The Sun.
London, England, 1860-04-26 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL 26, MO.

BItITISII POSSESSIONS.

Share Railways. I Paid. Closing business done
Pice..

100
Stk I
18

Atlantic & St ',amen all
fßom.,Baroda& Cent.lnd 1100
gu. 6 permit
Do. Do. B 13i
Buffalo and Lake Huron all
Do. New all
Do. Preference
Bifalo,Brant.&Godrich 100
6 p. et. bds. 1 Aug., 1872 )
Do. do. 1 July, 1873 100
Do. do. 1 June, 1874 100
Clcutta.ScS.Eastrn.Lirn, 1. 3 0.
Cape,Eastn. Prov.(Lim.) 2s.
'Cape Town & Dock Scrip 3s.
Ceylon Guaranteed °p.c. 74
!Demerara
_ _ all

204
204
10
100 1
100
106

Eastern Belagal.gu.sp.c.
East Indian, gu. 5 p. 0
Do. F Shares Ext
Do. Jubbulpore
Do. 44 p. c. Debentrs
Do. 5 p.c. Deb., 1861
Gee long& Melbourne .
Geelong Corporation 6
per cent. Bonds
Grand Trunk of Canada!
!Do. 6 per cent. Fret

Do. 6 per cent. Debentr.
Do. 7 per cent. 1862 ....
Do. do. 1867....

1872 .

t.lnd i arenin.
Do. New, gua.s per cent.
Gt.Soutli. of Ind.Lim.—
guaranteed 5 per cent
,Gt.W. of Canada Shares
Do. New
Do. Bonds pay. '76,with
ept. till '6O
Do. do. '73 till '6O
IDo. do. '/3 without opt
Do. 5. p. c. do. '77 do
Madras, guar., 4i p. c
Do. do. 5 per
Do. 41 p. o. Extension
Do. Fourth do.
Do. do.

Stock

Corp. CPA Winds
Newßrunswiek&Canda.
Ry.&Land(Lim.)g.tipe
Class ACapitl.Share '
Do. do. Land do
Do. do. B. Capital do
Do. do. Land do
Oude (Limited)
Scinde q 41,
Do. New
Do. Punjaub
Do. Indus. St. Flo EL,"
St. Andrews & QuebeoAl

84 86
97 974
Id 4 d
42

61- 7}
78 82
70 75
68 73
par p

If 11
11 Idl

id Od 1
101} 101 i
par ip
pnr ip
AC 100
100} 101
24 21i

31 35"
PO 92
69 71
82 85
63 72
68 72
99} 91
d
11- 14
131 13}
7 7 d
97 99
97 99
97 99
90 93
88 90
P 8 99
91 93
1 d

5 7

5 7

Stook

99 1001
d d'
1 Id
91 95

I/7j 7

1011 1 a

34i i
69i 9

9911119
541
81
14}

100 9Pli

LAW INTELLIGENCE.—(This Day.)

VICE-CHANCELLLOR'S COURT.
(Before Vice-Chancellor Sir R. T. Kindersley.)
WASON V. WESTMINSTER IMPROVEMENT COMMIS-

SIONERS.

His Honour the Vice-Chancellor said this bill was filed
by Mr. Wason, against the Westminster Improvement
Commissioners, and three other gentlemen, Messrs. Bridges,
Meesen, and Bridges, solicitors, for specific performance of a
contract, dated sth July, 1847, by which the Commissioners
became bound to purchase the fee simple of certain lands
upon which Victoria-street was formed, and convey them
to the plaintiff by way of mortgage security for £30,000.
And the decree which was asked against the other defen-
dants was to set aside certain mortgages held by them since
1854, to enable the Commissioners to execute a free convey-
ance in favour of the plaintiff. His Honour, after deliver-
ing a very searching judgment on the arguments and facts
of the case, came to the conclusion that the agreement of
July, 1847, was superseded by tho agreement in June,
1856, and therefore could not be specifically enforced. His
Honour dismissed the bill without costs against the Com-
missioners, and with costs against Messrs. Bridges and
Meesons.

COURT FOR DIVORCE AND MATRIMONIAL
SUITS.

(Before Sir C. Cresswell, Mr. Baron Channel], and Mr.
Justice Keating).
SIMONIN (FALSELY CALLED) V. MALAC.

This was a suit instituted by Mdlle. Valerie Josephine
Simonin for a decree of nullity of marriage contracted with
the respondent under somewhat rather singular circum-
stances. The case, which was not defended, commenced on
the 18th ult., and having occupied two days, stood over for
judgment.

The parties are natives of France, and in the year 1854
the petitioner was living with her mother at Paris, and
supported herself by her exertions as an actress. She be-
came acquainted with the respondent, M. L. Malac, and on
Jan. 20 of the year in question he induced her to accompany
him under a promise, that if she consented to a mar-
riage in England, he would afterwards marry her in France
according to the laws of that country. They were married
in London on the day after their arrival, a license having
been obtained by a fraudulent representation that they had
been 15 days residing in the metropolis. However, the
petitioner refused to discharge her marital duties until the
respondent fulfilled his promise in reference to the French
marriage, and he having exhibited some reluctance to
accede to her wishes, she left him and returned to the pro-
tection of her mother, and the practice of her pro-
fession. The reason assigned by the respondent for
refusing to have the marriage ceremony celebrated in
France was, that he was afraid of incurring the dis-
pleasure of his father by contracting a matrimonial alliance
with the petitioner. Subsequent to the separation he ad -
dressed a letter, couched in very affectionate terms, in which
he stated that he felt himself unable to surmount moral ob-
stacles that exited to their marriage in France; and in
consequence of that communication the lady had recourse
to a legal tribunal to ascertain her actual social status. The
result was that she obtained a divorce, the Court consider-
ing that the marriage was invalid according to the laws of
France, and the respondent was condemned in costs. After-
wards the conduct of the respondent became very violent
towards the petitioner, for he was in the habit of frequent-
ing the theatre in Paris where she was engaged, and throw-
ing immortels and other missiles at her while she was on
the stage. She determined to leave France, and, accom-
panied by her mother and sister, came to reside in this
country in 1858, and established herself in business as re-
storer and recoverer of ancient documents, a trade which
her father had followed up to the period of his death.
The following evidence was adduced at the trial :
Madame Simonin, the mother of the petitioner, said that
Mdllo. Simonin is now 28 years of age, and that at the time
of the marriage M. Malac told her ke was 29. Her daugh-
ter and Mahe asked her consent to the marriage before
they came to England, and she gave it. They asked it, and
she gave it verbally.

Mr. Noel, who formerly practised as a notary public, and
advising counsel at Paris, explained the French law, as con-
tained in the 170th, 63d, 151st, 152 d, and 154th articles of
the Codo Napoleon, on the subject of the marriage of French
subjects in foreign countries. If two French subjects wont
to a foreign country for the purpose of evading the French
law, and there contracted a marriage without due pabli-
cltion in France and without consent of parents, and
then returned to France, the French courts would annul
the marriage. But if the consent of the parents was
signified after the marriage it would be held good. When the
parents of parties under a certain age who wished to con-
tract a marriage withheld their consent, the proper course
was to draw up an acte respectueux et formel before a notary,
requesting their consent. The parents might then give
or withhold their consent, and a minute of their decision
would be drawn up by a notary. If the parents consented,
they must either go before the Maire when the marriago was
contracted, or their consent in writing, drawn up by a
notary, must be produced to the Maire. When certain pee
scribed forms had been observed, and a certain time had
elapsed after the acte respectueux had been presented, the
marriage might take place even without the consent of
parents. _ _

Dr. Phillimore submitted that he had now established
that the parties had a French domicile at the time of the
pretended marriage, and that the marriage was in fraud of
the French law. The want of capacity to contract the
marriage by the law of domicile was, he contended, fatal to
the validity of the contract. He admitted that Storey, in
his " Conflict of Laws," laid down that contracts of
marriage were governed by the lex loci contractus,
whatever might be the capacity or incapacity of the
parties by the law of domicile ; but that proposition
was not borne out by Fothier, Huber, Savigny,
Felix, and the other jurists whom he cited. If their lord-
ships should be of opinion that there was no precedent for
a case like the present, he hoped they would not lay down a
principle different from that which guided all other civilised
States, but would give effect to the prohibitory laws of a
foreign country when they found that two subjects of the
foreign country had come to England to enter into a mar-
riage contract for the mere purpose of evading those laws.
Dr. Swabey followed, and contended that, according to
jurisprudence and national policy, the Court was bound to
declare the marriage null. '

There was no defence, and the learned judges postponed
their decision in consequence of the novelty and importance
of the question Rub judice.
Sir C. Cresswell delivered judgment this morning,
and having gone through the authorities cited, decided
that according to international law this country was not
bound to surrender its own peculiar law to that of any other
State, in accordance with which dictum the Court consi-
dered the marriage was a valid contract.
The petition was accordingly dismissed.

POLICE INTELLIG ENUE.—( This Day.)

MARLBOROUGH-STREET.

A CLERGYMAN CHARGED IYITTI RORBERY.—Mr. Chas.
Nisbett, of 66, Bolsover-street, described as a clergyman,
was charged before Mr. Bingham with stealing, at 60, Hay-
market, a bottle of eau do cologne, under the following cir-
cumstances :

Alexander Sevin, waiter, at 60, Haymarket, an hotel; said
at half-past eight the previous night the prisoner calm to
the hotel and partook of tea, &c., at the time ho sat down
there being three bottles of eau de cologne on a shelf near
where he sat. Shortly after he (witness) observed that one
of the bottles was gone, and having informed his employer,
Mr. John W. Pacey, he asked the prisoner far payment of
the refreshment he had had. He said he had no money,
and shortly after pulled a bottle of eau de cologne from his
pocket—the ono missed. He did not wish to press the
charge, the principal reason for giving him into custody
being to see whether he had any other property on him, as
there were silver spoons about the table whore he had been
sitting.

A lady hero stepped forward and said the prisoner had
lately been destroying all his religious books, and she
thought he was not quite right in his mind. He lodged
with her, and she was fearful he would set the house on
fire.

Mr. Bingham said he would remand him for a few days
that proper inquiries might be made, and in the meantime
he would be taken care of.

In the prisoner's possession was found a communion ser-
vice when taken into custody.

PICKING POCKETS AT THE HOME MISSIONS' MEETING.
—Ellen Taylor, a young woman with a child in her arms,
was charged before Mr. Bingham with attempting to pick
pockets at the Home ➢Missions' meeting at Willis's Rooms,
King-street, St. James's, on the previous afternoon.
Sergeant Cole, 23 C, said that about half-past five the
previous afternoon he was on duty at Willis's Rooms, there
being a meeting of the Home Missions, the Archbishop
of Canterbury in the chair, and several bishops pr4sent, and
just as they were leaving the rooms he saw prisoner and an-
other woman,and knowing them as the companions of thieves,
he kept his eye on them. Shortly after the Bishop of Oxford
and a gentleman left the rooms, followed by three ladies
dressed in black, and he then observed the prisoner go
alongside of the youngest of the three and put her left hand
in her pocket and withdraw it again. She then left the
lady, turned back to the rooms, and then got in the door-
way, just inside, and saw her feel the outsides of the pockets
of every lady's dress on leaving the rooms. She then put
her hand into the pocket of another lady, and he then took
her into custody, she begging to be let go.
Prisoner said she only made one attempt, and admitted
she had been before convicted.

Cole said ho saw her at the same rooms on Saturday last,
when six purses were missed, which Mr. Rayne was there
to prove.

Committed for two months with hard labour.

It is related by Stowe that during the 38 years
of Henry the Eighth's reign no less than 72,000 criminals
were executed ; and we gather from Parliamentary returns
that in the ten years between 1820 and 1830 there were
executed in England alone 797 criminals; but as our laws
became less bloody, the number of executions proportion-
ately decreased. In the three years ending 1820 the exe-
cutions in England and Wales amounted to 312 ; in the
three years ending 1830 they were reduced to 179 ; and in
the three years ending 1840 they had decreased to 62,

LONDON AND SOUTII-WESTER.Y RAILWAY.

SPECIAL GENERAL MEETING THIS DAY.

A special general meeting of the shareholders in this
company was held this day at the Waterloo station, for the
purpose of approving and consenting to the several bills at
present before Parliament in which the company was inte-
rested—C. Castlemain, Esq., in the chair.
The Secretary having read the list of bills,
_ _

The CHAIRMAN said he regretted the absence of Cap-
tain Mangles ; but he did not anticipate that their
proceedings that day would be of long duration, as
the consideration of a number of bills comprised
in the advertised list would hive to be postponed,
in consequence of their not being sufficiently advanced to
be submitted to the meeting that day. The bills that
would be submitted to the proprietors would be the exten-
sion to Yeovil Station, the Salisbury Yeovil Junction, the
Chard Branch, and the Isle of Wight Railway.
Mr. Muctitim, the solicitor of the company, then read
the title of the first bill to be approved of as follows :
" A. bill for authorising the London and South .Western
Railway Company to make and maintain a railway in
extension of their Exeter Extension Railway, and to
connect that railway with the Bristol and Exeter Rail-
way, and for authorising alterations of the St. David's
Station on the Bristol and Exeter Railway, and the
laying down of rails on the narrow gauge on
divers railways, and the working by the London and Fouth
Western Railway Company over those narrow gauge lines
of railway from their Exeter Extension Railway to Bide-
ford, and for other purposes."
Mr. HEREPATH complained of the length of the bill, and
of the expense that the extension would entail upon the
company, yet he should not oppose it, as he considered it
would be highly advantageous to the company.
Several proprietiors objected to any further outlay o
money in extension.
A PROPRIETOR said ho thought the shareholders ought
to have confidence in the directors. He thought these
gentlemen would not recklessly expend any considerable
sum of money without they felt certain it would be for the
benefit of the company. (Hear, hear.)
The CHAIRMAN then put the approval of the bill to the
meeting, when it was assented to unanimously.
Mr. BIRCHAM read the head of the next bill for approval
as follows :

" A bill for the alteration at Yeovil of the Salisbury and
Yeovil Railway, leased to the London and South Western
Railway Company; and of the Yeovil and Durston Branch
of the Bristol and Exeter Railway, and for the making at
Yeovil of a joint station for the London and South Western
and Bristol and Exeter Railway Companies."
Mr. ILEREPATH asked how much Money was to be raised
under the act ?

Mr. BIRCIIAM said the whole of the authorised sum to be
raised under the act would be £20,000.

The bill was approved of unanimously.
Capt. GIFFARD—As No. 3 bill, the Kingston-bridge line,
was to be postponed, he should like to know what the di
rectors proposed to do.

The CHAIRMAN said the whole subject was fully consi-
dered at the last meeting. It was then determined to Barry
the bridge over the river to Kingston, and that would be the
object of the bill to bo submitted to Parliament.
Capt. GIFFARD—Then it is the intention of the directors
to adhere to that plan ?
The CHAIRMAN—Yes, certainly.

Mr. BIRCIIAM read the title of the next bill as follows :

" A bill to enable the Salisbury and Yeovil Railway Com-
pany to make a deviation from their authorised main line
near Yeovil, and a branch or junction railway in the parish
of Yeovil."
The bill was assented to unanimously.
The following was the head of the next bill submitted for
approval:—
-

" A bill to authorise the construction of a railway from
the authorised line of the London and South Western
Exeter Extension Railway to Chard."
Mr. HERAPATII asked whether there was any capital to
be subscribed.

Mr. BIRCILAM—No capital was to be raised under the
act. _

Mr. HERAPATH considered such a matter perfectly satis-
factory.

The last bill to be submitted to the meeting was as
follows :
" A bill for making railways for the purpose of connect-
ing Ryde with Ventnor and the East Coast of the Isle of
Wight."

Mr. HEREPATII asked whether this line was to be
worked by the South Western Company.

The CHAIRMAN said the South Western and the
Brighton would in conjunction work the line, which was
calculated to be much more convenient than if it was
worked by an independent company, because if such was
done it would cause great inconvenience. All the directors
of the South Western Company recommended was to work
the Isle of Wight Railway in conjunction with the Brighton
Company. If any further arrangements were contem-
plated the shareholders would be consulted before any flna
arrangements were concluded.

A PROPRIETOR said the bill contained a clause authoris-
ing the company to contribute on guarantee £20,000 toward
the construction of the railway, the Brighton Company
doing the same. He thought it was a very bad arrange-
ment, and he trusted the meeting would refuse to give their
sanction to the bill.

The CHAIRMAN said ho hoped the meeting would pause
before they adopted the views of the hon. proprietor who
had just spoken. The result of the rejection of this bill
would be that the line would then virtually pass into the
hands of the Brighton Railway Company, and the whole
traffic of the Isle of Wight would pass on to that lino. Ile
thought the arrangements made were advantageous to the
South-Western as well as to the Brighton, and he hoped
the meeting would approve of the bill.
The approval of the bill was then put to the meeting,
and carried.

The consideration of several other bills was postponed
until the 31st of May.

A vote of thanks to the chairman terminated the pro-
ceedings.

THIS DAY'S MARKETS.