London, June 5.
The Duke of Manchester, who was sentenced to nine months" imprison ment at the Old Bailey last month on a charge of obtaining, by false pretences, an advance of £650 from 'a pawnbroker on jewellery belonging to his mother, is once again a free man, the Court of Criminal 'Appeal to-day having quashed the' conviction.
Lord Hewart, the Lord Chief Justice, in giving judgment, said that the question was intent to defraud. The Duke, he declared, had maintained that he had been advised by a barrister that he had the right to do what he did.
Lord Hewart criticized the judge who heard the trial for not plainly formulating the nature of the defence in his summing-up. He said the jury should have been told that the Duke was entitled to acquittal if the jury were satisfied with his explanation or if the jury could not exclude the view that the explo tion might be true—Reuter,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.