The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-05-27 00:00:00

COUNTY COURT.

Mr. Thomas S. Raffles presided in the County Court
yesterday.
WENSLEY v. Mune—This was an action brought by
John Wensley, of 16, Horatio-street, to recover £2 from
Thomas Riley, public house keeper, of Milton-street. Mr.
Gray appeared for the plaintiff, and Mr. Hime for the
defendant. It appeared from the evidence, that some
time in December last, the plaintiff made a bet with the
defendant, to the amount of £2, upon the issue of twenty
ono games of cards, seven at "all-fours," seven at "pur,e
and seven at "forty-five's," to be played by the plaintiff
and a man named Shaw. The wager was entered into on
a Tuesday night, in the hoase of the defendant, and the
sum of £2 was deposited by the plaintiff in the defend-
ant's hands, it being agreed that the plaintiff ehinld attend
at the same place on the following Fri ay night, at eight
o'clock, to prepare articles relative to the wager, which
was to come off on the following Monday. B parties
agreed upon so much of the facts, but
the plaintiff's statement from this point was,
that he went to the defendant's house on
the Friday night, for the purpose of having the
articles drawn up and signed. He stated that the defen-
dant was drunk at the time, and refused to accede unless
the whole of the money was paid down. This the plaintiff
refused to do, and after some diecussion ho went away,
agreeing to come on the following morning and bring the
money, at which time the parties were to aepoint a holder
of the stakes. He went on the Saturday morning but
could not see the defendant. On seeing him, sabeequently,
they could not arrange about the stakes, and the match
therefore did not come oft. The plaintiff accordingly
demanded to have the £2 returned. The defendant, how-
ever, refused to give up the money, on the ground that it
was to be forfeited, =less the balance of the stakes was
paid over on the Friday in qu stion. Having heard the
evidence of the parties, and of a witness on each side, his
Honour decided that the balance of testimony was against
the plaintiff, and accordingly gave judgment for the defen-
dant, with costs.

THE DARTMOOR PRISON.—A convict at Dartmoor prison,
named Charles M'Carthy, has just been committed to the
Devon county jail, at Exeter, on the charge of assaulting
and wounding, with in ent to murder, a warder of the
Dartmoor convict prison. It appears that the pri,oner
had grossly misconducted himself since he had been lodged
at Dartmoor prison, and had made three attempts to escape.
A few days ago he m :de an attempt to escape by running
away from the separate cells when let out to wash himself,
and he also took a leading part in an act of insubordination
in which eight other convicts were concerned, The pri-
soner, it appears, assaulted the warder in question in a
barbarous manner, andafterwards, with eight others, made
his way out of the working shed with the intention of
effecting his escape.
3SUBTUGATION OF BRITAIN.—AiI the misfortunes of
the island, from the earliest period, seem to have left some
benefit. The admixture races and successive conquests
never wholly arrested the progress of improvement. An
onward iT pulse was given in some direction, either moral
or material, under every vicissitude of national fortune.
After the misery of transition was over the country reaeed
advantages from each of its three subjngations. The
Romans were generous masters, their object was dominion;
that achieved, they compensated the vanquished by pro-
tection, and instructing them in their laws and institutions.
The Saxions were essentially barbarous ; but they brought
along with them those notions of equal rights which they
held in common with all German nations. The third, or
Norman Conquest, had the most overwhelming and abiding
issues; for these invaders made an entire transfer to new
masters, not oaiy of the soil but its inhabitants. The pro-
prietary changed as well as the government ; and the
Saxon aristocracy were at once dispossessed of political
Jule and their territorial property. It is the last decided
example of the subjugation of one European state by
another, and was productive of the Important result of
firmly consolidating England into one kingdom, having
one head, one law, one language, and one supreme
legislature.— wades lb:gland's Greatness.

THE SCO mAND-ROAD MURDER.