The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-03 00:00:00

GYMNASTICS FOR GIRLS.

LAW ANI) POLIUE.
DESPERATE ASSAULT BY A SOLDIER.—Wm. Youlo, a
private in the Ist Battalion Grenadier Guards, was charged
at the Westminster Police-court with the followidg violent
assault :—Joseph Wye, who had to be seated while giving
his evidence, said at half-past one he was going to his
home in Leader-street, Chelsea, when the prisoner, who,
without any provocation struck him a violent blow on the
head and rendered him insensible. He lost a great deal of
blood, and his watch and chain, but ho did not know
whether he had left them with his friends. The injured manwas
picked up in the road, and the prisoner was stopped with
nis belt in Lis hand, who, he said, had merely defended
himself when he was attacked. He was remanded.
ROBBING AN EMPLOYEI,— Edward Tobin, errand boy to
Mr. James Batsford, comb-dealer, of .No. 11, Warwick-street,
Regent.street, and Chad], rine M'Carthey,f a charman, were
charged at the Marlborough-street Police-court, before Mr.
Knox, with stealing some combs, the property of Mr. Bats •
ford. Tobin was seen yesterday to leave his employer's
shop and meet the prisoner M'Carthey at the corner 'of.
Marshall-street, St. James's, and he handed her a white
paper parcel containing some combs, and they were
afterwards given into' custody. On showing the combs to
Mr. Batsford he identified them as his property, and of the
value of is. The prisoners were commuted for trial.
PLAINTIFF OR DEFENDANT ?—A curious case has been
brought before the Court of Common Pleas. An action
was brought in Berkshire for the breach of a warranty
given with a mare, in which the jury, after
hearing the case, found a verdict for the de-
fendant, damages £3O. The judge, treating this
as a mistake, entered the verdict for the
plaintiff. The jury, after having heard this, returned
into Court/to say they intended their verdict to be for the
defendant. The Judge asked why in that case they had.
given damages, to which the jury replied that they
thought the defendant had been put to a good deal of
expense, and should have £3O. Upon this the judge
entered the verdict for the defendant, and the question was
whether a rule should be made absolute to enter a verdict
for the plaintiff, as was at first done, or for a new trial.
The Court, after hearing the argument, discharged
the rule.

AN OFFER OF REWARD.—An action has been brought
in the Court of Exchequer to recover a reward of £5O
offered for information leading to the apprehension and
conviction of the persons who stole a horse belonging
to the defendant, Mr. Humphreys, of Chingford. The
plaintiff gave information which led to the conviction
of the receiver of the stolen property, but on his claiming
the reward the defendant refused to pay it. It was urged
on his behalf that the claim could not be supported, as
the plaintiff had not seen the advertisement before giving
the information, but the court held the objection was un-
tenable and gave judgment in favour of the plaintiff.
A CURIOUS CASE.—An action was brought, in the
Court of Exchequor, by the assignee of a policy for £2OO,
effected in 1841 on the life of a Mr. Lacon, who went to
France in 1853, leaving his wife and child behind him. He
was taken ill, and his wife went to him, and remained
some weeks, after which she returned to Englaftd, where
she died the next year. Nothing had since been heard of
Mr. Lacon, and it was presumed on behalf of the plaintiff
that he was dead, and the money must be paid over. The
company contended that there was no proof of death. It
was finally agreed that judgment should be entered for the
plaintiff, on his undertaking to indemnify the company
against all future claims on this account.

THE LIABILITY OF HORSE 0 WNERS DECIDED. --In the
Court of Exchequer the case of Tunstall v. Nunn came
on to enter a non-suit for the defendant, under the fol-
lowing circumstances :—Mr. Nunn's servant was driving
a horse in a brougham up Park-street, and on coming into
Oxford-street, he was run into by a cab horse
which caused Mr. Nunn's horse to bolt, and damaged the
plaintiff's cab. The plaintiff brought this action to re-
cover from the defendant for the damage done. There-
upon the defendant moved for a non-suit, and stated that
the horse had been hunted for two years, and broken to
harness, and consequently the owner could not
have been guilty of negligence. In giving judg-
ment. the Lord Chief Baron said there was no
evidence. that Mr. Nunn knew that his horse was
unfit to go in harness in the streets of London, and it
would be too bad to hold a horse-owner responsible for
damage done by his horse through some defect unknown
to him. Mr. Baron Martin said there was no evidence of
negligence ; it was a pure accident. If because a horse
had a hard mouth he was not to be driven, one half of
the horses in the kingdom would hate to be sacrificed.
The other judges concurred, and the rule was made abso-
lute, taking away the owner's liability in such cases.
• BANKRUPTCY OF AN Ex-M.P.—The first examination
sitting was held under the bankruptcy of Edwin Baldwin
Courtenay, commonly called Lord Courtenay, described
as a gentleman, of 25, Ryder-street, St. James's, ex-M.P.
for East Devonshire. Mr. Chatteris produced a statement
of the bankrupt's affairs, which shewed total unsecured
debts and liabilities about £250,000, and creditors holding
security about £300,000. The assets consist of estates to
which his lordship will become entitled upon the death of
his father, subject to the mortgages thereon and the value,
of which cannot at present be correctly stated. Mr.
Henry Chatteris was appointed trustee, and three credi-
tors a committee of inspection of the bankrupt's estate;
and the next sitting for the examination and application
for order of discharge of the bankrupt will be held before
the Chief Judge.

DERBY DAY FRIVOLITIES. —There were several charges
at the Metropolitan police courts arising out of the inane
practices indulged in by rough patrons of the Derby. At
Wandsworth John Chaplin, a servant of the Coach and.
Horses, Grosvenor-place, Pimlico, was charged with pea-
shooting, Prisoner : lam very sorry, but everyone was doing
it. Mr. Dayman : It is a very foolish amusement, and ought
to be obsolete like badger or bull baiting. The prisoner
was then fined ss. Charles Boyd, a painter, of Felix-
street, Hackney-road, and Richard George Fostick, resi-
ding in Park-street, Islington, were charged with shooting
peas from a van while passing along High-street, Clap-
ham. Mr. Dayman fined each prisoner ss. Two fellows,
for beating donkeys, were sent to prison for a fort-
night. George Anderson, a coke-dealer, who had a cut
and blood on his face, was charged with furious driving
along the Balham-road. Mr. Marl complained that the
prisoner drove against his trap, knocking off the hind
wheel and throwing out his party. The damage was £4.
Mr. Dayman said it was a case for an action.

Lord Napier's term of service as Governor of
Madras, expires in March next, and his lordship will
probably return home in April. It is believed that
Lord Nc,pier will succeed Viscount Canterbury as
Governor of Victoria, Australia—an office worth £lO,OOO
a-year.

-SAUSAGES.— Rivalry in trade is shewn in the case
of two sausage dealers in Paris with shops adjoining, one
of whom has painted on his glass window, over a pyramid
of sausages, " at 30 centimes a pound--- to pay more is to
be robbed, '• " while the other puts his sausages into an
obelisk, and paints over it, " At 40 centimes a pound—to
pay less is to be poisoned." _

- THE Cincuris OF THE JUDGES.—The judges of
the superior courts met yesterday, in their private
room, and fixed the circuits as follows :—Home Circuit :
Lord Chief Justice Bovill and Mr. Justice Blackburn.
Norfolk Circuit : Mr. Baron Channel and Mr. Justice
Keating. Western Circuit : Mr. Baron Martin and Mr.
Justice Willes. Oxford Circuit : Mr. Justice Mellor and
Baron Pigott. Midland Circuit : Lord Chief Baron
Kelly and Mr. Justice Brett, North Wales Circuit :
Lord Chief Justice Cockburn. South Wales Circuit ; Mr.
Justice Xiannen.

An unusual, but very pleasing, private morning per-
formance was given at the Hanover-square Rooms a day
or two ago. Madame Brenner is a lady who has for some
time been engaged in teaching gymnastics to girls ; and on
Monday an audience of relatives and friends assembled to
witness the results of this training. Nothing could be
more gratifying. The young ladies were very prettily
dressed in tunics and trowsers of flannel, which afforded
absolute freedom of movement without trenching upon
the borders of masculine attire. The programme was a
lengthy one, perhaps too lengthy, but it was divided into
three parts to afford intervals of rest; and it comprised all
the exercises taught, from simple marching to rope lad-
ders and the trapeze. The performances in the last part
appeared to involve rather severe exertion ; but
the performers were certainly not unduly distressed
or fatigued ; and they seemed thoroughly to
enjoy the plaudits that their skill called forth.
The Times, which gives an account of the performance,
criticises it thus :—The real test of Madame Brenner's
system, however, is to be sought in the more simple action
which resemble those of ordinary life and here its success
was most remarkable. We never before saw a dozen girls
so thoroughly well " set up," so erect without an atom
of stiffness, or so steady, prompt, and certain in their
movements. All who have watched women are fami-
liar with a certain jerkiness for which they are usually
conspicuous, and which is partly the result of temperament
but chiefly of the spasmodic irritability of untrained muscle.
Of this jerkiness Madame Brenner's more finished pupils
shewed no trace, except, perhaps, in the exercises with
battledore and shuttlecock, in which many of them were
deficient in firmness and steadiness of stroke, as well as in
the power of measuring the force to be exerted for the pro-
duction of a given effect. The exercises with rings, and
those with hoops, and the skating (on wheels) were all very
graceful and effective, and the whole performance, ex-
cept in its more violent parts, was pleasing in its cha-
acter. It is more than likely that the violent parts may
be necessary or useful as matters of training, and that to
them some of the finished ease in other movements may
130 due. We affirm no more than that the latter are the
more reaceful. The impulse that has of late years
been given to the mental education of woman, and the
existence of such institutions as the college at Hitchin,
are facts that require to be counterbalanced by a cor-
responding attention to physical development. Girls of
sedentary habits will either be unable to rival others in
point of attainments, or else they will be unable practically
terapply their attainments to the work of life. Physiology
teaches how easy it is to produce an overgrowth of one side
of an organism, and how certainly this overgrowth is
followed or attended by diminution of power in other
directions. On the other hand, it is far from easy to
overwork the frame as a whole ; and if only due proportion
and symmetry between all functions be preserved, there
is no fear that the young will be pushed too
much. Gymnastics, or at least well-regulated
bodily exercise furnishes the proper security against
over-taxing the brain by study ; and study renders
a correlative service by securing the muscles against
being strained by excessive effort. The greater the pres-
sure of women towards the higher classes of industrial
employment, the greater and more earnest their demand
for schools and teaching; the greater the tension put upon
their minds by examinations and by competition, the more
imperative will be the necessity for the careful and sys-
tematic training of their bodily powers."