The Sun.
London, England, 1849-08-27 00:00:00

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

NORTHERN ClRCUlT.—Liverpool, Aug. 24:
NISI PRIUS COURT.=(Before Mr. Justice WIGHT-
MAN and a Special Jury.)

HATTERSLEY V. EAST LANCASHIRE RAILWAY COMPANY.

This was an issue out of the Court of Chancery, sent
down for trial by the direction of . Vice• Chancellor
Wigram, in order that the opinion of a jury might be
taken as to whether the defendants had wrongfully and
to the damage of the plaintiff prevented the, plaintiff
from completing a contract which had been entered into
between them, by employing their owa workmen to
complete the same.
Sir Frederick Thesiger (who came down specially),
Mr. Hoggins, and Mr. &gar, appeared for the plaintiff;
Mr. Martin, Q.C., Mr. Crompton, and Mr. Monk for the
defendants.

It appeared from the opening of the Learned Counsel
for the plaintiff, that in the year 1846, the plaintiff,
together with another person, since deceased, contracted
with the defendants to execute a portion of the East
Lancashire Railway, between Upton and Comae, which
extended nearly nine miles. In the contract which was
made and signed by both parties was a grinding clause,
under which it was agreed that if the plaintiff did not
carry out the terms of the contract the
company should be at liberty to give seven days'
notice to the plaintiff that they would take possession of
the railway, finish the works, take:possesaion of the plant
which the plaintiff might have upon the line, and that
the plaintiff should have no further claim upon the coal •
pany for the works which should have been completed,
than the money which should have been paid—in fact,
that the plaintiff should forfeit any money which might
he due for works then in progress. The company had
not given the plaintiff possession of the land to commence
the viaduct near Burnley in due time, which bad caused
great delay. And they bad likewise altered the plans
which had originally been laid down, especially that
relating to the width of the span of the arches of the
Burnley viaduct, and they had altered tho plan more
than once• ' divers other alterations had been made, which
had caused a great additional expense, and in fact the
defendants, according to the plaintiff's account, were
indebted to him in 50,000/., but according to the de-
fendants' statement he owed them 9,0001. Amongst
other things, the plaintiff contracted to keep the
line in repair for a twelvemonth after it
was opened. The line was inspected by the
Government Inspector in February in the present year,
and shortly after opened for traffic. On the 2d of March
the plaintiff pressed the defendants for payment, and,on
the 9th, without giving the plaintiff any notice that the
way bad not been properly maintained, the defendants,
considering that it was not prcparly maintained, gave the
plaintiff seven ,days' notice that they intended to take
possession of the line and plant. This they accordingly
proceeded to do, and thenceforth prevented the plaintiff:
not only from proceeding with the works which remained
to be executed, but refused to pay for part of tl-.;e works
which had lately been finished, the value of which was
said by the plaintiff to be 50,0001.

At the conclusion of the Learned Counsel's address a
consultation took place between the attorneys and counsel
of both sides, and it was at length agreed that all pro-
ceedings in Chancery should be stayed, and that all
matters in dispute should be referred.-

Aug. 25.

• The Court was occupied all day in the case of Sellers
v. Dickenson, which was an action relating to the in•
fringement of a patent loom for weaving, and which was
of interest only to the parties concerned.

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT,
OLD COURT.

THE " SATIRIST" NEWSPAPER.—Martin Hansel, a
respectable looking young man, described as an attorney,
and who was the proprietor and editor of the Satitist,
surrendered on Saturday to take his trial on the charge
of harbouring a female named Sarah Mills, wl:o had
endeavoured to extort 10/. from Mr. Bevan, a gentleman
of property, residing at No. 4, Ilamilton•place, Picca-
dilly, and at Fismburgh flout% Twickenham, she having
thereby committed felony.
Mr. Ballantine and Mr. Huddlestoce appeared for the
prosecution, which was instituted by Mr. Bevan; and
Mr. Parry and Mr. Thompson for the prisoner.

• ,
The fa-ets, as stated by Mr. BALLANTINE, will, no
doubt, be fresh in the recollection of our readers. Some
time ago Mr. Bevan received several letters from the
woman Mills, who is undergoing six months' imprison-
ment with hard labour, for her part of the transaction,
demanding money with menaces. She threatened, un-
less he complied with her request, to apply to Mrs.
Bevan, and to expose him in a " Satirical" paper, hint-
ing that his visits to two married ladies at Hanover-gate
and Westbourne Park were well known to her. Mr. Bevan
refused to comply with her threats ; and at length she
went further, and wrote to Mr. Bevan, to say, as he bad
treated her letters with contempt, she would be glad to
know if be would like to stand in the position of a
defendant to an action for trim. con., and saying that she
should publish his amours in the Satirist, and send copies
to Mrs. Bevan, his partners (erroneously believing that
he was a partner in the banking-house of Barclay,
Bevan, and Co.), and to his private friends. At
the time several invidious notices to correspon •
dents, pointedly alluding to " Old B--, the
rich banker," appeared in the Satirist. Feeling much
annoyed at these matters, his solicitors, Messrs. Finmore
and Co., opened communications with Miss Mills and
the prisoner, with the view, as it was admitted by Mr.
Finmore in his examination, to suppress the threatened
publication, and to obtain possession of the documents,
for which, also admitted, money would most likely
have been paid by his client. It was alleged that the
prisoner and Miss Mills were acting in coj unction.
Mr. PARRY addressed the jury on behalf of the pri-
soner.

Mr. Justice ERLE left the whole case to the jury, who
returned a verdict of Not Guilty.

NAVAL IN TELLIGENCE.

PORTSMOUTH, AUG. 26.—This day being his Royal
Highness*Yrince Albert's birth-clay, all the ships were
dressed in colours at an early hour, end at one o'clock
royal salutes were fired in honour of the auspicious day.
The Lords of the Admiralty are expected here to-
morrow evening, on their annual official visit, and the
First Lord will hold a levee on Wednesday.
The royal yacht Victoria and Albert, Captain Lord
Adolphus Fitzelarence, arrived here from Greenock
yesterday. A Sunday paper states that " There is no
truth in the rumour of the framework of the engines
of this fine ship having given way;" and continue?,
" still more absurd is the statement that any reduction is
to take place in the complement of her officers and men."
We hope the latter sentence is founded en better in-
formation than the former.

The Growler steam-sloop, Commander Stoddart,
arrived cff Gibraltar on the 13th inst., en route to
Mecca, with the young Princes of Morocco on board.
The Pantaloon, 8, Commander Hyde Parker, was off
Oporto on the 11th inst., and proceeded southwards.
The Pallas, 50, Russian frigate, Commodore Nordman,
weighed at helf-past four this afternoon ..from Spithead,
and fired a royal salute in most enviable style for the
second time to-day, having been " dressed" all the
morning, and saluted with the others at one o'clock in
honour of Prince Albert's birthday. She also saluted,
when under weigh, the Port Admiral, whose ship (the
Victory, 104 ;Captain Blackwood) instantly acknow-
ledged the compliment. She worked our admirably
under topsails, and has sailed for Madeira.
A murderous onslaught was made on Friday night at
Hardway, near Gospert, by a band of cutthroats whose
sehuggling transactions have latterly been prevented by
the vigilance of the Coast Guard officers. Their vic-
tims were the brothers Mountfield, Coast Guard min,
who latterly made a capture of a " run" made by one
of the party. These young men are lying in a highly
dangerous state from the wounds and bruises they re-
ceived from their ruffianly assailants, who numbered a
party of between twenty and thirty. One of them,
however, we hear, was shot with a pistol by one of the
Coast Guard in pursuit.
PLYMOUTU, AUG. 24.—Her Majesty's steam-vessel
Vesuvius sailed yesterday with seamen and riggers for
Glasgow, to navigate to Woolwich the new iron steamer
Greenock.

Her Majesty's frigate Alarm was commissioned en
Thursday.

Her Majesty's brig Hound was paid off on Tuesday.
The reserve steam-vessel sare ordered to get up steam
daily to try their engines.
Her Majesty's ship Royal Adelaide having been
caulked and new coppered was taken out of dock on
Tuesday.
Mr. Pemberthy, clerk in the Dockyard, died at his
residence in Chapel-street yesterday.
Mr. Herbert Fillis's yacht Faun, on his passage from
France, spoke on the 22d inst., 12 miles south of the
Start, the merchant barque Queen, of Hull, from London
for Quebec.
Plymouth Regatta is fixed f6rTuesday, the 28th, and
Wednesday, the 29th of August inst.
Wooawrou, Auc. 25.—Rear-Admiral J. W. D.
Dundas, C. 8., and Captain Lord John Hay, C. 8., Lords
of the Admiralty; Captain Ellice, Comptroller of Steam
Machinery; Lieutenant-Colonel Irving, C. 8,, Director
of Engineering Works; and Mr. Lloyd, Chief Engineer
at the Admiralty, arrived at Woolwich Dockyard at one
o'clock P.M. today, and their Lordships were received by
Commodore Henry Eden, Lieutenant Gore, Flag-Lieu-
tenant; Mr. Petley, Master-Commander :of the Light-
ning stearn-vessel; Mr. Lang, Master Shipwright; Mr.
Gottlieb, Storekeeper; Mr. Humphries, Chief Engineer;
Mr. Chatfield and Mr. Peaks', Assistants to the Master-
Shipwright; Mr. Trickett, Assistant to the Chief En-
gineer; and Mr. Bernays, Clerk of the Works.
Their Lordships immediately proceeded to visit the
Minx iron steam-vessel, fitted with high-pressure engines
of 10 horse-power; and Mr. Humphries submitted to
them a drawing of the plan proposed by Mr. Seaward,
for fitting the screw-propeller astern of the rudder,
which is to be tried on the Minx. Their Lordships then
proceeded to the west-end of the yard to ascertain the
best situation for the erection of a new shed to receive
the engines of 800 horse-power ordered to be taken out
of the Retribution steam-frigate, that others of 400
horse-power may be substituted. Mr. Bernays, Clerk
of the Works, submitted a plan and estimate of a shed,
which coulil bo substantially constructed, to servo for
various purposes, and be economically effected by making
the back of a shed available, as a part a hich bas been
already built, in which the gear of the Firebrand, Pro
metheus, Hennes, Styx, Grappler, and African, is at
present deposited, the works of each of these vessels
being kept separate in stalls running across the building,
and accessible to be put on board the respective vessels.
The space where the new shed is contemplated to be
built is at present used for breaking up old boilers, and
the funnels of steam-vessels, but there will still be ample
room for that purpose on the north side of the sheds,
and immediately adjoining- the shears employed in
taking them out of the vosv!ls. Their Lordships then
went on board the Reriba:,ion, at present in the rivrr
under the shears, having her coals and ali her storey
taken out preparatory to being taken into the basin.
They also went on board the Archer in the basin,
at present taking on board a large quantity of iron