The Press. — London, England, 1853-08-27 00:00:00

At Coax the election terminated in the return of Mr. Beamish, who obtained 1,183 votes against 1,003 recorded for Col. Chatterton. In SOUTH WARWICKSHIRE no opposition will be offered to the election of E. P. Shirley, Esq., to supply the vacancy caused by the elevation of Lord Brooke to the peerage. THE ELECTION OF ♦ SEFRENENTATIVE PEER FOR SCOTLAND, in the room of the Earl of Seafleld, is ap pointed by Royal proclamation to take place at Holy rood-house on the 7th of September. THE INTENDED DINNER which the friends of Mr. C. Mare, the unseated M.P. for Plymouth, were to have given in his honour, has been postponed, in consequence of Mr. Mares present ill-health, and of his being about to visit the Continent. THE DURATION OF ELECTIONS AT THE UNIVERSI TIES is circumscribed by a provision in an act passed last session. This act pr Miles that at any election of a member or members to serve in Parliament for either of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, the polling sball not continue for more than five days at the most, Sunday, Christmas Day, Good Friday, and Ascension Day, being excluded. Xabr anb V olia. Tux CnAnon or CORRUPT BARGAINING for an ap pointment under the East India Company was again urged against Mr. Norman Wilkinson, the stock broker, at the Mansion-house, on Monday. The Compan , who were the prosecutors in the cause, by Mr. Clarkson, the barrister; Messrs. Bodkin and Hawkins were counsel for the defence; and the City Solicitor attended to assist the Lord Mayor with his advice on a question involving some knotty points of law. The defendant himself was now present; but his brother, Mr. W. A. Wilkinson, M.P., was again the chief witness subjected to ex amination. Having recapitulated most of the cir cumstanees elicited on the previous occasion, the witness was examined at great length by Mr. Clark- SOD : Do you know the person whom your brother named to you u the party with whom he had been in treaty f—Yes, 1 do. What was his name-1 decline to give the name, and I wish to state to the court why I think I am justified in so doing. Mr. BODKIN objected to any reasons given by the witness for refusal being entered upon the depositions. CLARVION insisted upon whatever was uttered by the wit -111111111 being made part of the depositions. The Lona MAYOII said he thought that the reasons of the wit- MIN Is be recorded. 18: 11 4 1 itoon : I decline to answer the question put to me, llesalsaNiss I am advised and believe, there in no proper foundation kfe' Ms sharp, and einimmuently no proper foundation for this eimilliks. 1 have evety disposition to give every information in way purer Ipl Use ahem attempted to be laid upon my brother, tam I salsWa that this question forms no part of that charge, all is sot within the scope of the evidence which I have sworn to itse. - - - In reply to Mr. Bodkin, the witness stated that he could not recollect the exact words used by his brother in any of the conversations which passed between them on the subject; that he had under stood in the course of several successive communica tions that a friend bad offered his brother an appointment; that some talk had taken place about money or money's worth being expected for it; and that his brother had consulted another friend, under whose advice he declined to proceed with the trans action. There was a paper to be signed, and a declaration to be sworn to, which, when his brother saw, or heard of, he was satisfied of the illegality of the transaction, and refused to have anything more to do with it. Mr. W. A. Wilkinson was then again taken in hand by the counsel for the prosecution:— Re-examined by Mr. CLARKSON: Can you tell us the name of the friend of whom you have spoken as having put your brother on his guard?—No, 1 cannot. Have you never heard his name ?—I may have heard his name. My brother may have mentioned his name to me, but I ciumot remember. Endeavour to recollect, and tell whither you are prepared to swear that you do not know. You say that you may have heard* abased be very sorry to mislead von. I might mention one, two, Of three names, and not the right one; it map have been ono or two persons. but 1 do not know who it was. Did be mention the names of one or two persons?—l have no noses be did. 1 do not know why he should nut; but Ido not neasonsc. NOB tot this matter interested you, and have von not been en aseveuring to recollect the circumstance"—\o; I confess 1 It exceedingly immaterial as to who it was who told him However, you mean to state upon your oath that you positively le sot know who it was?—l positively do not know who it was; It'll& make a guess. Tell me who you guess it was t , —No, I will not ; that is the reason why I will not mention it. Pressed with reiterated questions, all hearing upon the mina point, in various forms, Mr. W. A. Wil kinson persisted in refusing to give the desired in tarosaties, whereupon Mr. Clarkson intimated his in tention of applying to the court to commit him for Dom days as a contumacious witness.—Mr. Bodkin then addressed the court for the defendant, Mr. Nor man Wilkinson, urging that no shadow of a charge had been made out against hint. lie had merely THE PRESS. been offered an appointment in the company's ser vice. The person offering it had been proved not to be a director, and his client had repudiated all con nection with the party or the transaction immediately upon his discovering its illegal character. Mr. Clarkson, on the other band, insisted on the words of the act which rendered all bargaining of this description illegal, without declaring that the bargain must be completed, or indeed specifying how far it must be carried to involve penal consequences : It had been clearly proved that a negotiation had been begun and proceeded with by the defendant and a person whom the witness did notchoose to mune, and it had only been broken off because the defendant did not choose to pledge himself to a Wee declaration. The Lord Mayor was not sitting to try the case, but had simply to determine whether suflielent grounds had been misted to i 111111,410 him to send it for adjudication before a superior tribunal. The learned counsel continued : A grave offence of this sort should not be disposed of upon a technical objection. if there had been a wrong done, and that wrong was attempted to be supported by Mr. Wilkinson in refusing to detail the whole truth, which he had the power of doing, it was not right to put en end to the case on any technicality, but the defendant should be bound to answer the charge before a jury. • - • - - The Lord Mayor, wishing maturely to consider the evidence, postponed giving his decision on the case till Thursday, when, after going over the details with much care, he decided that he had no jurisdiction in the case. and the charge against Mr. Norman kinson must be dismissed. Application was then made for the committal of Mr. W. A. Wilkinson, as having been contumacious in the witness-box. This was also refused, the Lord Mayor considering that his refusal to answer a single question did not, under the circumstances, amount to contumacy. A SERIES OF ACTIONS for damages arising out of the late accident on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway have been tried at the present Liverpool Assizes. The accident occurred on the 4th of last March to the train which left Bolton fur Manchester at a quarter to six in the evening : After passing Halsham-moor station, the speed of the engine was so increased that the train was going at the rate of forty miles an hour, which caused great oscillation, and presently the train went off the line, and after running about seventy yards several carriages were thrown over, with the result of indicting terrible, and hi one instance fatal, injury to many of the pasaen• pers. Mr. Nounnyth examined the line after the accident, and it was found that some of the sleepers were longitu final, and the bolts fastening the chairs of the rails were some of theta loose and raised an both, and some were so loose that they could be pulled out by the fingers ; many of the sleepers of the permanent way were decayed. the chairs were spiked down on the sleepers, which mode of fastening hail, in some cases, split the sleepers, and the motion of the train had loosened the spikes. In other cases the rotting of the sleepers had left the spikes loose. These spikes were driven in every three or four feet, and were not an efficient fastening. From these causes the permanent way was unsafe, and the gauge was not maintained. The engine used was a foul...wheeled engine, and one of the axles was broken. Mr. Nasmyth gave it as his opinion that, with the line in such a state, forty miles an hour was riot a safe speed to go, especially as the engine was a four-wheeled one. The engine had run off the line from the fact of the gauge not having been maintained, and tint from the fracture of the axle, which had been gradual ; for, instead of the fracture being right across, a piece had evidently held on to the very last, and there was a burnished appearance on the face of the adjoining parts of the fracture, as if they had been in attrition against each other. Many of the rails were loose. - - ... The amount of damages in each action out of the six tried was regulated partly by the injury received, and partly by the social standing and fortune of the injured party. In the case of Mr. Caratti, a Greek merchant, who had died from the effects of the acci dent, and whose professional income was stated to be 2,000/. or 3,000/. a year, a verdict of 3,000/. was ob tained by his executors. For Mr. Fitton, who had been severely hurt, 2,000/. damages was taken by consent; in the case of Kay, 1,050/. ; Pugh, 1,000/. ; Safiano and another 2501. on two actions. The total amount of damages awarded against the company on account of the accident was 7,3001. On behalf of the defendants in this action it was stated by their counsel _ _ _ that the direetara of the company greatly deplored and re gretted the sufferings to which the several plaintiffs had been subjeeted in consequence of this accident. They had purchased the line sic years ago. and found that it had been originally made in an inefficient manner. The traffic upon the line was immense, and it ‘141,1 impossible to close it altogether: lint from that time to the present the directors had kept relaying the permanent way, and improving it. The directors hail behaved with the greatest liberality. and hoped they would stand well with the public. Fewer accidents had occurred on their line than on any other : and, from the damages they had to pay for this accident, self interest would induce them to keep their permanent way well. A BLOT has been left in the new cab law of which the drivers are becoming fully aware, and take ad vantage of it on all fitting opportunities. The clause relating to hirings by time is thus expressed : "That every hackney-carriage driver should be bound to drive any distance within the limits of the act. not exceeding six miles from th place where the vehicle should have been hired, or for any time not exeec ding one hour fettni the time when hired." The Legislature, it is admitted, never intended that this clause should limit the option allowed to tra vellers of engaging cabs by the hour to the first sixty minutes. It appears, however, that the proviso strictly interpreted bears this conclusion, and the consequence has been that persons hiring cabs by time are obliged to renew their time bargain every hour, or expose themselves at the journey's end to a demand from the cabman for payment according to the actual distance traversed. Such demand was made on Mr. Harding, a builder, of Fulham, who had spent five hours in a cab and was then treated with insolence by the driver because he offered 10s. as the SATURDAY, fare. The charge being referred to the Hammer smith Police Court, Mr. Beadon, the magistrate, was compelled to dismiss the summons against the cab man, being hampered by the words of the statute, whose precise signification, he remarked, must ine vitably be speedily settled by the decision of some superior court. THE INDICTMENT AGAINST MAJOR BERESFORD and others upon the charge of conspiring to bribe the electors of Derby came before Mr. Baron Platt on Wednesday, upon an application moved on behalf of the defendants for a certiorari to remove ihe case into the Court of Queen's Bench. Mr. Bodkin, in support of this application, showed reason why the trial should take place before a superior tribunal. He produced also an affidavit which stated that the matter out of which the charge arose had been the subject of inquiry by two committees of the House of Commons, before whom Major Beresford had been examined, and that, amongst the different (Ines. tions of law expected to arise, one was how far the evidence then taken could be made use of in support of the present indictment. The learned counsel further adverted to the discussions which had taken place in Parliament and through the medium of the public press, and suggested that a special jury would be less likely to be influenced by popular prejudice in a matter which had been in so many forms before the public than the class of persons, however respect able, who were usually summoned to the Central Criminal Court. Mr. Baron Platt said that, for the reasons stated, he considered it a fit case to be tried in a superior court, and granted his fiat for the writ as prayed; fixing the bail to be entered into by Major Beresford at 1001., with two sureties in 501. each. Mr. Coppock attended as solicitor for the prosecu tion. FORGED ORDERS Or ADMISSION to the Adelphi Theatre had been somewhat widely circulated by one George Newman, who pretended in some in stances to be an employe of Mr. Webster, the manager, and endeavoured to obtain money in return. In one evening no less than sixty of these spurious orders had been presented at the house, where of course they were refused ; and, on the offender being apprehended, a whole bundle of forged tickets was found on his person. He was tried at the Middlesex Sesions on Tuesday, and, pleading guilty, was sentenced to one year's imprisonment with hard labour. A PUBLISHER'S CLERK AND CASHIER, named Sturges, for seven years employed by Mr. Stewart, theological bookseller, of King William street, was charged on Thursday at Bow-street with embezzle ment to a heavy amount. His employer, suspecting something wrong, had determined to inspect his ac counts, when the prisoner drew up a list of defalca tions amounting in all to 6001., which he confessed to having committed. This confession, however, be now pleaded had been made under a distinct promise that no criminal proceedings were to be taken against him. Mr. Stewart had allowed some time to elapse before giving his defaulting clerk into custody, but distinctly denied that he had promised to condone the offence. The prisoner was remanded. Actibtats nnD Offtntts. LOSS OF THREE EMIGRANT VESSELS. Three serious catastrophes are reported in the latest intelligence from Australia. Two emigrant ships have been lost by fire, and one by wreck. The wreck was the worst and only fatal calamity. It oc curred to the steamer Monumental City, of 1,0(X) tons burden, bound from the United States, with a large number of passengers. She had nearly com pleted her voyage, having arrived safely at Melbourne, where many of the emigrants landed. From that port the unlucky steamer departed for Port Phillip, with pleasant weather, and every prospect of an easy passage. The captain, however, seems to have hugged the shore too closely, as the vessel, while steaming at twelve knots an hour, during the night went upon a formidable reef of rocks near Malaquetta Bay : A scene of the most painful consternation ensued. As the morning advanced, a terrible gale sprung up, and the heavy bumping of the ship on the reef soon caused her to make consi derable water. The engine tires were extinguished, and the pros pect of all was most alarming. The boats were lowered, but one after another was either dashed to pieces or drifted away. A hawser was at last attached to a rnjecting rock, and by means of it fifty-four souls were rescued from a watery grave, though many were washed off and perished in the sea. Then came the last acetic of all. The billows were running momitailis high, and breaking over the ship, the tlnnrter•dcek wits separated hula the fore-deck. then another sea split the forecastle, and nothing re mained of the Monumental City but the floating timber which co vered the water. Those who were saved were locking intently on the group clustered on the wreck, when it suddenly disappeared in a few seconds, with its living burden of men, women, and children, who were seen for a moment strugging among the breakers, and then lost for ever. Scarcely a vestige remained, and, out of eighty-six souls who sailed from Melbourne, fifty-four only reached the land, while thirty-two unfortunatt ly perished. The survivors obtained a supply of provisions on the island en whirl they had been thrown. In the course of a few day- the mainland was readied, when the authorities took charge of them. The loss of the Monumental City will exceed 30,000/.