The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-02 00:00:00

LAW AND POLICE.

A RAILWAY CASE.— In the Court of Chancery, before the
Lord Chancellor, an appeal was heard on Monday, in a
suit between the Midland Counties Railway and Mr. Pell,
the owner of some lands which the railway required. The
compensation agreed on was £2,000, for which the railway
gave a bond which they failed to pay ; whereupon Mr.
Pell obtained an order from the Master of the Rolls to the
effect that the lands should be sold at a specified time in
default of payment. From this order the company
appealed, but the Lord Chancellor dismissed the appeal
with costs.

A SHERIFF'S OFFICER IN TROUBLE. —ln the Court or
Queen's Bench the char;e of extortion brought by Sir
Fitzgerald against Moses Levy has been decided against
the officer, Mr. Justice Blackburn saying he could not
take any sum beyond his legal fees on any pretence what-
ever, and there was a contempt which must be punished by
a fine of RlO.

AN INSUFFICIENT FINE.—On Monday the proprietors of
a performing pony, father and son, appeared at the Lam-
beth Police-court in answer to two summonses issued at
the instance of the Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals. The pony was in the habit of
performing at the Crystal Palace and at the Lyceum
Theatre, and on its fore feet were two or three wounds,
one of which was very deep and penetrated into the bone.
A veterinary surgeon who was called expressed his belief
that the injuries were caused in order that the animal
might the better carry out the various tricks which he had
been taught. The defendants were fined 20s. and ss.
sspectively.

A curious matrimonial case recently came before
the Bombay High Court. A leprous husband prayed for
the restitution of conjugal rights, which his wife had
denied him through fear of being affected with the
disease, and thereby endangering her own life. The
tfoonsiff of Surat, before whom the case came first,
threw out the plaint. The judge of the district reversed
this decision, because it bad been made on the extra-
judicial ground that it would be cruelty to compel the
woman to live with her husband. The High Court, how-
ever, thought the Moonsiff's view of the case correct,
since where there is cruelty the court ought not to inter-
fere, and the district judge's decree was reversed. This
decision is of some importance in the Bombay Presidency,
tvilere one in every hundred of the population is a leper,
and where the disease is said to be steadily on the
increase.

THE CREW OF THE ST. ADDS.—The question
of the captivity in Somali laud of any survivors of the
-.rew of the St. Abbs has received a somewhat
singular turn by the deposition before Captain Good-
'ellow, First Assistant Resident at Aden, of Hajee
Dthman ben Abdalla, a native of Brawa, near Magadoxa.
flajee Othman was interpreter to Mr. Kinzlebach, who
was sent to inquire into the fate of Baron von der Decken.
On the death of Mr. Kinzlebach the hajee set out on his
return to Aden ; but whilst on the voyage from Zanzi-
bar he was driven to take refuge at Hushul, a port on the
Somali coast. Here he met with a man who spoke no
Arabic, but who was able to converse in the Somali
tongue. The account he gave of himself was that he was
a banian, that some twelve or thirteen years ago he was
wrecked on the Somali coast at Howeeyah. The Somalis
attacked the party and killed all but three of them, of whom
he was one. The other two were in the interior. They
were made to tend cattle, and had neither changed their
religion nor married into a Somali family.
THE I'VIAORIES IN REBELLION.—As the news of
the atrocities lately committed in New Zealand has caused
much unnecessary alarm, we would (haw the attention
of our readers to the simple facts. The scene of the
murders is at Poverty Bay, on the east coast. The total
number of lives lost, as far as can be ascertained, is thirty-
six. The Maories who committed these outrages are
but a mere handful of men, made prisoners in the
last war, and sent to the Chatham Islands, but who, by
the negligence of their keepers, escaped from confine-
ment. That their career is being brought to a speedy ter-
mination is evident by the telegram received on Wednes-
day, and there is no doubt that the colonists, now fairly
roused by the late deeds of bloodshed, will not throw down
the sword till all Maori-rebeldoin is for ever annhilated,
without any chance of false philanthropy being listened to.
The colonists will now work out their own protection.—
New Zealand Examiner.

A SENSATIONAL STORY.—The Walsall police have,
during the past day or two, been engaged in making in-
quiries touching a charge of murder brought by one
John Bonell, a carter, of Horsley-fields, Wolver-
hampton, against James Kirk, a man living in
Bine-lane, Walsall. In the first instance, Bonell
declared to the police and others, in the most posi-
tive terms, that about three years ago he saw Kirk
take his son, a boy of about fourteen years of age, and
very troublesome, owing to his dirty habits, and throw him
down an old and very deep pit shaft in the neighbour- hood of Marsh-lane, -Walsall. As Bonell was much the
worse for liquor at the time, little or no credence was
given to his story ; but inasmuch as the boy has been
missing from about the time stated, Sergeant Wood
sought out Bonell again on Mcnday, at his residence
in Wolverhampton, for the purpose of ascertainin3
'Whether in his sober moments he adhered to his original
story. His version of the matter was then found to be
that a little before Christmas, three years ago, he saw
Kirk take the lad out of a shop where they were at work,
and along the canal side towards the old pit shaft before
named, and as he never saw the lad again he came to the
conclusion that his father had thrown him either into the
canal or down the pit shaft. The conclusion of the police is,
that there is no ground for the charge ofrourder, bu%still
gossips will and do ask " Where is the bolt?"