Norfolk Gazette And Publick Ledger

We need not enter carefully into the business which has excited so much interest among us lately--the discovery of the money and the arrest of the accused. The name of the accused is so generally known, that it would be ridiculous to attempt its concealment.

On Saturday last John M'Call, of Hanover, was put to the bar of the Examining Court of this city charged with breaking into and robbing the Treasury. His counsel were, John Wickham and Edmund I. Bacchus; the counsel on the other side, the Attorney General, the United States Attorney for this city and Benjamin Botts.

A mass of circumstantial testimony was brought to bear on the knowledge which the accused had acquired and wished to acquire of the rooms and stairs of the Capitol, the state of his finances before the robbery, and the sums and sorts of money which he disbursed after it. Twenty-seven witnesses spoke to these and other subordinate points but no clue to the money was so far discovered--nor was it in proof that any more of it, charged with being a part of the public funds, had been traced, except the $150 originally found in the pocket book of the accused. James Gray was then called. He stated, that in compliance with the directions of a note which had been put into his hands on Sunday the 27th ult. (the morning after the commitment of M'Call) he had presented a token (a pair of sleeve buttons, enclosed in said note,) to Martin Overton, a free girl of colour, who was led to confess to him that a packet had been put into her hands, but was not then in her possession, yet she would recover and put it into his custody--that in the course of that day he did so that on Friday last Francis Taylor had sought an interview with him respecting this packet and that in the course of that day, they had made an arrangement by which Gray was to restore it that night to M. O. and Taylor was immediately after to come in, reclaim it from M. O. and restore it to the Treasurer. Francis Taylor (of whose honorable conduct throughout this transaction, it is not easy to speak in terms of adequate praise) succeeded Gray--and stated the means which he had taken to prevail on M. O. to inform him of the disposition of the packet, his conversation and his final arrangement with Gray. He then stated, that he had received and opened the packet in the presence of two friends--that it contained only $6,505-that he had then sought to prevail on M. O. to restore the balance-and that next morning in the presence of the same friends he had received from her $2,055 more, which she said she had taken from a hole in her garden.---

Another witness followed Taylor, who amongst other things, stated that he had extracted the confession from M. O. that the person, into whose hands she had put the packet before she gave it to Gray was a Polly M'Dowell, a white woman of ill fame. A search warrant was immediately taken out against the house of the said M'Dowell, which ended in the discovery of 32 fifty dollar notes, nicely deposited between the true and a false bottom of a gilt paper box - She has been committed to jail, as an accessory after the fact.

When this and other testimony had been gone through Mr. Wickham came into enquiry of the court which ended in this decision--that they, as examining court, would not require the same degree of proof as would be requisite on a trial in chief.-

Mr W then applied for time for his client to collect testimony to rebut that of Gray, on the ground of surprise the court decided that this was not good cause and refused a continuance. The counsel for the accused then waved the introduction of any evidence on their side -and, finally. the court unanimously decided that John M'Call would be sent on for trial to the Circuit Court (in January.)

Besides the sums, mentioned in the above sketch-- there have been found $600 folded up in a letter in Pocket Book of the accused, which had been originally overlooked-- $300 more found in the house of Polly-M'Dowell -and $350 found in house near her own.--Enquirer.