Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-12-31 00:00:00

EXTRAORDINARY CASE OF PRIVATE

VENGEANCE.

PARIS, TUESDAY EvaNINO.
rA. remarkable instance of the lengfh to which the
doctrine of private vengeance, sanctioned as it has so
often been by French juries, is likely to be carried out in
Practice, has just occurred at Briey, in the department of
the Aroselle• The facts remind one forcibly of the
aetifosse case. In the present instance, the person who
set the example of taking the law into his own hands,
Was the mayor of the commune. He, however, like
Madame de JeIIiOSST, acted by deputy. Instead
Of an old and faithful servant, his own son,
acting under his orders, laid in wait to take a
fellow-creature's life. The neme of the mayor is
01117 indicated by an initial in the Droit, which reports
the case as follows:—" A young man named Basset, alias
Paufan, one day met Mdlle. P--, the daughter of the
Mayor of Ail, walking in a wood. lie induced her to talk
with him, made love to her, and succeeded in obtaining a
Promise of another meeting. The interviews, innocent at
first, went on till they were guilty. For three whole
months the mayor's daughter secretly received Basset in
her bedroom at night. 1113 habit was to get over a low
Wall which separated the mayor's garden from the street,
to use as a ladder the bars of the bliuds of the ground-
floor windows, and thus to get to the window-sill of the
I°ling lady's chamber on the first floor. Neither the
mayor nor his family knew anything of these clandestine
meetings till two cousins, of the female sex, ferreted oat
the affair, and told M. P-- of it. On the 22nd of
December last, just as the family was going to bed,
P— ordered his daughter to sleep on the ground
floor instead of her oven bedroom. In that bedroom
he placed her brother, his son—he put into his hand a
loaded double-barrelled gun, and told him to shoot a
man whom he would probably see getting in at the
Window. The young man drew a chair towards the
Window, sat down upon it, kept his guts cocked in his
hand, and remainediready to execute his father's orders.
At a quarter past nine o'clock he saw a man's head
through the window. Basset, as usual, was at the top of
the first blind, expecting to be let in. The mayor's son
rose from his chair, went to the window, opened
it, and fired both his barrels at Basset, who fell dead
on the spot- The mayor when the deed was done sent
for the gendarmerie to tell them of it, and he was
lost in Astonishment when they said it was their duty to
arrest him on a charge of murder. He had doubtless
read M. Berryer's speech at Evreux, and drawn from the
-conclusion (which, the premises being admitted, is
entirely logical) that because the law excuses homicide
upon the person of a man found breaking into a house in
the night time, on the ground that he must be
)esumed to come with the intention to rob or murder,
therefore it is justifiable to lie in wait to kill a particular
individual who is known to come secretly indeed, but
With the sanction of one of the inmates of the dwelling,
and with no felonious intention. The Mayor of Ail
thought it a matter of course to avenge his daughter's
easy virtue, by assassinating her favoured lover. He and
his son are in prison, and must undergo the form of a trial
for murder; but if modern doctrines on the veniality of
assassination are to prevail, they will be acquitted with
'filing colours.

NORTHUMBERLAND AND DURHAM
DISTRICT BARBING COMPANY.

The Lord Chancellor has Issued an order directing that all part'es
c,ncerned in the cs c of the petition for welding ue :hi u bank, just
Present: d by Messrs Tucke-, Greville, and Tucker, on behalf of Mr.
Itee Boerne, of eforden College. Blackheath, do attend before him on
atifiay the 12th of ;anua-y. The petition ateste4 that the bank was
Itarteti in :836, and the capital deed at £6',000, in 00,000 rharcs of
flO each, and had offices at Newcastle, and b-anches a. Sunderland,
,
taletum, Alne ick, Seuth Shields, North Sl:et:lds Berwick, Huxham
%.0d Morpeth. That petitioner is holder of 25 shares. en which he
Paid £2OO, the ful amount thereof. From 1837 to 1857, the directors
convered meetings ye ley, and dividends of 6 per cent., and recently
of 7 P=r cent , were declared every half year, we h a considerable sum
e
each octasi,n to the contingent ecccunt. Escorts were Issued by
Use directors, but the inforreati n in them was scanty and meagre
kite theme' condition of the comp .nv. The directors in the last
L'Por tin February, 1 57, state that the business during the preced-
c Year had fully a• swered their evrectaulons. thlt there was a
;et' P °fir, after ad expenses of 170,20, giving a dividend of .13 10s
licit' the Ittilfe ear eeding June, and thsut they t roposed too declare a
like dividend for the December half-year; key ng a surplus of
,23.841. The statement with the report showed, on the debit side,
~`"St the proprietors' capital, paid up. amour te I to 1655,491, the
'ttePeeit and credit halant es to .t 3, 79,816, and the guarantee fund to
t90e74 ; and rn the credit side of account Ur! cash bills, notes,
ebit belances. and o her scour ties, amounted to 4,152.0`5, and the
ulna of the tank pr. miss* at Newcest,e end local bran: hes £21,165.
Zeit!" since ihe stoPeago of the hank pe.itioner has eiscover, that
`"eittded in the ./4.152,0%5 uepremented as invested on security, was
!Jere' :ergs, sum advanced by the :erectors on mortgage of certain
eueueral ereperties in which one or more of the (-erectors w< re
Interested Perseeaily, and which fact was wholly cone, fee i from the
ollarehtldu ra It row lurther appeared that in August last, when
class last half-yeas's divklend was declared, the bank, to the enowledee
Of the di esters. wan hepelessl ins ulvent. At a meeting of the 26th
of Nevernber lost the shereholders wers for the firs time made
%Ware of the alarming position of their affabs; that the assets were
injuineient to meet tie dti is snd liabilities ; that not only
Was the paid-ue capital of £lO per 'ha e lost, but that
the liabilities would ie.:lake a further contribution of £5 per
hare, welch was made in the shape of a call, but not re-
°Nuclei to. Teat the directors advanced considerable sums
of Money to one another on inadequate security, and improvieently
lovestei it in speculative transactions. The to al loss of the capital
Was concealed frtm the k owledge of the sha eholders, and the
li°_eertusy tepreserted in a flonriseing state. That the debts and
evAlities of the bank amount to several millions ; that the 'lilies-
riders are liable ; and that there is no other equitaele method of
dealing with the bank and its embarrassments but under the
nitille up jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery; it being understood
,at any call made by the directors is invalid, on the ground that
n shares have been fully pad up, and th t therefore the directors
ale ro power to make a In ther cell. Petite), r, in gni lu.ion,
s'"ciers his belief that the committee appoiated to conrer with
and essist the d'recans are personal friends, and under the influence
of the latter.

FATAL BOILER FXPLOSTON AT A COLLIERY,
NEAR LEEDS.

_About a quarter post sevsn o'clock. on Tu,slar morning, a boiler,
attached to the drawing engi. e at thy Hare'ills, Colliery. near Lends
orm r-,f the White Horse serLs of collieries), loded with a loud
ZPort, and was att. nded with most disastrous results. The White
,_o
araeplis, which ore about two - Iles east o' L els give employment
;•', irge n ,rritp:.r of hands, and are wok dby the Wspirs Garside.
las boiler, which is a cylindrical one, and rather old faabioned, and
about thirty feet in len,filt, hod slightly exploded on Monday
afternoon , and had consfquently been stopped to repairs. It was
lied again wAh water early on Toes ay meriting, so as to enable the
ticine to discharge its mornlnz duty o: liftiag the n4z.lit hands out
;It„he pit. The pine which feeds the boiler with water a a'mest
ationlY exposed. and char: es
thereiAlf cut of a muddy ditch in th.
of the pit hilt. When ngine is of
th 3 water flaws
Mote,
boiler, but when th • machinery is not active, the pipe does
w".‘ Sttply soy wa'e. At the time statcd, and Just when the boi er
" cl,parged wAlt.r steam, it exploded with a loud report. A
vart
In, of the plates at the bottom, melsuring about tea feet in
length by two and a half feet in breadth, was torn from its bedding,
1,,
-° an u like a niece oflead, and hne,ed from G
re O t
cast ay
ard
still
s
i" adjpoining field. Bricks and other d brie we
tticiat a• distance. l'!e first inqu ry was in o t extent and nature of
i
casoalties. George Haigh, theen:inatnan, wax standing in front
re-place when the accident happened, and was so severely
ZWde bruistd that he was rem wed immetiately to the Leeds
ir,ilrin,ry, and his recovery is extremely donbtrul. Th. fd er-up —a lad
med CUarl,a Crann—who was mounting the pit hill ct the time,
4,8 also dreadfn ly burnt by the failing water and heated bricks,
,
d 11,5 in the same posit'on as Haigh. Unfirtunately, however. the
il,,aalties did ot end here. In irdning tho hes:, of ruhbish ort
West of the boiler, the body o another man was discw-ered, half
tigLied beneath the superincumbent naas, I tWas imirediately n-
ed a* that of Mr. Joseph Garside, a young man of about tIY ity, and
i"7 of the members cf the firm owning the col'iery, who had just
trarelirsed on the pit hill. to see that ci e wtrkmen were attending to
and' duty, when he was so suddenly killed He was much battered
t, braised about the roper part ot wasoy, and had bled freely from
hea j. It is supposed that he first struck by the boler
th! In', as it was turning in the air after the expl sion. a .d that then
11., debris buried him as it fell. He was immediately conveyed to
. residence, at Burnaantof.s, thereto await the corsaLer's inquest.

0 tbe garden attached to Blandford Honse, the Q teen's
i,,°°ltty, residence of L. H. B!:nd, EA., M.P., may be seen
the open air, a r ,sa tree, with seven hie' ms fully
,'lPanded. The name of the tree is, " the Rose Geant de
zatailles." It is two years old. There are also
.to be sea
to the same beautifully laid out garden, a number of
Verbenas, in almost summer bloom.—Leinster Express.
SHOCKING INIURDEK AT OVER-DARIVEN,— Oa Sunday
evening an unprovoked act of violence was committed by
Mam Beswiek upon John Marsden, both of 'llv€r Darwen,
Rear Blackburn, which resulted in the death of the victim
in less than 24 hours afterwards. The deceased was a
P"verloom weaver at Mr. Welnisley's, aid about 46 years
°f age. Beswick is a collier at the Sunny Bank Pit. B:,th
tbe men were neigbbours, living at a place called " the
Sa' ds," in Red Earth Mount. Fcr some time past an
angry feeling bad subsisted between thew, owing to a die-
Pote respeetteg some poultry. On Sunday evening, Mars-
den (the deceased) bad occasion to pass Beswick's dwelling
as he was preceeding— to his own home, when his iefuriated
foe rushed out armed with a poker, and dealt him a blow
tPon the bead, %%Web, felled him to the ground senselesr.
a'eswiek left his victim in that condition, and quietly
walked hack to his own hoe". The deeeased was conveyed
hone, and Mr. Wraith, sir genn, called in to atteed him.
The poor fellow, however, was'
in a dying state, and all
.9Lrts to restore him were unavailing_ 03 Monday even-
Og, at half-past five o'clock, he expired, leaving behind
TM a wife and a large family. On Monday
morning, after
occurrence had been bruited abroad, &mid, was token
:1110 custody by Police Sergeant a tkinsop, and brought
before Mr. Shorrock, magis'rate. Ho appeared much de-
toted in spirit, and during the brief examination ho fainted.
"Ile was remanded. This deplorable affair has caused the
greatest Sensation is the town and neighbourhood.