The morning call., 1891-04-08
THE RXGHEQUBR
FORGERY.

interest. Neither of these brokers was in
much repnte.
There was a stockjobber of the name of
David Haas, with whom l subsequently be-
came we'll acquainted, as we were both
members of the Social Whist Club. From
him learned the following particulars:
Haas was talking to friend, another
stockjobb Der; as TREY were standing near
tie bank, DeBerckhem passed aud spoke to
his friend. Haas said: ''DO You know that
fellow?" Yes" said the other; ''he came
to ME this morning and wanted to borrow
on exchequer bills, offering me per cent.
and on my demurring, he added that he was
not particular about another Y per cent but
| refused. as | did not like my customer"
Haas replied: depend upon it, there's
something smoky here; | had transaction
with him last year, and determined then
to have nothing more to do with him"
Haas then went to his contingencies and
examined his books and took note of the
date ald numbers Of some 910O0 eXchequer
bills on which he had advanced money to
De Berckhem. He next called on Matthew
Marshall, the chief cashier OF the Bank Of
England, to consult him about the matter
When Marshall heard the numbers of the
bills. he said: You could not have held
those bills. for we had them at the bank at
that very time" But Haas was quite GER
tain that he had noted correctly the num-
berS and the date, and his suspicious were
confirmed.
Haas next step was to go TO Downing
street and see Mr.. Goulburn. the Chancellor
of the EXcheQuer, to whom he related the
circumstance, and expressed his suspicion
of there being something wrong. Mr.. Goul-
burn listened to him, but said he could
hardly imagine anything wrong about eX-
cheQuer bills, ana after little more CONVEX
a watch
"Can you wait here for a short time; have
an appointment with Sir Robert Peel (the
Prime MniSter)ib l will soon be back ?'
Haas waited, and when Mr.. GOGlburn came
back he thanked him for his information,
took note of the details, and asked for
Hass' address.
At the whist club that evening Haas men,
toned that he had been with Mr.. Goul-
burn. and one of his friends asked, "At
what hour?" AT 8 o'clock" he replied.
His friend exclaimed, "Impossibe!' for
was passing down Whitehall as the Horse
Guards clock struck 3 o'clock. and | over
took Mr.. Goulburn walking with Sir Robert
Peel, and l heard him say, l tell you never
met with mau 50 positive in all ny life. j"
No doubt Mr.. GOulburn had been to report
the matter to Sir Robert Peel, Mr.. GUul-
burn Immediately took steps for inyeStI-
eating the affair. He asceTtained from his
own bankers that they had advanced money
on eXchequer bills to Morgan, and these
bills they placed at Mi. G0ulburn's dis
pOsal. He sent his private secretary to the
bank with these bills, and Matthew Mar
shall found that duplicates OF them were
then held by the bank. Both sets of bills
were handed over to Mr. Maule, the treas
ury solicitor, that he might trace out the
matter.
came to the Issuing Office and asked Beau
mont Smith to explain how there could be
any duplicate bills. All this time there was
no suspicion of forgery. The test Of the
genuineneSs Of an eXcheQuer bill, apart fro NJ
the peculiar paper, printing, signature and
seal, was its comparison with the coun-
terfOil. The book of cOunterf0ilS was pro-
duced and the bills from the bank fitted
accurately 10 their counterfoils, while those
from the private bankers did not fit at ALL
First, Beaumont Smith said there must be a
mistake in the numbers, which at that time
were in writing, and in Beaumont Smiths
own handwriting Jour custom being that
the junior clerk, Blake, numbered the coun-
teTfOils-the bills for $500, $500 aud 9io0
were numbered by me-, while Beaumont
Smith numbered the $1,000 bills HIMSELF !;
then he tried to make the bills tit the coun-
terfOils Of nearly corresponding numbers, but
in vain. At length lie turned to Maule and
said, tits no nse trying any more; it's all
my doing" Good God!' exclaimed Maule,
what do you meanP
Beaumont Smith then told him that he had
taken surplus printed copies of 91000 bills,
and filed them up with nRmber and date
sealed them and signed "Monteagle" to
them, and that lie had circulated them
through an Italian Jew named Rapall0, clerk
to Jew stockhrOker OF the nance of Soiari.
Upon this, Maue said he had only one
course to pursue, and called in policeman,
who took Smith in custody. He was at
once taken to Bow street and examined be-
fore the magistrate, who remanded him
after hearing Maule'S evidence
The matter now became public, and as 1t
was known that q large amount of eXcheQuer
bills had been deposited as security by the
two brokers, money having been raised on
them, the alarm was very general After
| consultation with Goulburn, the Controller
General Issued notice calling in all out
standing bills for examination, those
agreeing with the counterfoils to be declared
genuine, and those not agreeing to be de-
tanned, to be dealt with as might thereafter
| be determined"
On my arrival at the Office I found the ex-
animation OF bills in full progress and a
number of persons waiting to have theirs
examined. The total number of bills dated
in March and June, 1871, exceeded 10000 and
their amount was more than $50, 1000 900.
The books Of connterfoils were divided into
| six parcels and intrusted to six sets Of two
clerks each, who jointly compared the bills.
| | took the direction of this work, and the
| counterfGils of the e1000duplicate bills were
| among those compared by myself and Ed
ward Welch.
Beaumont Smith stated that the fraud
ulent bills would be found to be all 91000
bills Of the highest numbers, as he knew
that such bills were always held by the
Bank of England and never came into the
public market. The result proved this to
| he the truth. Bills to an amount exceeding
e400,000 had been forged by him and on these
| bills nearly 100000 had been actually ad-
| vanced by different persons.
The fraudulent bills all bore the signature
| "Monteagle" apparently In the hand writing
| Of the Assistant Controller, Mr.. Dudley
| Percival, who had taken Mr.. Eden's place
| for twelve months, with the sanction of the
| Treasury, Mr.. Eden having gone abroad for
| the sake Of his health. The signature
was a very good imitation of Mr.. Perez
| vafs writing. One person who brought in q
| room of MIR. Bully, the chief clerk, when
| Mr.. Percival happened to be there. Mr..
! Perc iyal was Of rather an impetuouS nature
he took up the bill and most incautiously
| said, "0h! I'll swear that's my hand
| writing" The bill was handed to ME for
| examination, accompanied by printed no.
! tice o. particulars signed by the holder. 1t
did not fit the counterioil; and as by that
| time had seen a large number of the forged
bills, perceived at once that the signature
was Beaumont Smiths, and not Mr.. Per
| civaPS. The holder was furious at the bill
| being detained after Mr.. PereiYaPs own ad-
mission OF the signature being his. But 1t
turned out that this person had advanced
money upon the bill to one OF the two brok-
ers who were known to have dealt with
fraudulent bills, aud this was certainly one
| OF them.
The examination of excbequer bills took
about month, during which time we were
all obliged to be at the Office every day from
O'clock in the morning to o'clock in the
evening. The whole staff was engaged at
this work, together with Mr.. Arthur Helps,
who had been Lord Monteagle's private
secretary, and NJ. Sampson, from the Bank