The Express.
London, England, 1867-05-10 00:00:00

tafin Estlelitgercte.

97e a

COURT OF QUEEN'S BENOR.—M.tv
Sitting, in Banoo.—(Before the Lord Chief Justice and
Mr. Justice Shee.)
rte. QUCIC V. BIGGAB AND WILLIAMS.

Mr. Coleridge, Q.C., moved for a rule calling upon Mr.
Robert Biggar, the printer and publisher of the Railway
riIN,. and Mr. S. D; Williams, the writer of a letter
which :,peired in that paper on the Rind March last, to
chow Laum why a criminal information should not be
filed against them for libel. He moved, on behalf of Mr.
F. Russell, M.P., and certain other gentlemen, directors of
the Dublin Trunk Connecting Railway. In 1864, after an
expensive contest, the promoters of this line obtained
their bill, and certain arrangements of a financial charac-
ter were made. Mr. Moosell, was at the commence-
ment of the undertaking chairman of the company, but in
1866, becoming connected with the government of the
day, Mr. Slomell resigned, and Mr. Rumen became
the chairman. The company afterwards got into
difficulties, and in 1866, which turned out to
be a bad financial year, the directors, still
believing it to be a good and sound undertak-
ing, and being unwilling to have the company wound
up, consented to an inquiry being made into its position
by the shareholders. On the :ilst January, 1867, a meeting
was held, and a committee of investigation was appointed.
The committee sat, and was assisted by the directors,
and the committee drew up a report as to the financial
position of the company. The directors, still entertaining
their belief in the soundness of the undertaking, entered
into an arrangement with the commfttee by which they
undertook, in the event of the report not being published,
to accept the shares of such shareholders as were ready to
transfer them to them, together with their liabilities. That
was assented to by the committee, and they recommended
its adoption by the shareholders. It afterwards turned
out that Mr. Lloyd, the eminent barrister, gave an opinion
that the undertaking was illegal, and could not be carried
out, and the consequence was, the directors informed the
committee they could not fulfil their engagement. These
circumstances gave rise to the letter in question. The
letter was published in the Rail:son Times of March RI,
and to it the editor appended the following note :—" We
insert this letter, strongly worded as it is, in the belief
that our correspondent is not merely sincere in his oppo-
sition, but well instructed in the causes that have led to
it. He cannot be ignorant of the position in which he
places this journal by the extreme pointedness of his re-
marks, in respect to which we shall be happy to insert
any refutation or explanation from the directors with
which we may be favoured." The letter was signed by
Mr. Williams, one of the members of the committee of in-
vestigation. This letter extended over two columns of the
paper ; and after alluding to the past and present posi-
tion of the company stated, with reference to the interest
of the directors, that " out of 500 shares " which they
held " 325 are what are called paid-up shares, no money
having been paid upon them." "Of the directors.
two had been promoters—one is manager at
1,0001. a year—so that what with directors' fees,
manager's salary, premiums or advances, premiums
as guarantors, the directors taking them in a lump have
pocketed 1,0001. of the company's funds. Their stake in
the scheme is of St negative quantity, somewhere between
5,0001. and 10,000/., or, to put the matter in another
light, their stake in the concern is that they have drawn
between 5,0001. and 10,0001. out of it." The letter also
stated —" On the day after the agreement was concluded
this bill of the Dublin Trunk Connecting for extension of
time was introduced into the House of Commons ; it was
read a first time on the day following I believe ; and it
was not till the evening of the last day on which petitions
against this mine bill could be received that this repudia-
tion circular was issued." The affidavits of the directors,
and especially that of Mr. Rumen's, stated that they
had not drawn anything out of the company.
The court stopped the learned counsel, and stated that
as the writer impaled downright fraud, the learned counsel
could take a rule.
I Rule granted.

1043

97

8616

104-
104/ 1

180 5

I 1 013-16

21 13-16

zd
-. do
lit

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT.

(Before Mr. Justice Blackburn.)

The trial of the prisoner Stephen Samuel Wales for felo-
niously and maliciously setting fire to his dwelling-house
with intent to defraud the Western Fire Insurance Com-
pany of 950 f., was resumed yesterday, at 10 o'clock,
before Mr. Justice Blackburn.
The jury retired at a quarter to five o'clock to consider
their verdict, and returned into court in about three quar-
ters of an hour and found the prisoner Chnlty.
The learned judge, in passing sentence, said that the
prisoner had been convicted upon evidence which had
satisfied the jury, and which certainly would have satisfied
him of the offence of wilfully setting fire to his dwelling-
house with intent to defraud the insuranoe compeer. It
was not only a very serious offence in itself, but it was
perfectly clear that those who were guilty of it were per-
fectly prepared to carry out their crime by systematic per-
jury. Under these circumstances, the least that he could
do was to sentence him to be kept in penal servitude for
10 years. _ _ _