The Express.
London, England, 1866-04-09 00:00:00

AMIZE INTELLIGENCE.

NORTHERN ClRClllT.—laysapom. APRIL 7. ;
Null Pima Courr.—(Before Mr. Justice 'Lash and a
Special Jury.)
run= V. TIM GRIN! WRIITICRN RAILWAY coarrairr. 1,
George Perelle was the plaintiff, and the action was
brought to recover compensation for injuries received by
him tthrough the defendants' carelessness while travelling
over their line of railway.
The Attorney-General, Mr. Holker, and Mr. Robins were
for the plaintiff ; Mr. Brett, Q.C., Mr. lilndmazch, Q.C.,
and Mr. Bristow for the defendants.
In defence, it was urged that the defendants did not
ensure the public against accidents on their line. All they
had to do was to use fair and reasonable precaution in the
course of their buiiness. It was not denied that they
must take very considerable care in order to protect the
public ; but there were things beyond reason
which they could not be expected to do. If
they take ordinary and reasonable care, that was
all that could be expected from them, and all that the
law required, and if beyond that rule an accident hap-
pened they were not liable for the consequences. Two
faults had been attributed to the defendants, one in re-
gard to the faulty construction of the axles. With re-
gard to the first point, the question was whether the mode
of construction adopted by the defendants wee unreason-
ably dangerous, and not whether there were others in
existence which they did not use. The mode of construc-
tion in question had for years been in successful operation.
With regard to the question of examination, it was con-
tended that there was no evidence of neglect on the part
of the defendants. It appeared that the engine in question
was one of a set of six manufactured sixteen years ego, and
which had worked well until within the last two years,
during which three accidents had happened in a similar
way to that tinder consideration. Since the accident axles
of another construction, and a quarter of an inch thicker,
had been adopted by the company. One witness said
i that with respect to the quotation of examination it
depended on the weight of the engines whether they
were used for 12 or 18 months without an inspection of
, the axlee, unless an accident happened to them, or some
' other occurrence which drew particular attention to the

tyres.
In summing up the Attorney-(laves' contended that the
defendants had used an engine of a construction which they
knew to be fa after repeated warnings, and that
both in this me and in regard to the inspaticei of the
they been culpably negligent.
mains
returned a verdict for the plaintiff--damages
1,6001.

WESTERN crßourr.—Balirror., Aram 7.
(Beton Mr. Baron ChannellL)
YOWLER V. THa 011 AT WISTNIS AMWAY.
Mr. Coleridge, Q.C., and He. Prideaux, were for the
plaintiff ; and Mr. Kerslake, Q.C., and Mr. Hunt, for the
defendants.
The trial of the action occupied considerable propor-
tions of Friday and Saturday.
Mr. Coleridge, in stating the cue for the plaintiff, said
the action, es they would have gathered from the plead-
ings, was brought to recover sompenestion from the de-
fendsusts, the Great Western Railway Company, for an
accident which took place under very 'mutable circum-
stances near Keynsham, and about 7 miles from Bristol, in
the month of June, 1865. The pleintiff, Mr. Bristol,
•
•
brush maker and general dealer in fancy goods, carrying on
business in CastUetreet, Bristol, and he was about
34 years of age, and had serried on his business
with considerable success for many years. On the 6th
of June last year, he went to London, and bought stock
to the amount of between 6001. and 7001., and on the
evening in question he was coming home by the 8.19 p.m.
train, and they came well enough and feet enough down
to Swindon. 'They had passed Saltford station, and were
within seven or eight miles of Bristol, when the driver of
one of the two pines thought he felt • shock, which
caused them to up the train to examine the engine.
It was a dark an misty night, and the engine-driver got
off and began to look at the engine, and tbst took some
time. What was dialed the mail train from London
carried passengers, bat not mails, and the letters
followed by • train which was devoted exclu-
sively to them about ten minutes or a quarter cf en
hour afterwards. This train many of the passengers were
aware was at hand, and the plaintiff knew or suspected
that the mail train was close upon the heels of the other.
He begged the guard to open the door and let them out
—for he mart tell them that the doors were locked, and
that despite the correspondence which raged on the subject
20 years ago, and was originated by Sydney Smith, the
defendants persisted in going on in the same way look-
ing up their doors, and keeping the people in like a peck
of wild beasts. Mr. Vendee was particularly anxious to
get out, and he begged the guard to release him. The
guard, however, was obdurate. But be found no fault with
the guard ; the fault lay with the directors, who really by
this time ought to know better. The plaintiff stayed in
the train, and the mail train came along end dashed in
upon it, as it was 'tending in that way, and a fearful
accident followed. At the end of the train was a &st-
eles& carriage, one of the occupants of which fortunately
had a key, and the passengers of that carriage got out upon
the side of the railway ; and it was fortunate that they did
so, for that carriage wee doubled up and smashed to bits.
Mr. Vowles was in a wnsge • little further on, end he
was very much hurt ; his leg was broken, and he was
knocked about frightfully. After the accident he was
taken out of the and put upon the side of the rail-
way, end wee afterw taken to the George Hotel, Narrow
Wine-street, and was there attended by a surgeon of the
name of Humpage, his own medical attendant, and there
was no dispute, he believed, that the bone bad been ex-
ceedingly well set. It was about nine days before he could
be moved at all. He was then taken home, end on the
30th of August there was an examination made
of him, and it was found that the injury he
had sustained was much more serious than was
at first apprehended, and that they were not merely local
and physical, but that there was that constitutional de-
rangement which so often happened as the result of railway
accidents. Instead of getting better, the plaintiff got ma-
urially worse, and on the 12th of September Dr. Green
was called in ; and they would have his account of the
state he found him in. On the 29th of December, Dr.
Green, Dr. Pritchard, Mr. Humpage, and Mr. Barrett,
saw him together, and the result of that exemination was,
that though the cue was an exceedingly serious one in-
deed there were hopes of recovery, but that it was also
possible, and even probable, that he would get worse and
worse, and that the era would end, as many of those
cases had ended, in miserable uselessness, and eventually
in death. He bad now got a great deal worse, and it
was excessively likely that parelytis would come on, and
that he would be rendered unless for the remainder of Maraud
he, a young man, doing • good Mildness, would be ruined in
circumstances and in body. The plaintiff's business, which
had been a steadily increasing business up to that time,
had since continued to fall off. The company did not dis-
pute their liability, but had paid a most singular sum into
court—they had paid in 1021. IN. But what their notion
was by ying that sum into court he did not know, as the
p • • had incurred three times that amount in medical
and other expenses. It would be for a British jury to say
whether that was a sufficient compensation.
No witnesses were smiled for the defence.
The jury returned • verdict for the plaintiff—damages
6001., in addition to the 1021. 10s. paid into court.

SHOCKING ACClDENT.—Yesterday afternoon a
frightful accident oocured on the ItottiNdean Cliffs,
near Brighton, to • gentleman named William Willett.
During the afternoon the unfortunate gentleman left his
residence, accompanied by his son CNtries, a surgeon,
both being on horseback. They had proceeded some dis-
tance along the green sward surrounding those lofty and
well-known cliffs, and were returning towards Brightoa,
when the home which Mr. William Willett was riding
shied at something unobservable to ita rider. This was re-
peated • second tune, and the rider endeavoured to check
the animal, but in vain, for the horse shied again, and swerv-
ing towards the edge of the cliff, was precipitated with its
rider on to the beach below, falling from • height of about
sixty feet. A coastguardsman, stationed near the toll-
gate where the sad catastrophe took place, witnessed the
accident, and startled by the dreadful fall, immediately
ran down to the beach. Both horse and rider were
found dead. The deceased was the proprietor of the Bock
Brewery.
HYDROPHOBIA. —A fatal

of the bite

of • dog has occurred near Manchester. In August last
Mr. Charles Budd, a cleric employed at the Manchester
and Liverpool District Bank, King-street branch. Man-
chester, was bitten by one of his own dogs, • bull terrier,
which, u it had exhibited signs of madness, he was about
to shoot ; but before he could do so it Sew at him and in- '
dieted a wound on the leg. He continued at his business
up to Monday last without any alarming 'symptoms being
developed, but on that day he complainedof a straw feel-
ing, and on asking a drink of water from the housekeeper,
he found be could not swallow. On arriving at his home in
Withingtou the same evening, he experienoed equal &R-
-ealty in seallo411: of porter whit& was edema to
him, though stiff from inters third, mud all the in-
dication' of supervened. Re grew
rapidly worse, and on Vallscineetiay Mght, with all the
dreadful symptoms attendant on dropia, the of of
the bite.—ifenibeelsr Courier.