The Sun.
London, England, 1865-01-14 00:00:00

International and Maritime Law,

Yesterday a lecture on the above subject was de-
livered by Mr. Leone Levi, LL.D., in Lincoln's-inn.
Hall, in presence of a large audience of members of
the legal profession. In the absence of the Attor-
ney-General, Sir Edward Ryan took the chair. The
lecturer commenced by pointing out the importance
of a well understood international and maritime
law to a country like England, with its 38,000 mer-
chant vessels of 6,500,000 tons burden. Having
glanced at the first establisthment of maritime law
in the Mediterranean by the Rhodians, he gave a.
summary of its history during the palmy commer-
cial days of Genoa, Venice, and Barcelona, and

from thence down to modern times. From the
peace
trived ov t
hl.Bsl.osna theh
difficulty gre a t pt oo w
pe
rr se s e ofr v e E
tranquillity
u nR
utsi
sl a
nlBwsa4r,
rwhen t h tehge u e
scommencement on fal
ltahwe
and the rights of neutrals to primary importance
werethe
agreat Congress
After the
ofw war came eththeere
re-
solutions advance of
Paris,
o n
sub-
ject, and the United States had subsequently to
regret that they had not given in their adhesion to
the resolutions of that congress. The Trent affair
especially showed the importance of a clearly defined
and well understood international code. Mr. Levi
here quoted at length the works, French, English,
and German, which modern times had produced on
the subject, but regretted that the subject had
all through been left to the lawyers and philo-
sophers, and the nations had in time of war
shown very little respect for international obli-
gations. However, the promulgation of sound
principles had done something in making civi-
lised peoples ashamed of what under other circum-
stances might have been subjects of national glorifi-
cation. Positive politics, they must recollect, were
always ruled by expediency, and expediency must
have regard to the existing state of public morality
and public opinion. The lecturer next deplored the
uncertainty that existed respecting what was, and
what was not, international law, quoting Sir J.
Mackintosh, Grotius, and the late Sir G. C. Lewis,
for definitions. He complimented the Emperor of
the French for his suggestion of an European con-
gress, and regretted that his Majesty's proposal had
not assumed a more definite form. What they wanted
was a certain law, and its general diffusion and ac-
ceptance all over the world of commerce. Steam,
the telegraph, iron ships, rifled ordnance, and other
modern inventions, had rendered much of the old
law of the sea obsolete, and what was wanted
was, the great principles of international and.
maritime law adapted to modern contingencies, and.
accepted by common consent by all the civilised
nations of the world. For example, formerly the
range of a cannon shot was fixed at three miles,
whereas now it might be taken as six or seven. The
great questions of freedom of the seas, of free ships,
free goods, &c., were all exhausted, but that of the
limit of belligerent rights were as important as ever.
The claims of neutrals were more troublesome than
of old in consequence of the increased number of
nations that now engaged in trade, and it was
therefore all the more necessary that the maritime
and international law should be universally under-
stood and adopted. The learned professor con-
cluded with an eloquent peroration on behalf of
peace, progress, and civilisation, amid the general
applause of the audience. A vote of thanks was
put from the chair, and carried by acclamation.

ATTEMPTED WIFE MURDER AT BATH.—At Bath,
on Monday, a young man, named Geo. Preston,
was charged with attempting to murder his wife, a domestic
servant, living at Harley House, the residence of Mr.
Alderman Cook. Elizabeth Preston said—At nine o'clock
yesterday morning, I heard the knock of the postman and
went to the door. As I opened it the prisoner rushed in
upon me, and caught me by the throat, saying, "
thee, I'll do for thee. He pressed me against the wall,
and held me tightly by the throat and the hair of the
head. He released his hands from my throat and knocked
me down on the floor, when he got upon me, and again
took me by the throat and the hair of the head. I have
no recollection of anything that took place afterwards,
until I was pulled away from him. He came to me on
the 21st of last month from Southampton, and asked if I
would live with him. I told him I would upon the
condition that he treated me better than he did before,
and would work and maintain me. He came to the house
on Saturday, but I refused to see him, as I was afraid of
him.—James Barnes, a postman, deposed—l was at Harley
House with some letters yesterday morning, and after I had
knocked Mrs. Preston came to the door. Before she could
take the letters from me, the prisoner rushed
,by and said,
" Here, my hearty, I want to speak to you." At the same
time he seized the prosecutrix by the hair of the head,
and kept continually working his hand up towards her
throat and face, as if to strangle her. This he did until
he had forced her back against the wall, when in the
struggle Mrs. Preston fell upon her back in the passage,
and the prisoner on the top of her. I then stepped into
the hall and hallooed out, " You rascal, what are you
about here ?" He made no answer, but kept working his
hand into his wife's throat. My hallooing brought up one
of the servants, who pushed the prisoner's arm away from
his wife's throat, and assisted in removing her. The pri-
soner then ran out of the house. The prisoner, who
assumed a very insolent demeanour, said, in his defence,
that when he saw his wife on the 21st Dec. she promised to
live with him, and on the platform of the railway station
he left her with that understanding. When at Southampton,
a day or two afterwards, he received a notice from his wife,
threatening to have him punished for things which he
knew nothing at all about. He came to Bath on Satur-:
day, and went to Harley House for the purpose of seeing
his wife, but she refused to hold any communication with
him. To prevent any disturbance he applied at the police
station that an officer might accompany him, and be
present at the interview, but did not succeed. His wife
had been living at Mr. Cook's as a single woman, al-
though they had been married five years. Six months
after their marriage she was delivered of an illegitimate
child, and in consequence of that they separated ; but ho
loved her dearly, and as she promised to live with him and
be make him happy he was glad to reconciled to her.
n r
l 3
ei
was sentenced to six months' hard labour. The.p
rise
on being removed from the dock, said to his wj
do something for you, my lady, when I come back;

my fingers upon you."
ALFRED TENNYSON.—It is now more than "thirty
years (says the Reader) since the Quarterly Review
attempted to extinguish a young poet who had then pub-
lished the second of two thin volumes. He was treated in
in highestvalueliterary
by
y it ts
the loftiest tone of contempt, and not the slightest token of
distinction
appreciation was suffered to qualify the ironical praise and
total scorn which breathed through the article. Since the
o bestow on a
year 1833, more than the time allotted to a generation of
men has elapsed, and the poet whose first efforts Were thus
having been
which it is in
.the power of the Sovereign
enhanced enjoythe
sruebeejeicvt_ted 1:
borne by his two immediate predecessors
laureate—and to find himself the
diessltiivnecdtiotno
in the post of
most
all classes known in Englandsince popular poet among
a small circle of admirers, h e the days of Pope. From
all who speak the language has gained for his audience
mastery,
and . of which he possesses such
of it. which has been ennobled by his employmen

A HOARD,--A New York paper states that a man
named Colley, who died recently at Lockport in that State-
kept his money in an old boiler buried in the cellars, and
among the deposits in this vault were found 50,000 three,
cent pieces.

THE NEW SCOTCH JUDGE.—On Thursday, Mr.
David Mure, advocate, late M.P. for Bute, pre-
sented to the Lord President and Judges of the Court of
Sessions her Majesty's letter of appointment of him as ono
of the judges of the court, to fill up the vacancy in their
number caused by the resignation of Lord Mackenzie. The
Royal Commission having been recorded, Mr. Mare was
directed to fulfil the customary probation by hearing cases
in both departments of the court, and for the rest of the
day he sat as Lord Probationer, with Lord Jerviswoode, in
the outer house. After hearing a case in the inner house
next day, and reporting the cases with his opinion to the
Lord President, the judge-elect was to take his seat upon
the bench under the title of Lord Mure. Mr. Mure, who was
a younger brother of the late learned Col. Mure, of
Caldwell, Renfrewshire, was called to the bar in 1831, and
for several years was sheriff of the county of Perth. For ..
short period during Lord Derby's last administration, Mr.
Mure `S•as Lord-Advocate of Scotland.