The Sun.
London, England, 1851-08-11 00:00:00

MONDAY EVENING, AUGUST 11, 1851.

as its operation was expressly limited to Ireland, ea-
cQpt where otherwise expressed.
Mr. Justice PATTESON, after looking through the
Act, observed that it vested the English property of the
defendant in the Irish assignees.
Mr. GIBBONS contended that the benefit of the Act to
which the insolvent had been declared entitled in Ire-
land only applied to the Irish judgment under which he
could not be arrested in England. The " benefit of the
Act" signified protection from arrest in the country in
which the process could be enforced. There was not a
single word that he should le protected from process
upon an English judgment. The debt was not extin-
guished by the discharge, but merely the operation of
the law suspended in Ireland.
After considerable discussion,
Mr. Justice PATTESON said that it was clear that the
Irish Insolvent Debtors Act vested all the defendant's
property in England in the Irish assignees for the
benefit of the creditors, and it would be monstrous to
suppose that whe❑ all his English property was taken
away he was not to be protected here. The just prin-
ciple, as it appeared to him, was that a man should be
protected to the extent to which his property vested;
and if his property in this country vested for the benefit
of all his creditors, ho ought certainly to be protected
here. If this Act was permitted to operate upon Irish
property only, then he could understand why he should
not be protected in this country. He (Mr. Justice Pat-
teson) was obliged to act as the statute directed, that if
the insolvent was arrested he should apply to the judge
of the court out of which the process issued. The de-
fendant would therefore be discharged.
The defendant was immediately liberated from the
custody of the Sheriff.

plaintiff had a claim agaiest Mr. Holt, and he should
state the circumstances on which he relied to show that
the hill had been already paid. It appeared that Lotd
Cardigan thought it right under the circumstances to
come forward and assist Mr. Holt in his ff.,fonce, end his '
solicitor, Mr. Powell, handed over a cheque for• 40/. t 3
Mr. 11u5baud on account of Mr. Hair, and it was clear
that Mr. Husband had received that amount, as it was
now produced, and was proved to have his endorsement
upon it. An attempt had been made to show that 301.
of this sum had been paid to Mr. Traill. Mr. Husband
knew perfectly well that this sum was paid from a totally
different source. The Learned Counsel then read a letter
from Mr. Wyatt, the plaintiff's partner, dated August 1,
1845, and addressed to Mr. Holt, in which ho stated
that he was no party to the action, and referred to cer-
tain sums of money that had been received on behalf of
Mr. Holt, and also the sum of 301. from himself (the de-
fendant), which had been handed over to Mr. Traill;
and the letter concluded by stating that Mr. Holt had
paid all that was due from him on account of the de-
fence to that indictment, and that if the accounts were
strictly looked into it would be found that there was a
balance of 251 due to him. The Learned Counsel con-
cluded by declaring that the present action was a most
disreputable one, and said that it was such proceedings
as these on the part of the attorneys which gave people
grounds for saying that the law was only another name
for spoliation and chicane. Tho Learned Counsel
then put in the letter and the cheque, which was reed.
Mr. CHAMBERS, in his reply to the defendant's case,
said that he was extremely sorry to see lhat his Learned
Friend had thought fit to introduce matters into the
present inquiry which ought long since to have been for-
gotten, and to have ceased to Wend the public ear.
Whether Lord W. Paget or the Earl of Cardigan was
in the right had nothing whatever to do with the pre-
sent inquiry, and clearly ought not to have been intro-
duced into it. The real facts were that the defendant
had been convicted of libel, arid the plaietiff, Mr. Hus-
band, now sought to recover the costs of the de-
fence to that indictment. What object there could
be in mixing up other matters with these
facts ho could not possibly understand, except that
it was to divert the attention of the jury from tee real
questio❑ in the cause; and he could not refrain from
publicly denouncing such a course as most unjustifiable
and improper. He then proceeded to comment up ,n
the conduct of Mr. Wyatt, who, he said, was evidently
ou friendly terms with the defendant, and urgud that it
was a most unjustifiable proceedine: on his part to assist
the defendant in defeating the claim of his partner. He
called upon the jury not to give effect to the letter of
Mr. Wyatt that had been produced, on the ground that
it was not a genuine document, but had been written
solely for the purposes of the present action, and he said
that the appearance of the document confirmed this view
of it. The paper, it was true, bore the watermark of
1845, but instead of being an ordinary sheet of paper it
had evidently been torn from seine old account
book, as a portion of the ruled lines still remained upon
it. Tho Learned Counsel concluded by reminding the
jury that is had been clearly proved that every atom of
the work charged for had been performed, and he said
that the evidence i❑ support of the plea of payment was
such as no jury ought to give effect to, to defeat a just
claim.

Lord Chief Justice JERVIS, on summing up, said,
that undoubtedly, if the jury should be of opinion
that the letter written by the plaintiff's partner, Mr.
Wyatt, was a genuine document, it established pretty
clearly that the bill had been paid. It was con-
tended on hehalf of the plaintiff that this letter was
not genuine, and that it was not written at the time it
bore date, and the character of the paper and other
circumstances had been mentioned in support of this
position. Ho must say, however, that they should not
forget that Mr. Wyatt was an attorney and a man of
experience in the affairs of the world, and if he really
intended to commit such a dishonest act as that which
was imputed to him, it was not very likely that he would
do it in such a clumsy manner that the very first person
who looked at the document could immediately detect
the imposition. The Learned Judge then called the at-
tention of the jury to the other facts in the case, end left
it to them to say which of the parties they thought en-
titled to a verdict.

The jury almost immediately returned a verdict for
the defendant.

OXFORD ClRCUlT.—Monmouth, Aug. 8.
(Before Mr. JuAt ice EnLE.)
John Murphy and John Keefe stood charged with the
wilful murder of Thomas Down at the parish of Wool-
los, Newport. Keefe was also charged with aiding and
abetting in the murder, and both prisoners were fur-
ther charged with manslaughter,

Mr. Huddlestone and Mr. Vaughan Richards were
counsel for the prosecution, and Mr. Smythies for the
prisoners.
The trial occupied the greater part of' the day, and
arose out of the following circumstances:—The pri-
soners and the deceased's brother, John, were at the
Wiltshire house Tavern, on the 21st April, when a
quarrel arose between them in consequence of ono of
the prisoners' party striking a woman named Welsh.
On John Dowd remonstrating with the Irishmen for
striking a woman, they set upon him, beat him, and
scalded him with boiling water, which they poured down
ohs
fitace
the
. He n
injuries
which
s been deaf ever
hethenr since
eceived.from the
Murphy
yefftehcetns
ran out into the back yard of the inn, where he was seen
to pull out a knife from his pocket, and rushing back
to thil house, her{ exclaimed, 4. ll—n the —, I'll stick
'em all." Ho then made an attack upon John Dowd,
whom ho cut slightly on the hands and head, and
he became senseless. Just at that time Thomas Dowd,
the deceased came into the room, and seeing his
brother ill-used, called out, "For God's sake don't let
them kill my brother; try and save hitn;" and he made
towards Murphy, who immediately turned upon him,
and after Keefe had struck him, he (Murphy) scabbed
him in the bowels. In his dying statement, which was
read in court, Thomas Dowd said, " I saw Murphy take
his knife out of his pocket about a minute befere at the
back door. I saw him open the knife; it had a big
blade, and the handle was of a dark brown colour.
Murphy was standing close at my left side when he
whipped the knife into me. I saw him make the stab,
and said you have stabbed me to the heart. You have
taken away ray life."
The man lived for six weeks after the stab, but the
evidence of Dr. Slack sufficiently proved that the stab
was the cause of death.
Mr. SMYTHIES for the defence, suggested that Mur-
phy's object iu going into the yard was to escape, but
that finding he could not do so, he became exasperated,
and hence what followed.
The jury found Murphy Guilty of " Manslaughter of
the worst character;" they also found Keefe Guilty.
The Learned JUDGE, in passing sentence, said, the
case more closely approximated to that of murder than
any he bad ever remembered. Murphy's conduct had
been marked by a murderous ferocity quite unexampled
during the whole of the years he had known those courts;
and it might be justly said of him, that he had been so
regardless of the lives of others, that he could nut com-
plain if his life also had been taken away. As to Keefe,
his hand had been against every man, though he had not
armed himselrwith a deadly weapon. His Lordship then
sentenced Murphy to transportation for life and Koefo for
fourteen years.

FRIGHTFUL COLLIERY ACCIDENT.
BRISTOL, AUG. 9.—This morning at an early hour
another terrible colliery accident occurred at the Ma-
lago Vale Coal Works, the property of Messrs Rey-
nolds and Co., at Bedminster, nearthis city, attended,
we regret to say, with grtat. loss of life, six persons
having been suddenly hurried into eternity. The
lives of eight others were also placed in great jeo-
pardy. Subjoined are correct details of this most dis-
tressing event.
It appears that twenty minutes past three o'clock
this morning, four men, named Robert Moffatt, Tho-
mas Pike, William Smith, and Philip Pring, and
lad named William Webster, entered the cart or
bucket of the Malago Vale Pit, situated immediately
behind the Red Cow, Bedminster, for the purpose of
descending the lower vein, which lies at the depth of
240 fathoms from the surface, a turn of men having
just come out at their usual time. They were
lowered in the usual way by the steam-engine be-
longing to the works till they had arrived within a
few feet of the bottom, when the flat rope attached to
the bucket broke at the top, thereby precipitating the
poor fellows to the bottom ; and as the place where
the rope broke was about half way
.from the " shiver
wheel" to the mouth of the pit, the whole of the rope,
which is six inches and a half by two inches in thick-
ness, fell down the shaft, as also the " bonnet," or iron
shield, on the top of the unfortunate men, completely
crushing two of them. In its fall it injured one of
the trunks, but did no damage to the sides of the
shaft. At the time of the accident the cart was de-
scending at its usual rate, and the rope is stated not
to have been in work more than a twelvemonth,
whereas ropes of this description are usually calcu-
lated to last three or four years. We are informed that
it was examined the night before, and that no flaw
was discovered in it. It had been spliced, but not at
the part where it broke. There were still twenty-five
fathoms of rope attached to the wheel, so that blame is
not attributable to the engineer. The weight of the
rope that thus fell on the poor fellows is estimated at
not less than three tons.
Intelligence of the frightful catastrophe was quickly
spread in the vicinity, and the pit was speedily sur-
rounded by the relatives and friends of the men
below. A scene of the most heartrending descrip-
tion ensued, terminating, indeed, fatally in the case of
one poor man named Thomas Parsons, whose son was
one of the men engaged in the vein below. He be-
came so excited that while he was at the top of the
shaft, anxiously awaiting tidings of the fate of his
eon, he suddenly dropped down, and before assistance
could be rendered him he expired, thus making the
sixth death. Besides the unfortunate men thus
precipitated to the bottom great fears were enter-
tained for the safety of eight men who had pre-
viously descended the shaft, and who were pro-
ceeding to their work at the time the accident occurred,
as it was considered by those in charge of the works
that they might be in peril from the water, and the
engine wag at once set to work pumping, while under
the superintendence of Mr. Stewart, the manager of
the works, assisted by Mr. Goulstone, one of the pro-
prietors of the North side pit, -measures were imme-
diately taken to recover the bodies. Men were first
sent down the pit with timber to repair the trunk,
while those in the mine were directed if possible to
pull the broken rope into the level, so as to enable
the cart to be raised to the surface. Owing to the
great depth of the shaft this wa3 a work which oc

cupied much time, and proved one of great difficulty.
A flat rope of 150 fathoms was borrowed from the
North-side pit, but this proved not to be long enough,
and the length was made out by splicing to it a 100
fathom rope of the ordinary round twist, and by the
time this work was completed, and it was adjusted to
the drum, it was ten minutes to eight o'clock. In-
telligence of the accident having been for warded to
the police-station, some of the force attended with a
view of keeping order among the large crowd col-
lected. First of all, in order to test the working of
the machinery, a bucket with lights, but with no one
in it, was lowered down the shaft near to the bottom,
and drawn up again, and as the arrangements
now appeared to be complete two men, named
John Reynolds and Henry Lovell, entered
the cart and descended. The excitement
among those now collected at the mouth of
the pit was most intense. All was breathless at-
tention, and much anxiety was evinced from the fact
that during the descent there were several stoppages
which seemed to show that there was something
amiss. When the cart had descended to somewhere
about three-fourths of the extreme depth, the signal
was given for hauling up, and the men were drawn to
the surface. They stated that owing to the twisting
of the round rope it would be impossible for them to
descend to the vein in safety, but they brought the
melancholy intelligence that they had been enabled
to converse with the men in the vein, by whom they
bad been informed that the five poor fellows were all
dead. Men were then set to work splicing a second
flat rope which was lent from the Dean-lane Colliery,
it being impossible to work with the round rope, and
a length of time elapsed before the dead bodies were
got out, or the other parties below could be rescued
from their perilous position.
It may be right here to mention that the colliers
engaged at the Malago Vale coal works have not been
in any manner connected with the recent strike at
Bedminster, they being paid by the ton, and an exa-
mination of the rope shows that the accident clearly
resulted from a flaw in it. The engineer states that
he observed the defect as the rope passed the wheel,
but that before he could stop the engine the rupture
took place. A piece of the rope with the broken end
has bee❑ cut off and impounded by the coroner, whe
deposited it with Mr. Alexander, inspector of police.
At four o'clock this afternoon the whole of the
bodies were brought up, and the scene at this time
was most distressing. The wives and children of the
unfortunate deceased were almost frantic, and it wits
with the greatest difficulty that they could be induced
to leave the yard for the purpose of instituting an
inquiry into the cause of the accident, the coroner
being on the spot awaiting the bringing up of the
bodies. The two first brought up were Richard
Moffatt and Pnilip Pring. The bodies exhibited
marks of violence, as if they had been struck on the
head with the iron bonnet. One of them had his
throat partially divided, and both the front and back
of his head were injured. Two of the women present
were so affected that they were seized with violent
fainting fits, and bad to be carried from the yard.
The Coroner, at two o'clock, held an inquest on
the body of the aged man Parsons, when a portion of
the above details were adduced in evidence, and at the
termination of the inquiry the jury returned a verdict
that the deceased died from excessive fear and grief
caused by the supposed death of his son. The Coroner
also commenced an investigation on the bodies of the
five men killed in the pit, but as a recent Act of Par-
liament requires that notice shall be given to the
Secretary of State, he did not take any evidence be-
yond that of identifying the bodies.
Great excitement, in consequence of this lament-
able accident, prevails throughout the district of Bed-
minster, and it is the intention of some of the
principal inhabitants to call a meeting with a view of
adopting a resolution requesting the Secretary of
State to send down a Government inspector to assist
at the Coroner's investigation. We regret to state
that the deceased man Moffatt has left behind him a
wife and seven children to mourn their untimely be-
reavement. Thomas Pike has left a widow and two
children. William Smith was unmarried. Philip
Pring was married, and had one child. The boy
Webster was about 14 years of age. The depth of
this pit is greater than that of any other in the parish,
being about 240 fathoms.

iN MARKETS.
4Vo have had a very (pie
.e as follow:

P. d. s. d.
perl96lb 15 0 to 16 0
Barley, English, pr
imperial quarter N 0 —2B 0
Irish, S cotch, and _ . _

idanx,per6olb.. 3 8 3 10
Foreign, grinding 3 4 3 8
aye, per 601 b .. 3 6 3 9
Beans, English, pr
imperial quartr 32 0 34 0
Irish and Scotch,
per 4801 b.. .. 30 0— 31 0
Dutch .. .. 30 0— 31 3

Egyptian .. .. 25 9 26 3
Peas, English,per
imperial quartr 31 0 33 0
Foreign .. 31 0— 32 0
Oats, per 451b:—
English, Scotch,
and Welsh, old 3 3 3 6
Irish, ne r est

mending .. 3 2—3 21
Do., feeding .. 3 0— 3 I
Do., foreign .. 3 0 3 4
Oatmeal, English,
86Scoteli,pr2401b 23 0 2e 6
Irish, new .. 25 0 2G 0
Do., old, .. 26 0 26 6