The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-03 00:00:00

RAILWAY COMPANY.

According to the opening statement of his counsel, the
plaintiff, then 17 years of age, was in 1861 studying with
a view to qualify himself for a commission in the Royal
Engineers, and in August he set out on a tour partly for
pleasure and partly for the purpose of seeing various large
engineering works in different parts of the country. On
Sept. 2, 1861, he took out a ticket for Manchester at the
defendants' office at Buxton. Passengers were conveyed by
an omnibus from Buxton to Whaleybridgo, where they
joined the Mancherter train, On this occasion there were
23 passengers and a great deal of luggage on the omnibus.
Tne mail coach from Matlock to Manchester left Buxton
about the same time as the omnibus, and on getting to a
long and rather steep descent, about two miles from Buxton,
the drivers commenced to race, the omnibus being first.
As the mail coach came dangerously near, one of the omni-
bus passengers, fearing there might be a collision, cried out
something to the driver, who then pulled his horses to the
left; the near front wheel, which had.been previously on
the, hard road, came upon a soft hollow grassy place, at the
side of the road, and caused the omnibus to give a lurch.
The plaintiff and another passenger, seated on the left hand
side of the driver, were thrown off. The plaintiff was taken
up insensible, and conveyed to the Joddrel Arms Hotel,
Whaleybridge, kept by a Mrs. Ward. Before this acci-
dent he was strong, active, and healthy, and had every
prospect of a bright and prosperous future, Now he is a
perfect wreck, both in body and mind ; he has gradually
become worse, and it is almost certain that he has sustained
an incurable injury of the brain and spinal chord, which
will likely terminate in paralysis. This was supported by
the evidence of the plaintiff himself, whose shattered and
helpless appearance excited great commiseration, and by
that of four of his fellow-passengers. After hearing this
evidence his lordship said it was impossible to doubt the
accuracy of the account given by these witnesses. One
could almost see the scene, and the wonder was that the
whole of the passengers were not killed. Mr. Lush said
that this evidence was very different from the account given
to the railway company, but he would not attempt to resist
it. Evidence to show the extent of the injury was then
adduced. The plaintiff's mother, who was deeply affected,
said that she was a widow, and he was her only child. He
came toFolkestene two days after the accident,of which she
heard nothing. She was sitting listening to some music,
and, that he might not alarm her by too sudden an appear-
ance, he stood in front of her, trying to attract her attention.
His arm was in a sling, his face was elongated, his features
were distorted, and she did not recognise him. Her servant
asked if it were not like her son, but she looked and said,
tt oh, no ; not the least." He stood thus nearly five minutes
till the servant drew attention to the pattern of his trousers,
which was some what peculiar, and this made her look closely
at him, and at last she saw something in the expression of his
eyes which enable her to recognise him. She then detailed
the efforts that had been made to effect his cure. She had
taken him from Folkestone to Paris to see an eminent
surgeon, who was eaid to be unusually successful in the
treatment of injuries caused by a sudden shock, and stayed
there five or six weeks, but without his receiving any benefit.
She had since tried the best surgeons and physicians in
London, but instead of growing better he seemed rather
worse. He suffered constant pain, his memory was affected,
also his eyesight ; a kind of dimness came over his eyes,
and he fancied he saw people when no one was near; he was
very restless, and often could not sleep ; his mind occasion-
ally wandered, and ho was sometimes very excited, and at
other times very depressed. A number of eminent surgeons
corroborated this statement, and said that there was little if
any chance of recovery. On the contrary, there was great
reason to expect that he would become helplessly paralysed
and probably imbecile.
Mr. Lush addressed the jury in mitigation of damages.

The Lord Chief Justice, in summing up, said that this
was one of the most distressing cases he had ever seen or
known in a court of justice. A young man had gone forth
happy and strong, in the highest health and vigour ; and,
by the recklessness and mad folly of a driver, he had in
one moment become a wreck, and henceforth his life was
a blank. He did not think this was a case in which they
should listen to any arguments in mitigation founded on
the alleged poverty of those on whom the consequences of
their verdict would ultimately fall. Instead of a life of
activity and honour, full of hope and enjoyment, this un-
fortunate young man was doomed for ever to be the miser-
able creature they had seen. Instead of a happy and useful
existence his future life would be a life of suffering, and
misery, and dependence, till in the progress of this disease
the Lord in his mercy might sweep him away. Could his
mother but stifle her maternal instincts, and listen to the
voi, e of her calmer reason, she probably would prefer that
this accident had ended his days. No money could com-
pensate an injury like this, but it was for them to any what
amount of compensation should be given.
His Lordship spoke with the deepest emotion, and his
utterance was frequently chocked by sobs, which he vainly
endeavoured to repress. When he concluded there was
scarcely a dry eye in the Court. The plaintiffs mother, a
tall and dignified woman, was completely overcome, and
attempted to leave before the verdict was returned, but the
crowd was so great that she had the utmost difficulty in
making her way out.
At the request of the jury Dr. Hawkesley was recalled,
and a: ked whether the symptoms indicative of injury to
the spinal column were likely to increase, and paralysis.ed
ensue in the lower extremities. Dr, Hawkesley
that looking to the ordinary course
iof disease in similar
of
cases, and considering the symptoms n this case,a total
loss of
b
opinion that the probable result would b
power—,first in the lower extremities and eveentuallv in the
was very likely to
arms, and, ultimately complete idiocy'
ensue. He added that it was
ht impossible to say how long
*g be 10 or 12 years, or
it might be more. He would n
the patient might survive.
Itoatuhazard any opinion.
jury addresaed tits
After some deliberation, one of the

Lord Chief Justice, and said that the jury thought £1,500 a
reasonable sum, and his lordship took this as the verdict and
and left the Court ; but he had hardly done so when another
juryman started up and said that the rest of the jury had
never agreed to this, but that, on the contrary, he and at
least five others thought the verdict should be for £2,000.
Sergeant Shee instantly sent a messenger for his lordship,
who returned into court, and, after some explanation and
discussion, said that as six of the jury stated that they had
not agreed to the verdict, it could not be accepted ; and the
jury accordingly consulted again for a few minutes, and then
returned, through their foreman, a verdict for the plaintiff,
damages £2,000.

Mr. Sergeant Shee and Sir George Honyman appeared
for the plaintiff; Mr. Lush, Q.c., and Mr. Ashbury for the
defendants.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—The resolution which was carried yester-
day by a large majority at a crowded meeting of the
Bar embodies a statement which has long been recog-
nised as a truism by the profession and the public.
To say of a system which leaves one branch of our
law to be shaped by irresponsible reporters, and
provides no authentic register of decisions affecting
the rights of every British subject, that it "requires
amendment" is to affirm what is self-evident.
Many may think that too much weight is attached
to precedents, and that it would be far better if our
tribunals were no longer absolutely bound by them.
There are but few principles of the Common Law
that have not found their way into statutes, and if
an authoritative digest of these were compiled,
modern Judges might still be guided, without being
fettered, by the opinions of their predecessors. This,
however, is nat the present question. The question
is whether, assuming that the series of cases mis-
called " unwritten law" is to remain uncodified and
undigested, some adequate security should not to be
taken for their being reported properly. Hitherto no
such security has been found, or even sought in
earnest, since the Year-books were discontinued in
the reign of Henry VIII. A partial and futile effort
of Lord Bacon to procure an official record of case-
law, and constant expressions of vain regret from
our great lawyers, beginning with Coke, are the
only traces of a disposition to confer this great boon
on the nation. We are told that ignorance of the law
is no excuse for any Englishman, and yet it is a
fact, not only that we may be crushed with obscure
precedents gleaned up and down many hundred
volumes, but that the most recent have to be verified
by a comp erison of several different versions. For a
proof of the inconvenience and injury to the inte-
rests of justice that may arise from discrepancies in
reporting, we need not go further back than tue case
of the "Alexandra,' although it was the published
notes of the shorthand writer that were there
impugned. The disputes that may occur now and
then on the motion for a new trial, for want of cer •
tainty as to the language employed by the Judge,
are, however, trifling compared with the permanent
evil of having no reports of conclusive authority.
It is somewhat hard that the mischief of an evil
precedent, once established, can be annulled by the
Legislature alone, but it is monstrous that so fatal
a power should belong to a precedent which may
have been incorrectly reported after all. This is
the main abuse with which Mr. Daniel calls upon
the legal ?rofession to deal. He traces the history
of judge-made law from the earliest times, show-
ing how the Year-books were succeeded by a period
of "loose" repotting, loose reporting by a close
licensing system, the licensing system by a privi-
feged monopoly, and monopoly by open competition
between " regular" Reporters, legal serials, and
newspapers. The only value of this historical
skstch is to show that we have tried every way,
except the best one, and have failed to obtain what
we have a right to insist upon. At this moment
we have six sets of reports competing with each
other, none of which can be quoted as a final stan-
dard of reference, and all of which can be quoted as
evidence on the point decided. Mr. Denman argues
that this multiplicity of reports is the best gua-
rantee for accuracy, and the best corrective for the
tendency of judges to qualify what they have them-
selves laid down. But surely these two objects
would be more directly attained if one transcript
of the judgment were deliberately made by re-
sponsible persons from their own notes, checked as
they would still be by the trustworthy, though un-
authorised, testimony of private reporters. Mem-
bers of the bar and the public generally would then
know where to find the doctrines upon which the
fate of future lawsuits may depend. As it is, the
omission of a material element in the case, or the
confusion of an obiter dictum with the ratio deci
dendi, may entirely vitiate the value of a precedent
as preserved in a particular report, which may
have been prepared in the utmost haste for a weekly
or monthly periodical. The only remedy for this is
the collation of it with -other reports of the same
tugitive kind, and with those which come out—
sometimes years afterwards—with a certain cordial
prestige and under the names of their authors,
though not always with any paramount claim to
respect. Granting that the exact significance of the
decision can be elicited in this way, the process is
enormously dilatory and expensive. It is dilatory,
because the reporters, out of a natural anxiety to
omit nothing which others insert, crowd their pages
with cases which prove nothing, and details which
do not elucidate the cases. It is expensive, because it
i uvolves taking in or getting access to six publications
instead of one, the price of this last being enhanced
by the very diminution of its circulation owing to
the opposition of its rivals. When we add that even
the reports which are called " regular " are
under no uniform system of management, are com-
piled on different principles, are issued at uncertain
intervals, and possess no judicial sanction, although
they are often corrected by the Judges, we have said
enough to recommend Mr. Daniel's resolution to the
common sense of onr readers. The next question,
and indeed the only one that admits of serious con-
troversy, is, what is to be done ? We might evade
this, as the meeting evaded it, by throwing it upon
the committee of eminent lawyers just appointed.
'Perhaps, however, the problem is one which would
appear more formidable to a professional than to an
ordinary mind. In the first place, there is really
no reason why the appointment of an official, or,
as we should prefer to call him, a responsible,
reporter for each Court should exclude the class
whose interests are supposed to be adverse to
change. It would be the duty of this gentle-
man, out of whatever fund he might be paid,
to select and reduce to a succinct form those cases,
and those only, which involve important matters of
law. This would take some little time; and mean-
while the curiosity of the public and the profession
would create a demand for ampler and fresher ac-
counts of legal proceedings. In the great majority
of the cases contemplated written judgments are
even now pronounced, and the responsible reporter
would have nothing to do bat to embody them, as
is now done. The chief difference would be that he
would be bound to produce the results of hie labours
with much greater despatch than at present, and
that the judges would revise their own words
while they were still fresh in their memories. No
doubt it would be an essential feature of this system
that no other report could be cited as conclusive ;
but the Bench might still be enlightened by cases
borrowed from non-official sources, as they now
are by the extempore illustrations which counsel
frequently offer from their own experience. Some-
thing like this practice bas been adopted in Parlia-
ment, and there are no apparent objections to its
application in Courts of Law. It would not in-
volve of necessity the principle that the Judge
should be virtually his own Reporter where the
judgment is oral, for the reporting body might be
made independent of the Judicature. These are
essentially difficulties of detail, and such as the
leaders of the legal profession, in concert with the
Bench, might easily overcome. -What the public
and the working members of the Bar may fairly
expect is an accessible and sufficient record, at a
reasonable cost and within a reasonable time, of the
law which the Judges are always making, though
by a legal fiction they are said to declare it, and
whieh thenceforth becomes binding upon all. Vhe-
ther this record should be prepared under State
sanction or under judicial sanction, and how far
private enterprise should be encouraged at the same
time, it is for the committee to consider.

HERALD.—It is with much regret that we find
our predictions as to the small amount of good which
the Government labour scheme would effect for the
Lancashire operatives are in course of being verified.
The Public Works Bill was passed with the express
object of giving speedy aid to the unfortunate
sufferers. The public were told at the time that
there was no cure for the evil, and all that could be
done was to afford temporary relief. The measure
accordingly became law ; but the summer has passed
away, the autumn has gone, the winter has arrived,
and now we are informed that not until next spring
will the act come into operation with anything like
fulness ! Can any more complete failure be eon.
ceived ? On the one hand, there is an idle popula-
tion existing from hand to mouth as paupers or the
recipients of charity ; on the other, there is a
Ministry asking Parliament to sanction a plan
which would afford immediate relief to the sufferers,
and although the representatives of the country at
once gave their hearty supporttothe scheme,
elapse
before now find that a period of nine
before it is able to effect the promised months mustrmnised good. While
the bill was before Parliamentet
we deprecated State
interference
be
sho
w i n n
Lancashire,
completeunless
a nidt
thaatirtahires interference would result
cothe
in the organisation of a system
more
more fitted to meet the requirements or the case,
than any which could be devised by the benevolent
designs of individuals or the combined action of
statement committees,
int
tatte et
sh'e public also
im
it)orookv e emxecnelpst
carried r ited theoo i] t
under the
provisions of the act would assist the

operatives in getting over the hardships of winter,
believing that if they were unfitted for emigration
they were equally unfitted for out-of-door labour
in cold weather. This opinion has also been
confirmed. Mr. Farnall having on Monday'
last stated that even in the towns where public
works have been commenced not a single able- -
bodied man will be found at work upon them
should it turn out, as is generally anticipated,
hard winter. Looked at, then, in all its bearings,
the Government labour soheme, up to the present
time, has been useless. Du.ring the passage of the
bill throughout Parliament the calculations of the
Home Secretary that it would yield employment to
between 70,000 and 80,000 men, were cut dawn by
Mr. Farnall to 30,000. Now it is shown that if
the winter prove severe it will do no good whatever
until the spring, and finally, thong a both Lorda
and Commons hurried on the bill, so that no time
should be lost, redtapeism has stepped in,
and has
erected so many barriers that vexatious delays vir-
tually nullify the little benefit it wa, calculated
would be derived from the measure. l'he local au-
thorities of the various towns have eage.'•ly applied
for loans, and are ready to commence o perations ;
and at Ashton works are already in progress,
having been undertaken on the faith of Go vernment
promises, but the money is not forthcomin, g. There
is on the part of officials a more than comet, on dila-
toriness,
and it appears that such a multiplicity of
mortgages has to be given—a separate dee,l being
required for each instalment of loan—that ate feel-
ing is gaining ground in Lancashire that it is ne-
cessary to think twice before adopting th't' act.
Indeed, Mr. Hugh Mason states that in Ashton' the
corporation had always borrowed money at 4 Per
cent., but on account of the delay in receiving ttl;
stalments of the loan applied for they are obliged
to obtain money to carry out the works n udertakent
for which bankers charge at the rate of 5 per cent.;
so that by placing themselves under title Public
Works Act the authorities are decided losors. Not
for a moment do we advocate the affairs of the
country being managed upon the slap-deal prind
ciple which ultra-Radicals consider so admirable;
but in the case of relieving the burdens o f the Lan:
cashire operatives forms might have been
simplt-
fled, and the needless circumlocution of dividing
the business between the Poor-law Board and the
loan commissioners done away with. Had the
latter been empowered to hand over the sum°
required to the former much unnecessary &AO
would have been avoided. Fortunately thAe
Central Committee at Manchester exists, an:
at the last meeting the grievance lve'
ventilated and the wise suggestion of Lord Der by
adopted—namely, that the circumstances of the cah 8
should be at once brought to the notice of the Home
Secretary. But even though this be done, Oa
henceforward less delay occur, it will not alter tho
opinion of the public as to the failure of the Govern'
merit plan to ameliorate the condition of the cotton
hands. The report of Mr. Farnall for the week
ending the 21st ult. shows an increase of pauperiste
amounting in the twenty-seven unions to 8636
persons. The total number now is 129,444, or 6.4
per cent. of the population, against 259,385, or 13.1
per cent., in the corresponding week of 1862, o'4
53,206, or 3.7, at the same period in 1861. The:'
then, there is a diminution upon the year of /29,91-14
persons, but an increase upon 1861 of 76,238, se.
it to these be added the number supported by rehe
committees it wil, be seen how very far Lancashire
is :
from its normal condition. In fact, the rerr,
from Manchester is gloomy in the extreme, but, I!"
we have never been of those who believed the cool
would pass away with the winter, the condition ():
the operatives is not worse than we anticipated 1"
would be. In several districts factories are being
altogether closed ; in others, in consequence of tber
present state of the cotton market, the der;
labour have been curtailed ; so that even with
tb°
calculated supply of the staple next year we shll
we fear, find Lancashire still unable to employ
the mill hands. We have no wish to see co.tt.el
manufactures wiped out from the list of Boils:
articles of home production, but we must 09 W
should gladly find the monopoly of the trade broke,
up. There is now no real advantage gained in CO
centrating it in one district, while its distributtoo
over several parts of England would carry wealth r
other counties, and effectually prevent the ree%
rence of a disaster like that under which Lanett:s4lr
with all its energy, now lies prostrate.

COUNTRY MARKETS.


LYNN—TUESDAY.
At to-day's market there was's fair suply' of wheat!
with a steady sale, and for fine samples the prices of 10"
week advanced is per quarter ; other sorts as before.
Malting barley fully supported late rates ; ing rattier
cheaper. Oats and Leans were fully dearer.
White . 4&s to 46s j Barley .. 37s to 390
..40s to 41s Grinding .. A3s to 340
Beans .43s to 44s I Oats
New 3BB to 40s I Peas — 8 to