The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-05 00:00:00

The Great CamPden House Case.

(From the Law limes of to-day.)
The great Insurance case has ended in a verdict
for the plaintiff. At the close of the examination
of Mr. Woolley, it was manifest that such must be
the issue. He told a plain story, not improbable in
itself, and he was wholly unshaken on cross-exami-
nation. Unless the case of the insurance offices was
very much stronger upon their briefs than it came
out on the evidence, it is difficult to imagine how
their legal advisers could have recommended such a
defence upon such slender materials. They should
have known that nothing short of the clearest proof
would have sufficed to secure a verdict, where the
defence rested upon a charge so serious. The jury
would not have been justified in finding for the
offices upon any case less than that upon which they
would have convicted plaintiff of arson and attempt
to murder, had he been on his trial for those crimes.
In fact, save for the consequences, he was in the
same plight as if he had stood in the dock ; his cha-
racter was equally at stake. A verdict against him
would have been virtually a conviction for arson.
Some of the newspapers have, been loud in
reproaches of the companies for resisting the
claim. It was certainly most unwise to do so,
unless they had been armed with very much
stronger proof of the asserted crime. But we
must except to the dangerous doctrine put forward
by the Times, that policies of insurance should be
' excepted from the law of fraud, and that the offices
should pay them under any circumstances, save in
the case of arson in fire policies and of murder or
suicide in life policies. Baron Bramwell refuted the
first fallacy in his clear and able summing up of the
case, in which not merely did be recognise the
right of insurance offices to resist fraud—or that
which they believe to be fraud—but he pointed out
the danger to the community if they were not to do
so. " Consider," he said, " the consequences that
must ensue if the companies were to say, ' We will
pay claims which we believe have originated in
fraud rather than discredit ourselves with the pub-
lie.' Gentleman, if they were to take that course it
would speedily come to this, that no man would be
safe in his bed for fear lest his neighbour, certain of
impunity, might set fire to his house in order to
defraud an insurance company. It would be a down-
right iniquity if offices were to pay claims which
they believe have arisen out of crime. It would
render it necessary that the matter should be taken
out of their hands and intrusted to some office on
the part of the public. It is an undoubted fact that
life and fire insurances have been converted into a
means and motive of crime."
Tho principle so broadly asserted by the, Times
goes to this—that if by any amount of fraud, by
false statements, by concealment of facts, by perso-
nation, or any of the many other tricks by which
insurance offices are daily imposed upon, and which
no vigilance on their parts can possibly detect by
anticipation, nor until the event happens that
reveals the fraud, a rogue succeeds in obtaining a
policy, he is to enjoy the fruits of his crime and
triumph in his wickedness. This would be indeed
to offer a premium for fraud, and to propagate crime
by that surest of all promoters of it, the example of
successful knavery. It is the duty of companies no
less than of individuals to resist fraud whenever
they have just reason to believe that a fraud has
been committed. A fire insurance office is bound
to do so for the reason pointed out by Baron Bram-
well, that, if it were not to resist it, every man's
life and property would be in jeopardy from his
neighbour, whom poverty and impunity might
tempt to save himself from ruin by robbing the in-
surance office. A life insurance office is equally
bound to resist a fraud, because the losses caused by
the fraud must fall upon the honest insurers, and
if the offices did not resist, frauds would certainly
multiply until the innocent policy-holders were de-
prived of all their gains. The resistance to Mr.
Woolley's claim was a grave mistake, but it affords
no argument for the doctrine that has been founded
upon it by the Times and some other jounals, that
insurances offices should submit to any frauds save
those accomplished by arson, murder, or suicide.

The Austrian journals state that the authorities
of the town of Ostrou, in Moravia, recently seized 19 sacks
of flour, in each of which they found concealed:a bag con-
taining about 401 b. of gunpowder. The sacks had corns
from Prussia, and were on their way into Russia, via
Gallici a.

An agriculturist in the Duchy of Holstein is
stated to have discovered a remedy for the potato blight
Before planting the tubercle, he washes it in chlorine water,
and then lets it dry in the sun. He has, it is said, tried
this method for three years, and always obtained sound
potatoes.

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AN ADVENTURE WITH A STAG IN THE MOUN-
TAINS OF KILLARNEY.--A young gentleman, named
Mr. A, Gcran, accompanied by his man, on the 23d inst.,
went to spend a night on the mountains deer-stalking. He
lay down near a rock where he expected the deer to pass,
and had remained there till about eleven o'clock, when a
fine antler red deer passed by at an easy pace. He raised
his rifle and took steady aim at him; he fired, but instead
of hitting him in the heart hit him somewhere about the
flank. Tho stag went off bleeding, and he followed at a
rapid pace, when suddenly the stag, coming near the rock,
wheeled at him. Mr. Gcran fortunately turned round and
went behind a tree. The stag went at him again, and he
got across the river. His man came to the rescue and shot
the stag through the heart. He is a beautiful red deer, a
fin© specimen of his species. Great credit is due to the man
for his steady aim; were it net for him the consequences
might have proved fatal,—Correspondent of the Cork
Examiner.

ASININE IMPROVEMEN T.—Good days seem to be
i❑ store for the donkey, that much-abused, patient,
and uncomplaining animal, for besides the association re-
cently formed in London for the purpose of giving prizes to
costermongers who can produce sleek, well-fed, and well-
tended animals of this description, Madame Urbain Eattazzi
has taken the donkeys of Aix-les-13ains under her protec-
tion, and has succeeded in successfully carrying out a great
race meeting in which her long-eared proteges were
allowed to contend. Everything passed off in the greatest
good order in the presence of more than 3,000 visitors. In
order that the susceptibilities of the four-footed competi-
tors should not be wounded, everything was arranged as
for a regular race meeting, for there were grand stands and
reserved seats, clerks of the course, " gentlemen riders,"
weighing enclosures; and the names, weights, and colours
of the riders were duly published. There were three prizes,
two of 20f. for donkeys of three years and over; and the
grand prize of 30f. for donkeys of all ages, conditions, and
countries. The distance was something under a mile.