The Sun.
London, England, 1853-01-22 00:00:00

MINING INTELLIGENCE.

(From the Mining Journal of this day.)
MINES.-An extensive business has been doing this
week in the British Share Market, and a vast number of
shares have chani,eed hands-in fact, a much greater num-
ber of transactions would have taken place but many of
the dividend-paying ones are nearly unattainable. Wheal
BuPers have risen from 8201. to 9401., and higher rates
demanded ; Devon Great Consols, from 4101. to 4201. ;
Alfred Consols, from 131. 10s. to 151. 10s. ; Herodsfoot,
from 51.105. to 101. 10s. ; South Caradon, from 1401. to
to 1511. ; West Caradon, 2401. to 2501. ; Wheat Basset,
from 5401. to 5501. ; Mary Ann, from 27/. to 301. ; Black
Craig, from 31. 10s. to 4/. ; Boscean, from 221. 10s. to
251 and 271. ; West Ding Doug, 11/. 10s. to 131. South
Phoenix, Wst Sharp Tor, West Phoenix, Bedford
United, Merllyn' South Tolgus, South Tamar, Spearne
Consols, United Mines, Wheal Golden, Cubert, East
Tamar, North Damsel, Wheal Norris, Wheal Langford,
Great Sheba, Hennock, Gill, and Peru maintain the
quotations, and are freely dealt in.
In the metal market, the smelters are refusing to take
orders for copper at the present quotations, and higher
terms are in anticipation. British tin has risen Si. per
ton ; block being 1071., bars 1081., which has sent banca
up to 103/., and straits 101/. Tin plates, IC coke, are
firm at 28s. per box, and 355. for charcoal. Spelter is
steady, at 201. ss. per ton. The demand for rail iron\
continues enormous. Scotch pig has dropped 10s. per
ton, owing to a forced sale of several thousand tons.
As there is scarcely any in the market, a re-action up-
wards is fully expected. The demand for lead is consi-
derable ; no Spanish in stock.
In the bullion market, Mexican and South American
dollars, 4s. no. per oz. Bar silver containing gold,
all gold above 6 grs. in the pound to be paid for, ss. lid.
per oz. standard. Bar silver without gold, ss. Igd. per
oz. standard. Bar gold, 775. 9d. per oz. standard.
Spanish doubloons, 775. per oz. standard. Columbian
doubloons, 765. per oz. standard.
The sale of copper ore at Thursday's Ticketing was
3,411 tons, amounting to 29,753/. 155., the average
produce and standard being 74, 1521. 6s. The corre-
sponding sale last month was 3,819 tons, produce 71,
1321., showing an advance of 211., equal to 1/. lls. per
ton on the ore.

By the arrival of the Royal West India Mail Com-
pany's steamer Parana, on the 18th instant, advices
were received of the arrival at Valparaiso of the Ellen
Simpson, laden with the machinery of the Carsons
Creek Consolidated Mining Company : the captain ex-
pected to reach San Francisco by the end of December.
Private letters from Jamaica give a very encouraging
account of the prospects of copper mining in that island,
and it is stated " that copper will yet make Jamaica
more wealthy than ever she was in her palmy sugar
days." The Jamaica Copper Company have received
by the Parana a lump of nearly solid copper, weighing
about 196 lbs., from the main lode of the Mount Vernon
Mine.

With almost the single exception of yesterday, the gold
mining shares throughout the week have experienced
great depression—the premiums on many descriptions
having been disappearing with great rapidity, and the
comparison of-the prices now current with those that
ruled a few weeks past exhibit a marked depreciation,
which appeared to be in a great measure in anticipation
of a further rise in the Bank of England discount.
This measure was adopted on Thursday, but the effect
on this market had already been "discounted," and the
consequence is that prices yesterday actually experienced
a slight rally. This depression has not been confined to
one particular class, but has affected all.
A measure has been decided upon by the Committee
of the Stock Exchange, of the utmost importance to
holders and speculators in the new mining shares. After
the Ist Feb. none of them will be allowed to mark in
the Official List, unless they are registered, and thus
oompelled to be conveyed by transfer ; but a reservation
is made in favour of those which shall have fixed an early
day after that date for registration. This step will cer-
tainly tend to check all attempts at forgery, should any
of the gold shares attain high rates of premium ; while,
on the other hand, the cost of the stamp on every trans-
fer will, most probably, act injuriously, and prevent the
transaction of much legitimate speculative business.
This important step on the part of the Stock Exchange
will, it is considered, tend permanently to maintain the
intrinsic value of shares in legitimate undertakings,
while it will form a complete barrier to the introduction
of bubble schemes.

POST-OFFICE ROBBERY AT LEEDS.—yesterday, at the
Leeds Court-house, Eli Crowther, a clerk in the Leeds
Post-office, was charged with stealing a letter containing
a 5/. Bank of England note. The letter was posted on
the 23d October, addressed to Mr. Steel, Shirley, near
Southampton. Evidence was given showing that the
prisoner dispatched the mail by which the letter should
have been forwarded, and that the note the letter con-
tained was, on the Ist November, paid with other money
in discharge of a post-office order. After taking a good
deal of evidence on these points the prisoner was re-
manded until next Wednesday.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.-(THIS DAY.)

COURT OF CHANCERY,

(Before the Lord Chancellor and the Lords Justices.)

WILKINSON V. THE AUSTRALIAN BANKING COMPANY

This was an appeal motion from a decision of Vic,. -
Chancellor Wood. The plaintiff, who is a shareholder of
the third series in the Australian Banking Co., in his bill
petitioned the Court to restrain the defendants, who are
the directors of the company, from paying any dividend,
or dividing any profits in any shape, except all in pro-
portion according to the number of shares possessed by
each shareholder. From the affidavits it appeared that
the company was originally formed in 1837, with a capi-
tal of 500,0001., in 20,000, shares at 251. each. Power
was taken at the time to double the capital, and accord-
ingly, in 1839, 12,000 new shares were created, and on
both these series of shares the full amount of 251.
was paid up. In 1841, 8,000 more shares were created,
on which only 21. 10s. per share was paid ; and of this
latter class the plaintiff was a holder of 161 shares. The
dividend paid in the first years of the existence of tl.e
bank was 6 per cent., but in the last year it rose to 12
per cent., which it was 'the custom to distribute on the
amount of capital paid up; so that the holders of the first
and second series received 12 per cent. on 25/., and the
holders of the third series on 21. 10s. only, The plain'
tiff having consulted the deed of settlement, and being
of opinion that, according to its terms, the shareholders
had a right to have the profits divided upon the amount
of their shares, and not of the paid up capital, filed a
bill to compel them to adopt this practice. Vicc-
Chancellor Wood having dismissed the bill, the present
appeal was brought before the full Court.
Mr. Rolt this morning opened the appeal, and had not
concluded when we went to press.

QUEEN'S BENCH.
THE QUEEN (ON THE PROSECUTION OF DR.
ACHILLI) V. NEWMAN.
The hearing of the arguments in this case was re-
sumed this morning, when the court was again very
much crowded.

Mr. Serjeant Wilkins was heard in support of the rule
for a new trial. He accused the counsel on the other side
of having heaped unlimited and unqualified abuse on his
client, without any show of foundation. He then pro-
ceeded to draw a contrast between the characters of the
two parties to the action, observing, with respect to Dr.
Newman, that Lord Campbell, in his summing up to
the jury, gave him credit for the course he had
adopted, and said he had no doubt as to the purity
of his motives. If any additional proof of this were
required, it was only necessary to state that Dr.
Newman made many sacrifices in leaving the church
of which he had been considered a distinguished orna-
ment, and that it was not likely he would have taken
such a step except from the sincerest of convictions.
Nothing was more natural than that a man of such
learning and high character should endeavour to inquire
into the antecedents of one who took upon himself to
vilify the faith to which he had recently become a con-
vert, and to publish them to the world if they tended to
show that individual to be unworthy of credit or of
patronage. Dr. Achilli, on the other hand, had the
strongest possible motives to deny the truth of the state-
ments affecting his reputation. It was asserted that the
witnesses for the defendant were actuated by a love oflucre,
but not one of them could have been more influenced
in that way than Dr. Achilli himself, for he was
represented as a poor man, and he stated in answer
to a question, that he relied on Providence for meeting
the expenses of the trial. There was, however, one fact
which alone justified the supposition that the minds of
the jury were unduly biassed. Sir F. Kelly had ob-
served, that if only one charge were proved against Dr.
Achilli, it would destroy his reputation for life. But he
had in reality been found guilty of one charge, for in his
affidavit, he distinctly denied that prior to 1826, or at
any other time, he was deprived by the Roman Catholic
Church of his faculty to lecture for any cause whatever ;
yet the jury found that he was, and therefore he stood
convicted by them for perjury. He (Mr. Sergeant Wil-
kins) contended that there was no reason whatever for
saying that any of the witnesses had any personal mo-
tives in giving evidence, for if they had consulted their
own feelings or happiness, they would certainly have.
never come into the witness-box. Could any one sup-
pose that married women, who had kept their shame
from their husbands until the trial took place,
would present themselves with any alacrity in
a public Court, when it was impossible to
describe the amount of misery to which they might after-
wards be subjected ? By the verdict of the jury, no less
than 15 or 16 witnesses had been convicted of pel jury ;
and it was but justice and humanity that the arm of the
law should be thrown around them, and that they should
have an opportunity of re-entering into an investigation
of the whole matter, in order to set themselves right be-
fore the public. After being punished by his Church for
gross immoralities, Dr. Achilli went over to credulous
Protestants as a man of more than ordinary sanctity,
who was sincerely desirous of promoting the glory of
God ; but he found his progress stopped by disagreeable
charges, and he therefore had the strongest inducements
which could actuate a man to clear himself from them
by every means in his power. The manifestation of feel-
ing by the 'jury during the trial was deeply to be re-
gretted. He (Mr. Sergeant Wilkins) watched them with
the greatest anxiety, and he noticed them repeatedly
nodding assent to facts which told on one side, and
frowning and scowling at statements which told on the
other. Then the bursts of applause and other
manifestations of feeling against the defendant seemed
to occasion delight among them ; nay, they once
joined in the applause, and he could not help blushing
for his countrymen when justice was thus dealt out by a
British jury. They might perhaps have thought they
were doing right, but that their minds were prejudiced
was manifest to every other person in the court. What
was the gist of the libel published against Dr. Achilli ?
That he was an unclean and lascivious man, and had
violated the laws of chastity which he had voluntarily
taken, it mattered little whether the names of his par-
ticipes criminis were given or not ; the accusation was a
general one, and admitted of a general and sweeping
answer ; but on being asked if he had had carnal inter
course with any woman at Viterbo and other places, ha
shielded himself under his privileges and declined to an-
swer the question. This subject was remarked upon by
Lord Campbell at the trial.
Lord Campbell observed that what he stated was,
that though Dr. Achilli might not be a chaste man, the
fact of his refusing to give an answer to that pointed
question might be taken as a proof of his veracity,
for he might have given a distinct denial if he had liked.
Mr. Serjeant Wilkins thought he could show that
such an argument as to his candour ought not to be
used. On the question being put, his answer was, "If
pressed I answer " no," but. I avail myself of my pri-
vilege." If he had. been anxious to set his character right
before the world could he not have answered " no" with
alacrity and readiness ? When the same question was
asked in reference to the period of his residence in Eng-
land, he gave the same reply, though he was then a
married man. This topic must to any unprejudiced wad
unbiassed mind have great weight as a test of the cha-
racter and purity of the man. Much had been said of
the hardship which Dr. Achilli was placed under in
being called on to disprove so long an array of charges.
Now, Dr. Achilli had written and published a historyerfrom
of
his life giving the most minute details of his care
his childhood downwards, and if there was any man
in the world to whom
it would be no hardship
to rebut attacks made upon any portion of his
history that man was Dr. Achilli. There could be no
doubt that he had been reluctantly dragged into Court,
and that if left to himself he would have considered
silence was discretion ; but being the champion of the
Protestant Church party in this country, and serious
charges having been made against him, his friends and
patrons made it compulsory on him to vindicate his
character. Then the old cuckoo cry was repeated by
the other side of the hardship of requiring the absence
of Dr. Achilli from the Court during the trial, and it
was said that if he had been on his trial in a criminal
court, he would have been allowed to remain in Court
to hear the whole charges. That was no doubt true ;
but then he could not have been put into the witness-
box. But the hardship so prominently brought forward
had no real existence, for a man could never have an
difficulty in stating the truth in the absence of
others,
and there could be no question that, when the pro-
ceedings each day at the trial terminated, Dr. Achilli
had the shorthand writer's note of the evidence placed
before him. The learned Serjeant then entered into
an examination of the testimony of the various witnesses
who were called to support the pleas of Dr. Newman.
Lord Campbell said lie had no wish whatever to cur-
tail the arguments of counsel in a case of such
importance, but for the convenience of the business of
the court, lie wished to know how long the addresses i
of counsel for the defence were likely to occupy.
Mr. Sergeant Wilkins—l am afraid I shall be com-
pelled to detain the court for a considerable time longer.
Lord Campbell—Very well. Our only object in en-
quiring is, has reference to arranging the sittings at cham-
bers, and at Nisi Prins.
The learned counsel then proceeded with his address.
Having in one of his observations spoken of Dr. Achilli
attempting to crush into the dust a church which had
existed a 1,000 years, and to strip the scarlctet robe from
the back of the Pope, [he was interrupted by}
Lord Campbell, who said—You don't mean to say that
the Pope wears a scarlet robe ?
Mr. Sergeant Wilkins—l don't think that is a question
at issue. (Laughter.)
Lord Campbell—No ; but I once had all interview
with the Pope; and then his robe consisted of a white
flannel dressing-gown. (Laughter.)

[The case was proceeding when we went to pre: s.]