The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-04-12 00:00:00

COURT OF PASSAC/E.—YEsTrEpkY.

(Before EDWARD JAMES, Esq., Assessor.)
CARRUTHERS CORIRTT.—This was an action to
recover the sum of £35 from the defendant who is a
joiner and builder in this town. Mr. Brett appeared
for the plaintiff and Mr. Williams for the defendant.
In February, 1858, the defendant was in partnership
with Messrs. Gardner and Parsonage, landowners. On
behalf of these'gentlemen the defendant ordered a num-
ber of artioles from the plaintiff for the purpose of fitting
up some houses which the three partners were building.
The value of the articles delivered to the defendant was
£35, no portion of which had yet. been paid. For the
defence it was contended that the defendant ordered the
articles, not on his own responsibility, but as agent and
manager for „Gardner and Parsonage, 'lle learned
assessor thought there was euongh evidence to show
that the defendant was a partner with Gardner and
Parsonage and therefore liable for the goods he ordered.
The jury, not being satisfied that all the items charged
for had been used upon the buildings, found a verdict
for the plaintiff to the amount of £l2.

MELI:OR AND -ANOTHER V. SALISBURY.—The plaintiff
in this case was a spirit dealer, and the action was
brought to recover the sum of £B, the value of a quan-
tity of spirits which the plaintiff had supplied to the
defendant. There was no defence to the action, kilt as
some of the items could not be proved to have been
supplied, the jury retnrned 4 verdict for IE.
-13,;cr.Eit-04 EiK ETlL—This was an action brought
by the plaintiff, who is a surgeon, residing in the North-
end of this town, to recover from the defendant the sum
of £3, for injuries sustained by the plaintiff's phaeton,
through carelessness on the part of the defendant's carter.
The collision in which the injuries referred to were snit.'
tained, took place at the top of Vauxhall-road. The
plaintiff's phaeton was going towards the north, and
was close behind the defendant's cart, which Rai uttvel-
ling in the same direction. Presently the defendant's
cart; had to turn to the right, jq order to pass a cart,
which was standing close to the parapet, and in doing
so the two vehicles Cattle into violent collision, the
plaintiff's shafts being broken, Mr. Deighton, who
appeared for the defendant, showed that there was no
blame attached to the conduct of either party, and that
tao arrair was quite accidental. The jury found for the
defendant.

CLAIM FOR CONININSION.—TOWNLEY AND ANOTHER
HAMIT.TON.—The plaintiffs in this case were brothers
and commission agents in this town ; and the action ,
was brought to recover the sum of £l4l 95., commission
cm a chatter party which the plaintiffs had been the
means of obtaining far the defendant: Mr. Aspinall
appeared for the plaintiffs and Mr. Dighton for the
defendant. From, the evidence addnced, it, appears that
the cap'tain of
.the ship Lebanon, and a few months
ago wanted a charter to some port in China. He called
upon the plaintiff, who is a ship broker in this town,
and was introduced by him to the French consul, who
had a
.passage for a vessel to a Chinese port. At the
interview between the plaintiff and defendant, the
latter said he would prefer Hong. Kong to any of the
Oilier ports. • The defendant had a second interview
with the plaintiffs, at which it was understood that they
should receive commission on the charter party at the
usual rate--five per cent. Ultimately, however, the defen-
dant did not sticeeed in obtaininga charter to Hot -Kong,
but welit to Iyoo-SM-4: 'he defendant now refused to
pay the eorntrnssion, because, he said, the charter was
not to the place he bad mentioned to the plaintiffs at
the interview before alluded to. The witnesses who
were called on behalf of the defendant's case stated that
at the interview between the two parties the defendant
did not say some, or any, of the Chinese ports, but
simply Hong-Kong. The learned assessor, in summing
up said that it had been proved in several eases besides
the present., that there was a custom in Liverpool that
where a broker introduced a gentleman who bryd a
charter to a certain place, the broker was to, receive his
commission simply for being the ip,troxliicer: of the *Con-
tracting parties, and ind4ciclently of the contract,
which was a Natter of private arrangement between the
parties themselves. If the jury were satisfied that the
plaintiffs were the means of introducing the defendant
to the French Consul for the purpose of effecting a
charter to China, they (the plaintiffs) were certainly
entitled to recover. The jury must be satisfied Vl* the
plaintiffs introduced defendant to the IVA-ch Consul
with the understanding that the voyage was to he to a
Chinese port, and not ikopi-Acing in particnlar and
this questic.p wanld depend npon the credibility of the
vitrieSsys. The jury, after a short consultation, returned
a verdict for. the plaintiffs for the amount claimed.

. .
ACTION YOU aLANITER.—ILANSON v. PAR...WO:T.-
7U was an action brought to recover damages for a
series of slanders which the defendant and his wife had
uttered respecting the plaintiff. Mr. Brett was for the
plaintiff, and Mr. Russell for the defendant. It appears
that the plaintiff is a carter, and was formerly In. the
employment of the defendant, who, le a cart*i.ier. I`lo
slanders imputed dishonest; tick ska 4 they had
been repeated, keVNI., times. 133 the defendant and his
the 'course of the ease Mr. Russell agreed to
take a nominal verdict for 40s.
ACTION AGAINST AN OMNIBUS PROPRIETOR.—
BAINES F. BUSBY.—The plaintiff in this case was
Mrs. Baines, formerly an officer at the Liverpool Work-
house, and she sought
.compensation from the defend-
ants, who are the celebrated 'bus proprietors, for serious
injuries she had sustained through alleged carelessaess!
on the part of the defendant's servants. Ahou;
eight montlp . the. pAtantiff 'had occasion to visit
a friend who resided in Torteth-park, and retuned to,
toot by one of the defendant's 'bases. Whilst getting
out of the 'bus at, the enet of rAili-Jaße, the horses
started oil' before the defendant had reached the round,
consavence of which she was thrown down with such
violence as to break her kneecaps. She has since been
tumble to attend to duties at the Workhouse, and
the committee have consequently been compelled to call
upon her to resign her situation. The evidence was of a,
very conflicting nature, some witnesses stating that the.
'bus did stop fur a moment or so and then started;Whigt
others said the 'bus never slackened itp sp'pea ‘at all, but
that the defendant atteMptedrtoket out while
wotio:Gi; the litqee'svaS the statement a the eon.
daetor twho has since been clignissed from Mr. Busby's;
service) and of 44 inside passenger, The jury found for
the plaintiff, darnag6 £2O.
PICKERING 'F. MA.RIC.EY.—This was an action- to
recover the value of 31 bushels of oats which the plain-
tiff sold to the defendant at the rate of 3s. 9d. per
bushel. Mr. Deighton appeared for the plaintiff and
Mr. Brett for the defendant. On the 30th of 4aruary,
last the plaintiff offered to the defendt;,nt neniantity of
oats which he would sell him at tie tate of 3s. od. per
bushel. lie gave 'him a saw ale to &Amine, and a few
flays afterwards the defendant returned saying that he
would purchase them at the price just named. The oats
Were accordingly 'delivered, but upon the 'plaintifamysl.,
Lug iti his account defendant refused to pAy, altegmg.
that the price he had agreed for wens O. per 'bushel,
The rate peflulSliel NT asiq ilia the only question in dis-
pute, as the 4eftnitlant had paid £4, the price at 2s. 6d.,
Into eAbrt. A number of witnesses were called in snp-
port of the defendant's view of the case, and their testi-
mony was so strongly confirmatory of defendant's state-
ment that the jury at once gave him a verdict.
ILLEGAL DETENTION OF GOODS.—FAZAKERI
FIELDING.--The plaintiff inthis case wasa litohe,r, resid-
ing at 27, Hawthorne-street, and the action Was brought
to recover the defendant certain- artleles Of furniture
ai'id wearing appth.et' 1i aPpears.that in the beginning
of the year 1859., the plaintiff: and his wife, disagreed
feurirdnitsuerpea,recatee.d,..fron
nolancr.s creditors, handed it
She, 404 anxious TO Wilte her
over ty the 400.0.0V'5 custody, and it, Was removed to
his. house. An arrangement Was made, by, which it
Seems that the tilfendant co,nldsatisfy any claimants upon
it that it „Wks his own. In the month of March or
thereabouts, Mrs. Fazakerly made up her quirrel with
her husband, and then asked the defendant to restore the
property, which, however, he had refused to do. Mr.
Deighton, in arguing his client's case, 540-0 that the
defendant had really no power to restore the furniture,
as the arrangement was made Oh one of his daughters
and the articles given into her keeping. The learned
assessor, 14 addressing the jury, said that, although it
Might be true that the defendant was not in the first
instance a party to .the transaction, be had, if the
plaintiff's witnesses spoke the trrkth, made 'himself
responsible by refusinP.th kestdie it until 4 debt was paid.
The jury returned a geitot for the plaintiff, _ .

The Zings says that a serious disturhavp took ph Ice
Oil board a line-of-battle 3(oeida, „3'r evening, at
spithead, on the question of leave, and re men vro
sent oil to4cd the .Viceroy pxifioperx Nu' further
paytirnlare are at prespitkrom

A N • L L A !
AT THE THEATRE ROYAL,
POSITIVELY FOIL THIS NIGHT ONLY.
Count Rupert t. garrison:
Satanella „ „, 3.114i 0464 kvne

INDIGNATION MEETING AT TRANMERE.

In accordance with a public notice, signed by Mr.
Perrey, the chairman of the Local, Board of Health, at
the request of about thirty memorialists, a meeting oF
the ratepayers of Tranmere took place last night, "t,
take into consideration the extraordinary conduct of the
late overseers, Messrs. Blaylock and Langley, in omitting
to convene the customary annual vestry for nominating
and electing overseers for the ensuing year, passing the
highway surveyor's accounts, and appointing assessors
and other officers usually chosen at. such vestry meet-
ing ; and to determine what steps should be taken,
under these circumstances, to prevent injury to the
township by. such an unprecedented departure from
immemorial custom."
Mr. LIVERSEDGE was voted to the chair; and hating
read the requisition and the notice, he explained that
the Local Board of Health had nothing to do with the
meeting of the ratepayers, and stated that no man was
worthy the name of an Englishman unless he opposed
such a cowardly act as had been perpetrated by the late
overseers on the ratepayers of Trautnere. Personally,
he would exert himself to upset their proeeedings,
if
,possible, to bring the offending. parties before a
,judicial tribunal.
Mr. 3. E. -WILLIAMS moved the first resolution---
" That the conduct of Messrs. Alexander Blaylock and
John Langley, the late overseers of the poor, in
designedly omitting to call the annual vestry meeting of
the ratepayers, according to the immemorial usage of
the township, for the nomination and election of over-
seers of the poor, and also of the township constables,
and for the transaction of township affairs; and in
secretly recommending to the justices two persons ter
appointment as their successors in office, is an unwar-
rantable attempt to usurp and deprive the inhabitants of
every reasonable and legitimate exercise and control in
the selection their local officers and their own affairs,
and well deserving severe censure." Mr. Williams
remarked that the circumstances under which they met
were extremely painful; they had all hoped that the
excitement which distracted the township when the Local.
Government Act was adopted bad by this time subsided ;
and the very remembrance of the offences perpetrated by
certain parties had been forgotten. Now, however, anew
offence had been committed, for which none but the over

seers and their supporters were responsible; and, as aeon.
sequence, great excitement and discord had been justly
created. In addition to striking off the list of voters
270 ratepayers, who as a class had voted for ten years
conscientiously and independently, and many other
offences which the speaker enumerated at some length,
the overseers had treated the ratepayers with the greatest
contempt by nominating their own successors. He did
not charge them with any private guilt; bat he could
not help comparing them to stewards of an estate who
treated that estate as their private property. . But was
the township the overseers' private property ?
A Voice—lt is, or has been for a long time.
Mr. WH.l.Laars—Were they not accountable to the
ratepayers? He could not help thinking that their
conduct was at variance with the practise of overseers
all over England, and he enumerated the townships in
and around Liverpool where the meetings had been duly
convened and held, thereby giving evidence of progress ;
but the officers of Tranmere went the backward way in
this particular, as well as in everything else, endeavouring
to plunge the township into the depths of barbarism.
What had Tranmere done to merit so harsh a punish-
ment? Her only crime, of which he knew, was, she had
adopted the Local Government Act; and he thought it
behoved the ratepayers to criticise the actions of their
officers, who, in the last year, had exhibited the
greatest partiality in rating property. Air. Callistpr
bought property which, at the time of purchase, wa4
worth £3O ; improvements were accomplished about
it, and he now rented it out at £l5. It was rated in
the first instance at £l3, and nothing, had transpired
to enhance its value since, save the independent course
the owner took in advocating the adoption of the
Local Government Act, yet the overseers had
raised the rates to £l7. At a short distance from the
same property was a house, rented at £lB, with an addi-
tional £5 4s. for a cellar underneath, which was rated at
only £l4. The owner was said to be a particular
friend of the junior overseer. Mr. Williams concluded
a lengthy speech by stating that if they endured the
insults offete them they would betray their trusts, and
called upon the ratepayers to redress promptly the injury
done them.

The proposition was seconded by lir. Smyth, sup-
ported by Mr. Webb, and carried.
Mr. C. E. Huonts proposed "That this meeting being
advised that the appointment of Messrs. Wm. Courter
and William Stewart, as overseers of the poor,
and successors in office to Messrs. Blaylock and
Langley is not according to law ; under the extra-
ordinary circumstances of their appointment, this meet-
ing authorises the taking of all necessary proceedings to
test its validity."
Mr, DOWNRAM, in seconding the motion, enumerated
the several acts bearing on the subject, from which it
appeared that the magistrates appointed overseers on the
recommendation of the ratepayers, who were the electors.
He also cited a case, " The Queen v. Surrey," heard in
the Court of Queen's Bench, in 1815, before
Lord Campbell, who gave it as his opinion that
it would be most inconvenient, and prejudicial to
the inhabitants of a township if interested magistrates
should act'at the appointment of overseers and public
officers. The publie records of Tranmere proved that
vestries had been held regularly since 1822 ; the records
for previous years had been lost, but they had the
authority of men sixty or seventy years of age for say-
ing that not one year had passed by without its attendant
meeting of ratepayers. It seemed strange that
the overseers should upset the customs of ages,
and still more strange that they should have so
grossly insulted the men who placed them in office
at the commencement of last year. Three
men, who lived at one time iu Toole.y-street,
believed that they were England, and three Liverpool
merchants envied them, and endeavoured to usurp their
position ; _ and, acting 'Ton the same principles, the
two overseers of Tranme.re had been led to believe that
they were Tranmere, and they struck off 270 men to whom
the reformers of the country in Parliament were about to
give the parliamentary electoral franchise; and surely
men who could exercise so great a privilege, could also
rote on the election of a mayor and overseers of a
township. But these gentlemen thought otherwise, and
therefore had deprived men of privileges with which the
ratepayers in vestry assembled only had a right to. inter-
fere. This was not their only offence. At the time of
the agitation in favour of the Local Government Act,
they had refused to call the ratepayers together ; and a
case, was heard at the Court of Queen's Reach, where
they were defeated, eller. making au affidavit which was
nullified in affect b,yan affidavit sworn by the ratepayers.
Now. they bad refused to call a. meeting at all. Mr.
bownhani suggested that, with' regard -to the affairs
of the township, the public offices should be con-
centrated on one spot. He hoped the expenditure of
the Board would be kept as small as.practieabJ,e ; and
stated that he considered that the business. of the town-
ship, might be easily managed by two persons, at a
smaller expense than was at present paid to Mr. Jones.
He was actuated by no, vindictive feelings against the
late overseers, for they were his respected- friends ; but
he took the matter up, LIS he hoped all would, in a purely
catholic spirit—determined to learn the real position of
the township, and oppose all aggressive acts.
The resolution was carried unanimously.
Mr. Robson proposed, and Mr. Hogarth seconded, and
it was passed, that the following gentlemen be appointed
a committee to conduct,the proceedings mentioned in the
preceding resolutions : Mews, L'exrey, Liveraedge,
Morecroft, Scott, Webb, Downham, ilugbee, Wright,
Cornish, Lea, Robinson, Kelly, Robson, M'Dowell,
Searle, C,,l,liester, Limb, Hogarth, 'Williams,
Dolby; Petters, Whidharne, Wright, Jennings, Lowe,
Ilitchm,ough, Thomas, Muir, and Taylor.
OA the proposition of Mr. Downham, it was agreed
that the expenses of the proceedings should be 'mid by
public suhscription, or by a voluntary rate, as the
committee shall deem fit.

A -rote of thanks to the chairman brought, the pro-
ceedings to a close.

ELECTION U] WOXTETTI PARK
(11TARIAI ANS.

The following is the result of the election of guar-
dians for the extra-parochial place of Toxteth Park :-
1 Razuo Seymour Alpass, 1, Alfred-place, chemist
2 Samuel Siddeley, Aigburth-road, draper
3 Joseph Harrison, 4, Upper Stanhope-street, icon,
monger
4 William Leyland, 88, South-street, builder
6 Joseph Wilson, 4, Devonshixe,roacl, gentleman
6 Joseph D. Carte; k 4awes-place, plasterer
7 John Brrindretth liughes, 77, -Mill-street, architect
8 4-calu ,ikon, St. James's place, tallow-chandler
Aleiander Miller, Miles-street, gentleman
3yo William Henq Ogden, Park-road, ironfounder
11, Joseph Brilliant, 168, Mill-street, bacon factor
12 George Win. Hunter, 66, Northumberland-street,
wine merchant
13 John Moss, Upper Parliament-street, gentleman
14 Matthew Augustus Johns, 127, Park-street, coal
merchant
16 Arthur Grindrod, 42, St. James'-peace, salesman
16 W. Taylor Leigh, VI, ?ill-street, coal merchant
17 Henry Layhind, 411-street, wine merchant
18 William Baynes, Windsor-street, builder

The names are given in the list according t 3 the
majprity. of votes, Mr. Alpass. pclitag 1,,495, and Mr.
Baynes receiving 966 votes. The r.nsuccessful candi-
dates were Messrs. WilEgun Davis, William Warke,
Thomas Gilbert, George Brundrit, John Kidd, John
G. ScourAeld, William Johnson, Henry Thompson,
Thomas Aylward, Norval Croft, Isaac Denton, R. Moss,
Michael Hughes, James Mullins, Robert Hamer, Carol
.Molyneut, Michael Martin, Hugh Toole, John Taylor,
John Hamilton, and Thomas Matthew Wing.