The Sun.
London, England, 1818-12-07 00:00:00

OLD BAILEY, DEC. 5.

'BANK PROSECUTIONS.
John Kingston, Jeremiah Heffert, William King,
and Henry Townsend, who had On Friday pleaded
Not Guilty to the minor offence, solicited to be
allowed to retract their pleas, and plead Guilty,
so as not to be prosecuted on the capital indict-
ments, and as• the Bank Counsel gave their con-
sent, the Court acquiesced.

TWO REMARKABLE AcQuirrAt.s.—FOßGED NOTES.
john Williams, was indicted for forging and
passing a one pound note, purporting to begenuine.
He also stood charged with putting away ten
other one pound notes, and another count stat-
ed his haring put away five more in the county of

Surrey.
The first witness, William Underwood, deposed,
that he was engaged by Sellers, a constable, Sa-
muel Furzernawand William Coates, to detect F h
e
prisoner in -passing forged notes. Witness had
becouie acquainted Witt) the prisoner on the 28th
of October last, and on the 7th of November, for
the first time, he met him at the Coach and
Hot sew, in prury-lane, where the prisoner was in
company with john'Dyre, wbrim he well knew,
and introduced him for the purpose of buying
notes of the prisoner. He afterwards mace an
appointment to meet the prisoner the same night
Waterloo bridge, when he purchased one of
the forged one pound notes for 7N. 6d. Prisoner
then asked the witness when be wanted more, to
which witness replied be should want other notes
by Thursday, it being the day before Kingston
Fair. He afterwards met the prisoner at the
Green Man, in the Kent-road, where he purchas-
ed -five other notes, 'and upon the same evening
they agreed to meet in Monument-yard, Fish-
-street-hill, where he received from the prisoner
ten one pound notes, at the price of 3/. 10s. for
the ten. _ .

William Sellers sworn, stated that he was em-

ployed by the. Bank of England to detect the
passers of forged notes, and, for that purpose, had
procured the last witness (Underwood) to pur•
chase notes of the prisoner., He was instructed
as to the meeting of the parties, and went to
Aionument-yard, on the night stated by the last
witness, where he saw the prisoner and Under-
wand, but the former suddenly disappeared, and
escaped. Prisoner was, however, at length traced
to the Coach and Horses public-house, in Drury-
lane, where he was apprehended.
John Chalmers, the next witness, now deposed
that he was by trade a shoemaker, and resided in
High Holborn;' that the prisoner at the bar came
into his shop one evening towards the latter end
of November last, when he offered a one pound
note in purchase of some goods ; prisoner then
gave him What he afterwards discovered to be a
false name and address. The note he then ten-
dered him (het e the note was produced in Court)
was the same as now presented to him.
Thomas Glover, the Inspector w the Bank of
England, was next sworn, and upon the notes
being produced, he declared them all to be
forgeries.
On this witness's leaving the box, the Foreman
of the Jury rose, when the attention of the whole
Court was at once directed to him. He begged
leave to observe, with all deference to the dignity
of the Court, and the opinion of the Bench, that
neither he'or his brother Jurymen were satisfied
with the evidence of the Inspector of the Bank :
and they wished to be informed by him, if pos,
sible, bow to know a forged from a genuine note.
They themselves (the Jury) had several notes in
their possession which they had taken in the
entitle of trade, and they really could not see any
difference between those notes and the one pro-
nounced to be forged.
Baron WooD remarked, in reply to the observa-
tions of the Foreman of the Jury, that the informa-
tion they requested was rather of a delicate kind,
and it' might not be proper to make the public at
large acquainted With the secret by which ;he
Bank of England was enabled to detect the forged
notes attempted to be passed as genuine.
Mr. Glover, the Inspector to the Bank, said,
that he would endeavour as far as he reasonably
could. In the first place, the paper was not of
the same kind ; next, the water-mark. in the
tnrged notes was indented by a sudden pressure
made after the paper was manufactured, whereas,
the Water-Mark of the Bank of England notes.
was interwoven, as it were, with the manufactur-
ing of • the paper of which they' were made.,
Then, as to the numbers, or figures of the different
notes, those belonging to the Bank were stereo-
typed, while the' figures of the forged notes
were always struck upon the copper they were
engraved 'on.
Here this important case closed, and the Jury
retired from the Court, when, after more than
iwo hours' consultatian, they'returned a verdict
16 the following effect :—Guilty ofpassing a forged
note to John Chalmers.
Here Baron Wool) remarked, that the verdict
just returned was virtually an acquittal, because

tie iitqloner era's not tbdrged with pftsling the
note.

_
The priSotter, Who is only 23 years old, was
discharged.
INMuni Cotitter was itniicteti for putting.' olt a
forged 11. note. The prisoner tendered the note
in .qiiestion to Mr. Hutchinstin, a chteseinonger
in St. john-Street, wh.o, suspectint it', 'asked his
name, and where he lived,? He said his was
Walker, and that he worked for Mr. Mdtthetva.
Mr. lltitchinson. doubting his story, accompanied
the prisoner to his master's, and on arriving
there, the prisoner whispered- to.llr. Matthews,
and asked him .to say his name was Walker ; this
the master declined ; and the prisoner kvai then
observed by a little girl to take a knife out.of his
pocket and open it ; she gave an alarm, and the
prisoner, was seized, when the knife. fell from
under his clothes ; and in addition to these facts,
four other forged notes were traced to have been
passed by him.
The .3 UraGE finished summing up soon 'After 5,
and the Jury retired, and did not 'return till near 9
o'clock, when the foreman delivered the following
verdict :—.4‘ Guilty of pissing the note, but we
are not satisfied it is a forgery."
COMMON, SEAGRART-7" Gentlemen, you must
be convinced the note is forged. It you-doubt
lon that point, you should acquit the. pri-
soner. Yuur verdict, therefore, is incorrect, and
cannot be.,•recorded."
FottEmsts—f"fhe evidence has not been suffi-
cient to satisfy us that .the note is forged."
Corn sow SERGBANT—" Then, Gentlemen, you
cannot convict the prisoner ; you had better retire
again and reconsider your Yetdict." •
Several of the Jury—" We are of opinion that
the .forgery is not sufficiently proved ;" and they
then appeared “nanimoosty to concur in the ver-
dict delivered by their. Foietnan of—Not Guilty.