The Sun.
London, England, 1851-09-23 00:00:00

MARYLEBONE.

Yesterday John Owen, a stonemason, was brought
before Mr. Long, for re• examination, charged with
an assault of a most brutal and atrocious nature upon
Mr. George Bennett, the proprietor of the Ben Jon-
son Tavern, Harrow-road.

Mr. Hobler, solicitor to the Licensed Victuallers'
Protection Society, attended to prosecute the case.
The particulars which transpired upon the first
occasion have already appeared, and it will be remem-
bered that the prosecutor was stated to have been so
seriously injured as to be quite unable to come in the
first instance to the court, and, in fact, was compelled
to keep his bed for several days.
Mr. Bennett was now present to give evidence. He
seemed to be still in a very weak condition, and his
forehead and other parts of the head were strapped up
with adhesive plaster. He deposed as follows :—At ten
o'clock at night last Saturday week I went into the
parlour, where I sat down. The prisoner was then
quarrelling with another man, and some other persons
who were sitting close by walked to another side of
the room. The prisoner then took up his glass and
went over to them, and abused them in the grossest
language imaginable. I told him I could not put up
with such behaviour, and that he must leave, but he
persisted in his infamous conduct. I again begged
of him to the leave the room, but he continued his
abuse, and took no notice whatever of the remon-
strance which I made to him. He had a glass of gin
and water in his right hand, and as I feared from his
manner that he intended to do some mischief I took
it from him, and went towards the parlour door,
thinking that he would follow me. He did not do so,
and I laid hold of his left hand and brought him out-
side up to the counter, upon which I put his glass
down, and told him that if he behaved properly he
might stay there and drink what there was in his
glass, but that he must not go into the parlour again.
He made no observation to this remark, and I re-
turned into the parlour and closed the door, when just
as I was in the act of taking my seat I was knocked
down by some one, and at the moment thought I was
stabbed; blood flowed from me profusely, and I was
for some time insensible; when I came to myself I
found a surgeon dressing my wounds.
Mr. nobler—Was the prisoner drunk ? Mr. Ben-
nett—He did not appear to me to be so ; he was much
excited ; but my belief is that he was sober.
Mr. Samuel Norway, surgeon, 2, John's-place,
Harrow-road, and who attended Mr. Bennett, de-
scribed the nature of the wounds which he (Mr. Ben-
nett) had received; one of them was two inches long,
extending across the upper eyelid ; and a second
wound bad opened a small branch of the temporal
artery ; there was another wound across the forehead,
and two more slight wounds over the nose.
The portions of a thick glass, by which the bead of
Mr. Bennett was so seriously injured, were here pro-
duced by Pamphillon, 115 D.
In reply to a question from Mr. Hobler,
Mr. Norway said that a glass of the thickness of
that which was broken would, from the force of a
single blow, be likely to have caused all the wounds
which he had described.

Mr. LONG, after giving the prisoner the usual cau-
tion, asked him if he had anything to say ? Prisoner,
in answer to the charge, said that the glass was
broken before it touched Mr. Bennett's head. He
(prisoner) stumbled as he was going into the room,
and if he hit Mr. Bennett it must have been quite
accidentally.
Mr. LONG committed him for trial for the serious
offence of cutting and wounding, &c., but consented
to take bail, himself (prisoner) in 1001. and two sure-
ties in 501. each

He was not prepared with the required bail, and was
locked up.

WORSHIP-STREET.

A. well-dressed man, named Philip Smith, was
placed at the bar for final examination, charged with
having stolen a carpet bag containing wearing apparel
and other articles, from the booking-office at the
Shoreditch station of the Eastern Counties Railway.
It appeared from the evidence that on the after-
noon of Monday last a gentleman named Bunn, re-
siding at Ipswich, arrived at the station with the
intention of proceeding to that place by the first train,
and having handed over his hat-case and carpet-bag
to one of the porters, who deposited them in the
booking-office, he entered the refreshment-room,
where he observed the prisoner, who engaged him in
conversation; but after some trivial remarks about
the weather, abruptly left the place. A few minutea
afterwards the prisoner was seen to emerge from the
booking-office with the prosecutor's luggage in his
possession, with which he was hurrying across the
platform, when he was stopped by one of the atten-
dants, in answer to whose questions he stated that
the gentleman in the refreshment-room, to whom the
articles belonged, was an intimate friend of his, and
that he had directed him to take charge of them. The
prosecutor, however, on being referred to, having dis-
claimed all knowledge of the prisoner, or that he had
ever authorised him to remove the luggage, he was
at once given into custody.
In answer to the charge, the prisoner now stated
that he had gone to the station to meet a cousin of
his who had come up from Colchester to see the
Exhibition, and that he had acted under the erroneous
impression that the property in question belonged to
that person.
The prisoner was fully committed for trial.

LIABILITY OF WATER AND GAS COA!
PANIES TO PAY LAND-TAX.

It has long been held that water and gas companies
are liable to be assessed to the relief of the poor in re-
spect of the land through which their pipes are laid,
and in the case of the Chelsea Waterworks Company v.
Bewley, 17 Law T., 284, the question was raised whe-
ther they were not also subject to the land-tax. The
case originally came before the Court of Queen's Bench
in the form of an action for trespass, and by consent a
special case was stated for the opinion of the Court.
For the defendant it was contended that inasmuch as it
had been ruled in many cases that these companies were
liable to poor-rate upon their pipes, they were also
liable to the land-tax; for there is no distinction in
principle between the mode in which the poor•rate and
that in which the land-tax is imposed, and that clearly
theirs was a holding of land or hereditaments within the
38th Geo. 111., c. 5, s. 4. On the other side, it was
contended that there was no such analogy between rate-
ability to the relief of the poor and liability to the land-
tax. The Court held that " the waterworks were not
liable to be assessed towards the payment of the land-
tax." The reason given in the written judgment was,
that the occupation by the water-works was in the
nature of an easement, and not of land. " The right in
question," said the Court, "when exercised, appears to
us to be in the nature of an easement, and not in the
nature of the possession or occupation of land or here-
ditaments. The right is to convey water through the
land of another, whether upon the surface of the ground
or in covered drains or pipes, is immaterial. This is a
mere power to carry the pipes i❑ the land, and cannot
be considered as land or hereditaments. The Land-tax
Acts, in speaking of land and hereditaments, contem-
plate property to be let by a landlord to a tenant as pro-
perty the land-tax of which might be redeemed. The
company are not owners of the land where the pipes lie,
nor are they the tenants of the land, and there is no
rent from which they could deduct the amount of the
assessment when paid." Tho Court then endeavours to
obviate a consequence likely to flow from this decision,
and which we think will naturally follow it—the litiga-
tion of the question whether these companies are pro-
perly rated to the relief of the poor? " The cases," said
the Court, " touching the assessment of companies to the
relief of the poor, in respect of pipes for the conveyance
of water or gas, as occupiers of land have been much re-
lied on, and they opp-ar closely in point; but we by no
ree-ris feel ourselves a, lib try t.) orerruk :host,
or to express a doubt whether they were rightly decided.
Land, like the word inhabitants, which likewise occurs