During a trial for forgery before the Central Criminal Court
on the 21st inst., a letter was read addressed by a prisoner named Cherwood, previously convicted of forgery, to the Governor of Newgate. Cherwood affirmed that all the professional forgers in the world could " be counted on your fingers," and suggested that he should be pardoned and made chief of a small detective de- partment for the total suppression of forgery. He stated also that about a million pounds of "stuff," chiefly bonds, but including foreign bank-notes, had been already prepared, and would be passed off, and thought it was absurd to allow so much plunder, in order to keep him in prison a few years. No attention was, of -course, paid to this letter, but its main statement, the limita- tion in the number of dangerous forgers, may have some truth in it. Forgery on the great scale is an art requiring ability and knowledge in the forgers not often found in criminals, and machinery very difficult to conceal. There are, however, un- doubtedly a few in all countries, and their arrest, if that were possible, would only leave a vacancy which would be speedily filled.
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