ng pressed,
absconded. The investigation developed a long-continued system of frauds
of vast amount, to the amount, it was said, of nearly 250,000 pounds.

"Mr. Leopold Redpath passed in society as a gentleman of ample means,
great taste, and possessed of the Christian virtue of charity in no
common degree. He had a house in Chester Terrace, handsomely furnished,
and a "place" at Weybridge complete with every luxury that wealth could
procure; gave good dinners with excellent wines; kept good horses and
neat carriages. He was a governor of Christ's Hospital, the St. Ann's
Schools, and subscribed freely to the most useful charities of London.
His appointment on the Great-Northern was worth 300 pounds per annum; but
it was supposed that this was only of consequence to Mr. Redpath as
affording him a regular occupation and an opportunity of operating in the
share-market, in which he was known to have extensive dealings. The
directors of the railway appear to have been perfectly aware that their
servant was living far beyond his salary, but they considered him to be a
very successful speculator. Upon this splendid bubble being blown up,
Redpath fled to Paris; but, finding that the French authorities were not
inclined to protect him, he returned to London and surrendered himself.

"The mode in which this gigantic swindler had committed his frauds is
simple enough. Having charge of the books in which the stock of the
company is registered, he altered the sum standing in the name of some
_bona fide_ stockholder to a much larger sum, generally by placing a
figure before it, by which simple means 500 became 1,500, or 2,500
pounds, or any larger number of thousands. The surplus stock thus
_created_ Redpath sold in the stock-market, forging the name of the
supposed transferer, transferring the sum to the account of the supposed
transferee in the register, and either attesting it himself, or causing
it to be attested by a young man, his protege and tool, but who appears
to have been free from guilty cognizance. In some instances the fraud
was but the more direct course of making a fictitious entry of stock, and
then selling it. By these processes the number of shareholders and the
amount of stock on the company's register became greatly magnified,
while, as the _bona fide_ holders of stock remained credited with their
proper investments, there was no occasion for suspicion on their part.
How Redpath dealt with subsequent tra