With the profits resulting from this trade they were, however, dissatisfied, and resolved to grow rich by speedier means. They originated three mercantile houses, and placed as proprietors in them three men, who were, in fact, merely pampers. The first was John Meyer, a Jew, who kept a house on Tower Hill, for the reception of sailors. This man they supplied with money, gave him a character, and reported him as a merchant of an inexhaustible capital. The next was Henry Weiller, a German Jew, who, having served under Napoleon, came, in 1816, to England, with ten francs in his pocket. This fellow they dressed up, and instructed him to represent himself as a foreign merchant. Weiller having been once in business in Paris, and being known to a respectable house there, he procured a letter of recommendation to a London banker. By this means he established his credit, and began to pass bills with amazing rapidity. Having these two houses under their control, they wanted another, and in the formation of this they shewed the greatest skill; for they established it in such a manner, as to procure goods to a large amount, without creating suspicion. They took a Jew boy, named Joseph Leigh, who had been once or twice tried at the Old Bailey, and represented him as the son of a Dutch merchant. Levy then called upon a man named Reeves, who had been known in the Manchester trade, but who had been unfortunate in business, though his character stood yet high at Manchester. To him Levy represented Leigh as a youth well acquainted with the Continental trade, and stated that his father, being a wealthy man, proposed giving him a thousand pounds, provided he could get a person to join him who understood the country trade of England. Reeves consented to become his partner, and articles of partnership, with a great shew of candour, were drawn up between them. The one thousand pounds was then handed to Reeves, and lodged at a banker's. Levy also lent them five hundred pounds, and appeared a very good friend. He introduced Reeves to Meyer, as well as to Weiller, and recommended his dealing with them, as they generally traded on ready money. Reeves readily became their dupe. He made a circuit of the manufacturing countries, being supplied with the loan of one thousand pounds, and sent home goods to the amount of thirty-three thousand pounds, for which he paid by bills on Meyer. Before the conclusion of his business, however, he was informed that Meyer had absconded; and, on hastening to London, he found himself not possessed of a shilling, all the goods he had purchased having been sold, on their arrival, to Meyer. A disclosure now took place, and it was found that these fictitious houses had practised the vilest impositions. Weiller was sent out of the way, but, being apprehended in Holland, he was brought back, and made a bankrupt of. On his examinations it was discovered that Kinnear, Woolf, and Levy, were the contrivers of the fraud, and, in consequence of this information, they, with several others, were indicted for a conspiracy Meyer and several others who were implicated escaped detection, but the three leaders in, and contrivers of, the scheme were brought to justice in the Court of King's Bench, April the 20th, 1819, before Lord Chief Justice Abbott and a special jury. Reeves, Leigh, and Weiller, were the principal evidence against them, and after an investigation of two days they were found guilty. No sooner was the verdict made known, than the vast crowds who waited for the decision manifested the greatest satisfaction. A man named Le Vay, who was indicted with them, was acquitted. The trial disclosed the means by which they procured credit. One of the fictitious houses served to give a character to the others, while at the same time they played into each other's hands, by drawing and discounting bills, accepting and negotiating drafts, &c. &c. The goods thus dishonestly procured were shipped off to Holand, Judia, &c. on Levy's ac count. On the 30th of April a motion was made for a new trial, on the ground of the jury having dispersed and slept at home, no officer being sworn to keep them together, or prevent their intermixing with the multitude. The Court, however, decided that the mere separation of the jury was no ground for setting aside the verdict, unless some improper tampering with them could be shown, the Court having a discretion to allow the jury to disperse. The application was, therefore, refused, though it was the opinion of some leading counsel that a new trial would have been granted in consequence of this irregularity. On the 14th of May they were brought up to receive judgment, when two affidavits were put in on the part of the defendants, stating that the deponents had seen two of the jurymen, on the first night of the trial, conversing with Mr. Harmer and Mr. Adams, the solicitars for the prosecution. In answer to these, affidavits of the jury, the above gentlemen, &c. were put in, denying that any such intercourse had taken place; also two affidavits of the owners of the houses, where the deponents on the part of the defendants stated themselves to reside, stating that no such persons lived there; whence they were supposed to be fictitious names. The sentence of the Court was, that John Kinnear should be imprisoned in the gaol of Ilchester for two years; that Lewis Levy should be imprisoned in the gaol of Gloucester for two years, and pay a fine of five thousand pounds; that Mosely Woolf should be imprisoned in the House of Correction, ColdBath Fields, for two years, and pay a fine of ten thousand pounds: and that Levy and Woolf should be farther imprisoned till those fines were paid. Levy had sent large quantities of goods to India, obtained by this conspiracy, and the Court considered that from the sale of those goods he might obtain remittances to pay his fine. ROBERT JOHNSTON, EXECUTED FOR ROBBERY. THE extraordinary circumstances attending the execution of this unfortunate man give his case a melancholy interest. Our readers, doubtless, recollect the singular conduct of the Edinburgh mob, at the execution of Porteous. A scene, if possible, more disgraceful, occurred on the present occasion. Robert Johnston was a native of In his Edinburgh, where he spent the first part of his life without reproach. His parents were poor, and Robert was employed as a carter. twenty-fourth year he got into bad company, and was engaged in the robbery of a chandter in Edinburgh. Being apprehended he was brought to trial, with two others, and found Guilty. His companions had their Shocking circumstance on the intended execution of Published by JPJ under "pinn press. es London -1840 sentence commuted to transporlation, but on Johnston the law was destined to be put in force. December the 30th, 1818, was the day appointed for his execution, when it accordingly took place, but under circumstances of a very extraordinary nature. A platform was erected at one of the windows of the New North Church, in the Lawn Market. On the platform was a quadrangular table, on which the criminal was to stand, and which was to be lowered in order to leave him suspended. An immense crowd was assembled. The unfortunate culprit was brought from the lock up-house to the place of execution about twenty minutes before three o'clock, attended by two of the inagistrates, the Rev. Mr. Tait, Mr. Porteous, chaplain of the gaol, several city officers, and the public executioner. After spending some time in prayer with the clergyman, Johnston mounted the platform with alacrity, looked boldly round him, and gave the signal. But nearly a minute elapsed before the table could be forced down; and after it was got down, the perpendicular fall was so short, that the unhappy man's toes were still touching the surface, so that he remained halfstanding, half-suspended, and struggling in the most dreadful manner. It is impossible to find words to express the horror which pervaded the crowd, while one or two persons were at work with axes beneath the scaffold, in the vain attempt to hew down a part of it beneath the feet of the criminal. The cries of horror from the populace continued to increase with indescribable vehemence; and it is hard to say how long this horrible scene might have lasted, had not a person near the scaffold, who was struck by a policeman, while pressing onward, cried out Murder!' Those who VOL. IV. were not aware of the circumstance imagined that this cry proceeded from the unhappy Johnston. A shower of stones, taken from the loose pavement on the streets, compelled the magistrates and the pẻlice to retire in a moment. A cry of Cut him down-he is alive,' succeeded, and a person, genteelly dressed, sprung upon the platform, cut the rope, and the culprit fell down in a reclining position upon the scaffold, after having hung about five minutes. A number of the crowd broke through the railing, and took possession of the platform, where they lifted up Johnston, took the ropes from his neck and arms, and the cap from off his face, which they threw among the multitude below; they then loosened a part of his clothes, and finding him alive, deliberately carried him off towards the High Street; while another party tore the coffin prepared for the criminal to pieces, and threw the fragments against the windows of the church, endeavouring also to demolish the fatal apparatus, which, however, was found too strong for them to accomplish their object. A lieutenant of police was severely cut on the head with a stone; about ten of the officers were more or less hurt by the mob; and the executioner, who was for some time in their hands, suffered severely. In the mean time the police-officers rallied in augmented force, and retook the criminal from the mob at the head of Advocates' Close. The unhappy man, half alive, stripped of part of his clothes, and his shirt turned up, so that the whole of his naked back and upper part of his body was exhibited, lay extended on the ground in the middle of the street, in front of the police-office. At last, after a considerable interval, some of the police-officers, lay113 |