The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1851-02-11 00:00:00

THE-, LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

A NEW WAY OF RAISING THE WIND.

At the New Court, London, on Tuesday, Joseph Arm-
strong was sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment,
for the following shameful deception and robbery :—The
prosecutor, a Mr. Walter JuStice, is a solicitor, living at
No. 6, Bernard-street, Russell-square, and has a client
named Rowe, a blind gentleman, whom he (prosecutor)
had never seen, but transacted whatever business had
passed between them by correspondence. On the 18th
of last Nbvember a cab drew up to his office, and a blind
man, assisted by a boy, got out and came in, and the man
introduced himself as a. Mr. Charles Rowe, and then
requested his (prosecutor's) opinion about some business,
and he, thinking him to be his client, at once entered
into details without asking him any further questions, the
circumstance of the man being blind quite throwing him
off his guard. The soi disant Mr. Rowe then stated
that a person named James Armstrong occupied a house
of his at Nine-elms-road, and that he owed him (Rowe)
the sum of £6B, moneys lent, and besides the recovery of
that sum, he wanted to consult him about another mat-
ter, which was, that Armstrong, having received notice to
quit the house at Nine-elms at Michaelmas. had re-
quested the favour of staying a few days until be was
suited, but that he had not gone out. The prosecutor
told him that his remedy would be to apply for the whole
quarter, upon which the self-styled Mr. Rowe instructed
him to write for it and also for the £6B. He further
added that he had found a tenant for the house that the
man Armstrong occupied, and that he should want a pair
of leases drawn up, and would get prosecutor to do it.
He then left, and in pursuance of these directions prose-
cutor wrote as directed, but before the blind man left, he
having heard that his client had moved from where he
had been accustomed to correspond with him, asked for
the new address. The blind man pulled from his pccket
a letter, the envelope of which had been through the
post, and bore the address, " Chas. Rowe, 3, Warwick-
street, Vauxhall-road," and this further tended to throw
prosecutor off his guard, as he understood it was some-
where in that locality his client, Mr. Rowe, had moved
to. The letter having beep sent through the post to Mr.
Armstrong, on the 20th prisoner came to prosecutor's
office, shortly after ten o'clock, and seeing prosecutor
expressed his surprise that Mr. Rowe should have written
to him about the £6B, as he had no other intention than
to pay it, and that with regard to the rent he would pay
a half-quarter, and that he would he round that day at
4 o'clock with the whole amount, the money lent and the
half. quarter, making in the whole between £BO and £9O,
and further desired that prosecutor should get from his
client, Mr. Rowe, some deeds, the property of his
(Armstrong's) wife, which had been deposited when the
loan was made. Shortly after he was gone the blind
man came as before, and expressed his gratification at the
manner in which the matter had been settled. Prose-
cutor then mentioned to him about the deeds, and Rowe
said that he had deposited them with a friend, and required
some money to redeem them ; and eventually borrowed
£6B from prosecutor, by check, promising to be back by
3 o'clock with the deeds, when the prosecutor could' re-
pay himself out of the money Armstrong brought.
Neither Rowe nor Armstrong coming at the appointed
time, prosecutor sent to the bankers' and found that the
check had been paid. He then discovered that Rowe did
not live at Vauxhall, nor Armstrong at Nine-elms ; and
the following artful method had been adopted :—Arm-
strong had got a lad/ keeping a cigar-shop, Warwick-
street, Vauxhall, from whom he had bought some trifling
article, to allow a letter, addressed to him as " Mr. Chas.
Rowe," to be left there ; and in the same manner did he
get the letter addressed to him from the prosecutor, re-
questing some one at Nine-elms to ask the postman for
the district if a letter for him had been sent, and if so,
to take it. A reward of £lO was then offered for their
apprehension - and a bill falling into the hands of the
cabman who (lad driven prisoner and the blind man to
prosecutor's cffices, led to the apprehension of Armstrong ;
but the other has not been found. It further appeared
that the blind man and prisoner were well known to each
other, and had been for years, and had passed by a variety
of names.