The Sun.
London, England, 1869-05-22 00:00:00

LAW AND POLICE.

THE NAME OP MURDER AT BrnaTlNa HAlL—Samuel
Rogers, the old man who is charged upon his own alleged
confession with the murder of George Tollett, by pois,,n,
at Birmingham, in July last, was brought up on r:dtaand
at the police-court in that town, on Fridavd, but the
police had not completed their inquiries, and a further
remand till Friday next was, theretor(asked for and
granted. The magistrates :agreed to accept two sureties
in £25 each for the prisone;'s appearance, if he could find
persons willing to enter ilito recognisances for him. The
impression in the town; is that the case will break down.
There is only one witness—the old soldier, named
Gallagher—to swear that the prisoner confessed. The
other witnesses can only prove that the prisoner was silent
when Gallagher alleged in his presence that he had con-
fessed.

ASSAULT UPON A WM.-Mr. Thomas Lechmere, of
Fownhope Court, who had been in custody on Monday on
a charge of having violently assaulted his wife, has been
brought up on remand, and ordered to be imprisoned for
one day, and to enter into a bond of £lOO to keep the
peace for twelve months.

THE CHARGE AGAINST THE DIRECTORS
OF THE JOINT-STOCK BANK.

-.6.

At the Mansion House, yesterday, Mr. Charles E. tward
Mangles, Mr. Thomas Bradshaw, and Mr. James Abbiss,
three of the directors of the English Joint-Stock Bank,
and Mr. Samuel Greenway Finney, the manager, again
appeared before the Lord Mayor to undergo another exa-
mination upon the charge of publishing false statements
in the balance-sheet of the bank, and also with conspiring
together to defraud the shareholders and the public.
Mr. G. Lewis conducted the prosecution. The defen-
dants were represented by Mr. Metcalfe, Mr. Poland,
Mr. Ormerod, Mr. Montagu Williams, and Mr. Straight,
barristers.
Mr. Oswald Howell, the accountant, was further
examined on behalf of the prosecution. He prodaced the
register of the transfer of shares of the company, and said
that on the 30th of November, 1865, twenty shares in the
company were transferred from Charles Worters, to
Robert John Short, the consideration money being £260.
In November 1865 the number of shares in the company
held by Mr. Laurie was 500, and he commenced disposing
of these shares on the 19th of December, and between that
day and the 16th of January, 1866, he sold 425 shares.
On the 26th of October, 1864, Mr. George Young, another
director, held 150 shares, and in November 1865
he held 105 shares, and the whole of these shares
were sold by him between the 30th of November, 1865,
and the sth of January, 1866. Mr. Andrew Laurie and
Mr. Young were directors of the City Bank as well as the
English Joint-Stock Bank, but they retired from the latter
at the time they disposed of theft shares. Mr. Bradshaw
held fifty shares in the bank, and he retained them down
to the period of the stoppage. Mr. Abbiss held 260 shares
in the bank in November 1865, and on the 30th of that
month he sold a hundred of these shares for a considera-
tion of five shillings to a person named James Denning, and
I Denning sold ten of those shares in the same day for
£163155. On the Ist of December Denning sold some
more of those shares, and the whole of the remainder
were disposed of by Denning in March 1866. The
greater portion of these shares were sold at a premium.
The defendant, Captain Mangles, held 90 shares originally,
but he sold 10 of those shares in May 1864, and the whole
of the remainder were held by him down to the stoppage
of the bank. Mr. Abbiss also kept the remaining 160
shares that were standing in his name down to the time
when the bank stopped. Mr. Finney, the manager,
originally held 105 shares, but he sold 75 of the shares on
the 16th of December, 1865, to Mr. Maxwell, for the
nominal consideration of five shillings.
Mr. Lewis said that Mr. Maxwell was a clerk in the
bank, but he was not so described on the register of
transfer, and there were no means of identifying him.
Mr. Howell proceeded to state that it appeared by the
register that the whole of the shares, &c., purchased by
Mr. Maxwell were sold by him shortly afterwards at a
premium. On the 6th of March, 1866, the defendant
Mr. Finney sold his remaining 35 shares to a person
named Thomas Coles, for the nominal consideration of
five shillings, and they were sold by Coles on the 13th of
March following. Mr. Howell then stated that .there
was an account in the books headed "Jones and others,"
but, so far as he could discover, the bank had no ens-
tomers of that name. In December 1853 a sum of '
£525 appeared to have been advanced to Mr. Abbiss,
and this sum was expended in shares. At this time Mr.
Abbiss had no private account at the bank, but an account
was opened in January 1866, by paying in the sum of
2718 in two sums. Mr. Abbiss, however, did not appear
to have been debited with the sum of £523 that had been
advanced to him. No mention also appeared to be made
of the amount as a loan. It did not appear by the ledger
what number of shares were purchased with the £523,
but Mr. Abbiss appeared to have sold a number of shares
to the same Mr. Maxwell on the 4th of May, 1860,
for the nominal consideration of five shillings, and 1
the bank stopped on the following day. When this
took place Mr. Abbiss still held 100 shares in
the bank. Mr. Howell then said that the whole of the
cheques of the bank, including the one for £523, had dis-
appeared, and he was unable to obtain po3sersion of any of
them. Mr. Howell went on to say that a sum of £B9O
appeared to have been advanced to Captain Mangles
under similar circumstances, but neither of the
items appeared in the balance-sheets. The only
mention of these sums in the books was under the head -
of "Jones and others," to which he had referred, and
in the " share suspense account." Mr. Howell, in conclu-
sion, said that a sum of £25,000 appeared to have been
advanced to Captain Mangles.
Captain Mangles here observed that good security was
given by him for this money, and the whole amount had
been repaid with 11-per cent. interest.
In answer to a question, put by Mr. Metcalfe in cross.
examination, Mr. Howell said that it was the custom to
treat preliminary expenses as assets. He observed that in
the transaction relating to the loan of £lO,OOO for the
purchase of shares, Mr. Bradshaw's name did not appear
in any way whatever.
Some further evidence was then gone into, but the case
for the prosecution was not concluded.

The Marquis of Clauricarde will proceed with his
Irish Land Bill after Whitsuntide.

SINGULAR ACCIDENT AT ASTLEY'S THEATRE.
A singular accident occurred at Astley's Theatre during
the performance of the "Battle of Waterloo " the other
night. In one of the scenes, Napoleon, accompanied by
his staff, rides on to the stage,. On this occasion an aide-
de-camp's horse suddenly became restive and unmanage-
able. It pranced about the stage, then backed on to the
footlights, which it smashed, and finally fell backwards
into the orchestra, throwing its rider, and creating con-
siderable alarm among the occupants of the stalls. The
musicians tried to eecape from the dangerous proximity of
their unwelcome and unexpectant visitant ; but one had
his collar-bone broken, and had to be conveyed to the
hospital. The damage done to the instruments was con-
siderable. Violins, violoncellos, flutes, and flageolets were
broken to atoms, and the music was torn and scattered in
every direction. The horse was with some difficulty extri-
cated, after a delay of about twenty minutes.
THE NORTH NORFOLK ELECTION PETITION .
On Friday the trial of the petition against the sitting
members of North Norfolk was continued at Norwich
before Mr. Justice Blackburn. Further evidence was
given as to bribery and treating, with which the case for
the prosecution closed. After that Mr. Rodwell, Q.C., pro-
ceeded to address the court on behalf of the sitting mem-
bers. The learned counsel observed that, with the excep-
tion of scheduled persons at Yarmouth, no distinction
appeared to exist between the acts of Sir E. Lacon and
Mr. Walpole. He (Mr. Rodwell) must say that Mr.
Serjeant Ballantine had indulged in an amount of exag-
geration which could only be justified by the ignorance of
those who instructed him. Certain persons had volun-
tarily acted for the sitting members in their own little
localities, and had extended hospitality to various persons
without any communication with the professional agents
appointed in each polling district, and who were in com-
munication with Mr. Diver, the central agent. The
learned counsel proceeded to refer to the various cases of
intimidation complained of.

THE HEBREW BlBLE.—During the gatherings of
the past week a small party of friends had an opportunity
of hearing from Dr. Ginsberg the result of those investi-
gations among the great continental libraries which he
has now for some time been prosecuting in the hope of
furthering a rescensionof the text of the Hebrew Bible. In
these inquiries many Congregationalists have taken consider-
able interest. Dr. Ginsberg has found, and with immense
labour copied, several valuable Alasoretic MSS., especially
at Halle, where he lit upon an " Ochla vi Ocilla," a
Massora, commencing with those words, which he has
good reason to believe once belonged to Elias Levita, a
famous Talinn:list oF the ninth century, and which was
avowedly incorporated with the more recent Masmas
to which reference is generally made. It may suffice to
explain for the unlearned reader that a Masora is a sort
of complicated concordance of the Hebrew Scriptures,
with critical notes upon almost every word and letter, •
fixing their pronunciation, force, and meaning. Dr.
Ginsberg intends to publish a complete Masora, perfected
by the collation of every Accessible MS., with a list of
references to chapter and verse in English, so as to make
this hitherto most obscure and difficult work available to
all Hebrew scholars. He has already with great labour
copied several of the principal MSS., and is about to re-
sume his researches in Spain, Palestine, audpesiy
,StagigraburiliAZDAPElLMJ .