404 
ing such servant, &c. did feloniously 
secrete and. embezzle the said ex- 
chequer bills, and did ran away 
with them, so belonging to the said 
governor and company. ‘There were 
no less than ten difierent counts to 
the same effect. 
Mr. Garrow was counsel for the 
prosecutor, and Mr. Erskine for the 
prisoner. . The former stated, that 
the Bank of England, being in the 
customary habit of purchasing CX- 
chequer bills, on account of go- 
vernment, such bills are either 
brought to the Bank by one par- 
ticular house, (Goldsmid and co.) 
or by the Bank broker, who py- 
chases the bills in the market. On 
the delivery of these to the cashier, 
Mr. Astlett, he gives an order for 
payment, and the exchequer, bills 
remain with him til a suificient 
quantity are collected together, and 
made up in bundles, to deliver into 
the custody of the directors in the 
parlour. ‘These bundles are then 
counted, and a voucher given to 
the cashier on their delivery. They 
are placed in a strong closet, shut 
under three keys, and two of the 
keys are kept by the directors. Con- 
formably to this practice, on the 
26th day of February last, there 
were transferred from the custody 
of Mr. Astilett, the cashier, to the 
parlour, 
One bundle of exchequer bills to 
the value of 100,000 
Another, value 200,000 
A third 400,000—700,000 
An entry was made in the par- 
lour-book, and its correctness was 
youched by the,signatures of two 
directors, Messrs. Smith and Paget. 
The entry thus vouched, was, ne- 
yertheless, afterwards found to be 
for bills to the amount of 200,0001. 
more than the actual yalue of the 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 
1803. 
bundles. On this discovery it came 
out, that Mr. Astlett had been re- 
issuing some of these bills to raise 
money ; and Mr. Bish, the stock. 
broker, who had been applied to, 
with some of them, by Astlett, sus- 
pecting all was not right, gave in- 
timation of his suspicions to the 
Bank, when Mr. Astlett’s crimi- 
nality became evident. 
After Mr. Garrow had gone 
through, his case, Mr. Mrskine, in 
behalf of the prisoner, insisted that 
Mr. Jennings, who had signed these 
purloined exchequer bills, in the first 
instance, had not had the proper au- 
thority renewed to him for so doing, 
as required by act of parliament ; 
and so evideut was this, that go- 
vernment had, since the commit- 
ment of Mr. Astlett, passed an act 
to remedy the omission. 
The chief baron Macdonald ob- 
served, that the charge was for em- 
bezzling a valid pill of exchange. 
However great the crime in society, 
and the magnitude of the sum em- 
bezzled ; though every one must 
regret the cause of it, and the effect 
upon society, yet it was the bounden 
duty of the court, to determine ac- 
cording to the regular, ordinary, 
and constant course of the admi- 
nistration of justice. It was cer- 
tainly clear the present indictment 
was not to be maintained, as the 
charge therein alledged could not 
be proved. The late act of parlia- 
ment had recognized the invalidity 
of the bills which the prisoner em- 
bezzled. : 
‘The other judges concurred in 
opinion, and the lord chief baron 
directed the jury to acquit the pri- 
soner. He was accordingly found 
not guilty. 
Mr. Garrow applied to the court 
to detain him in custody ; it being 
the 
