The Press.
London, England, 1854-02-04 00:00:00

gab) and

KlhBY, a tailor in Great Russell-street, received
a bill of exchange for 1001. from a person named
Wallis. No money seems to have passed on the oc-
casion, but Wallis owed Kirby some 501. for goods.
When the bill came to maturity, payment was re-
fused by the drawer, Mr. de Lara, who pleaded, in
answer to the action afterwards brought iu the Court
of Exchequer, that the document bad been stolen
from him. He had entrusted it to one Wood to get
discounted, but never received a farthing for it, or
heard anything about it until called upon for pay-
ment. Between Wood and the present plaintiff the
bill seemed to have passed through several hands,
or at all events it bore the names of several en-
dorsers, and it was sought to establish Kirby's right
to recover its amount in the character of an innocent
holuer. The Chief Baron, however, in leaving the
case to the jury, observed,
that if a man receiving stolen goods at one half their value was
to be taken as evidence that he knew they were stolen, surely the
analogy should apply to a case like the present, where the plain.
tiff had not given one half the value for the bill in question.
Verdict for the defendant.

THE RULE Nisi obtained lately by the Hon. F.
Scott and other directors of the South-Western Rail-
way Company against the Times was, after argument
on Monday last, made absolute by the Court of
Queen's Bench. This rule calls on the publisher to
show cause why a criminal information should not
be filed against him for an article which appeared
in that journal in November last, reflecting seriously
on the characters of the plaintiffs. Lord Campbell in
giving judgment said :
At this stage I shall studiously abstain from saying anything
which may prejudice the case; but I think it right to observe so
far, that( this article had confined itself to describing the con-
duct of the railway directors, and censuring their measures and
the policy they had pursued, this court never would have inter-
fered. Put there are in this article various expressions which
bear the meaning of attacking the percale' honour of the direc-
tors, imputing to them that a pledge had been given in bad faith
—that votes bad !Jelin tampered with—that a meeting had been
acked—and that fictitious votes had been created. It is for a
jury to say in what sense that language was used.
EMBEZZLEMENT in a somewhat unusual form was
submitted to the investigation of the Thames police
magistrate on Tuesday. Two sawyers in the employ
of Mr. Mare, the engineer, were charged with that
offence, which they were said to have perpetrated
in the following manner. Some novel machinery
had been introduced whereby much time and labour
were saved. The defendants, being evidently " tup-
sawyers," were employed to watch this machinery
and register its performances, their pay depending
upon the quantity of work it turned out. The com-
plainants alleged that they had fraudulently ex-
aggerated this amount, reckoning into the account
various work performed in other departments with-
out any aid of the machine' entrusted to their keep-
ing, and had thus swollen their own earnings. For
the defendants it was stated that the system of
account-keeping in the establishment was so loose
that it was impossible to avoid errors or trace their
origin. The magistrate appeared to thine that the
charge was of a very circuitous character and hardly
susceptible of proof, but, nevertheless, thought
proper to send it before a jury. The case was ac-
cording referred to the Central Criminal Court, and
the defendants formally committed, but allowed to
give bail for their appearance at the next sessions.
AT THE COURT OF BANKRUPTCY OR Monday Mr.
Commissioner Fane awarded certificates of the first
class to Mr. G. Hennet and Mr. T. Hutchings,
lately extensively engaged in business as railway
contractors.
ANOTHER CABMAN'S HARDSHIP has turned up during
the week. Mr. Stephen Corbel, a gentleman re-
siding at Holton, took a cab from Cremorne Gardens
to the Eastern Counties Railway. On arriving there
the cabman asked 35., the distance being a clear six
miles, while the " gentleman " offered 25., such being
the sum stated, erroneously as it appears, in the
police-book of fares. The driver behaved irre-
proachably, and the question by consent was brought
for decision before the district police court. There
it was shown that the cabman was right as to dis-
tance, and in fact an erratum-sheet had been actually
issued, by which the clerical error in the official
fare-book had been corrected, and the route in ques-
tion set down at over six miles, showing that the
driver had undercharged his fare. The "gentleman,"
or his solicitor (Mr. Heritage), then resorted to a legal
quibble. By the act it appeared that every table of
fares signed by the Commissioner of Police was ac-
counted valid for all purposes. The blundering
table of fares was so signed, while the erratum-sheet
was not thus authenticated. Mr. Heritage argued,

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therefore, that the distance in dispute was legally, if
not geometrically, proved to be under the four miles.
Against this plea the act left Mr. D'Eyncourt no dis-
cretion. The cabdriver was accordingly mulcted
through the negligence of the Police Commissioner,
and "Gentleman " Corbet walked off with his shilling
in his pocket, leaving it upon the records of Worship-
street Police Court that his sense of rectitude had
yielded to the temptation of twelve pence.
A BRUTAL ASSAULT UPON A WOMAN was charged

against an " excavator " named Charles Manners at
Lambeth Police Court on Monday. Similar cases
are so frequent at the different courts that their
reiteration has become monotonous. The present
instance, however, presents some novelty, in the cir-
cumstance that the sufferer was neither wife nor

paramour to the assailant. She was, on the con-
trary, a resNctable married woman, and only by
unlucky casualty came into his neighbourhood. Her
account was as follows :
Complainant, one of whose arms was in a sling, went ou the
previous evening to a public-house, accompanied by her husband
and a female friend. The prisoner and other men were there.
Oue of them asked her friend to drink, but prisoner objected,
using some violent expressions iu so doing. Complainant re-
monstrated with him, upon which he called her offensive names.
A man present interfered, and the prisoner, who was very drunk
and quite ftirious, rushed upon complainant, at whose head he
struck re‘erel blows. On putting up her hand to defend herself,
the prisoner seized her with his teeth and bit a piece of flesh
from her arm. She bled profusely, and the piece of flesh which
had been torn from her was spit out from the mouth of the pri-
soner into the taproom.

The magistrate sent the prisoner, who expressed
some contrition for his offence, to four months' hard
labour in the House of Correction.
A YOUNG Lew STUDENT, James Addison Selby,
applied to the Insolvent Court for discharge from►
the Queen's Bench Prison. He possessed some con-
siderable property and expectations, but owed more
than 7,t 001. The first cause of his embarrassments he
ascribed to the fact of his having unluckily won 351.
at a gambling-house. In the flush of his success he
was induced to go to a notorious coffee-house in Jer•
myn-street, where he played again and lost all his
winnings ; but the landlord, one Uenese, made him-
self so agreeable to a customer whose acquaintance
seemed worth cultivating that he afterwards fre-
quented the house considerably, and commenced a
course of gambling and dissipation. Genese had
been forced to shut up the Jermyn-street concern-
but afterwards opened a public-house near Drury,
lane. Here the insolvent also resorted, and was
introduced by his landlord friend behind the scenes
of the theatre, supplied with furniture for the benefit
of a lady at Chelsea, and otherwise encouraged in
extravagance, until at length be was wrested. Ge-
ese figured as a creditor in the schedule, and
appeared iu court as the only opponent to the insol-
vent's release:—

Mr. Commissioner thought it would be a gross per-
version of the law to remand the insolvent at the instance of the
man who had witnessed and encouraged his misconduct In
this den of iniquity the insolvent had been supplied with viands
of all kinds at double, and sometimes wore than double, their
ordinary cost. Drinking had been encouraged, prostitutes had
been encouraged, gambling had been encouraged, all by the com-
plaining creditor, in a young man at the very outset of life, with
warm and youthful passions, and those passions excited and
inflamed by a wan of mature years, who now complained against
the fearful consequences of his own conduct. That the insolvent
had been blameless no one could say, but it did not lie In this
mouth of the man who initiated him into sin to complain of hint.
The creditor must have known that he was running the young
man into a course which led to destruction, and, havhig encou-
raged and motioned Imo in that career, he could not now complain.
The insolvent must understand that he did not leave the court
blameless, fur, although young in life, he was old enough to have
known better. If any honest creditor had complained, the in-
solvent's course of life would not have excused him.
The counsel for the insolvent said the penalty of his
imprudence would fall upon himself. There was a
reversion of 4,5001., which would pay the debts in
full, and its realisation was only a question of time.
The insolvent was ordered to be discharged.

Pihnts anV Oftlarts.

THE FORGERY OF A CHEQUE for 5001. was corn-
mitted by a clerk of Messrs. Glyn's bank, who
presented the document purporting to bear the sig-
nature of the London firm at the branch establish-
ment in Liverpool. Fortunately the managers there
had received information that an employe of the
London house had absconded, therefore they retained
the document ; and the prisoner, who afterwards
confessed his guilt at the Liverpool Police Office,
was committed for trial at the assizes. His name is
John Timson.
AN EXTENSIVE FIRE, resulting in the destruction
of buildings and property worth several thousand
pounds, broke out on the premises of Messrs. Jones,
coal-merchants, at Bankside, on Saturday last. The
house in which it commenced, No. 54, was entirely
burnt down, and several adjoining tenements much
injured. The conflagration began about four in the
morning, and extended so fast that Mr. Jones and
his family were obliged to rush into the street in
their night-gear in terror for their lives. Hours past
before the utmost efforts of the firemen could con-
quer the flames ; and much complaint was made of

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