The Express.
London, England, 1861-02-07 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, THUESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 7, 1861.

UNIVERSITY INTELLIGENCE:

OXFORD, FEE. G.
DLtTH or Dk. BANUISRL, LATE IiUDLIIAN LI-
DRAWS. --We regret So announce the death of the Hey.
Deßaley Randinel. D.D.. of New College, for nearly
"tY yearn 11,11,:.,a lii:rrrLin (which i,ttice it will remeni.
tering he re.ign...4 at Mich.ielmat hut, when convocation
onniunsoualt toted Itint a i. u ion of -MY. a•vaar for hie 14,14
nod %alembic aervical. who expired at his residence in
R..auawt•tß..t this Atclll.,ll. lir. /Lumbar' at the tine
.4 hietkethuteuriod the rice 11.113 of lieughtou-le-skerue,
IPurbos, worth fir.itrou the Bishop of Durheiot, to
which be wa, ine.eatral 1,421. The Jammed trovealcd
bis degrees follows :—B.A., Ithra ; M.A., 180 i ; liD.,
le14; D.D., 182 t; inuetor,

CAMBRIDGE, FEEL

l'llo/1,00‘)NAI. EXAXIXATION IX COMPARATIVE AN.t.
TOUT WTTH ZOOLOGT. —Barrett, Trinity College; Bishop,
Christ's 11.701k0.
MAGUALLX Couxor..—Str. John Bond, 8.A., wood
wr•agier, and weuall Smith'. prize:tool, Heil, and Mr.
Photos Patttick, IRA., eighth wrAeghr. tB.I, members of
this eocietl. hare been eleeted fellow,. The ooderniem-
tiumed have hem elected tlf : E. H. Drsix.r,
from Shrewsbury &hoof, to the 3111hugton scholarship of
o.V, par siteurn. J. M. Ilevvratigg, Eton College, nod L. T.
Vibe, of leliEgton Proprietary Bch.)el, to open tichultirships
:Alf. etch.

l'Nteetsin• Or DURHAM. —An examination for
two sebetaxM f 1.., each of the annual value of 301., end
t.•naWe foe three yews. will coauheure 0.0 WodneedAy,
27. Three scholarships are opcn to zdi persons nut nireatly
',oasts of the universitv.

tabu inttiliglltt.

1t this stage of the proceedings the further hearing
was adjourned. his lordship having to attend in the House
of lords to hear the Queen's speech.

FEL 6.

The hearing of this case was resumed this morning.
The plaintiff. in continuation, said that he employed a
man who turned out to he Jem Dillon, a pugilist—(laugh.
ter)—and sir other men were engaged by a friend to re-
move the officers of the Society for the Suppression of Vice
from his shop. He could not get better men to deal with
such rasuils. (Continued laughter.) They were told they
were to remove the men in posaeasion, not by turning them
out " neck and crop." hut with the greatest tenderness.
(Renewed laughter.)
Re-examined—He had previously been to Mr. Hall, the
police magistrate, who said the police could not interfere,
and that witness must protect himself.
Some other evidence was also given am to its having been the
custom of the society's agent to sell spiritualistic works, and
as to the propriety of the plaintiff doing so.
Mr. Seileant Slice submitted that there must be is sun-
suit, inasmuch oa the plaintiff had no property in the pre.
niises, and therefore there was no evidence for the jury upon
the plea of " not possessed." As to the goods of the plain.
tiff which were upon the premises there was no evidence
that the defendants had converted them to their own use,
and there had been no demand of them by the plaintiff. If
the plaintiff had any ground of complaint at all, his action
should have been for damages for wrongful dismissal.
The Lord Chief Justice said he was of opinion that the
plaintiff bad made out no case to go to the jury.
A nonsuit was accordingly entered.
HARRISON r. NICOLL.-7ALBg IXPRISONMENT.

This was an action to recover damages for false imprison-
ment and malicious prosecution, and the matter arose out
of circumstances which have been already placed before the
public.
Mr. Digby Seymour, Mr. Pbear, and Mr. Butler Rigby
appeared for the plaintiff ; and Mr. Edwin James, Mr. tier-
jeant Pigott, and Mr. Hopwood for the defendant
It was stated that the plaintiff was originally educated
for the church, but subsequently became a robe-maker, in
Chancery-lane. In the spring of last year the plaintiff,
having sustained some losses, agreed to transfer his stock
to Messrs. J. and D. Nicoll, clothiers, of Regent-street, and
he also arranged to enter their service as manager of the
robe department. The defendant, Mr. Donald Nicoll, the
late M.P. for Profile, was • member of this firm. On the
20th October Mr. Harrison made up a parcel containing a
quantity of materials cut out for the purpose of being made
up, and the necessary quantity of elk. of ribbon, and of
silver ornaments for the article' intended to be made. A
person, named Armstrong, was foreman in the robe depart- I
Inept, and he had previously been in the employment of
the plaintiff himself in a similar capacity. The plaintiff
sent Armstrong with this parcel to the cloak-room of the
South Western Railway Company, the plaintiff living at
Thames Ditton, sad intending to take it home with him,
that the articles might be made by his wife and daughter.
Armstrong had no sooner left the premises of Messrs.
Nicoll than a messenger was sent after him, and he was
given into custody. A policeman was sent to
the railway station, and he took the plaintiff into
custody. Mr. Donald Nicoll being present, and
charging him with stealing the articles in the
parcel. A policeman was also sent down to the plaintiff's
house at Thames Ditton, where he arrived at 2 in the
morning, and searched the house: but found nothing except
some robes, &c., which were in the course of being
up. This happened on Saturday night, and the plaintiff
was locked up until Monday, when he was taken before •
magistrate, and was ultimately committed for trial, and he
was tried at the Middlesex Sessiens before Mr. Bodkin,
and acquitted.
Evidence was given for the defence to show that the de-
fendant had reasonable and probable cause for suspecting
the plaintiff of dishonesty, and in particular Mr. Nicoll
stated that he would not have allowed the plaintiff to
employ any members of his own family in making up the
tghotr, and be had peremptorily directed that no more
should be made up for stock, as it was said the goods
in question were to be. It was further stated that the
goods when they were sent out to be made up should, in
accordance with the rules of the establishment, have been
entered in a book as going out, which this parcel was not.
Mr. Nicoll had before heard that Armstrong had taken out
wells which could not be traced in the books, and on the
evening in question he seemed to be going out in a suspi-
cious manner, and trying to conceal from witness the parcel
he was carrying. Mr. Nicoll further detailed what took
place with Armstrong and afterwards with the plaintiff, and
mentioned circumstances which excited his suspicion.
The Lord Chief Justice left it to the jury to say whether
the defendant bad reasonable and probable cause for suspect-
ing the plaintiff, end directed them that if they thought he
had, their verdict must be for the defendant.
The jury found a verdict for the plaintiff—damages
300 f. _ . .

The Lord Chief Justice uid he was of opinion that the
defendant bad reasonable and probable cause for suspicion,
and therefore he should enter the verdict for the defendant
upon the count for malicious prosecution.

PIM-IMAM or

Lord Eafie:d, who had been summoned upon a spatial
jury, applied to be releeaed from the performance of that
duty, he being member of parliament fur Middlesex.

The Lord Chief Justice said that the officers of the court
had no authority to remove his lordship's name from the
jury•book ; the parish officers had the duty of making up
the lists, and they did not always take cognisance of the
result of the last election. AU he could do was to relieve
Lord Enfield from further attendance, his duties in the high
court of parliament relieving him from the necessity of at-
tending in any other court.

ELECTRIC AND INTERNATIONAL TELEGRAPH
COMPANY.
--4--

Yesterday the ordinary half-yearly meeting of
this company was bold at the offices in Telegraph-street ;
the Hon. R. GRIMMTONE in the chair.

The report, which has already been published in our
columns, was taken as read.
The CHAIRMAN felt considerable satisfaction in calling
attention to the statement in the first paragraph of the report
which alluded to the gradually progressing receipts of the
company, and that they were enabled to recommend a divi-
dend at the rate of seven per cent. per annum, besides car-
rying over a considerable sum to the trust or renewal fund,
which would now amount to upwards of 35,0001. Large
however as had been the receipts during the past year, and
great as had been the traffic over their wires, those wires
were still capable of doing a largely extended business, so
much so that it had been under the attention of the directors
whether the time had nut arrived when they might give to
the public a further boon, in the shape of a reduced tariff.
They had this fact before them, that all previous reduc-
tions of rates had resulted in increased profits to the company;
at the same time all those reductions had been made
prudently and advisedly, and not upon that principle of
uniformity advocated by those who compared the telegraph
to the peony post. Now, they did not pretend to
compete with the penny post, nor did they mean
to do so. The telegraph was an adjunct of the post-office'
and did work which the post-office could not do for itself.
The peculiarity of the telegraph was that the menage, sent
by it were forwarded singly and delivered immediately by
special messenger, whereas letters forwarded by post were
collected at stated hours, seat on together, and at a fixed
hour distributed to those to whom they were addressed.
Uniformity of charge, therefore, however applicable to the
case of the post-office, did not apply to the telegraph. In
another respect, too, there was just as little reason for that
uniformity of charge which was the favourite theory of
many would-be telegraphic reformers. It was clear that
the price of any article must depend upon the cost of its
production, and it stood to reason that to maintain 600
miles of line must cost ten times as much as to maintain
50 miles. In fact, they spent upon an average 36,000/. •
year in maintenance alone, and it would be preposterous to
say that they ought to deliver for Is. the average
cost of which was 2a. fid. The public would no gainers by
it, for the company must make both ends meet, end that
could only be done by starving the maintenance and re-
ducing the staff, and the inevitable result would be delays
and complaints. The first merchants and traders wanted
nothing of the sort. Whet they required was accuracy and
despatch. They were far too prudent to risk the ship for the
halfpenny-worth of tar. But though au extreme tariff of this
description would be prejudicial to them, and confer no ad-
vantage to the public, he was far from saying that their
present tariff required no revision. The board had goo,
carefully into the question, and though circumstances had
prevented any alteration or interference at present, yet
when the proper time came the directors would be quite
prepared to propose some modification which they believed
would be alike satisfactory to the public and advantageous
to the proprietors. The accounts bad been made out in the
usual manner, anti, with the exception of the item the ex-'
pewee of maintenance, they called for but little comment.
Upon this item they had in the past half-year spent more
than in any previous corresponding period. But their
system hail grown to enormous limits—they had between
6,000 and 7,000 miles of line, 14,000 telegraph posts, and
800,000 insulators ; they had 140 stations, and 3,350 deli-
cate instruments in daily working order. The requirements
of such a system were very great ; the mere pay of the line-
men engaged in working over the lines, replacing defective
insulators, and the finding out and rectifying of small
faults, amounted to no less thee between 9,0001.
and 10,0001. a year, end that was wholly irre-
spective of the labour bestowed upon the heavy works
of renewals and repairs. With regard to maintenance
generally, he would make one remark :—A proprietor of
Lad might, if he pleased, allow his farm building., his
fences and his gates, to go out of repair and leave the
=thoroughly out of order, and the Mam e would re.
,t but, in a property like that of this company, the mo-
meat the works got out of order, the il/001210 ceased. They
had, therefore, an income of 210,0001. • year spending upon
maintenance ; and whoever might have the administration
of the company, he trusted they would bear in mind this
great principle, that it was no real economy to neglect the
efficiency of their works.
The resolution having been seconded was put and carried
unanimously, and without comment.
The dividend, at the rate of 7 per cent. per annum, was
declared, and the directors and auditor retiring by rotation
were re-elected.

A PRopattroa asked why the quotations of the shares of
the company had been within the last two or three days
omitted from the share list, as published in the news-
Pactri
The CHslawari could hardly be expected to account for
the vagaries of the Stock Exchange, but the circumstance
had not escaped the attention of the directors, and on in-
quiry being made they were told that as there was no
stock of the company in the market there could be no
quotation.
Mr. RICARDO, M.P., who bad just entered the room,
asked for explanations as to the increase in the charge for
maintenance, and complained that no corresponding in-
crease of dividend had accompanied the increase of profits
during the past half year. He also took exception to the
practioe of keeping back a portion of the profits each half
year to form a trust fond, which he said was invested in
securities which produced only about 3 per cent., while
they were paying 5 per cent. interest for borrowed money.
He did not see why this 38,003/. which formed the trust
find should not be employed in reducing the debenture
debt or divided amongst the shareholders to invest' as they
thought proper ; and he intimated that ate future meeting
he would move an amendment against the continuance of
any such fund. He further objected that several officers of
the nOCOpany held appointments in other telegraph compa-
nies, urging that it was impossible while they did so that
they could give that attention to the business of this com-
pany which the interests of the shareholders required.
The CHAIRMAN explained that the heavy cost for main-
tenance during the past half year was rendered necessary in
order to repair an error committed during the period that
Mr. Ricardo himself was the chairman of the company,
viz., that of using unseasoned timber for the telegraph
posts. The principle of maintaining a trust fund, which
was simply a depreciation fund to provide for the renewal
of the cables and wires as they required it, had been
affirmed by six distinct general meetings of shareholders,
including the present ; and be believed, if Mr. Ricardo
raised the question with a view to the abandonment of that
principle, be would find himself in a minority of one.
(" Hear, hear," and a laugh.)
Mr. Cooke, Mr. Huish, Mr. Bidder, and Mr. Mark Phil-
lips (directors), added some remarks in corroboration of
the chairman's explanations, but exonerated Mr. Ricardo
from all blame in reference to the unseasoned timber need
for the telegraph posts in the first instance (as did also the
chairman), adding that all the members of the board were
equally responsible for the mistake—if, indeed, a mistake it
was to select, while the system was as yet but little more
than an experiment, and their prosperity was problematical,
such materials for the work an, promising efficiency, were the
cheaper. The subject of permitting the officers of the com-
pany to hold appointments in other undertakings was under
the consideration of the hoard.
A vote of thanks to the chairman and his colleagues at
the board concluded the proceedings.