The trial known as the Artisans' Dwellings case terminated on
Friday. Dr. Baxter Langley and William Swindlehurst, Consols were on Friday 961 tb Sq. directors of the Artisans' Dwellings Company, were accused of conspiring with Edward Saffery to defraud the Company, which has founded, among other undertakings, the Shaftesbury Park village, opened some time since for working-men, with great Mai. The fraud was of the old kind,—Saffery buying estates in collusion with the accused directors for, say, £10,000, selling them to the Company for £12,000, and sharing the difference with his confederates. The jury con- sidered the conspiracy proved, and the Judge, Mr. Com- missioner Kerr, sentenced the defendants, who had in all made £23,000, Baxter Langley and Swindlehurst to eighteen months' imprisonment, and Saffery to twelve months. The de- fense of the accused is practically that though they took the money, they did not know they were committing a criminal offence ; . and the trial will startle a good many Directors of Companies, in spite of the lightness of the sentence.
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