'fit Zernialis.
London is a large place. Nearly three millions of persona go daily about their usual avocations ; the streets are pretty full, although die Park drives are empty ; cabs and omnibuses ply along the thoroughfares as thickly as ever, and keep up their average receipts : Waterloo Place and Regent Street are not quite so thickly peopled of an evening with the newest fashions from Paris, as when Parliament is in session • but the Police Courts go on; criminals trade on borrowed capital, and blood is shed. Yet in this mass of useful and baleful life, for once nothing has occurred that rises to the rank of " news," except the great fire at Westminster, that threatens to restrict the supply of private and public harmony, and inflicts severe loss on those who can bear it least— the workmen. British life in its public shape has betaken itself to pro- vincial platforms ; and even that purely London incident the forged bill case, where three offshoots of the Peerage appear engaged in doing a little accommodation, is carried to Guildford for trial. But the drama was a metropolitan daraa ; and we restore it to the right place.
Westminster has been the scene of a destructive fire, which has called forth general sympathy for those who have suffered from it—the Messrs. Broad- wood and their workmen. Broadwood's principal pianoforte-manufactory is in the liorseferry Road. At six o'clock on Tuesday evening, the 420 work- men left the premises, and a foreman went over the shops to see that all was safe from fire. In little more than half an hour from that time, smoke was seen to issue from the upper floor of the central range of buildings, and the fire rapidly spread. Engines were soon on the spot, but there was a de- ficiency of water to work them. From the nature of the ranges of building covering Messrs. Broadwood's ground—long ranges of lofty workshops, filled with very dry collections of diflbrent sorts of wood, veneers, &c.—the efforts to combat the flames were of little avail. However, by cutting away some of the buildings, one out of the five ranges of buildings was saved, and the firemen prevented the flames from getting hold of contiguous structures. But very little salvage could be effected from the workshops. When at its height the conflagration was immense, and had it occurred during the night all London would have been illuminated. The amount of property destroyed is enormous—nearly a thousand pianofortes in various stages of manufacture were consumed, and the ornamental woods that con- tributed to the blaze were of great value. Many of the workmen will be heavy sufferers, the tools of a first-class artisan being valued at 701. Messrs. Broadwood are insured. The fire, it is supposed, originated in a spark from one of the stoves. There were large mains for water on the premises ; and the Chelsea Waterworks Company were largely paid to keep these mains charged with water from and after six in the evening. It has been stated, that " soon after the fire was observed, Mr. Russell, the foreman of the works, screwed on a hose to one of the mains, and directed the water on the then comparatively small fire. For a time the water did its work, but suddenly the supply ceased, and the flames rushed forth more fiercely than before.' This failure of water-supply would constitute a serious charge against the Company : but Mr. Brett, the Governor of the Company, has made the following answer—" beg to state, that, upon investigation, I have ascertained that, at the breaking out of the fire at Messrs. Broadwood's, on Tuesday evening, the company's mains were fully charged, and were in direct communication with their elevated reservoirs on Putney Heath, con- taining at that very time upwards of 8,000,000 gallons of water."
An action was tried at the Guildford Assizes, on Saturday, of considerable interest from its relation to some recent transactions which led certain per- sons to get as speedily to Sweden as they could. Mr. George Mather, of 109 Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury,- sued Lord Maidstone, to recover 10001. upon a bill of exchange. The material plea in defence was, that the de- fendant had given the acceptance in question in lieu of a bill for the same amount which he had accepted for the accommodation of the Honourable Francis Villiers, but that, instead of receiving that bill, a bill bearing a forged acceptance was handed to him. Mr. James, as counsel for the de- fendant, began the case, because he had certain facts to prove. Lord Maid- stone was an intimate friend of the Honourable Francis Villiers : that gentleman, in 1852, wrote to Lord Maidstone stating that he was "infer- nally bothered " for money, and asking him to put his name to two accommo- dation-bills, which would never arrive at maturity. Lord Maidstone best tells the rest of the story in his examination and cross-examination. " When these bills became due, they were renewed, and I gave fresh acceptances. Mr. Villiers brought me the old bills, and he also paid the interest. I had no portion whatever of the money that was derived from the bills. In March 1856 Mr. Villiers was absent. He went away from London suddenly ; but I had no idea at that time but that he intended to return. In that month, a person named Edward Rawson Clark called upon me, and inquired
M
where Mr. Villiers was; and I told him I did not know, but I thought he was gone into the country to see his horses : and he then made a communica- tion to me respecting a bill of exchange for 1000/., which ho said was com- ing due in a few days. In consequence of what he said, I afterwards gave him the acceptance for 10001. upon which I am now being sued, and upon the understanding that it was to be taken as the renewal of the bill of which he had spoken, and which I imagined was. one of those that I had accepted for Mr. Villiers. On the 19th of March a notice was left at my house, that a dishonoured bill for 10001., accepted by me, was lying at the office of Mr. Stuart, an attorney, in New Inn ; and I went there, and the bill was shown to me. I looked at the bill attentively ; but as at that time I had no idea of any forgery having been committed, no suspicion was created, and I went away without saying a word about the genuineness of the signature. Soon after this, I learnt that Mr. Villiers had left England. About a fortnight afterwards, Clark brought me the bill that was renewed ; and in con- sequence of some information that I had received, I examined the signature of the acceptance, and I am satisfied that it is a forgery ; and I immediately communicated the fact to Mr. Stuart, and asked for the restoration of my genuine acceptance and my check for 1001. Since that time I have seen six. or seven o er 1000/. bills bearing my name, and the whole of them are forgeries , and I have heard of several others, amounting altogether to six- teen or venteen for the same amount, that are also forgeries." Crosstexamined.—" These two 10001. bills that I accepted for the ac- commodation of Mr. Villiers were the only ones for which I received to con- iiideration. I accepted three others for him, one for 10001., another for 11001., and a third for 20001. ; and I had a portion of the proceeds. The 2000/. and the .11001. bills were running when Mr. Villiers left, but they have since been paid. I had never accepted any accommodation-bills before. The Original two 1000/. bills were of course renewed a great many times ; and when Mr. Villiers brought me the old ones I put them into the fire. I wrote a tremendous ' letter to Clark, complaining of his not delivering me up the old bill after obtaining my acceptance and check. Mr. Francis Lawley, the drawer of the bill, is also abroad as well as Mr. Villiers. I complained to Mr. Stuart of the bill having been presented at my house ; and he explained that it was necessary for this to be.done, in order that the holder of the bill might have a remedy against the other persons whose names were on the bill. The signature to this bill is not at all like my writing- It is rather a desperate act signing a bill, and I always do it with a dash." It was clearly shown that the signature was a forgery. Mr. Chambers, for the plaintiff, urged that whatever Clark might have done, Mr. Ma- ther was an innocent holder of the instrument on which the action had been brought. Mr. Mather described himself as a "gentleman" now doing business for gentlemen on commission, such as betting on horses, and for.' merly keeper of a betting-shop. His account of the transaction was, that Clark had, in June 1854, brought him a bill of Lord Maidstone's ; that he had discounted it ; that it was renewed before it became due, and another bill substituted for it ; that it was twice more renewed, and on the second time "the bill now alleged to be a forgery was substituted for it." " I had not the slightest suspicion that the bill was not genuine, and I knew nothing about Clark having obtained another bill and a check for 100/. from Lord Maidstone. I afterwards received from Clark the bill upon which I am now suing the defendant, and I did not hear anything about the other bill being a forgery, until this one was nearly due." The Chief Baron, in summing up, said he quite concurred with the learned counsel in the expression of regret that young men of family and station should mix themselves up with operations of this kind, and apply bills of exchange to purposes for which they were never intended yet they must deal with the case the same as with any other, and he was bound to tell them, that if they believed the plaintiff had made out to their satisfaction that he had given value for the bill in question, he was entitled to recover the amount. The question they had to decide was, whether the plaintiff was a bona. fide holder of the bill or not.
The Jury almost immediately returned a verdict for the defendant ; at the same tune expressing their opinion that there had been a fraudulent conspiracy in the matter by some persons or other, but they were unprepared to say by whom.
Thompson, -Frieter, and Bohm, all Germans, Frieter having been re- cently discharged from the German Legion, have been committed by the Thames Police Magistrate for having in their possession materials and ma- chinery for the forging of Bank-of-England notes. A number of policemen fpprehended the accused in Upper Berner Street, Whitechapel, in a room in which were presses, plates, prepared paper, and every requisite to manu- facture counterfeit notes. Thompson was recently tried and acquitted at Guildford, on a charge of uttering a forged note • Dumont., a companion of his, formerly of the German Legion, is now waiting his trial in London for a similar offence. The preparations of the prisoners for making the notes were of the most elaborate and complete description.
As the Colonial Office has no funds wherewith to send the ten Walpole Islanders to Canada, the Lord Mayor has undertaken that their passage- money shall be taken from the Mansionhouse poor-box if necessary. Mr. Labouchere sent 51. towards the undertaking, and the Lord Mayor has given another 51, for the temporary support of the Indians.
The Coroner's Jury have not yet been able to come to a decision as to the body found in the Thames at Hampton Court—that of Lewis Solomons, a Jew, recently returned from a sojourn in Australia. The evidence at the last sitting of the Jury showed that Solomons had been much " excited" of late ; he was greatly disturbed by the bad conduct of his wife, who was living with another man. It was not shown how Solomons got into the water, or how the wounds in his breast were produced. The Police are to make further inquiries.
Previous page
