The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1865-06-13 00:00:00

TBE ALLEGED EMBEZZLEMENT BY THE
EARL OF SHAFTESBURY'S STEWARD.

The QUEEN ON THE PanBEOUTI N OF THE EARL OF
',II,‘FTSBBUitY V. ROBERT WATERS. —ln the Court of
Qoeen's Bench on Monday, before Lord Chief Justine
Cockburn, and Justices Crompton, Blamtburn, and
Shea, Mr. Coleridge, Q.C., with whom was Mr. H. F.
Lewis, applied under the 19 h and 20'h Via., sec. 3, for
an order to have Mr. Waters trio', at the Central
Criminal Court, imaged Olin Dorsetshire It *pp..4,ed
that from 1851 to 1863 Mr. Waters was the Earl of
Shaftesbury'a land agent and steward, • d on the 27th
of Mareh last he wan apprehended at hi- house on the
charge of having embezzled £.5,000 from the Earl of
Shaftesbury. He was t ken b, fore magistrates, and
af,er certain remands was committed for tr al at the
nOst 'seizes for Dor-etshire. He swears that he is
absolutely innocent of the charge, and that he haa not
embezzled one farthing. In August last he bled a bill
in Chancery against Lord Shaftesbury setting out that
he was entitled to £3,800 balance one rtain contracts.
and £,OOO balance on accounts unpaid. Th. Earl of
Shaftesbury filed his intoner, and Mr. Waterst k steps
to being on the proceedings HA early as possible. Daring
the suit Lord Shaftesbury put In a distress for alleged
arrears of rent, and Mr. Waters filed a supplemental
bill in Chancery, and reatntined his lordship proceeding
with the diatie.s. Mr Waters also swears that during
*be time he was Lord Shaftetbory's agent the sum of
C 550,000 passed through I is bands, and from 1851 up
to the time when his lordship accused him of embezzle-
leant he was in the habit of sending his accounts
smuttily for audit to Mr. It ibert Francis Burnett, of
Careyottreet. Ltncoln's.ian, whet was in the jurisdic-
tion of the Central Criminal Curt, and of forwarding
all sums of money to MOSS'S. Hoare, in Fleat-str. et,
both of which f cta were known to the earl when he
had Mr. W te:s apprehended. The Rad of Shaftes-
bury was laird.lieutenant of the county of Dorset; lie
had large eatati a there, and had much family influence
in the count.. He represented Dorchester and the
county of Dorset when Lord Ashley His lordship
PIRA now a magistrate of the county, as was Lore
Ashley, his son; and another son was County Court
treasurer. His lordship bad about 400 tenants in the
county, and Mr. Waters believed that from his lord.
chip's great influence and the prejudice that had been
created against him by the statement in the local papers,
be °mild not have a fair trial in Dorsetehire. All the
parties necessary to the case were resident in London,
so that no increaited expense would arise, or any in.
, convenience be suffered from removing the trial to the
' Central Criminal Court. The Coast said the learned
counsel tad better take a rule nisi for an order. The
certiorari would follow as a matter of course if the rule
for the order was made absolute. Mr. Coleridge said
there was no practise to guide tne Court, as the act had
not been put in fonts since Palmer's time. Rule absolute
accordingly.

STRANGE SUPERSTITION. A CURE FOR
THE WHOOPING COUGH.
-
"A man named Smyth was driving • donkey along
the road from Stonyford to Killarney, ell Thurs-
day. At tbe bottom of the hill at Norelands,
Smyth was accosted by a young countrywoman having
a child in her arms about five mouths' old. She
earneartly reqnested that she mignt pass the child three
time, under the ass'a body. Smyth appeared to under-
stand the virtue supposed to attach to the operation,
and at once censeni. This ceremony was believed to
have • wonderful effect on the whooping cough—not to
cure the disease, but to prevent its being ever taken by
the child 1 The donkey was unyoked from the car, and
solemnly led to the side of the road. In the meantime
the woman had procured a handqtl of oatmeal, the
meal should he administered to the donkey during
the proo-sa of passing the child beneath it. The ohdd
was safely passed three times under the animal's body,
and the neces.sery "piles" of meal administered to the
child, to the complete satisfaction of its mother, who
decl.red, with thankfulnese, her full If.ith in the ?act of
its being now impossible that her offs. ring could ever
take the whooping-cough ; and, addressing the owner of
the donkey and the young lads who had assisted, she
observed—''l am very much obliged to yes, good
people, and sure there's another poor woman corniog
that wou'd be glad to have the same done for her child,
if you plane." Smyth, however, seemed to think one
"pishogne" at a time quite enough, and so yoked-to in
a hurry. and jog4ed on with his soared quadruped,
leaving the tiew coiner to find some other donkey suitable
to her purpose.— Kilkenny Moderator.

EXTRAORDINARY D ATR THROUGH Wrrawnio
VToL ANC A TO A Win—Jane Collins, aged 66 years, a
spinstsr, living in Bartholomew.close in • state of great
filth, although she was possessed of ample property. On
Friday one of her lodgers, a man named Milton, corn-
menoed beating his wife, and this so agitated deceased
th.t she became ill, and died from effusion of serum on
the brain. The jury found that death bad resultei
from serious apoplexy, caused by the fright from wit-
nessing the attack upon Mrs. Milton, as well as by her
own miserable habits. hiilron was, morally, seconnt
able for her death. Milton said that be wished to re-
mark that no gent,eman would strike • woman if he was
not "gorged" on to it, and the jury must be aware of
that fact. He did not agree with their verdict. The
coroner informed him that his recognition was not