The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-12-17 00:00:00

EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY.

. In the High Court of Justice, the cause of " Haysler
v. the Great Western Railway Company," has been
heard. The case raised an important question under
the Employers' Liability Act, 1880. The plaintiff in.
May last entered the defendant's service, and a
few days afterwards was ordered to attend to an
engine which, with three others, was standing in
a shed adjoining the station. For this purpose
he got into a pit beneath the engine, and while
there another of the company's servants, who had
been ordered to back the four engines out of the shed,
set them in motion and severely crushed the plaintiff's
hand. On behalf of the defendants, evidence was
given to show that the engine driver, before moving
the engines, sent his fireman along to see that all was
safe, and that the later called out to warn any one who
might be near the engines. The plaintiff, however,
stated that he heard no warning or whistle. The
engine-driver did not set the engines in motion until
the fireman gave him a signal to do so.
- - •

On behalf- of the Company it was contended that
they were not liable, since the negligence, if any,
which caused the injury was that of the fireman, and
that he was not a person having "the charge or con-
trol of a locomotive engine or train upon a railway"
within the meaning of section 1 of the Employers'
Liability Act. The action was tried in the Maryle-
bone County Court, and the Deputy Judge having
found a verdict fcr the plaintiff for the agreed amount,
50 guineas, the defendants now moved to enter judg-
ment for them, on the ground that.there was no evi-
dence of negligence on the part of the company.
The Court, however, held that there was some evi-
dence on which the County Court Judge might pro-
perly have found a verdict for the plaintiff, and, with-
out expressing any opinion as to who was "in charge
• of !' tlite engine trithi& the meaning of the Act, refused
the rule.

The girl pressed the leaves, but the boy presses the
girl. The press is mighty and must prevail.
There were 2,380 births and 1,521 deaths registered
in London last week. Allowing for increase of population,
the births were 205 and the deaths 308 below the average
numbers in the corresponding week of the last ten years.
The annual death-rate from all causes, which had been
equal to 21.8 and 199 per 1,000 in the two preceding weeks,
was 2014

THE MEMORIAL TO DEAN STANLEY:

A meeting was held at noon on Tuesday in the
ancient Chapter-house, Westminster, for the purpose
of promoting the scheme for raising a fitting memorial
to the lamented Dean Stanley. The Very Rev. Dr.
Bradley, the new Dean of Westminster, presided, and
was supported by his Royal Highness the Prince of
Wales, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Marquis
of Salisbury, Earl Granville, the Marquis of Lorne,
Lord Chief Justice Coleridge, the Hon. J. Russell
Lowell, the Duke of Westminster, Mr. Childers, M.P.,
the Bishop of Peterborough, the Bishop of Bedford,
Mr. Beresford Hope, M.P., and many other gentle-
men. The audience also included a considerable
number of ladies.

Dean Bradley, in opening the proceedings, said :—The
occasion on which we meet to-day might seem at first sight to
suggest no thoughts but those of sorrow, mingled, no doubt,
with Christian hope; no words but those of lamentation, or
at best of mutual consolation—to be purely and simply
mournful For we have come together on the first
anniversary since his death in July last of the birth
of one) whose loss has left a void in many hearts, a
blank in many lives, and has touched with a pang as
of personal bereavement the minds of multitudes who
never knew him. And yet, Sir, the dearest friends of
my lamented predecessor, those nearest to him in
blood, closest in friendship, could hardly look round this
truly representative gathering without some touch of a
feeling born, it may be, of sorrow, yet near akin to joy
and thankfulness. For what purpose are we come here ,
to-day? "I came to bury Cresar, not to praise him,"
said the Roman orator; we are here, not to bury our lost
friend, but—shall I say to praise? Most surely to honour
him. We are gathered here to attempt to satisfy a
natural craving, prompted, it may be, by instinct, yet
approved by reason, which bids us hallow, and preserve,
and perpetuate, and hand down to our children the
memory of one who was deeply, and widely, and rarely
loved; and we wish not only to cherish his memory in
our own hearts and in those of his countrymen, but to
enshrine it in some tangible, and impressive, and enduring
form within the historic walls with which his name will
be inseparably connected. And those who meet here to-
day to do him honour—met in this ancient house, reared,
Sir, six centuries ago by your Royal ancestor, and
tenanted for generations by the Parliament of England,
restored by the nation to its present state mainly at the
urgent instance of Arthur Stanley—may claim to represent
the thousands who are with us surely in spirit, and, had
space permitted, would joyfully have given us their
presence. It may be fairly said, Sir, that great pains
have been taken, and, thanks to hearty co-operation and
ready self-sacrifice on the part of many eminent per-
sonages, not without success, to assemble here worthy
representatives of almost every element in our varied
national life, from those who stand on the steps of the
Throne to those who earn their daily bread by the labour
of their hands. (Hear, hear.) We have among us those
whose names and faces suggest at once statesmanship and
public life, and the legislative and the judicial world, and
art and science and literature, and the historic Church of
England, and those more or less outside its pale, and our
ancient and our modern Universities, and trade and com-
merce and manual labour, and all that is oldest and much
that is of yesterday in our social organisation or our in-
tellectual and religious life. And each and all of these
are here with one purpose—to honour the memory of one
to whose rarely sympathetic nature all these English in-
terests were exceedingly dear. Not England only, not these
islands only, but the dependencies and the colonies of this
great empire, are in no unreal sense among us. Nor least wel-
come, nor last in sympathy, we have here, at your own
desire, the accredited Minister of that kindred nation
beyond the seas, who represents feelings that he of all men
can so well interpret—feelings of an affection that needs no
diplomatic formula towards one endeared even as to his own
countrymen to the citizens of that great Republic. (Hear,
hear.)
After some further observations, the Dean said that it was
his desire that the memorial to the memory of the late
Dean should be made as wide and national as possible, and
should embrace the pence of the children the late Dean so
dearly loved, the spare earnings of the working men, in
whom he took so great an interest, and the larger contribu-
tions of competence and wealth.
After reading the names of several gentlemen who had
volunteered contributions to the fund, the Dean concluded
by reading letters from Mr. Gladstone, the Archbishop of
York, the Duke of Argyll, and several other distinguished
persons, expressive of regret at their unavoidable absence.
The Prince of Wales, who was received with ap-
plause, said :
In proposing the first resolition, which has been com-
mitted to my care, I desire to express the very sincere plea-
sure, though [ must call it a sad pleasure, which I feel in
being asked to move tkis resolution. I do so with feelings of
sorrow, owing to the long friendship and acquaintance which
I had with the late Dean of Westminster; and yet with
pleasure, as I have the satisfaction of proposing to you
a national memorial to which I am convinced the late Dean
was so thoroughly entitled. (Hear, hear.) The loss which
the death of that eminent man has caused to this, and, I
may say also, to other countries, is indeed great. That
loss was deeply felt by my beloved mother the Queen
(applause), who bore for the late Dean the greatest possible
friendship and affection, and also by all the members of
her family. If I may be allowed to speak about myself, I
had the great advantage of knowing most intimately
Arthur Stanley for a period of 22 years. Not only had I the
advantage of being his pupil during my residence at the
University of Oxford, but I was also his fellow-traveller in
the East when we visited Egypt and the Holy Land
together; and I am not likely to forget the charm of his
companionship and all the knowledge that he imparted to
me during that tour. (Hear, hear.) The many virtues
aid many great qualities of the Wan are so well known to
all of you, and are so well appreciated throughout the
length and breadth of the land, that it is almost super-
fluous in me, and would be almost out of taste, were I now
to go through the long list of all that he has done from the
day in which his name came into prominence. Still, as the
churchman, as the scholar, as the man of letters, as the
philanthropist, and above all, as the true friend, his name
must always go down to posterity as a great and good
man, and as one who will have made his mark on the
chapter of his country's history. (Applause.) To all classes
he felt alike—to rich and poor, to high and low—he was, I
may say, the friend of all; and it is most gratifying on
this occaSion to see here present the representatives of all
classes of the community, and especially of the great
labouring class to whom he was so devoted, and who, I
think, owe him so much. (Hear, hear.) It is also deeply
gratifying, I am sure, to the Dean and those who take a
deep interest in this meeting that we have the advantage
of the presence to-day of the Minister of the United States.
(Hear, hear.) As I was saying, not only was the late Dean
appreciated and looked up to in this country and in Europe,
but also by that kindred country across the Atlantic to
which he so lately paid a visit, and where we know that
he received so much kindness and hospitality. I heard
from his own lips on his return from America the expres-
sion of the great gratification he derived from his visit, and
of the hope—of what, alas I was not to be—that he might
on some future occasion be able to repeat it. (Hear, hear.)
There is much more that I should wish to say in regard to
one whom I so deeply deplore, and to whom I bore so great
an affection. But lam sure it is not the object of this
meeting to make long speeches. and as many speakers have
to follow me, I will only again express the gratification I
feel in being here to propose the resolution which I now have
the honour of bringing before you. (Applause.)
Earl Granville seconded the resolution, whieh was
supported by Mr. Russell Lowell, who expressed a
hope that the American people might share in raising
the Memorial to the Dean.

The Archbishop of Canterbury proposed that the
Memorial should take the form of a recumbent figure
of the Dean placed over his tomb in the Abbey, and
the completion of the windows in the Chapter House.

The Marquis of Salisbury tendered a tribute of
gratitude from the University of Oxford at the tomb
of the late Dean.

Upon the motion of the Marquis of Lorne, a Com-
mittee was formed, headed by the Prince of Wales, to
receive contributions and carry out the Memorial.