The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-08-16

SUI another extraordinary miscarriage Iof justice. A well-known north coun- try solicitor was charged with forging the name of a linen manufacturer on a. check for 97500. The evidence against him, indeed, was overwhelming, for no fewer than three bank clerks recog- nlzed the accused at once from among twelve other men as being the man who had presented the forged check at the bank shortly after it was opened in the morning.
 The only evidence in the prisoners s favor was that he was q comparatively poor man, and that neither did at any time his banking account show ball. ance of more than few hundred pounds, nor did his mode of living justi- fy the belief that he was possessed of more than very humble means. How ever, the evidence of the three bank clerks seemed conclusive, and he was sentenced to five years imprisonment.
 Some eighteen months afterward a most amazing and truly dramatic inci- dent occurred One of the clerks who had been transferred to another branch of the bank at Brandford was one morning handed over the counter a check for 91,5OO
 Looking more closely at the sigma ture which represented that of an old client who had banked with the firm for years, it occurred to him that it was icyl1t 1Oto inc h different to the drawers usual sigma ture, and on informing the bearer that he would have to look up the account in the ledger, it flashed across him in a moment that the man before him was the double" of the prisoner who had been sentenced for forgery.
 It at once, therefore, occurred to him that there must be something wrong, and he immediately signaled to the commissionaire, who pinned the sus- pect down while the police were being sent for. The man was arrested on the spot, and at his trial it was proved that he, and not the convicted solicitor, had forged the first check for G7,500 and that he was again endeayoring to still further raise the wind to the tune of another G1,500. Without doubt how ever, had not the clerk noticed some- thing rather suspicious about the sig nature of the second check which caused him to scrutinize the bearer more closely, the wronfully convicted silicitor would have served the full term of his sentence.
 Never has a more curious case been brought into a court of law than what was at the time-sone seven years ago known as the Merritt affair."" One of two twin sisters, so much alike that it was almost impossible to tell one from the other, living together in 8 small flat in North London, was charged with stealing jewelry to the value of e70O from a well-known so- ciety lady living in Portland Place, According to a policeman on duty at the time, he saw the accused leave the house by the front door just after S:30 with a jewel case under her arm
 To the consternation of the limb of. the law, however, the other sister was sum- moned, and so extraordinary was the likeness that he, when in the witness
 box, refused to say which lady he saw, as he rightly pointed out that he The could not tel other from which" Both the sisters, moreover, vehement ly protested their innocence, but event. ually one was convicted and sentenced
 to six months' hard labor. After she