The Sun.
London, England, 1847-12-02 00:00:00

21,689
5,043

REGENT'S CANAL COMPANY.

-
The half-yearly general meeting of the proprietors of
this company was held yesterday, at the company's offices,
City-road Basin; Mr. Drinkwater Bethune in the chair.
The minutes of the last meeting having been read and
confirmed,

Mr. RAM moved that all the minutes of the committee
for the past half-year should be read, and quoted volu-
minous extracts from the documents in question.
% The motion not having been seconded fell to the
:344 ground.
The
CHAIRMAN read the report, from which it ap-
peared that the income for the past half-year amounted
'% to 31,458/. Is. 54(1., while the expenditure for the same
; period was 8,068/. 19s. 7d.; and that there was, up to
. present time, a profit of 13,300/. Bs. 6d., which enabled
the directors to declare a dividend of 12s. 6d. per share.
The report also stated that the East and West India
,14
Dock and North Birmingham Railway Company, had
,% paid the 8,0001. for withdrawing their opposition to the
• Bill of that company.
The report was adopted ; after which thanks were
• voted to the chairman.
,% The meeting then separated.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.
COURT OF EXCHEQUER, Dec. 1.
:Sittings at Nisi Prius, before the LORD CHIEF BARON
and Common Juries.)
CROW V. RENT AND OTHERS, EXECUTORS.
In this case Mr. Crowder and Mr. Prentice appeared
for the plaintiff ; Mr. Knowles, with whom was Mr. Bo-
Till, appeared for the defendants.
The action was brought to recover of the executors of
a gentleman of the name of Phelps the sum of 1891,
alleged to be due to the plaintiff, fur services rendered
as a surveyor to the deceased Mr. Phelps, during the last
, fourteen years of that gentleman's life.
For the purpose of proving the plaintiff's case, a large
number of-witnesses were called, some of whom stated
that they had known the plaintiff to act in the capacity
of surveyor for the deceased. Upon the cross•examina-
) Lion of one of tbem, a Mr. Wood, it came out that he
.5s had also sent in a claim to the executors for a large
1% amount, for work done for a similar period to that of
yes
the present plaintiff ; that in the year 1839 he had taken
)% the beutfit of the Insolvent Act, and in his schedule had
191 returned Mr. Phelps as a creditor to the amount of 701,
,!4 and that in the action which he contemplated bringing
against the executors the present plaintiff was to be his
% principal witness. Another witness stated that the
46 plaintiff was in the habit of frequently dining with the
deceased ; that upon one occasion the plaintiff asked
)34 him for threepence to buy some paper, and sixpence for
.6(l* a chop for his dinner.
Mr. CROWDER, on the part of the plaintiff; said that

he would not attempt to prove a number of the items in
8s the account, amounting to about 1201., as they were
clearly beyond the statute of limitations.
Is. Mr. KNOWLES, in addressing the jury, denounced the
'lll case as one of the most fraudelent attempts to- fob'the
estate of the deceased that had ever come under his
c, notice. Was it to be supposed that a man who had not
threepence to pay fur paper, or money sufficient to buy
a chop for his dinner, should allow an account like the
it, present to run on for a period of fourteen years ?
% Mr. CROWDER said that he would admit that some
eta payments hid been made on account during the life-
,3' time of the deceased.
IN
Mr. libtowLEs submitted that if such had been the
. _ _

case it would have been the duty of the plaintiff to de•
duct those sums from the account delivered to the
- defendants. The Learned Counsel was proceeding to
i„• address the jury further on the evidence, when
The LORD CHIEF BARON asked the jury whether
- they thought it necessary to hear the Learned Counsel
any further.
The jury intimated that their minds were made up on
the subject.
The Lonn CHIEF BARON said that if the claim had
extended only through a period of two or three years,
might have had some chance of success ;
although.it might have: been a fraudulent account, still
the manner the plaintiff had done only
bthuet'apclatiinngtiff in
showed the extreme folly as well as fraud of the plaintiff.
Price. No man would be able to live with satisfaction or die in
peace if such claims were to be allowed to be established
against his estate after his death. The deceased was a
gentleman who, it appeared, lived by himself, and the
present plaintiff was treated by him as a friend, and no
doubt expected that upon his decease his little kind
offices and attentions would be remembered with a small
legacy, but not receiving that it was a most prepos-
terous thing to endeavour now to establish a claim of
this kind. I-Ie entirely concurred in the view which the
;ury had taken of the case.
Verdict was accordingly given for the defendants.

ADMIRALTY COURT, Dec. 1.
THE MARY.—COLLISION.
The Po, a schooner of 74 tons, belonging to Yar-
mouth, and the Mary, a brig of 161 tons, of Ipswich, the
latter in ballast, bound to Sunderland, came in collision
off Foulness, on the night of the Bth of June last. The
wind was W.N.W., blowing strong. The schooner was
closehauled on the starboard tack; the Mary was work-
ing to windward on the larboard tack. The vessels
being in such a position as to be likely to meet, it was
the duty of the Po to keep her conrse, and that of the
Mary to give way. The simple issue, therefore, was,
whether the Mary did bear up, and whether the I'o kept
her course, the owners of the Mary alleging that the
schooner first starboarded her helm and then ported it.
The Court was assisted by Trinity Masters.
After hearing the Queen's Advocate and Dr. Bayford
for the Po, and Dr. Addams and Dr. 74 iss for the brig,
Dr. LUSHINGTON said there were two questions for the
whether the Mary
did really
t Mastersgive to
wayd,ecaindde7haerntheeirY' she did so in duo
time. The questions were purely nautical, and he left
them to the gentlemen who assisted him, without ex-
pressing any opinion of his own.
The Trinity Masters considered the blame to be attri-
butable solely to the Mary; and
The COrSET pronounced for the damage claimed by
the Po, and dismissed the cross action by the Mary.
THE SHANNON.—SALVAGE.
This was an action by two steam-tugs, the Tiger and
the Joseph and William, fora remuneration on account
of salvage services rendered to the Shannon, a vessel of
considerable burden, laden with coals, which, whilst
waiting for some of her crew outside the harbour of
Shields on the 23d of February, got upon a sand. The
master, though in his affidavit he declared that he was
in no danger, and that by letting go an anchor and
waiting for half an hour he could have got off with the
tide, yet accepted the services of the two tugs. The
value of the property was 1,6001.
Dr. Addams and Dr. Curteis were for the salvors, and
Dr. Bayford and Dr. Deane for the owners.
Dr. LIISHINGTON, looking at the general aspect of the
case, and considering that the vessel was on a sand on
which the wind was beating, and that the accident oc-
curred in the month of February, could not regard the
situation of the vessel as one free from the chance of
peril, and from this it had been rescued by steam-power,
which, in tho first place, was more efficacious, and, se-
condly, more expensive, than other power. Taking these
circumstances into consideration, he should allot 110/. for
the service performed, and as the owners had made no
tender, ho gave the salvors their costs.