The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-06-05 00:00:00

MR. MOTLEY IN ENGLAND.

In the Court of Common Pleas in lAmilon, the cause of
" Webb a. Kirby and another. has been tritd, and was as action
to recover damages for an alleged trespass In turning the
plaintiff out of the possession of his shop, and also for an
excessive distress.
The plaintiff had taken from March, 1068, of the
defendants, Messrs. Kirby and Leslie, a shop and room
in Postern-row, London, at the rout of £75 a year, and
there carried on the business of a picture dealer. On
the 23th of March, 1869, a half-year's relit became
due, and on the 31st a distress was put in, and the
plaintiff's stock in trade, comisting of upwards of a
hundred pictures was seiv.d. Fourteen days' time was
given to the plaintiff, and then the shop was locked up,
the plaintiff lost possession, and he had never seen the
pictures since.
The plaintiff was called, and be stated that he had
not lived on the premises. On the 11th of Aprd they
were found locked up, and he had not since been able to
t possession. There were 114 pictures, and the
value that he put u' on them was £2,000. There was
a St. Bernard, by Murillo, worth £400; and Philip
IV. ‘44k his white charger, by Velasourz. There was
a Holy Family by Murillo, but it was in his early
s4yle, and was valued at £3O only. There was a
Bowling Magdalen and a Praying Virgin, and they
wit' worth £l5O and £2OO. Most of the pictures were
Spice!.
r. Moore, a pieturo dealer and cleaner, said that
about twenty of the paintings were early Italian
woike. Some 44 the pictures seemed to him to have
be 4n used for missionary purposes. In one the Virgin
was represented as a black woman. This he had seen
bell re, but in another the Saviour was painted black,
and this circumstance he had never known before. His
opinion was that if the pictures had been properly
catalogued and put up to sale, they would have fetched
i.7oe. The St. Bernard ought to fetch £100; it had a
frame worth £lO or £2O.
Cross-examined: St. Bernard was, he thought, by a
masterwho was contemporary with Murillo, or it might
be an early Murillo.
Mr. Molloy, an agent, said that he had been em-
ployed to sell some of the pictures. Ile declined to put
a value upon them, but he said that the plaintiff
had told him that he ought to get £5OO for St. Ber-
nard.
The defence as to the first count was that the de-
fendants were justified in taking possession 44 the
premises, b<citiise it was one of the terms of letting
that if the rent should be unpaid for 14 days, possession
might be recovered. It was also stated that a distress
had to be put in for the first half-year's rent. The
pictures had not been sold, but still remained in the
warehouse of the brokers who had levied the distress.
They were only removed from Postern-row because
the plaintiff threatened to burn down the place. In-
stead of the pictures being sold at the end of five slays,
there was delay to give the plaintiff an opportunity to
Pay the rent, and also to take advice as to the value of
the pictures. The whole lot was valued at £22 10s.
Mr. Flack, a dealer in old pictures, said that he had
looked over these paintings, and if he were offered the
lot for £3O he would not give it. He did not see any
Picture that was by Velasuuez or Murillo. Pictures
such as these came over from foreign parts in shiploads ;
and sometimes they sold for large sums, if flats c.ould
be found to buy them. (Laughter).
Towards the close of the defendants' case seven of
the pictures were brought into court, and exhibited to
the jury.
Mr. Biron, in summing up the defendants' Cll.BO, de-
clared that these pictures were the most unmitigated
rubbish that ever were set eyes on. He had at first
thought that the only place for them would be a
lunatic asylum, because nobody not insane would hang
them on the walls. (A laugh.) On second thoughts,
however, there might be danger in putting them in such
a place, for the sight of them would cause paroxysms,
and convert the hopeless lunatic into a raving madman.
(Laughter.)
The jury, after considering the matter for a few
minutes, found a verdict for the plaintiff for £2O upon
the count for excessive distress.
MAZZINI and the SWISS AUTHORITIES.
of Ticino having given notice
s.ithin three days,

The Council of State of Ticino having given notice in
writing to Marrini to quit the territory within three de
the latter addressed a letter in reply, in which he says :
I shall leave this territory on May 20, and pledge to
that effect my word of honour, which I have never in
my life violated. If that is not sufficient for the
members of your council, SO much the worse for them.
I shall certainly not reveal either to you, sir, or any
one else, the required details about the hour, the mode,
and the direction of my journey; not that there is the
slightest necessity for concealing them, but because, if
I feel bound not to expose to vexations and conflicts
with the authorities a country in which! possess friends
and brothers in political faith, I yet have no intention
of sanctioning, even indirectly by accepting =condemn'
conditions which I should have thought the magistrates
of your Republic incapable of imposing, an act unjust
in itself, servile to a foreignlnonarchy, and unprovoked
by any violation of your laws on my part. Your
Council of State has its gendarmes and police agents;
let them employ them, if it thinks fit, to obtain assur-
ance of my proceedings; but let it not require that I,
a true Republican and strong in the tranquillity of my
conscience, can ever submit voinniavy to ecaolions At
only to be imposed on criminals.

ordinary
lad -aa

by
zebra.

Mr. Motley arrived at Liverpool, on Saturday night,
in the Cuba. Mr. Dudley, the American consul, went
cut in a tender to meet the steamer, and at the landing
stage Mr. Motley was received by the mayor and town
clerk.
On Monday morning Mr. Motley received, at the
Adelphi Hotel, deputations from the Liverpool Cham-
ber of Commerce and the American Chamber of Com-
merce in Liverpool. Mr. Dudley, the American consul
here, having introduced Mr. C. Langton, the President
of the American Chamber. Mr. Lamton briefly wel-
comed Mr. Motley, and Mr. Hill, the secretary, read
a formal address. Mr. Motley in reply said
"I thank you very sincerely for your kindly words of wel-
come on my arrival in this country as the representative of
the United States. You may be assured that it is the earnest
hope and wish of the chief magistrate of the Union, of his
Administration and, as I believe, of the American people, to
cultivate faithful, friendly, and equitable relations with her
Majesty's Government, and with the British people. The
happiness of the world, the advancement of civilisa-
tion, and the best hopes of humanity are dependent
upon concord amongst all branches of the human
family, but more especially between two such leading
nations as the British Empire and the American Republic,
two nations connected by so many public and per-
sonal interests, so closely allied by blood, so addicted to
commerce and to the cultivation of the arts of peace. That
soy strenuous efforts will be made towards the furtherance, as
fan, tome lies, of a most thorough mutual good understand-
ing between the two nations on the Nude of an enduring friend-
ship and of Mistily relations, in accordance with those great
principles of reason and justice and honour, which are im-
mutable, and which are the only safe and unerring guides
for the conduct of nations, I beg you most earnestly to be-
lieve."
Mr. Motley again thanked them on behalf of his
Government for their cordial reception.
Mr. Motley, in reply to the Liverpool Chamber of
Commerce, said
"I offer you my reapectf of thanks for the cordial language
of the address to which I have just had the honour cf listen-
ing. I have pleasure in expressing my high appreciation
of the friendly ,entiments which you manliest towards my
country, and you do me no more than justice in supposing
that it will be my object, so long as I have the honour of
holding the post of envoy of the United States to her Majesty's
Government, to do my best to promote a good understanding
between two nations of essentially the same race, and bound
to each other more closely by unity of interests and pursuits
than two leading parts of the world have ever before been
in human history. It is superfluens for me to say that
the hest and highest purposes of these two communities
are best fulfilled when faithful friendship exists between
them. The American people and the eminent chief magistrate,
whom they have at lately chosen to be the depositary of
their confidence and of their power, are animated now, as
always, by the desire to maintain sincere and amicable rela-
tions with her Majesty's Government and the people of this
empire, upon the basis of entire justice and dispassionate
regard for the rights and duties of both countries. That
commerce between two such vast communities can thrive
only when perfect confidence exists, ia certain, and it is the
earnest wish of the American people that our commerce ntay
be intelligently extended and sustained. I have listened
attentively to what you have eahl as to fiscal policy; you
will, however, pardon me if I do not go beyond the limit of
my official functions in discussing that question, such im-
portant matters being regulated by the American people
through their repreisentativea in Congress. I again thank
--- , you for the cordial and kindly welcome you have given me."
distress.

stepping out, except the mite of a pony whieh per-
formed so well on Monday. Expectation was keenly
aroused when a big bay Russian horse arrived,
nessed to a match cart, but nothing came of it in the
way of accelerated motion. The bells on his head an-
noyed one of the competitors, who was driving a pair
in a small break with some advertisements attached to
it, and he undertook to order him out. This the crowd
resented, and hooted the dictator pretty unremittingly
for the space of forty minutes. Then his advertise-
ments were taken away by the Hall authorities, and
the banished horse and bells returned in another cart.
The royal party were received with cheers, which
made one of a little pair of ponies nervous, and jump
with its fore-legs over the carriage-pole. When it was
extricated, the whole of the prize-takers were paraded
in turn, and then the jumping begun, first with plain
tangle furze fences, and then with a low hurdhi
and water, and double fences. Mr. Anstruther
Thomson, Captain Percy Williams, the heroes of
many a proud and happy day in the fields of the
Atherstone, the Fife, the Bicester, the Bytchley and
the Itufford, lent their ail to the executive, and
displayed the most inventive talent in splicing nil
and re-arranging the fences, among which an Arab-
looking chestnut more especially made sad havoc. They
had to draw largely on their inventive resources, when
that unhappy aspirant had been coaxed into an etlort, •
and left his blundering mark. Mr. Thomson's head
groom, John Pye, was also a most able adjutant in
picking up prostrate riders, and getting them into the
saddle again, and other little extempore duties. One
gentleman, who had driven a tandem "aloft in awful
state," was knocked down by a horse as he worked
across the ring, and had to be picked up, brnshed, ate
straightened, amidst most unsympathetic laughter.
The master of the East &VOW( was first over the
water jump, but no one took it in the same style
as Payne, a well-known rider in the Grafton Hunt,
upon Mr. Beaselcy's chestnut, Valentine. There were
several tumbles, and one groom had half his boot torn
off. Many nags 'plopped" dreadfulE,- with their hind
legs at the water jump, at which some were driven 20
miles an hour, and one lay ,ot his hack for a few
seconds after getting rid of his rider. The most extra-
- rapid act of horsemanship was performed
ed on a dark grey, with a mouth like -a
His girths broke, but he well deserved a cheer
for the gallant way in which he stuck on when it V.llB
any odds against him. The dictator reappeared, h l-
ing a little white pony, and as it took everything tlr..t
came in its way, and made much fun, it proved the
negotiator of a peace with "the sovereign peopl... '
and the vigorous "Turn him out; and faint counts.,
cheers died wholly away.