The Sun.
London, England, 1848-10-19 00:00:00

FATAL RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

BLISWOBTII, OCT. 16.—An inquest was held this
morning at the Railway Hotel, Blisworth, before
Mr. Hick, one of the coroners for the county of
Northampton, on view of the body of Richard
James.

Mr. Bedford attended to watch the proceedings on
the part of the company.
The deceased was a porter in the employ of the com-
pany, and at the time the accident happened he, with
three other porters, 'named Mellish, Goodman, and
Leper, had been turning a carriage-truck on to a
siding, after which deceased proceeded to cross the
line, on the London side, at the time the five r.u.
train was coming in. The driver and fireman
were keeping a good look out, but the police-
man's hut and the signal-post intervening, they
could not see the deceased in sufficient time
to avoid coining in contact with him, and
the consequence was that the off buffer struck
the deceased on the hip, and drove him about six-
teen yards, throwing him across the rails, when one
of the waggons caught his foot, and dragged de-
ceased under the other waggons, separating his right
foot, and severing Lis head from his body, besides
otherwise mangling him in a frightful manner.
The deceased was about twenty-six years of age,
and he had been at the station only about five
weeks. His mother and sisters and a brother
were standing on the platform at the time, having
come to visit the unfortunate man, and thus
witnessed the accident. The obstruction caused
no fewer than nine waggons and the tender
to be thrown off the line, blocking it up to such an
extent that it was not cleared till after ten o'clock,
whilst deceased was so dreadfully mangled that his
remains were not cleared from the waggons
and road for nearly an hour and a quarter.
This is the first fatal accident that has
occurred at this station since the opening
of the line, and the jury were of opinion that
the present might have been avoided had signals been
given by the driver. Mr. Bedford stated that such
was the regulation of the company, the engine-drivers
being instructed to sound the whistle a quarter of
a mile before entering a station, but, unfortunately
it was a common practice amongst many of the
porters, Ste., to disregard this, and thus the majority
of the accidents that occurred were caused, not by
the engine-drivers neglecting their duties, but by the
carelessness or recklessness of the servants employed
on the lines.

The jury, after a lengthened consultation, returned
a verdict that deceased came to his death by accident;
but, at the same time they thoug:it that more caution
ought to be used by the drivers in approaching to or
passing by a station, particularly one of such an extent
as that at Blisworth.

LONDON,

LAW INTELLIGENCE.

COURT OF BANKRUPTCY, Oct. IS.
(Before Mr. Commissioner FONBLANQUE.)
IN 72E REGLESS, SICERRATT, AND CO.

These bankrupts, who were woollendrapers, carry-
ing on business in St. Martin's-lane, applied for their
certificates. The balance-sheet embraced a period of
about four years, and showed that the debts were
5,5001.. and to meet which the assets were stated at
about 2,7001. The profits were 6,4981., and the trade
expenses 1,1891., private 1,9871., housekeeping 8571.,
and losses 2,2941.
Mr. Linklater, for the assignees, opposed, and Mr.
Lawrance supported the bankrupt.
The grounds of opposition were, first, that the
bankrupts commenced trade without capital, and were
now involved to the extent of 8,0001., having only
1,300/. to meet it ; secondly, that in September,
1847, when they compounded with their creditors,
they gave a fraudulent preference to certain persons
who were debtors to their estate ; and, thirdly, that
they (the bankrupts) obtained from Messrs. Wise
goods under the false pretence that they should be
paid for at the time.
Mr. LINKLATER then proceeded to detail the facts
of the case in corrobation of the allegations made to
the bankrupts' application for their certificates, show-
ing that they had actually lost 6,0001. in less than four
years, and concluded by submitting that gentlemen,
who left their situations to embark in trade without
capital, living on their creditors, and then coming to
this Court with a large deficiency, should not be
allowed to re-enter trade without censure from the
Court; and with regard to living on their creditors,
they had paid a large amount of interest for the loans
of money to enable them to go on. In September
they called their creditors together, then knowing
they were in a state of insolvency; they went to Mr.
Taylor, a tailor, who had accepted a bill for them, but
was largely indebted to the bankrupts, who told him
that her had better come down to their premises, and
fetch a sufficient quantity of goods to meet the bill,
which Mr. Taylor did, and now the bill (for 180/.)
was unpaid to the extent of 701. There was a similar
tran'action also with a Mr. Absalem.

Mr. Dawson (the agent of Mr. Wise) was exa-
mined by Mr. Linklater, and said that his employers
,were creditors in September to the extent of 4001.,
and consented to accept the composition of 143. in
the pound, only one-fourth of which had been paid.
In January, 1847, Mr. Skerratt applied to be allowed
to re-open the account with Mr. Wise, who refused
so to do, but upon a , subsequent application they ob-
tained some goods, on the understanding that it
should be a ready money transaction. They had not
been paid for.
After some discussion,
Mr. LAWRAIWE was heard in a lengthened and able
address to the Court on behalf of the bankrupts, con-
tending that it had not been their intention at any
one period of time to depart from the rules of fair
and honest trading, and that they were now entitled
to their certificates, more particularly as they had
been out of trade for upwards of six months since the
fiat was issued.

Mr. Commissioner FONELANQUE, in giving judg-
ment, said that he did not consider the bankrupts had
been guilty of reckless trading ; but they certainly
had conducted their trade in a very irregular way. It
was an every-day practice to begin without capital,
and therefore the Learned Commissioner did not at-
tach much weight to that point; but yet, when men
did commence business without capital, they should
conduct that business within moderate compass and
with great care. With respect to the bankrupt Bous-
field, his Honour would at once grant him his certifi-
cate. Then, as to the transactions between the other
two bankrupts and Taylor and Absalem, the latter
had paid the bill, and therefore there was an end to
the question ; but as to the former, the Court felt
bound to designate it as an irregular transaction,
and not a fraudulent preference—yet they deserved
being strongly censured. Then there came,
incidently, a number of preferences, by some
composition creditors getting a preference over
others. Without going into the question of the
policy or impolicy of compositions, it might be said
that when creditors were allowed to make conditions
for themselves to the disadvantage of other creditors,
it would be deemed a fraudulent preference, and
always considered most irregular, most improper, and
fraudulent conduct on the part of the bankrupt or
bankrupts. Next, as to the transaction with the
agent of Messrs. Wise, the Court did not think that
any false pretence was intended by the bankrupt
Skerratt, although it had no doubt but that Mr.
Dawson considered it to be a ready-money transac-
tion. It was not likely that Mr. Skerratt would
blast his future hopes in trade by committing such a
paltry fraud ; but it was probably an irregular
transaction. Mr. Skerratt appeared to have been the
active man, and there was no specific objection urged
against Mr. Regless. Therefore, taking all the cir-
cumstances of the case into consideration, the judg-
ment of the Court was, that the certificate of Regless
be suspended for three and that of Skerratt for six
months.

Mr. LAWRANCB-Will your Honour grant pro•
tection ?
His HoNonu—Yes.
Suspended accordingly.
IN RE W. CLUNES.

The bankrupt, a pawnbroker of Brydges-street,
Covent garden, applied for his certificate.
His HoNoun said that the report of the official as-
signee was very favourable, and granted the applica-
tion forthwith.

EXTRAORDINARY FEATS.—The Fife Herald nar-
rates the antics of a steeple and chimney climber on the
top of a chimney stalk at Newton of Abbotshall, 136
feet high. He fixed a plank ten inches broad, and
projecting about twelve feet on each side, on the
top of the chimney. In the centre of this plank
be placed a pole sixteen feet high, having a
small piece of wood on the top, which he climbed up
and stood upright on, holding a flag in his hand. After
doing so, he descended to the top of the stalk, when he
walked out to each end of the plank, and struck an axe
into them. He then turned about towards the centre,
and, to the great alarm of the assembled multitude, stood
on his head for some time, and, returning to his feet, he
stamped firmly upon the plank on each side of the chim-
ney. He then safely descended head foremost.
A FROLICSOME Hossn.—As Mr. Barrett, colt-
breaker, was attempting to ride a horse through the
street at Totnes, on Thursday, the sth inst., the animal
refused to move one step onward, but went back
ward, reared, and sprung from one side of the street to
the other, insomuch that most of the shopkeepers put
up their window shutters. A crowd of persons soon
assembled to witness these freaks, and some of them
endeavoured to pull and others push the animal for-
ward, but all their efforts were in vain. The shop
window of Mr. Kinsman, saddler, not being secured by
the shutters, were broken in by the horse suddenly run-
ning against it. At last the horse galloped off on the
Ashburton-road. It appeared that these mad tricks are
not owing to, any natural viciousness in the animal, but
are the results of a bad education, it having been
trained to carry the famous " Billy Button" in an ex-
hibition of horsemanship.— Western Flying Post.
GEOLOGICAL DISCOVERY.--A. correspondent of
the Fife Herald states that " A section of limestone
rock has been lately laid open by the cutting of the
Edinburgh and Northers Railway at the Newburgh
station, which belongs to the Cornstone of the old red
sandstone formation. The face exposed is about a hun-
dred feet in length by upwards of twenty feet in thick-
ness, and very distinctly stratified. The beds are broken
near the centre, which causes their edges to slip down
and dip in opposite directions. inclining on the one side
at an angle of 28 degrees towards the north-east, and on
the other approaching to nearly a vertical position to-
wards the north-west. What adds to the geological im-
portance of the discovery is the fact of the gray sand-
stone, or Carmylie fossiliferous pavement stone ceing
found in the immediate vicinity of the calcareous deposit.
The representative of the Cornstone in England, it is
well known, is extremely rich in fossils, particularly of
the genus Cephalaspis, while not a fragment
is has as yet
been detected in any of its numerous localities in Scot-
land. The colour of the limestone that of a dark
flinty gray, with innumerable white thread-like veins of
carbonate of lime, both vertical and longitudinal, and
which cause the rock to split up into thin bands of
larger and smaller rhomboidal masses. The deposit
is aubcrystalline, of an extremely bard and cherty
texture ; it is not nodular or compound, as in so many
other places, but of a close uniform homogeneous struc-
ture."

ROMAN REM/ANS.—The remains of a Roman villa
have been discovered in Wire-street, Colchester, extend-
ing several hundred yards, including a hypocaust, or
bath flue (the interior still blackened with smoke),
several tiles of various shapes, and part of a tomb. A
portion of tesselated pavement was also found six feet
below the surface in Lion-walk.—Sulfolk Herald.

THURSDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 19, 1848,

Mr. COMBE, after the usual caution, asked him what
he had to say to the charge ? Prisoner—l shall re-
serve my defence for a jury.
The prisoner was then fully committed for trial.
Sarah Andrews., the wife of a compositor and shop-
keeper, Clerken well-close, was placed at the bar
charged with excessive cruelty to William Andrews,
a poor cripple, between fourteen and fifteen years of
age, by which he was seriously injured.
The unfortunate boy, who was supported into
court in a crippled state, was perfectly attenuated in
consequence of the ill-treatment, exhibited marks of
violence on his,head, &c., and was placed on a seat
while he gave his evidence.

Mr. King, hairdresser, of 27, Clerkenwell-
close, said that the defendant was the com-
plainant's mother-in-law, and for a length of time
past she had exercised the greatest cruelty towards
him, and his cries and screams frequently alarmed the
neighbours, until he (Mr. King) determined, in con-
sequence of her conduct towards this boy last Monday,
to bring her to justice, and ever since he had had the
boy under his protection, he having obtained a war-
rant against her.
The boy deposed that on Monday last the defen-
dant orderad him to wash out a room in the upper
part of the house, when she complained that he was
slow about it, and he must have been fast asleep. She
beat and kicked him on the body, side, and head.
She seized him, and he could not get away from her.
After he had finished the room she beat him, when he
escaped from under the counter. She seized him by
the arms, dragged him out, and dashed him on the
floor. she then knelt on his stomach, forced her hand
into his mouth to prevent his crying, and knelt upon
his stomach with all her might, and he now felt great
pain. She also bit his middle finger nearly through
and he bled very much. A gentleman entered the
place and took him away.
Here the poor boy was so much exhausted that his
head dropped, and he fell into a stupor.
Mr. Bayliss, the usher, said that when the applica-
tion was made for the warrant, the boy was bleeding
profusely, and he was in a weakly state.
Mr. Comas, asked the boy if his mother-in-law was
in the habit of serving him in this way ? He answered
in the affirmative.

Bingham, 80 G, the warrant officer, proved the ap-
prehension of the prisoner. She said nothing.
Mr. COMBE asked her if she wished to say anything
to the charge ? She said, "I did not throw him down
or kneel upon him "
She was fully committed for trial, and the boy was
taken to the workhouse.