The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-12-22 00:00:00

Evidence in support of the defendants' case was about to
be tendered when

The jury asked if it was necessary that it should be
proceeded with ? Even assuming the defendants should
prove the whole case as opened by their counsel, they were
unanimously of opinion that it was no answer to the
action.

Some conversation ensued upon this, and ultimately a
verdict was returned for the plaintiffs, for such damages as
they should prove upon reference they had sustained by Lee's
defalcations.
Verdict for the plaintiffs.

The Submarine European Telegraph Companies have
opened offices in Chatham and Canterbury.
An inquest was held in Manchester, on „Monday, on the
body of Judith Barker, aged 8,5, who died from a fall, in
which her head came in contact with an iron holdfast. On
the same day, an inquest was held, touching the death of
Mary Clemenson, Ancoat-street. She had been ill for a
fortnight, and on the morning of her death, the evidence
showed that her husband said to the deceased, " Give me
my money. " The deceased said she had not any money.
The husband had not been sober for three weeks, and the
previous night he went to bed drunk. With an oath be
told the deceased that he would knock her two eyes into one,
And then the niece heard the blows. The brute then went
and got drunk, having got 19s. from the niece. At ten
o'clock in the morning she died. The doctor, however,
deposed that the woman was not injured by the brows, but
died of asthma. Verdict accordingly.
THE ST. JOHN'S N. B. AND LIVERPOOL LINE OF
PACKETS :—The St. John's Freeman, in reference to this
well-appointed line of packets, says :—lt is gratifying to be
able to say that, since the establishment of the St. John's
line of packets, about twelve months since, not a single
death has occurred on the passame. This fact speaks
volumes in favour of the line, and should be universally
known. It is also a singular fact, and one that all shippers,
importers, and insurance agents should be aware of, that
since the establishment of the line not a single claim for
made,insl- r
fe
we goods
except broughttilat foOrn gthbrteebyh
otrhseessobveelssoneglsinhgastobethene
province. The Eudocia had a most boisterous passage,
several vessels having been lost at the time, yet not even on the goods brought by her was a single claim made. The
Imperial brought goods to the value of £lOO,OOO, on which
the underwriters had not to pay a dollar. Importers may
fairly expect, under these circumstances, to have merchandise
importen by these vessels insured at a very low rate.
THE FIRE ANNIHILATOR.—On Saturday, at about twelve
o'clock at noon, a fire occurred upon the premises of Mr.
Thomas Gould, coach builder, Princess-street; Gravesend.
Mr. White, the superintendent of police, who has charge of
the annihilators, together with Mr. Aitkin, the serjeant-at-
mace, immediately proceeded there with the annihilators. On
their arrival they found that the fire was raging in an up-
stairs bedroom, which appeared to be full of flames. When
Mr. White entered the house and proceeded up stairs he
found that the fire had just burnt through the wainscot of
the room, and the flames were just spreading across the
landing to the rooms on the opposite side of the staircase;
it was utterly impossible to get into the room, and so he,
with Mr. Aitkin, discharged one of the No. 5 twenty-two
pound annihilators through a hole in the wainscot. Almost
immediately that the annihilating atmosphere entered the
room, the flames, as if by magic, dropped, and in about
three minutes Mr. White and Mr. Aitkin were enabled to
enter'the room. When the fire was got under it was clis-
covered that in addition to the 'room having been on fire all
round, the flame had burnt through the ceiling and commu
nicated the fire to the roof of the bullding.—lrentish luck
pendent, Dec. 17.

EXTRAORDINARY NEWS FROM AUSTRALIA.—The following
extraordinary intelligence is contained in a letter received by
Mr. Joseph Abraham, of Bristol, from a relative in Hobart
Town, and kindly handed•to us by the former gentleman.
For really startling intelligence it beats every thing that
has yet reached us from the golden land. Mr. Abraham,
from the personal knowledge which he has of his relative,
knows he would not impose upon others,and does not believe
he is likely to be imposed upon himself. If, therefore, the
account be true, well might the writer say, " Goodness only
knows where all this will end !" Some conjectures have
been recently ventured that the auriferous yield, which was
apparently lessening, had seen its best days; but, if the in-
telligence contained in the subjoined letter be true, we are
now only coming to a genuine deposit. Well may it be
called a " quarry of gold," if 18,000founces have been taken
out in three days by a few persons :—" Hobart Town, Sept.
8, 1853.—Knowing how deeply interesting any news respect-
ing Australia must be to you, I write to inform you of a
great discovery that has again been made on the
Geelong side, about 56 miles from the town.
They have been digging very deep, and have come
on a table of gold about 100 feet from the surface, appa-
rently inexhaustible. All I can tell you respecting it is
that the people's minds are partly turned from the immense
discovery. Every tubfull of earth they raise from these
holes coutaira pounds weight of gold. Tho more they dig
the more inexhaustible it appears. At Geelong a tumult
has broken out among the diggers. The government has
sent up all the military to quell the disturbances, and the
marines of Her Majesty's ship Electra are mounting guard
at the Treasury, and the sailors of the above steamer of war
mount sentry at the banks. The military from Van Die-
men's Land are about to be dispatched to Melbourne to aid
the military already there. Goodness only knows how all
this will end !—Hobart Town, Sept. 5. By the steamer
from Geelong this day I find that a gold quarry has been
discovered near Geelong, 100 to 130 feet from the surface of
the earth, putting all other diggings in the shade ; 18,000
ounces have been taken out in three days by a few persons,
and'one person has got a lump weighing 190 pounds in one
solid piece. This is no exaggeration, and the greatest ex-
citement prevails."—Bristol Journal.

CHRISTMAS DAY IN GOVERNMHNT OFFrczs.--Lord Pal-
merston will probably not be much regretted in government
Offices, which are singularly forgetful of political virtues, and
wonderfully addicted to personal convenience. Before the
noble lord retired from office, in answer to an inquiry from the
the ,lord mayor of London, as to whether the 26th would be
observed by government in the manner adapted to public ex-
pectation. The folowing was the characteristic reply through
his lordship's secretary, Mr. Waddington :—I am to state that,
as regards the city cf London, the question is one as to which
the feelings and opinions of the Mercantile body 'would pro-
bably have a main influence on
.:your lordshiP's decision.
tirith respect to the public offices of the government, when
Christmas day falls upon a week-day if is made a holyday, in
order to enable persons employed in those departments to at-
tend to the religious observances belonging to that day ; but, as
in the present year, tlese observances will have been duly at-
tended to on the Bunday, the 25th, there does not ap-
pear to Lord Palmerston to be any good reason why
the public service of the country, should be stayed and im-
peded by a holyday in tie government offices on Monday, the
26th of December, whet there will be no religious observances
to attend to.

MORE MARYLEBONE.—A vestry meet-
ing was held in this parisi, on Tuesday eveniug, when it was
proposed to contribute £lOOO from the parish funds towards
the construction of the ney churches about to be erected there.
amendment was mover by Sir Joshua Walmilej, .M.P.,
but was lost on a division ly 20 to 3.

and Co., as soon as you draw on them for an amount on
four months they draw on us for the same amount at three
months, thus making us advance the cash lone,a before we get
the goods to be sold. If you were our agent we could draw
on you at 90 days to meet those drafts, and thus make the
time six instead of three months. This we might do on our
own house in London, but, as wehave stated, it is not so easy
to negociate our bills. This holds good even with Harnden
and Co's bills on England." Now, this and other corres-
pondence to the like effect, which would be read, took place
before the proposal for the policy, and it, therefore, plainly
appeared that the plaintiffs contemplated what they de-
scribed as a " kiting business ;" that they knew the credit
of Harnden and Co. was not good in the market, and, more-
over, at this very time, they had transmitted six blank bills
to Lee, in London. On the 23d of November, Lee wrote to
the plaintiffs, " When once well started, I feel convinced
that all would go on swimmingly. As, however, much, if
not all, depends upon the starting, I think it desirable to
open an account with the bankers here as respectably as
possible, and less than 1,0001. would not do. In the com-
mencement it would also be advisable to send me a few bills,
drawn by you, leaving me to fill up the names and the
amounts, so that I might make any arrangements with par-
ties against bills of lading." This suggestion was adopted
by the plaintiff's; but it was important the jury should un-
derstand the question was not the amount of the bills, or the
amount that Lee had misappropriated, but the character of
the business contemplated between the plaintiffs and Lee,
beft:re the policy was effected ; because if it was out of the
ordinary course, and attended with more than ordinary risk,
it was the plaintiffs' duty to have informed the defendants
of it, and as they had not done so, they had been guilty of a
legal fraud,—which justly vitiated their policy. With re-
ference to Harnden and Co., he -would show that the plain-
tiffs knew before the policy was effected that their credit
was not good; for on the 11th January, 1850; they wrote to
Lee :—" We regret exceedingly to be obliged to inform you
that the information obtained by those parties (Overend
and Gurney) as to, the standing of Hamden and Co., was
not favourable enough for them to discount the bill." On
April 26th Lee wrote, " You must keep in view that if this
house does a larzebusiness,hat then we shall be able to get a
monied partner—or, what is better, we shall have the money
of the public at our command, like Rothschild and Baring.
Large houses may do what in young houses would be termed
svvindling—draw upon themselves." And this letter, which
characterised their proceedings by an apter term than he was
willing to use, was replied to on 7th June, without "repu-
diation," Having read some further extracts of a similar
character, the learned counsel said he might have taken a'
partial view of the matter ; but he confessed that it ap-
peared to him that it was not reasonable to expect the
defendants would have entered into the policy if the plain-
tiffs' mode of conducting business with .their agent had
been made known to them; that the withholding that
knowledge was a fraudulent suppression of important facts
by the plaintiff's; and this being so, that it was the duty
of the defendants not to pay the sum claimed in the
policy until the matter had been fully investigated before
a jury.