The Sun.
London, England, 1870-05-11 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MAY 11, 1870

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LAW AND POLICE.-YESTERDAY.

PREFERENCE SHAREHOLDERS AND ORDINARY SHARE.

HOLDERS.—The case of the London and Provincial Tele-
graph Company, which was open3d yesterday before Vice-
Chancellor James, wasyesumed to-day. The Government had
purchased the rights of the company at double the value
of the shares, and the question at issue was among which
class of shareholders the surplus should be divided. The
Vice-Chancellor said he was very much struck with the
commercial position of the company. As far as his opinion at
present went it was against the preference shareholders,
but if he had to decide the case as it stood at present he
would have to decide that £33,333 should be divided
amongst that class of shareholders. It was clearly a case
for arbitration. The proper application must be made to
the Board of Trade for the appointment of an arbitrator,
and the official liquidator of the company must send a cir-
cular to each of the shareholders, stating what be directed
to be done. All the parties should have their costs.

THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE'S AFFAIRS IN BANKRUPTCY.
This morning an application was made before Mr. Registrar
Roche under the bankruptcy of the Duke of Newcastle. Mr.
A. Munns produced an affidavit made by himself, stating
the proceedings before Lord Justice Giffard and the Chief
Judge with reference to the dismissal of the petition in
bankruptcy, and the appeal by the Duke to the House
of Lords. He applied for an extension of time for the Duke's
surrender, in order that the object of the appeal should
not be prejudiced. Mr. B. Davis for the assignees said the
bankrupt had been summoned to attend- and give evidence,
but he had not been able to serve the summons upon him.
Another meeting was fixed for the 24th of this month ;
and if Mr. Munus would undertake that his grace
should attend that meeting, he would consent to the appli-
cation. His Honour said that notice of the application
ought to have been given six days before. By a former Act
of Parliament a bankrupt who failed to surrender was liable
to be hanged—(a laugh)—and if the House of Lords con-
firmed the decision of the Lords Justices and the Chief
Judge, the bankrupt would still have committed a criminal
offence. Lord Justice Giffard, in giving judgment, had
made use of the term "dividend," which applied to the
civil portion of the bankruptcy law, and had reference
to the administration of the bankrupt's effects and
estate, and in his opinion contemplated that the bank-
, ruptcy should go on. Tho application was then ad-
journed.
BRUTALLY ASSAULTING A F William Hoey, a
hawker, was charged at the Marlborough-street Police
Court, before Mr. Tyrwhitt, with assaulting Wm. Hoey, his
son, about 12 years of age. The complainant, whose face
bore marks of severe ill usage, said that he resided with the
prisoner, who was his father, in Pugh's-place, Carnaby-
street, and about one that morning the prisoner came home
drunk, having been drinking all the previous day, and
seized him by by the ears and threw him up to the ceiling
His father then asked him for the change of a shilling he
had given him on the previous day to get some tea, and ho
told him it was on the table. In answer to Mr. Tyrwhitt,
the boy said he had a mother, but she was separated
from his father, and that he• was often left at home
all day without' food or any one to look after him. James
Callan, a young man, a tailor, living in Pugh's-court, said
that seeing the boy, whose face was covered with blood,
washing himself at a pump, he asked him who had caused
his injuries, and having ascertained from him that they. were
inflicted by his father, and knowing that his father had often
ill used hint before, he took the matter up and caused him to he
taken into custody. Mr. Tyrwhitt said the witness had
acted very kindly. Police-constable Lazarus Howes, 95 C,
said that on taking the prisoner into custody he said that all
ho had done was to give the boy a good box on the ears as
ho had not given him the change of a shilling, and that the
boy was very unruly. The prisoner said he was sorry
for what he had done, but his boy had be-
haved very badly. A witness was called by the prisoner,
and he said he had employed the boy for nine weeks, and he
was very unruly. Mr. Tyrwhitt said the matter was clear
to him. Tho latter was away all day and came home late
at night, and having no one else to quart el with quarrelled
with his son. It was a cruel and cowardly assault, and he
should sentence the prisoner to two months, with hard
labour.
THE CREDIT FONCIER AND THE IRRIGATION COMPANY
OF FRANCE.—In the Court of Vice-Chancellor Sir R.
Malins, the affairs of the Credit Foncier and Mobilier of
England, in their connection with the Irrigation Company
of France, were- brought under notice. A petition was
presented by Mr. Fox, solicitor, of Newport, Mon-
mouthshire, for the compulsory winding up of
the Irrigation Company, a company which was
formed in 1865, under the auspices of the Credit
Foncier, to acquire a concession granted by the
French Government for purchasing canals of irrigation
in that country. The assignment of this concession was
afterwards declared to be contrary to French law, and the
petitioner argued that the Credit Foncier ought to have
been acquainted with the fact, assenting also that the
directors of that association were guilty of
transactions which were not bond fide, but
were intended to operate in discharge of claims to a very
large amount, which the company was in a position to
enforce. It was also stated that no less than £150,000 had
been paid to the Credit Foncier for commission on one
transaction. The hearing of the petition was not com-
pleted at the rising of the court.

THE TRANSFER OF THE TELEGRAPHS TO THE GOVERN
RENT.— The London and Provincial Telegraph Company
was one of the companies transferred, unde he recent
Act of Parliament, to the Government. Aft all liabi-
lities had been met, £50,000 remained for division among
the shareholders, and the company being now in the
course of winding-up, an application was made by the
official liquidator to Vice-Chancellor Sir W. M. James
as to the principle upon which the residue
should be divided for the benefit of the shareholders.
It transpired that the amount of the ordinary stock was
£40,000, and of preference stock £lO,OOO, and that if the
business of the company had been continued, the holders
of the latter would have been entitled to a dividend of 10
per cent. per annum before the holders would receive any
benefit from the profits. After hearing arguments from
counsel, the 3ourt decided upon referring the question to
the arbitrator appointed under the Act, the Marquis
of Salisbury—a decision which, the Vice-Chancellor
remarked, would be in favour of the ordinary, and
against the preference shareholders. If the matter were
decided as one of strict right, the preference shareholders
would of necessity receive upwards of £33,000 Three per
Cent. Consolidated Bank Annuities, the company having
it fact given a charge of £lOOO upon their profits. The
duty of arbitrator, however, would be to prevent the
ordinary principle of the distribution of the surplus funds
of companies in the course of liquidation being applied in
the present case, and see that the respective shareholders
received that to which they were equitably entitled.
Is AN INFANT LIABLE FOR COSTS?—This point was
decided by Lord Penzance in the Probate Court. The
cause of 'Wolesley v. Palmer was before his lordship, in
which a guardian had appeared as representing the heir-
at-law—an infant. An application was made for costs as
against the latter ; his lordship said the application was
an important one, and he would consult the authorities
on the subject. Having done so he has come to the con-
clusion that under the circumstances of tne case the infant
was liable. Order accordingly.
ANOTHER MAN IN WOMAN'S CLOTHES.—At Bow-street
Henry Fletcher and Anne Fletcher, domestic servants,
were charged with loitering in the street at half-past two
in the morning, Henry Fletcher being at the time in
woman's clothes. The prisoners said they had been
to a masquerade ball at Highbury Barn. Mr.
Vaughan told the male prisoner it was a great piece
of folly to go there in such a dress. He should have
gone in his own clothes. The prisoner, a young man of
about twenty-two, said he was very sorry now for having
acted as he had. Mr. Vaughan said that the prisoners
had brought this trouble upon themselves by their foolish
conduct, but as there was no evidence against them they
would be discharged,
LIBELLOUS ELECTION SQUIBS.— At the Bury Petty
Sessions, a young man named Henry Taylor, book-
keeper to Messrs. Olive and Partington, Woolfold, near
Bury, was summoned to show cause why he should not
be committed for trial for publishing a libel upon Mr. W.
Hoyle, cotton manufacturer, Tottington. From the evi-
dence it appeared that Mr. Hoyle was last year elected
one of the guardians for Tottington Lower End, and that
this year, at the annual election, a strong political
feeling prevailed in the township, three Liberals
and three Conservatives being nominated. During
the Contest, a number of handbills were distri-
buted by both parties, many of them couched in
violent language. In one of these signed cc Hawk .37e,"
Mr. Hoyle and another man were compared to Herod
and Pilate. Another charge was that Mr. Hoyle had
received £1 frOm an old man named Hutchinson in re-
ceipt of pauper relief, and then got the pay of this man
stopped by the guardians. It was also said that it
was no wonder he would take the pay of an.old man,.Bs
years of agp, when he wont siffer his own flesh and
blood to hein want. There tieingBuffif,ient prin3,a facie
evidence, 'Taylor was committed for trial at the Man-
cheet er assizes, but admitted to bail.

A FAMILY PARTY,— A correspondent of an
American paper " took tea " with a Mormon elder at Salt
Lake City the other day, at which six wives " presided,"
and twenty-seven children sat around the table.

We have good reason to believe that the House of
Lords will throw out the " Deceased Wife's Sister Mar-
riage Bill," and that as a compensation it will pas the
" Women's Disabilities Bill " with reference to the elective
franchise. —Record.

"I'm afraid you don't like babies when they
cry," said a matron to a gentleman," as she tried to
soothe the darling in her arms. "Oh yes," said he,
" I like them best when they cry-, because I've always
observed that then they are invariably carried out of the
room."

EDUCATION IN THE METROPOLIS.—At a con-
ference of members of Parliament representing metro-
politan boroughs, held on Monday, it was resolved that
the Government should be urged to assent to an elected
school board, to whom should be entrusted the manage-
ment of the elementary schools of the metropolitan
districts.