The Press. — London, England, 1857-01-31 00:00:00

JANUARY 31, 185 t. he faithfully reported In the newspapers for the use of those who were unable to attend. Lord CAMPBELL asked the learned counsel if he went the length of contending that everything which passed at a public meeting might be published in the newspapers if fairly reported ? Mr. UNTHANK said he was obliged to assert the affirmative of that proposition. Lord CAMPBELL said he was of opinion that as the law now stood the plea was bad : Under the existing law a fair account of what took place in a court of justice was privileged. This was a most beneficial provision, because the public had a great interest in knowing what passed there under the control of the judge. The inconvenience which arose from allowing such a privilege was infinitesimally small compared with the benefit which it conferred, but as yet the privilege had not been extended generally to public meetings. An attempt to so extend it had been made in the Legislature, but it had failed. He was not aware that the doctrine that the same privilege applied to public meetings had, until now, ever been contended for in a court of justice, and it certainly would, if established, extend the privilege to an alarming width, and he did not think it would be sanctioned without some guards to protect private character. If the plea were good, a fair account of what took place at any public meet. ing might lawfully be published, whatever injury it might do to the private character of individuals ; and this right of publication would apply to all meetings, from one in the City to petition the Crown or the two Houses of Parlia. ment, to the meeting of a town council or vestry for the purpose of levying a rate or considering the removal of a pauper. He repeated, that to lay down such a doctrine would he most alarming, for many things might be said at a meeting very injurious to the character of private indi viduals, and the mere fact of the meeting having been a public one, and of the proceedings being fairly reported, would exonerate the printer or publisher of the journal in which the report appeared. In what situation would the calumniated man be? The falseness of the accusation would be no ground for an action, and he would have no opportunity of vindicating his character. Parliament might think it right to extend the privilege under certain qualifications, but all the court had now to consider was whether the existing law gave the calumniated party a remedy for the injury he had sustained. He considered that as the law at present stood the action was maintain able, and that the plaintiff was entitled to judgment in his favour. Mr. Justice COLERIDGE said the privilege contended for, as regarded the publication of reports, had been extended almost universally to the great public courts of justice, where the proceedings were not ex parte : In the case of the smaller sourts of justice, where the proceedings were ex parte, a different rule might prevail ; but no principle had ever been laid down to the effect that whatever passed at a public meeting, or a meeting of offi cial persons, authorised to assemble for a particular pur pose, whether it were libellous or not, became public property, and that any newspaper editor or private person was entitled to publish it to the world. He apprehended that the fact mentioned by Lord Campbell was at the bottom of the privilege allowed with regard to courts of justice, viz., that the injury it did to individuals was small as compared with the immense good its exercise conferred upon the public. That circumstance might be a foundation for enlarging the rule, but he did not think it applied to a publication like the present. The other judges being of the same opinion, judgment was given for the plaintiff. A GREAT NUMBER OF MECHANICS, LABOURERS, AND OTHERS assembled in the front of C:erkenwell Police-court on Monday to seek the advice and assist. ance of Mr. Corrie, in consequence of their having been refused relief by the parish authorities of Islington. The complaining parties had formed part of a large meeting in Smithfield of unemployed artisans, itc., after which they proceeded in strong bodies to the parishes of Clerkenwell and Islington to seek relief, where their numbers caused some alarm. Mr. Corrie directed that those who wished to complain should be admitted into the court, when a rush was made, and it was instantly crowded to excess. Mr. Kendall, a decorative painter, said he was unemployed four and five days a week : He had a wife and three children and they were starving. They applied with others to Islington parish, and were told that they could not be relieved except from nine to twelve o'clock in the forenoon. Hugh Pierce, a joiner, of 12, Caledonian-street, Islington, said he was not in actual distress, but he did not know how soon he might be : He came as the representative of those who were unem ployed ; because, if such things continued, they would lead to a revolution in the country. Henry Hunt, a painter and glazier, of Rosoman street North, said he was out of work, with a wife and three children : He had not a morsel of food at home, nor money to pro cure it, or he would not apply to the parish. He applied to the parish of Islington, and was refused relief. Mr. CORRIE : Yours is a case that I can practically deal with. Is there any other case here? A Voice : Yes, sir, WO here, and as many more outside the court. Other statements of an equally painful nature were made. Mr. Corrie ordered an officer to go instantly and request the immediate attendance at the court of THE PRESS. one of the parish officers of Islington. Mr. Hicks, a relieving officer, attended just before the closing of the court with Mr. Bayliss, the chief usher. Mr. Corrie suggested that the applicants should be pro perly attended to and relieved, according to their necessities. Mr. Hicks said he would attend in stantly to the most urgent. The applicants then left the court to go to the workhouse. A similar body of men, with a complaint that they had been refused relief, waited upon Mr. Elliott, at Lambeth, on Tuesday. Mr. Elliott at once ordered a reference to the parish authorities, when it ap pearl that the Board of Guardians had consented to hear the application of the deputation of work men, but they one and all declined to make any complaint. Mr. Janet, one of the relieving officers, also offered the men tickets for labour in the work house, and for which labour they would have been paid according to their necessities and the number of their families, but they refused to accept them, and ma: oiled off in a body Mr. ELLIOTT observed that he was not surprised or dis appointed at the result, believing as he did that the object of the parties was more display than actual want or a desire to seek parochial assistance. AN ADJUDICATION IN BANKRUPTCY has been ob tained against John Paul, late the clerk in the City of London Union, now charged with embezzlement. Paul is described as a corn and seed merchant of Bedford and St. Mary Axe. It is stated that this is the third occasion on which Paul has been made a bankrupt. THE COUNTY COURT JUDGESHIP vacant by the death of Mr. Kekewich will be filled by Mr. Charles Dacres Bevan of the Western Circuit. THE CLERKESWELL CURACY CASE, in which the question as to whether the right of election and presentation of the perpetual curacy lay with the vestry or parishioners, was finally decided on Monday by the Lord Justices of Appeal in favour of the parishioners. The appointment of the Rev. Robert Maguire, therefore, becomes null and void. The costs of all parties. both before the Vice Chancellor and upon appeal, were charged to the select vestry. A fresh election will now be made by the general body of parishioners; and as it is said that there are a large number of candidates ready to take the field, an exciting contest may be expected. LIEUT.-COL. STERLING brought an action this week against the owners of the barque James Holmes, for that vessel having, on the evening of the 22nd of August last, run into his yacht, the Viking, off Beachy Head. The wind at the time was N. by W. The yacht was close hauled, steering for Cowes, the barque running full for London. After hearing the evidence on both sides, and the Trinity Masters having expressed an opinion that the blame lay entirely with the barque, judgment was giving ac cordingly. The amount of damages was not re ported. AGAR'S PROPERTY, seized by the police, it has been decided by the Judges of Exchequer, should be in part handed over to the railway company—that is to say, as much as can be proved to have been the pro duce or the gold robbery—and that the remainder be given for the present into the custody of Sir Richard Mayne, the Chief Commissioner of Police. The convict Agar, it is said, will receive from Sir George Grey a full pardon, on condition of leaving the country for ever. BACON AND HIS WIFE, charged with the murder of their two children, were re-examined before Mr. Elliott on Wednesday. Several witnesses were examined, who deposed to the conduct of Bacon immediately after the discovery of the murder : it was nervous, timid, and desponding. The police also produced a pair of trousers and a waistcoat stained with blood. The prisoners were remanded. ANDERSON AND SAWARD were on Wednesday again examined before the Lord Mayor. Mr. Alfred Tur ner, the solicitor, of Red Lion•square, whose name, it will be remembered, was forged to a cheque upon Messrs. Gosling for 4101. 7s. 4d., swore to the cheque not being in his handwriting. He had lost three or four blank cheques out of his pocketbook. The wife of Hardwick, convicted some time since for this very forgery, was examined as to her acquaintance with Seward. She knew him well, and had been "to a party " at his house at Walworth. This wit ness made a certain admission of some importance. When Hardwick was in gaol at Brecon on a charge of burglary she was sent for by him. She went down, and bribed the gaolers, who " let" Hardwick out of gaol. Several lodging-house keepers and hotel waiters identified the prisoners, who were ultimately remanded for a week. THE SPRING CIRCUITS OF THE JUDGES are settled as follows :—the Midland, Lord Campbell and Mr. Justice Wightman ; Northern, Mr. Baron Martin and Mr. Justice Crompton ; Western, Sir A. Cock burn and Mr. Justice Williams ; Oxford, Mr. Justice Crowder and Mr. Justice Willes ; North Wales and Chester, Mr. Baron Bramwell. The Vacation Judge, in consequence of the lamented death of Mr. Baron Alderson, who was placed on the rota as vacation judge, remains unappointed, and the death of Baron 107 Alderson will create some alteration in the arrange ments on the latter circuits; but it is gennally un derstood that Mr. Justice Coleridge, who is named for the Home Circuit, will remain in town, and in the event of the new judge not being appointed, Mr. Sergeant Channell will be placed in the commission as locum tenens. SECOND EDITION. SATURDAY AFTERNOON. LATEST INTELLIGENCE. ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF AN ARCHBISHOP 1 N NAPLES. A despatch from Naples, dated January 26th, was received in Paris yesterday. A Neapolitan priest at Matera, in the province of Lecce, had made an attempt to assassinate his archbishop. The prelate was wounded, and one of the canons was killed whilst interposing to defend him. From Paris we learn that the Court of Cassation pronounced judgment yesterday upon the appeal from the decision of the Imperial Court of Lyons, with reference to the illegality of distributing elec toral bulletins, or voting tickets, without a special permission from the authorities. The judgment of the Court of Cassation is against the liberty of distributing the electoral bulletins. EXECUTION OF VERGES. The appeal of Verges having been rejected by the Court of Cessation, his execution took place at seven o'clock yesterday morning, on the Place de la Ro queue. Verges did not maintain, in his last mo ments, the haughty and insolent demeanour which he had previously exhibited. He crossed the thresh old of the prison supported on one side by the Abbe Hugon, and on the other by the executioner. On reaching the platform Verges fell upon his knees ; he then threw himself into the arms of the Abbe Hugon, and submitted himself to the executioner. Despatches from Admiral Seymour up to the 15th December have been published. The latest despatch of that date contains a hurried account of the burn ing by the Chinese of the factories. Sir Michael Seymour remarks, in conclusion : The conflagration will circumscribe our defences, and render necessary a new arrangement of them ; but it is my intention to hold the British factory, as I have hitherto done the larger area on which the houses have been de stroyed. The magistrates specially appointed to conduct the inquiry into the loss of the steamship Tyne (Captain Breton and Mr. Joseph Lobb) have finally agreed upon their report, which is as follows : After a most careful and anxious investigation we cannot arrive at any other opinion than that the ship was lost by the wrongful act and default of Captain Valler, in conse quence of the lead not being constantly hove on approach ing the land, and in accordance with the company's in structions, and the captain not making due allowance for the wind and strong ebb tide that was running from the time he passed Portland, and the total absence of those precautions necessary to insure the safety of a large ship within so short a distance of the land. The Queen will hold a Privy Council on Monday next, at Windsor Castle. A Cabinet Council was held yesterday afternoon, at the official residence of the First Lord of the Treasury, in Downing -street. Present—Viscount Palmerston, the Lord Chancellor, Earl Granville, Marquis of Lansdowne, Earl of Harrowby, Sir George Grey, Earl of Clarendon, Lord Panmure, the Chan cellor of the Exchequer, Sir Charles Wood, the Eight Hon. B. Vernon Smith, Lord Stanley of Alderley, the Right Hon. M. T. Baines, and the Duke of Argyll. The Earl and Countess of Derby and Lady Emma Stanley return to town to-day for the season. The noble earl gives a parliamentary dinner on Monday evening to a party of his political friends in the House of Lords. The Earl Granville, Lord President of the Privy Council, gave last evening a dinner to the Cabinet Ministers and the great Officers of State of the Queen's Household, at his lordship's residence in Bruton-street. The roll of sheriffs for the present year was settled at the meeting. The appointment of an additional Inspector of Prisons, to have special charge of the reformatory schools certified or sanctioned by the Secretary of State, having been determined on, Sir George Grey has selected the Rev. Sydney Turner, of Red-bill, for the office. Consols for Acconnt City, Eleveu o'clock. .. • • 92j to 93