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I TRANSPORTATION Of PAUL,…

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I TRANSPORTATION Of PAUL, STRAHAN, AND BATES, FOR 14 YEARS. Those Bankrupts were tried before Baron Alderson on Friday and Saturday last, at the Central Criminal Court. The particulars of the case must be fresh in the memory of our readers. The case having been concluded The jury deliberated together for ft few minutes in their box, and then retired to consider their verdict. After an absence of about 20 minutes they returned and pronounced a verdict of guilty against all the defendants. Mr. Biron Alderson inquired thrir opinion of the "dis- closure before the t:ol!rt of Bankruptcy ? The Foreman replied that the opinion of the jury was that it was no disclosure within the meaning of the act; Mr. Baron Aldetson- Y ou look on it, them as a sham affair ? The Foreman stated that the jury did not consider it a bona fide disclosure. Mr. Baron Alderson intimated his entire concurrence with the jury in this opinion. A verdict of guilty was then taken on first and third counts, and of not guilty on the others. Mr- Baron Alderson, after a short pause, proceeded to pronounce the judgment or the Court upon the prisoners in the following terms William Strahan, Sir John Dean Paul, and Robert Meakin Bates, the jury have now found you guilty of the offences charged upon you in this indictment—the offences of disposing of securities which were intrusted by your customers to you as Ban- kers, for the purpose of being kept safe for their use, and which you appropriated under circumstances of tempta- tion, to your own. A greater and more serious offence can hardly be imagined in a great comtne rial city like this. It tends to shake confidence in all persons in the position you occupied, and it has shaken the public con- fidence in establishments like that you for a long period honourably conducted. I do very much regret that it falls to my lot to pass any sentence on persons of your situation; but yet the public interests and public jus- tice require it; and it is not for me to shrink from the discharge of any duty, however painful, which properly belongs to my officc. i should have been very glad if it had pleased God that some one else now had to discharge that duty. I have seen (continued the learned jndge, with dei-p emot»oa) at least one of you under very different circumstances, sitting at my side in high office, instead of being where you now arc, aud I could scarcely then have fancied to myself that it would ever come to me to pass sentence on you. But so it is, that this is a proof therefore, that we all ought to pray not to be led into temptation. You have been well educated, and held a position in life, and the punishment which must fall on you will consequently be the more seriously and severely felt by you and will also greatly affect those con- ned ed with you, who will most sensitively feel the dis- grace of your position. All that I have to say is I can- not conceive any worse case under the Act of Parliament applicable to your offence. Therefore as I cannot con- ceive any worse case under the act, I can do nothing else but impose the sentence therein provided for the worso case—namely the most severe punishment, which is, that you be severally transported for 14 years. The prisoners, who seemed astounded by their sentence leant against the dock as if they expected their coun- sel to make some observations to the Court, but after a short interval they slowly retired in custody. The rev. prosecutor, Dr. Griffiths, was observed to shed tqars when the sentence was pronounced but the judgment appeared to give satisfaction to a crowded court. (From the Sun) The members of the great Banking Firm of Strahan, Paul, and Bates, have taken their trials. An adverse verdict has been returned, and William Strahan, Sir John Dean Paul, Baronet, and Robert Meakin Bates, have been severally and respectively sentenced to trans- portation for fourteen years. This is, indeed, a fear- full sentence to men who had previously enjoyed not all the comfoits, but even the greatest luxuries of life- who could have had no reasonable desire ungratified, and who had never known any thing in the shape of pri- vation. But can any person say that it has not been amply merited, that the guilt of men of their class, and moving in the positions which they occupied, is not as far beyond that of ordinary criminals as the severity of their punishment will be beyond that of a similar sen- tence 011 those who have earned a precarious livelihood from the plunder which they could obtain, and who have? been compelled to submit to the hardships incidental to such a terrible destiny r There could have been no possible doubt respecting the facts of the case, which literally lay in a nutshall" There might have been gradatiun in the degree of guilt- one might have been, par excellence, the villain of the piece-the tempter and seducer of his companions and partners but it would be impossible to doubt that there was a guilty complicity on the part of the others, which rendered them guilty as accessories either before or after the fact, and consequently liable to severe penalties which the law had wisely affixed to so serious an offence. The great question will however depend oil the point whether they have evaded the punishment due to their guilt by the artful confession which they put forward—whether, in the fact, the offence under section 49 of the 7th and 8th George IV., cap 29. is purged by the disclosure sanc- tioned under section 52. That must be decided by the Court of Criminal Appeal, and on its judgment will de- pend the heavy expiation by the criminals, or whether the Majesty of the law be brought into contempt and disrepute. The words of the saving clause in the statute lare very clear and unequivocal. After detailing what shall afford an exemption from the punishment. It says :—"And no banker, merchant, broker, factor, attorney, or other agent, as aforesaid, shall be liable to be convicted by any evi- dence whatever as an offender against this act, in respe t of any act done by him, if he shall at any time previously to his being indicted for such offence, have disclosed such act on oath, in consequence of any compulsory process of any court of law or equity, in action, suit, or proceed- ing which shall have been bona Jidc instituted by any party aggrieved, or if he shal have disclosed the same in any examination or deposition before any commissioners of bankruptcy." Now the first question is whether the parties were compelled to make the statement, or whether a mere vo- luntarv declaration could relieve them from the penal con sequences of their serious offence. But Frederick Thesiger truly stated, a bankrupt is bound to make the most complete and ample revelations touching his estate and effects, and the statute itself clearly and explicitly recognises that destinction, for while it speaks of a compulsory'' process in any court of law or equity, in any action, suit or proceeding, it merely speaks of a disclosure before any commissioners of bankruptcy There is however, a second and far more seriocs point against the prisoners A disclosure" implies a true statement. It would clearly not be sufficient to render a fictitious account of matters. The object of the Acts was to benefit bmafide creditors-not to save fraudulent bankrupts and for the sake of the former protection was given to the latter to prevent them from avoiding an- swering very important questions on the ground that they might thereby criminate themselves. Truth and accuracy would therefore be indispensiblc elements in the case, and it'these were wanting the exemption from pun- ishment would also be withdrawn. Now the statement or disclosure given in is clearly in- accurate. The bonds purchased for Dr. Griffiths had been disposed of by'Sir John Dean Paul in March, 1854, and the proceeds thereof (and of other Securities) were placed into his-separate account. It is difficult to ima- gine how this could have been without knowledge of his partners, but it is positively asserted thut such was tha case. Other bonds were afterwards purchased to replaco those improperly applied. But the offence bad been pre- viously committed, and could not be got rid of in that way Now, the disclosure applied merely to t ie substituted bonds, and it. has been fairly urged that it is a totally different case, and one not coming within the provisiona of the statute. That must be decided by the Court. It is a nice question, and on the result will depend the fate of Messrs. Strahan and Bates-that of Sir JohnDaan Paul seems to be clearly settled. lie, at least, will have to expiate his enormous guilt. I SIR Jonx DEAN PArL, BART.-The name of this unfortunate gentleman for many years occupied a prorai- nent position in the Peerage and Baronetar/e. Sir John Dean Paul was born in 1802. His father was the son of Mr. John Paul, a physician of Salisbury. The imme- diate subject of this notice was raised to the jtle in 1823, the creation being tie revival of an old one which had become extinct a few years previously. Sir John was married twiec, and is now a widower. A sister of his married, some years since, Mr. Beauclerk, for many yeartt Secretary of Legation at Constantinople and another married Mr. E. J. Fitzgerald, son of the late Lord Ed- ward Fitzgerald and cousin to the Duke of Leinster The family are in no way related to the Irish baronet of the same name. The latter is descended from a dragoon officer of Cromwell's^—Morning Advertiser. THE JERSEY REFUGEES.—The conductors of the pub- lication entitled L'Homme left Jersey on Wednesday and took refuge in Guernsey. Previous to their depar- ture a mob, carrying sticks, assembled before their door. A large number of French refugees were inside, well armed and prepared to defend themselves, but happily the police interfered and prevented a collision. The metropolitan sympathizers with these revolutionary per- sons held a meeting, last week, in the Hall of Science," City-road. The chief speaker was Mr. Ernest Jones, who argued that the objectionable passages in the latter to Her Majesty were not intended as personal effronts to the Queen, but were to be read in apolitical sense. He recommended that the exiles should be incited to London where a public meeting should be held at St. Martina Hall, to hear the explanation, which the meeting at Jersey refused to receive. A resoluiion in accordance with this view was passed, and a committee was appoin- ted to carry the proposal into etfact. According to ft report of the coramission rhtr^jd with he division of the booty taken in Sebastopol, the SYfeneh "ad in tho Crimea, at the (tatc of the capture of tuni ~\ace, 121,000 men, and ths English and Sardinian* ^,000. If to theee 160,000 ba added the 20,001) who ,jy' >.ecently arrived, it will make an efteeiiva stro-.v^flb. mof 210,000, sick included. <

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