AN OLD TALE.

Grey River Argus, 14 October 1907, Page 1

AN OLD TALE.

P RIS ON BR' E PATHETIC CONFESSION.

'A paretic confession by a prisoner .&' a counsel was read at th© Leeds Assizes at the trial of Mark Merry, ag jd 46, fete seoretary of the Wake■filid and Weat Sidrnig Permanent »• Tftajfifag, Society. Merry .was charged. "•with defalcaßonr aimpuntittg 'to ■ £l<b* . SO6 "Hie indiiistmeniis •- were set out on a document i2fit long. Mt Andrews, who sippeaireQ tor Merry, said he had received t'lft following leitt'er from, his client :— . "It is an old 'tale. Long enough; I : hesitJafted, but Sn the end <pers*ade_ myself tShis once, and I would .pui; up and make it all right again. I did it '-.Vi miaide no difference. The item ' vri.. passed 'by the secretary, and in due time by the au<iiitors. "I was let How^ too lightly. JUm thing was made so easy. (Time wen-. m My necessities gfito Conscience gradually lulled to rest, became almost silent. And so the 'thing giuw and grew, until .there was no pulJang .black. If there was no pulling back, still less Was tere any Standing still. It must go fonw,ard." Prisoner, said counsel!, was a mafl of cuture and lAtterairy iiaste. He had miweid -in \gctod society, ■• but to-day could, not put hrn fingef :Ba -Single pen.ny. In a" letter to one of his little girfs --tihe pri'so-ner wnoite :— „ ; *tyidraf _a«OTiio6k^_M>ibings wrong ly. I did not th-imk of what I was ;bringiing albiout. It was aii. done tn a mis*aken idea of giijing you happiness in a .way I hiaid no right mho do." When (the fraud was discovered Merry .detfaittpedi hex he 'afterwards •-. wrote to .the chairman c. the directors (the M-.vor of Wakefield), explaining what bail happened. He returned and surrendered to the polkie, and for a week • wus elbseted iwith the accountant, assisting to find put the defalcations. It wills llargely on aoobuivt Tof ' ,th,at letter jtp'itlhe mayor that a public panic was - s'ti^ed. ' „ . 1 He biad done everything in has power .to iftakt. restitution. He had sold his foriture, and haid banded over ; a legacy v: iJiooo, .the totail he had; paid •.eing '£1.870. ""■. •Mr Justice Rjdkiy, who remaTked on the painful nature of the case, sent the accused to 'five years penal servitule