The Sun.
London, England, 1869-08-16 00:00:00

ACTION FOR LIBEL.

A. libel case, involving some very curious questions, was
tried at the Croydon Assizes on Saturday. It was an action by
Mr. Julius Allington, a gentleman of the county of Bed-
ford, against "Elliott and Others," the proprietors of
Echoes, a weekly publication. The libel complained of
appeared in the issue of the 26th of June last, and had
reference to a charge against Mr. Allington investigated
at the Marlborough-street Police-court, in the course
of the previous week, of having violently assaulted
the assistant treasurer of the Prince of Wales's
Theatre, at the theatre. The defendants pleaded not
guilty, that is to say, they asserted that the article in
question was inserted without actual malice, and was no
more than a legitimate criticism upon the report of the
proceedings in the police-court which had appeared in the
daily papers. The facts of the case were these. On
the evening of Wednesday, June 16th last, Mr. Allington,
who is a younger son of the late Rev. John Allington,
rector of Little Barford Church, in the county of Bedford,
and owner besides of property in Bedfordshire, Hertford-
shire, Huntingdonshire, and Northamptonshire, after
dining with a friend at the University Club, proceeded
to the Prince of Wales's Theatre. When he and his friend
reached the theatre the first act of the piece was
proceeding, and they were requested by the box-
keeper not to take their places until its conclu-
sion, in order not to disturb the audience. This
they assented to. While waiting the plaintiff was
charged with destroying some artificial flowers that
were in a vase at the top of the staircase by twisting
them round his fingers ; and on being requested to
desist by Mr. Whitehouse, the assistant-treasurer, he
contemptuously continued to pull the flowers about.
This, however, is entirely denied by the plaintiff, who
asserts that, in a sort of fit of abstraction, he merely twisted
a tendril of one of the flowers, and that for so doing he
was addressed in such insulting tones by Whitehouse that
he was obliged to threaten to report him to the manager.
Subsequently, on the conclusion of the second act, when
he left his place to get some refreshment, he was again
accosted by Whitehouse, who called him a coward, and
otherwise so grossly insulted him that he admits be
was driven, in the excitement of natural indignation,
to strike him a severe blow in the face with his
clenched hand. For this assault he was taken to the
police-court, and the next day the case was adjudicated
upon by the magistrate at Marlborough-street, when the
defendant was fined £5. A report appeared in the news-
papers in relation to the proceedings before the magistrate,
and on which the alleged libel was said to be only a legiti.
mate criticism. In the defendant's publication of the
Saturday week following there appeared the subjoined
commentary on the case, which constitutes the libel com-
plained of, under the heading

DESCRIBE) AS A GENTLEMAN.
" Mr. Julius Allington, of 23, Suffolk-street, Pall-Mall,
described 'as a gentleman' (by himself on the police-
sheet), goes to the Prince of Wales's Theatre, pulls about
the artificial flowers placed for ornament in vases, and
when civilly requested to desist, retires for a short time, to
return and assault the young man who had remonstrated with

him, first of all ' twisting round a ring on his finger, to
bring the stone to the front, so as to cut the cheek of the
person he struck.' Fined i 5. This rowdy ruffian, with
mock-diamond knuckle-dusters, describes himself 'as a
gentleman.': What pretensions has he to such rank? His
residence, 23, Suffolk-street, is a lodging-house. The
moral rank of Mr. Julius Abington, who describes him-
self as ' a gentleman,' and behaves like a ruffian, a brute,
and a coward in seeking an affray with an unarmed man,
while armed with unequal weapons, is indisputable. Let
us inquire into his social position. A gentleman, forsooth!
Of what landed estate? of what county? of what profes-

sion ? There is no such name in the peerage. The army
is honoured by no such rowdy ; the navy is undivgraced
by such an entry on its wester rt.ll ; the War OrEce has
no such clerk; the Foreign Office hides no such black-
guardism in the dirtiest corner of its smallest diplomacy.
Mr. Julius Allington lurks in its extremest consulate, the
Civil Service has no refuge for a Julius Allington,
the British Museum boasts of him as no curiosity ; even
Mr. Cole has him not hiding at South Kensington ; in
Burke's `Landed Gentry,' in the `Law List,' in
Debrett, in Webster, in ' Who's Who,' in the ' Court
Guide,' the name of Julius Allington is equally invisible.
Nowhere does it appear except in a police-sheet. Once
only is the name, perceptibly illustrious for blackguardism,
found in the Post-office Directory,' and there it figures
with another less euphonic Christian name, as that of
the keeper of a cooks'-shop. Can it bo that the unhappy
Julius has disgraced a respectable parent, has, on the
strength of a superabundance of his eleemosynary re-
ceipts as a waiter in the paternal banquet-halls, displayed
the ancestral Birmingham jewellery in an acutely vivacious

position ?"
Mr. Julius Allington, the plaintiff, narrated the cir-
cumstances under which the fracas took place at the
theatre in nearly the same terms as his learned counsel.
He declared that lie never entertained the thought of
turning his ring, and that the assault would not have been
committed if lie had not received the provocation he had
referred to. -Whitehouse was the only witness before the
magistrate who represented that he bad turned the ring.
The defence was that the newspaper repsrt and the
remarks of the magistrate—whether justified or not—
were sufficient ground for the criticism. The magistrate
having believed the evidence of Whitehouse, the only
course open to the defendants, in their newspaper, was to
do the same. The story, as told in the police court, dig•
closed a brutal, ruffianly-, and rowdy action;
the evidence was endorsed by the magistrate,
the defendants were justified in regarding it
as true.—The Lord Chief Baron, in summing
up, remarked upon the hardship of the present law which
closes the mouth of a defendant. Mr. Allingtcn had now
denied the charge against him. It was, perhaps, true that
he had knocked Whitehouse down, but still he stood
wholly exonerated from any charge of conduct unworthy
of a man or derogatory to a gentleman. In mitigation
of damages, his lordship asked the jury not to forget
that it was a fact in favour of the defendants, that the
magistrate who had adjudicated upon the case had
unfortunately believed the statement of the witness
against the accused. Still he had no hesitation in saying
that the petitioner was entitled to temperate, but at the
same time to reasonable, damages.—The jury, after a
short consultation, found a verdict for the plaintiff—
damages £soo.—Mr. Hawkins applied for a stay of execu-
tion. He felt most strongly that his lordship's ruling with
respect to the defendant's justification, grounded on their
bond fide belief in the accuracy of the report of the pro-
ceedings of the police-court, could not be supported,
—The Chief Baron, however, in the first instance-
declined the learned counsel's request ; but subsequently,
after some consideration, and after the jury in the next
case had been sworn, his lordship told Mr. Hawkins that
if he remained of the opinion that in the summing up
sufficient justice was not done to the mitigating circum
stances of the defendants' case he was willing to assent
to stay of execution until next term.—Mr. Hawkins
Laving so declared himself, execution was ordered to be
stayed.

It is stated that Sir John A. Macdougall is going
to Washington to comp!eto the negotiations for a recipro-
city treaty begun by Mr. Rose. Its renewal is now regarded
as certain.

The following notice was found rasted on a
large box which passed over the Sioux City and Pacific
Railroad a few days since :—" Baggage smashers are re-
quested to handle this box with care, as it contains nitro-
glycerine, Greek fire, gun-cotton, and two live gorillas."
The box was not broken.

THE HERRING FISHERY.—WicK, Saturday.—
This week's herring fishing at Wick has been very suc-
cessful. The .Northern Ensign Herring Circular reports
the total catch as nearly 55,000 crane, against 10,000 to
the same date last year, and states that the total catch for
3,400 boats on the Caithness, Sutherland, Cromarty,
Moray, Banff, and Aberdeen coasts is 136,000 crane,
against about 00,000 of the same date last year. There is
little doubt of an average fishing being got on the Caithness
coast this season, but fears are entertained for the result
at the Sutherland, Cromarty, Moray, and Banff stations.
It is rumoured, and we believe with truth (says the
Globe) that when Government has taken over the adminis-
trationpf the telegraphs, the repairs, maintenance, and con-
struction of telegraphic lines will not bo intrusted to any
commercial company. The Government, it is said, will
employ for this purposo non-commissioned officers
and men of the Royal Engineers. Thus, not only
will the work to more cheaply performed than by civilian
labour, but a valuable corps of efficient constructors of tele-
graphs will be formed, which will be of the utmost service
in :-.ny future campaign, to lay and maintain those field
telegraphs which must in future In essential concomitants
of every ronil/n. wit force in acti en core ire.

Tut,: POSITION OF PRE-HISTORIC BURIAL
nouNn. —Everybody knows that it was the universal
rule of English Gothic architects to build their churches
east and west. Ent it was discovered some thirty or forty
years ago that in some cases the line from west to east
was drawn so that the altar faced that exact point in thp
eastern horizon at which the sun rose on the festival of the
saint to whom the church was dedicated. Canon Green
well, who has done so much in the Yorkshire Wolds with
the ancient British barrows, now finds, on examining
the Yearsley or "long barrow," that it was the
custom of the half-savage tribes who raised these funeral
mounds to place them east and west, but shifting their
exact direction according to the point where tl.e sun rose
at the time they were piled together. Among other of the
reasons ois which this conclusion is founded, was the
pr,iutce of a large number of acorns, indicating. a.late
period of the year, and precisely corresponding with the
point at v..bs::h the sun rites, Nvllen, from the direction of
the line of ,the turruhr, it is r 11'4)020 to.,ave beau built