The Press. — London, England, 1854-08-19 00:00:00

.r---w' AUGUST 19, 1854 Various witnesses were called to prove the plaintiff's case, but the point of difficulty was to establish the fact of " publication," so as to bring home the author ship to the defendant. The letter was signed in his name, but it appeared first in the Univers in Paris, and the original manuscript could not be produced, not lying within the jurisdiction of the English tri bunals. Two Irish papers, the Tablet and Catholic Standard, had republished the letter, but merely as a translation from the French journal. At last it was sought to obtain evidence on the point from the defendant himself, but the question then arose whe ther the court should allow him to be examined for lam . _ that purpose : Sergeant SHIM (who appeared for Cardinal Wiseman) contended that he ought not to be called. The defendant was charged with having knowingly published a false and malicious libel; and if then bject of calling him was to make him admit that he had been guilty of an indictable offence, he was clearly not bound to answer. There could be no other object in calling him, and it was the first time he ever recollected such an attempt to have been made. If this had been a criminal proceeding, which it might have been, instead of a civil one, the law would most cer tainly have protected the defendant; the object was to evade the law, and compel the defendant to answer in a civil proceed ing. The learned sergeant referred to several cases in sup port of his argument. Plaintiffs counsel argued that the cardinal was a competent witness. He referred to the statute, wherein the only persons declared to be incompetent were the parties in actions for adul tery or breach of promise of mart a;e. The defendant on the present occasion, he submitted, was clearly a competent witness, and no question could arise until he declared on his oath that to answer the question put to him would tend to criminate him. The CHIEF BARON said that the only question with him was, whether it was necessary, as a matter of form, to put the de fendant into the witness-box and have him sworn. He was clearly of opinion that he ought not to be called merely to answer the question that was suggested. After much further wrangling of the counsel, Car dinal Wiseman was called and came into the witness box. The Chief Baron, however, noted that he could not be called upon to take his oath in order to reply to the questions proposed by the plaintiff's counsel. The defendant, therefore, was dismissed unsworn. Dr. Grant, titular Bishop of Southwark, and the Rev. G. Spencer, otherwise called Father Ignatius, who were intimate friends of the Cardinal, were called and questioned touching certain expres sions they had used with regard to the letter in the Univers. Both admitted having spoken about it to the defendant, but, of course, could not remember to have said anything which implied a knowledge on their part, or an admission on his, that he was its real author. When all the evidence within the plaintiff's reach had been given on this point the Chief Baron decided that the fact of authorship was not sufficiently proved to justify his sending the case to the jury. The plaintiff was accordingly non suited. AN ACTION OF CLUTTERBUCK V. BURNETT to recover damages for an assault in which damages were laid at 2,0001. was tried at Guildford on the Home Circuit upon Monday last. The plaintiff was a medical man, and the assault complained of was alleged to have been committed at sea, on board a vessel on a voyage home from Australia. The defendant pleaded a jus tification on the ground that the plaintiff had made use of insulting and mutinous language. After the trial commenced the defendant consented to retract his plea, and a verdict was entered for the plaintiff — damages 1501. AT MARLBOROUGH-STREET POLICE COURT On Monday last a striking exemplification was witnessed of the effects of the New Beer Bill. The number of cases on Monday, which includes Saturday night and Sunday night offences, has varied, before the new act came into operation, from sixty to about one hundred. Last Monday, the act having come into operation on the previous day, the whole number of charges, those of drunkenness included, was only twenty-five ; and not a single drunken case was brought to the station house from twelve o'clock on Saturday night up to Monday morning inclusive, thirty being the average previously. On inquiry among the publicans how far the act affected their takings the police were informed that in many districts it made no difference at all, and in others ss. would cover the loss. .JOHN BRYANT, described as a " shrewd-looking Irishman," was charged at Worship-street Police Court with having, in concert with another man not in custody, hocussed and robbed a young woman named Ellen Haynes. The girl lived with her mo ther in Plumose-court, Holborn, and seems to have allowed one cf the men who afterwards plundered her to obtain a singular degree of influence over her mind : A clandestine acquaintance had been carried on for some time, when the man proposed that she should leave her home to ac company him to America. She demurred to the proposal, on the ground that she had no money, to which he coolly replied that he understood her mother had a considerable sum of money in the house, a portion of which might be appropriated without any fear of detection until they were beyond the reach of pursuit. Witness ultimately yielded to his importunities, and it was ar ranged that sbe should commit the robbery that night, and meet Donohue at the prisoner's lodgings on the following morning. itnees accordingly got up at an early hour, while her mother was Weal), and abstracted from one of her drawers a purse containing 141. los., with which she made her way to the lodging in Thrawl street, where she found Donohue and the prisoner waiting her arrival. On entering the room she apprised them that she had taken the money, which she had secreted in the bosom of her dress, and, after breakfasting with them, both the men left the apartment, but returned with some rum, a portion of which they poured into a tea-cup and invited her to drink. She noticed at -ae~- THE PRESS. the time that the liquor had a peculiar appearance, but was in duced to taste it, and had no sooner done so than she feU into • state of complete stupefaction. The narcotic effects of the draught were so powerful that she remained insensible for eighteen hours, and on recovering consciousness, at six o'clock next morning, found herself lying on the bed, with the upper part of her dress torn open and her purse and money gone. A police-constable stated that after considerable difficulty he traced the prisoner to a house in George-alley, Holborn. The man Donodue had not since been heard of, and there was every reason to believe that he had sailed for America. The prisoner was remanded. APPLICATION was made to Mr. Elliott, at Lambeth Court on Saturday last, by a gentleman whose name did not transpire, to interpose his magisterial autho rity to procure the release of a young lady, his daughter : It appeared that some time ago her father placed the young lady in question at a highly-respectable boarding-school at Clap ham, where he paid 1001 per annum for her education. From letters recently received from her, expressive of much discontent and unhappiness, he applied at the school to see her, but was met by a peremptory refusal. This, together with sentiments ex pressed in her letters, confirmed his suspicions of what he had otherwise heard, namely, that it was the intention of the pro- prietor of the school to get her married to a poor relative as soon as she was of age and could legally contract a marriage. On the following Monday, be added, she would be of age, and entitled to a fortune of 12,0001. Mr. ELLIOTT: You had a right to demand her, and take her by force ; but I can give you no authority to do so ; you should at once apply to a judge, who can . . grant a habeas. It was replied that there would not be sufficient time to procure an act on a judge's authority ; but, Mr. Elliott having again stated that he could not inter- fere, the applicant left the court. Two YOUNG GENTLEMEN, Francis and William Newton, residing in Curzon-street, Mayfair, have been examined several times at Lambeth Police Court during the week on a charge of seriously assaulting Mr. Stewart Ker, of Brompton-crescent. The attack took place at the Beulah Spa-gardens, and seems to have been of most outrageous character: — Mrs. Emily Ker deposed that she accompanied her husband and a party of friends to a plc-nic party at Beulah Spa, and while walking throc.gh the grounds she heard a violent screaming, and on going to the spot found her husband covered with blood, and the two defendants standing close to and beating him The defendant Francis was armed with a heavy whip, the thong of which was twisted round his arm, and with a stick, both of which be used on the head of her husband, and with ouch effect that the blood was streaming down his face, and his appearance was such as to cause several ladies who saw him to faint. She (Mrs. Ker) endeavoured to get to her husband, but the defendant William put up his hands and prevented her, saying, " Go away, madam." She requested that the defendants might be secured, but they ran away and got off. Her husband was at once at tended by a medical gentleman, who dressed the wounds on his head, and he was taken home in a carriage In a very dangerous state. At the first hearing Mr. Elliott admitted bcth pri soners to bail; but, subsequently, the state of Mr. Ker was stated to have grown more alarming, and the defendant Francis was ordered into custody, the bail being renewed for his brother. The case lies over until the result of the injuries sustained by the assaulted gentleman can be ascertained. A BREACH-OF-PROMISE CASE was tried at Bristol, on the Western Circuit, upon Tuesday last. The plaintiff, Mary Milsom, was a girl of humble circum stances, formerly living in the village of St. George, in Gloucestershire, and the defendant was exten sively engaged as a horse-dealer. His name was Withers, and be appears to have followed the cus tomary course of proceeding by paying attention to the young woman for some time, promising marriage, and even going so far as to have banns published, but in the end seducing and then deserting her. He had absconded from Bristol to avoid her importuni• ties, on the results of legal inter:erence, and did not appear at the trial, though he had pleaded to the action. The jury gave a verdict for the plaintiff, with 3001. damages. MR. WILLIAM O'KEEFE occupied lodgings for some months last year in Southampton-street, Fitzroy square, opposite those of Miss Priscilla East. He paid much attention to the lady, and promised her marriage, until he had persuaded her to advance him money at different times to the amount of 5401. It then turned out that he was married already. Miss East has reluctantly appeared to charge him with ob• taining money on false pretences, and Mr. O'Keefe, who bad given her a wrong name throughout, has been remanded by the Marlborough-street magis trate. His son, whose name is Turenne O'Keefe, has also been charged and remanded for assisting his father in the fraud. He called himself nephew of the elder O'Keefe, and paid addresses to Miss Pris cilla's sister, and in various ways showed himself cognisant of, and abettor in, the false pretences which resulted in defrauding the lady to so serious an extent. gtrtibtnts nub Offtnas. A TERRIFIC POWDER-MILL EXPLOSION occurred on Thursday morning last week at the Government powder•mills at Herodsfoot, Cornwall, whereby up wards of five tons of gunpowder were destroyed, and damage done the amount of about 2,0001. The ex plosion is said to have originated from one of the men walking carelessly into the drying-house with his trousers on fire, caused by a spark from the fire- -*~ 779 place. The man first discovered his peflous situa tion from the ignition of some loose powder on the floor of the drying house, which, serving as a sort of train to the bulk of the powder then in process of drying, allowed him time to run for his life. With great presence of mind he leapt into a deep trench a short distance off, where he escaped with only a few bruises from stones which reached him. The drying and packing houses were entirely blown up ; the dressing-house was unroofed ; the glass of the windows in the manager's house shivered to atoms, and the windows of the houses in the village adjoin ing very much injured. The magazine, which is situated a quarter of a mile from the mill, was shaken to the foundation by the force of the explosion. Happily, no personal injury was sustained. ANOTHER RAILWAY ACCIDENT, caused by the repre hensible practice of running heavy goods trains close after and before passenger ones, happened late on Monday night, on the North London (Camden town) Railway, which resulted in the death of an engine -driver, and serious, if not fatal, injury to one or two more of the company's servants, and the mutilation of a number of the passengers. The train was drawn by two engines of too slight power, and, after coming to a standstill near the summit of an incline, a short distance from Highbury station, ran back down the descent while the guard was em ployed in laying down fog signals to warn approach ing trains. Unfortunately, the next passenger train was too close behind to stop, and much less to turn back, when the luggage convoy was seen retrograding down the incline, and a fearful collision was the inevitable consequence. Allen, the driver of the passenger train, was killed, and two guards of the goods train terribly crushed. Nearly thirty passengers are stated to have received injuries from the shook. An inquiry being instituted as to the cause of the luggage train returning down the incline, it appeared that the drivers of the two engines, finding that they could not get the steam up in sufficient power to bring up the train, improperly unhooked the engines from the train, for the purpose of setting the pumps at work so as to throw water into the boilers. There was also only one break in the whole train, placed in the hindmost waggon, and it was while working at this break that the two guards were buried in the shock of the collision. AT an early hour on Thursday morning an exten sive fire broke out upon the premises of Messrs. Cubitt, the builders, at Pimlico. The flames spread to a lofty row of workshops, and continued raging furiously for some hours. Among the valuable con tents of the workshop were some drilling, planing, and moulding machinery, which cost 30,000/. ; also some prepared work of immense value, including the ornamental flooring for Buckingham Palace, which had taken upwards of a year to finish, and the costly fitting for Albert-house, Hyde park. The total loss is estimated at 100,0001., of which only 10,0001. is covered by the insurances. From five to six hundred men will also be thrown out of work, besides suffering the loss of their tools, which have been almost entirely consumed. ON Monday evening the much-respected mayor of Gloucester, W. Washbourne, Esq., who has served the office for two years, died suddenly on his journey from London to Gloucester by an excursion train. An inquest was held next day, when a verdict of death from apoplexy was returned. MR. A. COMM, brother of the proprietor of Astley's Amphitheatre, was taken ill while in &railway carriage between Margate and London on Monday night, and, though prompt remedies were administered immediately on his arrival in the metropolis, he died in the course of a few hours from Asiatic cholera. He was thirty-five years of age. Mr. Rubbach, brother•in-law of Mr. Myers, the well-known builder in the York-road, died on Monday morning also from cholera, having been apparently quite well cn the previous evening. THE mortality amongst the convicts in Millbank Prison has assumed a character so alarming that the prison authorities, under the direction of the Home-office, have ordered the removal of 700 of the prisoners to Dorchester, with a view to prevent, if possible, the further ravages of cholera in the estab lishment. A VERY MYSTERIOUS CASE OF POisoNiNo ARSENIC occupied the magistrates and coroner of the Chipping Barnet district on Saturday last. The victim of this murder was a boy named William Newton, eight years of age, and the party suspected of having administered the poison is his mother, Sarah Newton, a widow, aged apparently about thirty five. Considerable evidence was adduced, and the inquiries both before the coroner and the magistrates resulted in her being committed on a charge of wilful murder. The woman's husband, an agricul tural labourer, hbd died shortly before, and his widow received 101. from a burial society for the funeral expenses. She seems to have expected more money from the same society upon the death of her child, and this was, in all appearance, her motive for committing the crime.