The Glasgow Chronicle. — 1847-08-18 (Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland)

REMARKABLE CASE OF DECMPTION.—A German  collection of remarkable trials has just been published wbieb contains some extraordinary cases of successful fraud. The first of these is that of a native of Berlin, of low extraction, named Grosjean, who, under the u-• rimed name of Carl Grandisson, made &splendid figure Ifs several parts of Gerreeny--appearing and disappear;lag at intervals throughost a period of 12 years, as a. wealthy merchant, travelling with his family for pleasure. At Heidelberg especially. and in the neighbourhood of that city, he twiee resided for a length of time,. • on each occasion, with hie wife and family, an object of general esteem and admiration. Hie establishment wai. of the richest kind; his estertainments were noble sad frequest ; his manners, except for a cetain tendency to. boasting, were thought to be in the highest degree wiltsing and delightful. The public regard, acquired bye prosperous air and wild condition, was enhanced by the domestic virtues and admirable conduct of his very handsome wife. She seemed to be a pattern of preOriety—cbeerful and amiable when in company, bat greatly preferring retirement, in which she devoted [herself with exemplary care, especially during the frequent absence of her 'subsoil on short business jouneys, to the education of two lovely and well-conducted children. Atte, this happy family had lived for soros terse in Eleidleberg, universally popular and admired, in 1802 some gpestionable circumstances took place la connection with the members of a family that had become intimate with the Grandissons, in which all us' accountaile loss of money came to be talked of, with some other strange transactions, but all in a manner that appeared to reflect chiefly on one of the young men of that family,, who had fallen, as it seemed, hopelessly ia love with the merchant's beautiful wife. The matter came to no ciertain conclusion; the youth fied. and the Grandissons left Heidelberg in consequence of the disgust which this occurrence had caused. Eight years later they renippeared there with the same splendid equipage and livieg in the same admirable sumer. This second sojourn lasted for three years, when a mere accident led to the discovery of the facts which render the case surprising. The wealth of Grandlason was the fruit of a regular plunder of the public mails, which, without any accomplice in the act, he had systematically carried on for years with entire impunity. Hie short absence was employed on expeditions of the kind, during which he must have commmitted almost countless robberies of large sums of money and other valuables, without detection in a single instance—returning to the bosom of his family with the plunder ohich he had collected. The discovery was brought about during one of these absences, by a letter, intended to extort money, from one who had accidentally found out some of his minor peculations, and had traced the offender at last to his abode. It then became apparent that the whole life of this flourishing person had been a series of every kind of theft. While the wealth gained by his larger felonies was expended in keeping up a stately appearance, be could not repress the petty desire of stealing any trifle that fell in his way in shops, dwelling-houses—nay. even in the very place where he lived on the footing of a grand personage. Yet 0.7 this not a suspicion was raised until the detection of his greater robberies had come to pass. The condition and history of the wife are hardly less curious than this long success of the wholesale system of plundering, sombined with the incessant practice of the meamst pilfering. She appears to have been at once cooscious of her bus• band's iniquities, studious to conceal them, wavering be' tween fls of abandoned conduct and bag intervals of domertie propriety—but, on the whole, sick of the Erg' tion which she made to practice, and sincerely desirous to give a virtuous educatign to her children. Both husband and wife were mere adventurers at the outset. The man began his course of crime, when a valet, by robbing his master ; and soon afterwards entered upon a career of pretences, treacheries, and felonies—on the grandest as well as on the smallest scale—so de:tore:4oo planted, and so long undetected, that the story of them sounds more like a romance thau a negative of the 191 h - To complete the tale, it, be added that ' when apprehended at Berlin, Mara 11°' ' oommiting suicide, in a meaner sbowiog 114019t1012t bokre big exasiisatbio4 cold tag  soon hardens into a gelid mass, hes all the appearance of animal tallow. The natives use it principally for culinary purpose.; but the uses to which ills applied by them are very various. By combiaieg it with wood. ashes they make a soap of it, with which the women, I've never heard such music since, in particular, may be men lathering themselves all over, From every bending spray; morning and evening, when washing in the river. I've never plucked such primroses,Set thick on bank and brae. is much used, by them also in dressing doers; I've never smelt such violets made into an ointment in combination with other As all that pleasant time keels, we have ourselvmp I found by every hawthorn rootled it upon some of our When I was in my prime. people with the most beneficial results. It is much Yon moory down, so black and bare, extolled in the country for the core of rheumatic and Was gorgeous then and gay other pains, when applied " warm as the individual is With golden gorse-bright blossoming, As none bloom now-a-day. &Aide to beer it. The blackbird sings but seldom now i. - - -- Up there in the old lime,