He knew that, but he did not know that Sarah Harvey was to have a part of it.
"Lord Ellenborough threw out a doubt whether as to Watson the indictment was supported by the evidence."
The evidence being that Watson did not know that it was to be divided in the precise way stated in the indictment. Manifestly, they need not have stated in the indictment how it was to be divided; but having stated it, the question is: Are they bound by the statement? Let us see:
"The attorney-general contended that the words in italics coming under a videlicet might be entirely rejected. The sense would be complete without them. The indictment would then run that the defendants conspired together to obtain a large sum of money as a consideration and reward for appointment to be made by the lord's commissioners of the treasury. This was the corpus delicti. The use to which the money might be applied was wholly immaterial. The offence of conspiring together would be complete however the money might be disposed of."
True.
"There was no occasion to state this, and the averment might be treated as surplusage. Suppose the manner in which the money was to be disposed of had been unknown. Would it have been impossible to convict those engaged in the conspiracy? But, without rejecting the words, the variance was immaterial. The charge in the indictment had been substantially made out as laid.
"Dallas and Walton, of counsel for Watson, denied that the words could be rejected, though laid under a videlicet, as they were material, and they were not repugnant to anything that went before. The application of the money might be of the very essence of the offence. Suppose it had been obtained for the use of the lords of the treasury, who would make the appointment: would not this be a much greater crime than if the money had been obtained for the benefit of a public charity?"
I think that reasoning is bad. I think the crime is exactly the same.
"But if the words were rejected then the variance was more palpable. In that case, there being no mention of any persons to whose use the money was obtained, the necessary presumption was that it was obtained to the use of the defendants themselves."
That is good sense.