896, JOHN SMITH proceedingsdefend was indicted for feloniously stealing, on the 28th of September , fourteen sheets of royal paper, value 1 s. 6 d. five sheets of demy paper, value 6 d. and seven sheets and a half of printed paper, value 6 d. the property of Andrew Strahan proceedingsvictim and William Preston proceedingsvictim .

JOHN MACARTY < no role > . I am superintendant in the printing office, their names are Andrew Strahan < no role > and William Preston < no role > .

JOHN CROSS < no role > . I am superintendant to the press part, the prisoner was a pressman , in the employ of Messrs. Strahan and Preston. On the evening of the 27th I looked in the prisoner's drawer, I found five or six sheets of proof paper, I shewed it to Mr. Scott and then replaced it in the drawer the same as I found it, on the next morning, Saturday, the prisoner came to work sooner than usual. I then stated to him that I believed we should have something to do on the Sunday, so that if I had occasion to call upon him I might know where to find him, he gave me No. 3, Bull's Head Court, Peter Street, Saffron Hill. After the prisoner was gone to breakfast I looked in the drawer again, and found the paper gone from the drawer. The work that he was upon I counted out and missed fifty or sixty sheets out of about three thousand five hundred. I obtained a search warrant and went to his lodgings that he had described. I searched the lodgings on the Saturday afternoon, and found the six sheets that I had found on the over evening, it was hanging upon a line to dry, it had been wetted fit for work. I found also a quire of royal paper, which was part of the paper that he was at work, and part of that I had missed. I found some sheets of printed paper, some sheets of what I was printing of Blairs Sermons, and some sheets of the Monthly Review. This is the property that we found. I am certain that the paper is the property of Mr. Strahan and Mr. Preston.

ROBERT STANTON < no role > . I apprehended the prisoner, he told me he was very sorry I had apprehended Charllotte, she was intirely innocent of it, he had taken it that morning at breakfast.

Q.(to Cross.) What is the value of the paper. - A. Somewhere about three shillings.

Prisoner's Defence. I own to the paper in the drawer, but to any thing else it is false.

GUILTY, aged 35.

Judgment respited .

Second Middlesex jury, before Mr. Recorder.