The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-07-16 00:00:00

CAN A PEER OF THE REALM BE
MADE A BANKRUPT?

The Home of Lords gave julirment last week on the
Duke a f Newcastle's case, establishing the point that a
peer of the realm enjoying the pria lieges of Parlia-
ment and a non-trailer is subject to an adjudication in
baokruptcy under the Act a f 1861. The words of the
691 section of that Act, by which the di-ith ction
between trail,-re sod non-traders was abolialed, and
which enacted that all d-btots, whether trader or not,
shall be subject to the provisions of that Act, are posi-
tive and express, and it rested upon the Duke's coun-
sel to chow that peers of the realm as such were ex-
cepted from its mode. Their lordships were of opinion
that it was the express intention of the Legislature to
include them. Previously to the passing of the Act of
1861 peers of the realm enj led, even when traders,
their uanal privilege from arrest, and the 4th Geo.
c. 33, was passed in order to enable creditors of
such peers to make them bankrupts without arrest.
As the statute of 1861 abolished the distinction
between traders and non-traders, it was obviously in-
teneed that non-trailing peers should he capable of
being adjudicated bankrupts in the same way as
trading peers, the privilege of both classes from arrest
, being still preserved.

Referrlrg 0 this important decision, the Daily Nem re-
marks:—
Equality in the eye of the law goes far to obviate
the inequalities inseparable from wealth, Filth, and
high station. flad the plea of the Doke of Neweaatle
prevailed, a retrogade sk-p would have been taken, and
the privilege of his order would have been asserted in
a very offensive way. Happily the law of the land has
proved explicit and satisfactory. When the case came
before the Howe of Lords two days ago, judgment
was at once given against the Duke of Newcastle. The
Law Lords were so /3. rfectly satisfied that they dia.
psnsed with an argument from those who held that the
plea of privil ge was untenable. They unanimously
ruled that not even a Duke can evade the op.-ration of
the Bankruptcy Act. Perhaps the discredit which
will Low attach ta those who become bankrupts
through usjustifiahle recklessness will make other
titled F pen d z.hrifts pause before they involve themselves
in liabilities of which they can get rid only by passing
through the ignominious ordeal of bankruptcy. It is
ratifyino to I. urn authoritatively that the scales of
pistice are not loaded for the benefit of the Peer who
cannot pay his debts.

The sale of pictures, water-colour drawings, and
ohjecti of art, the property of Charles Dickens, on Saturday
last, was one of the most remarkable events of the kind
which have occurred at the famous matt of Christie. Manson,
and Woods, King-street, London The amounts realised for
almost every article which came under the hammer were
perfectly fabulous, nut It was evident that many of the pur-
chaaes made were bid for as souvenirs, and had scarcely any
reference to the intrinsic value of the articles sold.

MORTON AND WIFE v. THZ LONDON
AND NORTH-WESTERN RAILWAY.

This was an action tried in the Court of Common Pleas to
re user damages for injuries suffered by the female plaintiff
Whilst travelling by railway.
The plaintiff, Mrs. Morton, was a professional
singer, Letter known to the public as Miss Russell,
and she was the niece of Mr. Henry Russell, the cek-
braced singer and composer. Previous to the accident
she had held engagements at the Oxford, Canterbury,
Alhambra, and other music-11411s and her earnings
were from £l5 to £lO a week. In the spring of last
year she went for a change to Cla.gow for a fortnight
upon an engagement to sing at £6 a wtek. Sne
started on the return journey to London on the
evening of the 9th April, and ab int half-paat one,
when near Oxenholme, in Cumberland, the Car-
riage in which she was got off the line and ran
down an embankment. Her account was that
the mcillation of the carriage first alarmed her,
and she had risen for the purpore of waking a
fellow passenger when the accident happened. She
received a Revere blow upon the arm, and was a good
deal bruiard upon the hack. Afterwards she had
numbness if the hand, sleepless nights, and loss of
appetite. There were also palns in the head, giddi-
ness, and loss of memory. She got thinner. There
WAS likewiss great pain in the lower part of the back,
tenderness in the region of the spine, and inability to
walk far; and there were symptoms which showed
that there was sonic internal injury. She ceased from
singing until the 17th May, and since then all she had
been able to do Was to undertake a lieht engagement
at the Oxford, for which the received VI a week. She
had ever sir., been under the care if be. \V„ H.
Jones, and had been seen by Dr. Runskill. The
medical opinion was that she bad reedited a severe
shock to the brain and spine; that, probably, it would
he a year before elm recovered, ant that even then most
likely she wontl not have the same nervous power as
she had heretofore possessed.
Mr. Barnard Holt, for the defen Wits, said that from
objective sources he could not make out that there was
anything the matter with the lady, and even assuming
her symptoms to have been c irrectly described, he did
not think that she was so severely injured as was sup-
posed.
_

His Lordmhip dire eted the piry Iht the defendants
acknowledged their habilit.3, and the only question was
what amount the plaintiff. were entitled to.
The Jury found for the plaintiffs—Damages, £570.