The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-29 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Charge of Sending a Challenge to
Fight a Duel,

William Brownrigg Lumley, a retired major of the In-
dian Army, who was before the Lord Mayor on Monday,
upon the charge of having sent a letter to Mr Laurence
Desborough, jun., of the firm of Desborough, Young, and
Desborough, containing a challenge to fight a duel, and
likewise with sending to the complainant a threatening,
libellous. and defamatory letter, appeared yesterday again
before the Lord Mayor, at the Mansion-house, in answer to
his recognisances.
The details of the case were given upon the last occasion,
and the letters were given in full.
Yesterday Mr Wontner again appeared for the corn.
plainant, and Mr Peru, from the office of Mr Buchanan,
stated, on behalf of Major Lumley, that Mr Buchanan was
absent fiom town, and he had only been instructed that
morning, and had not had time to instruct counsel, and ho
therefore asked fur a further adjournment of the case.
The Lord Mayor, however, said the case was adjourned
to meet the request of Major Lumley, and inasmuch as Mr
Desborough was about to leave town, the case could not be
again adjourned, but must be proceeded with. The case, as
far as he had heard it, seemed to him to be complete—and
the only question that remained was as to the course Major
Lumley intended to pursue--whether ho intended to call
any witnesses or not. His lordship, however, said he did
not see how any evidence could do away with the offence of
having sent the two letters, which the major had acknow-
ledged he had done,

Major Lumley begged his lordship's pardon, but ho ac-
knowledged nor:admitted nothing; and he thought perhaps
he should be able to convince his lordship that there was
evidence to refute the charge.
Mr Oke, the chief clerk, said there was no admission re-
quired. The letters were proved to be in Major Lumley's
hand writing.
The Lord Mayor said ho could either send the case for
trial, or could dispose of it himself by binding the major
over in heavy sureties to keep the peace, which latter would
be a very mild course. Military gentlemen, he remarked,
seemed to have such a very high sense of honour, which
others did not feel, who were perhaps equally honourable.
He saw no alternative than to adopt ono of the two courses
he had mentioned.

Major Lumley remarked that he had first asked for an
adjournment until Friday, but at his lordship's request, out
of courtesy to Mr Desborough, who wanted to go to Paris,
he consented to an adjournment to an earlier day, and he
hoped the same indulgence would be extended to him. lie
wished to have the whole matter thoroughly investigated,
that the public might be made aware of the whole of the
facts, and it was to that end he had purposely avoided ad-
mitting anything whatever.

The Lord Mayor could not consent, however, to a further
adjournment, but he said the case must be disposed of, and
he again said he did not see how auy evidence which the
major could bring forward would do away with the offmce
he had committed against the law by sending those two
letters to the complainant.
Major Lumley said it would have the very interesting
effect to him, as a gentleman, of removing the impression
made by the insinuation or Mr Wontner, who under the
cover of his profession had thought fit to distinguish him by
names that were not very complimentary.
Mr Wontner denied that he had called the defendant by
any name other than his own.

Major Lumley said he had called him a blackguard.
Mr Wontner said ho gave a. most unqualified denial
to that assertion. He had never used such a term towards
the major. To use such a word would be a most inappro-
priate criticism. What ho said was, that any person who in
the present day, and under the present feelings of society,
sent a challenge to another to fight a duel, rendered himself
liable to have the state of his mind investigated, or to be sot
down as a mere braggart.
Major Lumley said that was a very clever transposition,
and gave Mr Wontner great credit.
The Lord Mayor asked the major what he intended to do.
Major Lumley requested to be allowed to make a states
mew, which was acceded to, and he proceeded to read from
a paper a statement which he said he had extemporised for
the purpose of meeting the exigency, in the event of his not
being able to procure the services of one of the eminent
gentlemen whose names he had before mentioned, and which
he said were the true facts which led to the case before his
lordship. Mr Desborough, he said, had undertaken the ma-
nagement of a portion of his patrimony, and some misun-
derstanding had arisen between them with regard to certain
dividends which he knew Mr Desborough had received,and
which led to a correspondence which increased until it
almost reached the regularity of the postal communication,
and he thought it advisable to wait upon Mr Desborough I o
endeavour to overcome their feelings of distrust, feeling that
an explanation was needed, as he had begun to suspect that
Mr Desborough was detaining his dividends as an cffset to
his bill of costs. On his arrival at No. 6, Siseslano, he was
told Mr Desborough, jun., was out, and he asked to see
Mr Desborough, sen., who sent out an answer from an inner
room that Mr Laurence Desborough knew the particulars
of the case, and ho would see him. He said he must see
Mr Desborough, as the dividends which he claimed were
outstanding, and he must receive an explicit answer, as he
had made np his mind to go to law in the event of Mr
liesborough s acting against his wish. The head clerk said
he was going to meet Mr Desborough, who was at a ward-
mote, anti would communicate his wishes to him. In half
an hour he was informed Mr Desborough had arrived, and
was ushered into his presence, and fsund him in company
with another gentleman, who he had since ascertained was
his father. He was received rather ungraciously, Mr
Desborough did not rise from his chair, but simply, with a
sardonic sneer, asked him what he wanted. He replied in
the same tone that he wanted his dividends which were
overdue. In answer to which Mr Desborough replied that
none wore overdue ; he had not received any, and he (Major
Lumley) could not receive any. He was astonished at this,
and said he had it in Mr Desborough's own writing that he
had, and should forthwith place the matter in the hands of
his solicitor, to which Mr Desborough replied he could please
himself. The major remarked that the case would not have
been before the Court but for the usual mistake which was
invariably made by " peace. makers." He was told by Mr
Desborough, jun., to leave the room, when Mr Desborough,
sen„ stepped forward as a peace-maker, and of course, as
was the case with all who adopted that role, added fuel to
the flame. (Laughter.) He asked him to take a chair and
see it they could not talk the matter over. He replied no,
he would not ; for he was somewhat angered, and said he
preferred open war to a hollow truce, and as to the bill of
costs, no bill of costs was due until the debtor had exercised
his privileged of having it taxed. He made this remark,
having heard it in conversation with solicitors, and he could
produce those who had said so. He said ho should have
their bill taxed, when Mr Desborough, jun., came across the
room exclaiming "Tax our bill of costs, indeed I The man
is mad." He replied that he had been told by his solicitor
that it could be done, and mentioned the name of a solicitor,
and said he was determined to have it done. Mr Des-
borough, jun., said it was false, and ordered him three times
to quit the room, and as he turned on his heel to do so he
took him by the shoulder and gave him a push ; and he
thought the Court would agree with him when he observed
that that was a very trying position for a retired major.
He retreated rather rapidly down the stairs, bringing off,
however, his hat and umbrella undamaged by the bellige-
rents. (Laughter.) On his way home he called at the solici-
tor's alluded to—but whose name he would not mention, as
it had not been mentioned by the complainant, on whom
he had intended to call on his way to court, but was pre-
vented by being pressed for time, and told him he had made
an assertion that he had advised him that bills of costs
wore not due until the debtors had had the option of taxing
them, and requested him to take the pecuniary part of the
case into his own hands; but when he mentioned the name
of the gentlemen he wished him to proceed against, he said,
his engagements with those gentlemen were such that he
would not undertake the case. He should, he said, be able
to prove by witnesses that the dividends he claimed were
really overdue, that he had received great provocation, and
that Mr Desborough or his able counsel had no ground
whatever for insinuations by which he endeavoured to jus-
tify himself for giving him virtually the lie. He added that
in consequence of the activity of the enemy—(laughter)—
who were better acquainted with the legal forms than he
was, and had pushed forward the case to be heard on Mon-
day, when they knew ho could not easily obtain the aid of
any professional gentleman in consequence of its being a
general holiday, he had been obliged to meet the case un-
assisted. He therefore asked for an adjournment until
Tuesday, but at the request of his lordship, to oblige Mr
Desborough, he had named Wednesday, and he therefore
having been again unsuccessful in procuring the advice of
his solicitor, had preferred to conduct the case himself ; and
having said this much, he again asked hie lordship to con-
sent to a further adjournment.

The Lord Mayor could not comply with the request, and
said it had better be adjourned to the sessions.
Mr Oke then proceeded to read over the depositions of
Mr Desborough which were taken en the last occasion,
which having been done, the Lord Mayor asked the major
if he would like to cross-examine the witness.
Mrjor Lumley said he certainly would.
The Lord Mayor said he had made a very able statement,
and if he cross-examined with a 4 much ability ho would
do very well.
The defendant ssid ho had no doubt he was quite equal to

the task, and he then proceeded to put several questions to
the witness, interspersed with remarks which caused some
amusement in court, and elicited outbursts of laughter.
The queQtion related to the receipt of the dividends which
had been alluded to, and which he asserted had been de-.
tained as an offset against the bill of coats, and Mr Desbo-
rough explained that 1 3 had received £6 on the 29th Nov.
and £2O on the 10th Dec. ; but as he received cheques for
those sums, which had to be sent to Truro to be cashed, he
did not consider that he was in possession of the money
until he had been credited with it at his banker's.
In answer to Mr Wontner,
Mr Desborough produced his banker's pass-book, from
which it appeared that the £2O was not paid into his ac-
count until Dee. 23.
The Lord Mayor said ha must send the case to a jury;
and after giving the defendant the usual caution, asked him
if he had anything further to say.
Major Lumley said—Under those circumstances, certainly
not.
He was then formally committed for trial, bail being ac-
cepted to the amount of £5OO, viz•, h:mself in £250, and one
surety in £250.

TIMES.—It is the less difficult to understand the
repugnance of the poor to workhouses when we read
each a story as that of Timothy Daly and the Infir•
mary of the Holborn Union. The main facts of this
case have now been ascertained by a coroner's in-
quest, and although they do not altogether justify
the impression produced by the first account of it,
they are quite sufficient to call for a more searching
official inquiry. It appears that nearly two months
ago this poor railway labourer, aged 28, and of
strong bodily frame, was taken ill with rheumatic
fever, and removed on Oct. 30, into the Holborn
Infirmary. A fortnight ago he was taken out, at his
own earnest request, and conveyed to a lodging in
Union-court, whence he was transferred last Thurs•
day to St. Bartholomew's Hospital. There he died
of exhaustion on Friday morning. Dr. Andrews,
the assistant physician of St. Bartholomew's, and
Mr Lowne, the medical officer of the Farringdon-
street Dispensary,who attended him in Union-court,
agree in attributing his death to bedsores, of which
he had three on the lower part of his body, two of
them " denuding the hip bones of flesh for three
inches." The question was whether these bed sores
could have been avoided or cured with proper care
and attention, or were the result of neglect. Upon
this poin teas might have been expected, the evidence
was not only conflicting but directly contradictory.
The poor man himself undoubtedly believed that
he had been cruelly treated. He protested that he
had been made to lie on a bed too short and too
narrow for him, on linen saturated with perspiration
and that his poultices had not been changed for
days together. -He complained of this to his wife
when she visited him in the infirmary; to Mrs Fitz•
gerald, who afterwards took him into her house in
Union-court; to Thos. Spillem, who saw him every
Sunday in the infirmary; to Mr Shuter, and to the
doctors. He assured Mr Shuter that the sores had
been forming about six weeks, and that during that
time the doctor had not looked at them above three
times, the last time being nine days before his re.
moval. His belief was that if he had stayed in the
Infirmary a night longer he must havesdied, and he
did actually die from the cause which excited his
apprehensions. As these statements, however, might
possibly represent no more than the fancies of a
sick man, it becomes necessary to see how far they
are borne out by independent testimony. Now, it
is fair to mention that Mrs Daly, the widow, does
not seem to have observed anything amiss when she
visited her husband, and thanked the master of the
workhouse for his kindness. Indeed, the deceased
himself, in telling her that the doctor used to pass
him by, spoke gratefully of the master's conduct.
To this we must add the deposition of Mr Norton,
the surgeon compromised, and of the Infirmary
nurses. The former declared that Daly was ema-
ciated and dirty when he came into the house ; that
the sores did not form till four weeks after; that
they were poulticed three times a day; that although
very low, the patient never complained of his bed or
expressed any wish to leave the house; that it was
highly dangerous to remove him, and that he died
from the effects of the fever. He also stated that in
the six weeks of his illness he got " 10 pints of wine
and 40 of porter, 2 pints of milk every day, arrow-
root whenever he could eat it, and mutton for dins
ner." The nurses testified that they had seen the
doctor examine the sores at least three times a week,
and that the deceased was not cleanly in his habits.
The master, Mr Francis, added that the bedclothes
were changed " whenever required." On the other
hand, Dr Andrews distinctly asserts that " with
proper care and attention the deceased ought not
to have got into such a condition, even though
suffering from rheumatic fever. A water-bed
and spring mattress ought to have been em-
ployed." Mr Lowne, the surgeon, who first called
public notice to the case, protested that the bed•
sores never ought to have broken out; that iu rheu-
matic fever a man might be kept in bed for an
indefinite time without them ; and that he himself
never had a case of the kind, though he attended
some 2,000 persons annually. Both these medical
men seem to have considered the sores, as well as
the contraction of the knees, from which Daly also
suffered, as partly the consequence of the cramped
position in which he lay, owing to the small size of
the bed, With all these materials before them the
jury, probably, struck the balance as well as they
could in their verdict—" That the deceased died
from exhaustion from bed-sores and from rheumatic
fever; and that while he was in the Infirmary of
the Holborn Union he did not receive sufficient care
and attention from the medical officer." Thus ree
duced to its true proportions, the case no longer
wears the horrible aspect which it at first presented,
but it still suggests a great many painful reflections,
The appearance of bed-sores is certainly not con-
clusive proof of neglect, for, in spite of Mr. Lowno's
opinion, we knew that this distressing symptom
often medical skill where the patient is sur-
rounded with all that money can procure. But it
in ;mpoaoiblo to believe, water roadang Mr. Lowea's
evidence, that much was done either to prevent or
to relieve them. Nor is it credible that Daly's idea,
that the doctor seldom came near him and would
not look at his sores, though begged to do so,
should have been altogether unfounded, especially
when it is not directly contradicted by the party
implicated. Moreover, Mr. Norton admits that the
card of dietary attschei to the bed, though pur-
porting to be signed by himself, was really signed
by the master, and copied by the same hand into
the medical book, to which he afterwards appended
his initials. .Where such a practice prevails there
is too much reason to fear that economy of time
and trouble is studied more than the alleviation of
suffering, and this is almost the worst thing that
can be said of a hospital, though it be only a hose
pital for paupers. It is the proud boast of these
noble institutions that the utmost resources of
science aro placed at the disposal of the least and
lowest, and that a beggar once stretched on a bed
of sickness may command luxuries and comforts
for which kings in days of old might have longed
in vain. There is, perhaps, no virtue which has
been so much developed by civilisation as that of
humanity, and the growing sensibility of organism
which physiologists recognise seems to quicken
our sympathy with pain. The sanctity of the
sick chamber levels all social distinctions, and the
example of Sir Philip Sydney, though few may
have the fortitude to imitate it, illustrates a prin-
ciple which has ceased to be di.einctive of chivalry.
No one has pressed the claims of the sick upon
the tender care of their attendants more forcibly
than Miss Nightingale, and from her writings
may be learnt, by those who do not know it by
experience, the terrible urgency of those little
wants and capricious feelings which try the
patience of nurses. A navvy prostrated by rheu-
matic fever is as Susceptible and nervous as the
most delicate lady or the feeblest child ; his tem-
per is as peevish, his spirits as low, his appetite
as fastidious, his thirst as craving, his sleepless-
ness as intolerable. He needs as much watching,
as much cheering, as much humouring, as much
soothing; he should equally be spared contradic•
tion and every source of needless irritation, his
pillow should be smoothed with as light a hand,
and his confidence won by as ready an appre-
ciation of his wishes. Unless this is done, or at
least attempted, even in the Infirmaries of Work-
houses, there will be those who prefer to lie down
and die in solitude to the cruel tender mercies
of Poor Law officials. Such an instance is re.
corded in the very same column with the inquest
on Daly, and his sad end can hardly be con-
trasted favourably with that of Mary Hale, who
sank from starvation at home, because she would
not enter "the house."
HERALD.—The evening ministerial journal of
Tuesday had another of those attacks on Brazil by
which it seeks at once to gratify the individual
vindictiveness of their writer against the empire
and to divert public attention from the question in
which the Cabinet is concerned. Its last attack is
again of an omnium gatherum description, and
asserts that "the position of Brazil at Monte Video
\ is, above all, untenable in the face of England;
and that "the Brazilian Government are postponing
the arrangement of the political dispute with Eng-
land in order to postpone the eettlement of the long-
pending British claims." In these assertions the
writer does injustice, in very different ways, both to
the British and the Brazilian Governments. The
former is unjust to the British Government, be-
cause, so far from pretending to assume the role of
the pacificator of the Plate, or to say which of its
Powers shall or shall not make war on the other
when they have cause of war, it has just recognised
an act of war of Brazil against the Republic of
Uruguay by inserting in the London Gazette the
formal notification of the blockade of two of the
Uruguayan ports by the Brazilian squadron—and
by this act it becomes further bound to recognise
any effective blockade of Monte Video itself by the
Brazilian naval force in the Plato if it should be re-
sorted to. In order to avoid the blo.kade of a port
in which European commerce is largely interested
the Brazilian admiral had, it is known, sought the
aid of Elropean diplomacy to prevent the intro-
duction into Monte Video of munitions of war in
neutral vessels of their respective nations. The
request was, it is obvious, made in order that the
impending hostilities should be carried on with the
least possible inconvenience to or interruption of in-
nocent commerce, and was consequently one with
which the mercantile interest concerned naturally
sympathised. The request was, however, one which,
by the law of natiens,the foreign diplomacy at Monte
Video had no power to grant, and was, therefore,
declined in terms more or less characterised by the
habits of courtesy of their respective countries. But
the refusal may precipitate the blockade of Monte
Video which the request was meant to avert, and if
so it will at all events lessen the moral responsible
lity of any blockade that is established. The guar-

rel of Brazil with Monte Video, though unfortunate
and untimely, is not therefore unjust. It has, on
the contrary, been most unwillingly forced on the
empire. It Government has again and again sought
redress for the ravages of its frontiers on the side
of Uruguay, for the destruction of the property and
the lives of its citizens on the frontiers, and for des
predations that had become inconsistent with the
protection it owed its own people. It is only when
that redress has been denied, and when its oven
people placed the alternative of Government or self.
protection before their Sovereign, that the Emperor
of Brazil has resorted to these naval and military
operations. Before doing so the Brazilian Governs
ment, in unison with the Ministers of France,
Buenos Ayres, and other Powers interested, sought
to bring shout by nrgociations with its Government
the pacification of the republic of Uruguay; but the
Government of Uruguay rejected the suggestions by
all those representatives for pacifiaation. Thereupon
those Ministers left the republic to find a solution
for itself of its quarrel with Brazil, and its remedy
has been the adoption of a plan which if successful
may enlarge the war and disturb all the indepene
dent states of the Plate. For Uruguay has sought
military assistance against Brazil from PeraguaYt
the past policy of which (under Francis and the
first President Lopez) was rigid abstinence from the
,disputes of all the other riverine states. The present
President of Paraguay, Lopezfi/s, is or affscts to be
a soldier, and he appears to be disposed to indulge in
military intervention in a dispute with which his
republic is no more concerned than it is with the
punishment of the Bhootan tribes by the British Go•
vernment in India. If any Platina power be really
concerned it is or course Buenos Ayres; but the
Government of the Argentine States, under the
wise direction of Gen, Mitre, sets Paraguay the
example of letting this quarrel alone, assured that
the less strangers to it interfere in the matter the
sooner it will be arranged. But even now, when
war does seem to outsiders to he very imminent, the
Brazilian Government has sent one of its most dies
tinguished statesmen, Senhor Paranhos, on especial
mission to the Plate, in the hope that at the eleventh
hour hostilities may be averted, the blockade of
Monte Video avoided, and its subjects on the from,'
tiers be indemnified and protected without any ins
terruption to European commerce in the Plate. And
we are happy to announce that the Government of
Monte Video has also sent a special mission to Rio
de Janeiro, so that the avoidance of war is more
than probable. Such is the simple state of the ques-
tion, and in it our readers will, we think, be at a
loss to know why the Ministerial organ should find
fault with Brazil. The quarrel is in every respect
an unfortunate occurrence; but it is one in which
Brazil has no alternative but to defend its own
people, and it is endeavouring by every means is
its power to protect them vs ithout hostilities. It is
very true that a Monte Videan loan for £600,000
net, not £1,000,000 as the Globe states, has just
been raised in London. But if the writer will make
due inquiries in the City he will find that not one
dollar of this loan will go into the Treasury of
Monte Video, or be applied in any way to the pur-
poses of this war. The loan is a simple operation
converting an already existing internal into an ex-
ternal debt : it has been raised far more on the
credit of the eminent banking-house which intro•
duced it than on the financial reputation of the Rea
public of Uruguay, and is devoid of all bearing
on or reference to the queeticn into which
our contemporary has imported it. As to
the other assertion, that the Brazilian Go-
vernment has postponed the arrangement of
its political dispute with England in order to
postpone payment of the long pending British
claims, there is not the shadow of truth in it-
The interruption of the claims Commission, and
non-settlement of the Brazilian as well as British
claims, were, as Mr. Seymour Fitzgerald showed
the House of Commons, the acts of the British, not
of the Brazilian Government, Had it not been for
the conduct of the British Foreign Office both these
claims would have been settled under the convens
tion, and paid two years ago. Their indefinite
postponement lies entirely and exclusively at the
door of the present Cabinet. And to reproach the
Brazilian Government for the delay is to add insult
to the iojsry done to the claimants. To connect
the delay with the failure of the Portuguese media
ation is to assume an acquaintance with the causes
of that failure, on which no authentic informatisn
has yet transpired, but of which explanations will
be, no doubt, required as soon as Parliament meets.
Then it will be seen whether the English or the
Brazilian Government is responsible for the failure
—then it will be ascertained to which Power the
mediating Government thinks right and justice in
the controversy belongs; and until then we recom-
mend our contemporary to be more careful in its
assertions as to Brazil, as its recklessness may do
the Government it supports much more berm than
good.

COUNTRY MAREET3.

~_____._., f,,_..,_..~

HULL—TuEsDIy.

At our market to-day there was only a small supply of
English wheat, which farmers held for an advance of is
per qr. This price was freely paid towards the cleat) of the
market, and some millers were unable to obtain full sup-
plies. Barley for grinding met an active sale, but, malting
sorts ruled dull. Beans and peas in retail demand at late
quotations. Old oats in request, but scarce; new mare
plentiful, and easier to buy.