The Sun.
London, England, 1862-11-15 00:00:00

THE 'SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 15, 1862.

IHE NAVY.

Commodore Sir F. Nicolson yesterday went down
to Gravesend to superintend the disembarkation of
their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess
Louis of Hesse on the occasion of their return to

England. A foreman and a working party of ship-
wrights also went down from Woolwich, at an
early hour, to prepare the landing stage and deco.

ratiops.

Her Majesty's paddlewheel steamvessel Spitfire,
Master-Commander Charles Bowden, recently com-
missioned, is under orders to sail from Woolwich on

Monday next, to adjust compasses at Greenhithe,
and proceed to Bermuda, to supply the place of the
bite, ordered home to Woolwich to be broken up.
The War Department transport Petrel was yes-
terday placed under the steam crane at the Ord-
nance-wharf, Chatham, and during the day landed
90 tons of 32-pounder and 8-inch solid shot and
shell from the line•of-battle screw steamer Hero,
89, Captain A. P. Ryder, dismantling at the Nore.
The armament of the Hero will be shipped on board 1
the Ordnance transports Bomarsund and Marlbo-
rough, and forwarded to the gun wharf, Chatham.
As soon as the Hero has been paid off she will be
docked to ascertain the injuries she has sustained.
The mechanics who have been employed during
the summer at Chatham dockyard in bending the
armour plates for the Royal Oak are to bend the
iron slabs for coating the iron frigate Caledonia, 50,
recently completed at Woolwich. The officials from
Chatham are to superintend the process of bending
the plates at IV oolwich dockyard.
The screw steam sloop Flying Fish, 6, 350 horse
power, Commander W. H. Anderson, from the west
coast of Africa, arrived at the Nero yesterday from
Spithead, and saluted the flag of Vice-Admiral W.
J. Hope Johnstone, Commander-in-Chief. The Fly-
ing Fish is to undergo some repairs rendered neces-
sary from the length of time she has been in com-
mission, and will be furnished with new boilers,after
which she will be provided with a new steering ap-
paratus and rudder. Up to yesterday no orders had
been received at Chatham whether her alterations
and repairs are to be executed at that dockyard or
Sheerness.

The number of vessels composing the fleet of
mortar boats lying in Gillingham Reach and Yantlet
Creek, Chatham, all of which were hastily con-
structed during the Russian war, and but few of
which were ever brought into use, are gradually
being adopted for the transport service connected
with the dockyards, for which they are well quali-
fied. Instructions were yesterday received for one
of the mortar vessels to be fitted as a Coastguard
ship to replace the Kite at Clift Reach, and another
of the boats is to be removed to Woolwich for use at
that dockyard. A mortar vessel has also replaced
the Deptford lighter, which is to be broken up at
Chatham.

The Russian schooner Hendrika, from St. Peters-
burg, commenced discharging a full cargo of hemp
at Chatham dockyard yesterday, the last will be re-
ceived at that establishment until the spring, owing
to the Baltic being closed against all navigation
during the winter. The Hendrika is being dis-
charged with the utmost despatch, in order to re-
turn to St. Petersburg before the Baltic is closed.
In consequence of the strain on the ropemaking
department at Chatham Dockyard for some time past
the supply of first-class hemp does not keep pace with
the demand, and several hundred tons more are re-
quired to complete the orders already given,
The Urgent, screw troopship, Capt. Hire, arrived
at Spithead yesterday morning from China, with
military and naval invalids, passengers, &c. She
left Hongkong. Aug. 3; arrived at Singapore Aug.
12, sailed on the 16th; passed Anjer on the 20th;
arrived at Mauritius on the sth September, and
sailed again on the 9th. On the 20th she was com-
pelled by a heavy north-west gale to put into Algoa
Bay for shelter ; she remained there until the 23d,
when she again sailed. She arrived in Simon's Bay
on the 25th. After filling up with coals and stores in
Simon's Bay that anchorage was left on the Ist of
October; Ascension was reached on the 17th, and
left on the 18th ; St. Vincent's was reached on the
28th and left on the 30th ; Madeira reached on the
sth inst. and left on the following day. With the
exception of the north-west gale off Algoa Bay, fine
weather was experienced the whole passage home.
Her Majesty's ship Euryalus passed Singapore a
few days prior to the Urgent's arrival there. At
Simon's Bay were her Majesty's ship Narcissus,
flagship of Sir Baldwin W. Walker, K.C.8., Naval
Commander-in-Chief, on the Cape station, and the
Ariel and Rapid screw sloops. At Ascension was
her Majesty's paddle steamer Bloodhound, with
yellow fever on board. The greater part of the
naval officers, together with the whole of the inva-
lided seamen and marines, brought home, were
transferred from the Urgent to the dockyard and
the Victory flagship by the Pigmy steam-tender
yesterday afternoon. The Urgent is ordered to
proceed into Portsmouth harbour at 10 o'clock this
morning to land her military officers and invalids.
The services of the Urgent as a troopship during
her present commission have been very important,
ans especially so during the time she has been on
the East India and China station. Four soldiers
died on the voyage home.
The Eclipse screw gunvessel, Commander Mayne,
which had her steam up and slipped the chains from
her moorings in Portsmouth harbour at 4 p.m. on
Thursday, to leave for the Australian station, was
detained at the last moment for a message from the
Admiralty, and did not finally sail on the com-
mencement of her long voyage until noon yesterday.
The following appointments have been made at the
Admiralty :—Captain A. Mellersh, to the Forte;
Lieut. C. A. Hayes, to the Euryalus; F. Garnault,
midshipman, to the Euryalus; C. H. Dawes is no•
minated to a naval cadetship; J. S. Moore, pay-
master, additional, to the Fisgard ; J. J. Willcocks,
assist. paymaster, to the Resistance ; E. W. R.
Veale, assist. paymaster, to the Royal Adelaide ;
J. A. Skene, assist. surgeon, additional, to the Cum-
berland; IV. P. Davis, acting second-class assist.
engineer, to the Sutlej, as supernumerary; and W.
M. Thomas, assist. clerk, to the Royal Adelaide.

Education, the Church Building Society, the
Society for Assisting Additional Curates, Lincoln
Lunatic Asylum, County Hospital, Stamford and
Rutland Infirmaries, and the London Orphan
Asylum, to be paid within six months after the
decease of the testator,

John Almond Cropper, Esq., harrister-at-law, of
Fulwood House, Gray's Inn, died in September
last, aged seventy-nine, without any relatives, his
only son having died unmarried twenty-three years
since. Mr. Cropper was possessed of considerable
property, real and personal, the bulk of which he
has left to charitable institutions, devising his free-
hold and other estates, scattered over seven counties
in England, amongst the three undermentioned
hospitals, which by certain Acts of Parliament he
is enabled to do, notwithstanding the Statute of
Alortmain. These estates will produce to the
Westminster Hospital a rental of £BOO per annum,
to St. George's Hospital £7OO per annum, and to
the Middlesex Hospital £6OO per annum. To the
last-named hospital he has also bequeathed the
residue of his personal property, amounting to
about £4,000. Legacies are also left to the twenty
following institutions, free of duty—viz., the Kent
and Canterbury Hospital, Midland Institution for
the Biind, Leicester Infirmary, Stafford Infirmary,
each £200; and to the Royal Free Hos ital, St.
Mark's Hospital, St. Mary's Hospital, Great
Northern Hospital, Brompton Hospital for Con-
sumption, City of London Hospital for Diseases of
the Chest ; Hospital for Sick Children, Great
Ormond-street ; University College Hospital;
Strangers' Friend Society, Royal General Annuity
Society, Society for the Suppression of Mendicity,
London Society for the Protection of Young
Females, Female Aid Society, Indigent Blind Visit-
ing Society, Ragged-school Union, Fox-court
Ragged Schools, Adult Orphan Institution ; Trinity
National Schools, Bedford-row; Field-lane Ragged
School and Night Refuge for the Utterly Destitute,
and the Bethnal-Green Piailanthropic:Pension So-
ciety—each £lOO. Mr. Cropper has also left seve-
ral small estates and other legacies to his personal
friends ; and appointed W. Latham, Esq., of Melton
'Mowbray, and George Capes, Esq., of Gray's Inn,
his executors and trustees.—lllustrated London
News.

LA TV INTELLIGENCE.—Nov, 14.

COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH.

;Sittings in Banco, before Lord Chief Justice Cock-
burn, and Justices Wightman, Blackburn, and
Mellor.)
TRIMMER V. WALSH (CLERK).-THE TITHE OF

HOPS.
This was a special case stated for the purpose of
ascertaiting whether certain hop grounds in the
parish of Binstead were liable t The defendant extraordinary
tithe or rent-charge on hopes had
distrained for the extraordinary tent-charge, and
the defendant had replevied. The plaintiff was the
owner and occupier of certain waste lands, which
were afterwards enclosed, and in 1855 were culti-
vated as hop grounds. The defendant became the
vicar of the parish in 1854, and was so now, and he
claimed to be entitled to the extraordinary rent-
charge in lieu of tithes for the cultivation of the
land es hop ground.
Mr. Coleridge, Q.C., for the plaintiff, said the
tithes of the parish has been apportioned, and the
6th and 7th Win. IV., chap. 71, the Tithe Commu-
tation Act, expressly enacted that in the case of
hops and market gardens there should be an extra-
ordinary •-pportionment during the time the land
was so cultivated. In this case the land paid no
tithe, and the learned counsel contended that no
additional or extraordinary charge could be
made ; that immediately after an apportionment
was made waste land could be brought into hop
cultivation without being liable to any additional
charge. The policy of the state in passing the
Tithe Commutation Act was to further the
breaking up of waste lands and their cultivation.
l'he learned counsel quoted the 40th and 42d sec-
tion, as applicable to the case, and on which it was
necessary their lordship :3 should give their decision
where nothing was paid there could not be an ad-

ditional charge.
Mr. Mellish, Q.C., for the defendant, urged the
liability of the land to the amount of additional
tithe claimed. There was a provision that where a
person ceased to grow hops the additional rent
charge should cease. The additional rent-charge
was so much as the land (though otherwise tithe
free from being waste land broken up) ought to pay
for the cultivation of hops, which was a very profit-
able cultivation.
After hearing the lengthened arguments of the
learned counsel,
The Lord Chief Justice said he was of opinion
that the judgment should be for the defendant. The
case turned upon the question whether the tithe on
the plaintiff's land, in respect of which this addi-
tional rent-charge was demanded, had been com-
muted under the Tithe Commutation Act. He was
of opinion that it had. The land at the time of the
commutation was waate land, but it had since been
applied to the cultivation of hops. The 42d sec.
specially applied to hops, and whilst it increased
the rent-charge, where the cultivation was changed
from the cultivation of general agricultural produce
to that of pops, it decreased to the original charge
when the growth of hops was discontinued. It was
admitted that the land was newly cultivated, and
the 42d section stated " That all lands the tithes
whereof shall have been commuted under this act,
and which shall be newly cultivated as hop grounds
or market gardens at any time after such commu-
tation, shall be charged with an additional amount
of rent-charge per imperial acre." The land at the
time of the apportionment of the parish did not pro-
duce any titheable production, and consequently
the commissioner in apportioning the tithe set the
figure "nought" against it, and it was said that
that was no commutation of the tithes. He thought
the term " apportionment" had been confounded
with " commutation." The land in question was
liable to tithe, if at that time it had produced any-
thing that was the subject-matter of tithe, That
liability to pay tithe had been extinguished, and in
that sense there had been, it appeared to him, a
commutation. In what sense did the let use the word
" commutation," in contradistinction to that of ap-
portionment? It spoke of the tithes of a parish
being commuted into a rent-charge, which was ascer-
rained with regard to the general titheable value of
land in a given parish, and that then the rent-
charge was to be apportioned according to the seve-
ral portions of land that were to be so charged.
That had been done in this case, and the tithes of
the parish had been for ever commuted into a rent-
charge. The liability of the land in question to pay
tithe had been extinguished by the commutation of
the tithe; and how then could it be said that the
tithe of the land in question had not been commuted?
This land did not remain liable to tithes, because
they had been commuted, and the reason why, in
apportioning the rent-charge, it did not pay any-
thing was because it had not paid anything for
seven years previous—not from any want of its lia-
bility, but simply because it had not produced any-
thing that was the subject of tithe. His judgment
was for the defendant.
Mr. Justice Wightman was of a contrary opinion.
The clause referred to an additional rent-charge.
Now, as there was no rent-charge on this land he was
unable to see how the section imposing an additional
charged applied. His judgment was for the
plaintiff.
Mr. Justice Blackburn and Mr. Justice Mellor
also gave judgment for the defendant.
Judgment for the defendant.
YOUNG V. MACRAE—LIBEL.

This was a demurrer to a dec)aration for libel
claiming special damages in the depreciations of the
plaintiff's paraffin oil, by the publication of a circu-
lar which stated, " I certify that I have carefully
tested the above oil, and find it a colourless and
somewhat aromatic liquid, while Young's Scotch
has a reddish brown and has a more disagreeable
odour,"

Mr: Millward supported the demurrer, contend-
ing that no action would lie.
Mr. Edward James, Q.C., opposed the demurrer.
The contents of the circular were disparaging, and
had injured the plaintiff in his business, which was
clearly libellous. It drew an unfavourable compa-
rison, both with regard to colour and smell, between
the plaintiff's oil and the defendant's.
The Lord Chief Justice said he did not consider
the circular libellous. It was very much like the
advertisements about cod liver oil. One recom-
mended his as being colourless and tasteless, and
another as brown cod liver oil. (Laughter.) Each
relied on his peculiar colour.
Mr. James—Perhaps each libels the other.
(Laughter.) It was not to be assumed such adver-
tisements were not libellous because no actions had
been brought.
Mr. Justice Blackburn said the circular was no
more than saying "My wares are better than
y ours."
The Lord Chief Justice said the judgment of the
Court was in favour of the demurrer. He wag far
from saying that, if a man feloniously and
maliciously disparaged an article manufactured or
sold by another man (without casting any imputa-
tion on his personal or professional character), and
special damage arose, that an action would not lie.
A grievous wrong so inflicted on another ought not
to be without its remedy by means of an action.
This declaration did not allege facts sufficient to
support it.
The o her learned Judges concurred.
Mr. Jams asked to be allowed to amend.
The Lord Chief Justice declined. The learned
counsel must bring another action. The easiest way
to settle the question was for the plaintiff to get
another professor to give another report. (Laughter.)
Judgment for the defendant.
THE GUARDIANS OF THE SOCIETY OF KEELMEN OF
1 THE TYNE V. TAYLOR.

Mr. Mellish, Q.C., (with whom was Mr. Lilley),
said the question for the decision of the Court in
this case was the construction of a clause of a
rather peculiar act of Parliament passed in 1820,
by which the Society of Keelman of the River
Tyne were entitled to the charge of one farthing
per ton on all coals exported from the Tyne.
Several of the collieries were not in existence
when the act passed, and with regard to two of
them one was fifteen and the other nine miles
from the Tyne. The question was whether these
collieries were sufficiently " near" to the Tyne, in
the language of the clause, to come within the act.
The proceeds went towards the support, &c., of old
and decayed keelmen.
Mr. Manisty, Q.C., for the defendants, who were
coalowners, urged that the circumstances had en-
tirely changed. Owing to the facilities of steam
and docks the keelmen were not required. The
word " near" must be construed to apply to collieries
that would have used the Tyne under the old state
of things.
Ultimately a kind of compromise was agreed to,
the plaintiffs giving up their claim on the furthest
colliery, and the Court giving judgment in their
favour on the other two.
Judgment accordingly.