35 o KINGSCLERE 



Burnett, thirty-one, labourer ; Richard Brewer, thirty-four, 

 mould maker ; and James Griffiths, forty, printer. Henry 

 Brown, accepted as witness for the Crown, gave in his 

 evidence what amounted to a substantial history of the 

 case, and chiefly from that the facts embodied in the 

 present note are gathered. He said he was twenty-one 

 years of age, and the son of George Brown, a carpenter at 

 the Laverstoke mills. He was in the habit of assisting 

 his father at the mills. Between May and Christmas, 

 1 86 1, he became acquainted with Burnett at the 'Three 

 Horse-shoes,' Whitchurch, where he and his wife were 

 staying with his sister-in-law. His wife first spoke to him 

 about bank-note paper, and Burnett afterwards said he 

 knew some one who would print notes and pass them. 

 He refused, on being asked to get some paper from the 

 mills. The request from both of them being frequently 

 repeated, he took some from the mills — three sheets of 

 paper for six notes. He took it from the side of the size- 

 drying machine, where it is passed between felted blankets 

 and heated rollers. Two girls worked the machine, one 

 putting the paper in and the other taking it out. Near 

 the lower end, next to the wall, there was a place where a 

 man could put his hand in and take paper from between 

 the blankets. He got three sheets from a place in the 

 machine where he could not be seen by the girls. It was 

 part of his duty to see that the blankets did not crease, 

 and that the paper went regularly. The three sheets were 

 1 plain ' paper — that is without the denomination of the 

 note upon it, but it had all the water-marks. He gave 

 them to Mrs. Burnett, and Burnett said he knew some one 

 who would print and pass the notes, but that he must take 

 the paper to London. Threatened by Burnett if he did 

 not get more, he took ten sheets of ' fifties ' from the 

 machine. In every case there were two notes on a sheet. 

 Brewer, finding out what he had done, advised him to put 

 the paper back. He said he had not had the chance, and 

 Brewer told him not to take any more. Burnett, on his 

 return to Whitchurch, gave him 4/. ; he, on Burnett's 

 advice, gave 3/. to Brewer. Eventually Brewer said he 

 was to get as much paper as Burnett wanted. That was 

 about the latter end of June, 1861. Witness's further 

 evidence related to his leaving the mills, accompanying 

 the Burnetts to London, returning to Whitchurch, meeting 



