The Sun.
London, England, 1840-06-17 00:00:00

EASTERN COUNTIES RAILWAY

COMPANY.

Q ZiERN'S BENCH,:WESTMIXSTER HALL, JUNE 16.
THE QUEEN v. THE EASTERN COUNTIES
RAILWAY COMPANY.
JUDGMENT.
_ _ _

Lord DENMAN—I take the opportunity of giving the
judgment of the Court in the case of the Queen against
the Eastern Counties Railway Company, which was ar-
gued on Wednesday last; the Court granted a mandamus
to complete works which the Company bad undertaken
to execute by virtue of the powers entrusted to them by an
Act of Parliament. A return was made, the sufficiency
of which being questioned, it was set down for argument,
and has been very fully discussed before us. The de-
fendants, however, denied that the writ of mandamus itself
was legal, and on that preliminary point it is therefore
needful that we should first form our opinion..
We were told that our power to issue a writ of man-
damus in any such case, is at least doubtful, and were
properly reminded that that form and method of proceed-
ing may prevent our judgment from being reversed by
any Court of Error—a consideration which certainly cught
to induce great caution in assuming jurisdiction, but can-
not justify us in declining it when the law has lodged it
with the Court.

We have i,o more right to refuse to any of the Queen's
subjects redress, which we are empowered to administer,
than to enforce against them such powers as the Consti-
tution has not confided to us.

It was argued that a mandamus to compel obedience to
an Act of Parliament implied a disobedience at present,
and the prosecutor may indict, and having that remedy
does not require the extraordinary process of mandamus.
This argument appears to prove too much, as it would
prevent the Court from acting in cases where •an Act of
Parliament is contravened ; besides, indictment does not
compel the performance, but only punishes the neglect, of
they, although it was thought proper to remind us that
mandamus might do no more, for that disobedience could
only bring the parties into contempt, and expose them to
attachment, which would but end in individual suffering,
and leave the requisite act still undone.
We are not in the habit of supposing that persons re-
quired to obey the Queen's writ issuing from this Court
will incur the penalty of contempt, or be advised contuma
ciously to avoid the known and ancient process of the law.
Objection was also raised to a mandamus going for in-
suring cl.e execution of the works. Linder this head it was
in effect insinuated that similar Acts of Parliament en-
tailed no duties whatever on those who may procure them;
that they do but offer a boon which the projecting Cons•
pany may accept or reject, or :partially accept and
partially reject, at their sole will and pleasure
—this assertion appearing in them all, that they
have provided the means of executing the in-
tended works, was treated as no proof prima facie that
,hey hove sufficient funds for that purpose. The provision
for disabling the Company from taking land after the lapse
of a certain term, was pet forth as a proof that they had
full power to proceed with their works, or abandon them,
without any regard to the interest of others. Some dace •
sions of the Court of Chancery which have enjoined Com-
panies not to take possession of certain lands peculiarly
circumstanced, were called inconsistent with any power in
the Court to require that possession should be taken of
lands under circumstances entirely different.
We think it right so far to advert to these remarks, that
we may wholly disavow them as having at all conduced to
the judgment we pronounce. When we made the rule ab-
solute we expressed our conviction that the ease was in
some respects new—and that its circumstances admitted of
some doubt, whether our power ought to be applied to them.
We shall keep our minds open for the discussion of all
such doubts on every proper occasion, but we do not yiel,l
to them, nor is it necessary to advert to them in coming to
our present decision.
We neither hold the Court incompetent to enforce the
execution of an Act under the circumstances disclosed to
us in the affidavits, nor think any of the reasons which I
have enumerated are conclusive against making our man-
damus peremptory.
These points will be as much open to argument here-
after as they were when the rule was obtained; but it will
be perceived, on adverting to what was said cm the former
occasion, that we considered the facts there stated to afford
strong evidence that the Company, having obtained an Act
for a particular purpose, had stopped short, and had satis-
fied themselves with doing less than one-half what they
had undertaken to do, and represented themselves as being
capable of doing.
It was by that undertaking and representation that they
obtained the Act, and the great powers of occupying laud
and raising money which it bestowed. We could not re-
cognise their right to say to those who had contracted
with them, and to the public, " Our undertaking does nut
bind us, because our statement was untrue—we having
nothing to consider but the pecuniary interests of the
Company, and claim to exercise unlimited option over these
works in every part of them." The rule was made abso-
lute, and the rule was directed to go on the supposition that
they had no intention to proceed bona fide with their
works, and had, on the contrary, abandoned all intewion

to complete them. But the prosecutors of the writ have
stated no such facts. What they state may raise a suspi-
cion on the subject, but they fall far short of proof.
The acts arc recited in the inducement to the writ, es-
pecially the power to vary their line within a given time,
or that otherwise they must abide by the line laid down in
tho plans.
The writ proceeds to allege that Charles Simmons is the
owner of lands near Yarmouth enumerated in the schedule,
and has required the Company to set out and define the
line of railway deviating from that in the plans, and to pro.
ceed to make and to complete the railway to Yarmouth,
and yet it goes oa to say, " You well knowing the premises
and not regarding your duty in that behalf, have absolutely
refused, and still do refuse and neglect, to purchase the
land necessary for making and completing the same railway
lying between Colchester and Norwich and between Nor-
wich and Yarmouth, or to set out and define the line devi-
ating as aforesaid, and afterwards to complete the whole
road, to set cut the deviated line, and especially as to the
purchase of the lands necessary:for that purpose."
Here is no averment the Company have given up their
design, or have wilfully exercised any injurious option, or
that they are not taking it with all convenient speed, or
that even a reasonable time has elapsed in the opinion of
the prosecutors without due preparation being made, or
that it would not be more advantageous to all concerned
to abide by the original line thereon set out.
The gravamen rests in the simple form of complaining
that the Company have hitherto refused to purchase land
at the time when Mr. Simmons required them to do so.
There is no inconsistency between this and the possible
fact of their having done all that prudence authorised to
obtain such lands at equitable prices, and refused to pur-
chase because a fair bargain could not be obtained.
We can infer nothing—it must be distinctly charged,
and the charge, as it stands, is quite insufficient, and falls
decidedly below the case which we thought was made rea-
sonably probable by the affidavits on both sides; we the, e.
fore think Judgment must be given for the Defendants.

REVIEW OF THE ROYAL ARTlLLERY.—Yes-
terday all the troops of the Royal Artillery at present in garri-
son in Woolwich, were reviewed before General Martining, the
Quarter-Master •General of the Austrian army. Precisely at
one o'clock, General Martining, accompanied by two aides-de-
camp, arrived on the parade in front of the barracks, where he
was received by Lord Bloomfield, and several of the officers,
who accompanied him over some of the barrack-rooms, the
Royal Horse Artillery Square, and the Riding School. He
then adjourned to the mess-room, and after partaking of a cold
collation, the party proceeded to the Common to witness the
various manoeuvres of the troops, the rapidity of which seemed
to strike the Austrian General with astonishment. At the
conclusion of the exercises he rode forward and complimented
Col. Dyneley in the handsomest manner. When the exercises
on the Common were all completed, the whole party proceeded
to the marshes, where the troops under the command of Col.
Cruttenden had taken their stations, and commenced ball
practice. The rocket practice was also excellent, and General
Martining expressed himself much pleased with the effect when
ten rockets were discharged at one time.

MURDER OF A WOMAN AT MANCHESTER.
—On Sunday morning a woman, named Maria Connor, was
cruelly murdered by a man with whom she cohabited, of the
name of Wilkinson, a joiner. It appears the unfottunate
woman had taken a few shillings out of his pocket while in a
state of intoxication, and had procured some beer with it, and
on his discovering this as they were about to retire to rest, he
attacked her with his fists and feet, and finally gave her a kick
in the throat (the point of the shoe being thickly shod with
nails) which killed her on the spot. The man was immediatell,
arrested, and a Coroner's Jury on Monday returned a verdict of
" Wilful Murder" against him.

ATTEMPT TO MURDER THE QUEEN.---44 Just
now, (about half-past six,) we happened to walk down near
St. James's Park, and saw a great crowd of persons following
a policeman in charge of a man, all in the greatest excitement,
which we soon learned was caused by a horrible attempt to
murder 11,-.r Majesty, by firing two pistols at her, one after the
other, as she approached the Palace gates. Happily neither of
them took effect. We can learn no more at present."—[lt 1.611
be apparent that the above intelligence rests on rather slender
grounds, and it is the more necessary to receive it with cau-
tion, as no mention is made of the event by any of the other
evening papers; although that, to be sure, may be accounted
for by the late hour at which the transaction is said to have
taken place, and by the superior promptitude displayed by The
Sun in these matters. ]—Berwick Advertiser.
A singular bet was laid last week at Welling-
borough, between two gentlemen ; the eldest betted that
out of every four who passed the window where they sat,
three would have one hand in his pocket. It happened that
three out of the four who passed were tailors, and, as a matter
of course, each had one hand in his pocket,
HAY HARVEST.—Two fields of grass,
.belong-
longing to Mr. Jonathan Roberts, of Hincheliff Mill, Holm-
firth, were cut for hay on Monday. The commencement of
hay time in that district is earlier this season than we ever re-
collect. The crops of grass promise to be an average, but cut-
ting is not likely to become general for a fortnight. Corn
crops are looking well. In potatoes there are fewer failure,
than there have been for many seasons, and this useful esce!ent
is likely to be the earliest and best produce that it has been
these many years.—Halifax Express,
HONESTY REWARDED.—AS Mr. F. Applin's
servant-lad was passing through the market, on Saturday last,
he picked up a lady's bag, containing upwards of 2001. in cash.
Finding to whom it belonged, he immediately returned it to
the owner, a lady, when she liberally presented him with a
PENNY !—Devonport Independent.

SALISBURY.—The perilous task of ascending
to the top of the tapering spire of this cathedral, an elevation of
400 feet, for the purpose of oiling the vane, was performed by
the man who undertakes the job annually, on Saturday morn-
ing. The Wilts Yeomanry being assembled for dismissal in
the close at the time, the aspiring hero waved his hat several
times, and attempted to make his voice heard on terra firma,
by giving one or two hearty cheers.
COUNTY MEETING.—The nobility and gentry
of Essex, it will be seen by our advertising columns, have come
promptly forward to exprass their feelings at the atrocious at-
tack on her AUjesty's life, and the High-Sheriff, actuated by
ttiu z.air.e warm sentiments of loyalty, has as promptly met the
public wishes, by convening a county meeting for Friday next.
We are sure, as fur. Tower states, that if time could be afforded
vast numbers of other gentlemen would be proud of affixing
their names to the requisition ; but the High-Sheriff has done
honour to, himself and the county, by thus placing it amongst
the foremost to congratulate our Sovereign on her escape fromthe fell agsassiti. —Essex Herod.