The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1855-11-24
swindling in England.

syyindling im England.
In another column we give full report,
AIKEN from the London Times, Of the trial of
he London bankers, Paul, Strahan & Bates.
Their offence was appropriating to their own
use the produce of the sale of securities depo-
sited in their hands for safe keeping. The pri-
vate prosecutor was DR.. Griffith, the prebenda-
ry of Rochester, who had at various times en-
ployed the defendants to invest money for him
in the Danish five per cents; it was clearly
proved that the defendants had pledged and
made away with these Danish bonds Of DR..
Grifith's, and kept the money. The defence
was slight and trivial. The Judge charged
against the prisoners, the jury found verdict
of guilty, and the sentence was the utmost the
law allows-f fourteen years transportation.
Parallels have been drawn between the cases
of Schuyler and this London firm. They were
only analogous in respect of the motive Of the
dishonest parties in each, and the result to
their victims. Schuyler, being entrusted with
power by corporation whose agent he was,
made use of that power to pledge the credit of
the corporation to individuals, and thus create
wrought only indirectly fell on the indivi-
duals who took his fraudulent securities. Paul,
Straban a. Bates, on the other<hand, were en-
trusted not with power, but with the securities
themselves, which they sold and pawned, just as
a servant might sell o. pawn the plate of his
master. Between the two it is hard to say which
act cvinced the greater moral corruption, or
r1,o1 ,tchp nrf Tho En-
lish bankers it will be noticed, were convicted
on q statute passed as lately as 1928, e and
George Nv. cap. 29), expressly framed to meet
their case One might have supposed that the
common law would answer every purpose for
so simple species CT fraud as theirs; bnt it
seems the English, with high appreciation OF
the danger and injury Of allowing sw indlers to
escape, he'd this special act passed Yearly thirty
years ago, lest case should occur in which
the common law might be found insufficient.
The act, or rather the section Of the act, which
we publish elsewhere, will be found worth the
notice Of our Senate and Assembly. Our laws
on the subject of mercantile frauds certainly
need rc-trisnming, and the sooner the better.
It is not generally known that il Schuyler
walked down Broadway tomorrow it is quite
doubtful whether the District Attorney or the
police could interfere with him. Such, how
ever, is the opinion of the best lawyers.
Another point to which it may be we'll to
draw attention. is the feeling and temper
evinced by the British people in relation to the
trial. With one voice. the entire press has
commended the verdict; and on the occasion
of some sympathy being expressed in public
quarter for the condemned, more than one
Journal has loudly observed that o sentence to
fourteen years hard labor was less severe than
the doom to which these swindlers had, by
their rascality condemned many innocent per-
sons. There is something very healthy in this
indignation. In this country, public sympathy
is too apt 10 be on the eide Of the culprit, no
matter what his offence, or however clear his
guilt. II ii were not for the case Of DR.. Web
ster and one or two rare others, it would be
quite questionable whether men Of family,
wealth and station, could, in the United States
be condemned for any crime or mislemeanor
whatever. Even when the jury does perform
its duty, the Judges often fail in theirs. We
commend to the Judiciary the charge and sem
tence Of Baron Anderson and we think the
inhabitants of Wall street cannot do themselves
much harm by giving the whole case o leisurely
perusal.