The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-28 00:00:00

THE QUESTION OF PRIVILEGE FROM

ARREST.

In the Court of Exchequer on Wednesday, the Lord Chief
Baron, with Barons Channel', Pigott, and Cleasby, sitting
iu banco, judgment was given in the case of Gilpin v.
Cohen and Benjamin, which raised an important question
on the subject of privilege from arrest. The defendant,
Samuel Benjamin, was the first person charged
under Mr. Russell Gurney's Act with felony, in
misappropriating partnership funds. The magistrate at
Worship-street, Mr. Ellison, remanded him for a few days
on bail, and on his way from the court he was arrested
under a ca. sa. upon a judgment obtained in this court in
an action for debt. On Tuesday Mr. Besley moved,
upon the affidavits of Benjamin and of his
attorney, Mr. T. W. Payne, who appeared
for him at the police - court, for a rule to dis-
charge him from custody on the ground that he was
privileged from arrest. Cause was shewn in the first in-
stance by Mr. Baylis, and at the conclusion of the argu-
ments the court postponed judgment..,
The Lord Chief Baron, who yesterday delivered the
judgment of the court, said the privilege extended to
prosecutors, witnesses, and jurors, both in civil and
criminal cases, when going to the court, while they
remained in court, and on theiireturn home. Why, then,
should an exception be introduced in the case of an
accused person remanded on bail, and who was under the
same obligation to appear on the day of remand? He saw
no reason for such an exception and such an anomaly in the
law. He was of opinion that Benjamin was privileged from
arrest under a civil process, and without interfering with
the decision of any court in England or Ireland the rule
would be made absolute for his discharge from the custody
of the Sheriff of Middlesex.—The other judges being of
the same opinion, the rule was made absolute, without
costs on either side, except so far as the judge at chambers
had decided, it being understood that no action should be
brought against the sheriff for illegal arrest.

PROCEEDINGS AGAINST THE DIRECTORS
OF OVEREND, GURNEY, AND CO.

The hearing of the charge of conspiracy against the
directors of Overend, Gurney, and Co. was brought to a
close on Wednesday afternoon.
So strong a desire possessed the public mind to bo
present at the delivery of his lordship's decision, that the
large open square in front of the Guildhall contained a
veritable crowd an hour prior to the commencement of
the proceedings. When, at half-past twelve, the doors
leading to the Court of Queen's Bench were thrown open,
every available seat was eagerly seized upon in a moment's
space of time, some of the more advantageous positions
being carried by sheer force of arms. But for the
stringent regulations which the police were ordered to
carry out in regulating the admission orders, orders which
were obeyed to the letter, the court would have been over-
crowded by some hundreds. As it was, he would have
been a clever man who could have found space even for
standing in the gallery devoted to the public. Probably
no examination before the civic authorities has ever excited
more interest, and none has at all its stages been watched
with greater jealousy. The defendants, Mr. J. H. Gurney,
Mr. E. H. Gurney, Mr. R. Birkbeck, Mr. Gordon, Mr.
Rennie, and Mr. Barclay, entered the court a few minutes
before one, the hour at which the Lord Mayor sat, and
occupied the seat immediately in front of their counsel,
who, in accordance with ordinary practice at police courts,
were not attired in wigs and gowns. The appearance
of the accused was that of men who were fully alive to
the peril of the position in which they were placed. They
were accompanied into court by their bail and many of
their other personal friends. It was some ten minutes
after one when the Lord Mayor, clad in his robes
and chqin of office, took his seat upon the bench,
attended by Alderman Thomas Gabriel (also in
his robes), Alderman Sir Walter Carden, Alder-
man Sir Benjamin Phillips, Alderman Sir Francis
Moon, Alderman Besley, and Alderman and Sheriff
Cotton. The proceedings at the outset were of a
very uninteresting character, for they consisted
solely of the reading of the depositions of certain
witnesses examined at the last sitting. These were--
Mr. Thomas Clarke, who deposed to having taken 40
shares in the new limited company, and had paid £1,400
on them ; Mr. Francis Levien, the secretary of the com-
mittee of the Stick Exchange, who spoke to receiving
documents of the limited company in conformity with the
requirements of the Stock Exchange; Mr. Robert
Slater, jun., who is a member of the Stock Ex-
change, and who became connected with the limited com-
pany as a sort of pro tern, secretary to launch the concern ;
Mr. Henry Bois, the secretary to Overend, Gurney, and
Co. ; Mr. 'Thomas Howard, a Manchester cotton-mill
owner, who spoke of having been brought into difficulties
through his connection with Mr. Lever, of the Atlantic
Royal Mail Company, and the Gurneys; and Mr. John
Edward C. Koch, a metal merchant, in London, who
said the Gurneys did not put in any claim against him
when bankrupt in 1863 ; he was agent of two railways
which had advances from Overend, Gurney, and Co., but
was not indebted to them in £243,000. Mr. Henry Wm-
Lewis's depositiOns referred to the documents in bank.
ruptcy of the Atlantic Royal Mail Company, and other
firms largely indebted to Overend, Gurney, and Co.
(Limited) ; as did those of Mr. Smith to several other
concerns that came under liquidation. Mr. Thomas
Howell's depositions (which in the hearing occupied
three days) were read over from the commence-
ment of the cross-examination. He was the accountant
appointed by the shareholders to go into the
books, in addition to the two firms appointed by the Court
of Chancery. Ernest Robinson (of the Bankruptcy Court,
Basinghall-street) produced the proceedings in the bank-
ruptcy of several firms indebted to the limited company,
which had been handed ova by the old firm. Mr.
Botcherley's (of Carlisle) depositions referred to the
purchase of 120 shares, and the inducements
which lead to that step. Mr. Thomas Harding
(the representative of the accountants' firm of Harding,
Whinney, Gibbon, and Co.) had his depositions
read. They referred to the many transactions in which he
had been personally concerned in the liquidation: Mr.
Turquand (of the accountants' firm of Turquand, Youngs,
and Co.) gave depositions of a similar character relating to
the liquidation. Mr. Beard, Mr. Peek, and Dr.
Adam Thom also bad their depositions read over.
For two hours the monotonous process of reading and
signing the depositions went on. To those at the back
part of the court the voice of Mr. Oke, the Lord Mayor's
clerk, must have been utterly inaudible, not that tbe docu-
ments read, bristling as they did with figures
culled from books to which only a passing
allusion was made, would have been " understanded
of the common people," but they nevertheless refused to
budge an inch from the seats for which they had endured so
severe a struggle until the fate of the accused was actually
declared. Some little excitement there was when the
name of Dr. Thom was called, and that gentleman, the
acting prosecutor in the case, appeared in the witness-box:
a suppressed murmur of approval proceeding from the
large body of those shareholders in court who had suffered
from the collapse of the concern. The first direct out-
spoken expression of public feeling, however, was reserved
for Mr. Watkin Edwards, the official assignee in bank-
ruptcy, who was at the same time an agent for
Overend, Gurney, and Co., who was received with
a storm of hisses which it required all the Lord Mayor's
authority to allay. Mr. Edwards evidently felt the un-
pleasantness of his position, and presented a most melan-
choly appearance in the witness-box.

The Lord Mayor, after commenting on the evidence of
the various witnesses, committed all the defendants for
trial. Bail was accepted in each case.

KING GEORGE OF HANOVER.—TIIO property of
King George of Hanover, at present placed under the
administration of the Prussian authorities, amounts in
value, according to a statement in the Berlin papers, to
£2,074,800, which, placed in the Prussian funds, would
bring in an annual revenue of about £88,200. The
expense of management, which is under the direction of
the Superior President of the Council of Hanover, reaches
£27,000.

DISCOVERY OF A MISSING WOMAN. —On the 26th
December last a servant girl at Islington had a holiday,
and never returned. The police issued descriptive placards
of the missing woman, but nothing was heard of her. Her
dead body has now been found in the New River at High-
bury. She was discovered in the mud of the river fully
dressed, with her earrings in her ears, sheaving that she
bad not been robbed. A post-mortem examination has been
ordered to ascertain the actual cause of death.

A RACE WITH VELOCIPEDES.-011 Wednesday
morning a race was determined on the Dulwich road, in
which four gentlemen engaged with velocipedes over two
miles of ground for a sweepstakes of £2O. The first mile
was got over in five minutes, Mr. Merry commanding a
slight lead ; the next mile was sharply contented,
and terminated, after a spirited race, by Mr. Waloski
winning by foot lengths, and accomplishing the two
miles in nine-and.a-half minutes. Mr. Platt was second.
The " velocipedians" outpaced the horsemen who rode
after them.

ACCIDENT TO LORD MAIDSTONE.—Wo regret to
announce. that Lord Maidstone, eldest son of the Earl of
Winchelsea, who is residing in Folkestone with the
countess and family, met with a serious accident on Tues-
day. His lordship was out riding at Broadmead, about
two miles distant, and in leaping a fence fell from his
horse and sustained a severe fracture of the leg. One of
the borough police, who fortunately was near, and saw tho
accident, got assistance, and his lordship was conveyed
home, and the leg set by Mr. Bowles and On f4l)4jlY
Mani . _