The Sun.
London, England, 1860-07-12 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TrItTRISDAY '':4EVENING, JULY 1% -1860#

the masters' speculation. Au act of parliament was
shortly afterwards, passed, appointing an officer
called "The Accountant-Gen eral ,Court of Chancery,"
who was to perform the duties which up to that time
had been performed so indifferently by the masters.
Other acts were passed whereby certain rates and
duties were levied throughout England and Wales
for the specific purpose of making good to the
suitors what they had lost ; and in 1738 the suitors'
cash lying unemployed in the hands of the Accoun-
tant-General, having again become considerable,
an Act of Parliament was passed, authorising the
investment of a sum of £34,900.
In this sum we have the origin of "The Suitors'
Fund," and through investments made under Par-
liamentary authority from that period down to the
present time, the stock purchased with suitors' cash
is now represented by £2,613,360, and forms the
first portion of " The Suitors' Fund."
It is not proposed that any portion of this should
be touched. But in the year 1768, an Act of Par-
liement having been passed directing that the sur-
plus interest arising from the stock to which we
have just referred should be also invested in stock,
in the investments made under the authority of this
act we have the origin of the second portion of
" The Suitors' Fund," which now consists of the
above-mentioned £1,291,629 ss. 6d. stock, which
the commissioners very properly call the " Profit"
Fund, and propose should be one of the three funds
applied for the purposes of the new courts.
The second of the three funds, that of £201,028
2s. 3d. stock, forming part of what is called "The
Suitors' Fee Fund," is easy of explanation. It ap-
pears that the fees paid by the suitors to the o'lieers
of the Court of Chancery were, by an Act of Wil-
liam IV., directed to be paid to " The Suitors' Fee
Fund account," and after the payment of certain
salaries and compensations out of it, the annual
surplus was directed to be invested and placed to a
similar account. The investments are now repre-
sented by this sum.
The income of this fund, as well as the income of
both portions of " The Suitors' Fund," is at present
applied towards the payment of the salaries, com-
pensation, and allowances of the officers of the
Court of Chancery ; and the commissioners give
the accounts for the two years 1858 and 1859, from
which it appears that in 1858 the income was in
excess of the expenditure by £8,683 ss. 11d., and
in 1859 by £3,042 17s. 7d.
The third fund proposed to he taken by the corn-
, missioners (the £88,254 55. ld.) has arisen from the
fees paid by the suitors in the common law courts,
and which have been paid over to the Treasury,
after deducting all the annual salaries and pay-
ments chargeable upon it.
The commissioners, after having xplained the
nature, and traced very elaborately the history of
the Suitors' Fund, next enter into the question
whether any rights will be violated by the appro-
priation of that part of the Suitors' Fand which
they propose to take, for, as the report says, " upon
the applicability of the Profit' Fund the contro-
versy substantially turns."
The first point submitted to the commissioners
seems to have been, that as this Profit Fund has
arisen from the investment of suitors' money, upon
principles of justice and upon the principle of a
trustee being compelled to account for his trust
money, the Court of Chancery. should account for
the profits made. The commissioners report, how-
ever, that " there is no foundation for the argu-
ment." They say, " The court can in no proper
sense of the term be considered in the light of a
trustee for the suitors," and they explain that in
the absence of any applications for the investment
of such monies the court is in the position of a mere
stakeholder. Apart also from the question of the
position of the Court of Chancery as a trustee, the
commissioners show that the employment by the
masters, prior to 1725, of these monies having been
recognised as part of their official remuneration,
and the investments subsequent to 1725 having
been made only under the authority of the legis-
lature, who directed the modes in which they
should be applied, no claim to this Profit Fund
by the suitors can be substantiated. Another
objection is thus stated by the commissioners :
"But it has been suggested to us that although
individual suitors may have no property in Fund
B" (the fund in question), " and no right to inter-
fere with its appropriation, yet that the collective
body of suitors have just ground for objecting to its
application to any purposes other than those by
which they as a body are immediately benefitted.'
This argument seems to have met with the sup-
port of the Vice-Chancellor Sir William Page Wood,
but the conclusion of the remainder of the commis-
sioners, that if this fund is not the property of the
suitors and cannot be claimed by them, they are
unable to perceive on what reasonable grounds the
discretion of Parliament should be fettered as to
the mode of its future application, seems most con-
sonant with common sense.
The third and apparently the last objection made
was this That by the abAraction of this fund
the court will, to ttic c-Atent of the income of about
£39,000 per annum, be deprived of the power of re-
ducing the fees paid by the suitors. This suggestion
sounds rather hypercritical, for if it is conceded
that the suitors have no legal right to the fund in
question, either as individuals, or as a collective
body, it seems difficult to understand how they can
have a moral control over the fund, and the com-
missioners report :—" That the benefit to the suitors
from such a remission of fees would be as nothing
compared with the boon they would obtain from
the proposed scheme, by reason of the greater
economy and despatch with which it would enable
their business to be transacted."

No other arguments than those we have men-
tioned as having been raised against the appropria-
tion of the first of the throe funds are raised against
the appropriation of the second—the £200,000 stock
—and as to the third fund—the £BB,2s4—the
commissioners remark that it is " wholly free and
unappropriated."
The report lasily proceeds to show in what man-
ner the three funds may be made available with a
due regard to the present charges upon them.
As to capital, it has been shown that this has
arisen from the surplus income of the stock repre-
senting the suitors' cash. This stock amounted in
October, 1859, the report tells us, to £2,613,360,
purchased on an average under 87 per cent., and as
in the event of the Court of Chancery becoming
. .

bankrupt, and the securities all realised under £B7
the suitors would look to the " Profit" Fund for
indemnity, the commissioners propose that Parlia-
ment should guarantee their indemnity. They
show that precedents abundantly justify such en-
gagements on the part of the state, and the amount
of risk incurred appears to be of a nominal nature.
As to income, the dividends arising from the
chancery funds proposed to be withdrawn appear
from the report to amount to £45,000 a-year. We
have seen that in 1859 the income arising from
both portions of the Suitors Fund and from the
Suitors Fee Fund only exceeded the expenditure by
£3,000, and assuming this to be an average result
(although we believe tho expenditure in that year
to have been unusually high) it would leave a de-
ficiency of £42,000.
Against this the report shows that we should
have the following annual sums to set off: £2,000
for rent of offices used by the Court of Chancery,
and which would be saved on completion of the
new buildings. The surplus of the fees paid over
to the Treasury by the common law officers, and
which have amounted on the average of the last
six years to £14,000 and upwards; 16,000 for
buildings occupied by common law officeis, and
which would also be saved, and the surplus of the
Court of Probate and Admiralty fees, amounting
respectively to £7,000 and £12,000 per annum.
These sums, it will be found, reduce the deficiency
to £16,000.

This stun the commissioners are of opinion should
be made good by the public, by means of an annual
payment out of the Consolidated Fund, and they
recommend either that the Consolidated Fund
should pay into the Court of Chancery such a sum,
not exceeding £40,000, as should be equal to the
dividends on so much of the capital withdrawn from
time to time for the purposes of the now buildings,
or in the event of Parliament refusing its consent
to any portion of the sum required being made a
permanent charge, however small, upon the State,
that the sum to be annually paid from the Consoli-
dated Fund should be reduced from year to year, as
the existing compensation annuities fall in, until '
the deficiency caused by the absorption of the two
Chancery funds should be made good. But the
deficiency even of this £16,000 will be temporary.
The compensation annuities amount it appears to
the enormous sum of £70,000; and in reference to
them the commissioners say, "It is computed that
these annuities will diminish afthe rate of £2,000,
and taking the net annual contribution from the
public funds to be £16,000 at the commencement,
it will wholly cease in eight years, while if the
anticipated increase in the fees recaived by the
Probate Court take place, the charge on the public
will be extinguished in less than half that period."
The edmmissionm conclude their report by stat-
in(' that, without having gone to the expense of
minute survey's, they estimate the total cost of the
proposed new site and buildings (allowing X 1.50,000
for contingencies) at £1,500,000, which they say
would be about the produce of the funds they pro_
pose to take.
We have entered apparently at some length into
the consideration of this elaborate document, but
we have in truth done little more than was neces-
sary to make the proposals of the commissioners
intelligible. No more important a subject could
have been referred for investigation, and more im-
portant results could hardly have been obtained. It
unknown
dbeenenly
reads as if £1,500,000 treasure trove, which had
lying
dragged
t
i somen o
the
surfa
cdepths,eana l
ai ldiadbe I
bare
to theen std-

light- ..-it.raises a substantial vision of courts of law
which'. are:not ‘‘ insufficient, inconvenient, and un-
whoh "some." We will brave the shades of the
suito• !s of 1760, and we have no need to force a title
upon_ those of 1860.

REALTH OF LONDON DURING THE
WEEK.

(Rom the Reyistrar-Generars Report.)
The present returns show a very satisfactory de-
crease in the deaths for the week that ended last
Saturday. The total number was 919 ; that of the
previous week 1,001. For the corresponding weeks
in the 10 years 185059 the average number, after
correction for increase of population, is 1,115. The
deaths in last week were therefore less by 196 than
they would have been according to the average
rate of mortality in the first week of July. Sum-
mer weather has not been without rood effect in
the improvement of the public health.
There were 17 deaths from small pox in the
week. The number is not great, and it is not drawn
specially from any quarter of the metropolis. There
were 46 from measles, vhieh at present prevails
more than any other zymotie disease. Of 33 from
scarlatina, 4 occurred in St. Clement Danes, and 3
in Plumstead. Twelve deaths were caused by
diarrhoea, and one by cholera, which occurred to
a gentleman in Albert-street, Clapham-road, after
six days' illness. A case of manslaughter was re-
turned, and four of infanticide ' • also 12 of suicide.
A lunatic was accidently choked by food. Two
children were fatally scalded : three deaths occurred
from burns, one of which was that of a child whose
clothes caught fire:

Last week the births of 879 boys and 788 girls,
in all 1,667 children, were registered in London.
In the 10 corresponding weeks of the yeat s 1850-59
the average number was 1,467.

At the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the mean
height of the barometer in the week was 30.126 in.
For eight days the mean daily reading had been
above 30 in. In the week the lowest barometrical
reading was 30 in.; the highest, 30.25 in. The
mean temperature of the air in the week was 58.5
deg., which is 3 deg. below the average of the same
week in 43 years (as determined by Mr. Glaisher).
The difference between the mean dew-point tempe-
rature and air temperature was 5.7 deg. The de-
gree
of humidity was 82. The thermometer in the
shade rose to 73 3 deg. on Thursday, it fell to 41.6
deg. on the same day ; the extreme range of that
day, and also of the week, was therefore 31.7 deg.
The thermometer in the sun rose to 123 deg. on the
same day. There was no rain in the week. The
wind was generally in the north-west.
In the thirteen weeks ending Saturday, June 30,
the total number of 14,894 deaths was registered in
in London. The mortality was high, for in the
corresponding quarters of the four years 1856-9 the
numbers ranged from 13,252 to 14,541. That this re-
sult was due to unseasonable cold will become ap-
parent when it is stated that, whereas the mean
temperature of the air in any of those four quarters
was not lower than 52.3 deg., and in those of 1858-9
exceeded 54 deg., the mean temperature of the
quarter now ended was only 50.5 deg. As a conse-
quence of the cold the deaths from pulmonary dis-
eases, exclusiye of phthisis and whooping-cough,
rose from 1014 in the June quarter of 1859 to 2,610
in the last quarter. Phthisis was also fatal ; it in-
creased from 1,993 deaths to 2,133. Whooping-
cough was rather more fatal than it had been in the
same quarter of 1859, but in a much less degree than
in those of 1857-8, when the mean temperature was
much higher. As might be expected under atmos-
pheric influence to which all persons are exposed,
and of which all more or less are susceptible, the
mortality from diseases generally was increased.
But there was a perceptible decrease in the aggre-
gate of zymotie complaints, which in two previous
spring quarters caused 3,604 and 3,135 deaths, and
last quarter 2,917. Though fatal cases of small-pox
(240) were numerous, yet they scarcely exceeded
those of the same period in 1859. Of the 240 exactly
a fourth part occurred at 20 years of age and up-
wards. Measles, from which 568 young persons
and three adults (at 20 years and upwards) died, was
more fatal than any other zymotic disease. Scarla-
tina carried off 356 persons, and diphtheria 107 ;
they were both considerably less fatal than in the
same quarter of last year. Diarrhoea also exhibited
a marked decrease on that of previous springs, and
no death from cholera was returned. Five persons
died from privation, 89 infants from want of breast
milk, 15 persons (chiefly young) from purpura and.
scurvy, 32 from delirium tremens, 24 from intempe-
rance. Deaths from heart disease rose to 685 ; those
from bronchitis to the unusual number of 1,456.
There were 80 suicides in the quarter; and 41
deaths, in a great proportion those of children,
were from murier and manslaughter.

J A IV4 TRANSPORT Or ZROOPS.

The conveyance of a military force, by railway is
not a novel operation, but it is generally confined
to infantry, and the number of rank and file con-
veyed at once rarely equals that of the passengers
by many an excursion train, while the troops have
the advantage of being under perfect discipline at
the beginning and end of the journey. The con-
veyance of infantry is comparatively an easy task,
and the time required may be soon calculated ; but
artillery, which includes so much besides men,
heavy guns, ammunition waggons, and horses, that
must all be kept together, separation from either
making the rest useless, is more difficult to deal
with. If the movement is complicated by a force
of cavalry the difficulty is increased still further by
the large number of horses, without which the men
are hors de combat; the original dragoon who
served both on horse and foot, being extinct. He
has not been able to hold his own, and the military
workinc, of the "theory of selection" has extin-
guished' him. In a campaign, supposing the
existence of good roads and abundant forage,
artillery and cavalry are not the most difficult parts
of an army to move. But if they can be carried to
the actual field by railroad, the saving in time—
the most important item —is immense. This
is evident enough—a mere truism. But the prac-
tical mode of doing it, the amount of railway plant
required, and the efficiency of the railway staff for
the operation, have by no means been fully tested.
An experiment, however, was made yesterday on
rather a large scale, the results of which gave some
idea of the time required to convey a combined
force of artillery and cavalry from point to point by
railroad. The London and North-Western Railway
Company having received 20 hours' notice to pre-
pare a point on one of their branch lines for " de-
barking," to use a foreign term, a certain number of
troops, a piece of waste ground on the Willesden
Junction was selected for the purpose. A by-way,
leading from the great Harrow-road, crosses the
rails, or rather the rails cross it on the level. On
each side of this roadway a temporary platform had
been raised, exactly resembling those of cattle sta-
tions. One ran for some distance parallel with the
rails, with a sloping descent from it. The other was
narrow, and at right angles to the railway. The
difference of size was made purposely, and horses
and guns were debarked at both to test the relative
merits of this broad and narrow gauge. The smaller
was merely a strong wooden framework, resting on
sleepers, planked, and covered with ballast. The
point from which the combined force departed was
the Caledonian-road station ;it consisted of the Grey
battery of the Royal Artillery, which had arrived
from Woolwich on the previous night, and between
400 and 500 cavalry, composed of the 2d Life Guards
ane the 10th Hussars. This is not a large force, the
number of a full regiment of cavalry and one com-
plete battery of field guns do not reckon for much
in a great war; but it required six immense trains,
each of more than 30 carriages, to bring them down
from the Islington station. The last train started
thence at a quarter past 11, and had not disposed of
its martial freight till nearly 4 o'clock. The first
train down arrived within sight of the platform at
10 o'clock, but for some reason not at once percep-
tible was halted there, and the men kept locked up
in the carriages till one o'clock. It was a very
close day ; the Artillery uniform is not the coolest
summer wear, and most people know how stifling a
closely-packed carriage is when motionless.
When released the men rushed and leaped out,
half stewed and exceedingly fagged, much more
so than they would have been by any
march of the same distance. But, as this detention
may have been part of the test, we will not say it
was unnecessary for the main object ; only it seemed
so. The horses being in open carriages did not suff©r
so much ; but appeared very glad to feel the earth
under their feet,, and the guns behind them again.
They stood, seven in each carriage, ready harnessed.
The guns and ammunition carts were on railway
trucks. The nicest part of the operation was ad-
justing the train to the platforms, so that each car-
riage should have its roadway exactly leading from
it. That arrang6d, the rest was easy. The men
rushed out, the horses pranced down the platform,
and the guns and carts descended the slope by their
own weight. Nevertheless, each train occupied from
30 to 40 minutes before it was clear. As soon as
as the cavalry mounted it left the ground, and pro-
ceeded by the by-road to London ; the artillery
drew up in the lane leading to the Harrow-road,
the first guns halting till all had been got out. The
whole battery then returned by the high read to
Islington. The Earl of Cardigan was on the ground
watching the proceedings.

THE GAS MONOPOLY.

The gas monopoly has determined to die hard.
That its doom is sealed can no longer be doubted,
after the report of the Select Committee over which
Mr. Sotheron Estcourt presided, and which sat for
three weeks continuously during the present session.
There had been two previous select committees on
the subject, the result of whose labours, in a great
mass of evidence relative to every branch of the
question, was before the committee of this year on
the first day it sat. Notwithstanding this advan-
tage, it was found impossible to restrain the power
of professional frustration within a narrower limit
than that of nineteen days ; at the end of which
time, finding it unavailing for the purpose of de-
feating the remelialbill, supported by all indepen-
dent interests in the metropolis, counsel for the
companies were instructed to perform what was
meant to be the imposing ceremony of withdrawing
indignantly from the contest, leaving the devoted
committee without further molestation or admoni-
tion to work its wicked will. Without betraying
any symptom of being thunderstruck by this awful
rebuke, Mr. Estcourt and his colleagues continued
to sit for two or three days more, and proceeded to
settle, according to their Judgment, the forms and
details of the measure whose essential features had
been so elaborately investigated. The maximum of
legal dividends having been fixed by the act of 1847,
when competition existed, at 10 per cent., was re-
duced to 8 per cent., competition being now abolished
by the companies themselves. Some reduction was
demanded by the promoters of the bill ; and instead
of leaving it undecided, counsel for the companies
had suggested that it would be better to put it at a
lower figure; yet no sooner have the committee
done so, than the change is made a principal ground
of complaint against them in the House of Com-
mons. The bill asked for a reduction of price, and
the committee agreed to recommend the adoption
of four shillings per thousand feet as the ordinary
standard ; but this is declared to be ruin and rob-
bery, although, if we are not much misinformed,
compromises have been more than once negotiated
on the subject of which this condition was to have
formed an essential part. The great grievance of
all is said to be the appointment of inspectors, and
the establishment of summary proceedings for the
trial of disputes between the producers and con-
sumers of gas ; yet it is clear that without resort
to some such measure all legislation on the subject
must be practically useless. We need not go into
further details here ; suffice it to say that the terms
proposed by the Committee are upon the whole ex-
ceedingly moderate, regard being had to the great
and governing fact that the supply of artificial
light to the inhabitants of London has within the
last few years ceased to be by competition, and been
converted into a strict and permanent monopoly,
On Tuesday evening Mr. Staniland undertook
to prevent the further progress of the Bill in the
House of Commons, upon the ground that the vested
interests concerned had not yet had a full and fair
hearing before a Committee upstairs. The candour
of the objection thus raised may be estimated by a
passing admission made in the course of a somewhat
lengthy speech by the hon. member for Boston. In
his desire to impeach the finding of the Parliamen-
tary jury, he declared that they had gone far be-
yond what the promoters of the bill had asked for.
" If the Committee had given only what the pro-
moters of the bill had asked, little or no harm would
have been done, and the gas companies would have
been perfectly satisfied, for they were not opposed
to what was called uniform legislation." Little or
no harm would have been clone; then how did it
happen that as soon as the Committee were
panelled a formidable array of forensic forces pre.
sented briefs, took close order, and for the
space of
nineteen days contested every inch of ground
claimed in the preamble or included Rithin the scope
of the bill ? The combined Comr.anies, who for three
years have baffled every attempt at settlement,
would, we are now told., have been perfectly satis-
fied with the bill promoted by the associated ves-
tries of the metropolis ; then why do they not
agree to it ? Or why, after the first week's dis-
cussion, or after the second week's discussion or at
the end of the third week's discussion, would' they
Opine to no terms of compromise ? We say it
plainly and fearlessly—because they. do not yet
despair of being able to retain their irresponsible
hold over the public and private comfort of three
millions of their fellow-subjects, and of turning the
same to account in exorbitant exaction. Mr. Stani-
hind had the coolness to tell the House of Commons
that it was quite a mistake to suppose that the
supply of gas in London was a monopoly, because
it was quite in the power of any one who chose to
Make and sell as much of that commodity as he
was able. As well might he argue that the car-
riage of letters by the Post-office was not a mono-
poly because any young man who has'nothing else
to do May spend his time in carrying letters
from house to house or from town to town if
he pleases. But laws are required to be made to
meet the reality of things as they stand, not to
square with the silly quibbles of sordid interests,
however great. Equally wrong in judgment and
in taste was the reckless impeachment of the con-

duet of the committee. The manner in which the
imputations were received by the house must have
satisfied even the member for Boston that he had
done no good to the cause he bas so ruthlessly ad-
vocated. Mr. Sotheron Estcourt stands deservedly
high with men of all parties for probity, coolness,
and discretion ; and nothing could tend more to
convince the less•informed portion of the house of
the hollowness and factiousness of the Gas Mono-
polists' case than the attempt to insinuate par-
tiality or incompetence against the chairman
of the committee. Disdaining to complain
of the attack made upon him in his cha-
racter of foreman of the jury specially appointed
to try this very serious issue, Mr. Estcourt
good-humouredly offered to move that the
bill be referred back to the committee, in order to
give the counsel who had sulked and withdrawn a
last opportunity of urging their rhetoric pleas on
behalf of their clients. He only stipulated that
this supplementary proceeding was not to be abused
into a new pretext for delay, and that argument,
not further evidence, was to be heard. To this
proposal, the house, on the recommendation of the
Home Secretary, testified its readiness to assent ;
and we only hope that the cause of justice moy not
suffer through the extreme urbanity and unselfish-
ness manifested by the chairman and other mem-
bers of the committee. It is simply scandalous
that great interests should be trifled with year
after year with an impunity and effrontery uncon-
cealed, We trust that in this case at least we are
approaching an end.—Daily News.

SUMIIIE.R ASSIZES.
-
OXFORD CIRCUIT.—ABINGDON, July 11.
(Before Mr. Justice Hill.)
Henry Joseph Smith, 26, a corn factor, of very
respectable appearance, was indicted for having
fraudulently converted to his own use eight quarters
of barley (he being bailee thereof), the property of
William Baker, of Wroughton, Wilts, in tl,u munth
of March last.

Mr. H. James was cnuubel for the prosecution ;
Mr. J. 0. Griffiths appeared for the defence.
Tho priponcr as found guilty.
Mr. Just icc Hill said it was of the highest import-
ance that confidence should be maintained in the
transactions of this great commercial country, and
he regretted seeing a person of such apparent re•
spectability in a position of such degradation. His
lordship then sentenced the •prisoner to eight
months' hard labour.

The prisoner, who evinced great anxiety during
the trial, and wept bitterly on the verdict being
given against him, was removed from the dock.
The assizes terminated about noon, and both the
learned judges afterwards rode on horseback into
Oxford, to open the commission in that city.

NORTHERN CIRCUIT.—YoRE, July 11.
Nisi Prius Court.
(Before Mr. Baron Martin.)
There being no civil case ready for trial, his lord-
ship proceeded to assist Mr. Baron Wilde in dispos-
ing of the criminal business.
Joseph Cowburn, 33, Benjamin Clarkson, 41, John
Routh, 25, and Richard Ridgwell, 35, were charged
with shooting at John Asquith, with intent to
murder him, or do him some grievous bodily harm,
at Featherstone, on the sth of April last.
Mr. Seymour and Mr. Searle were for the prose.
cution ; the prisoners had no counsel.
The prosecutor is a labouring man in the service of
his uncle, Mr. C. Wrightman, at Featherstone. On
the night of the sth April last, he was returning
home from. Normanton, when he saw the four pri-
soners loitering about near to his uncle's premises.
Being convinced, by their appearance and move-
ments, that they had no honest object in view, the
prosecutor secreted himself, in order to watch their
proceedings. Whilst screened from observation the
prosecutor saw the prisoners enter the fold-yard.
Two of them placed a ladder against the pigeon-
cote, and subsequently they stole a number of
pigeons. The prosecutor then entered the house
and made an alarm, when Mr. Wrightman and
other persons on the premises were instantly in
readiness for the purpose of pursuing the prisoners,
who were then in the act of effecting their escape.
The prosecutor was armed with a gun loaded with
powder only, and he soon came within 15 or 20
yards of the prisoners. He called upon them to
stop, and threatened that if they did not comply
he would fire upon them. The prisoners turned
round, and Clarkson, who had a gun charged with
powder and shot, fired the contents at the prosecu-
tor, who was consequently wounded in the mouth,
and shot also entered other parts of his person.
The prosecutor was disabled, and the prisoners made
good their retreat, leaving behind them a bag con-
taining 60 pigeons. The prosecutor was under sur-
gical treatment for some time, being severely in-
jured.

The prisoners were further charged with steal-
ing the pigeons, to which three of them pleaded
guilty. Routh denied that he was guilty, but he
was not tried upon this charge.
The jury found all the prisoners guilty of shoot-
ing with intent to do grievous bodily harm. Pre-
vious convictions were proved against Cowburn,
Routh, and Ridgwell.
His lordship sentenced the whole of the prisoners
to 15 years' penal servitude.
The entry of causes in the first list for the North
and East Ridings closed yesterday. There are 17
causes entered. No cause of particular interest was
tried to-day.

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT.-July 10.

OLD COURT.
(Before the Lord Chief Baron.)
Thomas Buxton, 27, was charged, upon the co-
roner's inquisition, with the manslaughter of
Catherine Kenney.
In this case it appeared that the deceased
was very drunk at the time of the occurrence, and
S that she was throwing• stones at some children.
The prisoner told her desist, upon which she struck
him, and he pushed her away from him, and she
fell against the curb-stone and received injuries
from which she died, The grand jury threw out
the bill.
The Chief Baron said it appeared to him upon a
consideration of the evidence that the charge was
not supported, and under his lordship's direction
the jury returned a verdict of not guilty.
John Spencer, a Roman Catholic priest, was
charged with the capital offence of assaultinga boy
named William John Roberts.
Mr. Cooper prosecuted. The prisoner was de-
fended by Mr. Pearce.
The evidence in this case was not of a nature to
be made public. The prisoner, who was stated to
be a Roman Catholic priest, kept a school at Shore-
ditch, and the boy Roberts was one of his pupils.
The prosecutor was severely cross-examined, and
he admitted that he did not say a word of what had
happened until ho was spoken to by the police.
The jury returned a verdict of not guilty.
The prisoner was then charged upon a second
indictment with the commission of a similar offence
upon another lad named Leon Moresco.
The circumstances of this case were similar to
those of the preceding one, and were of an equally
disgusting character. The prosecutor. had been
placed at the prisoner's school by a person named
Heidemann, and the offence was alleged to have
been committed in the month of May last. The
lad appeared to have made complaint very soon
afterwards; but in this case, as in the former, it
appeared there had been disputes between the pri-
soner and the prosecutor, and the latter had been
charged by the prisoner with stealing his milk and
sugar.

The jury retired to consider their verdict in this
case, and after being absent half an hour they again
came into court and again returned a verdict of
not guilty.
The other indictments were postponed.