THE ADVENTURES OF A BANKRUPT.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 47, 21 April 1863, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE ADVENTURES OF A BANKRUPT.

At the Guildhall police court on January 10, William Buckwell, a railway contractor and manufacturer of artificial stone, of Greenwich, London, and of Casa Crola, Borgomanero, in Italy, was placed at the bar before Alderman Ilumphery, having been brought from Mount Cenis, by Haydon, a detective officer, upon a warrant charging him with not surrendering to his bankruptcy on the day fixed for his last examination. Since the bankrupt has been in custody other charges have been preferred against him, for not delivering up his books or accounts, and for not making a full disclosure of his estate. The features of this case, as at present disclosed, are of a somewhat extraordinary character. The bankrupt's trading, it is alleged, commenced in the early part of 1860, and continued down to February, 1862, when he became a bankrupt, with liabilities estimated at L90,000, of which L50,000 was due to Italian and L40.000 to English creditors. It is further alleged that he had been engaged in constructing a railway from Novara to Lake Orla, in Italy, under a contract for L184,000 ; that he had received the greater portion of that amount, and had not expended above L13,000 on the line; that his transactions during the year 1861 amounted to L200,000, while the assets recovered up to the present are exceedingly small, the principal portion of his property being in Italy, and that there is still a very considerable amount of property withheld from the assignees and altogether unaccounted for. The bankrupt attended several meetings, and was examined before the commissioner in bankruptcy relative to his affairs ; but as he failed to appear on the 14th of May, I8(j2, to pass his last examination, and evinced no intention of returning from Italy, where he had Uiken up his residence, the assignees, after a lapse of three months, obtained a warlant for his apprehension, and placed in the hands of Haydon, of the City Detectives, who being furnished with credentials from the Foreign Office, proceeded forthwith to Turin in quest of the runaway, whose place of retreat he discovered on the 7th August, the day of his arrival. As there existed, however, no treaty of extradition between Italy and this country, Haydon found his warrant of little avail withouc the concurrence of the Italian authorities. He therefore applied to Sir. Tames Hudson, the English ambassador, who rendered every assistance consistent with his position, and the result was that he succeeded, with the aid of a company of carbineers, under the direction of the Questura, in arresting the further flight of the bankrupt, who was discovered concealed between the ceiling and the roof of an out-birtiding belonging to the Casa Crola at Bovgomanero, and having him safely lodged in the criminal gaol at Turin. Here, however, was but the commencement of Haydon's difficulties, for, the authorities having secured the bankrupt, his Italian creditors exerted aM their influence to prevent his extradition ; but the government offered to give him up on terms of reciprocity which Earl Russell deemed it inexpedient to accede to, and after continued negotiations and delays and disappointments, extending over a period of four months, Haydon j at length received an intimation that the bankrupt would be conveyed to the frontier and there liberated on a certain clay, and took his measures accordingly. The arrangements supposed to have been made by the Italian authorities would have given the bankrupt a clear start of Haydon had they been carried out as originally intended ; but the latter lost no time in gaining the frontier on the top of Mount Cenis, and there awaited the arrival of his customer. But there a new difficulty arose, for the gensdarme, in whose custody the bankrupt was, refused to liberate him until he signed a document absolving the Italian authorities from the consequences of an illegal arrest and forcible expulsion from their kingdom ; and he, equally astonished and chagrined at the presence of Haydon, inquired what would be done with him if he did not comply with the request ; and on learning that he would be taken back to ths gaol at Turin, he positively refused to sign his release, in the hope that he would thus finally defeat Haydon and those under whose instructious he was acting. Haydon, however, nothing daunted, inquired of a French guide where the exact line of demarcation between France and Italy was situated, and finding that all parties had, without being aware of the fact, actually crossed the frontier, he at once executed his warrant and arrested the bankrupt, at the same time availing himself of the assistance of a couple of French gensdarme placed at his service by the French authorities through the intervention of Lord Cowley, our ambassador at Paris. This step rendered imminent a very serious embroglio, for the French officers, acting ou Haydon's instructions, threatened to shoot their prisoner if he attempted" to escape ; and the Italian gensdarme, acting ou instructions equally explicit, expressed a determination not to return to Turin without him. This state of things lasted about half an hour, when the bankrupt was literally frozen out, as indeed were the officers, all of them, including Haydon, being up to their knees in snow on one of the highest parts of the Alps. After some parleying and much shivering, the bankrupt solved the knotty point, and elected to

accompany Haydon to England, wliich, after forty-eight hours' travelling, they reached in safety. A great deal of evidence having been taken in support of the charge, the prisoner was again remanded.