Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser. — 1886-01-02 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

CLEVER SWINDLER.  Mrs Mary Hewitt, in the reminiscences of her life .aow appearing in Good Words, says : Li the wing of 1847 Edward Foul made our acquaintenoe. He was about 30, with abundant blaek hair, and being very sheet-sighted, wore spectacles. He mentioned that he was a Cambridge graduate, and a classical tutor, but, heying just finished the edacation of his late pupil, he resolved to seek no other engagement, but daresbe himself to literature. Later he added— in confidence—that he was struggling with poverty for conscience sake. . . . We believed the romantic story, which was in keeping with the spirit of his clever writings, permitted him to come to our house, introduced Ihim to several of our friends, and procured him, among other literary employment, a permanent engagement with John Caesell, who gave him a artery of £2OO per annum for what amounted to about three days' work a week on the Stawlerd of Freedom. In this situation he displayed remarkable efficier cy but when he had been about a year with Mr Cassell he became very lazy, and, consequently, after repeated warnings, was discharged in the ; summer of 1849. Still we did not wish to! abandon Mr You], and as his wife (who had never attracted us) manifested an insatiable desire to go on the stage, our friend Charles Keen very obligingly obtained her an engage, ment with a meeager at Hull; and Mr Linwood, a Unitarian minister, who had become a Congregationalist and the purchaser of the Eclectic Revise', consented to meet Yonl at one house—we were then living at Avenue-road. Regent's Park—on Sunday evening, November 11th, to secure him as a regular contributor. How greet, then, was my surprise to receive a call the previous Friday from a respectable woman, who, introducing herself as Mrs Copeland, of 11, Upper Stamford-street, Blackfriars., demanded the rent due to her from September. How still greater my consternation when she, with equal amazement at my ignorance, exclaimed, "A gentleman named Youl had taken her rooms for poor him Hewitt,' who was in such destitution that she was compelled to make private application for relief to the nobility," adding, "I was very sorry for you, ma'am, I am sure, but when letters, evidently containing money, and sealed with coronets, kept coming, and I never got my rent, I made so bold as to learn your address at the British Museum, and was surprised to find you living in so good a house." The next day me husband, after obtaining a warrant for Youlai apprehension, and a detective to put on his track, proceeding along Stamford-street, recognised him approaching at a great distance, when suddenly, although without spectacles, Youl dived down a bye-lane and entirely disappeared The ensuing day You!, from York. wrote a begging letter in the name of Macaulay, and received £lO by return of past. The detective traced him to Leeds, where he seemed to sink into the ground, for, Impatient of the stigma lying upon me in many unknown quarters, I insisted, in spite of the entreaties of our legal adviser, on sending a statement of the fraud to the daily papers. We had immediately instituted an extensive enquiry, and found that among other persons of rank and influence he had forged my name to horde John Russell, Lansdowne, Denman, Mahone, and Brougham. The letter, writing in explanation from Cannes, stated that on receiving an application from me, speaking of great pecuniary difficulties and requiring immediate he had instantly sent it to Lord John Russell, with a strong recommendation to settle a pension on me, applied on my behalf to Miss Burdett Coutts, and himself forwarded £2O. Sir Robert Peel had generously remitted £5O. . . . In December Mr Justice Talfourd sent us word that an Individual, who in the previous summer had extracted £2O from him under the assumed name of Thomas Cooper, author of "The Purgatory of Suicides," had written to him from Liverpool, and was certainly our man. The same evening our eldest son and the detective went to Liverpool, put themselves into communication with the police, the post office, and the owners of the American packets, , but Youl eluded their vigilance. Some years afterwards, John Cassell encountered You] sitting opposite to him in a New York eatinghonse. Although differently disguised, he recognised the voice and featares, and accosted him by name. Yon], however, most coolly denied ever having been in England. In March, 1870, one Robert Spring, crite. Sprague, alias Redfern Hawley, and a host of other aliasea, was tried and convicted in the Court of Quarter Sessions in Philadelphia for false pretences, and experts believed this man and You] were identicaL He had been in America, "The distracted father of a large family," "A poor widow with a few autographs of the distinguished deed," "The orphan daughter of Stonewall Jackson," "Maggie Ramsay ender religions Convictions," "The kind Dr. Eibiwiey,” &c. We were 'assured by a gentleman in the Department of the Interior that "the various dodges he WAS discovered to have originated and enecessfally played, the versatility of cliamoter K. had assumed, the systematic mode of keeping his etwounts (for. his ledger had been captured), the very extraordinary manner in which he had shaped his faande to avoid the penalties of the law if caught, Ittla the OUOCASS with which he had for years foiled all efforts to trace him out, would, if given in a narrative form to the pribile,; present them with the picture of the of Swindlers:"  KAY'S GoIIPOIIND.--Airthriut and Bronchitis are immediately relieved by ft. Say Bros., Southport. THROAT AirrECTIONS