The Express.
London, England, 1866-04-04 00:00:00

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seek, to pronounce in favour * the government Reform
BM Mr. Kerner, it manufacturer, said the measure Ina
soaperferd; bat had it beers in operation before the Wet
election the tory members would never have been returned
for West Kent. •At Canterbury's liberal association was
i formed berimsek, sad a Tubbs muting is to he bald in
au of the bilh
g.rt Aitua. —Tn accordance with resolutions
tutanirnonsly panted b 7 the members of the Liberal Moe-
tar' Association in this borough last week a public meet-
ing of electors and non-electors favourable to the govern-
ment Reform BM was held at the Town-hall, Reading,
last evening. Theehair MS taken at halt-put 7 &stock by
Mr. J. B. Aionokigt.ofor the county and president of the
Beading Liberal rs' Association, who was supported
by the members the borough (Sir Francis Holdmid,
Bart., and Mr. G.'liihaw Llievre), Revs. J. Aldis
'B. Balmer, and ',Stevenson (independent), and W.
Coats ; Alderman George Palmer, Alderman Herrin, Alder-
man Walford, Otsfinlilnriwi: Andrews, Wooden, and
Spokes ; Mr. J. noon AL Cnlalade.r Mr. C. CV,
and other well-known membeer the Eberal 'Arty e
borough, who completely filledalse spacious platform ; and
the body of the hall said gallery,ware crowded by a respect-
able body of working men. Thd-chairman briefly opened
troceedlngs, and Mr. Aldermizgralmer then addressed
qieeting, and moved .thellastiosolution, se follows le.-.
this meeting, regarding the franchise bill WOZO-
ducrd info: the House of Commonsi" by her Majesty's
government or a substantial and 4seb mow, of
Moan, is of g dation that. It deer"- the I
port of ell sincere liberals, and tilltelt„;it the
rcuntlf reformers throughout the country tide, theh-
ei
asstitanse Pr her Majesty's ministers' in carrying
the bill through parliament" (Omen.) Alderwisu Harris
seconded the motion which was supported by the Rev.
John Aldis. The Ciainuari then put the resolutWto the
meeting, and it, sae carrieddinannowdy amidst loadlimer-
ing. Mr. James Boerne then moved " That this meeting
resolves to petition parliament in favour of the govern-
ment Reform Bill, and that a politica for this purpose ern-
bodying the resolution adopted by this meeting be signed
by the chairman on behalf of the meeting." (Cheers.) In
the come of his observations Mr. Boothe denounsed the
conduct of Moors. Herman and Lowe as time-serving and
contemptible and the mention of their names was received
with much hissing, while loud cheers were given whew
the actions •of Mr. Gladness and Mr. Bright sere
touched upon. The motion was wended by Mr. White-
house, a working man employed at the Katesgrove Iron-
foundry, sad sainted unanimously. It was also resolved
that the memberefor the borough be respectfully requested
to present the petition to the House of Commons, and give
the bill their earnest support. Mr. Rogers, the liberal
agent, and others, baring spoken, the borough member,
who. were received with great cheering, dressed the
meeting, which throughout was enth c, but very
e
GLonosirrie a. —A requisition havin* been vs-
seined to the mayor of this city requesting him to convene
a meeting to consider the government Reform Bill, hie
worship has flied Thursday night for the meeting.

deSISIZE INTELLIGENCE.

HOME CIRCUIT. —Kmoszow, Moan. 3.
The Moaner of this circuit was rimmed it ton
o'clock, both the learned judger, the Lord Chief BIM
and Ohie( Julio. Erie. being engaged in trying the masa-
jug comic*.

(Before Chief Judiee Bale end a Special duty.)
11111. AVIS V. TILAIfC/X:

This wae an action of libel againatibe ithencenet news-

reiestit Balbotine and Mi. Pblibrbik were for the
plaintiff ; Me. Hawkins, Q.C., and the, Hon. G. Denman,
1.C., were for the defendant
The plaintiff in this action was • German, and he was
described .as Dr. Strauss. It appeared that last year he
published • novel in three volumes called " The Old
Ledger," and the work was vent to the volume,
to be re-
viewed. The libel complained of consisted of the critique
upon the work, which was in the following terms :
" The Old Ledger,' by G. At. L. Stratum—Our first im-
pression on opening thu publication was, that so many
Relics and inverted commas were never seeoongregated
into the same space before. Our last, on closing it, is, that
it must be the very worst attempt st a novel that was ever
perpetrated ; it cannot ran claim the utility of an opiate ;
its inanity, self-complacency, and vulgarity.; its profa-
nity its indellaacy o use no stronger term), its display of
bad Latin, bad French, bad grammar, and bad English ;
the recurrence of Abuse, or as the author terms
it, • htly digressive reflections on great men living and
dead, and wholly unconnected with the subject, make the
reader more indignant and the truth of this can only be
conceived by an operation which few-are likely to attempt,
and fewer still to achieve, that of reading the book."
The plaintiff alleged special damages, that the gale of the
book had been put s stop to by the libel complained of, and
he claimed I,ooof. damages.
The plaintiff's case consisted of the patting in of the
libel, and one witeas, • gentleman named being
examined to prove that it applied to the plaintiff. In
cross-exantination he said he had read the pLuntiff's book,
and be did not consider there was anyth particularly
objectionable in it. The style and the languap in some
porticos et the work were not quite correct, but he attri-
buted this to the plaintiff being a foreigner, sad his net
having a perfect knowledge of English.
Mr. Hawkins, in hie address to the teethe iletud-
ant, argued that he had only- the fair and legal
bounds of criticism in reference to the lurk in qpestion.
He said that the law gave to • journa• • the right to
Lop
ain an opinion upon any work that was aired
, the public, and although it might be an
opinion that was disagreeable to the author, the latter
bad no right to bring an action of this description unless
some attack was made upon him personally ; and with •
malicious motive and in the present case the jury would be
satisfied that nothing of the kind existed, and in point of
fast the gentleman who wrote the article in queen, who
was a member of the bar, and the eon of an eminent and
distinguished judge, Mr. Justice Lush, was an entire
stranger to the plaintiff, sad knew nothing whatever
about him, except with reference to his 00111161i= with the
work in question. " The Old pledger, " the novel in ques-
tion, it appeared, was published last year, and it was
sent to the Athena-um for review. The plaintiff invited
criticism, and when the jury had hard the character
of the work in question he believed they would have
no difficulty in coming to the continuos that the
manner in which the work was spoken of was
perfectly justified, and that there were no grounds what-
ever for bringing the present action. The learned counsel
then gave a very humorous description of the principal
incidents in the work, one of which was that a principal
actor is it commits • forgery to the amount of 7,000 t.,
" being tempted " according to the novel to do so to enable
him to carry on a little longer his connection with the
gaining table, and lase with a certain opera dancer, and
the author was made to say that he considered his conduct
laudable, and that under certain circumstances the forgery
of a bill for 7,000 f. was rather a praiseworthy act than
otherwise. Another of the pprruinnccripal personages in the
drama, one Sir Richard Effealie, who was a banker,
also in a period of difficulty was made to ap-
propriate the securities of his customers to relieve
the difficulties in which the bank was paced,
and this mu was in the result created • peer,
and • letter suffered to be written by the Prime
Minister was introduced into the novel, representing that
her Majesty had been pleased to select him for this dignity,
as • swami mark of her approval of )whigh honour and
integrity. (Laughter.) The learned counsel then pro-
ceeded to state that in another portion of the work one of
the learned judges was introduced, or I,:stlArsatstged into
u the narrative, for no other purpose, it to him,
than to make the utterly false and gro representa-
tion concerning him, that he had stated that it was better
that ten innocent men should be convicted than that one
Luaity man should escape, and that, in the exercise of his
judicial functions, he always acted upon that principle.
e then referred to another portion of the work in ques-
tion, in which a reverend bishop, • friend of Sir Richard
Mali., was represented as having • desire to proselyties
the latter, who was a nonconformist, while supposed
to be on his deathbed from an accident, and to have
almost forced himself into the dying man's room for that
purpose, notwithstanding the physician, • gentleman still
living, having told him that he considered it, according to
the ex on of the author, " a intrusion " that he
should thrust his religious notions upon the dying man at
such a moment. The learned counsel cited several other
in the work with the view, as he said, of showing
I= IC
object of the writer was to insult and vilify every
religious sect, and he also called the attention of the jury
to an observation that was made by one of the personages
in the novel, " that he intended to treat his beloved caroms
to the delicacy of a bloater foe breakfast." (Laughter.)
He was proceeding to refer to other portions of the
novel, and to argue that the article complained of was no-
thing more than the expression of a fair and honest
opinion of • work of such a character, when
Serjeant Ballentine interposed, and said that he had
referred to the extracts from the plaintiff's work that had
been read by his learned friend—he had not read the book
himself, and he was desirous of knowing what portions of
the novel were relied upon sa • justification for the alleged
libel—but after hearing those extracts, he felt that he
should not be doing justice to his own feelings, or to the
profession to which he belonged, if he kept up the ease for
the Naintiff any longer.
Hawkins mid that although he had not the slighted
doubt as to what would be the ultimate result if the case
had gone to the jury, and that in any use the result, so
far as the question of costs was concerned, would be the
same, be had no objection to the matter being terminated at
this stage by the withdrawal of a juror. At the same
time he thought it right on behalf of the defendants to
_ _

state that 'not a angle syllable of the alleged libel
was withdrawn, and he considered himself perfectly jueti-
fied in making the observations he had done upon this
work. He had only read a portion of it, and if the case
had gone on, he believed the jury and every one in
court would have been shocked at the indelicacy of other
portions of this novel which it would have been his duty
to have laid before them.

Chief Justice Brie said it was not his =tom to express
an opinion upon any matter that came before him until he
had heard all that was to be said on both sick', but au the
present occasion he thought he might say that enough bad
• to justify him in saying that it appeared to him
ilerjeant Ballantine bad given very sound advice to his
client when he recommended him nottoproosedany further
with the inquiry.
A juror was them withdrawn.

Tin Common Lew Ormora.—The various offices
of the common law courts will be re-opened to-day after
the Raster reams. On Monday the Chancery vacation will
terminate in preparation for the approaching Easter term.
THE Hneurn or LONDON.—It appears from the
return issued by authority of the -General that
in the week that ended on Saturday, h 31st, the births
registered in London and twelve other large towns of the
United Kingdom were 4,649 ; the deaths registered 3,722.
The annual rate of mortality was 32 per 1,000 persoos
living. In London the births of 1,082 boys and 1,086 girls,
in all 2,107 children, were registered in the week. In the
corresponding weeks of ten years 1856-66 the average
I number, corrected for increase of population, was 2,191.
The deaths regietered in London during the week were
1,582. It was the thirteenth week of the year ; and the
average number of deaths for that week is, with a emu*.
' don for increase of population, 1,576. The actual mer-
Laity of last week agreed very closely with the amount
calculated for the last week of Mareb. Since the deaths rose
above 1,800 in the first week of March, they have shown a
constant weekly decrease. Fatal cum of bronchitis have
declined to 197, the corrected average being 184 ; those of
pneumonia to 85, the average being 110. There were 16
deaths from smallpox, 40 from measles 30 from scarlatina,
10 from dipbthena, 18 from croup, 76 from whoopings
cough, 71 from typhus, 18 from diarrhoea. Five children
died of measles in the Islington West sub-district, and
Eve from the same complaint in the sub-district of St.
John Westminster. Mr. Watts, the registrar of Islington
West subdistrict, states that between the 22nd and 30th
March 32 deaths occurred in the London Fever Hospital,
27 of which were from typhu. A man, unknown, aged
66 years, died on 26th March in St. Giles' Workhouse,
from " effusion of serum on the brain acicalerated by
want." (Inquest.) A boy, aged 11 months, in Short's-
was killed by swallowing a darning needle, which
rdgdeedne in the right bronchia and perforated the heart.
The following 7 deaths were registered in the week as
having been caused by carriage accidents :--A bootmaker,
aged r 6 years, knocked down by a cab in Bloomsbury-
sheet ; died on 12th March in St. James's workhouse.
The wife of a greengrocer, aged 59 years, fell out of a cart;
died an 22nd Match at 21, High Shadwell. •
college-keeper, aged 61 years knocked by • cab.
•hons ; died on 70th March in Weehninster Hospital. The
widow of a akin-dresser, aged 58 years, run ever by a
Hanson eab ; died on 18th March in the Middlesex Hew
Phil A brewer, aged 66 yams, run over ; died on list
March at 1, Northman* , Hethiml.lineen. An nil and
=refiner. aged 80 years, by the upsetting of a cart;
o n Ffth March lb the London Hospital. The son of
a labourer, aged + years, ha from a cart in Thai:dee-
*est ; died on 23rd March at 34, Preeeehootatreat,
ntweedydrerr.
GIILT NORMS/Alf HOIRTIAL, CALEDONIAN-7pLN
niUNGTON, N.—Ntunter et patients fee the wash ardi*
March 31, 1,075, of which 239 were new cases.