The Sun.
London, England, 1870-05-17 00:00:00

LAW AND POLICE.

Judgment hays been given by the House of Lords in the
case of the Hon. Sackville West and others v. Lord Holmes-
dale and Others, argued in February last. The question
arose on a - codicil of the late Dowager Countess of
Amherst, by which certain lands were devised in trust to
be settled " in a course of entail to correspond as nearly
as might be " with the barony. Their lordships now re-
versed the judgment of the court below, where it was
held that the lands were to be settled strictly according
to the limitations of the barony, and that Countess De la
Warr took an estate for life in the freeholds so devised.

FALSE IMPRISONMENT.—An action for false imprison.
ment and slander has been brought in the Second Court of
Common Pleas. Plaintiff was a young man who had been
tried and acquitted on a charge of felony, and the slander
complainPri of was a. rppAtition of the rharerp niter
his acquittal. - The defendant was an old lady
named Jones, who had been prosecutrix in the
felony case. She had charged the plaintiff with
being concerned in an attempted robbery at her house,
and after the trial it was the slander. The jury found the
defendant was not actuated by malice : but on the count
of slander they returned a verdict for the plaintiff—
damages, one farthing.

THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE.—The case of Padwick v.
the Duke of Newcastle has been again brought before Mr.
Baron Bramwell in chambers. After a discussion, it was
decided that the liability of a peer to be made a bankrupt
should be admitted, in order to raise the question whether
the money paid into court belonged to Mr. Padwick or the
assignees under the bankruptcy. Mr. Baron Bramwell
directed the trial to be at the sittings in London, it
having been explained that all the witnesses resided in
London.

HIRING PIANOS.—A case raising the question as to the
right to distrain a piano hired by a lodger, has been tried
in the Court of Queen's Bench. Messrs. Craner and Co.,
the well-known piano manufacturers, let out a piano on
hire to a person who had apartments in the house of the
defendant, Mott. The hirer owed his landlord £4 4s. for
104,4 and on Messrs. Cramer sending for the piano Mott
refused to let it go. The case was brought before a jury,
who gave a verdict for the defendant, and it has now been
brought before the Queen's Bench. After a long argu-
ment, the Court confirmed the decision, holding that
there had been a justifiable assertion of the right of dis-
tress by the landlord.
THE Loss OF A CARGO.—An action has been brought
by Messrs. Novaro, merchants, ff Liverpool and Glas-
gow, in the Court of Queen's Bench, against the owner of
a steamship for loss of a cargo of beans through the neg-
lect of the master. The beans were at Alex-
andria in September, 1868, and consigned to
the plaintiffs at Glasgow. After visiting Liverpool
the vessel while proceeding down the Mersey came into
collision with another vessel, by which the steamer was
much injured and run ashore, the beans being saturated
with salt water. Plaintiffs wrote to the agent to the effect
that they objected to the beans being carried in
the state they were in, and proposed to take
them at Liverpool, on condition of a reduction in the
freight. The agent refused this, insisting on the whole
freight, which the plaintiff's refused. The cargo,
accordingly, was taken on to Glasgow, where
it was sold at a loss. They sued the master
for neglect in not having dried the beans,
The court gave judgment for the plaintiffs, holding that
the taking- of the cargo on under the circumstances was
unjustifiable, and rendered the shipowner liable for the
loss thereby occasioned..
" EVERY MAN HIS OWN LAWYER."—An unusual
matter was heard before Master Hodgson at the Queen's
Bench Chambers. A plaintiff in person had commenced
an action, and served what he called a " declaration "
on a firm of solicitors, charging them with destroying
or conniving at the destruction of a bond or note. A
summons was taken out to set the document aside, and on
the part of the defendants, it was stated that it would
have been demurred to, but their pleader said it would be
a degradation to pleadings to demur to such a production,
The Master told the defendant that he had acted as his
own lawyer, and such a document could not be permitted.
It charged a criminal act. The plaintiff pleaded his
own cause, and said it was not a criminal act.
The solicitors were only accessories after the
fact. The Master said the plaintiff knew enough
of law to go wrong. It was alleged that they
were accessories before the fact. On the part of the
defendants, it was denounced as an atrocious charge, and
costs were asked before the action proceeded. The
Master set the document aside with costs in the cause,
and ordered the plaintiff to go to a respectable attorney,
and not to act en the notion that " every man could be
his own lawyer."

CHARGE OF POISONING PMEONS.—James Calver, a
labourer, living in the Finchley-road, was summoned at
the Highgate Police-court, for poisoning three pigeons be-
longing to a neighbour. The defendant said he had to
keep a wife and five children on 16s. per week. His cab-
bages and lettuces had been spoiled by the pigeons, and he
lately planted some peas, but the pigeons, rats, and mice
ate the best part of them. He placed some paste that he
bought of a chemist on the ground and it killed the
pigeons. He had complained to the defendant about the
birds, but he took no notice of his complaint. Colonel
Croll said the summons must be dismissed ; the magi-
strates thought the man was justified in putting down
poison to prevent the destruction of his property.
WAGES AND EFFECTS OF DECEASED MERCHANT
SEAME3C—We have authority to state that the British
Government have agreed with the Governments of France,
Denmark, Sweden and Norway, and the North German Con-
federation, to deliver to their respective Consuls-General
in London the wages and effects received by the Board of
Trade under the provisions of the Merchant Shipping Act,
1854, of seamen belonging to those countries who
have died on board British Merchant vessels, and
these Governments have on their part agreed to deliver
to the nearest British Consul the property of British Sea-
men dying on board their merchant vessels, or on shore in
their territories. Her Majesty's Consuls have therefore
been instructed to report to the Board of Trade the par-
ticulars of the deaths of such British Seamen, and to re-
ceive their wages and effects, and to account for such
wages and effects to the Board of Trade in the ordinary
manner.—Shipping Gazette.