Star.
London, England, 1824-09-24 00:00:00

PRIVATE. CORRESPONDENCE

MADIUD, SIMSCIIIIER 9.

The following is from St. Ildefonso—" The cold is so
severe here at present, that in the Palace all the
braseros (brasiers) have been lighted ; so trillium] a tem-
perature has not been favourable to the King's health,
who is suffering under a slight attack of the gout. How-
ever, he contioues to transact business with the Minister
Colomarde, to whom the other Secretaries of State send
their respective reports. The day before yesterday a
note was presented to his Majesty, signed by all the
Members of the Diplomatic Body, in which they de-
mand, in the names of their respective Sovereigns, that
all those Spaniards who were partisans of Joseph Bona-
parte (Afrancesados), should be restored to the enjoy-
ment of their civil tights, and those amongst them re-
markable for their talent and probity, and who filled
elevated situations under Charles IV. and Ferdinand VII.'
should receive pensions proportioned to their rank.
" The King received very graciously the proposition,
and sent it to the Council of Castile, who are to make
a report to him on it. The Ex-Minister, Cruz, is still in
solitary confinement. As yet he has undergone no
examination. The Officers of the Royal Guard, whose
arrest took place at the same time, are also in solitary
confinement in the same prison. Several persons have
been arrested in the provinces, suspected of being im-
plicated in the same affair, and twelve apartments are
said to be preparing in the tower of Segovia, a state
:prison, for the reception of as many prisoners. It is
!reported that Count d'Ofalia has been arrested at Gra-
nada ; others say that he has escaped to Tangier; this
I should think unlikely. _ _ _

64 A report prevails here since yesterday, that a holy
of Constitutionalists had disembarked at Gijon (a sea•
port in the A•aulias), and that the few Royali-st troops
there were put to the sword. I am inclined to doubt
the truth of this report, as the last letters from the king-
dom of Leon and Old Castile Fay not a word of so int-
portant an event. There is little doubt, however, but
rthere is something wrong, or the dread of it, in that
quarter, fur two Spanish regiments left this lately, and
were directed to proceed by forced marches to Asturias."

Every circumstance connected with Mr. Fanntleroy's
name excites the most intense interest throughout
the metropolis. People wonder and inquire what he
could have done with, or how disposed of, such exten-
sive sums of money as those named in the warrants of
attorney brought forward on the last examination; but,
perhaps, they. will express somewhat more astonish-
ment when they learn that those sums are but a small
part of the depredations charged upon the prisoner. It
is already pretty clearly ascertained at the Bank off' Eng-
land., that in the way of warrants of attorney alone, he
has exceeded onpfnuffh7ort of a million sterling, in-
dependent of all other transactions with which the Bank
of England has nothing to do. The list of persons
whose stuck has been sold out without their knowledge
is immense: his own mother, and other members of his
family, have had large sums of their property disposed of
in this way ; but in many cases Mr. Fauntleroy was sole
trustee. Some time ago, property left by the late Sir
Thomas Plaistoe, tho Magistrate, to the amount of
22,0001. was paid into the banking-hoese to which Mr.
Fauntleroy belonged, with instructions to have it im-
mediately invested in the funds; but it now appears
that no stock was ever purchased with the money, and
it is gone in the general wreck. The sum of 1,7001. lit
Exchequer bills was deposited within a few weeks in the
house for security, by one
.of the Commissioners of
Paving. for the palish of St. Pancras, the whole of
which is now discovered to have been circulated, and
since paid off at the Exchequer-office of the Treasury.
In short, it would, we understand, be endless, almost,
to go through the •arious transactions of this descrip-
tion that have taken place. The Queen's Lying-iit
Hospital is sufferer in its funds to a considerable amount.

The various sums in stock sold out under forged
warrants of attorney were generally intrusted by Mr.
Fauntleroy to his partner, Mr. Graham, for disposal, as
he was the one of the firm who most frequently attended
to the business of the house in the City during the day.
Mr. Graham, who had no sort of suspicion as to the na-
ture of the instruments upon which he was acting,
usually, according to the directions he received, sold
out from the names of the trustees, and purchased in
the name of Mr. Fauntleroy alone, or transferred from
one to the other. The stock being thus at Mr. Fauntle.
roy's own disposals he himself sold out at his pleasure.
The first instrument of this nature alleged to be forged,
is, we understand, dated as far back as 1808: this was
of course made use of, and the stock sold out under it,
many years before Mr. Graham joined the firm ; so that
he could not have been made an instrument of on that
occasion. Indeed, we believe, about that period, or
soon after, Mr. Graham, who is a Colonel in the Army,
embarked on military service for the Peninsula, where
for several years, to the end of the campaign, lie con-
tinued to serve under the Duke of Wellington, who
has often spoken in the highest terms of his gallantry.
On one storming enterprise, a sort of forlorn hope, he
was the only surviving Officer out -of nine who entered
upon it : he has been severely and repeatedly wounded
in various parts of his body. Mr. Graham feels the
ruin brought upon him as a peculiar hardship,..as a
.partner in this banking-house, because the greater part,
or at least a great portion, of Mr. Fauntleroy's practicer
had been carried on, as appeirs by the dates, long be-
fore Mr. Graham became a partner. It would certainly
appear at the first view extraordinary, how Mr. Faunt.
leroy, who was never known to be a man of any exten-
sive play, could have managed to dispose of such vast
sums of money, within a compratively short period, as
his proceedings put him in possession of, independent
of his regular profits arising from his partnership itself;
the average of which, we undeistand, for the last five
years, has been 14,0001. annually amongst the whole
of Lb pattners. So that allowing Mr. Fauntleroy a re-
gula proportion of a fourth part, as the most active
and managing partner, it left 3,5001. a year at his dis-
posal, which one might consider to be a very handsome
income for what we may call a single man ; because,
although Mr. Fadntleroy is, in point of fact and law, a
married man, yet he has never had any family or esta-
blishthent to support in that capacity. If, however, we
take another view of all the circumstances in which this
unfortunate man was involved, it m..y not, perhaps, be
very difficult to throw a light upon the channels through
which his receipts issued from him.
Mr. Fauntleroy, we-understand, was admitted a part.
ner into the' house or Marsh and Co. more out of re-
spect and compliment to his father after his death, who
had been one of the original members of the firm, than
on account of any, property which he himself could
bring into the establishment. His accurate knowledge
of business, and the great facility with which he dis-
patched and arranged accounts, soon made him as ac.
quisitiOn ; and for some years past he has been almost
the sole acting manager of the business of the house.
Mr. Marsh is a very elderly Gentleman, we believe
little short of eighty years of age, and could not, of
course, attend much to business. Mr. Stracey spent the
greater portion of his time enjoying the pleasures of the
country. Mr. Graham, from the nature of his profes-
sional military life, and the short time he has been in
the concern, could not be expected :o know much of
banking or any other business: so that Mr. Fauntleroy
may be cor.sidered as the firm himself, in point of ac-
tivity. He was acquainted minutely with every descrip-
tion of public securities, both foreign and domestic, and
could instantly tell their respective and relative valuei.
Mr. Fauntleroy's family were intimate with a respect-
able but not an opulent family, of the name of Young.
One of the daughters of this family, a handsome young
Lady,attracted the attachment of Mr.HenryFauntleroy ;
and their intercourse ended in Miss Young's giving birth
to a child. The young Lady's family, on discovering
their relation's disgrace, remonstrated with Mr. Fauntl-
eroy, and urged the necessity of making the only repara-
tion. in his power-by marrying the-mother of his
.Mr. Fauntleroy, however, felt little disposition to do so;
but one of the -ycnang Lady's brothers, a spirited Joung
man, indignant at the disgrace east upon his family
and name,- insisted upon the proper reparation being
made, or that. Mr. Fauntleroy should choose another
alternative. .This threat strengthened the determination
of Mr Fauntleroy not to submit to the propooditranue
and arrangements were in progress to settle the to
in the field. Mr. Fauntleroy's own family, however, now.