The Sun.
London, England, 1847-02-16 00:00:00

ROYSTON AND HITCHIN RAIL

WAY.

The half-yearly general meeting of the shareholders of this
company was held yesterday, at Radley's Hotel, New Bridge-
street, Blackfriars ; Lord Dacre in the chair.

After the usual preliminaries,
The CIIMAXAN .said—Before calling on the secretary to
read the report, he thought it necessary to say that the num-
ber of shareholders present was not to be taken as an evi-
dence of the amount of shares held, for they far exceeded
the number required to constitute a meeting.
The SECRETARY then read the report, which stated that
the directors, in accordance with the powers given them at
the last half-yearly meeting of the proprietors, had concluded
arrangements with the Great Northern Railway Company,
and that in consequence of the abridgement of the line by
Parliament, the capital to be called up for the purpose of
constructing that portion of the railway then sanctioned
would amount to 200,0004, being 6/. ss. per share. The
agreement with the Great Northern Company provided for
an application to Parliament for powers to lease the railway
to them, the company (this being obtained) to execute
a lease in perpetuity at an annual rent of 12,0001., being
six per cent. on the capital before stated, the rent
to commence on the opening of the Great Northern Railway
from London to Hitchin, or on the 16th of July, 1849, the
interest of five per cent. to be paid on the deposit and calls
in the interim. The agreement also provided for an appli-
cation to Parliament for an extension of the line from Roy-
ston to Cambridge. The agreement contained a clause
giving power to the Great Northern Company,
on giving three months' notice to redeem, the
annual rent or dividends at 50 per cent. premium on the
share capital. The report, after congratulating the meeting
on the arrangement that had been made with the great
Northern Company, and alluding to the death of one of the
directors, P. M. Stewart, Esq., M.P., in whose place
had been elected Francis Parker, Esq., of Manchester,
recommended that the number of directors should be in-
creased from fourteen to eighteen. The report concluded by
stating that the directors were proceeding with the purchase
of land for the construction of the railway, which would
be completed by the Ist of May, 1849. An abstract of the
receipts and payments of the company, since its formation,
was then submitted to the meeting, Prom which it appeared
that the expenditure was 23,1211. 18s. 5d., which left a
balance in the banker's hands of 2,7681. 16s. 11d.

The CUAIaMAN said it appeared to him that the report
was so detailed, clear, and circumstantial, as to render any
remarks from him quite unnecessary. But he was quite
ready to elucidate any point that might require explanation.
He would, therefore, move the adoption of the report.
Dr. Ssow seconded the resolution, which was carried una-
nimously.
M. J. Underwood was re-elected as auditor, and Messrs '
J. Arbouin, W. S. Boyd, T. Pym, and Captain J. M. Laws
R.N., were elected directors in conformity with the recom-
mendation of the board.
A special meeting was then held to consider the agreement
made with the Great Northern Company.
The SECRETARY read the agreement together with the
draft of the two Bills.
The agreement was unanimously sanctioned.
Mr. LEECH proposed and Mr. UNDEawoon seconded a
vote of thanks to the chairman and the other directors,
which was also carried unanimously.
The meeting then separated.

MEDICAL CIIARITIES in IRELAND.
MEETING OF' THE IRISH PARTY.
A meeting of the members of the Irish party was held at
the office of the Great Munster Railway Company, Parlia-
ment-street, at two o'clock, yesterday; Lord Monteagle in
the chair.

The following noblemen and gentlemen were in attend-
ance :—Marquis of Sligo, Earl of Mountcashel, Lord Massa-
rene, Viscount Bernard, M.P., Sir Arthur Brooke, M.P.,
W. S. O'Brien, M.P., P. S. Butler, M.P., W. Bunbury, M.P.,
A. Lefroy, M.P., H. Tuite, M.P., J. Martin, M.P., J. H.
Hamilton, M.P., Sir E. Haves, Bart., M.P., G. A. Hamiltcn,
M.P., and E. Grogan,

After a lengtheried discussion on the medical charities in
Ireland, the following resolutions were agreed to :
"That whatever be the future system for the relief of the
sick poor, it is our opinion that it is essentially necessary to
provide by law for a strict and complete inspection of all the
medical charities in Ireland."

"That the Chairman be requested to communicate this
resolution to Mr. Labouchere."

The Landed Property Improvement Bill was then dis-
cussed, and suggestions made for alterations in several of its
clauses; atter which the meeting adjourned.
The future meetings of the members of the Irish party are
to be held at 16, King-street, St. James's.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.
COURT OF QUEEN'S BEACH, Feb. 15.

FISIIER V. ASIIWKLL.
Only two special jurors answered to their names. The
Clerk of the Court inquired if a tales were prayed ?
Mr. KNOWLES, who led for the plaintiff, said he did not
wish to pray a tales. He apprehended that, as the cause
had been arranged, there was no need of completing the
jury.
Lord DENMAN—If you want a verdict, you can't have it
without a jury.
Mr. KNOWLES hinted at the desirability of saving expense.
Lord DENNIAN—That is all very well in its proper place;
but there is another consideration. Parties have been sum-
moned to attend here, and have come day by day, probably
at great inconvenience. I don't like to deprive them of the
little advantage that they are entitled to.

A tales was then prayed. and the number of twelve having
been completed by common jurors,
Mr. KNowrxs said that this was an action brought by
the plaintiff against one of the directors of the Staffordshire
Potteries and Liverpool and Manchester Direct Junction
Railway to recover a sum of money paid upon shares. Since
the commencement of the action the matter in dispute had
been arranged. The plaintiff was now satisfied by explana-
tions given that there was no cause of action against the
defendant, and it was agreed that a verdict should be taken
for the latter, the plaintiff making a public acknowledgment
in Court that there was no imputation.
A nominal verdict was taken for the defendant.
COURT OF EXCHEQUER.--Feh. 15.
(Sittings at Nisi Prins before the LORD CLUE? BARON and
Special Juries.)
Several cases were disposed of during the day, none of
which, however, presented any features of public interest.
The Court of Exchequer commence their sittings in London
tomorrow.

COURT OF COMMON PLEAS, Feb. 15.
(Sittings at Guildhall, before Mr. Justice COLTMAN).
CRIV. 01N.-11AWKES r. MOORE.
This was an action brought by the plaintiff, the landlord
of the Jolly Butchers public-house, Newport-market, St.
Martin's-lane, against Mr. Moore, a print seller, in the same
locality, for damages for the seduction of his wife.
Mr. Sergeant :Bytes and Mr. Bramwell appeared for the
plaintiff; and Mr. Cockburn and Mr. Pigot for the defence.
Mr. Sergeant Bvt.cs opened the case for the plaintiff, going
over the evidence he intended to adduce. Ile stated, that
in 1833, the mariage of the plaintiff to his wife took place,
and that they lived together for many years in a comfortable
state. A short time ago he took the Jolly Butchers public-house,
and then commenced the intimacy which had led to the present
action. The defendant had been in the habit of attending the,
house, and the result was an estrangement of the wife's affec-
tions, which ended in the neglect of her child, and her ulti-
mate elopement with the defendant. The result was, the
plaintiff neglected his business, and acquired habits of in-
toxication, so affected bad he been by the conduct of his
wife, and now the oniy course left him was to recover damages
for the injury done in a court of law.
Several witnesses were called to prove the marriage of the
parties, and that they had for some time lived together in a
comfortabie manner. . _

vv
Catherine Ryan was the first material witness called.
She had been servant at the Jolly Butchers, and deposed that
the defendant was in the practice of attending the public-
house, and that she had noticed several acts of intimacy
between plaintiff's wife and the defendant. She further
stated that various quarrels took place between them, which
ended in their separation about Christmas, 1845.
In cross-examination, the witness stated that the plaintiff
often struck his wife, and was in the habit of getting repeat-
edly drunk.
John Ceoke, a butcher, in Newport-market, who had been
in the practice of attending the Jolly Butchers, gave evidence
to a similar effect; and further, that on one occasion, in
December, 1845, he had late at night seen the defendant and
plaintiff's wife come out of a house of ill fame together.
J_oseph Bates, a nurseryman, near Oxford, stated that he
had assisted she plaintiff in getting up the case. He had
done
s() because he had been in town on business, and had
known the plaintiff before. When the plaintiff's wife left,
the plaintiff did not know where she had gone to, and wit-
ness endeavoured to find her out. After isome difficulty he
traced her to a
house in Islington, where she was living with
the defendant under the name of Mrs. Moore.
stated Harriet Willis tell that she lived at 35, Charlotte-ter.
rice, Islington. She the first floor of her house about
Christmas, 1845, toa lad who called herself Mrs. Moore.
Mr.
A gentleman named Moore came often there and slept
with Mrs. Moore. They p das man and wife. The defen-
dant had that morning been pointed out to her outside of the
wart, and it was the same
Moore at her apartments. gentleman as lived with Mrs.
's proved having
Mr. Kingdom, the plaintiff
the previous wit-
pointed out the defendant that morning to
ness, in order to identify him.
This was the case for the plaintiff.
COCKBLAIN, for the defence, said that after the evidence
Of the witness, Mrs. Willis, he had no intention of opposing
a verdict for the plaintiff, but the question to which he would
address himself, would be that of damages, which, he submitted,
should be only nominal. Though he admitted that Mrs.
Hawkes had lived under the protection ofithe defendant after
she had been turned off, yet be was instructed to repudiate
the evidence of the witness Cooke, and to deny that any
criminal intercourse had ever taken place while under her
husband's roof. The Learned Gentleman then went on to
show that the plaintiff, up to the time of his wife leaving,
though he was in the habit of continually ill-using her, he
never imputed anYttillg wrong to tho defendant. Lie would

further prove that not only-up till the period of Mrs. Hawkes
leaving, but for many months after, he was in the habit of
continually receiving loans of money from the defendant ;
and that not till after Mr. Moore had refused further
sums, was there a word about the present action.
At the very time, therefore, that he was stated to be droop-
ing away and withering on account of his wife's faithless-
ness, the injured husband was drawing continually from the
seducer's exchequer, and only when the latter would bleed
no more, did he think of recovering damages in a court of
law. The ill-usage of the plaintiff to his wife before she
left could not, therefore, arise from his belief that the de-
fendant had seduced her, or, if it did, then he was the
most crawling wretch upon the face of the earth to coin
money, as he must have done, out of the seduction of his
wife.

Several witness were called in support of those allegations,
proving that for many years, and before he took the Jolly
Butchers, he had been in the habit of getting drunk and ill-
using his wife, and also on the other points relating to ad-
vances of money by the defendant to the plaintiff. The
former had received sums of money from the defendant so
late as in Jnne last, and about six months after plaintiff 'a
wife had left, and placed herself under the protection of
the defendant.

Mr. •Justice COLTMAN summed up, and the jury raturned a
verdict for the plaintiff—damages, 1001.

EXECUTION OF A POLISH CON

SPIRATOR AT POSEN.

PosEs, FEE. 2.—Our paper of to-day contains the follow-
ing warning advertisement :
" On the 9th of January this year, the mounted gendarme
Komorkiewicz, from Rogasen, met in the village of Stud-
zeniec, about a mile from the former place, an unknown
man, dressed as a peasant, who was smoking his pipe on the
road. The gendarme followed the stranger to the public-
house in the village, in order to call hint to account, and, as
his suspicions were awakened, took this opportunity of ask-
ing for his passport. The stranger delivered up a parcel of
papers, which the gendarme declared unsatisfactory, inti-
mating to him, at the same time, that if he were not able to
give a better account of himself, he would have him trans-
ported to Rogasen. The stranger, who was walking up and
down the room behind the gendarme, who was examining the
papers, then drew out a pistol and fired it at him. The police
servant, struck by the shot, fell slowly to the ground, while
the culprit, tiring a second pistol at some peasants who rushed
into the room on hearing the report, fled across the fields
towards a neighbouring wood. After having destroyed some
papers which he had kept back from the gendarme, and
having in vain sought to defend himself with a pistol in one
hand and a dagger in the other, he was ultimately seized by
the peasants, and transported to Rogasen. The gendarme,
Komorkiewicz, died on the 17th of January from the effects
of the wound. The culprit, who, according to his own ac-
count, was a Polish emigrant from Warsaw, by the name of
Anton von Babinski, and a member of the Democratical So-
ciety of Paris, and who had sojourned in the Grand Duchy
of Posen since the 4th of January this year, with a view of
promoting the objects of this society, relative to the restora-
tion of Poland, was, in accordance with the royal decree of
7th March, 1846, by order of the undersigned General,
placed before a court-martial on the 30th of January, by
which he was unanimously condemned to be shot, for having,
with arms in his hands, made a murderous assault upon the
person of an officer of justice. The sentence having been
confirmed by the undersigned General-in-Command, was
publicly carried into execution this day, Feb. 1, 1847.
(Signed) "V. COLOMB,
" The General Commanding the Fifth
Corps of the Army."
POSEN, FEB. I. (From a Private Communication.)—
During the execution which took place here this day (see
article above) all the troops of the garrison formed an open
square towards the cannon shed. The prisoner was led out
in front of this building, and a section of infantry, consisting
of twelve men, having been ordered forward, took up their
position at a distance of five feet from him. His eyes were
then bandaged, and he had hardly knelt down before his
breast was pierced by twelve balls. lie fell without a groan.
During the trial Babinski seems to have revealed very
little, so that it is not yet decided whether the name put
forward is the true one. He took all blame upon himself,
without incriminating any one by his confessions. It is,
therefore, not probable that the arrest of Mr. V. B. is at
all connected with the fate of the executed prisoner, unless
the rumour be true that he had sojourned some time in the
house of that gentleman. Towards evening yesterday the
president of our police, llerr Munstoli, paid a visit to V. 8.,
who is said to have told him that his name was well known
to the Propaganda in Paris, and that they generally attri-
buted the failure of their projected conspiracy to his vigi-
lance, and that he (Von B.) had in consequence set out with
the determination of murdering him, in order to remove so
formidable an obstacle to the restoration of Poland. The
prisoner died without having betrayed the least weakness;
on the contrary, he repeatedly saluted the people who fol-
lowed the procession to the Kanonenplatze.