The Sun.
London, England, 1856-11-07 00:00:00

TIIE SEIREIVSBORY ESTATES.

The solicitors to Earl Talbot have issued a cir-
cular to the tenantry of the Shrewsbury estates,
giving them notice not to pay their rents (some
of which are now receivable) to the devisees of the
late Earl of Shrewsbury, or "in any way to ac-
knowledge their claim to or right of interference
with the estates," and calling on them to pay their
rents to the earl. The grounds upon which Earl
Talbot rests his claim to the Shrewsbury-estates
are thus set forth in the circular :—" By the 2d
section of the act 6th of George I. (1720), it is
enacted that the estates in question shall be and
remain to the use and behoof of all and every per_
son and persons being issue male of
,the body of
John, first Earl of Shrewsbury, to whom the title,
honour, and dignity of Earl of Shrewsbury shall,
after the decease of Gilbert, Earl of Shrewsbury,
George Talbot, and John Talbot (therein named),
without issue male of their respective bodies, by
virtue of the said letters patent of creation of
said earldom descend and come, severally and suc-
cessively one after another as they and every of
them shall succeed to and inherit the said earldom,
and of the several and respective heirs male
of the body and bodies of all and every such per-
son and persons issuing, to attend and wait upon
the said earldom and to be annexed to and de-
scend with the same.' By the Bth section of the
same act the estates are made inalienable, but with
a proviso enabling Protestants, conforming to cer-
tain ceremonies, to alienate. This proviso has,
however, been repealed by the 32d section of the
act 6th and 7th Victoria, chap. 28 (1843), passed
upon the petition of the then Earl of Shrewsbury,
a Roman Catholic. The issue male of the bodies
of Gilbert, Earl of Shrewsbury, George Talbot and
John Talbot, named in the act 6th George 1., has
failed ; and Earl Talbot, as issue male of the first
Earl of Shrewsbury, is now entitled to the estates.
In April last the late Earl of Shrewsbury executed
a deed by which be sought to disentail the estates,
to become absolute owner of them, and to possess
himself of an absolute power of disposition over
them ; and by his will, dated in April last, he pro-
fessed to devise them to Mr. Hope Scott and Mr.
Serjeant Bellasis." The circular states that Earl
Talbot is about taking immediate steps to establish
in due course his right to the earldom of Shrews-
bury and to the estates, and adds that the conside-
ration of his right to the earldom is necessarily de-
ferred till the meeting of Parliament. His lord-
ship's solicitors also offer to the tenants the indem-
nity of Earl Talbot and his eldest son, Viscount
Ingestre, against any other claimant.

THE RIGHT HOV. M. T. BAINES, M.P., AN)
THE LEEDS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.

The Right Hon. M. T. Baines, M.P., a few days ago
visited this borough on his way from Harrogate to
London. At the invitation of the Leeds Chamber of
Commerce he had an interview with the council of that
body, at their rooms in Park-row, for the purpose of
hearing their opinions on several questions of interest to
the trading community. Mr. Bou-field drew the atten-
tion of the right hon. gentleman to the law of partner.
ship, and recommended that a hill should be introduced
for the compulsory registration of Nll traders, Mr.
John Jowitt explained the views of the council in
favour of repealing the 17th section of the 29th
Charles 11. chap. 3, called the Statute of Frauds, which
provides that no contract for the sale of any merchan-
dise is good unless an earnest be received to bind the
bargain, or a written contract be entered into. It was
not the proctice in Leeds, or in any part of the country,
except London and Liverpool, to make written contracts;
and they were not thought necessary or desirable. Mr.
Wurtzburg stated that in the opinion of the Council it
would be well for Government to recognise the Cham-
bers of Commerce, and to consult them before presenting
commercial measures to Parliament. Mr. Lupton drew
attention to the necessity for reforming the administra-
tion of the Bankruptcy law, especially as to the remu-
neration of the officers of the Bankruptcy Courts, and
the cost of working commissions. He said that the
cost was such as to deter creditors from resorting to
bankruptcy where any other method of winding up an
estate could be adopted. In 121 bankrupts' estates, of
which ho had received an account, the expenses
amounted to 55 per cent. of the gross sum collected,
and the average time of working was three years and
a-half. The chamber thought that the officers of the
Court should be raid fixed salaries, as in the County
Courts, rather than remunerated by fees or percentage.
Mr. Baines listened attentively to all the sugges-
tions made to him, and received the memoranda
offered on the various questions. He promised that
they should all receive careful attention in the proper
quarters. He said that one:of the bills for assimilating
the commercial law of England and Scotland, brought in
owing to suggestions originally made by the Leeds
Chamber to himself, and submitted by him to a
legal commission, contained a clause repealing the objec-
tionable provision of the Statute of Frauds, but the
clause had been struck out as the bill passed through
Parliament. He then asked the Council their opinion
on the Sound Dues; when the secretary read the peti-
tion which the Chamber had presented on the subject.
Some other topics were slightly mentioned, among which
were the heavy French duties on English linen yarns,
fire insurance duties, the duty on paper, and local dues
on shipping. After an interview of more than an hour
the meeting broke up.—Leeds Mercury.

FALL OF A BI?IDSE, AND LOSS OF LIFE, AT
DINSDALE, NEAR DARLINGTON.

On Tuesday afternoon great excitement was created
in Darlington by the report that a bridge just erected
over the Tees at Diosdale, about four miles from that
town, had fallen whilst the men were removing the
centres from the arches. The facts appear to be these :
Prior to July or August last a wooden bridge, on stone
buttresses, had served the purposes of the residents at
Over Dinsdals, on the Yorkshire side of the Tees,
which, at this place, is some GO or 70 yards wide. The
bridge had not been erected many years, so that for-
merly, in order to get to Darlington, passengers had to
take a very circuitous route. The wooden bridge was
found to be inadequate, or not sufficiently strong, and
the proprietor of the property on either side—the
Rev. Mr. Temple, rector of Dinsdale, aud at present
non-resident employed the county surveyor, Mr.
Howisun, to prepare plans for a more permanent
election. These plans contemplated the use of the old
stone buttresses, and turning upon them four brick
wiles, three spanning the river, and sue land arch on the
-Durham side, varying from 45 feet to 48 feet span. The
work was undertaken by Mr. Cail, who has recently
been engaged on some viaducts and other important
works on the Durham and Auckland Railway. His in-
spector was Mr. Turnbull, of Durham, under whom two
men, named Taylor and Coates, were gangers or fore-
men of the masons and carpenters respectively. Some
days ago the bridge being all hut completed, the wood-
work or centres on which the three river arches had
been turned was slackened, the land arch having been
ah-eady cleared ; and on Tuesday two or three men were
ereFloyed in removing the centres, whilst several more
were pointing the stone coping and doing other work.
Shortly before noon, as some of the principal parts of
the centres were being taken out, an alarm was raised
that the arches were giving way ; and in a few seconds
the whole mass lay in the bed of the river, nothing re-
maining but the land arch and the stone buttresses. Two
men, John Goldsbrough and John Wood, were buried in
the debris, and Richard. Dobson and the two gangers
(Taylor and Coates) partially so. The two latter es-
caped with bruises and slight contused wounds ; Dob-
son was dreadfully crushed across the abdomen, and lies
at the rectory (the residence of the Rev. Mr. Smith) in
an almost hopeless state. Goldsbrough and Wood, who
could only be taken out after several hours searching by
men who were nearly breast high in the stream, were
dead. Mr. Hammond, a count, magistrate, living near
the spot, caused medical assistance to be at once ob-
tained, and the wounds of the survivors were dressed.
Goldsbrough was unmarried, bat Wood has left a wife
aud one child. The bodies were removed to Hurworth
in a dreadfully mangled state.-4f anchester Guardian.