Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 1.djvu/792

This page needs to be proofread.

784 FEDERAL BBPORTEB. �over to the pensioiiQr ? Is it not naturel that the transaction should have been as Mrs. Henderson tells you it was?" etc. �Now there were two theories, one on the part of the pros- ecution and the other on the part of the defence, as to how the defendant got possession of the money. And, in com- menting upon the testimony bearing upon this point, the court asked whether one theory was not the probable or natural theory, rather than the other. The court made no assertion that it was, but merely put the question to the jury. There was no withholding from the jury its right to determine what the facts were. I cannot see that it was going outside of the province of the court to put it in this form. It might have been put in this way: "Which is the more probable or natural of these two theories (referring to the one and to the other) it is for you to say." I do not think, although it is put in a little different form, that the jury could have under- stood that they were deprived of the right to judge of the facts, or that they were unduly influenced by the court in ietermining, according to their own views of the facts, the truth of the case. ���United States v. Baugh. {Circuit Court, M. D. Virginia. January, 1880.) �Bmbezzlement — Lbtter Containing Trbasuby Notes — Informa- tion — llBV. St. § 5467. — In a proseoution by information, under .section 5467 of the Kevised Btatutes, for the embezzlement of a lettercoutaining treasury notes, by a person in the employ of the postal service, it is not necessary to allege ownership of the notes in some person other than the accused, where the taking or stealing of the notes is alleged by way of description, for the purpbse of bringing the oiïence fully within the terms of definition employed by the statute. �Same — "iNFAMOus Crime "—Amendmbnt to Constitution, Art. 5. — This statulory offlence is not an " infamous crime" within the meaning of the flfth amendment to the constitution, precluding a prosecution by information. �Motion in arrest of judgment, after vei'dict, upon prosecu- tion by information for a violation of section 5467 of the Eevised Statutes. ��� �