The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-06-27 00:00:00

A ROMANCE IN THE LAW COURTS.

The Irish papers report a case which was tried last
week in the Queen's Bench, and which brought to light
some incidents of a singularly strange character. The
facts are thus briefly stated :—" In the year 1811
Terence Burns, the son of a widow in Enniskillen, ran
away from a person in that town to whom he had been
apprenticed to learn the business of a carpenter, and
enlisted in the 49th Regiment for a period of seven
years. Shortly afterwards the regiment was ordered out
to Sydney, and proceeded to the Cove of Cork to embark
for that distant colony. Two days after sailing a young
woman of great personal attractions, named Margaret
Lynch, who up to that time had remained concealed in
the transport, was discovered on board, and declared
that she had followed her sweetheart Terence. The
fact was made known to the captain of the ship and the
officers of the regiment, and it was determined that the
devotion of the fair Peggy, as she was called, should not
be unrewarded. A ceremony of marriage between
Terence and Margaret was gone through without delay
in the presence of the colonel of the regiment and the
officers, the commander of the transport officiating in
the absence of a chaplain, and the happy pair lived
together as man and• wife during the four months which
the voyage occupied. A young officer who was present
at the ceremony, Captain (afterwards Major) Druit,
and who acted on the occasion as clerk,—reading the
responses from a Prayer-book,—now becomes a chief
actor in the strange eventful story. On the arrival
of the regiment at Sydney the frail and faithless Peggy
deserted Terence, and transferred her allegiance to the
gallant captain, with whom she lived until her death, in
the year 1842. Major Druit survived her only three
months, and died possessed of censiderable property in
Australia and three houses in Earl-street, Dublin, the
subject of the action. He sold out when the regiment
was ordered to India, some years after their arrival in
Sydney, and continued to reside until his decease in the
colony. Terence Burns returned to Ireland in 1818,
when his period of service had expired, and about the
year 1830 married Eliza Mangan, who is now his
widow. He died in 1847, leaving four children
surviving. In the year 1825 Major Druit and Margaret
Lynch or Burns (which she was in point of law
is still a question to be decided) were married. Six
children were born to tbem--two before the marriage
and four after—of whom two daughters survive and two
sons are dead. By the major's will his children have
become possessed of the Australian property, and the
twu daughters and their husbands have brought an
ejectment to recover possession of the three houses in
Earl-street, against their father's brother, who claims
as heir-at-law. By consent a verdict was entered for
the defendant, subject to be turned into a verdict for
the plaintiffs, should the Court hereafter hold that the
marriage on board the ship was not valid. If it was
valid, the marriage of 1824, in the lifetime of Burns,
becomes void, and the issue of that marriage cannot sus-
tain the action. The case will be argued next term."

ACCIDENT.-DAMAGES, 500.—0 n Satur-
day, another action for damages against a railway was
decided in Dublin, when damages to the amount of
£5OO were given. The plaintiff was a governess in the
family of Colonel White, M.P., of 'Woodlands, and the
defendants the Midland Great Western Railway Com-
pany. The cause of action occurred in a collision on
the line last November, whereby the plaintiff was cut on
the face and was so much shaken in her nervous system
as not to be able to attend to her duties. The com-
pany, on learning the amount of the injury she received,
consented to a verdict of £5OO. The court and jury
expressed themselves gratified with the promptness and
liberality with which the claim was met.
RAILWAY ACCIDENTS.-It appears by a recent return
that in the five years between 1854 and 1858 inclusive
408 accidents occurred on railways under the jurisdiction
of the Board of Trade, being at the rate of nearly 82
annually. Of the total number of accidents, 2C3, or
nearly half, were collisions, and in 85 cases the trains
left the rails. Ten accidents occurred at level crossings,
13 from entering stations at undue speed, 29 at facing
points, 17 from explosions, 12 from fractures, 15 from
persons in trains striking against bridges, &c., and 22
from miscellaneous causes. Not only are collisions the
most numerous of accidents, but they are also the most
serious in their effects, 1,641 out of 3,068 sufferers in
the five years (exclusive of servants) being classed under
this head. In other words, 50 per cent. of railway
accidents and nearly 80 per cent. of railway casualties
arise from collisions.

ALGERIA AND HER AGRICULTURE.—The attention of
the French Government is drawn almost exclusively at
this moment to the agricultural resources of Algiers,
and the Algerian Exhibition has created as much
astonishment as delight. It would seem as if the dis-
covery of this immense resource for French industry and
alimentary produce had only just been made. Like
La Fontaine's neq wonder at the beauties contained in
the prophet Habakuk, which he was reading at the age
of forty for the first time, so do the Paris journals
expatiate with childish amazement on the produc-
tions brought from Algeria, forgetting that the same
teeming spot was for a long time the granary of ancient
Rome , and had the colony been properly administered
since its possession by the French, it might have con-
ferred the same benefit upon the mother country, and
have returned at least half the outlay expended on its
government by military occupation alone. No famine
or scarcity would be possible in France, no rising in the
price of bread could possibly take place, were the pro-
duce of Algeria suffered to enter France without
obstacle. Wheat grown in the colony could take its
place in the French markets a month before that of
home produce, and the French ships lying idle by
scores in the port of Marseilles, could find ample
employment were the admistration of the colony confided
to agricultural interests instead of military discipline,
under which its fine resources are diminishing year by
year.

WROXETER EXCAVATIONS—This important under-
taking has been carried on with success during the
winter, and a very considerable extent of the buildings
has now been completely laid open. In one of the
rooms recently opened a pavement of small white
tesselbe was found. The men are at pr
which presentsesent engaged
in opening a large square apartment,
the appearance of having been the workshop of a
worker in metals. It bordered westward on the Forum,
and seems, by the appearance of what remains of the
en
to the street, or to
wall, either to have been oc:re
On the sill lay a
have had large folding .
Roman coins,
about sixty, and near
small heap of
them the fragments of a small earthen vessel, which
had probably contained
the money, and had been
0 one who was carrying it away.
In the
dropped
centre ofY some
the room is a large square pier,
built stone, and towards the north-western
corner
built
ofnfhtehl e room stands a raised structure of clay,
n, in the upper part a furnace, the interior surface
ham"'
of which is • completely vitrified, so that it must have
been exposed to a very hot fire. A quantity of charcoal
was found scattered about. Many pieces of figured
Samian ware, of much superior quality to the mass of
that previously met with, were found scattered about
here. Very considerable additions have been made to the
museum during the last two or three months, including
a good number of implements of iron, such as sickles,
pruning-hooks, knives, &c., and some very interesting
examples of pottery and glass. The extent of buildings
now uncovered is very considerable ; but it is to be
regretted that the excavation committee is greatly in
want of funds, and it is to be hoped that the public will
come forward liberally to their assistance, and not allow
the exploration of what has been justly called the English
rompeii to flag for want of money.

THE DUKE OF MODENA'S PRISONERS'

The correspondent of the Daily Xews, writes freni
Turin on the 20th instant :—"ln the Chamber of Der'
ties yesterday a question was put to Count Cavour,
which deserves notice. Some deputies from Central Itall
asked him whether the King's government had taken
steps to obtain the release of the political Pr1ee„,,.13°11.5
whom the Duke of Modena had taken with him.
petty tyrant, when he was terrified into abandoning es
state, was unwilling to abandon his victims, and lie
the tiger, carried them with him in his flight „,i,,
Pope—whose name of Pius, in this connection se
if
many others, sounds as if given him by a fine stroke °
irony—opened his prison of Palliano to the Austrian
duke, and alloVred him there to deposit, guard, and I°,/
.
ture these wretched Modenese. dust in the sato d"
the father of this tyrant being compBlled to flee in I°il
"
carried off with him the patriot Civo Menotti, Olt.
him in the fortress of Mantua, under Austrian etiee'mj
there to wait till the Duke should be able to retool '''
Modena and hang him. So the thing runs ill t 11:,
family. Count Cavour replied that as he had no reg'
relations with the fugitive sovereigns he had only bees
able to act indirectly in the matter, and that his dial;
in this way had entirely failed. He added, thet )bn.-s
should take the opportunity presented by this quee";is
more fully to inform all civilised governments of
act of cruel vengeance, and that possibly .sornetull
might be done by such means towards the release °
there victims of Ducal malignity."

THE PLAN TO ASSASSINATE GARIBALPL

•
We read in a letter from Turin, in the Daily fete a
—" The news is confirthed that the villainous NesPeliDlit,
Govetrament has sent two men into Sicily to assoesinfr
Garibaldi. The general has been warned of this me'
bolical design, but, as usual, he appears to be end'
without thought of personal danger. Some one .°
other of his companions, however, is always %feeblel
over him, without his knowing anything about it.
don't envy the man who should be caught in an atteT,
on Garibaldi's life ; and should -this dastardly crime 71
committed, the King of Naples may expect to lose IM

than his throne."
The correspondent of the Times writes from Vienne:"
"''lie Trieste Zeituny learns from Naples, under date .01
the 13th Joffe, that tne notorious reaper taiarico,
was confined in a diingtoil Istihtd, has been libersteu'
and sent in disguise on a secret inissiob to Sicily 11
it not be that the unprincipled Neapolitan tioverdlilAeOo'
has given the ruffian a chance of earning the 301 u I
ducats which were offereci for Garibaldi ? should 'of
come to light that such is really the ease, 911.)
Francis 11. of Naples will be what the medical op"
in insurance companies call a bad' one."