The Express.
London, England, 1852-03-17 00:00:00

WEDNESDAY EVENING, MARCH 17, 1832.

lab) iintelltgence.

SPRING

EQUITY COURTS.—YzsrEanAT.
DiSOIS Vics•CsArmauma sta 0. I .
HOOD O. Hoou.
. .

This was a special cue, raising questions for the consi-
deration of the court upon the con.tructiun of the will of
the late Sir Alexander Hood, and of certain settlements
made upon the marriage of the testator, and of his son the
plaintiff.
Mr..l. Daily and Mr. Thring appeared fee the plaintiff;
Sir William rage Wood and Mr. F.aeourt fur the defend-
ants; Mr. A. Bobbins.e for the trustees.
The main questions were points of conveyancing of some
difficulty, and upon them his Honour reserved his judg-
ment.

But in the course of the argument a point of some ha-
penance arose. as to whether or not, upon a special use,
the court could decide question. between co-d. feedings,
and some observations fell from hie Honour which were at
the time supposed to amount to a decision that it could not.
At the dose of the argument,
Mr. gaily asked his Honour whether it was to be taken
as a point decided, that the court would not entertain
questions between co-defendants, as it wa. one of great
importance.
The Viee.Chancellor stated that it wa. not to be so taken,
as the point did not necessarily arise in the present case.

llamas Vies-Cussesucia bia Janes PAWN.
WOODPALL t'. Mavusw.
Mr. Wins and Mr. Jetoel having obtained special leave
of the court, moved that an injunction might be awarded
against the defendants, Mr. Henry Mayhew and Mr. John
Ilowdon, to restrain them from collecting or receiving any
sums duo from any purchasers of any of the numbers of
a work called "London Labour and the London Poor,"
printed by the plaintiff, and which had been sold by Mr.
Ilaradon, and also from interfering with the numbers
printed by the plaintiff which remained unsold, and also for
the appointment of a receiver, to collect the sums due for
the numbers sold, and to take possession of and sell such of
the numbers of the work as remained unsold.

It appeared that the work in question Lad been printed
by the plaintiff, upon an arrangement under which the
plaintiff was entitled to have the accounts of the sales of
the work, and of the undertaking made ap by Mr. Ilowdon,
and rendered to him in a specified manner, the plaintiff
being, under the agreement, to ho paid for printing the
work out of the proceeds of the sales. The plaintiff by his
bill alleged that a breach had been made by Mr. Ilowdon
in rendering the accounts, and that Mr. Mayhew hail not
enforced the plaintiff's right to an account in the way
he ought to have done, and ho asked far an account, and for
an injunction and receiver. The present motion was made
on affidavits, which sustaiind M. plaintiff's case, and in the
absence of the defendants an order was made iu the ternss of
the motion.

COURT OF LIANKRUPTCY.—YEsTERDAT.
Bcroax Mc. Cosiammoxica [straw.
IN BE DINMAN.—PERJCItY.

This was an adjourned examination meeting in the case
of Wm. Drawn, carpenter, of Cheam, in Surrey. A wit-
nese named Hudson had been examined; and it appearing
that he had committed perjury, he was now brought up for
judgment.
His Honour said it bad been important in this case to
ascertain what had become of the bankrupt's property; and
the inquiry had been so far successful as to show that a
very considerable portion of assets had been abstracted and
improperly removed from the creditors. 'rho witness,
James Hudson, had been called to prove that he had lent
the bankrupt 2d/. ; and he told a story very minute and
particular in all its details. He stated that ho had
lent the bankrupt this money in three @UM', the first
of 101., about the middle of last year, the money
being in gold, and that it was lent in the witness 'S
house ; the next a sum of 75., also in gold, lent *bout six
weeks after; and the third, St, also in gold, lent a month
or two after the second. The witness then stated that this
' money had been repaid by the bankrupt on the 29th Jan.
last, and he produced a receipt of that date. He said he
was quits certain of the fact, and that the bankrupt had
paid him the money at his own house in leathers.eourt.
Nothing could be morn apparently clear and coherent than
this account, The witness stated that he had previously
written a letter to the bankrupt, informing him that he
wanted the money. Ile said it was paid to him all in gold,
and the receipt was given en the same day. The witness
farther stated that, having no receipt stamp by him, he had
gone out and bought one at a stationer's shop, in a street
near Drury-lane. It fortunately happened that the regu-
lations at the Stamp-office had been the means, in
his case, of detecting the untruth ; for the date
of the stamp was 12-2, waning 12th February,
1852 ; and the witness swore that the receipt had
been given and the money paid on the day it bore dote, the
29th January. His attention being called to this, he had
asserted more than ones that ho had given it on tint day.
An officer from the Stamp-office, well acquainted with the
practice of the office, proved that it was quite impossible
this stamp should have bcea issued before the day it bore
date. Another chance was given the witness: this evidence
was read over to him; he was asked in the most solemn'
manner if he still persisted in saying the receipt had been
given on the 29th January, and he said it had. The court
was about to commit him for having told • story so grossly
untrue, which nobody could believe ; and the inquiry was
adjourned for the commitment to bo prepared. In that
interval the witness had taken the best advice be could; it
was to be regretted he had nut done so earlier ; and he
determined to make • clean breast of it. His con-
federate, Denman, the bankrupt, bad before confessed
that it was all • fiction—that he had no hand in it—but
that it was all arranged between his wife and the witness
Hudson. Thus it was clear the man had sworn to a most
horrible falsehood. Under those circumstances, the court
could not do lees than direct that he should be prosecuted
for perjury—a crime which he was sorry to say appeared to
be gaining ground in courts of justice. There was a recent
act, 14 tic 15 Viet. cap. 100, passed at the instance of Lord
Campbell, which might be made effective for the preven-
tion of this offence. The 19th clause authorised any court,
judge, justice, or commissioner of bankruptcy or insol-
vency, to direct a person guilty of perjury to be prosecuted,
and required that the costs of the prtweeution should be al•
lowed on the production of a certificate from the judge
committing. He understood the witness was prepared
with sureties; and he should require him to enter
into his own recognisance of fifty pounds, with two
sureties of twenty-five pounds each, conditioned for his
appearance at the next assizes to be holden at the OA
Dailey. The official assignee, Mr, Nicholson, would be
required to enter into his recognisance's to prosecute—a
responsibility which the officers of the court were bound to
take upon themselves. They were frequently made parties
to suits, very much against their inclination, in eases where
there were no funds to pay the expenses ; and they were
often peesonally mulcted in costs. Here the official
'Designee would be obliged to prosecute in a criminal case ;
and he mentioned tide because so much had been recently
said in that mania about the supposed excessive remunera-
tion paid to those officers ; and it should also be remem-
bered that government respoasibilities and duties were
thrown upon them.

THE POLICE COURTS.
WESTMINSTER.
_ _

Aerie Pugh, a young man carrying on business as a
tailor in Jerseys-street, St. James's, was charged with per-
sonating the boast of the Rev. Mr. Bowdler, for the pur-
pose of passin
elf eine forded documents as in the rev.
pailsmes
The esus aseseert it
circumstances investigated at this
court in December lest, when Thomas White, a youth in
the employed Kr. Peen, a printer' at Brampton, was
having uttered a forged cheque fur 46i. 10s.
starth
Area of Centel sal Co., to Mr. Kirby, a cheese-
meow ea NedibMinifte. He presented a letter purporting
10 be written by the See. Mr. Bawdier, of Onalow-rquare,
requeetins time be would be kind enough to cash the en-
closed timer oft mai es much cash towards it as ho had by
him at the mama by the hearer. In consequence of
having reel en sweat in the newspapers that a tradesman
had been recently defrauded in this way, Mr. Kirby
accompanied the youth with the money to Mr.
Bowdlees, but on arriving there the letter sud
cheque were both discovered to he forgeries; nor did
the butler know anything about it. The youth, when
brought before Mr. Arnold, declared that the letter had
been given to him at Mr. Dowdlees door, and as Mr.
Peres gave the accused a very high character for honesty,
a general impression prevailed that he had been the inno-
cent tool of some designing person • but the case assumed a
widely different complexion, upon Mrs. Faulkner, a butcher
in King-street, Westminster, stepping forward and declar-
ing that White was the preen who bad obtained from her a
large sum of money upon a similar cheque, purporting to
be drawn by Dr. Partridge, of Spring-gardens. This evi-
dence was at the time deemed conclusive, and the
seensed was remanded, but upon his being brought
up for re-examination, a respectable man came
forward and stated that it was his own son, then in
attendance, who had pr:sented the check and obtained the
money, which ho handed to the person who had accosted
him in the street, sent him with the letter, and met him
upon his return.
The youth alluded to having clearly deposed to these
facts, and Mr.. Faulkner herself hosing expressed her full
conviction that she had made a mistake in White's identity,
be was discharged.
The boy White now said that he had not met the accused,
the person who gave him the note and cheque since the
fraud until Sunday, when he gave him into custody.
The magistrate, after one serious mistake of identity,
was anxious to learn whether the boy was positive on the
point, when White said he was pretty well lute, hut could
sot be positive.
Mr. Araold adjourned the ease, and said he would take
ball for the accused.

THE ACCIDENT OX I= BOOTH-WESTERN RAlL-
WAY.—Yesterday, an Inquest was held at the Chamber-
'sync Arms Inn, adjoining the South Rants Infirmary,
Southampton, touching the death of Ilenry Vine, aged 33
years, late en engine-driver in the ',melee of the South
Western Railway Company, who died from injuries re-
ceived on the occasion of the accident near Ilishopstoke, on
the night of Saturday last. The circumstances of the melan-
choly catastrophe having been detailed by witnesses, the
jury atone returned a verdict of " Accidental death."

iiiquears.—Yesterday, Mr. Wakley held an
inquest at the Royal Free Hospital, Gray's-inn-road, on
the body of Lady Elisabeth Graham, who dislocated her
neck by falling down a step on Friday last ; and another
on 11. E. Fry, the artist who was killed by falling from a
scaffold at the Colosseum. In both cases the evidence was
too clear to cause any &Smiley la the Wads of the jury,
who retarnsd T0T411% of " Acoldontal death."