The Sun.
London, England, 1846-10-08 00:00:00

LOVE, LAW, AND LOSS.

The Augsburg Gazette furnishes us with the following
details of the affair of the seizure at Cologne of a casket,
by two Prussian advocates, beiieving it to contain letters
and documents, but which, on being opened, was found to
he filled with bank notes only,' which were restored
immediately to their owner. The names of the par-
ties concerned in these transactions are the Count de
Hatzenfeld, one of the richest persons in Germany,
being possessed of estates bringing him in a revenue
equal to 570,000 E a year; his Countess, who is the
daughter of a Sovereign of one of the petty states of Ger-
many; Mme. de Mezendorff, the mistress of the Count;
and Dr. Mendelsohn and M. Appenheim, the lawyers.
The Count and Countess have three children, two sons
and a daughter, but in consequence of the Count's inter-
course with Mme. de Mezendorff, the Countess sepa-
rated from her husband, contenting herself with an
allowance from him, extremely small in proportion to
his income, which was partly derived from the fortune
she brought him. About the end of August last :the
Countess was informed that there had been registered
at Dusseldorf a deed, whereby the Count had charged
his estates with a very large annuity, to be paid to
Mdme. de Mezendorf during her life, on the pretended
consideration that she had advanced to him a large sum
of money. Under the advice of friends she went to the
Count, and represented to him the injustice he had at-
tempted tocommit towards her and her children, consider-
ing that the whole of their joint property was, according
to their marriage settlement, held by them in common, and
that, according to the law of the land, their eldest son
would be heir to all the freehold estates. She therefore
urged him, in order to avoid the scandal of a suit at law,
to annul the grant to Madame de Mezendorff. The
Count refused to listen to her remonstrances, and she
thereupon consulted the two advocates above named.
They recommended, as the first object, that every en-
deavour should be made to obtain possession of the letters
between the Count and his mistress as the most likely
means of provinr, that the consideration inserted
in the annuity deed was fictitious. Learning that
Madame de Me7endorff was at Coblentz, the two
advocates hastened there, and, being informed that
the papers they were in search of were carried with
her in a casket, contrived to get into her apartment in
the night, and to carry off the supposed depository.
Madame de Mezendorff very soon missed her treasure,
and learnt by whom she had been robbed. Losing no
time in applying to the police, warrants were issued for
the arrest of M. Appenheim and Dr. Mendelssohn.
The former, on learning this, returned to Coblentz
and surrendered himself to prison ; but the Doctor
is still at liberty. He has, however, written to
the magistrates, pledging his honour that he
will return and give himself up in time to take
his trial. It is stated that both these advocates, how-
ever irregular their conduct may be deemed in this in -
stance, are men of known honour and integrity. A
curious incident has attended the pursuit of Dr. Mendels-
sohn. At Herbersthel, a small Prussian town near the
frontier of Belgium, the police officers arrested the
cousin of the Doctor, M. Felix Mendelssohn Barthohly,
the celebrated composer, who was returning from Belgium
by the railroad, but who is a doctor in music, and not
of law. He was taken to prison, and there detained till
the next day, when two persons of note came from Co-
logne to identify him, and he was set at liberty.

To PRESERVE CUT FLOWERS.—The most simple
rules are, not to put too many flowers in a glass, to
change the water every morning, and to remove every
decayed leaf as soon as it appears, cutting off the ends
of the stems occasionally, as soon as they show any
symptoms of decay. A more efficacious way, however,
is to put nitrate of soda in the water ; as about as much
as can easily be taken up between the forefinger and the
thumb put into the glass every time the water is changed
will preserve cut flowers in all their beauty for above a
fortnight. Nitrate of potash (that is common saltpetre),
in powder, has nearly the same effect, but it is not
quite so efficacious.—Mrs. Loudon's Lady's Country Com-
panion.

' CAUTION TO RAILWAY SERVANTS.—At the magis-
trates'-court at Reigate, on Monday last, before Mr.
Freshfield, M.P., George Wilson and Charles Clarke,
two engine-drivers of the Brighton Railway, were sum-
moned, at the request of the South-Eastern Railway
Company, fir endangering the lives of passengers by
inattention to the signals at the Reigate station. John
Reeves, a switchman of the Dover line, wa3 sworn and
examined by Mr. C. Nash, who attended on behalf of the
South-Eastern Company. He deposed that, on the 28th
of August last, the defendants were driving the two en.
gioes attached to the Brighton train ; that-on its arrival
at the Reigate station the Brighton signals were both
extended for it to stop ; that the Diver up train was
due, and was signalled as in sight ; that it approached
the Reigate station, having to cross the Brighton down
line to get to the up platform ; that at the same moment
the defendants started their train—witness observed it
coming, although the signal was for it to stop ; that he ;
extended both his hands, which is always a stop signal
but that that was also disregarded ; and seeing the
trains would inevitably come into collision, he ran down
the signal on to the line, and said to one of the de-
fendants—" Do you not see the signals? Where are
you going ? " The defendants reversed their engines ;
but as that would not prevent a collision, witness ran up
to the points, and turned the Brighton train on the Dover
down.line, and thus avoided the collision. The witness
was severely cross examined by Mr. Everset, of Brighten,
for the defendants, but his evidence was not shaken as to
the position of the signals., John Watts, another
switchman, confirmed his evidence. In cross ex•
amination he admitted that he heard the plat-
form bell ring, which was a signal that all was right at
the platform, but was no authority to the defendants to
go on until the signals were moved to correspond. Other
evidence confirmatory of this was adduced, and Mr.
Gray, superintendent of the Brighton locomotives, stated
that oue defendant had resigned his situation, but there
being contradictory statements, the other had remained
in the service. Mr. Everset addressed the bench in
mitigation ; he did not mean to deny the negligence of
his clients, although he was instructed that it could be
contradicted ; and after an able comment on the case,
threw the defendants on the mercy of the Court. Mr.
Freshfield consulted with his brother magistrate, and
said that topics had been introduced by the defendants
which were not relevant to the case, and lucidly pointed
out the immense importance of attention to the signals,
as the only and best means that the human mind could
devise for the public safety ; and it only required proper
attention to answer the purpose. He considered the
ease as clearly made out, and of so much importance as
an imprisonment ; but as the defendant Clarke
tojf)
wasuds justify an
of the second engine, and there were mitiga-
tery circumstances in his case, he should have sentenced
him- to two months' imprisonment, and the othfr to three
months, with hard labour, in the county gaol ; but on
ret.rence to the particular clause of the statute, it was
found that the maximum period was fixed at two months ;
and he therefore reduced Clarke's term to one month,
and Wilson's to two months' imprisonment.