The Sun.
London, England, 1856-10-10 00:00:00

ROYAL BRITISH BANK.

in
Yb
aens kt errudpaty:y immediatelymonniiteheeieandejruEdivcaantisonagoafitnbset fiat
bank, Johnstone, the messenger of the court, with seve-
ral of his assistants, proceeded, under instructions from
Mr. Cce, the official assignee, and Messrs. Linklater, his
solicitors, to the head office, in Threadneedle-street, and,
after serving the adjudication of the court, entered on the
premises, and took formal possession of the hank. They
arrived there at 12 o'clock, and forthwith posted up the
adjudication in the bank ; but it was immediately re-
moved by the officers of the interim manager. Mr.
Wintle, one of the assistant messengers, proceeded to
seize the cash bags in the hands of the clerks, but was
immediately made to surrender them. The messengers
were then generally confronted by the interim manager
and his solicitor.. Messrs. Chilton and Burt in, and
Messrs. Amoty, Travers, and Smith, who peremptorily
ordered them, in the name of the Court of Chancery, to
refrain from touching any of the boo'-:s or effects of the
bank. The messengers of the Court of Bank roptcy deemed
it expedient to comply with these expostulations, but
refused to retire from the premises. Mr. Harding then
explicitly told them that lie refused to recognise the
order of the Court of Bankruptcy, and said he would
only allow them to remain so long as they continued
passive. An armistice having been agreed upon, the
Interim manager immediately procee led to serve copies
of the order of the Court of Chancery on the Court of
Bankruptcy and on the official assignee, and also pro-
ceeded the various branches of the bank in different
parts of the metropolis, in each of which, to the surprise
of the previous occupants, he found a messenger of the
Court of Bankruptcy in possession, with whom he dealt
as he had done with those in Threadneedle-street. Yes-
terday at the Strand branch, about 400 depositors came
in and lodged their claims.

LIABILITY OP RAILWAY COMPANIES. —At the Don-
caster County Court, on Monday, an action was brought
by a horse dealer named Thompson, residing at Man-
ciester, against the Midland Railway Company, to re-
cover the sum of 501., reduced damages, as compensa-
tion for the loss sustained by him in consequence of the
alleged neglect of the plaintiffs in not having forwarded,
according to contract, three valuable horses from Don-
caster to Manchester. The facts of the case are as fol-
lows :--The plaintiff attended the horse fair at Doncaster
in August last, and purchased there three valuable nags,
which he desired to forward to Manchester. A train
was advertised to leave Doncaster at 3.30 p.m., for
Manchester, by the Midland line, and the plaintiff's man
booked the three horses to go by that train. The plain-
tiff himself and his a.sistaiit also took tickets for the
same train, but they were informed, just before the time
of starting, that the horses could not go, as the train
Was a fast one. The plaintiff; however, insisted on his
right to have them sent, as they were booked, stating that
be had made inquiries at the booking-officein the morn-
ing, and could have sent his horses by ar,other route, if
he had not been told that they could go by the Midland
line. Ultimately the horses were !Mowed to g 9 by the
train, but at Swinton, about nine miles from Dorchester,
the boxes in which they were conveyed were.
detached
from the train. The plaintiff proceeded on his journey,
but did riot miss the animals until he reached Sheffield.
He got to Manchester at 7 p.m., and at 10 p.m. made
' inquiries at the station fur the horses, but they had not
arrived. On the following day he found that they had
come in early in the morning, but he found them in such
bad condition from exposure and neglect that he
scarcely knew them again ; they had got cold, their legs
were swollen, and they had ''staring coats. A vete-
rinary surgeon was called in, but the horses were so
much deteriorated in value that the plaintiff bad been
unable to sell them, and had them still upon his hands,
although, before leaving Doncaster he bad been
offered a profit of 151. upon one of them. For the de-
fence it was contended that the horses had been booked
by the 3.30 p.m. train by mistake, and that the plaintiff
having a dealer's ticket ought to have looked after his
horses himself. The judge (Mr. W. Walker) told the
jury that they had to consider whether a breach of con-
tract bad been committed by the defendants--of which
there could be little doubt—and to assess the damages.
the plaintiff! with 301. cla-
; Theaa jeue rayafdouan.diao verdictcoets: for

ge eral rule that all agricultural meetings lately
held politics should be banished, or nearly so. Now,
I have taken the liberty more than once, in speak-
ing to you, to beg and pray of you to have meetings
at which your members should talk to you about poli
tics, so if you have not heard already anything I have to
tell you, it is your fault, and not mine. I might very
well leave the discussion of politics upon the present
occasion, but I am the less inclined to do so because I
have lately seen some extraordinary recommendations
from certain gentlemen who are going to reform the
Administration,•and to effect wonders in the House of
Commons; and, among the rest, they are going to make
every one of us 600 unfortunate gentlemen give our opi-
nions every night on every possible subject submitted to
us. We live to see strange things, indeed ! Now, gen-
tlemen, with regard to agricultural statistics, I am of
opinion that there is a vast deal of humbug in the
matter. (Cheers and laughter.) I don't believe it is
worth your while either to oppose them or adopt them.
If anybody wants to know how many acres of wheat; or
of turnips, or potatoes,. ,I grow, I'll tell him ; but as to
Its being of -the istrialleet nse to any living man, I don't
believe one word of it. People go mad, and nations are
going mad, after these statistics • and if you don't fur-
nish them, I'll tell you what will be the consequence. You
will have fellows sent round the country to take them,
and then you will have to pay for them pretty smartly.
That is the point about this agitation which I dislike. I '
think the odds are that the gentlemen who will be sent
round will be the barrister of seven years' standing, and
this is a sort of gentleman who, I think, is getting a vast
deal too much employment already. I think it is perfectly
absurd to suppose that these agricultural statistics will
be of the smallest use. You cannot give the requisite
information directly after the crop is out of the ground,
for I defy any body in the world, and no farmer is fool
enough to. suppose that he can itell how his crops will
turn out until they are thrashed., It is, therefore, no.
thing but nonsense to pretend that any advantage what-
ever can arise to the farmer from the collection of agri•
cultural statistics. Now, my hon. friend in the chair
alluded to the tax upon ale. I believe I have advocated
more than any one in the house its removal. lam not
only fond of ale myself, but I positively believe it to be
a national institution. I don't like the nasty, beastly
black compoUnd which goes under the name of London
porter. (Cheers and laughter.) And yet, although I
am so fond of ale, I know, I believe, but one single
house in the whole county of Surrey where good ale is to
be had. (Laughter.) A little while ago we had a song
about the golden days when there was ale in the cottage
and ale in the hall, but I candidly confess that I have
never seen ale in the cottage since I was a child. (Hear,
hear.) I must, however, do Mr. Disraeli the justice to
say that he was willing to take off half the malt tax.
(Hear, bear.) But by whom was he prevented ? Why,
by the same gentlemen who cry out, " Oh, dear me,
don't tax the poor man in the articles of his consumption ;
no, no, tax realised property." They were great advo-
cates for taxing realised property. "Well, then," thought
Mr. Disraeli, " what is so much realised property as a
house ? I'll put a tax upon houses." But what was
the consequence ? AU London got up in arms. Every
large provincial town got up in arms, and declared how
shameful they were served. By what ?—by his putting a
tlx upon what ? Why upon realised property. And there
are people who say, " Don't drink beer." Beer, for-
sooth ! why there's hardly any one in the country who
knows what beer is now. " If we were to shut up all the
brewers in London in a room, and give them nothing
but malt and hops, I don't suppose that all the malt
and hops in the world would enable them to turn out
that nasty black stuff they call porter. I recently got
out of a friend of mine how much malt was used to a
hogshead of liquor in the great London porter breweries.
I dare say most of you—at all events some of you—re-
member the time when it was thought a point of honour
never to send the great barley-rake into a field to clean
it until after the labourer had been there to glean, so as
to get enough to brew himself a little beer. Some of
that beer I have tasted, and certainly it was not very
strong. The proportion of malt put into a hogehead—
I don't mean to say the labourer brewed a hogshead, or
anything like it—but the proportion of malt he put in
was six bushels ; the farmer brewed eight, and the gentle-
man 10 or 12. 13tit- what do you think the proportion
of malt put in the London porter is ? Two bushels.
(Loud laughter.) Now, I was telling this to a friend of
mine in the House of ommons who is a capital f rawer
himself, and I wanted to pump out of him bow much be
put in his. (Laughter.) He wouldn't tell me that, hut
he said, I'll send you a dozen as a present And he did
send a dozen, and very' good it was. " But," said I,
"doesn't it appear to be very strong?" " Well," be replied
"I'm a good deal accustomed to go out deer stalking,
shooting, and sporting in the Highlands; I always drink
it, and I never find it affect me." (Laughter.) I fear that
we shall never get the malt tax off for the benefit of the
farmers unless there is a very strong effort made. (Cheers,
and a cry of " Brave !") Now, what's the use of crying

" Bravo, bravo I" unless you come up with petitions aO7l
ietnonbtrances and back me in the house ? Gentlemen, I
believe this question of beer presses as much upon the
morals as the comforts of the people; and if by the means
of removing the malt tax you can give them plenty of
really good beer, you will do more to reform their mora's
than by all the trumpery schemes that are now being so
strongly advocated. (Cheers and laughter.)

SUBAARINE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.

A public dinner was given last evening, at the Albion

Although November term is now close at hand
there is no official, or, indeed, anycertain announce
raent of the appointment of the new
judge. This
delay will undoubtedly load to considerable incon-
veni.2nce and confusion both to the profession and
the public, as the rules and regulations of the new
court, which have to be drawn up in conjunction
with the Chancellor and the Master of the Rolls,
should by this time have been in the hands of all
parties interested. An evening paper (the Mail)
hints that a judge of the common law courts (Mr.
Justice Ball) is the chosen man, and that the un-
doubted claims of ex-Chancellor Blackburne have
been set aside for the sake of patronage, inasmuch
as Mr. Ball's promotion would create a vacancy in
the Common Pleas—a very poor consideration, it
must be confessed, when opposed, to the fact that
the country would be a gainer to the amount of
3,0001. a-year by the saving of the pension now
enjoyed by Mr. Blackburne.

LORD CARLISLE IN ,VIE NORTH.
The Earl of Carlisle loaves Dublin to-day on a
short visit to Garron Tower, the seat of the Dowager
Marchioness of Londonderry, in the county of
Antrim. En route his Excellency means to be pre-
sent at the opening of the Cookstown Extension
line, a work of great importance to a large and
fiou rishing district of country, and one which is very
creditable to the proprietors of the Belfast and
Ballymena Railway Company) by which it has been
constructed.