To The Editor Of The Time...
otr,.1 costess that the imputations so liberaly indulged in by certain joturnals against characters which, for aught I kfnow, may be irreproachable, does surprise me in this " thinking coantry," for so we arc pleased to call it. Yourrespectablc paper is, ras might be expeeted, an hononrable ex- ception. They appear to be doingtheir utmost to urge the partners in the late Berners-street batik to reply to Di r. Fautntlerov's def<ence That there rnay be no want of stimulus, one talks of pariiciprion for. crime; thes magnifying cven the prisoner's charge of perzicipatiore in prqf ifs the character of which latter particpation depends altoge- ther on the knowledge or suspicion that the fun4s are improperly ob- tained, or on the belief that they come in the regular course of bu- siness. They are urging these gentlemen to retly to that defence, wbhen the pbisoner has beard fromn his judge, that merev, though impreba. ble, is not impos. ble: they 2.re urgisg them to endeavour to deprive himn of the slender hope of lif'e allowed, by shaking, if they can, the only groand on which he rehes upon for rnercy-viz. that he did not forge for selfish purposes_that he had had year; of anxious care owing to eiimbarrassed finances, and was, personally, of' economlical habits. Surely this course is verv thoughtlebss, to say the least of it. In my itercourse with legal Mnen, there appears but one opinion-that the pattners would make them- selves justly liable to the severest censure, were they, in order to clear their characters a week o: fortnight sooner, to prejudice the chances of this unfortuate man, such as they ate, or such a* he may consider theta. He relies altogether on his defence. Are theyv then to seal his doomn by possibly deprivinfr his statement 3t the c aracter of truth ? The statement may be tr,e but, surely. it is unusual thus to adopt interested statements, nma.de by Browedi- great and practisedoffenders. All that I know . . :hat the Bla:.'s of England, who must have had opportunities of inve;tigation, appear. by the Attorney-General's speech, to have entertaired no stlCh ideas. I feel no right, then, at present, to suppose guilt on tbeir part. I mi)!htecertainly, wisein my oNvn conceit, say that they. a3 well a:n the Bank of tnglatud, had been over-confiding-had been careless. utL this after.wisdoxn is cheap. It would appear bv the evidence of the witnesses to character. that thic untbrtunate man had possessed the art of inpiring confidence in his *ntegrity in no common degree. It see.as the prtofthepublicpress, combining mnercy and hurnas nity wth itB ack;nowledgedt power, to implore the partners to be pa.- tient fror a while, rather thtan to irritae themi into mah in;r statements. or disclosures which lacy affect the life of a fallen fellow-creature. Such?, at lcast, arc_thc vien, of .-I", I'lov. .3, IMZ4. Tttt-- A L.*1WSTUDENT. TO TUJE ED) TO OF THB TIIlrS.