The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-12-29 00:00:00

coralur coURT.—YESTZEDAY.
(BEFORE JOSEPH POLLOCK, ESQ., JUDGE.)
FOWLER V. HERRING.—The plaintiff is a car owner, and
the defendant a confectioner, carrying on business at 4,
Quadrant-buildings, Elliot-street, and the action was
brought to recover £1 10s. damages, for injury done to the
plaintiff's car through the negligence of the defendant's
servant. It appeared that as the plaintiff's driver was driv-
ing down Church-street, the defendant's van was being
driven up the street at the time, and in consequence, it was
alleged of the furious rate at which it was going, it came in
collision with the plaintiff's car, and knocked off the hind
wheel. The statement on either side being equally positive,
his Honor adjourned the case to enable the plaintiff to pro-
duce further evidence.
THE LANCASHIRE AND YORKSHIRE RAILWAY COMPANY
V. CANNON.—This action was brought to recover £2 for
the carriage of eight barrels of fish. The defendant con-
tended that she should not be liable inasmuch as she did not
receive the fish at the proper time, and when she did receive
them they were so injured through the delay that they wore
seized by the inspector and she fined.
His HoNoR told her that if she had suffered through. any
delay on the part of the company she could recover compen-
sation from them, but having taken the fish she could not
set up any neglect of theirs as a defence against the present
claim. Verdict for the plaintiffs.
EVANS V. NOBLE--This action was brought to recover
the value of a basket lost off the defendant's omnibus. It
appeared that the wife of the plaintiff went by the defend-
ant's omnibus to the Old Swan, on the night of the 21st of
November. The night was very dark, and the omnibus
coming in collision with a post, several of the outside pas-
sengers were nearly thrown off. Mrs. Evans got down, and
went into the " cabin," as she termed the inside, and while
there lost her basket. Considerable amusement was created
in court, by the manner in which Mrs. Evans, who was
dressed in the " old Mother Hubbard" style, gave her evi-
dence. She was accompanied by her husband and niece,
and being all Welsh people, they weighed and measured
every answer as if their very lives depended on the issue.
To make certainty doubly sure, Mrs. Evans was examined
in her own language, the niece acting as interpreter ; but
the result was that the three of them had to be separated
and nlaced on different seats, as the only means of stopping
the running commentary ID.which thny inilnlera in oaob
others' testimony—it not being very clear that Mrs. Evans
had at all given the basket to the cad, the plaintiff was non-
suited without costs.

Mr. IlimE appeared for the plaintiff, and Mr. HUGHES
for the defendant.

A MERMAID.—Our readers will judge what credence to
give tol the following statement, copied from the Halifax
Morning Chronicle :—A most extraordinary fish was caught
in the salmon net of Mr. Aazet Hamilton, of Bundoran, in
the Donegal Bay, last week. It is a beautiful creature; the
head, shoulder, and waist resemble a woman ; the lower part
that of a salmon. When we saw it, it was alive in a vessel
of salt water, and Mr. Hamilton hoped to preserve it alive
in that way. The eyes were beautiful ; and its arms, when
touched, became stiff, and the whole body appeared sensitive
to the touch. Many persons considered it a young mer-
maid.

HEARTLESS ROBBERIES BY RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. —Tho
scoundrels who infest the-rail Way termini for the purpose of
plundering the passengers of their luggage are bold and
audacious thieves, who abide " the hazard of the die ; " but
the railway servants and carriers who avail themselves of
the confidence reposed in them to.pilfer at leisure the goods
entrusted to their care add treachery and deceit to their
other villanies. We have just been informed of a most
heartless and cruel dobery, perpetrated by one or more of
those miscreants on a poor sick woman at Bath, who was
forwarded by a friend in London, via the Great Western
Railway, from the Bull and Mouth, where the package was
booked and paid for, a box containing a small quantity of
port wine, teas, coffee, sugar, raisins, currants, oranges, alid
a flannel petticoat. During transit the box was robbed of
all its contents, save the empty bottles and two oranges, and
on its delivery in that state it was charged a shilling, al-
though its carriage had been previously-paid for. We make
no comment on the conduct of the sacrilegious scoundrel
who committed the robbery, but when we remember the
revelations made recently in the case of a railway official at
the Bricklayers' Arms station, we think it is dine something
should be done to arrest such wholesale iniquities.—Sunday
Times.

FIRE IN LONDON.—The London journals contain accounts
of a destructive fire in Upper Thames-street, No, 200, near
St. Michael's Church, which was very much injured. The
loss of property amounted to several thousands. As soon as
the Watling-street, firemen had got their hose ready for
action, a fearful scream was heard from one of the houses in
Huggin-lane, which induced Tozer, one of the brigademen,
to enter the house, in order to ascertain whether or not any
persons were in danger. He then found that the flames had
penetrated through the attics and all the windows on the
staircase,'setting on fire the ballusters and rooms. A person
named Arthur Walkden at that period was carrying his
mother, an old woman of 75, down stairs. The poor woman,
in being carried through the fire, had her face severely burnt.
When Tozer entered the attic on the fourth floor, he found
a lad named George Dimmock, and a woman named Eliza-
beth Dimmock, just in the act of jumping out of the window.
He, however, seized him by his shonlder, and having thrown
the woman over his back, he carried the two down stairs in
safety, and thereby prevented two persons from being killed.
The police-officer (Sykes) was also instrumental in saving two
lives in the adjoining house, but connected with the ware-
house. The persons wanted to dress themselves before they
left, but the constable forced them to depart immediately,
and it was well he did, for they had barely gained the street
wl-m the flames broke through one of the doors and set the
greater part of the private dwelling on fire.
REFORMATORY SCHOOLS.—A few private persons resident
in the county of Gloucester, magistrates and country gentle-
men, established upon a small scale, some eighteen months
ago, an industrial school for the reformation of juvenile
delinquents, and the first annual report of their proceedings
was drawn up on St. Thomas's-day. As to the cost of this
experiment, the whole of the buildings cost about 2501., and
they are of such a construction that, should the school be
given up, they would at any time be convertible into labourers'
cottages, which would bring as good interest as labourers'
cottages usually command. The other expences, including
furniture, masters' salaries, maintenance, clothing, and in
fact every cost for eighteen months, amounts to about 4001. ;
the value of the stock in hand is about 1711., thus reducing
the cost to 2301. for the eighteen months, or little more than
11/. per head total expense for the twelve months. Twenty-
three boys have been received in all. Of these, they consider
four are failures, two are provided for abroad, one has been
for some months in service in the country, and his conduct
hitherto has been highly satisfactory. The other sixteen are
still in the school. Of these, few could be safely recom-
mended to service ; but the other sixteen have not been in
the school long enough to show a material improvement.
AN EXECUTION IN FRANCE.—The trial and condemnation
to death about a month ago of a man named Bony, by the
Court of Assizes of the Seine-et-Marne, for the murder of a
banker and his wife at Provins, will not be forgotten. The
case, it will be remembered, was one of peculiar atrocity.
The man murdered the banker as he sat at his office desk
by striking him furiously on the head with a hatchet ; then
he murdered his wife, who went to his assistance, by assail-
ing her in the same way ; he afterwards collected all the
money he could find ; then he attempted to commit a criminal
assault on the servant girl, and he afterwards drank rum
and other liquors until he became partially intoxicated and
fell fast asleep. The servant girl, on seeing him in that
state, slipped out of the house, and gave information to the
Gendarmerie. He was immediately arrested. After his
condemnation he paid great attention to the exhor-
tations of the chaplain, and expressed repentance.
He appealed to the Court of Cassation against his condemna-
tion, but when his appeal was rejected he refused to pray
for pardon, saying that after such crimes as he had com-
mitted his life would not be a sufficiently great sacrifice to
expiate them. On the sth of this month he addressed the
following letter to his mother from the gaol at Melun :
"My dear Mother,—My greatest sorrow is to see that I
cause so much to you. The chaplain has communicated
your letter to me. Poor mother ! How happy 1
should be if all my afflictions only concerned my-
self ; and with what courage I should support the
weight of my chains if the greatest part of my sufferings
were not to fall on my dear mother ! Alas ! the band of
God weighs terribly ou us; but let His holy will be done !
Let us pray to Him to accord us the patience and resigna-
tion necessary to support the great trial. Let us place our
confidence in the Holy Virgin Mary, the consoling mother
of repentant sinners, and let us abandon ourselves to her.
She will open to us the holy path in which I have had the
happiness to enter, and which alone can give us the hope
of meeting in another world. How much I feel at present
all the affection which my heart contains for you, dear
mother ; and with what bitterness, what sorrow, and what
regret I feel the privation of being able to confide it to
your maternal bosom ! It is one of the greatest sacrifices
which I offer to God before, making that of my life ; and
I hope that He will be merciful enough to accept it in expia-
tion of my faults, and to grant to me my portion of eternal
happiness, where I can await my dear mother. Let us
place ourselves in His holy keeping. Adieu! Adieu ! dear
mother,—worthy of a better recompense for your old days.
Oh ! pardon your unfortunate and guilty son the torments
which he has caused you, and let that be his last consola-
tion on earth. Once again, adieu, dear mother, and adieu
to my brothers and sisters. Pray for me, as I pray for you.
I embrace you all with a sorrowful embrace, and for the
last time." He likewise addressed a letter, expressing the
most fervent piety, to the sister superior of the hospital of
Provins. On Wednesday the order arrived for his removal
to Provins to be executed. He received it with resignation.
He was asked if he would not make an appeal to the
government for a commutation of his sentence, but he again
refused, saying that his strongest desire was to expiate his
crimes by his death. On Thursday morning the scaffold
was erected in the Place Saint Ayoul, at Provins. Although
the cold was very great an immense crowd assembled. At
8 o'clock the condemned ap -eare.l •' he was listening with
great humility to the exhortations of the priest. The crowd,
which had been rather noise, became silent the Moment he
was seen, and when he ascended the scaffold, a great number
fell on their knees and prayed. The scone at this moment
was peculiarly solemn. A few seconds after the knife fell.
—Galignani's Messener