The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-29 00:00:00

THE WILLS' FORGERIES.

The following facts may be relied on respecting the
prisoner Fletchr, one of the persons in custody for
.an alleged participation in the extensive forgeries and
fraudulent transfers, which have caused so extraor-
dinary a sensation :—Fletcher, some three years since,
carried on the business of a chemist and druggist in
the London-road, nearly opposite the Philanthropic
Asylum. Thence he removed to Westmorelknd-build-
info, Southampton-street, Camberwell; and while there
purchased ground, and erected for himself a handsome
residence at the end of Brunswick-street, Walworth.
About 18 months since he married a young lady belong-
ing to a respectable family. She then resided at Peck-
ham, with a married sister named Panson, and as-
sisted in conducting a preparatory school. The
circumstances connected with the origin of the ac-
quaintance were somewhat peculiar. Fletcher first
saw the lady in an omnibus ; and struck with her
person and manners, ext.tided his journey to Peckham;
instead of termi-ating it at Camberwell. Having ascer-
tained by inquiry tlie in iy's name and residence, he
called at her sister's house, obtained an. interview,
made known the object of his visit, and, against the
wishes of her family, became the accepted suitor for her
hand. The now unhappy lady is on the eve of accouche-
menk and is, we need hardly say, in the deepest afflic-
lion, caused by the perilews position of her hus-
band. It is due to Fletcher; to state' that he
has tak - measures to secure a provision for his
wiferaild the child of which she is about to become
a mother, in the event, of his being found guilty of the
serious charge- of which he stands accused. Mr.
Bircham, the partner of Barber, another of the accused
parties, was in Court yesterday during the examination
before the Lord Mayor. It was stated by a gentleman
with whoM we were in conversation, that Mr. Bircham
is -eitremely anxious for .an immediate dissolution of
the partnership, to obtain which he paid Barber so large
a sum ; and that the latter requires two hundred
pounds, as a premium for dissolving the connexion.—
Evening Paper.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
PROM TEE EVENING PAPERS OF SATURDAY.
GLOBE.—A " demonstration," such as, under
the circumstances, we believe to be unprecedented,
as it was certainly unprovoked by anything in the
conduct of the magistrate against whom it was ha-
zarded, took place yesterday at the Mansion-house
during the examination of the parties accused of the
will forgeries. Mr. Wilkins, who appeared as
counsel for Mrs. Dorey, one of the prisoners, took
occasion to remark upon a decision by the Lord
Mayor, that a portion of evidence, the reception of
which had been opposed by Mr. Chambers, was pro-
perly admissible—
" I do not wonder at the decision, when I know that one
of the magistrates of the City of London has visited that
poor woman (pointing to Mrs. Dorey), who is suffering from
illness, and has been tampering with her.
The Lord Mayor—You are making, Mr. Wilkins, an
assertion which is grossly false and untrue.
"Mr. Wilkins—My Lord Mayor, I accuse you of that eon-
duct. Such are my instructions.
" The Lord Mayor—Your instructions tell you, then, that
which is false and untrue.
" Mr. Wilkins—My Lord, permit me to say—
" The Lord Mayor—No, Sir, I will not hear you ; attend to
me. The fact is, the woman sent for me ; l went to the
prisen, as it was my duty, as a magistrate, to go. She told
me she was desirous to make a declaration to me. I declined
to hear her, and desired her to confide her case to her solicitor
and professional advisers, and not to send to or make any
atatenient to me.—(Loud cheers from the audience.)"
We often hear of the privileges of the Bar. The
licentiousness of speech in which the Old Bailey bar-
risters have indulged from time immemorial, has
passed into a proverb from an experience of its truth.
This licentiousness has been hitherto confined to
squabbles with each other ; bullying of witnesses in
cross-examination; outraging decency when addressing
a jury for the defence ; occasionally pressing a point
after the presiding judge has given his decision ; or
cracking coarse jokes with the Common Sergeant at
aft after-dinner sitting of the Court. It remained,
however, for Mr. Wilkins—who is, we believe, a new
importation from the provinces—to aspire to pre-
eminence in the worst characteristics of the Bar,
by this bold experiment on magisterial endurance.
There is said to be but one step between the
sublime and the ridiculous. In aiming at the one
it is by no means unusual to sink to the level of
the other. The learned gentleman in question pro-
bably rnly meant. to serve himself by showing his
professional courage. He first created the giant
he undertook to slay. Before he even ventured to
hint that which he asserted of the Lord Mayor, as
a magistrate, he ought to have ascertained, beyond
the possibility of a mistake, that his Lordship had
acted as he described. The time when, and the
manner how, ought to have been stated with pre-
cision. Even then, the allusion to, or assertion of,
the facts, ought to have been calmly and circum-
stantially set forth. This was demanded by the
relative position of the parties in the Court; and this
would have been instinctively felt by most men ace
customed to feel and act as gentlemen. Mr. Wilkins,
however, not only cast the imputation we have de-
scribed upon the Lord Mayor in the most offensive
terms and tone; but after his Lordship had indig-
nantly and positively contradicted the offensive state-
ment —and this twice—persisted in repeating that such
were his "instructions,' he having previously affirmed
the fact of his own knowledge 1 " I know," said
Mr. Wilkins, " that one •of the magistrates of the
City of London has visited that poor woman, and has
been tampering with her." Now, giving Mr.
Wilkins the benefit of his subsequently softened
down " I know," into " such are my instructions,"
is it, we ask, to be endured, that a Magistrate,
sitting on the bench of justice, and administering
the laws of the country with an anxious desire
to _further the course of justice, is to be bearded
by a barrister, and accused of perverting his office to
the purposes of private intimidation, and endeavour-
ing to work on -the fears of a female, in a state of
sickness, to induce her to make " a declaration" re-
lative to the offence of which she stands accused, and
concerning which she is, in a few days, to be brought
before him in open Court ? This has been affirmed
of the Lord Mayor by Mr. Wilkins, of his own know-
ledge, and emphatically denied by the Chief Magis-
trate, as " grossly false and untrue." The couple of
sheets of paper, stitched together, and indorsed with
the magical words " two guineas," as the price of his
vituperation, and designated his " instructions," were
then opposed to. the Chief Magistrate's distinct denial.
The explanation which the Lord Mayor conde-
scended to give, not merely exonerated his Lord-
ship from the unjustifiable and utterly unfounded
assertion of the barrister. It did more. It proved
the extreme delicacy in which the Lord Mayor acted
toward the unfortunate woman. He had been sent
for by a prisoner confined within his special jurisdic-
tion, without knowing the object for which she sought
his prAsence. Had he not gone to her at her request,
it might have been said that she wished to complain of
some of the prison authorities in their treatment of
her, and had no opportunity of doing so. He, there-
fore, went. But no sooner did his Lordship find that
she was desirous of making some communication re-
spectieg the offence with which she stands charged,
than he refused to receive her statement ; and most
considerately r-ferred her to the professional gen-
tleman employed in her defence, as to the pro-
priety of her making such communications. The
Lord Mayor could only receive her communications
as a magistrate ; and would not receive them until he
was satisfied that the woman's attorney concurred in
the expediency of her making the proferred disclosures.
Had the Lord Mayor acted wi'h less caution—had he
encouraged the prisoner's disposition to make a "clean
breast"—there might have been a suspicion of "tam-
pering" with the weakness of the unfortunate woman,
confined in a felon's jail on a charge of felony, and
suffering from illness ; but, as it was, the whole
matter, both in its spirit and form, was a pure inven-
tion ; a gratuitous outrage upon decency, perpetrated
by a barrister, and therefore holding the rank of a gen-
tleman, such as we never before witnessed in a court of
justice, and hope never to behold , again. If
Mr. Wilkins should be tempted to repeat his
experiment of yesterday in one of the higher Courts,
we have little doubt that he would speedily find him-
self in a situation in which he would have time and
opportunity for reflection. At the termination of the
cause, in which a Judge had been so grossly insulted
by a barrister, a committal for contempt would most
certainly have ensued. As to the paltry excuse re-
specting his "instructions," on which the meagre
apology Mr. Wilkins subsequently tendered was made
to rest, it was far from being commensurate with the
gravity of his offence against propriety.
STANDARD.—There is so much to gratify in
the meetings of agriculturists now following each
other in such rapid succession all over the country,
that we hardly know how to object to any incident
of their proceedings. The congregation of good men
for the promotion of a good object always tends to
snake the men themselves wiser and better, and in
this way, and in manyother
country TwaYs, always reflects a
benefit upon the
eemblies of which we aie. s The purpose of the as-
protect a great pea in.g may be but to
and important interest, but their
effect must be to promote pave and statistical
knowledge, science, now
knowledge, to
_ already so rapidl
pursuits of agriculture that activity
securit
aondgtive to the
advances
which are always the result of dt vigour
confi-
dence. But the active and vigorousy
agriculture are the greatest blessings to thataicuesntroyf
which is the scene of them—for they are,
additions made to the strength and resources of fact,a
people, so much more valuable than territorial
ac-
quisition, that they are subject to no external influ-
ence, cause no extension of exposed frontier, and need
neither fleets nor garrisons for their preservation.
In forty years the population of the United
Kingdom, and the means of supporting that popula-
ation from the produce of agriculture, have doubled,.
.'Vho does not see that the absolutepower of the United
Kingdom has doubled also ? And though the con-
temporaneous increase of population in other
countries has rendered the relative power of the
• British empire less than double at the end of the
40 years,'. it 'will scarcely be pretended that Great
Britain b not : greatly outrun every other State I
dt-0110.4rOddi Ilia that this is the effect of the

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