The Sun.
London, England, 1870-05-03 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, MAY 3, 1870.

LAW AND POLICE.

RAILWAY CONTRACTS.—Three suits have been instituted
in-the court of Vice-Chancellor Malins against the Metro-
politan Railway Company to enforce specific perforniance
of contracts for the purchase of land. In one case the contract
had been made six years ago, but the money was not yet
paid. The Court decreed that the contracts should be
fulfilled within the next two months.
THE JUDGES IN A Frx.—ln the Court of Common
Pleas, Lord Chief Justice Bovill, addressing Mr. Williams,
asked if Thursday next would be a convenient day for
taking the case of Bovill v. Finch," which, it will be re-
membered, is an action brought by the plaintiff against a
miller for an alleged infringement of a patent obtained for
improved milling machinery. The plaintiff, who is
a near relative of the Lord Chief Justice,
has brought a large number of actions against
millers during the past few years, and the trials have
occupied a large portion of the time of the superior courts.
Mr. Williams reminded the court that the arguments
would occupy a long time, and suggested that, under a
recent Act of Parliament, a second court should sit in
Banco. The Chief Justice thought they would scarcely
do that. For his own part he -could not with propriety
sit in the case ; but his brethren could take
it on Thursday next, if convenient to the
counsel. Perhaps Mr. Williams would intimate
that to, Mr. Groves, the learned counsel for the defence.
Mr. Justice Brett said he did not know whether he could
sit in the case either, as he had been engaged as counsel
in one of the actions.—Mr. Williams thought if they
went to that extent, there was scarcely a judge on the
bench who could take it. Nearly everybody had been in
it in some form or other. (Laughter.)—lt was ultimately
agreed to take the case on Thursday.

THE RELATION OF OLD TO NEW COMPANIES.—In the
Rolls Court, Lord Romilly gave judgment in a matter
affecting the interests of the Birmingham Banking Com-
pany, which is now being wound up. The question sub-
mitted to his lordship was whether a compromise could be
allowed for effecting the sale of the old bank to the
new bank, the latter being a limited company, and the
official liquidator of the old bank, who was also the
managing director of tire new company, being the seller
of the building. It was also asked whether power could
be given to the official liquidator to sanction compromises
generally without the necessity of applying to the court
to ascertain whether they were fit and proper.
His lordship, though designating the proposed transaction
somewhat irregular, assented to it on the understanding that
a sum of £5,000 should be reserved for the payment of
those creditors who were either abroad or had not been
found, There was a fund of £20,000 in court, and all
creditors with the above exception, had been paid, and
his lordship believed that the interference of the persons
interested would be a sufficient guarantee against any-
thing improper passing unnoticed.
THE RIGHTS OF APPRENTICES ON A DISSOIXTION OF
PARTNERSHIP.—The case of Couchman v. Sillar came
before the Court of Common Pleas on a demurrer. A
sum of £99195. was paid as premium by Mr. Couchman to
Messrs. Sillar,and Bateman, who bound themselves to in-
struct his son in their business of tea brokers and col?mal mer-
chants, for two years. There had since been a dissolution
of partnership, the defendant, Sillar, seceding from the
firm, and Bateman carrying on the business. Sillar was
the partner whose instruction was held by the plain-
tiff to be of the most value, and young Couch-
man refused to serve under the latter partner.
At Nisi Prius a verdict was taken by consent, subject to
the opinion of the full court upon the point raised,
as to whether the dissolution of partnership was a breach
of the agreement. The Lord Chief Justice said no doubt
the plaintiff had a right to maintain this action. His son was
entitled to the instruction of both, and as the defendants
had by their own act disabled themselves from carrying
out the contract, they were clearly liable. The other
learned judges concurred.
THE GODRICH DIVORCE CASE AGAIN.—In the Court
of Queen's Bench Serjeant Parry moved for sentence to
be passed upon Elizabeth Williams who was found
guilty of perjury in the Godricci Divorce suit.
She was tried before the Lord Chief Justice
last term, when' she was ordered to come up
for judgment on the sixth day of this term. As she had
not appeared, the learned counsel now asked that sentence
be passed upon her in her absence and to have her recog-
nisances estreated. Mr. Justice Blackburn said no notice
had been given to bring her up for judgment ; and he did
not know of any case where sentence had been passed
upon a prisoner in his or her absence. Ultimately the
court refused the application.
A HEARTLESS SON.—A painful case has been brought
before the Woolwich magistrate. A mechanic in constant
work refused to pay for the burial of his mother, and the
Board of Guardians, after the remains had laid five days
uncoffined, conducted the funeral, applying to the son
afterwards for payment. He refused to pay, and the law,
according to the Woolwich magistrate, can only compel
him to refund the cost of maintenance, not the expenses
of a funeral

SHOOTING A PARTRIDGE.—A boatman named Rae was
convicted at the Derbyshire Quarter Sessions of stealing
a partridge. He picked up the bird in a field
over which a party of gentlemen had the right of
shooting. The jury found that the bird was in a
dying state, and could not have escaped when Rae picked
it up, and therefore he had taken it, fraudulently depriv-
ing the owner of it. The Court of Criminal Appeal
quashed this conviction. Five judges held that a bird or
an animal in a wild state was not regarded as property,
and that it was never intended to make those who preyed
upon game thieves as well as poachers.

COUNT DARU'S NOTE.—The Memorial Diplo-
matique says that by common consent the Vatican and the
Court of the Tuileries have resolved to consider the
Memorandum as nul, and as consequently calling for no
reply. The Univers on the other hand affirms that the
note has reached Paris, 'and that it simply contains a
refusal to communicate the Memorandum to the Council.
Cardinal Antonelli declines to enter into a discusssion
of the questions which have been raised by Count Daru.
SLEEPING CARTERS.—A Brentford magistrate
witnessed on Saturday week last a procession of a very
singular character. On the road between Brentford
Town Hall and Turnham-green, slowly following one
another, were no less than fourteen carts, and every carter
of the fourteen was fast asleep. A few days later the
spectacle appears to have been repeated, and five men
were, on Saturday last, fined for being asleep when they
should have been driving. The reason is not far
to seek. Three times a week Covent Garden
market begins about midnight to be a scene of bustle and
activity. Waggons and carts come in from the country
laden witlrflowers, fruits, and vegetables, and after some
hours marketing, the return journey begins just about the
time when London is at breakfast. The men have been
up all night, and have had beer to keep them lively. The
horses are glad to be going home, and know the way quite
well. The natural consequence is that all the drivers go
to.sleep. The only way to prevent it is to make the 0011-
ductors walk beside their horses, and, that wcnda
tither 9rue mumurc tic twke.—Eato.

AMERICAN LIFE INSURANCE IN EUROPE.

(From the Anglo-American Times)

One or two disastrous failures of English Life
Assurance Companietlately shook public confidence,
and directed attention to the system in force on the
other side of the Atlantic. It was found that the
States exercised a supervision, forcing the compa-
nies to publish their accounts in a comprehensible
form, and decreeing a ruinous penalty in case of
failure to supply the facts, or of falsification in the
figures. The confidence inspired by this practice
worked beneficially to the companies themselves,
for it barred the door to bogus concerns, and led the
citizens of the Republic, whose rights as insurers
were thus protected, freely to take out policies. The
consequence was an enormous business, which has
placed the life assurance companies of the Eastern
States among the most gigantic in the world, and
established them on a secure and substantial basis.
Attracted by the discussion and the interest excited
towards the American system in England, some
have turned their attention to Europe as to them a
fresh field for operations, and the New York Life
has established itself as the pioneer company both
in London and Paris. Nor is the enterprise con-
fined to life, for the New York Home Fire Insur-
ance has appointed an agent in London and pub-
lished a circular. But it is to life assurance that
interest is mainly directed, for the American system
appears to have produced better resulier than the
English, and to have created some of the most
thriving companies in this line ever established.
That the American intruders will have difficulties and
prejudices to overcome we know; and so should they
unless very ill-informed, but ultimate success must
hinge on the comparative advantages to insurers they
possess. There are Europeans who would not buy
American Bonds, though they felt convinced they
were the most secure in the world, so intense may
be their hatred of the Republic. But such are the
exceptions, for the main question to nearly all in-
surers is, What are the advantages, what the secu-
rity of these offices? The insurance Record asserts
that there are none in the world that can approach
the English and Scottish offices in point of security;
and if that be so, the sooner the New York Life
goes home the better for itself, for the very essence
of life assurance is security. The father of a family
insurt s his life as a provision for his helpless widow
and children when he dies, and to enter a ricketty
concern because the premiums are less would be
an act of insanity, of which no one is guilty except
those deluded into the belief that the fabric is sub-
stantial. The greatest of speculators drops specu-
lation when he comes to life assurance, and the
greatest screw turns it on in another direction, or
he trifles with the very interest it is his design to
guard. But is the remark of the Insurance Record
correct? We assert that there are no life offices in
the world equal to the American in point of secu-
rity, while freely admitting that in the Western
States some " wild-cat" assurance business has been
done. The reason wby the offices of such States as
New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania are so
secure is that they have to submit to a public in-
spection of their accounts and a close Government
nvestigation, nor are they permitted to publish the
statements which English Limited Liability Com-
panies call accounts, whereby concerns in hopeless
bankruptcy were made to figure with a surplus for
dividend, and a large reserve to fall back upon.
S❑pposing the honesty of the management to be
equal, and with such a system of espionage, it could
scarcely fail to be so, while the business capacity is
on a par, the reason why an American office is
superior to an English office is sufficiently obvious.
The principle of all assurance is the reception of
sums making up a large total to be paid .back at a
future day. It is simply a deposit against a con-
tingency, or an event which must sooner or later
occur. Its very essence then rests on the manner
in which the money entrusted to the company is
handled, or the power of making secure and paying
investments. Those acquainted with the advan-
tages an investor in America has over an investor
in England know the superiority of the American
over the English office ; and if the company be on
the mutual principle, it follows that the premiums
required from the policy-holders must be less, fur
the earnings of the money paid to the company
being greater, if there are no shareholders to absorb
the difference in large dividends, theywill accrue to
the policy-holder. The New York Life is a mutual
company, and the advantage it offers t 3 English in-
vestors is in part based on this fact. In replying to a
letter addressed by Mr. W AL F ORD to the Insurance
Record, upholding American offices, the Review, a
monthly paper devoted to insurance matters, calls
in question the very point for which we contend
—that is, the superiority of an American over
an English office in the matter of investment. In
the first place, it cannot see how English insurers
are to be protected in American offices. By the
same law, we answer, which protects American
insurers, which recognises no difference in nation-
ality where a contract is concerned, but decides on
the question of law and equity before it. " Does
not the extra interest obtainable in America exactly
represent the amount of mistrust which causes the
difference in price between English securities and
American ?" Now that, although 'plausibly put, is
grounded on a palpable error. It is not mistrust
which causes the difference in price between
English securities and American, but the dispro-
portion between the demand and supply of capital
in the two ccuntries. We presume the Review will
admit that there is property as secure in America
as in England ; such, for instance, as real estate in.
New York or in San Francisco. Suppose that
there were three acres covered with houses, the one
in London, the other in New York, and the third
in San Francisco, the revenue from each being,,
equal, and the security alike. A mortgage on
the London property would yield little more than
four per cent. ; in New York at least six
would be given ; in San Francisco perhaps ten
or twelve. Here, then, would be a difference on
what is supposed to be equal security of nearly
three to one between London and San Francisco.
If the English cannot understand land out of Eng-
land presenting as good security as land in Eng-
land, let them take British Consols, and no New
Yorker who accepted themes absolutely safe would
lend his money on them at less than 6 per cent.,
nor would the Californian under from 10 to 12. It
i; not therefore tl e mistrust which anuses the dif-
ference in price. Then comes the reply that it is
quite open to English offices to invest in American
Securities. Such is the argument which HoRACE
GREELEY uses, and with most effect too, when he
wants to stop a Free-trader's mouth about the
enormous profits made by the iromnas:ers in Penn-
sylvania, " If it be so profitable, go there, and in-
vest." The fact is that business cannot be thus
transferred or investments changed from one land
to another, for men have to lie on the bed they
have made, however strongly they may be con-
vinced that somebody else has made a better. An
assurance company is a thing of slow growth, and
takes time to attain to a position of undeniable se-
curity, such for instance as the New York Life,
now more than a quarter of a century in operation.
We have no doubt that its investments during this
period have been enormously profitable, for it has
enjoyed in a country like America the same a I-
vantages as those possessed by an emigrant—
that is, the certain increase in value from the
growth of population around, which enhances the
worth of the farm, of the business of the bank, of
the assurance office, of a newspaper, coming with-
out effort, the constant pressure beneath of the in-
coming throng, the ceaseless rise, like the flowing
tide. An assurance office thus placed enjoys a
manifest advantage, and competes against an Eng-

lish institution from the highest vantage ground.
Then, asks the Review, in the event of a war or the
thousand and one chances to which American
finance is exposed, where are we to find the rea-
lization of the sacred character of the assurance
trust ? This is mixing up public and private
affairs. A debt is no more cane lied because
the nation of the creditor goes to war with that of
the debtor, or the contract invalidated, than would
the liabilty of Smrrif be abolished by blackening
the eye of his creditor ROBINSON. The insurer
has but to look to the solvency of the company.
So long as the New York Life can pay, whether the
United States be at war or at peace, whether the
policy-holder be American or English, that com-
pany must fulfil its contract, nor would it dispute
its liability if solvent on any flimsy grounds, for
if security be the essence of the subject to the in-
surer, a good name which involves that security is
an absolute essential to the company. Hence the
frequent settlement in favour of the policy-holder,
though the matter be in dispute, and the law on
the company's side.
We cannot close this subject, though trenching
on our space, without noticing the handle made of
Erie to the injury of all classes of American enter-
prise when brought before the British public. "A
legal difficulty," observes the Review, " must be
argued before the most corrupt bench in the world,
that of New York, and the legal proceedings rela-
tive to the Erie Railway show how English invest-
ments may be trifled with." The difference be-
tween a great railway property falling wholly into
the hands of a clique, and the comparatively insig-
nificant interest of an individual policy-holder, ought
to be sufficiently obvious, for all that the Erie has
achieved has been through the magnitude of the
funds at its disposal and of the prize to be gained.
Nothing less than the absolute control of an im-
mense property in a very few bands could have en-
abled the directors to achieve results which have
had so disastrous an effect on the credit of the Em-
pire State. Swaying millious, they bribed by hun-
dreds of thousands, and so far carried their obj,:ct ;
but this differs widely from any other case possible,
and when employed to scare English investors the
intention is to damage American credit generally,
thus using it, as does the Times, for all purposes,
however inapplicable. The English insurer may
rely on the fact that his rights will be at least as
well protected by American law as by English, and
that it is not possible for any court to interpret that
law favourably for a native and unfavourably for a
foreigner, the American holder, even of Erie, being
victimized by the proceedings of the clique just as
is his confrere in London.

It was rumoured in New York last Wednesday
that the failure of the Funding Bill passed by the Senate
is now considered certain, the Committee of Ways and
Means of the House of Representatives having decided to
recommend a substitute for the measure. This is in con-
tradiction to the news by mail, which led us to expect the
passage of every portion of the bill, except that which
curtailed the currency by funding greenbacks at four
per cent.
TILE HAMBURG-AMERICAN STEAM COMPANY.—
In commenting on the question lately put in the House of
Commons to the Postmaster-General on the subject of
the unsatisfactory state of the postal arrangements be-
tween this country and the United States, to which his
lordship stated that the service was performed from Ame
rica by the North-German Lloyd and two English com-
panies, the Hamburg Borsen-Halle expresses its unmiti-
gated astonishment that the noble marquis did not
even mention the Hamburg-American Steam Com-
pany, which, as is well known, is under contract to
bring over every week the New York Tuesday's mails,
and lands them at Plymouth with the most admir-
able punctuality, and always on the ninth or tenth
day. The article concludes as follows :—" Unless we
admit the not very flattering supposition that the British
Postmaster-General is unacquainted with these facts, it is
difficult to account for his passing over the company in
such complete silence, as if it had no existence at all. The
question itselt that was addressed to his lordship, and the
continual complaints sent in by the Chamber of Commerce
of the principal manufacturing towns and mercantile ports
give sufficient evidence of the great discontent of the Eng-
lish merchants at the present imperfect state of affairs,
which has virtually thrown the whole carrying of the
American mails into the hands of the German lines, as the
steamers of the English companies, not being built for
speed, are unable to compete with the first-class vessels of
the North-German Lloyd and the Hamburgh-American
Steam Company.

flumouß.—Pierre Bonaparte is not comiog to
America after all. We are glad of it. Wo don't like
this shoot of the Bonaparte family. - tieneral Butler pro-
bably feels, with lago, that it is hard for him to be com-
pelled

" To wear his heart upon his sleeve
For £)awes to peck at."
—Figaro says that a legal peculiarity of the West is
that all the lawyers are judges, and none of the judges
are lawyers.—Decollete babies have gone Out of stale in
New York, and nothing but high-necked infants will now
pass.—A contemporary says, "A man in Chicago came
near having the top of his head blown off because he
called another man an alderman. This habit of calling
people names will get some one killed yet."—Senator Nye
put his new silk tile carelessly upon the sofa. A few
minutes after the veteran philosopher Greeley sat down
upon and crushed the hat fearfully. "Damn it,' roared
Nye, "I could have told you it wouldn't fit, before you
tried it on."—b. correspondent, speaking of the eighty-
nine dozen eggs recently given to an Illinois clergy-
man on a donation visit, calls it "lay activity."—At a
trial in an Alabama town not long since, one of the wit-
nesses, an old lady of some 80 years, was closely ques-
tioned by the opposing counsel relative to the clearness of
her eyesight. " Can you see me ?" said he. " 0 yes," was
answered. "Row well can you see me ?" persisted the
lawyer. " Well enough,'' responded the lady, "to see that
you're neither a negro, an Indian, nor a gentleman." The
answer bought down the house and silenced the counsel.
—The people of Florida propose to erect two monuments on
the St. John's River, near Mrs. Stowe's residence, to com-
memorate the heroes of her great novels, and one is to be
dedicated to Uncle Tom, the other to Lord Byron.—The
last of Washington's field bands has died again, this time
in St. Louis. Of course, he was 105 years old, and all his
faculties unimpaired.

JOURNALISM.—American Enterprise is a new
illustrated paper, designed to show how the most skilful
art may be rendered tributary to practical business pur-
poses. The first number contains a series of magnificent
cartoons and emblematic designs illustrative of the pur-
suits of the advertisers. It is published by the American
News Company, New York.—At the British Post-office
the reduction of postage on newspapers to one halfpenny
for six ounces will date from the let of October next.—
" Si Slokum," of the New York Leader, is M r. E. It. Kidder,
an actor at Niblo's, and son of Mrs. Kidder, the poetess.—
The Toledo Commercial says that the salary of Whitelaw
Reid, of the New York Tribune, is very soon to be in-
creased to $7,000 a year.—The " American Architect and
Builders' Monthly" is a new quarto magazine, devoted
exclusively to the promotion of architectural art.

At Baltimore, on the 9th of April, a terrific
boiler explosion occurred in Sterling and Abrams' Chesa-
peake steam sugar refinery, on the wharf, below Pratt-
street. The boiler room and kiln house were demolished,
and fifteen feet of the adjoining steam bakery of Bartis
and Co. was blown into fragments from the base to the
roof. Seven persons are known to have been killed and
ninny injured, among the latter being several labourers on
a schooner lying in front of the refinery. The schooner
was badly damaged, and had her deck covered with debris
from the explosion. Next morning seven bodies had been
discovered, being those of W. M'Kiuney, foreman of the
refinery ; James Cooney, fireman ; Jas. Dunn, private
watchman ; Jas. W. Duncan, wood corder ; A. Pindall,
wooddealer ; E. D. Gibson (coloured), wood sawyer; and
a boy armed Riley, aged ten years, one being taken from
the dock. The coroner's jury have found that the explo
sion was caused by the insufficiency of water in the
boilers.

The funeral of Major-General George H. Thomas
took place at Troy, N. Y., on the Bth of April, with im-
pressive
' ceremonies. .The pall-bearers were Generals
Meade, Rosecranz, Schofield, Hooker, Granger, Newton,
Hazen, and Mackay. The funeral service was read by
Bishop Duane. The funeral procession included, besides
the pill-bearers, an escort of soldiers, detailed by General
M'Dowell, President Grant, Secretaries Belknap and
Robeson, Postmaster-General Creswell, Generals Sher-
man, Horace Porter, and Dent; Commissioner Capron,
Committees of the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States, Governor Hoffman, member of the
New York Legislature and citizens. Public and private
buildings in the city were draped in mourning, and busi-
ness was suspended from 11 to 2 o'clock.

In Nevada recently the people met and unani-
mously "resolved that the Indian of poetry and romance
is not the Indian in fa q, the latter being possessed of every
attribute of beastly depravity and ferocity."
M. E. Susisky, city treasurer at St. Louis, was
arrested on the 9th April charged with defalcation. An
examination before the mayor and other city officers
showed tbat ha bad used and lost about $120,000 of the
city funds, mostly in stock speculations.
Charles E. Lockwood has obtained a verdict for
$15,000 for injuries received on the New York Central
Railroad.