The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-02-04 00:00:00

purposes

--4.---

THE WENSLEYDALE PEERAGE

—The creation of a peer-
age for life, in the person of Baron Parke—now Lord
Wensleydale—has caused some small grumbling in one or
two journals devoted to the dignity of the British peerage.
It has now assumed a higher importance from the debates
in Parliament, and still more from the fact that the astute
veteran law lord—Lyndhurst—has given notice of a formal
motion on the subject. We do not know the ground
which the learned lord means to take, hut we have reason
to know that the government mean to defend this act.
That it is a perfectly legal exercise of the royal preroga-
tive nobody pretends to doubt. The question of its expe-
diency is all that remains. No doubt the peerage conferred
upon Baron Parke might have been made out in general
terms, without the limitation to life, as was that of Lord
Lyndhurst, Lord Truro, and others. Baron Parke—like
Lord Lyndhurst—has no male issue, and even if the peer-
age was continued to the heirs male of his body, there
would be none to inherit it. It is confessed to be desirable
to strengthen the legal staff in the House of Lords ; and
it will, probably, be strengthened from time to time by
the elevation of some one or two of the best lawyers at
the time—not in batches, as it has been somewhat injudi-
eicius"y
r successiono
g a t i
v e ca
e uo f
enent eodt pauper Surelypeerages.
this course better than iaundating their house with a
The limitation of a pre-
by any ingenuity be be strained into an
abuse of its legal exercise.—

CHARTERS OF INCORPORATION. It e
Gazette that the Rochdale and Stalebr
the grant of a charter of incorporatiYoniidtogneoetificehteidtoiofinntsh theofoser
boroughs will be considered in the Privy Council to be
held on the 6th of March.
Captain Bell, late commander of the St. Abbs, of
London, has been committed for trial at the Mauritius,
on the twofold charge of losing his ship with negligence
and that of manslaughter, twenty-two persons having
perished. The estimated loss of property was £120,000.
THE BELFAST MAYORALTY.--At the last meeting of the
Belfast town council, a letter was read from Captain Thomas
Verner, mayor of Belfast, from the camp at Aldershott,
thanking the council for their vote of thanks passed at the
late meeting ; and resigning the office of mayor of the
borough, the duties incumbent on which he could not
discharge owing to his military duties.
FRAUD AND PERJURY.—A case disclosing gross fraud and
perjury was heard at the Salford police court an Friday. It
appeared that on the 16th ultimo an action, "Roberta v.
Hunt and another," was tried at the Salford Court of
Record. The plaintiff, a joiner and draughtsman, claimed
£45 as the value of a chest of tools which had been seized
by the second defendant for arrears of rent due to Hunt.
The defencelwas, that the box did not contain what was
represented, but an old plane, tvo gauges. two plane irons,
an old baker's bread tin, half filled with sand, a stone, and
about a dozen bricks. The verdict was for the defendants.
On Friday Roberts was charged with having committed wil-
ful and corrupt perjury. Mr. William Storr, reporter, pro-
duced and swore to a verbatim report of the evidence of
Roberts at the trial, from which it appeared that Roberts
swore that the box contained tools for which he would not
have taken £5O, and that it did not contain the articles
named. The evidence given on the trial for the defendants
was now adduced in
aslutaphfptoeourwrgt of the charge of perjury; and
itatni
time
of
fapttrboaev
short
thatseizure,
time
Roberts refused to open the box, at the
although bad
whenth theek loeyienk hie
was picked in an adjoining ho a
,it contained pocket,
mboosxt
worthless articles enumerated: ot
bf ot haei
At the trial Roberts called
one witness, a man named Walker, who said that he went
into the plaintiff's house a shortrli
and saw the 'cheat filled with tools, of
before the seizure,
inventory and valuation, though hea :ad
which he made an
doing so. But Walker was not now calledl no object in
Roberts, who was proved to,have pledged a on behalf of
of' tools prior to the seizure, which, also, in his
le quantity
denied. No defence was offered ; and Mr. Trafford
he
Mr. Ross committed the prisoner for trial at rthrenrd and
and
Mr. Trafford remarking that this was one of the grout
cases of fraud and perjury that had come before
him for
some time.