The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-11-06 00:00:00

TIM ES. -LIVERPOOL, THURSDAY.

NORTHERN

BIRKENHEAD COMMISSIONERS.

The u.ual monthly meeting of the Birkenhead Commis-
sioners was held at 7 o'clock, on Tuesday evening, at their
offices, Hamilton Square, Birkenhead. Mr. John Laird,
chairman, in the chair.
0 her members present—Messrs. Willoughby, Bell, Cook,
Bailiff, Baylis, M'Whirter, Harrison, Golbourne, Aspinall,
Hind, Verelst, Bradley, and Parker.
The minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed,
as were also the proceedings of the HealLh, Markets, and
Road-Improvement Committees.

NEW CEMETERY FOR THE TOWNSHIP.
The Chairman called attention to the requisiion, which was
posted through the township, calling a vestry meeting, fur
the purpose of establishing a cemetery, not only for the
township, but for the surrounding districts. He was de-
cidedly eppoed to such an arrangement, and he, theref-re,
brought the question before the Commissioners, in order that
they, as ratepayers, might oppose it in vestry. They had
already land in their own possession for such a purpose and
could easily provide for their own wants.
Mr. Reap concurred with the chairman. He though' it
would be ur.fortunate and unwise if the township. after
having provided land for its own purposes, were now to
assist in establishing an opposition cemetery. 1-1! thoUght,
also, that the time bad come when they should pat them_
selves into a position to deal with their own property,
which was, in a great degree, locked up by the schedule of
the Act of 18.50. They could not sell any portion of it at
the prices which the present market would con-nand, and
he therefore thought they should endeavour to place them-
selves in a position, either to avail themselves of the burial
act, or to treat with other parties who might wish to
establish a cemetery on their land.
Mr. Bradley observed that he signed the requisition,
believing that the Commissioners could do nothing what-
ever in the matter, from the fact that, even if a joint stock
company were to pay the schedule price for the biro', the cost
would be sorne'hing like £28,000. lla should rejoice if
the land could he brought into operation, but he feared
that their present financial posi'ion would not enable them
to deal with it.

I'Whiiter observed, that an opinion was abroad,
that if the ratepayers appointed a beard, they w)uld be
best able to deal with the land. _

Mr. Reny replied, that at present it was competent for
the Commissioners to set a part of their land for the use
of Dissenters and Roman Catholics; and that being the case,
he hoped that the present movement would not be perse•
vered in.
The matter then dropped.

The Finance Committee's proceedings, which were con-
firmed, comprised a resolution of tht, dock bondholdJs,
declaring that it was not expedient to apply to parliament
for the act of laBt session, to effect an arrangement
between them and the commiFsioners.

FERRY COMMITTEE,

The proceedings of this committee were read. They
intimated that the further consideration of opening
Monk's Ferry had been deferred, and the Birkenhead Ferry,
receipts for the past month and quarter had been as
follows : —October, 1856, £2,336 19s 8d ; 1855, £2,567 6s
4d. From the 24th AD•il to 31st October, 1856, £15,992
2s 10d 1855, £15,837 Os Id.
Mr. larrison, in moving the confirmation of the pro-
ceedings, said that there had been an increase of £6OO in
the railway receip,s.
The proceedings were confirmed.

WEST DERBY UNION

The usual weekly meeting of this board of guardians was
held yesterday at the Board-room, Mill-lane. The Rev. Mr.
B idnall presided. The other guardians present were Messrs•
W. Medealf, IL Edwards, Lunt, Morris, Seddeley, Wensley,
Craig, Leyland, Baynes, Harrison, Abrahams, Elias, Evans,
Richmond, Sagar, Maw,l4,y, T. Edwards, E. Walkinson, T.
W. Medealf, Callis, and Whitby.

LORD MAIDSTONE AND THE MONEY

LENDERS,

COURT OF COMMON PLEAS.—Nov. 4

BEFORE JUSTICES CRESSWELT,, CROWDER, AND Wlti,v,4

- ,
MnATER V. LORD M4IDSTONE.—ACtiOR moon a Bill
given in Consideration of a Forged Bill.—This was an
action upon a bill of exchange for £lOOO, drawn by the
Honourable Francis Charles Lavvlev and accepted by
Lord Maidstone; and there was a plea to the effect that
Lord Maidstone had accepted the bill in consideration of
amother bill which he believed to have been accepted by
himself, but which in fact turned out to be a forgery. The
replication stated that the forged bill had been inspected
by Lord Maidstone previous to his accepting the renewed
bill, and he never on that occasion said that it was
a forgery. The case came on for trial at Guildford,
before the Chief Baron, and a verdict was found for the
defendant. Mr. M. Chambers now moved for anew trial,
upon the grounds of misdirection, and that the verdict was
against the evidence. He stated that the facts were, that
in the moat h of May, 1854, Mr. Clark took to the plaintiff
a bill for £l,OOO, which he discounted: That bill was
drawn by the Honourable Mr. Villiers. and accepted by
Lord Maidstone. The bill when presented at the Union
Batik was dishonoured. On the 19th July, Mr. Clark
brought another bill purporting to have been accepted
by Lord Maidstone, and which the plaintiff took in
renewal of the first bill. The bill was also renewed
when it became due, and when the third bill was sued
upon, Lord Maidstone set up the defence that the second
bill was a forgery, and at the trial he gave evidence
to that effect. The Chief B iron left it to the jury to con-
sider whether the plaintiff had, or had not, given
consideration for the bill that he gave no when he took
the forged bill. This, it was now submitted, was an
immaterial issue, and was not the question upon which the
cause turned. It was also submitted that there was
ample evidence of consideration, and that the verdict was
clearly against the weight of evidence. Mr. Justice
Cresswell thought that there must have been sornethine*
more in the summing up than they had heard. Rule
granted.

ROYAL SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION AND
IMPROVEMENT OF THE GROWTH' OF FLAX
IN IRELAND.

The monthly meetino' of committee has been held in
Belfast, W. Sharman Crawford, Esq., in the chair. A
sample of the meal made by Mr. Pye, of Ipswich, from the
wood of part of the s'ems of unsteeped flax, had been re-
ceived, and sent to Professor Hodges for analysis, in order
to ascertain if Professor Way be correct in attributing
to it certain nutri'ive constituents, contrary to the
generally conceived opinion. A specimen of flax—seed was
shown, as grown on Lord Fermoy's estate, in the County
Cork, from E ist India seed. It was of very good quality,
and bad produced sixteen bushels per acre. The fibre of
the plant grown from the seed, however, was extremely
short. A letter from John Rowe, Esq., D.L ,of county
Wexford, stated that he had the produce of 1,400 acres
of flax ready for steeping, and that he had put up an oil•
mill to consume the seed. A letter from M. Emile
Strive, of Marcy, near Lille, strongly urged the
committee to print, in French, M. De Cock's report
on foreilm retteries, and to distribute copies among the
proprietors of retteries, and other persons, on the
Continent, as he conceived much benefit would result
from the dissemination of the information collected by
M. De Cock, and that it would lead to communications
embodying the experience of rate's, thus tending to
bring-the system to perfection. The meeting decided upon
carrying out Mr. Scrive's suggestions. Mr. M'Bride haviuig
invented a new self-acting ecutching machine, at less cost
than his first, and being an improvement upon it, it was
arranged that this machine should be inspected by a sub:
committee, and a report made upon it. The annual meet:
ing of the society was fixed for Friday, 28th November,
and a sub committee was named to draw up the annual
report, and to make other necessary arrangements for the
meeting.