Saturday 03 Apr 1819 (p. 3, col. 1-3) GAOL DELIVERY. [continued] MAIL ROBBERY. CHRISTOPHER GALE, aged 33 years, charged on the oath of Thomas ARCHER with feloniously stealing, taking, and carrying away two Bills of Exchange, one of the value of £100, and another £50, from and out of the Mail from Cockermouth to Maryport, the said Christopher GALE then being the person employed to carry the said mail from Cockermouth to Maryport aforesaid. Mr. COURTENAY stated the case, and Mr. EDEN addressed the jury, detailing the circumstances as they appear in the evidence below. He observed, that the prisoner at the bar was charged with an offence which was guarded against by the highest penalty of the law. If this charge was clearly proved against the prisoner, it would be the duty of the jury to find him guilty; if there were any doubts, it would be proper to give him the benefit of those doubts. The following witnesses were called:— Edward NELSON is a merchant at Liverpool. Having occasion to send two bills of exchange to Mr. Thomas ARCHER of Maryport, the bills produced in Court were put into a letter on Friday the 8th of January, either by himself or Thomas GRIFFITHS, his clerk, in his (Mr. NELSON's) presence, and GRIFFITHS took the letter to the post-office immediately. Thomas GRIFFITHS is clerk to Mr. NELSON, the foregoing witness. He recollects that on the 8th of Jan. Mr. NELSON put two bills of exchange into a letter; one for £50, and the other, he believes, for £100. Mr. NELSON then directed the letter, which was either sealed or wafered, and witness took it to the post-office, at a quarter before one o'clock. He copied the letter after it was written.—Examined by the Court, he repeated the principal points of his evidence; the post-office is only about 800 yards from Mr. NELSON's office. Thomas WOODWARD is a clerk in the Liverpool post-office, which is kept by Mr. BANNING. A letter from Liverpool to Maryport would be forwarded by the Carlisle mail at 35 m. past five p. m.; it would be put into the Penrith bag. On the day in question he knows that the Penrith bag was sent, by the amounts being entered in the book in his hand writing. The bags were sent as usual; he saw the guard take it away. The letter would arrive at Penrith about eight the next morning. On his cross-examination by Mr. ARMSTRONG, the prisoner's counsel, witness said that he is not at the post-office every evening; he only knows that he was at the office on the 8th by seeing his own figures in the book; he is absent from the office on alternate Sundays only, and is certain that the 8th of January was not a Sunday, because all the clerks were there—they are not so on that day. Elizabeth GARNETT, the daughter of the postmaster at Penrith, deposed that the Liverpool mail arrives in that town about eight in the morning. The Liverpool bags had arrived regularly from the 1st of January. Thomas GARNETT is postmaster at Penrith. A letter from Liverpool to Maryport would go from Penrith to Cockermouth, and it is his duty to make up the bags for that place. He remembers doing it every morning in the early part of January, and is able to swear that he dispatched the bag on the 9th for Cockermouth. This witness produced a bill of letters for that day; the writing is his, the figures are his daughter's. Patrick SHIMMINGS is a clerk in the post office at Cockermouth, kept by Mr. WOOD. On the 9th of January last, he received the bag from Penrith, at about half-past five in the afternoon, which is the usual time. It is his business to make up the Maryport letters after the mail arrives, and he did so on the 9th of January. He sent a letter bill by the Maryport bags, the same as is now produced, the whole of which is his hand writing. Jane KITCHEN is the post office keeper at Maryport. Witness does not know why the amount of money received does not answer with the amount charged for letters.—On his cross-examination by Mr. ARMSTRONG, witness said he has been upwards of 15 years with Mr. WOOD, and was four years with the late Mr. THOMPSON. Has known the prisoner about 11 years; never saw him read or write: he always bore a good character before the present charge was made against him. Jane KITCHEN has been upwards of 10 years post-mistress at Maryport, and was so on the 9th of January last. On that day she received the Maryport bag from the prisoner about 7 o'clock, the usual time; he carried the mail on horseback in saddle-bags. The sum of 19s. 9d. on the letter-bill produced, is the amount of the letters in the bag; there was a difference of 2s. between that and the amount sent by Mr. WOOD. Cross-examined, she said that to the best of her knowledge, the bags are always sealed. The bag on the day in question appeared to come in the usual way; it might be unsealed and escape her notice. Ann DUFF, a letter carrier at Maryport, is certain that she had not a letter for Mr. ARCHER, on the 9th of January. Examined by the Court, she said that she had carried letters to Mr. ARCHER's house for four years past. Mr. A. enquired one night after he should have had the letter; she delivered one to him about a week before the 9th. Margaret LANGCAKE lives at Ellenborough. Prisoner called at her house in January last; it was his custom to leave Mr. CHRISTIAN's private bag; he called either on the 12th or 13th of January, about seven in the evening, and had some conversation. Prisoner shewed her a bill, and asked her if she could tell him what it was; she told him it was a bill for £50.—Cross-examined, she said that she supposes prisoner could not read the bill; she told him he could get better information when he got to Maryport. Elizabeth MARTINDALE is wife of Wm. MARTINDALE, who keeps a public-house at Dovenby. Remembers that on Wednesday the 20th of January, about a quarter past six in the evening, the prisoner called at her house, and, producing a bill, said he had forgotten to whom he was to deliver it. She shewed it to her husband, who remarked that when the prisoner got to Maryport he would learn to whom it belonged. Witness observed the name of NELSON upon the back of the bill, at the bottom; she returned it to the prisoner, told him it was a bill for £50, and he put it into his breeches pocket. The bill was produced and she identified it.—On her cross-examination by Mr. ARMSTRONG, witness said that the prisoner did not show the bill as his own property. William MARTINDALE corroborated his wife's testimony. Witness knows the bill again by the names of HUMPHREYS, LIGHTFOOT, and DODD being upon one part of it, and by the name of NELSON upon another part. Witness did not minutely examine it, but recollects it was for £50. Ann MILLICAN remembers the prisoner coming to her husband's house between seven and nine on Wednesday the 20th of January, and asked if she could give him small notes for a £50 bill. She answered, No, and the bill was not produced by the prisoner. Jos. MILLICAN was in a room or office adjoining when his wife and prisoner were talking about a bill, and plainly heard what passed. Witness went after the prisoner and found him at the gate-way of the Golden Lion Inn. He asked him if he had yet got cash or notes for the bill? Prisoner replied that he had not. Witness then asked to see the bill, and prisoner showed it to him; it was for £50. Prisoner allowed him to take it to his shop for the purpose of examining it. Witness then carried the bill to Mr. ARCHER, who went with him to the Golden Lion gateway, where the prisoner still was. They asked him to go into a room in the yard called the laundry, where the prisoner took from his fob another bill for £100. Witness recognises the £50 bill by a mark which he set upon it. Mr. ARCHER took the £100 bill. Mr. ARCHER corroborated Mr. MILLICAN. The bills given up by the prisoner were handed over to the magistrate. Mr. NELSON, called again, proved that the bills produced in court were the same which he put into the letter. Here ended the evidence for the prosecution. Mr. ARMSTRONG called Mrs. WOOD, of the Globe Inn, Cockermouth, and wife of the postmaster, who stated that she had known the prisoner nearly 12 years; she believes he cannot read nor write; she always considered him an honest man, and that was his general character. His Lordship summed up the evidence. By the 52nd Geo. III. the penalty of death was imposed on an agent, clerk, deputy, letter-carrier, or post-boy for secreting any letter containing any, or any part of, bills of exchange, or for taking out of letters any bank post bills. If the Jury were of opinion that the prisoner had secreted the letter or the bills of exchange, his life would be forfeited to the laws of his country. A good character had been given to the prisoner; but if they were of opinion that the present charge was clearly proved, previous good conduct had nothing at all do with it. If they had doubts, then they might take his character into consideration. There was no irregularity in the course of the letter till it came into GALE's hands. The Jury found the prisoner GUILTY. His Lordship then passed sentence of DEATH upon the prisoner in a very impressive manner, and gave him no hopes of mercy. He recommended him to spend the short time he had to live in this world, in penitence and prayer, in order to make his peace with God while the means of doing so were still in his power. The prisoner was either extremely indifferent, or so very much affected, as to have lost the sense of feeling—it was difficult to say whether. [to be continued]