The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-17 00:00:00

LAW AND POLICE.

AN EARTHQUAKE.—A case, originating in an earth-
quake, has been heard in the Court of Queen's Bench.
The plaintiffs had contracted for a cargo of nitrate of
soda to be shipped at Valparaiso and to arrive by a cer-
tain ship. The cargo was destroyed by an earthquake,
but another cargo was obtained by the defendants, and
this the plaintiffs claimed under the contract. The court,
however, gave judgment for the defendants, holding that
the contract did not apply to the second cargo.
THE NEW DEBTORS' ACT.—IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT.—
Mr. Justice Wiles has made an order upon a debtor who
came before him for the payment of £5 per month. The
debtor was examined on oath, and stated that he had
been in the army, but was now without means. The
plaintiff's attorney asked that a term of imprisonment
might be expressed in default of payment, as had been
done by other learned judges. Mr. Justice Wiles de-
clined to make such order, being of opinion that he had
no power to do so under the Act. In default, an applica-
tion could then be made for commitment.
ESSEX, WAGGONERS.—Another Essex waggoner has
been charged at the Thames Police-court with sleeping
in his waggon. When stopped and roused he said the
horses knew the way home. In the court he said be had
only had six hours' sleep this week, and could not keep
awake in this hot weather. The magistrate said he must
not allow his pity for the men to prevent his fulfilling his
duty to the public, as accidents frequently happened. He
fined him Bs., but subsequently reduced the fine to 55.,
on hearing the man would have to pay the costs of the
greenyard.

CHARGE OF EMBEZZLEMENT.—Henry Armytage Picker-
den has been committed for trial at the Richmond Petty
Sessions, for embezzling several sums of money the pro-
perty of his employer. It was proved the prisoner had
received several sums which he had not accounted for,
and his employer, having the greatest confidence in him,
did not suspect that anything was wrong. A professional
accountant, however, who examined the books, found
there were several se entries. The amount embezzled
was not known.

CONTEMPT OF COURT.—An application has been made in
the Court of Exchequer to commit Lord Lismore for con-
tempt of court. An action had been brought against him for
the recovery of a debt, and the plaintiffs obtained a
judge's order requiring him to file an answer
to certain questions, which he had neglected to do
The counsel for the plaintiffs, therefore, moved to commit
him for contempt of Court, the judge's order having been
personally served, and a peer being no less liable to pro-
cess for contempt of Court than any other person. The
Court granted a rule to shew cause.
ALLEGED INFRINGEMENT OF A " CHIGNON " PATENT.—
Vice-Chancellor Sir R. Malins has given judgment in a
case in which a dispute had arisen respecting the manu-
facture of chignons of a particular description. A chignon,
and frizette maker, of Manchester named Rushton,
brought an action to restrain Messrs. Crawley, Cheapside,
shirt collar, ladies' chignon, and hair pad manufacturers,
from infringing his patented process for making artificial
hair in imitation of human hair. His Honour held that

the invention must be new if a patent were obtainea: The
plaintiff's was not in reality a new invention, but a new
process for arriving at a result which the defendants had
previously made peculiarly their own. The bill was dis-
missed with costs.

A " POETICAL " DISPUTE.-Mr. Frederick Locker cora-

-„
posed a set of poems, which were published by the Messrs.
Moxon. The poems ran through two editions, when the
composer issued a new book, under the title of
" Locker's London Lyrics," containing sixty-one
poems, fifty-six of . which were in the previous
volume. The publishers now applied for an interlocutory
injunction to restrain Mr. Locker from proceeding with
the sale of the second work, on the ground that it was a
colourable imitation of the former, and that the defen-
dant had been guilty of violation of agreement, the agree-
ment giving him liberty to republish on a particular
event, which had not happened. The defence was that
the agreement had been repudiated by the plaintiffs, but
Vice-Chancellor James, before whom the application was
made, thought otherwise, and granted the injunction.
THE FIRE AT THE WESTMINSTER RAILWAY STATION.—
At Bow-street a ragged ill-looking urchin, named Henry
Weatherley, was charged with having set fire to the
Westminster Station of the Metropolitan District Railway
Company on Monday night. George White, inspector on
duty at the station, stated the damage done was
not very great, but the fire might have been a very
disastrous one if it had not been so speedily discovered.
The police superintendent said it might have endangered
the Houses of Parliament if the flames had blown over
the road. A person in court suggested that it might have
set the Thames on fire, for the river was even nearer than
the Senate House. (Laughter.) Mr. Flowers remanded
the prisoner for a week.
ROUGHS AND THE POLICE.—Wm. Jones, a rough-look-
ing fellow, was charged at Marlborough-street by W.
Newton, with assaulting the police. Police-constable
Joseph Bull, 189 E, said that on the previous night he was
called to Cumberland-street, and saw the prisoner and
others fighting, and also some women. He took a woman
into custody, when he was immediately surrounded by a
crowd of about 200 roughs, and the prisoner caught
hold of the woman and rescued her, and struck him
a blow on the temple, and as well as others in the crowd,
while he was on the ground, most shamefully illused him.
He took the prisoner into a public-house so' as to secure
tiim till other constables came, who then took him to the
tation, having to draw their truncheons to protect them-
selves from the roughs. The evidence having been cor-
roborated, the prisoner was committed for 21 days'
imprisonment with hard labour.
CRUEL CASE OF DETENTION.—WiIIam Harris, a man of
about thiry years of age, was brought to the Westminster
Police-court by detective Shaw, on a warrant for disobe-
dience of a summons charging him with detaining a chest
of drawers, table, chairs, looking-glass, pictures, bed and
bedding, and other articles, the property of his father-in-
law, George Hughes. The complainant said he sent the
goods to the defendant to take care of, and when he sent
for them he refused to give them up. Defendant admitted
the possession of the drawers, the bedstead, . bed and two
pillows, but declared that complainant, gave everything
else to a girl who moved the things. He did not want to
keep anything, and the fact was his father-in-law was a
nasty " dispositions " old man, who got drunk and would
-not keep a home. Mr. Arnold said it was odd that if
defendant did not want the things he did not give them
up. He had no right to keep them, an-I he should adjourn
the case for a week to give him that opportunity.
A HAPPY MARRIED LIFE.—A very singular and sensa-
tional case has been brought before the Cheltenham
Police Court. Application was made by a Mr. Field,
a large draper in the town, for the discharge of an order
granted to his wife last November by two Cheltenham
justices for the protection of her goods. The Court was
crowded, and the bench was unusually full, great interest
being excited by the proceedings. The story told by the
applicant was a most extraordinary one. He said
that in December, 1857, being then quite
sane, he was taken from his house at the
instigation of his wife, and put in the Gloucestershire
Lunatic Asylum as a pauper lunatic, though he had left
his wife in possession of his business and stock-in trade,
on which she and her family had since lived. He escaped
twice from the asylum, but was re-captured and sent back,
though persons he spoke to acknowledged him to be
rational. He obtained by some means a copy of Charles
Reade's " Hard Cash," in which he learned that the
power of the asylum authorities to recapture a patient
ends after fourteen days. He, therefore, on escap-
ing a third time remained hidden till that
time was past. Afterwards he called on the author,
of " Hard Cash," who assisted him, and last November
he returned to Cheltenham to claim his business, but
found that his wife had a few days before obtained the
protection order complained of on the ground of desertion
by her husband on the 13th of February, 1869, the day
after his escape from the asylum. The defence main
tained that there had been a legal desertion, and that the
applicant, who was admitted to be now sane, had accused
his wife of horrible crimes without the slightest ground.
Mrs. Field gave evidence to this effect, and after some
discussion on the legal point the Bench refused to dis-
charge the order, and the applicant's counsel intimated
that further proceedings would be taken.

The New Independent College at Taunton, Somer-
setshire was opened on Tuesday.

The election, by household suffrage, which took
place at Birmingham to the chaplaincy of St. John's
Church, resulted in favour of the Rev. W. C. Badger.
He won by 3898 against 2,309. Everything went off
quietly. At the last election, about 25 years ago, scenes
of gross debauchery took place.