Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 4.djvu/416

 e02 FEDERAL BSFOBTKB. �the question, Who caused the letter which enclosed the ad» vertisement to the Malone Palladium to be mailed ? the fact that the letter was in defendant's handwriting, of itself, un- explained, was sufficient to authorize the conclusion that it -was mailed by him; that it was proved that the defendant was at the Cumberland House every day, or nearly every day, except Sundays, from August 15th to August 26th, and it was also proved that letters addressed to A. B. Fritz & Co. disappeared mysteriously from the box to which he had ac- cess. �"The court also charged that the jury might consider on this question the false statement which the defendant had made with respect to the handwriting of the paper, that, if the tes- timony of Mrs. Sibley was true, then it was plain that he had the answers to this advertisement in his possession, and, if he received the answers, this fact was important as tending to show who mailed the advertisement and letter to the Malone Palladium ; but that the jury, even if they disregarded the evidence of Mrs. Sibley as unworthy of credit, might find, from the other circumstances in the case, that a sufficient case had been made out to authorize the conviction of the defendant. The defendant, by his counsel, thereupon duly excepted to the charge of the court that it was not necessary that the letter should be personally mailed by the defendant, or that letters should be personally received by him from the post-office, in order to warrant his conviction. Defendant, by his counsel, also excepted to the charge of the judge that the fact that the letter to the Malone Palladium was in the hand- writing of the defendant, of itself, unexplained, was sufficient to authorize the conclusion that it was mailed by the defend- ant ; and thereupon the court modified that portion of its charge by saying that it was evidence from which the jury might infer that such letter was mailed by the defendant; to which modification the defendant, by his counsel, also duly excepted. Defendant, by his counsel, also excepted to that part of the charge of the court by which the jury were in-, structed that, even if they disregarded the evidence of Mrs. Sibley as unworthy of credit, they might find, from the othei ����