The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-08 00:00:00

The Inundation Commission at Sheffield.

A very important argument upon the cases in which the
claimants sue for consequential damages, as a consequence
of the inundation, was brought to a conclusion yesterday.
The Commissioners are Mr W. Overend, Q,C. (chief), Mr
J. Jobson Smith (manufacturer), and Mr M. F. Mills
(estate agent), The cases on behalf of claimants were
argued by Mr Manisty, Q C., Mr Waller (of the Chancery
bar), and Mr Forbes; while the Water Company were re-
presented by Mr Mellish, Q.C., and Mr Quain. The argu-
ments were of a very intricate character, but they took a
range as wide as the clause in the Company's Act

which fixes their liability. That clause appeared in part
in the Company's Act of 1845, and it was repeated,
in an enlarged form, in the Inundation Act which was

obtained last

session.

The clause enacts that

" the company shall, and they are hereby required, from
time to time, and at all times hereafter, to pay and make
good to owners, lessees, Ste., of property, and to every per-
son whomsoever, all costs, charges, loss or damage, as well
immediate as consequential, which they shall suffer by
reason of the giving way of the company's works." Another
sec ion dispenses with the necessity of proving negligence
in order to support any claim, both in respect to loss of life
and in claims for loss of property and bodily injury. There
are a vast number of claims sent in in which the question
of consequential damage is raised ; but the specific ques-
tion discussed during the special sitting has arisen upon
the following interesting case :—A grocer named 'Wood-
cock claimed for loss of his custom caused by the drown-
ing of a number of his customers and the destruction of
the houses of others, which had caused them to remove

to other parts of the town, thereby causing him to lose their
custom. Mr Manisty and Mr Waller argued that the sec-
tion quoted above established a statutory contract between

,he water company and the public, by which, on condition

that they were allowed to impound vast and dangerous
bodies of water, thereby creating what would otherwise be
a great nuisance, that they would undertake to compensate
the public for all and every kind of damage, "as well imme-
diate as consequential," as should be caused by the giving
way of the company's reservoirs. In this case the claimant
had a thriving business. lie went to bed on the night of
the 11th of March, with a business which would have com-
manded a handsome sum for "goodwill," and he awoke in
the morning a ruined man. All. his customers were swept
away, and it vas argued that as this damage was such
as would be the natural, nay, the inevitable consequence
of an inundation, it must have been within the
contemplation of the Legislature when they framed the Act
and was therefore recoverable as "consequential" damage.
On the other hand Mr Mellish and Mr Quain argued that
no person could establ sh a claim whose legal rights had
not been injured. The section gave no rights ultra
those which were recoverable at common law. Woodcock
had no legal right to have his customers there—all that he
had a right to have was that those customers should hare
free access to his shop. It was argued if the grocer could
recover for the loss of his customers, there was nothing to
stop a claim from the wholesale grocer who supplied the
retailer, the importer who supplied the wholesale dealer,
the shipowner, who would have less sugar to carry. and,
finally, the sugar grower in the West Indies, who would

ave less demand for his sugar. The argument was very
closely reasoned out on both sides, and some amusing illus-
trations of the variety of claims were given. A ratcatcher
had actually sent in a claim for consequential damage,
"because the flood had drowned all the rats in the district
that he was accustomed to operate in." A surgeon sent in
a claim for damage caused by the removal (in consequence
of the flood) of many ladies whom he would otherwise have
had to attend in their confinements. Other claims, equally
whimsical, were mentioned. At the close of the arguments
the Court adjourned until the 29th inst., when an important
judgment will be given. It may be stated that in conse-
quence of the delay that has taken place the Water Com-
pany have, as dmatter of precaution, given notice fox an
act to extend the time for the holding of the commission.
Up to the present time nearly 3,603 of the claims have
been settled out of a total of 7,100.

THE STORY OT THE PRINCESS DJEMILA.—Upon
the best authority, we are enabled to announce
that the romantic story of Oriental jealousy, reported in our
own columns and in those of almost all our metropolitan
and provincial contemporarise, is entirely without founda-
tion. The modern chapter of the " Arabian Nights,"
which has been so eagerly repeated from the letter of oar
correspondent at Constantinople, seems simply to have been
one of the tales so frequently circulated about the bazaars,
and all its details are, we are informed, purely imaginary.
The Princess I)jemila, who figured as the heroine, is said to
be a lady of peculiarly amiable disposition ; and we feel
convinced that those journals which have given currency
to the existing fiction will at once hasten to exonerate the
Royal personage implicated.—Morning Paper.
A BORN ACTOR,—Garrick's personal characteris-
tics particularly fitted him. for success upon the
stage. Look at Sir Joshua's portraits of the Roscius ; it
would be hard to find a better face for an actor. The features
handsome and well defined, and a certain flexibility about
them which rendered variety and rapid change of expression
easy matters. The eyes largo and luminous, dark and pene-
trating, and above them well arched and strongly marked
eyebrows—most precious gifts to an actor—ono raised a
trifle above its fellow, from some habitual track of expres-
sion, or an accidental momentary twitch which seems to in-
dicate a v,vid preception of the humorous. The mouth
large, as befits a declaimer, but shapely, the muscles round
it very active and prominent, the chin round, the jaw
square, the throat thick—all favourable to delivery of a
strong voice, with rapid utterance. His face, wo learn, was
wonderfully under control. He would sometimes, but rarely,
indulge his most intimate friends with a performance of
what he calls his "rounds." lie would stand behind a
chair, and unaided by words or music convey into his face
every variety of passion, "blending one into another, ann
as it were, shadowing them with a prodigious number of
gradations." Now he extorted laughter, now he drew tears.
Now he terr:fled. now he seemed himself terrified, until the
spectators turned to see if there were not among them some
strange cause of horror. Now he was wise as Solomon,
anon ho drivelled like a village idiot. lie was young, he
was old, he was rich, he was poor, he was sober, drunk,
overfed, starving, brave, cowardly, generous, miserly, he
wore a plastic mask, and could, by an effort of will, mould
his features to what pattern he chose. There was even at
one time a story current that he had frightened Regard' by
appearing before him as the ghost of Fielding having
aiseumed a representation of the great novelist's features;
but this, it must be confessed, cannot readily be credited,—
Once a Treek,