, the objects of which
were of a charitable nature, and where he had himself
been relieved. The sentence of the Court was, that he
be imprisoned and kept to hard labour in the House of
Correction for six calendar months.
John Bamin, aged thirteen years, was indicted for
stealing a till containing various moneys, which. were
described as the property of Thomas Wells and others.
The circumstances of the case were of rather a sin-
gular nature. It appeared that a person, named Sweet-
man, who kept a shop in Charlotte-street, Fitzroy-
square,- became bankrupt, when his property and pre-
mises were handed, over to the keeping of one of the
messengers in bankruptcy. On the 28th of November
the prisoner entered the shop of Mr. Sweetman, and
crawled on his hands and knees behind the counter, from
whence he took the till and moneys, and tried to get out
of the shop. The messenger of the Bankruptcy Court,
however, heard the noise, and took the prisoner into
custody.
Mr. O'BRIEN, on the part of the prisoner, contended
that the indictment could not be supported, inasmuch as
the property was described as belonging to Wells, who
was only the trlde assignee, whilst in point of law the
moment an assignee was appointed to a bankrupt's
estate all the property became vested in the official
assignee, who in this case was Mr. Groome. The
earned Counsel having quoted several authorities in
support of his position,
The COURT held that the objection was fatal to the
indictment, and desired the jury to bring in an ac-
quittal, which was accordingly done, and the prisoner
left the bar.

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE,
ROME ClRCUlT—Chelmsford, Dec. 4.
The commission of gaol delivery for the county of
E9sex was opened on Tuesday evening, and this
morning Mr. Justice Williams attended Divine ser-
vice, and immediately afterwards took his seat on the
bench in the Court. The number of prisoners is not
very great, but the charges are of the most serious
description, including murder, arson, sending threaten-
ing letters, and indeed all the most grave offences
known to the law.
The Learned JUDGE, in his charge to the grand
jury, said that with regard to a charge of murder
against a man named John Young, it would be a
material question for them to consider whether the
cause of death was clearly made out, and whether it
was established as the result of violence, or whether
it might not have arisen from accident or natural
causes, There was another charge of murder, against
two persons named William Walton and Mary
Charlotte Field Lorkin ; and there was this pecu-
liarity in the case, that whereas the parties were
charged with the murder of an infant, of which the
female had been delivered, no trace of the
body of the deceased had been discovered,
and for all that there appeared positively by
evidence to the contrary, the infant might still be
alive. It was. a case certainly involving very grave
suspicion, but the grand jury would consider whether,
upon suspicion only, they ought to find a true bill,
recollecting, as they would do, that if the accused
were sent to trial upon imperfect evidence and were
acquitted, that whatever evidence might afterwards
be obtained would be of no avail, as the subject would
be then closed for ever, and the guilty parties, if guilty
they really were, would altogether escape. He also
observed a case in the calender in which two pri-
soners, one a boy of thirteen, were charged with
firing a stack, and it appeared by the depositions that
the younger prisoner bad stated before the magis-
I. tratea that. he. led put fire, to a hedge to destroy .a
wasp's nest. If the grand jury believed that this was
his original intention, and that he, in the first instance,

Lien, adjourned Riue die. The present proceedings arose
I out of an order by the Chief Judge of the Court of Re-
view that the matter should be ref rred hack to the
Court of Bankruptcy for re-examination the Huth.
Commissioner.
Mr. Edwin James appeared for the assignees and for
a creditor named Thompson, Mr. Montagu Chambers
attended fer the bankrupt, and Mr Bagley tor Mrs. An-
drews, another of the creditors.
• Mr. EDWIN JAMES, having briefly recapitulated th-
leading facts which led to the adjournment of libe bank-
rupt's examination,, with fixing a thy for his passing,
and having read the order from the Court of Review,
added that it would that day be the duty of the assignees
to examine fully into the correctness of the bankrupt's
accounts. He had indeed filed a sheet which was par-
ticularly intricate, and as he (Mr. James) was instructed,
anything but satisfactory. The transactions therein
stated extended over a period ranging from 1823 to
1843, the date of the fiat. The debts amounted to some
121,0001.; the to 80,0011 more, making, in all,
about 200,0001. But there 'were sonic of the transac-
tions so singularly striking, so very extraordinary, that,
on first sight, they might be deemed altogether impro-
bable. The bankrupt had been what is termed a
scrivener; he raised money for parties upon annuities
or otherwise ; his transactions had been of a most
extended character, 'and yet all the books pro-
duced by him to that Court were only two in
number—a cash-book and a ledger. The ledger, how-
ever, was itself no voucher, but a mere echo of the cash-
book. Was the bare fact not a startling one, that a man
supposed to carry on cash operations to an amount above
a million of money, could do so with only one cash-book.
He asked if it were possible to do so? .That cash-book
was also grossly inaccurate in its details, and dated only
from 1835, for some book which had existed before that
period had been destroyed. They were not told
why, but he (Mr. James) could, perhaps, assign a
reason: At that time a bill had been filed against the
bankrupt by Lord Glammis, and when called upon to
produce the book it was discovered that it had been
destroyed: That was certainly a remarkable coincidence
if nothing more He (Mr. James) would now draw his
Honour's attention to some of the features in the case.
The bankrupt's profits appeared to have been about
5,0001 a year, and yet, when he came to that Court,
there was one sum of 90,0001.
,charged for discounts
and commission. They had not had one voucher
for even 5/. of that amount. Not one voucher
from the man who had. 5,0001. a year, and who yet
charged 90,0001 in his sheet for discount and com-
mission. It was preposterous. But that sum of
90,0004 large as it was. had to be increased by
15,0001., which he had charged against another
when he himself, and he only, was personally
liable for it. The Learned Counsel then entered
into a detail of the bankrupt's transactions with Lord
Kensington—transactions running over a term of years,
and involving accounts upon bills and annuities—the
considerable sums realised, with scarcely an ex-
ception, having been appropriated by the bankrupt
to.. his own purposes. The discount then upon
the amount so appropriated by the bankrupt being
15,000/., would, if added to the 90,0001 unaccounted for,
make 105,004/. There were 'Other 'transactions of a
similar kind with Major-General Wyndham. The
bankrupt, on the 11th November' 1842, a time when he
was notoriously embarrassed, had written a letter
to that gentleman, stating that he had an
excellent opportunity of investing money to
considerable advantage, and he persuaded General
Wyndham to entrust him with bills to the amount of
18,000/. These he discounted for his own use at 40 or
so per cent., and he had new got, of course, to account
for the money. He also got General Wyndham to ad-
vance him 10,0004, in two notes of 5,0001. each, under
pretence of lending them to, a man named Youde, at a
large rate of interest ; but that amount also he retained
in his own hand. Such was but a specimen
of the, manner in which his business was trans-
aeted. His transactions in bills were very
large indeed, but though he had a book of bills payable
he had exhibited none of bills receivable. That there
had been such a book was perfectly clear, for it would
have been impossible to carry on such a business without
it. The profits accruing from bills of costs amounted in
one year to 23,000/., yet the drafts of those bills had
been also destroyed.
Mr. W. C. Wright, accountant for the assignees, was
then called, and verified the statements advanced by the
Learned Counsel.