Carlisle Patriot, 26 Jun 1824 - Local News (3)
Petra Mitchinson
Saturday 26 Jun 1824 (p. 3, col. 2-4 + 6) [continued]
MANSION HOUSE.—A young man underwent a private examination a few days since on a charge of having uttered a forged bill of exchange for £649 10s. with intent to defraud a Whitehaven banking-house. The result of that private examination has been the discovery that the firm has been defrauded of upwards of £10,000 by one of the partners who has made his escape. One of the partners of the firm, whose signature was affixed to all their bills drawn for payment in London, was in the habit of signing a number of blank pieces of paper, which were intended to be filled up when occasion might require, and were deposited in a drawer to which all the partners had access. The partner who has absconded subtracted one of these pieces of paper, filled it up in the regular manner, and drew it as a bill to the amount of £3,650. His next step was to open the letter of advice from the firm to the house in London, and to notify the particulars of the bill amongst those regularly transmitted. He then transmitted the bill to the prisoner. The prisoner got the bill regularly accepted and cashed. The next attempt made by the partner who has absconded was for a sum of no less than £6,500. The prisoner, in the same manner, presented this piece of paper to the banking-house in London; got it accepted, and turned into cash. The partner who had thus made use of the privileges of the house, finding that any further opportunity of the kind was doubtful, drew a bill himself upon the house, sent it to the prisoner, who negociated it at Kendal. He abstracted some other pieces of paper from the drawer, and filled up one of them, with the sum of £1,850. He once more directed the prisoner to negociate some of the paper thus prepared. As the usual precautions had been taken with respect to the letter of advice, the usual process was easily gone through in London, and the prisoner went to Pentonville to meet and to deliver up into the hands of his employer (to whom he had duly paid the former sum) the amount of his latest speculations, and of any other bills which had been paid in exchange for that of £649 negociated at Kendal. The moment the prisoner produced the money, his employer seized the whole of it and ran away. The prisoner, who had received little or nothing for what he had done, seeing that it was the determination of his employer to secure all to himself, pursued him sharply, succeeded in overtaking him, and lodged him in a watch-house, where the sum of £2,400 was found in his possession. This property, or a share of it, was claimed by the prisoner, and it was agreed between the parties that the money should be placed in respectable hands to be hereafter divided between them. The banker was liberated upon this agreement, but has never since made his appearance. It was after this breach of honour that the bill for £649 10s. drawn by the party at the head of the plan was presented for payment. The firm immediately suspected it to be a forgery, and obtained a warrant of the Lord Mayor for the apprehension of the prisoner. When brought to the Mansion-House he made a disclosure, of which the above is the substance, but denied any intention of participating in the profits of the transaction. The Lord Mayor observed, that he saw nothing in the transaction, scandalous and abominable as it was, of which he could take cognizance. The prisoner was therefore discharged. It is believed that the banker is still in this country, and we understand it is intended immediately to strike a docket against him, so that any one who harbours him will be liable to severe punishment. A temporary run, we are informed, was made upon the banking-house in consequence of a report that the runaway had possessed himself of a vast sum, but the public fears were dissipated on learning that the loss was comparatively small. He had formed a design, as was collected from his letters to the assistant, of purchasing a large tract of land on the banks of the Ohio, in America, for which he thought the sum of £18,000 or £20,000 would be necessary. He is represented as now having in his possession the amount of the bills for £6,500 and £3,600 in Exchequer Bills, and it has been ascertained that he has been endeavouring to negociate them for bills on New York. He has an estate, but it was mortgaged about five years ago for £5,000, and it is calculated that the property which the partners can take will not be adequate to the sum thus pilfered from the house, and which we consider will be held in law to be a debt, and not stolen property.—London paper.
Letter from Annan, June 24.—"The run of herrings up the Frith continues in considerably greater numbers than last week, but still more considerably inferior to the run of last year, in both quality and quantity. On this occasion I feel it my duty to call the attention of the gentlemen who may be supposed to have the removal of the evil in their power, to the sinful and demoralizing practice of fishing on the Sabbath day, which prevails in the Frith, and which has this year been attended with its usual disgraceful consequences. On last Sunday, two regular, battles, between some profligate fishers who are in the constant habit of violating the sabbath, and some vagabonds who thought that they had a right to steal what the others had no legal right to fish for; too weak, however, to resist the attack made upon them, the thieves after a short contest were stripped of the stolen goods, amidst vollies of oaths and curses, detestably impious and profane. But the practice of stealing herrings is so far from being confined to the sabbath, that an organised system is regularly carried on in the Frith, principally by bands of fellows from Annan and its immediate neighbourhood, who go (in the night-time particularly) to the herring ground as soon as they possibly can for the tide, and strip every net they can get at without being perceived. They are, indeed, frequently detected, and when detected (as two of them were this week), severely handled; though these examples have very little, if any, effect. Surely these circumstances are well worthy the attention of the gentlemen who are so meritoriously devising means for the proper regulation of the fisheries in this place, and it would not be very difficult to put an effectual stop to such nefarious practices."
John MUSTARD, a pit boy, aged 15, on Saturday evening was cleaning a gun, and had got some oakum fast in the barrel. He used various means to get it out, without effect, he at length put some gunpowder in, and dropped after it a red hot iron punch, but it did not ignite. He then put his mouth to the muzzle and blew in, to light it, when it went off, and drove the iron punch through his mouth into his brain. He lived two hours, but bled to death on the punch being drawn out.—Newcastle Courant.
The attendance at the second Rosley Hill fair, on Monday last, though respectable, was not so numerous as had been anticipated. The show of horses was most miserable; there were not a dozen real good ones (it is said they were all at Boroughbridge, as well as the dealers) on the ground; yet those which changed hands went off at high prices. The exhibition of cattle was better, and the demand lively; the favourable rain of the day preceding holding out a hope of at least some grass, late as the season is. We cannot undertake to give prices; but we may state, generally, that an advance of from five to ten per cent. was evident to common observers.
sarahre...@gmail.com
John MUSTARD, a pit boy, aged 15, on Saturday evening was cleaning a gun,
and had got some oakum fast in the barrel.
Oakum is natural hemp that has been impregnated with tar,
used for the packing (or caulking) between hull planks
and decking timbers on wooden boats.
Dr P continues to enlighten us!