The Sun. — 1865-09-19 (London, England)

SMITH, OF CREMORNE, AND HIS SERVANTS. - ..... .  Aaron Fisher, a respectable looking man, aged 31, described as a clerk in tho employment of Mr. E. T. Smith, of Cremorne-gardens, was indicted for feloniously forging an endorsement to a cheque of Mr. Smith, for the payment of £25 4s. 6d., with intent to defraud. He was also indicted on two charges of feloniously forging an endorsement of two several cheques of Mr. Smith for the payment of £l2 10s. and £8 4s.  Mr. Hemp, the Clerk of the Court, read the several indictments to the prisoner, who pleaded guilty to them all. The prisoner was then ordered to be put bick for a time,  A young man named Barnes, a member of Mr. Edward Tyrrell Smith's band at Cremorne, was then indicted for stealing certain lustres, the property of his employer. Mr. Pearce again prosecuted, and stated that the lustres were of foreign manufacture, and could not be matched in England. Mr. Pearce, the counsel for the prosecution, wished to call Fisher as a witness, but this was objected to. The Recorder said it was useless to go on with the case any further.  The jury readily acquiesced in this suggestion, and returned a verdict of " Not Guilty." Aaron Fisher was again placed in the dock, and Mr. Montague Williams, in an earnest and impressive speech, pleaded for mitigation of punishment. Mr. Smith they had been told was anxious not to press heavily upon him, and although he could not perhaps take him back into his service he would readily pay the expenses of his journey to some country where he might retrieve his character and enter upon a new course of life. He believed that when th'e prisoner signed the names of the tradesmen to the bills he was instructed to pay, he was not aware of the enormity of the offence he was committing. During the season immense sums of money passed through his hands, and there were no previous cases of breach of trust against him. Ho had a wife and two children, and he (Mr. Williams) implored the merciful consideration of the Court on his behalf.  Mr. Pearce said that Mr. Smith had no doubt a high opinion of the prisoner, and was most anxious that the Court should deal with him leniently. Large sums of money had been entrusted to him, and the cases which had come -before the ,Court were the only ones against him. Mr. Smith was willing to pay the prisoner's expenses to America if he could be allowed to go there. The RECORDER said that must be a question for the Home-office. He had no discretion in the matter. Addressing the prisoner, he had been convicted of very serious offences, and he could not understand how a person who had 'arrived at his age could plead that he did not understand the enormity of the offence. He had been strongly recommended to mercy, but there were no circumstances of mitigation in evidence. The fact that he had been entrusted with large sums of money was rather an aggravation of the offence. Mr. Smith had strongly recommended him to mercy, and if it had not been for that recommendation he (the Recorder) should have sentenced him to penal servitude for several years. The sentence of the Court was that he be imprisoned and kept to hard labour for a period of 18 calendar months.  The Alleged Case of Child Murder at a Ladies' seminary.  --..- At eleven o'clock in the forenoon, Mr. William Carter, the coroner for East Surrey, resumed in the board-room of Camberwell workhouse the adjourned inquest respecting the circumstances attending the death of a newly born female child, the illegitimate offspring of Annie Booth, a servant employed by Miss Graffrey, the proprietress of a ladies' seminary at 487, Old Kent-road. The jury, after-hearing the evidence, returned a verdict of accidental death.