The Press.
London, England, 1853-08-27 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

been offered an appointment in the company's ser-
vice. The person offering it had been proved not to
be a director, and his client had repudiated all con-
nection with the party or the transaction immediately
upon his discovering its illegal character. Mr.
Clarkson, on the other band, insisted on the
words of the act which rendered all bargaining of
this description illegal, without declaring that the
bargain must be completed, or indeed specifying how
far it must be carried to involve penal consequences :

It had been clearly proved that a negotiation had been begun
and proceeded with by the defendant and a person whom the
witness did notchoose to mune, and it had only been broken off
because the defendant did not choose to pledge himself to a Wee
declaration. The Lord Mayor was not sitting to try the case,
but had simply to determine whether suflielent grounds had been
misted to i 111111,410 him to send it for adjudication before a superior
tribunal. The learned counsel continued : A grave offence of this
sort should not be disposed of upon a technical objection. if
there had been a wrong done, and that wrong was attempted to
be supported by Mr. Wilkinson in refusing to detail the whole
truth, which he had the power of doing, it was not right to put
en end to the case on any technicality, but the defendant should
be bound to answer the charge before a jury.
• - •

- -
The Lord Mayor, wishing maturely to consider the
evidence, postponed giving his decision on the case
till Thursday, when, after going over the details with
much care, he decided that he had no jurisdiction in
the case. and the charge against Mr. Norman
kinson must be dismissed. Application was then
made for the committal of Mr. W. A. Wilkinson, as
having been contumacious in the witness-box. This
was also refused, the Lord Mayor considering that
his refusal to answer a single question did not,
under the circumstances, amount to contumacy.
A SERIES OF ACTIONS for damages arising out of
the late accident on the Lancashire and Yorkshire
Railway have been tried at the present Liverpool
Assizes. The accident occurred on the 4th of last
March to the train which left Bolton fur Manchester
at a quarter to six in the evening :
After passing Halsham-moor station, the speed of the engine
was so increased that the train was going at the rate of forty
miles an hour, which caused great oscillation, and presently the
train went off the line, and after running about seventy yards
several carriages were thrown over, with the result of indicting
terrible, and hi one instance fatal, injury to many of the pasaen•
pers. Mr. Nounnyth examined the line after the accident, and it
was found that some of the sleepers were longitu final, and the
bolts fastening the chairs of the rails were some of theta loose
and raised an both, and some were so loose that they could be
pulled out by the fingers ; many of the sleepers of the permanent
way were decayed. the chairs were spiked down on the sleepers,
which mode of fastening hail, in some cases, split the sleepers,
and the motion of the train had loosened the spikes. In other
cases the rotting of the sleepers had left the spikes loose. These
spikes were driven in every three or four feet, and were not an
efficient fastening. From these causes the permanent way
was unsafe, and the gauge was not maintained. The engine used
was a foul...wheeled engine, and one of the axles was broken. Mr.
Nasmyth gave it as his opinion that, with the line in such a state,
forty miles an hour was riot a safe speed to go, especially as
the engine was a four-wheeled one. The engine had run off the
line from the fact of the gauge not having been maintained, and
tint from the fracture of the axle, which had been gradual ; for,
instead of the fracture being right across, a piece had evidently
held on to the very last, and there was a burnished appearance
on the face of the adjoining parts of the fracture, as if they had
been in attrition against each other. Many of the rails were
loose.
- -

...
The amount of damages in each action out of the
six tried was regulated partly by the injury received,
and partly by the social standing and fortune of the
injured party. In the case of Mr. Caratti, a Greek
merchant, who had died from the effects of the acci
dent, and whose professional income was stated to be
2,000/. or 3,000/. a year, a verdict of 3,000/. was ob-
tained by his executors. For Mr. Fitton, who had
been severely hurt, 2,000/. damages was taken by
consent; in the case of Kay, 1,050/. ; Pugh, 1,000/. ;
Safiano and another 2501. on two actions. The total
amount of damages awarded against the company on
account of the accident was 7,3001. On behalf of
the defendants in this action it was stated by their
counsel _ _ _

that the direetara of the company greatly deplored and re-
gretted the sufferings to which the several plaintiffs had been
subjeeted in consequence of this accident. They had purchased
the line sic years ago. and found that it had been originally made
in an inefficient manner. The traffic upon the line was immense,
and it ‘141,1 impossible to close it altogether: lint from that time
to the present the directors had kept relaying the permanent way,
and improving it. The directors hail behaved with the greatest
liberality. and hoped they would stand well with the public.
Fewer accidents had occurred on their line than on any other :
and, from the damages they had to pay for this accident, self-
interest would induce them to keep their permanent way well.
A BLOT has been left in the new cab law of which
the drivers are becoming fully aware, and take ad-
vantage of it on all fitting opportunities. The clause
relating to hirings by time is thus expressed :
"That every hackney-carriage driver should be bound to drive
any distance within the limits of the act. not exceeding six miles
from th place where the vehicle should have been hired, or for
any time not exeec ding one hour fettni the time when hired."
The Legislature, it is admitted, never intended that
this clause should limit the option allowed to tra
vellers of engaging cabs by the hour to the first sixty
minutes. It appears, however, that the proviso
strictly interpreted bears this conclusion, and the
consequence has been that persons hiring cabs by
time are obliged to renew their time bargain every
hour, or expose themselves at the journey's end to a
demand from the cabman for payment according to
the actual distance traversed. Such demand was
made on Mr. Harding, a builder, of Fulham, who had
spent five hours in a cab and was then treated with
insolence by the driver because he offered 10s. as the

SATURDAY,

fare. The charge being referred to the Hammer-
smith Police Court, Mr. Beadon, the magistrate, was
compelled to dismiss the summons against the cab-
man, being hampered by the words of the statute,
whose precise signification, he remarked, must ine-
vitably be speedily settled by the decision of some
superior court.
THE INDICTMENT AGAINST MAJOR BERESFORD and
others upon the charge of conspiring to bribe the
electors of Derby came before Mr. Baron Platt on
Wednesday, upon an application moved on behalf of
the defendants for a certiorari to remove ihe case
into the Court of Queen's Bench. Mr. Bodkin, in
support of this application, showed reason why the
trial should take place before a superior tribunal.
He produced also an affidavit which stated that the
matter out of which the charge arose had been the
subject of inquiry by two committees of the House
of Commons, before whom Major Beresford had
been examined, and that, amongst the different (Ines.
tions of law expected to arise, one was how far the
evidence then taken could be made use of in support
of the present indictment. The learned counsel
further adverted to the discussions which had taken
place in Parliament and through the medium of the
public press, and suggested that a special jury would
be less likely to be influenced by popular prejudice
in a matter which had been in so many forms before
the public than the class of persons, however respect-
able, who were usually summoned to the Central
Criminal Court. Mr. Baron Platt said that, for the

reasons stated, he considered it a fit case to be tried
in a superior court, and granted his fiat for the writ
as prayed; fixing the bail to be entered into by Major
Beresford at 1001., with two sureties in 501. each.
Mr. Coppock attended as solicitor for the prosecu-
tion.

FORGED ORDERS Or ADMISSION to the Adelphi
Theatre had been somewhat widely circulated by
one George Newman, who pretended in some in-
stances to be an employe of Mr. Webster, the
manager, and endeavoured to obtain money in return.
In one evening no less than sixty of these spurious
orders had been presented at the house, where of
course they were refused ; and, on the offender being
apprehended, a whole bundle of forged tickets was
found on his person. He was tried at the Middlesex
Sesions on Tuesday, and, pleading guilty, was
sentenced to one year's imprisonment with hard
labour.

A PUBLISHER'S CLERK AND CASHIER, named
Sturges, for seven years employed by Mr. Stewart,
theological bookseller, of King William street, was
charged on Thursday at Bow-street with embezzle-
ment to a heavy amount. His employer, suspecting
something wrong, had determined to inspect his ac-
counts, when the prisoner drew up a list of defalca-
tions amounting in all to 6001., which he confessed
to having committed. This confession, however,
be now pleaded had been made under a distinct
promise that no criminal proceedings were to be
taken against him. Mr. Stewart had allowed some
time to elapse before giving his defaulting clerk into
custody, but distinctly denied that he had promised
to condone the offence. The prisoner was remanded.