Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1893-11-04 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

THE TRIAL OF INDIAN OCULISTS, ACQUITTAL OF FRISONERS.  At the Central Criminal Curt, on Monday, before the Common Serjaant, the trial of the four Indian oculists, Heed i Shah, alias Kream Bocesh, lthair Been, alias Cade, Shahali Bedean, and Karim Bathsh, on an indictment chafginz them with a conspiracy to defraud, and with obtaining money by false pretences, in connection with operations for diseases of the eye, was resumed for the sixth day.—Mr. Charles Mathews, Mr. Bodkin, and Mr. Hewitt prosecuted on behalf of the Lndou and County Medical Protection Association; Mr. Warburton, Mr. Jarvis, Mr. Ball, and Mr. Smith d feideci.—The speeches on both sides were completed on Saturday night, and the Common Serjeant n w summed up the evidence in detail. He said, br..atly speaking, the four prisoners were indicted for two separate and distinct crimes—in the first count of the indictment, and subsequent counts, with having conspired together to deframt Before the men could be convicted, the jury must be satisfied, in respect of any one of these counts, that they cub red into an unlawrul agreement for the purpose of taking money from the venous complainants. The mere agreement in itself was an offence,although they did not succeed in getting money. They were charged, further, that in pursuance of this alleged conspiracy, they obtained considerable sums of money from certain persons whose names appeared in the indictment, by false and fraudulent pretences. It was open to the jury either to acquit or to convict any one of the prisoners, or to acquit them all I but before they convicted them all, the jury ought to be satisfied that the men did, in fact, make the false representations which were alleged. It was not necessary to make the false representation by word of mouth, or by the circulars and testimonials the men scattered throughout the country. It was sufficient if the jury were satisfied that the men made a false pretence by their conduct and demeanour, by representing to the complainants that they were that which in fact they were not. It was for the jury to be satisfied that the men not only made representations which were false, but they must be satisfied beyond all sensible doubt that at the time the false representations were made they knew, and must have known, as sensible men, that the representations were false. If the jury found that the prisoners made false pretences, and that they knew this, or that any one of them was false; if this had been proved by the prosecution, then there followed the natural presumption that these men had no intention other than one to defraud. It was purely a question for the jury as to what were the teen-fides of these persons. The jury must also be satisfied that the money was obtained in consequence of the alleged fraudulent pretences. Then there was a general count for conspiracy. The (.:Ese for the Crown had been put before the jury with conspicuous care and ability, and with great rainiess; but the jury had nothing whatever to do with what might be the ultimate consequences of their acquitting the men. These men, as roteigners, were entitled 1., the same justice of law as any Euglish subject, and their conduct had to be :Aged from a point of view applicable to the law Es it stood, and from no other point of view.  The jury, after some considerable discussion, ilquitted all the prisoners, but add a rider eNpressing regret that at present there was no law to prevent persons with such ignorance as that of the prisoners from practising surgery.  Mr. James M'Laren, General Superintendent of the North British Raiiway, dial suddenly in an Edinburgh train on Monday morning.  A lively affair which- has been considerably exaggerated took place the other day on the frontier oi france and Germany, near Belfort. It was said ..hat a German gamekeeper or woodranger had been murdered by a French poacher. The real facts of the case are that the poacher,a man named liestner. was prowling round German territory. He was seen by one Winkelmano, a gamekeerer, who tried to arrest him. A desperate struggle ensued inetween the two, and Kestner, being the stronger, succeeded in dragging his would-be captor into 'trench territory, whore he despoiled him of his gun And decamped.