The Press. — London, England, 1858-11-20 00:00:00

Sporting. Tv DUKE OF MALAXOFF made his first appear pm in an English hunting field at the meet of the Oa kl e y bounds at Wilden, on Thursday. Captain A r kwright, the master of the bounds, headed the Sold, and a very numerous muster of sportsmen and l a di es made the scene one of more than usual gaiety. Just as the bounds were thawing cover, the Duke of Manchester came on the field, accompanied by Mar shal Pelissier, Duk e of Malakoff, whose martial fi gu re was encased in a hunting suit, " top " boots, a nd all the other details of a complete British accoutrement. The marshal entered with the greatest interest into the sport, examined everything, talked to everybody, and by his friendly and affable manners renewed on a peaceful field that cordiality which long before be bad established in the field of arms and bloodshed. A large assemblage of farmers and rus tles bad gathered together, who viewed the scene with unmitigated delight. Presently a phaeton dashed up to the throng, driven by the young Duchess of Man. chester, at whose side sat the interesting and beau tiful bride of the marshal, the Duchess of Malakoff. The one fair and northern in her beauty, the other with all the dark grace and spirit of the south, formed a piquant contrast. The hounds soon found, and the fox, as in duty bound on such an occasion, compla • cently allowed itself to be killed near the phaeton. Captain Arkwright gallantly presented the brush to the Duchess of Malakoff. In the evening a party assembled at Kimbolton Castle to meet the marshal and his bride. On Sunday both the illustrious foreigners attended Divine service at Kimbolton church. The duchess, who understands English, listened with great attention, as also did the duke. A RAVEN, shot a few days ago by a gentleman at Heppignies, in Belgium, had round one of its wings a strip of parchment on which was written, " 1787 Abbsye de Soloilment." Pin rat Volta. THE GARRICK CLUB CASE, which promises to be of considerable interest in literary and club circles, and which will raise an important and novel point, is to be tried by one of the common law courts, at Westminster, probably during the sittings at nisi pries after the present term. It arises out of the dispute between Mr. Thackeray and Mr. Edmund Yates, both members of the Garrick Club, which arose under the following circumstances :—Under the title of " Literary Talk," Mr. Yates published an article having for its subject Mr. W. M. Thackeray, and thus described " his appearance " "Mr. Thackeray is forty six years old, though from the silvery whiteness of his hair be appears some what older. He is very tall, standing upwards of six feet two inches, and, as he walks erect, his height makes him conspicuous in every assembly. His face is bloodless, and not particularly expressive, but remarkable for the fracture of the bridge of his nose, the result of an accident in youth. He wears a small grey whisker, but otherwise is clean shaven. No one meeting him would fail to recognize in him a gentleman . His bearing is cold and uninviting ; his style of conversation either openly cynical or affectedly good-natured and benevolent; his bon• bommie is forced, his wit biting, his pride easily touched, but his appearance is invariably that of a cool, suave, well bred gentleman, who, whatever may be rankling within, suffers no surface display of his emotion." Mr. Yates then proceeded to comment on Mr. Thackeray's genius :—" It was with the publica tion of the third an d f our th numbers of Vanity Fair' that be began to dawn upon a reading public as a great genius." Then, " His success culminated with tLActu res on E ng li s h Humorists of the Eighteenth Century,' which were attended by all the Court and fashion of London. the prices were extravagant; the lecturer's adulation of birth and position was extravagant; the success was extrava gant." The publication of the article in question having been brought to the knowledge of Mr. Thackeray, he wrote to Mr. Yates, with whom he 1 a 1 been on speaking terms as members of the same club, in which he described the article " to be not offensive and unfriendly merely, but slanderous and . untrue." Mr. Thackeray concluded with the follow tog admonition—" I beg, as I have a right to do, that you u will refrain f r om printing comments upon BP' Private conversation, that you will forego discus mon, however blundering, on my private affairs, and that you will henceforth please to consider any question of my personal truth and sincerity as _ quite out of the province of your criticism." Mr. Yates immediately rejoined by a letter, in which he rejected Mr. Thackeray's " angry understanding " of his phrases, adding, "If your letters were not slanderous and untrue, I should readily have discussed the subject w i t h you , an d avowe d my earn e s t and frank desire to set right anything I may have left wrong." Mr. Thackeray then submitted the corre sliondence which bad passed between Mr. Yates and THII PRESS, NOVEMBER 20, 1858. himself, together with the copy of the article to which he had taken exception, to the committee of the Garrick Club. " I think," wrote Mr. Thackeray, " I may fairly appeal to the committee of the Garrick Club to decide whether the complaints I have against Mr. Yates are not well founded, and whether the practice of publishing such articles as that which I. inclose will not be fatal to the comfort of the club, and is not intolerable in a society of gentlemen." Mr. Yates, having heard that Mr. Thackeray had adopted this course, wrote to ask the committee to suspend their judgment until he could consult his friends and prepare his own version of the case to lay before them. This was on the 10th of June, but on the 23rd Mr. Yates wrote to the committee, questioning their right to entertain the matter at all. " The article," he said, " may be in exceedingly bad taste, but the committee is not a committee of taste." The committee held a special meeting on the 20th, and came to a decision expressed in certain resolutions. They resolved that it was competent to them to entertain Mr. Thackeray's complaint, that the complaint itself was well grounded, and that the practice of publishing such articles, being reflections by one member of the club against any other, would be fatal to the comfort of the club and intolerable in a scciety of gentlemen. The committee further resolved that Mr. Yates was bound to make "an ample apology," or retire from the club. Mr. Yates declined either to retire or to apologize, and stated he would appeal to a general meeting on two questions—first, whether the case between Mr. Thackeray and himself was such a case as should be submitted to the committee at all ; and secondly, " Whether Mr. Thackeray has any right to call for an apology from me when he has so very arrogantly and coarsely addressed me." The result was that Mr. Yates's subscription was returned, and it was intimated to him that he was expelled the club. He has therefore instituted an action against the corn• mittee for trespass, in refusing to allow him to enter the club, and this will raise the important question, as affecting the rights of members generally, whether the club had the right to expel Mr. Yates or not. It is understood that there will be a large array of legal talent on both sides, and the trial, both from the nature of the issue and the position of the parties, will possess great interest. The Attorney• General has been retained for the committee of the Garrick Club. Mr. Edwin James, Q.C., is to lead the ease on behalf of the plaintiff, Mr. Edmund Yates. THE CHARGE AGAINST THE LONDON GENERAL OMNI- Bub COMPANY of conspiring to injure and ruin the Metropolitan Saloon Company, was resumed at Westminster police court on Thursday, before Mr. Poynter. It was denied that the object of this pro• secution was to induce the London General Omnibus Company to purchase the stock of the Saloon Omni bus Company. A good deal of conversation ended in an adjournment to the 21st of December being agreed to, at which period, in default of an agreement 3ut of court, the case will be gone on with until the whole of the depositions have been taken. THE TRIAL FOR MURDER OF ALEXANDER MURRAY took place iu the High Court of Justiciary, Edin burgh, on Monday. The prisoner was charged with the murder of Janet Tod, or Campbell, his grand mother, at her house, Bridge of Earn, Perthshire, on the 21st of August last. He was only twenty-three years of age, and had been ten years a seaman. He had within the past two years had two attacks of delirium tremens; and while suffering from these attacks, or from mania thereby induced, had twice attempted self-destruction, and had been in conse quence confined in lunatic asylums both in Paris and London. He had come home from a voyage on the 19th of August, having previously spent some days at Greenock in a course of excessive drinking, and after having been at home two days suffering from the horrors of delirium, be attacked his aged grand mother with a breakfast-knife, and murdered her in the most determined and shocking manner by cutting her throat and severing the jugular vein. This net was evidently committed in a paroxysm of mania, and in the belief that he was destroying a roan whom he thought was attempting his capture. Tlie most remarkable fact in connection with his case was that about eight hours after the murder his sanity appeared to return, and he became conscious of the dreadful crime be had committed. Among the wit• nesses adduced in defence were Dr. Moreau, of the Bicetre, Paris ; Mr. Whitfield and Dr. Goulden, St. Thomas's Hospital, London ; and Dr. ehristson, Edinburgh. The result of the case, which lasted two days, was a verdict of " Not Guilty," on the ground of insanity at the time of committing tho act. The prisoner was ordered to be detained in custody during her Majesty's pleasure. A TERRIBLE ENCOUNTER between gamekeepers and poachers took place on Wednesday on the estate of Richard Watt, Esq., of Bishop Burton, a small village about three miles from Beverley, Yorkshire. A gamekeeper was killed by gunshot ; a watcher so seriously wounded that he was declared by the medi cal men to be rapidly sinking ; and a third received so much shot in 126 abdomen as to render impossible 1129 his removal to give evidence. Ten or twelve poachers were engaged in the affray. Two of them have been arrested. DANIEL MITCHELL DAVIDSON and Comm William GORDON applied for their certificates at the Court of Bankruptcy on Saturday. The bankrupts were colonial brokers of Mincing•lane, and Cousin-lane, Upper Thames-street, and distillers of West Ham lane, Essex. The transactions in which they were engaged were the subject of a criminal prosecution at the Old Bailey, where they were sentenced to a considerable period of incarceration. .4 lengthened inquiry took place, and the sitting was adjourned to Friday, the 26ttk inst. The bankrupts received protection from arrest. _ _ AN EXTRAORDINARY INSTANCE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY has just occurred at the Worship-street Police-court. On Sunday a burglary was committed at a butcher's house in Shoreditch. The servant girl saw the burglar issue from tha drawing•room and presented a blunderbuss at h;m, but as it was not loaded he managed to escape. On Tuesday she saw, in Shorediteb, a young man named Abbott, whom she gave into custody as the thief, and in two examinations before the magistrate she swore posi tively as to his identity. The young man, however, has brought forward most sati,factory evidence to prove that at the time of the burglary he was in a chapel two miles distant from the prosecutor's residence. The magistrate discharged the prisoner, considering that tl.•er3 could not be the least doubt of his innocence. JOHN' CULPECK, a plasterer, was brought or. Tues. day before Mr. Broughton, at Marylebone Police. court, on the remanded charge of stabbing his wife with intent to murder, and was fully committed for trial. The wretched man had afterwards attempted to take away his own life, both crimes arising, as was alleged, from improper conduct on the part of the wife. A large assemblage outside vented their feelings towards the wife of the prisoner in hisses and groans as she left the court, and the aid of the police was required to protect her from some rougher demonstration. A JUVENILE Callum, named Robert Sherwood, pleaded guilty, at the Surrey Sessions on Monday, to stealing a fourpenny-piece from Hannah Breedon, and a purse and 4s. 61. from Alice Wake. Though only sixteen years of age, the prisoner 'dad been four times tried and convicted of picking pockets, and several times summarily convicted berme the magis trates. He was sentenced to four years' penal ser vitude. AN IMPORTANT DFCIBI•IN under the new Building Act wt.s given on Tuesday by Mr. Beadon at Marl borough•street Police-court, which his worship had postponed from last week for consideration. The act requires that a certain vacant space be left behind dwelling houses for the purposes of light and venti lation. It was represented by the district surveyor that a house situated in Charles•street had the area in the rear covered in and lighted by a skylight, and this he considered to be in contravention of the act. The magistrate, however, held that, as the lower part of the budding was used as a shop or warehouse, and not as a dwelling-house, and as provision was made for sufficient light and ventilation, the premises were constructed iu accordance with the terms of the act. ttatitts a 0 Offencts. " FAST LIFE " AT CAMBRIDGE has been exempli fied at a coroner's inquest on a girl named Susan Butler, who met with her death while out driving with a female friend, and accompanied by two young members of the University, Mr. Pearson and Mr. Hulbert. The evidence at the inquest explained how the accident occurred. Sarah Walker, of Ches terton, deposed—l pass by the name of Clark. I knew the deceased, and was very intimate with her. We had been together a whole fortnight before the accident. She would have been twenty-four on the 26th of next January. L have frequently been out with her when she has been driving a horse and trap. She used to ride on horseback a good deal. She was well up in the management of horses. We breakfasted together at. her house about half-past ten on L'hursday. I left her about half-past eleven at my house, to which we went after breakfast. She then returned home. I went on to Cambridge, and on my return to Chesterton, at half-past one, she was at her house, upstairs, dressing. She called me into her bedroom. I remained with her about twenty minutes, and she pressed me to go with her to the boat-races. I consented, after a great deal of per suasion, and went home to dress. We left Ches terton in a fly at half-past two. There was a glass of brandy and water in her bedroom while she was dressing. I did not see her drink it, but suppose she did. I saw her take no liquor before that. She did not, while dressing, appear as if she had been drinking. We went from Chesterton to the Plough at Fen Ditton. She smoked cigars as we went along. (The witness here became tQo e 4eited to Moped, .=•.-