Charge of felony.
--Yesterday morning a young man named
Peter H. Morgan, a resident of
Maryland, was arraigned before the
Mayor to answer the charge of having in his possession promissory notes of the value of $4,100, and trying to dispose of the same, knowing them to have been stolen.
The facts of the case, as related in Court, are these.--Some few months since, parties in this city holding three notes against
Bell, Pace,
Lavender & Co., of New York, and two against
Patterson & Bro., of New York, took steps to have them collected through the agency of a moneyed firm in
Richmond.
These notes were given to
Mr. Farr, a blockade runner, to collect.
Getting to
Maryland, after visiting New York and securing the payment of
Bell & Co's notes, and failing to collect the other two, though due by two brothers to a sister,
Mr. Farr found it necessary to leave his private mail bag at the house of a friend, for safe keeping.
He had met
Morgan before; had made a trip with him to New York and back, and had let
Morgan put goods in a vessel which he had chartered, and which was to land on the
Rappahannock.
The vessel cleared at
Baltimore for
Washington, and was there seized by Federal authority.
Mr. Farr told
Morgan of his letter bag, and then purchased goods with which to run the blockade, but gave him no authority to touch either.--
Morgan, it seems, got possession of the letter bag containing the five notes, and a portion of
Farr's blockade goods, and came on to
Richmond.
The goods he had sold in
Farr's name, drawing the money and holding it for
Farr. --The notes he put in the hands of a broker for collection.
The two notes on
Patterson & Bro, had been guaranteed before sent, and when presented to the guarantors, were promptly paid, and the money put to the credit of
Morgan.
Mr. Bell, on learning of the notes of his firm being here for collection, informed the broker that they had been paid, and, by a writ of injunction, had them held by the broker.
Morgan returned to this city last Monday and visited his banker, but made no inquiry about the notes which he had deposited.
On Tuesday he met
Farr, and told him he had $1,100 for him, the proceeds of the sale of the goods he had brought on for
Farr.
He also said he had the notes — that
Captain Dickinson, of
Maryland, had stolen the latter bag, and that he (
Morgan) had gotten possession of the notes.
So much for the facts.
Morgan proved a good character by those who had known him in
Maryland.
The counsel for the prisoner raised the question, that if the notes had been stolen, of which there was no proof, no theft could have been committed, inasmuch as the
Federal and Confederate Governments were belligerent Powers, and the obligations of citizens of the
Federal Government possessed no money value in the Confederate Government.
After hearing the evidence the
Mayor adjourned the case until to-day, and admitted the accused to bail in $500.
