The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-03 00:00:00

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

NORTHERN CIRCUIT—DURHAM, March 1.
(Before Mr. Justice Shee.)
NORRIE V. NEWBY.
This was an action for an assault. The defendant pleaded
not guilty, and son assault demesne.
Mr, Davidson appeared for plaintiff, and Mr. C. Foster
for the defendant.
The case for the plaintiff was that he was a butcher in
Durham, and on Saturday, 22d November last, after stand..
ing in the market all day, he went, tired with his day's
work, to get a glass at Bowes's Hotel, in Durham. There
the defendant, a plumber in Durham, who was described
by the learned counsel for the plaintiff as a boating, run-
ning, jumping, boxing man, came up to him, and without
speaking a word took him by one of his whiskers and gave
him a pull. The plaintiff complained c,f this, and then the
defendant took hold of the other whisker and gave it a pull,
pulling the hair out of his whiskers, hurling him very
much, and finally the defendant pulled the plaintiff down
on the ground by his whiskers, for, as the learned counsel
put it, go he must, or leave his whiskers. The plaintiff, ir-
ritated, said "the defendant was a blackguard for pulling
the whiskers of a man he did not know," when defendant
immediately challenged him to fight, pulled off his coat,
and, as the plaintiff would not fight, struck him a blow on
the mouth, which cut it and made it bleed, and so hurt
him that he was obliged to go to his doctor on the following
Tuesday to get his face doctored. Two witnesses were
called, who in the main corroborated this statement, but
admitted on cross-examination that there had been a good
a good deal of chaff between the parties before the assault,
and that in the course of it the company laughed at the
plaintiff, and he got angry.
The plaintiff denied that he was only a butcher's
slaughterman at 9s. a week. He did slaughter cattle, and
use the poleaxe to knock them down, but he was not given
to knocking down men, and had never been fined for thrash-
ing a policeman and tearing his clothes, nor for fighting.
The learned counsel in his opening said for the injuries
and affront his client had received he would be satisfied with
a proper apology.
The case for the defendant was that the defendant had
long known the plaintiff, and on the night in question on
going into this publichouse he good humouredly accosted
the plaintiff, and, touching his whiskers, admired them, and
asked him if he was cultivating his whiskers in the Lord
Dundreary style ? The plaintiff replied also good humour-
edly that the defendant was only vexed that he could grow
none, and said he would give him some of the seed, and that
thereupon the plaintiff got hold of him and scrubbed him
with his beard. The company laughed at this, and the de-
fendent said they were beautiful whiskers. The learned
counsel for the defendant noticing that he had now a
short beard growing, asked him if it had grown since the
plaintiff had scrubbed him. The defendant said it had.
(Laughter.) He had no beard before—not a hair. (Loud
laughter.) As the company kept laughing at the plaintiff
and his whiskers, the plaintiff got angry, and seizing the de-
fendant by his coat collar dragged him down backwards on
the floor and jolted his head on the hearthstone. As soon
as the defendant could get up he pulled off his coat and
said he would be even with the plaintiff, and then said to
him if he were a man he would stand up and have it out.
The plaintiff, however, said if defendant touched him he
would "Bench him for it." The defendant then admitted
;hat he struck him, being in a passion at the way in which
hehad been jolted. Three witnesses present were
called, who corroborated this version of the fracas,and who
stated that the plaintiff appeared to be no worse after it,
and, except a slight scratch on his lip, they saw nothing
amiss with him, but whether he got that scratch in his
struggle with the defendant, or from the subsequent
blow of the defendant, they could not tell. The plaintiff
was at his work on the Monday, and nothing seemed the
matter with hira. For the defendant his learned counsel
ridiculed the idea of an apology from a journeyman plumber
to a butcher's slaughterman, and contended that the badin-
age about the plaintiff's whiskers had been taken at first
goodhumouredly, and the touching his whiskers was treated
as a joke by the plaintiff, who had scrubbed the defendant
with his beard in return, and it was only when laughed at
by the company and beaten in chaff that he got angry. Up
to that time therefore it was ridiculous to say that there had
been any assault, and after that time the plaintiff had com-
mitted the first assault, and had received the blow in the
south in the course of the quarrel he had himself provoked,
Even if the jury should be of opinion that the defendant
was in fault in striking the blow he had done, he had been
greatly provoked, the plaintiff was no worse for it, and a
farthing damages would be ample compensation.
His Lordship, in summing up, said if the plaintiff's case
were true, it was scarcely possible to conceive a greater out-
rage than that spoken to by the plaintiff and his witnesses,
and left it to the jury to say whether they were satisfied
with his version of the affair, which was in part confirmed
by the defendant's evidence. If so, they must find for the
plaintiff, with such reasonable damages as they thought the
defendant ought to pay.
The jury retired,and after being absent some time returned
with a verdict for the plaintiff—damages, one farthing.

MIDLAND CIRCUIT—WARWICK, March 1.
NISI PEIUS COURT.
(Before Mr. Justice Blackburn,)
JORDAN V. 'WATSON,

This WWI an action for seduction.

Mr. Sergeant O'Brien and Mr. Stephen appeared for the
plaintiff, and Mr. Macaulay, QC., and Mr. Merewether for
the defendant.

The plaintiff is a farmer innkeeper, living at Pailon,
near Rugby, and the defendant is ^ farmer occupying a
considerable quantity of land in the same par,,:, of which
• ived l
about 100 acres are his own property. The plaintiff
with his wife and only child, Ellen, at the White Lion Inn,
and his case was that in 1860 the defendant became a fre-
quent visitor at the White Lion, and began to pay marked
attention to the plaintiff's daughter, who was then 18 years
of age. At Whitsuntide, 1861, a feast of the Odd Fellows'
Club was held at the White Lion. On that occasion, about
11 o'clock at night, the defendant fetched the plaintiff from
an adjoining room into the bar, and there, in the presence of
several members of the family, asked for permission to marry
his daughter, The father made no reply, but the intimacy
between his daughter and the defendant continued. In the
early part of 1862, Ellen Jordan and the defendant were in
the habit of walking out together in the evening, and con-
tinued to do so until the girl found out that she was pregnant.
In August her mother discovered the girl's condition, and
informed the father of it in the same month. The father
was very angry, threatened to send the girl to the Union,
and ultimately became so violent that the daughter in Octo-
ber went out of his way to London for a few days. After
her return she remained at home till December, when she
again went up to London, where she stayed till after her con-
finement in February, 1863.

The case for the defendant was that he, although he had
ben too intimate with the girl, yet that, as that intimacy
had not commenced till the latter end of July, 1862, he
could not have been the father of her child, which was born
in the early part of the following February. It was also sug-
gested that the girl had been too intimate with a groom named
William Lumbers, who had been staying at the White Lion
in the early part of 1862 in charge of his master's horses. In
support of this case the defendant himself was called, and
swore that his intimacy with the girl had not assumed an im-
moral aspect till the end of the month of July. He did not,
however, deny that he bad paid attention to the girl for some
time previously, or that he had proposed marriage to her
father in 1861. Several other witnesses were called, who de-
posed to having seen the girl and William Lumbers walking
together, and one in particular gave evidence of a scene he
had witnessed in a field near Pailton, in May, 1862, which,
if true, added great probability to the supposition that
Lumbers was the father of the girl's child. A Mrs. Bate-
man, who kept a haberdasher's shop in Pailton, stated that
in October the girl told her she was with child and was
going to London to marry Lumbers. This was before th
girl left for London on the first occasion, and the witness
added that on her return the girl begged her to keep the
secret as to Lumbers, and said that she should lay the child
to Mr. Watson, The girl herself upon her cross-examina-
tion denied all this, and also that she had ever been intimate
with Lumbers, or had permitted him or any other man to
take improper liberties with her. Lumbers also was called
in reply, and denied that he had ever been in any way hati-
mate with the plaintiff's daughter.

Attention was called by the learned Judge to the fact that
although the parents were aware of their daughter's con-
dition in August, yet nothing was said to the defendant on
the subject till the month of October, During the interval
between August and October the defendant was in the habit
of visiting the White Lion constantly. On being charged,
however, with being the father of the child with which the
girl was then pregnant, he denied it, and ceased to visit the
house. Nothing more was said to him about the matter
till the following September, a period of 10 or 11 months,
when he was served with the writ in the present action.
The jury found a verdict for the plaintiff—Damages,
£l5O.

OXFORD CIRCUIT.--OXFORD, Feb. 29.
There was no civil business for these Assizes, and there-
fore both the learned Judges sat this morning to try pd.
Boners.

CROWN COVET.
(Before Mr. Justice Keating.)
John Johnson and Charles Sherman were indicted for
maliciously setting fire to a stack of hay at St. Giles's,
Oxford, the property of William Charles Higgins, on the
21 of February.

This case was made out by a confession of one of the
prisoners. The value of the rick destroyed was between
£lOO and £2OO, and one of the prisoners stated that he did
it in order to get into gaol.

The jury returned a verdict of guilty, and
The learned Judge, remarking that the crime of arson
was rife in this county, sentenced Sherman to seven, and
Johnson to six years' penal servitude.
Mr. J, G. Edwards was for the prosecution.
(Before Mr. Baron Pigott.)
Shadrach Brayno was indicted for maliciously and feloni-
ously throwing a stone upon an engine passing along the
West Midland Railway, with intent to endanger the safety
of Joshua Hodges, then being on the said engine; and upon
a second count for a misdemeanour in endangering the safety

of the said Joehua Hodges, being on the railway, by throw-
ing a stone.

Mr. Godson was for the prosecution; Mr. Sawyer was for
the prisoner.

At about 8 o'clock in the evening of the Bth of August,
1863, the prisoner, with two of his brothers, and two other
boys named Pollett and Webber, were on the Combo rail-
way bridge over the West Midland Railway as a train was
approaching and about to pass underneath it. The prisoner
got a stone from the road, and as the train went under the
bridge, dropped the stone, though his companions had ad-
vised him not to do it. The engine was struck by the
falling stone, and a fraction of it fell on the railway, but
another fraction, weighing some 41b. or 61b., hit the fireman,
Joshua Hodges, on the shoulder. The fireman was rendered
nearly insensible, and the driver, by catching him in his
arms, prevented his falling from the engine. On their arriVal
at Handborough information of the occurrence was given,
and at Oxford the fireman was placed and 3r the care of Mr.
Symonds, surgeon, and is not yet able to follow his occupa-
tion. The prisoner was taken into custody on the lfith of
August, and said he had not intended to hit the engine
driver, At the close of the case,
The learned Judge suggested that the felony had not
been made out.

The prosecution did not press that part of the charge, and
The prisoner then withdrew his plea of not guilty to the
misdemeanour, and pleaded guilty thereto.
An acquittal was taken on the count for the felony, and
The learned Judge sentenced the prisoner to six months'
imprisonment with hard labour.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TlMES.—Twelve years ago, when all England
was sympathising with the terrors of Maria and the
sufferings of Uncle Tom, it was little expected that
the whole negro population of Louisiana would soon
be emancipated, and that the chain and lash would
be snatched from Legree and placed in the hands of
a great Abolitionist Power. Let people beware
how they indulge too freely in the luxury of senti-
ment and opinion, for they know not how soon they
may be called on to prove their sincerity. So far
as regards that wide region of which New Orleans
is the centre the day of personal slavery is over ;
L the African is a man and a brother ; no longer a
I chattel. He is conscious of the boon; he has en-
joyed his new born liberty; he has eaten and drunk,
danced:and sung, and then fallen asleep, to dream
of new joys and awake with the sense of freedom.
But neither here nor at the head-quarters of Aboli-
tion has this glorious consummation been celebrated
as it deserved. Thirty-two years ago there was
scarce a child in England who did not on a
certain day eat plumcake and drink tea in honour
of our own Negro Emancipation. In America there
has been no jubilee; but, perhaps, what we see
there is something more serious and substantial.
Perhaps the negroes are not only emancipated, but
taught to use their freedom and made worthy of
their new ceiling. We omitted to do that in the
West Indies, and hence possibly our mischance and
degradation of the free negro. The American Abo-
litionist has profited by that warning, and will not
do the work by halves. Here is the iew Charter of
American freedom ; here is the birthright which
American Christianity:offers instead of the curse of
Ham. Englishmen are not only familiar with the
principle of liberty, but accustomed to discuss and
even frame Constitutions. It was but the other day
that we were giving at the point of the bayonet
Constitutions to Sicily, Naples, and Greece, to Por-
tugal and to Spain. With rather more right, and
happily more success, we have given Constitutions,
or rather conceded the power of making their own
Constitutions, to many of our colonies. So it is with
scientific zest and a practised eye and touch that we
take up the Constitution which is to regenerate the
African race, and raise the free negro himself into
an insurmountable barrier against the returning
wave of slavery. What shall we expect to find its
first axiom, its distinguishing feature, and the
pivot upon which the minor arrangements all turn?
Lycurgus wanted to make soldiers; Solon to make
citizens; so Lincoln, doubtless, has his grand idea.
It is soon told. Every man most do his day's
work. So that is what we are coming round to at
last. A continent is covered with fire and blood to
proclaim anew the old text, " In the sweat of thy
face shalt thou eat bread." Such is the simple issue
of all this long controversy. Hear it, Exeter Hall,
and learn at last that you must not hope to be much
wiser than your grandmother. That is what she
used to say, and her grandmother before her. But a
very rough and stern grandmother is now teaching
this first lesson to the negroes of Louisiana. Work,
Work, Work is the order of the day ' • yes, literally,
the Order of the Day, published at "Headquarters,
Department of the Gulf, New Orleans, February 3,
1864." And when we come to the nature of the work,
and the manner of the work, and the hours, and
the motives, the superintendence and whole domes-
tic discipline, then we see that General Banks has
not minced the matter. What chiefly marks the
document before us is a total absence of the plati-
tudes usually employed in addressing the negro race.
It commences significantly with suspending the
negro enlistment. After localising the negro in
his district or parish, placing him everywhere under
the Provost-Marshal, cutting off the supply of dan-
gerous luxuries, interdicting arms, and making other
salutary regulations, the General Order informs
the negroes that in return for good keep and suffi-
cient wages they must and shall work ten hours a
day in summer and nine in winter, of course on the
plantations, under their existing employers. The
arrangements are evidently those heretofore in force
'1 those regions. Gee. Banks appears to have had
at his elbow some sensible planters, who have done
justice to boral• aides according to their own light,
but who certainly eve not suppressed their convic.
tion that a nigger must
Work, and, if he does not
not,
in any
like work, must be made to werk. He
in-
deed, to be flogged, nor is he to be illuni isshed
That is a muter for the
cruel or unusual manner.
district Provost-Marshal, or any that he n;aY ap-
point. The negro is to choose his own employ er
but having made his choice is to abide by it. Smali
quantities of land are to be allowed on private ac-
count. Families are not to be separated, if it can
be helped. Saving banks are to be provided, the
sick and aged care for, and the Sundays not to be
needlessly encroached on. Indeed, it must be ad-
mitted, in justice to Gen. Banks, that the negro is
here treated as an article of value, as something to
be kept alive and well if possible, and a real neces-
sity in the social system. That has not been the
case in the provision made for emancipated negroes
in the North. But after some pious regard to the
dictates of humanity and the minor requirements
of a new industrial system Gen. Banks returns to
the principles or theory of hie order :—" These re-
gulations are based upon the assumption that labour
Is a public duty, and idleness and vagrancy a crime."
This soundest of doctrines the general illustrates by
referring to different classes and appealing tovarious
sanctions. We will not dispute it. But though
labour be a terrible and universal necessity, yet we
see it usually allied with some liberty of choice, and
not made absolutely dependent on the will of cer-
tain employers, backed by Provost-Marshals. There
are men, even with the protection of a black skin,
who cannot work in the sun ten hours a day. Yet
they are to work on the plantations of Louisiana.
They are to have no choice as to the nature of the
work, for they must do the work required to be done
on the spot. The General Order fixes the pay and
other conditions of the work. What is this but pre-
dial instead of personal slavery P The negro is de-
clared a serf, bound to the soil, and yet told that he is
free. But the General Order reveals its true spirit in
the concluding articles, just as a lady's letter re-
serves its meaning to the postscript, and a re ttle-
snake puts its mind into its tail. General Banks,
in return for the labour of these negroes, expects
that the employers will troop to the ballot-box and
vote for Mr. Lincoln. The slaves are evidently the
price of their political support. Such planters as
can reconcile it to their conscience to vote for Mr.
Lincoln as President of the whole Union, and so
abandon the cause of the Confederates, are promised
a good supply of negroes, with a Provost-Marshal
to each gang, to do the usual work of their planta-
tions. Should they decline this offer, should they
even be "indifferent" and wish to keep out of it
altogether, they will be regarded and treated as
traitors. The oath of allegiance will be tendered
to all, and woe to those who refuse. They will be
put out of the pale of the law. Their plantations,
with the negroes in them, will be handed over to
more loyal and trustworthy men. This of course
adds to the completeness of these regulations. The
Federals are to take the place of the Confederates
in the possession of the Southern soil and the com-
mand of its negro population. The former would
be useless without the latter, so it becomes neces-
sary to organise a system under which the substance
of slavery may be retained without the name. This
is serfdom, if, indeed, without a personal tie, it is
worthy even of that name. So, while the Emperor
of Russia is abolishing serfdom, the President of
the United States is adopting it as a new institu-
tion, a new pledge of reconciliation, and a new
bond of union between the Northern and Southern
States. Such is the practical conclusion we have
coeae to twelve years after the publication of Mrs.
Beecher Stowe's incomparable tale.

[AhvEhushiahyr.]—Holloway's Ointment and
Diseases of the Skin.—No case of disease of the skin, be its
nature what it may, has failed to be benefited when these
potent remedies have been properly applied. In scrofulous
and scorbutic affections they are especially serviceable.
Scurvy and eruptions which had resisted all
other modes of
treatment and gradually become worse from year to year
have been completely cured by Holloway's
cooling oint-
ment and purifying pills, which root out the disease from
the blood itself, and leave the constitution free from every
morbid taint. In the nursery Holloway's ointment should
be over at hand, it will give ease in sprains, contusions,
burns, scalds, and infantile eruptions, and may always be
safely applied by any ordinary attendant.