The Sun.
London, England, 1844-11-16 00:00:00

3ATURD4Y-- MOR VINOIO NOVEMBER 84"
At
• CAPTURE AND SUICIDE OF
JCX3EPLI ELDER, THE ACCOMPLICE Or
TIIE BANK CLERK, BURGESS.
The fact of the fraudulent transfer of 8,0001. stock
by Burgess, one of the clerks of the Bank of England,
by the instrumentality of an accomplice, and the
escape of the parties with that amount in gold, will,
no doubt, be in the recollection of most of our
readers, although the circumstances attending the
case may fur the most part be forgotten.
The stock (Consols) sold belonged to Mr. Oxen-
ford, who, we understand, for twenty years held an
appointment in the Customs, but why Burgess and
Elder selected the stock of that gentleman has never
appeared. It was sold on Tuesday, the 3d of Septem-
ber, by means of a party who attended at the Bank,
and falsely personated Mr. Oxenford. The plans of
the parties concerned in this nefarious transaction
were evidently laid with much skill and ingenuity.
Upon inquiry it was ascertained that during several
days before the transfer was effected, they had been
engaged in making the necessary arrangements for
the sale of the stock, and their subsequent flight.
Burgess was at the time absent upon leave from the
authorities, and ought to have returned to his duty in
a week from the date of the period of the commission
of the offence. He did not return at all, and it was
found that he hal been actively engaged in the sale
of Mr. Oxenford's stock. Mr. Oxenford upon being
sent for denied that he had made any transfer of
stock, and the matter was forthwith placed in the
hands of Messrs. Freshfield, the Bank Solicitors, who
at once employed John and Daniel Forrester, the
officers, to trace the delinquent clerk and his accom-
plices. Daniel Forrester soon learned that
Burgess had bought a new portmanteau and three
large canvas bags of a Jew, named Solomons, who
resides in Vinegar-yard, and that he caused the port-
manteau, that was yellow, to be painted black, as being
a colour less calculated to attract notice in travelling.
This officer also received correct information that
Burgess hired an open carriage on the morning of the
forgery, and drove his accomplice to the neighbour-
hood of the Bank. The stock was sold by Burgess
for his friend, through the intervention of a broker,
and Burgess and his friend then proceeded to the
Stock-office, where the fraudulent transfer was made.
The stock was paid for principally by a cheque for
8,0001. on Lubbock and Co., and both Burgess and
his companion proceeded to the banking-house of that
firm, and demanded payment of the cheque in gold.
The cashier to whom they offered it said he could not
give them so much gold, and that if they wanted
specie to that amount, they must go to the Bank of
England and get the notes changed, and he accord-
ingly gave them eight notes of the Bank of England
for 1,0001. each. These notes Elder took to the Bank,
and demanded payment in gold, producing at the
same time a carpet bag, out of which he took the
canvas bags which Burgess had the day before pro-
cured to be made in Vinegar-yard. Having filled
the canvas bags with gold, he placed them in the
carpet bag, and was about to take it away, when, to
his surprise, he was unable to lift it. Ultimately,
however, he was assisted by two porters, who carried
it to the carriage which appeared to have been wait-
ing for it near the Mansion-house. The parties then
drove to the place where they had hired the carriage
and took a cab, in which they placed their treasure,
and they then proceeded to a public-house in St.
Martin's-lane, kept by Benjamin Caunt, the fighting
man, where they hired a room and transferred the
gold to the portmanteau, and otherwise arranged for
their departure from the kingdom. Having dined at
Caunt's house, they proceeded at seven o'clock in the
evening to the station of the Londom and Birming-
ham Railway, where they took the mail train for Li-
verpool. On their arrival at Liverpool next morning
they instantly went on board the Britannia steam-
ship, which was then only waiting for the arrival of
the mail, and was about to start for Halifax or New'
York. On board this vessel they engaged berths, and
were in a very few hours on their way to America,
imagining themselves, no doubt, in perfect security,
and little thinking that such exertions as were ulti-
mately adopted, would be resorted to for their appre-
hension, or that one or other of the Forresters would
speedily be at their heels.
In tracing out these facts considerable difficulty
was experienced. It was hard to say whether Burgess
and Elder had sailed in the Britannia. That they had
gone on board there was no doubt, but it was repre-
sented that at the time they got on board there was
only one berth available. After much minute in-
quiry, however, the Forresters could not learn that
they had ever come ashore after having once entered
the vessel, and Messrs. Freshfield immediately re-
solved to`dispatch John Forrester to make an experi-
ment of his skill and energy in tracing the fugitives
and the cash, and endeavouring to get both men and
money into his gripe in the New World.

In the course—of-the inquiries, which were made in
a very peculiar manner, an intimate connexion was
found to exist between Burgess and Joseph Elder,
who was known to be a horse-dealer, and the de-
scription of the latter individual having been obtained,
was found exactly to correspond with that of the per-
sonator of Mr. Oxenford.
John Forrester ascertained that the steam-ship
Britannia had sailed for Halifax on the 6th of Sep-
tember, and application was made to Sir William
Magnay, Bart., then Lord Mayor, who, with his
accustomed zea and promptitude in forwarding the
ends of justice, rendered every requisite assistance.
Depositions were prepared, and all measures were
adopted for the apprehension of the parties under the
treaty with America, Sir James Graham authorising
the whole of the proceedings.
John Forrester, and, we believe one of the clerks
of the Bank of England, sailed for r Halifax on the
19th of September, in the next steam-boat (the Cale-
donia) that left Liverpool.
Upon arriving at Halifax the indefatigable officer
found, to use his own language, "that it was all
right." He ascertained that the fugitives had pro-
ceeded to Boston and New York ; thither he followed
them, and from thence to Buffalo, Canada, and
Magaie, and back again to Boston, where iey, it
appeared, resided, one of them in a house and land
which he had purchased the other in an inn.
Having discovered that they had placed 7,000/. in a
bank, payment was immediate) claimed
claim was claimed upsin the
part of the Bank of England. Th
Imme-
diately followed by the apprehension of Elder in his
house. He was taken before one of the tribunals for
examination, and was remanded for further examina-
tion next day, but the wretched man put an end to
the inquiry, as far as he was concerned, by hanging
himself with his pocket-handkerchief in the course of
the night. Burgess was surrounded in the inn in
which he resided, but he ran out at the back door
without hat or coat, and succeeded in getting into a
boat in which were a pair of oars, and in escaping,
aided by the darkness of the night, in the direction of
some of the outward-bound vessels.
Upon Elder were found 400 sovereigns, and
amongst Burgess's papers were found 200 more, and
the stocks and securities in which the 7,000/. were
invested, have since, there is every reason to suppose,
been made over to the agent of the Bank.
Thus, by the prompt and resolute mode adopted by
the solicitors to the Bank, has the establishment suc-
ceeded in recovering the whole of the property of
which it was plundered, with the exception of the
mere expenses incurred by the two persons win com-
mitted the offence. _

....._
We understand that great fears were ascertained
that the measures for apprehending the parties would
fail, in consequence of an objection on the part of one
of the Judges to administer an oath to the affidavit.
That difficulty, however, was overcome by the act of
sending out a clerk from the Bank of England.

o f
IVILSON'S SCOTTISH ENTERTAINMENT, IN PERTH.
The admirers o£ Scotia
l' s
We
minstrelsynev never
r
eeanrjdo ytehtdhawtea lusciousßaasdl
tnine
reinvreead;
treat on Monday evening, when Mr. Wilson, the
sweetest of her minstrels, made his appearance once
a nsiotn rivals—so many
more in our theatre. v
vocalist in better voice. His command over its pecu-
liarly pliant texture, for the expression
more tv
‘i . vhee sn
oo
heof
n st
phhiean
su ho
suoosi n
tomhuaar
nno
yu
on
i andnmti
htai st
o the
°res pathetic,c o. In
these days,
,
who have entered the walk which he first and origi-
nally chalked out as his own—so many who furtively, in
a sense, have tterepted to occupy the field which he first
so successfully cultivated—in these circumstances, we
say, it is refreshing to listen to the melting, and the ex-
hilirating strains of the original Wilson, undiminished in
his powers, but rather, as evidenced in his exertions of
Monday evening, soaring above himself.—Perth Paper,
of Nov. 13.
Late last evening, a report reached us, that a female
named Phillips, was murdered, on Sunday morning, at
Navestock, in this county. The circumstances, as stated
by our informant, are, that deceased went to a beer-house
at White Horse-side, near her residence, where she drank
a pint of beer, and, on leaving,. took some with her in her
hand ; that two men, who are in custody, left the house at
the same time, and when she was within 100 yards of
her own home, knocked her down, and so maltreated
her that they left her for dead. Subsequently the parties
themselves informed her husband that she was dead, and
he found her in a field lifeless, her petticoats twisted
round her waist. One of the men, our correspondent
states, was taken at Romford yesterday, and the other
a short distance from home. An inquest was to be held
yesterday before C. C. Lewis, Fisq.—Cheinisford Chronicle
of yesterday.
Damsons were on Tuesday morning cried about the
streets at the moderate price of sixpence per gallon.
They were quite fresh ; and some late plums of the
muscle 1, ind were selling at twopence per pint. At this
protracted period of the season, the above fruit is
scarcely seen in the market, and the present circumstance
may be attributed to the mildness of the weather, for
on the first appearance of frost these fruits drop from
the trees.—Devizes Gazette.