distrust. Every bank seems a whited sepulchre.
It is as if Lombard-street pavement had
suddenly given way, like ice, and a great volcano of
uncontrollable fire had come spouting up ten
times as high as the Monument. Such convulsions
in commerce are what great disappointments
are in life; they make men cynics in a
moment; they uproot hope, and destroy our trust
in human nature. If Fides be false, if Achates
is dishonest, who, we think, can be honest, who
can be true? No hypocrite is ever exposed
without making half a dozen men irreligious
for life. No banker is dishonest without turning
half a dozen commercial men into
misanthropes, who henceforward raise their rate of
interest and refuse loans even to their own
mothers.

Before Mr. Fauntleroy's trial took place,
endless ledgers had been conned, bank-books
totted up, tin boxes ransacked, and stupendous
discoveries made. The court was full of
bankers, merchants, literary men, and west-end
men, who had either been robbed by Fauntleroy,
or had shared his hospitality at his pleasant
dinner-parties. The prisoner, with his
powdered hair and dress immaculate as ever, stood
pale, nervous, and humble at the bar. Fauntleroy
had really embezzled about four hundred
thousand pounds, but the Bank of England
prosecuted for only one hundred and seventy
thousand pounds which he had obtained by
forced powers of attorney in the years 1814,
1815.

The grand jury of the city of London found
true bills against Mr. Fauntleroy on several
charges of forgery, and the trial was appointed
to take place on October 30, 1824. The
sheriffs determined to obviate the inconveniences
of a crowded court by preventing any persons
entering it as mere spectators who were not
provided with tickets signed by themselves.
Nevertheless, the galleries, which were claimed
as private property under the control of particular
officers of the corporation, were farmed
out with great zeal at a guinea a seat.

Long before eight o'clock a throng began to
assemble at the Old Bailey doors, and a
tremendous crush was expected; but, as often
happens in these cases, so many people feared
the crowd, that, after all, no very great crowd
came. The price of the gallery seats had
deterred the public, and there were not more
than twenty persons in them.

Mr. ex-Sheriff Parkins made himself rather
conspicuous by his remarkable eagerness for
the commencement of the trial, and his great
apprehension lest some unforeseen circumstance
should produce delay.

At ten o'clock, Mr. Justice Park and Mr.
Baron Garrow entered the court, accompanied
by the Lord Mayor. The prisoner was dressed
in a full suit of black, and his grey hair was, as
usual, powdered. His previous firmness seemed
to desert him now when placed at the bar. His
step was tremulous, his face pale and thinner
than on his first examination at Marlborough-
street. He never raised his head, even for a
moment, but placed his hands for support on
the front of the dock, and stood in the most
dejected way while the Deputy-Clerk of the
Arraigns repeated the seven different indictments
for forgery. The reading of these occupied
twenty minutes.

The first indictment charged Henry Fauntleroy
(no respect now to the great rich man) with
forging a deed with intent to defraud Frances
Young of five thousand pounds stock, and also
with forging a power of attorney with intent to
defraud the Bank of England.

The Attorney-General then, gathering up his
heap of notes, and tossing his silk gown higher
over his shoulders, set to work to fit the noose
securely and legally round the neck of the
unhappy banker. Fauntleroy's father, he stated,
had been a partner in the bank from its very
first establishment, and continued so till his
death in 1807, at which period the prisoner
became a partner, and soon rose to be the most
active and working member of the firm. In
1815, Frances Young, of Chichester, a
customer of the house, lodged in the hands of the
firm a power of attorney to receive the dividends
on five thousand four hundred and fifty pounds
Three per Cent Consols. These dividends were
regularly received; but soon afterwards another
power of attorney was presented to the bank,
authorising the prisoner to sell that stock, and
he sold it. It was afterwards found that he had
forged the name of Frances Young, and the
names of the two attesting witnesses. Since
the discovery, a paper of singular importance
had been found proving this. (What this
paper was it will be better for us to state
further on.)

James Tyson, the first witness called, said: I
have been clerk in the bank ever since 1807,
the very year the prisoner was taken into the
house. In 1815, the partners were Sir James
Tibbald, Bart., William Marsh, Henry Fauntleroy,
George Edward Graham, and Josias Henry
Stacey. Sir James died in 1819 or 1820, and
Mr. Fauntleroy became then the active partner.
The name of James Tyson attached to the
instrument produced is not in my handwriting. I swear
that I did not write it. I never saw Miss Frances
Young sign a deed. I never, indeed, saw her in
my life till I saw her at the office at Marlborough-street,
after Mr. Fauntleroy's apprehension.
The description of the witnesses, "clerks to
Messrs. Marsh, Tibbald, and Co., bankers,
Bemers-street, is, I think, in Mr. Fauntleroy's
writing. I have been in the habit of seeing him
write weekly, daily, hourly. Having such
knowledge of his handwriting, I say that I have
no doubt that the words of the description are
in his writing."

John Browning, junior, examined by Mr. Law,
deposed: I have been for twenty-four years a
clerk in the Three per Cent Consols Office. I
was subsidiary witness to the power of attorney
produced. I saw Mr. Fauntleroy attach this
signature in the sixth division of our office. I
have with me here, the bank ledger, which shows
that, on the day named, Miss Frances Young