The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-29 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WED ESDAY EVENING, JULY 29, 1863.

iNTELLIGENCE--This Day

SECONDARIES COURT.
(Before Mr. Potter and a Common Jury.)

EXTRAORDINARY FALSE IMPRISONMENT CASE.-START-
LINO DISCLOSURES.-MACNAB V. FEREDAY AND AN-

OTHER.

This was a writ of inquiry sent down from the Court of
Exchequer to assess damages laid at £l,OOO in an assault
and false imprisonment case.
Mr. Kenealy appeared for the plaintiff, and Mr. Sergeant
Ba lantine for defendant.

Mr. Kenealy, in opening plaintiff's case said,—My client
is the public accountant of the Oriental Banking Corpora-
tion of Threadneedle-street, one of the defendants, Mr.
Fereday is an attorney of Bedford-row, and the other Mr.
Martin is a bill discounter. In last year a bill to which
plaintiff was a party, came into the hands of defen-
dants who sued him upon it ; plaintiff, by his
attorney, obtained permission to plead, as he had
a good defence to the action. Notwithstanding this, a ca. sea.
was lodged in the hands of a sheriff's officer, and defendant
was arrested. He told the officer that he was protected,
but the officer (Mr. Hilliard) refused to listen to anything.
Mr. Evans (plaintiff's attorney) was sent for, and he ten-
dered the money under protest. Mr. Masud refused to
receive the m,ney, and said he had instructions to take
plaintiff to Whitecross-street. After some delay, the
officer allowed plaintiff to remain at his offices until a settle-
ment was arrived at. Defendants were communicated with'
at 7 o'clock, but plaintiff was not released till 10 at night
Defendants will say this is a mistake, but you, gentlemen,
will, I am sure, protect an officer in a public situation from
such indignity and harsh treatment. I ask you to give sub-
stantial damages for a most unwarrantable and unjustit-
able outrage.

Plaintiff was called, and fully bore out the statement tif his
learned counsel.

Cross-examined—l receive £9OO per annum from the
bank. I also carry on business as a paint manufacturer at
Hill-street, Finsbury. I carry on that business as Sinclair
and Co. The bill on which I was sued was for £7O.
I do not know if it was accepted in the name of my firm.
I know that it purported to be signed by Sinclair, Roberts,
and Co,

The learned sergeant commented strongly on plaintiff's
contradictory evidence.
Plaintiff—l saw the that bill was accepted by Sinclair,
Roberts, and Co, on the summons. I uo not know that
there are thirty or forty bills out signed by my
firm. I here are some, I have taken no steps
about them. the bill I was sued on is a forgery,
but I have made no inquiries as to the person whom I sus-
pect. Roberts is my clerk, at a salary of £2 per week. He
never was my partner. Roberts may have drawn and ac-
cepted bills with my full consent. He has not done so since
January. There were trade bills before that time drawn in
Roberts' name and circulated by me. There may have
been. I know of no instances, I cannot recollect. I have
never taken up bills drawn by Roberts. They may have
been taken up by my firm. All the bills you show me are
in the handwriting of Roberts. I kept a bill book. I have
not brought any of my books. My attorney advised me not
to do so. These bills were never entered in if y books. Mr.
Elliot, my new clerk, carries on the business for me now.
Roberts left me in February. I saw Roberts two days
ago. Up to January my firm was Sinclair, Roberts, and
Co., now it is only Sinclair and Co. I now assert that this
bill is a forgery.
Mr. Sergeant Ballantine—Roberts is in court. Why do
you not give him into custody ?
Plaintiff gave no answer.
was grossly
NMI rr.. ieaaridy psraoivdalthaartr et shteinwgr
othneg pslausi
sustained
exaggerated by the line of cross-examination pursued by
defendant's counsel. Defendant had admitted the wrong,
and it was not right to mystify and transmogrity the jury.
Mr. Sergeant Ballantine, in a very powerful speech,
stated that the whole affair arose out of the mistake of
plaintiff, bat. if plaintiff's attorney had only acted coin te-
ously, and given due notice of the entering of the appear-
ance by the plaintiff, all might have been avoided. Th_
learned sergeant then commented very strongly on the fact
that all the plaintiff had was £9OO a year at the bank;
he was carrying on a different business under a name not
his own. Roberts, although only a clerk in plaintiff's em-
ploy, was set forth as a partner, and Roberts had put out to
the world bills of exchange as the bills of the firm. Honest
men had parted with honest money on those bills, and the
owner of the firm repudiated them. But Roberts had not
b3en given into custody, or a very different state of facts
would have been brought out. What he (the learned ser-
geant) set out was that these bills were the plaintiff's. He
boldly said that. the whole matter was a shuffle from begin-
ning to th 3 end, and a farthing would be quite enough for
the plaintiff, who had given his evidence in his own
manner.
The learned Secondary briefly summed uii, and the jury
awarded plaintiff £5O damages.
One of the jury was challenged by defendant before the
case was opened, and he was directed to retire and give
place to another juryman.

and got away from the person, and on Cane, a constable,
coming to my assistance my prisoner (Hepburn) knocked
the constable's hat off and then struck him three or four
times on the face with his stick, at last breaking it. On the
way to the station Hepburn struck me two or time times
but did not hurt me much.

Hepburn—He has told a deliberate lie when he says he
wee pinioned from behind. I told a friend to rescue me,
but not to strike you.

Win. Cane, 35 C, after cornborating the previous wit-
nesses, said—l was struck three or four times in the face by
Hepburn, who called out, "Jack, rescue me."

Mr. Mansfield—What became of "Jack r'

Hepburn—There didn't happen to be a "Jack" in our
party. We did not say we wanted another Cremorne row,
but that the police wanted it.

Mr. Mansfield—You have not done very great damage to
the police, or I should have felt it my duly to have dealt
very severely with you. For this piece of folly you must
pay 40s each, or a month in default.

Mr, Mic4ael Win. Balfe, of 69, Great Portland-street,
gentleman, and Mr. Theophilus Harris, 9, Bell-yard,
Doctor's-commons, solicitor, were charged by Alwood,
186 C, with behaving in a disorderly manner and causing
a crowd of persons to assemble in Coventry-street.

Mr. Mansfield said he considered the-punishment the
defendants had undergone in being locked up sufficient, and
discharged them.

WESTMINSTER.

LAWLESS AND SERIOUS OUTRAGES BY BOYS.—Michael
Rearden, a ragged urchin about 11 years of age, was
charged with stealing fruit from a garden at Thames-bank.
Mrs. Hannah Harris, wife of an inspector of the London,
Dover, and Chatham Railway Company, said that she re-
sided at Thames-bank. Yesterday afternoon the prisoner
came to her garden, and went up into the pear tree, where
he picked the fruit and threw it down to his companions.
Mr. Arnold—There were others there ?
Witness—A number of other boys.
Mr. Arnold—Did you tell them to go ?
Witness—Yes, but it was no use. I told the prisoner.

- _
Mr. Arnold—Do you know anything of the prisoner ?
Witness—l have seen him in our garden repeatedly. He
was there several times yesterday, and I enceavoured to get
rid of him, but could not. When he was not on the tree
picking the fruit, he and the others were throwing stones
at it.
➢lr. Arnold—Why don't you keep them out of your

garden ?
Witness—We can't. I wish we could, for every thing is
destroyed. and I am afraid of being severely injured.
Mr. Arnold—How do they get iu ?
Witness—Sometimes by the gate, but they have no occa-
sion to do that now, for they have pulled the fence down,
and walk in and out as they please. If we interfere to pro-
tect our own property, they abuse and threaten us. This
boy happened to fall from the tree yesterday, or we never
should have got him.
Police-constable Tucker, 249 K, said that he had seen the
prisoner there before, and took him yesterday. There
were a great many boys there.
Mr. Arnold—Where is this place?

Policeman—lt is a piece of ground at the end of Thames-
bank, formerly in the occupation of the Chelsea Water
Company, but now belonging to the London, Dover, and
Chatham Railway. _ _

The boy's mother here stood forward and said he was
always at school, but there were haidays when he was not.
Nobody had ever in the least complained of the boy before.
Mr. Arnold asked him what he had to say ?
Prisoner—l only took one pear, that's all.

Mr. Arnold—You have often been there before.
Prisoner—Well, they did not do anything to me.
Mr. Arnold—That is a greater reason why you should
not have gone again.

Mrs. Harris—When my servant assisted me to secure
this boy, the others fell upon her to resue him, and I Ras
obliged, for ber protection, to beat them off, and they now
threaten what they will do to us when they catch us from
home.

Mr. Arnold—This is very serious. For this the firs
offence, of which he has been convicted, I fine the boy ss.
The Mother—l can't pay it.
Mr. Arnold—Then he is committed for seven days.

REPRESENTATION OF PONTEFRACT,

Mr. Monckton Milnes has issued the following
farewell address to the electors of Pontefract :
" Gentlemen,—Her Majesty having been graciously
pleased to offer me a seat in the Upper House of Parliament,
I resign into your hands the representation of your ancient
borough, which I have held continuously, and with so much
satisfaction, for 25 years.
"No man could close so long and intimate a connexion
without emotion, and there has been much in our relations
to excite peculiar feelings of gratitude on ray part, and, it
may be, of interest on yours.
" I have been, in more than a constitutional sense, the
representative of all of you, without disubaction of political
parties; and I have endeavoured, by moderation irt my
views and by discretion in my public conduct, to express
what I believed to be the sound convictions of the large
majority of my constituents and the general opinion of the

inhabitants of your district.
" In so doing I have been able to contribute by my vote
and voice to the sucuss of every serious measure of political
improvement, of religious toleration, of public utility, and
of social progress, that has engaged the attention of Parlia-
ment during a quarter of a century. I have owed to your
geerous confidence and your kind appreciation of my mo-
tives a position of personal independence rarely conceded to
a parliamentary representat.ve ; but I must not forget that
I have acted in conjunction with men whose principles and
services I highly value, and that I have long followed the
lead of an illustrious statesman whose name is a watchword
of liberty throughout the world, and the continuance of
whose wise and temperate Government at home I believe
to be the best security fur the prosperity of our country.
" To alt and each of you I now bid a grateful and affec-
tionate fa• ewell. As your neighbour and personal friend I
shall ever maintain a lively interest in all that concerns
your individual fortunes and your common welfare. And
if I leave on your minds the impression that I have done
my best in your service, I have all that I desire.
" I remain, gentlemen, your obedient servant, and faith-
ful friend, "RICHARD MONCRTON MILNES."