THE GREAT BELGIAN TRIAL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 36, 11 February 1879, Page 4

THE GREAT BELGIAN TRIAL.

[From t*e" Times"] Balzac's passionate fondness for analyzing the mystery of crime, and for tmndling gigantic sums of money on paper would have found an admirable theme in the extraordinary trial which hue come (o an end in Brussels. The imnqinative Vautrin, whose villainy and strong hrain oast n gleam over the ppge=t of "Le Pe-e Goriot," is not a tn<>r« curious specimen of humanity thr.n (he real Eugene T'Kint de Roodenbtkei ; nnd even the audacity of the DovfHsl was not equal ti> the feat t>f making the moat gifted of his rniny rnve'oua scoundrels steal £800,000. Brnucht fo trial on November 4, last, T'Kint, has, after a month of hearing, been fouud guilty of 146 distinct a^ts of theft, ani sentenced to 15 yenrs' soliiary confinpment. Hiscarepr makes him s'ani out even amoag the many authors of gigantic frauds who have pivpc something like a distinctive character (o the crimioal tendencies of this geuera'ioo. About 20 years ago he went, in<o the Bank of Belgium as a supernumerary clerk. Gradually he rose upiil he bpcame the bead of the department which is charged with tha management of the securities committed to the Bank. Although he had no private fortune be was aeon one of the largest nnd most intrepid speculators on the Bourse. He employed no fewer than twenty-five agents de change to conduct his gigantic operations in Brussels and Paris. Within five years one of these gentlemen bought for hi en securities costing 462,123,393 france, and fold others to the value of 461,328, 716 francs. Another bought for him to the extent of 107,753,607 francs, and eold to the amount of 107,297,972 francs. The commission of onn of the &g»nts came to about £7,500. The transactions did credit to the audacity of a bank clerk with a salary of £168 per year. But hie success was not equal to his holiness. Ha was in truth the most unlucky of speculators. For he lost, from first to last, about half a million sterling on the Bourse. So far bis mishaps cau be traced ; but he must have allowed a great deal more of the bank's money to slip into the bands of more fortunate gamblers than himself. He was a rich man, nevertheless, uutil ihe coming of tha evil day when be had to tike a ticket to London only to run into the hands of the law at Qseenstowu. In 1870 be estimated his fortune at £30,000, end bis yearly income at £8000. Even after his career had been rudely cat short, and when he was passing through Liverpool on the way to the haven of the United States, be W".s able to ask, and to get nearly five thousand pounds worth of change in dollars for B*nk of Belgium notee. T'Kint is clearly a man of genius in bie »wn way. But the most extraordinary part of his -lory touches the manner in which be got the money. His method was a masterpiece of simplicity and audacity. It was bis business to keep account of all the securities deposited in the baok He hod access to them only through the secretary, M. Heyvaert, who kept the key of the strong-room in which they were placed, and sever allowed it out of his possession. But if that gentleman wits a jealous guardian in ■ one respect, be was the most lax of warders in another. Every morning at 10 'i'Kint sent a messenger to him with a list of the coupons which would be needed during the day, and that official was allowed to take such documents as he pleased. Such was the secretary's trust in I'Kint that he did not, tliiuk of comparing the papers taken out with the list given in the da'ly memorandum, nor of enquiring whether the bundle of documents which wp.b returned each night was exactly the same as that which bad been delivered in the morning. He did aot take the trouble even to. count them. In (lie interval some of the securities were stolen, and the theft was carefully concealed. Such a practice could not continue for year after year without raising suspicions out of doors. T'Kint'e speculations on tbe Bourse could not be hidden; his manifest wealth must have been a subject of keen curiosity, and, at last, in September, 1875, be seemed to be caught in tbe act of flagrunt robbery. A Belgian senator named Bisßchofsheim, who had placed the vouchers for 1285 preference shares in the custody of tbe bank, had reason to believe that they bad been sold, and in order to see whether his suspicions were well-founded, be gave notice that he should require them to be delivered to him on a particular day. They were plsctd in his hands at tbe appointed time; but on examining tbe numbers, he found that they were the very Bbarea which T'Kint had disposed of in two lote. The thief had, however, bought them back in time to place them in tbe hands of tbe owner, and it wa3 afterwards discovered that, to get the money requißite fo r their redemption, he Lad stolen tbe vouchers of 400 shares in tbe Grand Luxembourg Railway. When taxed with the sale of M. Bieechofsheim's property, he coolly replied that he bad confounded that gentlemau's shares with his own, and tbe excuse was complacently accepted by M, Fortamps, tbe manager of the bank. Indeed, it would have been impossible for him to have carried on his fraud* unless be bad been aided by at least tbi culpable negligence of that official. A much harsher name was given to tb< manager's conduct by ibe Fublii Prosecutor; for Fortamps stood in tb dock with T'Kint, and be has share* in tbe condemnation, although he ba received a much lighter sentence. The

however, came what might have eeempd a more formidable danger for M. Van>?pvin, one of tbe directors, was appointPil to examine aU the securities. But T'Kint was warned of tho dagger in ample time, he was warned by Fortumps, the manager, and, strange to 8«y, by M. Vandevin himself. So very clever a person had littJfl difficulty, therefore, in preparing for the scrutiny by staying at tim Bonk for several evpnings after the other clerks had cone homp, and fnhiicating snhedule'i <o take fhe p'acps of those he bad stoler t . He carried on the work of forgery Bt the very time when M Vandevio w as Maurely proceeding with the scrulio y. Nay, so bold had he become that he stole securities in tbe mi^et of the investigation. Misled by Cor ced rnipers and plausible explanations, M. Vandevin signed a certificate th.at all the pecurities were in proper order, with the exception of five; and riven in the case of these he suggested t'jat the documents betrayed irregularity rather than fraud. Still suspicion 1 inhered, about the name of the clever spe culator. Ugly rumors were spread through Brussels, and they were mnde darker by the discovery of M. N;yt, the Belgi n S cretary of Legation at Parip, that the numbers of some coupons whioh he took out of the bunk were different from thoeo of the securities which he bad placed in ita keepin -r But T'Kint was able for tbe moment to beat down tbe evidence even of that faot by the powpr whit, h be bad gai'jed in the bank. He hat' virtually displaced the manager; all ibe clerks assumed that he was tbeit master; aod agents de change came to him fur orders rather than to tbe nominal bead. Meanwhile, Fortamps permitted him to have an enormous credit witooat gettingany authority from the directors, and thus, of course, the bank was pillaged. T'Kint carried on another kind of robbery by manipulat inf; many of the current accounts. But at last came the sb.adow of ruin in the shape of an ap proaching official examination, and the man had to fly. He closed bis great fiuancial career on March 7, 1876. Skilfully mendacious to the end, he wrc >te a letter to the Governor on the ev e of bis departure, confessing that be bad committed fraud, and protesting that he was broken-hearted by the tb.ought of bis guilt, but adding that he had gone to Paris to find the menas of restitution, and that be would return to Brussels next day. MeanwhfJe, he had gone to

London with the intention of proceeding to America. On the eve of his departure from Liverpool he wrote to tbe manager another letter, which is a ■Model of penitent unction. He was. ae said, distracted with grief ; he would never forgive himself ; he was horrified to think of his ingratitude with which he had treated the manager ; and he was about to sail for India, to work day and night in order to find the means of making restitution. Thus did he attempt (to {throw his pursuers oil tbe scent. He afterwards explained that if he had gone to America he would have become a picture dealer. It would have taken him a considerable time to amass the £SOO,OOO, the sum of his robberies, if he bad resorted to the congenial task of manufacturing Kaphaels and Titians, and selling them to rich Americans. But he did not pet the opportunity of reaching tbe United States, for he was caught at Queenstown,'and after spending some » time in the Middlesex House of Detention, he was] sent back to Brussels. The retribution is cow come. Fifteen years' solitary confinement is a severe sentence,'. but it is not too bard. Such men are to this a»e what secret poisoners were to mediaeval Italy, and highwaymen to tbe England of a hundred and fifty years ago They prey on that trust which is the life of commerce. T'Kint is an incomparable specimen of the breed, and the impudence of his frauds has a touch of grandeur. But if there is one thing more wonderful than his boldness and success it is the recklessness with which he was allowed to swindle in broad daylight. Other trials for fraud will, it is said, spring out of this one ; and it is difficult to resist the conclusion that justice has still to unravel much of the guilt which attended the pillage of the Bank.