The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-11 00:00:00

EASTERN BENGAL.

A special general meeting of this company was held on
Saturday at the office, Gresham-street, to consider whether
they should accept or decline the proposal of the Secretary
of State for India to construct an extension line as far as
Jamoona, as part and parcel of the original line, under a
guarantee of 41- per cent. per annum on the necessary capi-
tal ; Mr. J. F. Leith in the chair.
The CHAIRMAN explained that the directors had offered
to give the facilities of the Bengal Company in carrying out
the extension by a separate company, but with the view of
working the two lines ultimately together, but on the dis-
tinct understanding that the capital of the new line should
be kept distinct, and the dividend distinct. This offer was
subsequently declined by the Secretary of State for India,
who insisted that the new line should form a part and parcel
of the original undertaking. The traffic on the original line
from Jan. 10 to the end of June amounted to 332,548r5.
The weekly returns now averaged about 20,400 re, and when
they reached 25,000 rs he believed the 5 per cent. guarantee
would be covered. _ _ .

After some observations by Mr. Morgan, Mr. P aul, and
other shareholders, resolutions were passed to the effect that
the meeting declined to accept the offer of the Secretary of
State for India to carry out the extension to the Jamoona
on the guarantee of 4.1 per cent. "as
fart and parcel of the
original undertaking, and not separatad ;" and authorising
the board to negotiate with the Secretary of State for India
for the proposed extension to the Jarloona, provided it be
carried out as a distinct and separate undertaking.
The proceedings concluded with a cote of thanks to the
chairman and directors.

THE RAILWAY ACCIDENT NEAR LYNN

KINGS LYNN, Monday.

---- -
At several of the places of worship n this town,yesterday,
the preachers made special allusion to this shocking acci-
dent. Thanks were offered to Alinigity God that so many
lives were spared.
The inquiry before Thomas MartinWilkin, Esq., coroner
for Freebridge, Lynn, was resumed o-day at one o'clock,
at the Guildhall, Lynn.
Mr. Pitcher wished to ask Mr. Valentine a few ques-
tions. _ _

Mr. Edwards also made an applization ; it would be an
injustice if the company might not nake remarks as to the
traffic return which had been called into question. Might
he address the jury ?
The Coroner said he had carefulY considered the ques-
tion since the last meeting. The matter was left to his
discretion. He was satisfied that he had exercised a wise
vations. Where matters had beet gone into rather beside
the particular question, he felt thit, rather than injustice
discretion, and would allow Mr. Edwards to make obser-
should be done, the application sh#uld be granted.
Mr. Edwards asked the permi&ios of the Coroner that
the notes of the evidence taken before this jury should be
granted for the use of the othet jury. Mr. Keane had
stated that such could be done.

The Coroner grarTediheapplicstion.
Mr. Valentine, C.E.—I left the line in good order. I
have had no control as represenOtive of the Lynn and
Hunstanton Railway over the 11W. The Great Eastern
Company work the line, and it is their bounden duty to
keep it in repair.
By the Coroner—lt was put in their hands in October.
By Mr. Pilcher—The length of sleepers varies. On the
old form of roads the sleepers are nine feet long ; on this
form of road eight feet, which I think quite as safe. This is
the case on the Lynn and Hunstanton. The sleepers are
usually composed of Scotch fir, beech, and larch timber.
I know no instance where the dead trees have been used.
They are as good sleepers as can be had of that size. A
rumour of that kind got circulated because a few years ago
there was a gale of wind which blew a large number of trees
off the estate now occupied by the Prince of Wales, sx.,
and these were purchased by the contractor. I believe they
were very good sleepers.
By Mr. Ward—l complained to the contractors respect-
ing the fences, of their inefficiency after they were put
down, and after that the defects were remedied. I did not
complain of the one rail fence, and had I seen the ditches
dry, or had any idea that they woad be, I should not have
allowed them. The gradients on this line are very good,
There is no such a gradient even as 1 in 100 on this line.
It is not usual to connect gradient 4 by a piece of straight,
but it is so on the Lynn and Hunstanton Railway, So far
as I can judge of the line, I should say there has been no
heard that Mr. Hammond had
alteration since the rails were put down.
By Mr. Edwards—There can be no greater proof of the
strength of the permanent way than that the rails have not
been destroyed. The Lynn and Hul,stanton Company are
an independent company.
complained By the C otri
till
the
e— never
inquiry. Some ballast had been laid on
the line.
John Thompson—l live at South 11-ootton. lam shep-
herd
to Mr. Hammond, who has a considerable quantity of
land near the railway. A good deal is on the Marsh Com-
mon line. There have never been fences in my judgment,
since they have been up, sufficient to hand against, either
sheep, bullocks, or horses. I never say horses, but I have
bullocks and sheep, on the line. I hove seen them more
than once. I first saw them last autemn' just after last
Michaelmas. Two I saw on at once in own. There
was a little water in the ditches. I say th:bullocks walk
right over the fence, and go back the sane way. This was
not far from the Marsh lane crossing.
By Captain Tyler—That is about tw) miles from Lynn.
By Cor one n
r —0 leo
sawr two, them
again t few days after, but
can't the
tsayewhetherl hay% seen Mr. Bloom-
field's on within the last month. I have put two off within
ttwheicel.aslt
havemon notth. selen have put them cif myself more than
the
platelayers et this time. I never
saw any horses on the line. I have seen as many as eight
or ten sheep at once.

They were lying ca the line.
been very much used to cattle. I never knew cattle that
gates were nit left open. I have
w oBBu
ylyd
i‘t
ihurem. CEp odnor
wvo
over
rre
dra—sn—y
Ifelnece. I never smil3loomfield's cattle
jump over. They walk over it.
By the Coroner—One fence is a single rail, not an inch
thick. The posts are two or three feet long. Some of them
are four or five inches thick. They are not strong enough
to stand against a bullock.
By Mr. Edwards--I have seen them broken twice. I
came here to speak the truth.
By Mr. Haylock—l complained to the P
the line, and I told our master about it. The men always
go down the line every morning, and they have mended
it. platelayers about
By a Juror—l could pull the fences down from end to
end.

The following report, by Captain Tyler, the Govern-
ment Inspector from the Board of Trade, who had been in-
structed officially to inspect the scene, and investigate the
causes of the disaster, was read :
" I have inspected, in the course of Saturday evening and
alsothis
themorning,carriages
whichfences
wereo n thand
the 3d of August. I find that No. 51 is the third class. Car-
ferancunturset
came into .
riage, standing in the yard at Lynn, whicli
in front of it,
col-
lision with a first-class carriage immediately
and that this carriage does not appear to have any decayed
fractured int nt
Railway,acciden t o
wood about it, though it is of weak construction. Its front
and part of its left side were stove in, and manyof the seats
were displaced and broken. No. 279, third-class carriage,
which lies on its side at the site of the accident, was next
behind it in the train, and contains some wood in an ad-
vanced state of decay at each end underthe bodY resting on the
buffer planks. The statements differ as to which of these
carriages contained the greatest number of passengers, but
I have myself been more particularly struck with the condi-
tion of No. 51 carriage, and the way in which that carriage
was broken up, with comparatively little injury to the
stronger carriage in front of it with which it came in con-
tact. The experience of railway accidents has amply shown
that the most perilous cases are constantly unattended with
loss of life, when, either from the strength of the carriages
or their position, the bodies of the carriages are not broken
up ; and that, on the other hand, it is when the bodies of
carriges
give way, that the loss of life and serious injuries
are caused to the passengers riding in them. The poorer
classes of passengers are more liable to suffer in such cases,
for two reasons—first, because they ride in carriages of
weaker construction ; and secondly, because these carriages
ri g
are not well padded. It is true that carriages are built
run upon the rails, and are not intended to colas into to
will-

sion with one another ; but they may be called upon to re-
sist extraordinary strains at any moment; and When this
test is brought to bear upon a train, the difference of strength
in the carriages is frequently one of lite or death to the pas-
sengers who ride in them. It may be well to observe that
the axles of No. 51 (the carriage which was first thrown off
the line) are lower than those of the other carriages, and
that this circumstance appears to have caused that carriage
to leave the line. The engine and tender passed over the
bullock with no other injury than the fracture of one of the
feed-pipes and a bulge to the ash pan, and it remained be-
tween the wheels of the three first carriages as they passed
on it. The two axles of the fourth carriage appear (from the
marks on them) to have struck it one after the other, and
it afterwards got outside of the rails to the west of the line,
as is evident from the marks on the remaining car-
riages, The fencing at the sides of this line consists, in
parts, of a post-and-rail fence, with four rails about three
feet six inches high, and with a small ditch to prevent
cattle from rubbing against it; in other parts, of a ditch
from 5 feet 6 inches to 14 feet wide, from 3 feet to 5 feet 6
inches deep ; in some places dry, and in others containing
water from a few inches to 3 feet deep. The ditch usually
has a low rail on the inside of it, but in some places there
is no rail, and in others there are two rails. The new fence
which is being constructed by the company consists of seven
wires, supported on iron strung posts and intermediate wood
posts, and is an excellent one. The lowest part of the fence
opposite Mr. Bloomfield's occupation appears to be 11 feet
s:cle at the top by 3 feet deep, with a rail 91 inches high on
the inside. Ihe sides of the ditch are not sufficiently clean
and steep. The wire fence whiel the company are now put-
ting up on this part of the line will make it perfectly safe.
The gate referred to by Mr. Royston as that one which he
saw a cow jump is 3 feet 54 inches high in the lowest part,
measured on the outside, and the cow jumped slightly up-
hill. As the cattle will jump such gates, it would be well
either to have them higher or to place a bar over them, so
as to give them a minimum height of 4 feet. I consider my-
self, and it appears to have been the opinion of those gentle.
men who accompanied me, that a ditch 10 or 12 feet wide
and 4 feet deep, with 2 feet water in it, with steep sides and
in good condition, is a sufficient fence to keep out sheep and
cattle. But when the ditch is dry and the sides in bad order
one low rail on the inside is not sufficient protection. The
ditches generally require cleaning out, and in many places
where the water is low, or the banks low or sloping, some
extra protection is required. The present appears to be
a very dry season, and the fences may be considered to
be even at their worst; and I think that, taking the above
dimensions as the minimum of what a sufficient fence
ought to be, it would be desirable to add a second rail on
the inside of the ditches, or to afford other equally satis-
factory protection in all cases in which these dimensions
are not reached. The quicks which were put in during
the construction of the line are now nearly covered with
grass and weeds, and should be properly cultivated. I
observe that the gate fastenings require to be improved
in some places, and it does not appear that padlocks have
yet been supplied to the farmers, though chains and hooks
have been placed upon most of the gates. It appears to be
only since the water in the ditches had fallen or dried up that
complaints have been made of cattle getting on the line ;
and it is probable that if the ditches had been deepened when
these complaints were made, enough water would have
found its way into them to protect the line, and no accident
would have occurred. It would be a wise precaution now
to adopt that measure, and to place men in the meantime at
various portions of the line as are not sufficiently protected
during dark or after dark to prevent the possibility of cattle
straying upon the line at such places."
Mr. Pitcher said that Mr. Billing had been to the station
and seen the carriage No. 51, which was not the ono in
which the poor people were killed.
Mr. Edwards by no means admitted that any person knew
which was the carriage. Nobody knew till it was found out
that No. 279 was slightly rotten.
Mr. Pitcher—It was clearly in No. 279 that these unfor-
tunate people were killed.
Mr. Charles Miller said—Mrs. Brown was lying under
the carriage next to that in which I was, but she might
have been thrown there.
Capt. Tyler, by Mr. Edwards—There is no doubt that the
seven-wire fence is a perfect fence. There are differences
of opinion as to whether it is the best. It is dearest at first
but the cheapest in the long run. No. 51 is a weak car-
riage. Such carriages as those of which the rest of the train
is composed are such as are used generally. The wood in
carriage No. 279 referred to is very rotten.
Alan Henry Swatman—l am agent for Mr. Hamond.
I have had communication with the solicitors for the line,
Messrs. Partridge and Edwards ; the. engineer, Mr.
Valentine, and the contractor, Mr. Simpson—the latter
said this plan was off the line, and he had nothing to
do with it. I visited the line in April or May, with a
view to examine the state of the fences along the line.
The longitudinal wood of the crossing was wholly deficient.
The crossing at Marsh line was too near the gate and wing
rails. I communicated the result to the engineer and con-
tractor, and nothing was done. I told the solicitors Mr.
Hamond should not execute the conveyance until the terms
of the agreement were complied with, and it never has been
executed.

Mr. Edwards then, with the permission of the coroner,
made a lengthened address to the jury on behalf of the
Great Eastern Railway, coneluding in the most earnest
manner by expressing the sympathy which the Great
Eastern Company, as well as himself, felt with the poor
creatures; and he expressed the willingness of the company
to afford all the relief which they possibly could. They
came with tears in their eyes and gifts in their hands, and
hoped he would not tarn them away.
The Coroner then summed up the evidence, his remarks
extending over more than half an hour, after which the
jury retired to reconsider the verdict.

The jury unhesitatingly found a verdict to the effect that
the deceased were accidentally killed ; that the cause of the
accident was a bullock straying on the Lynn and Hunstan-
ston Railway between Wootton and Gaywood ; that the
bullock was able to get upon the line in consequence of the
gross negligence of the Great Eastern Railway Company
and their officers—first, by not putting the fence in that
state which the public safety required ; secondly, by not
putting the bullock off the line where the accident occurred ;
thirdly, by the disgraceful state of the carriages which were
used for the conveyance of those unfortunate persons who
were killed. The jury also found that the Government in-
spector was deserving of censure in having passed a line
which was so inadequately fenced,
The inquiry on the body of John Dennis, shipowner, was
resumed at the Town Hall at 10 o'clock, and adjourned till
Wednesday at 10 o'clock.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—The Federal debt is a genuine American
article. Its growth is like that of our most recent
importations from that land of high magnitudes,
the IVellingtonia gigas. The stem of this tree is
vouched to become in course of time 450 feet high,
and so far there is every indication that the pro-
mise is no idle boast. It is as straight as a church
spire, and the foliage, consisting of straight lines
with the slightest possible curve, makes a perfect
cone. The wood is so spongy as to be useless; not
a hand-box could be made out of a whole tree ; and
the bark is worth about as much as the skin of a
crocodile. When the tree has attained its full
height, and is only stopped growing by the winds
or the clouds, it falls at last, and, if the inside is
allowed to rot, in a few centuries you will have a
capital bowling-alley. We will not be so hard on
the Federals as to put one final liquidation of their
huge debt at that value. Nobody knows what may
turn up, but it is impossible to prevent the intru-
sion of a few odd thoughts as one runs over Mr.
Chase's financial speculations and achievements.
To think of such a man having his full swing in
America, after not yet two years and a half, and
such a debt really inspiring no sense of distrust or
discomfort in a nation which, till the other day,
owed nothing but to hate one another and the rest
of the world ! They aro now as proud of their na-
tional debt as the man who boasted that having
commenced business without a farthing he had suc-
ceeded, after only two years, in owing half a mil-
lion dollars. But with a debt which would crush
any State in the Old World except England, and
perhaps France, Mr. Chase still exhibits all the dis-
tinctive features of a splendid, increasing, and per-
manent prosperity. He has a large stock of bullion,
e tors in
so large as to keep in hand all thes
faster
gold. Should they venture to buy gold than
he wishes, he can immediately buy u p millions of
paper, and make trancipplaewteertheir purchase in
a dear market.
and inconvertible "greenbacks," tos to issue paper,
it is almost needless to state in an extent which
really means an infinite figures, because it
power.
a surplus—yes, a golden He has also
sur
of more than 20,000,000 dollars between the actual
t; proving that the debt and the estimated deb
de-
mands of the War have b
and have been even been more than provided for,
ehxuggerated by the cautious
financier. Gladstone, hide your diminished head ;
even you would hardlyd have done as much. We,
indeed, can do a good
spent a hundred millionseal in this country. We
yet could show a
surplus. We can reconstruct our
navy and ordnance, and yet show a surplus. We
can spend several
a
millions a year on fortifications,
and yet show a large surplus. We can increase
almost every item of our expenditure, and yet re-
duce taxation, The Conservative spies, indeed,
sometimes raise an alarm, andproclaim th surplus
a mere cooking. of
the arm,
accounts to make things plea-
saw( for the House of Commons. So we must not
repudiate our American cousins and their clever
Ways without a thought of ourselves. No doubt,
there is a strong family likeness. But children have
been occasionally bad likenesses of their fathers, and
worse imitators. We see in Mr. Chase's injurious
bits of prosperity and confidence only tne customary
devices of habitual insolvents. A nobleman who
owed a million and a half always managed, even at
the most usurious interest, to have twenty £l,OOO
notes in his secretaire. Others, in the like case, have
taken care to keep a balance at their banker's what-
ever that balance might represent. This is but the
cork jacket which a man keeps within reach when

a shipwreck is imminent. Mr. Chase's real power
is not in his bullion, nor yet in his surplus of esti-
mate over expenditure, but in his credit,—that vast,
illimitable credit reposed in him by the Congress, by
the army, by the contractors, and the whole Ameri-
can people. There never was such a credit. It is a
power to issue any amount of paper, some bearing
interest, some not. It is also a power to pay no
debts, to keep the soldier without his pay, till he
disappears, and to give the contractors Certfi-
cates of Indebtedness. As to the soldier, the
policy is sound, for as soon as he gets his pay
he deserts. Ho is fa;,tbful, because unpaid.
Much the same may be said of the contractors.
,:
They get promises, which they
0 n se
money upon. Meanwhile it is not the 11.
or raise
cf the.
contractors to weaken Government or dest,,,7
ts
credit. Much leas is it their policy to quarrel vs,::'h
Government. They have opened large factories;
they have built and bought largely; they have
entered into engagements; they are in the same
case as ths, Government and their cause. To stop is
to be ruined. They must go on or fall. There is no
such thing as standing still in their case. You
might as well attempt to stand still in the n.id
traffic of Ludgate-hill. You must go either for-
wards or backwards. Indeed, it is questionable
whether there is any retreat possible in the case
under question. The Federal Government appears
to feel that it must go on, and that an attempt to
stop would be trying to stop a ship in a storm.
True it is that you can often keep your footing more
easily while in rapid movement than standing still
or walking cautiously. If you try to steed on a
sloping glacier, or walk across it, picking your
steps, you may soon find yourself performing a
terrible glissade. Your only way is to run e cross
with your utmost speed, and that is the feat which
the Federal Treasury is now attempting. It used
to be thought that the want of money must stop the
war at last. Some trifles were overlooked in this
anticipation. The necessity of having to pay im-
mensely more than you can possiblypay at the end
of an operation which you have the power of con •
tinuing will always be a great inducement to con-
tinue it, however ruinous in its final results. An
embarrassed merchant " keeps up the war," as the
phrase is, as long as he can, and allows no mark of
poverty to crop out. He keeps up his establishment,
gives entertainments, and lives just as usual, be-
cause he knows that as soon as he makes an altera-
tion his creditors will flock in. But the stimulus to
perseverance is more cogent and direct in America.
With peace comes the settlement. Credit then
must cease. The Secretary of the Treasury will
no longer be empowered to raise " greenbacks,"
and put off contractors with bills. Then there
will come the great question of questions, how
is the interest of the debt ever to be raised ?
By the time the war is ended, that interest,
on the most favourable supposition, will be twenty
millions sterling of our money, to be found, by
hook or by crook, every year. It is in vain that we
run over the items of our own revenue to find the
answer to this question. Will American Excise,
will Assessed Taxes and Stamps, will Income-Tax,
will Succession Duties, will the Post-office, will
even the Miscellaneous receipts, do much to meet
this immense annual demand ? The only item that
rromises at all is that on which the Americans have
long leaned as their only resource, even in their
palmiest days. That one resource is the customs.
Even we in this sea-girt empire, without a mile of
land frontier to be guarded, without a river to be
watched, and with a population much larger than
that of the Federal States, do not venture to raise
more than about £20,000,000 a year on our customs.
Neither the temper of the nation nor circumstances
will permit larger receipts from this one source.
But how are the Federals ever to raise the sum,
when their northern and southern frontiers will
each be thousands of miles ? Nor are the people in
a state to consume foreign produce and manufac-
tures sufficient to produce such a revenue. But the
truth appears to be admitted. The tariff does not
work. In truth, Mr. Chase's Budget, besides being
a war Budget, besides having only to do *ith
various forms of extravagant borrowing and extra-
vagant expenditure, puts revenue out of the ques-
tion altogether. It is the grand balance-sheet of a
speculator who knows his profits are not even worth
recognition, and that the affair before him is a pitched
battle between liabilities and assets. When a
speculator is in this case he commonly fights as long
as he has a leg to stand upon. He only staves off
as long as he can the evil day, when he intends to
draw his last £5OO from the bank, and put himself
on board a Folkestone steamer. So when people
ask how long the war will last, we can only answer,
"As long as credit lasts ;" and that credit it is
undoubtedly the interest of the wealthiest people
and the most powerful classes to sustain as long as
substitutes for the draughting cost, say, less than
a thousand dollars.

POST.—The inquiry into the circumstances which
occasioned the recent accident on the Lynn and
Hunstanton Railway has resulted in showing what
the large majority of similar investigations prove,
namely, that by the exhibition of a very little
care a sacrifice of human life might have been
avoided. So long as railways exist, and carriages
are whirled across the country at speeds varying
between thirty and sixty miles an hour, so long
we must expect to hear of accidents which entail
destruction upon large numbers of those who adopt
that mode of travelling. In the course of events
occasional incidents are inevitable, and to their oc-
currence we must reconcile ourselves as best we can.
When, however, a mishap occurs which might with
ease have been guarded against and foreseen, we
have a right to complain that those precautions
were not taken which would have prevented its oc-
currence. Now, to this class of accidents we think
the recent catastrophe on the Lynn and Hunstanton
Railway is fairly referable. The mode by which
some two or three-carriages of a train proceeding at
an average speed were upset and five persons killed,
though unusual, was not unparalleled ; and any
person who was acquainted with the nature of the
fences on the line near the spot where the accident
happened might with tolerable certainty have pre-
dicted that it would have taken place. Many years
since, when a Parliamentary committee was ap-
pointed to inquire and report upon the proposed
scheme of employing steam as a locomotive agent,
Robert Stephenson was asked what would be the
result if a train, whilst in motion, came in collision
with a cow which chanced to stray upon the line of
rails. The great engineer is reported to have
answered, " It would be a bad thing for the cow."
The question and the reply are, however, important
days
sea
yi
ansedse iiicndacetehi ntwgeai
mts hfiaol
atr
rebsteeefeoni e.
that a
Asingleh r
eaai
happenedl
rsw back,
as clkai, d
asdoomf weewn.
where in the North of England, a ytrain was overact
in precisely the same manner as that on the Lynn
Railway, and several lives lost. Unusual, there-
fore, though the recent accident is, it is not unex-
ampled, and the evidence which was given on the
inquest places it beyond a doubt that, had anything
approaching to a careful supervision of this state of
the Lynn and Hunstanton Railway been main-
tained, the casualty which rendered that inquest
necessary would never have happened. In this,
however, as in so many previous instances, the rail-
way company and the public are wise after the event
Into much of the evidence which was adduced'
upon the
ap inquest
pearsto
i t
bei s not
attributable
to
necessary to t
he enter.ra i wNa
yo
blame
company so far as regards the management of the
train to which this accident happened. The dis-
tanca betweenHunstanton and Lynn is about fifteen
miles, and on Monday evening, August 3, two trains
were despatched from the former to the latter place
atadneaintitheartviaelhowf titwbeenuttymisap,
minutes.h
Thefirst reached
its
but thelatter hav-
ing come in •
contact with a bullock which had
strayed upon the line, several of the carriages were
thrown off the rail and broken by the force of the
collision, and five persons killed and many others
severely injured. The verdict returned by the
jury is extremely comprehensive,and well, deserves
the attention both of the public and of the Legisla-
lature. It embraces four distinct conclusions. The
railway company are convicted of gross negligence,
first for not making their fences sufficiently high
and strong to prevent cattle straying on the rail-
way from the adjoining pastures; and secondly,
for not having in the late instance driven off the
line the bullock which occasioned the accident.
They are also blamed for the disgraceful condition
of the carriages which received the greatest amount
of injury when the collision took place; and
finally, the Government inspectors are pronounced
deserving of censure for having sanctioned with
their approval a line of railway so inadequately
fenced as that of the Great Eastern Company be-
tween Lynn and Hunstanton. In every particular
of this verdict we entirely concur.
HERALD.—The choice of Sir James Wilde as the
successor of Sir Cresswell Cresswell will not at first
be understood or appreciated by the public at large.
There were no special reasons, perhaps, why the
preference should have been accorded to him;
and yet it is believed on all hands that his
performance of the duties attaching to the Probate
and Divorce Court will be satisfactory at once to
the bar and to suitors. Extravagant reports have
been current with regard to this particular judge-
ship. There was a talk—very irrational and
yet
popular—about Chief Justice Erle receiving a
peerage upon condition that he should descend the
Judicial ladder and become the lictor of matrimonial
life in Westminster Hall. This idea, we should
say, had its origin in America, where a favourite
novelist touchingly depicta an English peer of the
realm, in a barrister's robes, retained for the defence
of a prisoner upon an indictment for felony.
well-informed
r. Rang-
ingPhi-
to an opposite extreme, our ormed
con-
temporaries were " enabled to state"
lirnwn was to mount the vacant bench; but it turns
out that this early information was
only too good,