The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-22 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL, 22, 1869.

ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, Regent's-park, OPEN daily (ex-
cept Sundays). Admission, Is.; on Mondays, 6d. Children
under twelve, 6d.

11: Lo Sum

the Courts of Chancery, Queen's Bench, Common
Pleas, and Exchequer will give their names to these
chambers, whilst the Courts of Admiralty, Probate,
and Divorce will form one division. But though
the old names will be retained, the special func-
tions of these tribunals will disappear. Every
division of the Supreme Court will form a complete
tribunal of justice. Any suit may be commenced
in one of these divisions and completed there, whe-
ther the trial be based on law or equity. In short,
all the powers of the Supreme Court will be united
in each of its divisions, all of which will be on the
same footing. The present judges, too, both of the
law and equity courts, will be competent to sit in
any chamber.
By the trenchant scheme of which this is the main
feature the Commissioners propose the greatest
change ever made in English judicature. But Lord
CAIRNS, Lord HATHERLEY, Sir ROLTNDELL PALMER,
and the ablest of their colleagues, were not likely to
take the initiative in such a revolution unless there
was much to be gained by it. All readers of news-
papers, even those who have never had the mis-
fortune to appear in a superior court, must
know how great are the inconveniences arising from
a divided jurisdiction. It not unfrequently happens
that a plaintiff with a good case loses his suit be-
cause, by a mistake of his lawyers on some point of
I jurisdiction, it has been begun in the wrong court,
and the whole proceeding must be commenced afresh.
Under the new system, the chambers of the Supreme
Court will have jurisdiction in all branches of law,
and no annoyance of this kind will be possible. If
one legal procedure will not suffice to deter-
mine a case, another may be applied by the
same tribunal. Again, at present the Court
of Admiralty may decide a claim for damage to
cargo, but a Common Law Court is required to hear
a counter claim of the shipowner for freight. The
Supreme Court would set these two claims one
against the other, and decide upon both at
once. Still more injurious anomalies have
recently arisen out of joint-stock company legisla-
tion. The report of the Commission notices the
extraordinary complication which arose out of the
legal proceedings between the sellers and jobbers of
railway shares. One plaintiff commenced a suit at
common law, and another opened litigation
in equity against the same defendants. Both courts
gave a similar judgment. The defendants appealed
from one decision to the Exchequer Chamber, and
from another to the Chancery Court of Appeal.
Each of these courts, without means of communica-
tion, reversed the decision which was sub-
mitted to it. Thus there were two suits and two
appeals with precisely similar results. Under the
consolidated system of judicature half this expense
and trouble might have been saved. In fact, the
powers and procedures of our courts have by the
process of natural development merged in complete
chaos. The ever-increasing legal transactions
of modern life demand that this confusion
should be reduced to order.

This fundamental change by no means exhausts
the reforms suggested by the commission. Not only
is the jurisdiction of the tribunals divided and
confused, but almost every step in the hearing of
a cause at equity differs from corresponding
procedures at common law. Forms of trial, the mode
of pleading, and of taking evidence are all dis-
similar. The complexity is merely the result of
custom, and the Commissioners see no diffi-
culty in making great changes. The forms of
procedure are to be much simplified, and to be made
s uniform as the variety of cases will admit.
The multifarious ceremonials now necessary at the
commencement of suits will be materially cut down.
In the systems of pleading the Commission has
found much to reform. Equity pleadings are
needlessly prolix ; those at common law mix
up law and fact, often raising useless issues
and obscuring details of moment. The com-
parative brevity of common law pleadings will
be combined with the pure statement of facts
customary in equity. As to the mode of trial, the
Supreme Court will have great discretion : a ques-
tion may be tried in any chamber by judge, jury, or
referee. The courts are to have power to sit at all
times, and no distinction is to be made
between business in term and out of term.

The division of the country for legal busi.

ness is no longer to be by county, bu

• V I
several counties are to be united in convenient

districts. Lastly, instead of the Exchequer Chamber
and the Court of Appeal in Chancery, one Court of
Appeal, ruled by the LORD CHANCELLOR, will
form part of the Supreme Court, the house
of Lords being in no wise interfered with. Changes
so important and so complicated must, of course, be
made with every care that the transition be not too

violent. But the advantages of the new judicature,
when once in working order, are self evident.

Instead of the semi-barbarous complications which
now hamper the business of the country, the suitor
will have a comparatively simple, cheap, and, above
all, direct remedy at law.

LAIEST INTELL MENU

(RE LITER'S TELEGRAMS.)

AUSTRIA.

VIENNA, April 22.
The official Vienna Gazette of this morning pub-
lishes the law, which has received the sanction of
the Emperor, for the organisation of a Supreme
Court of Justice for the Empire.

The Presse publishes a telegram asserting that the
English Government has recently offered its media-
tion in the Franco-Belgian question.

BEN.EVOLENT SOCIETIES AND
CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS.

The time is now last approaching when country clergy-
men and provincial Dissenting ministers invade the
metropolis to attend the well-known " May meetings." In
the principal streets of London the white necktie, usually
scarce enough, seems suddenly to be worn by half the pedes-
trians. Before these meetings set off in good earnest
there are the numerous local benevolent institutions and
less-known societies to hold their meetings. Some ten of
these held their annual reunion on Wednesday. A list of
them may be mentioned :
THE GOVERNESSES BENEVOLENT INSTITUTION.—Lord
Denman presided at a dinner—the anniversary festival—
of this institution, and announced that the subscriptions
to it amounted to £1,253. This institution embraces in
its objects temporary assistance to governesses in distress,
given privately through the ladies' committee ; an annuity
fund which provides annuities to aged governesses; a pro-
vident fund, including a savings bank; a home for gover-
nesses during the interval between their engagements ; a
system of registration free of expense ; and an asylum for
the aged. Some 2,000 governesses have availed themselves
of this means of relief.

ROYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATURE.-Of this society the
Bishop of St. David's is president, though he did not pre-
side at the annual meeting. His report spewed the
society to be in a flourishing condition.
REFORMATORY CHILDREN.-One of the most interest-
ing of the many meetings was that held under the presi-
dency of the Earl of Shaftesbury, in Exeter Hall. The
occasion was the annual gathering of reformatory children,
under the auspices of the Reformatory and Refuge Union,
and the attendance of the friends and supporters of themove-
ment was so great that to accommodate allwho came would
probably have required more than twice the space
afforded by the building. The noble earl presided; and
amongst the gentlemen present were Sir Stafford North-
cote, M.P., Mr. Baron Pigott, Mr. Hodgson Barrow,
M.P., Mr. Charles Buxton, M.P., Judge Payne, Dr.
Mackenzie (Provost of Inverness), and many of the
clergy. Both before and after the speaking portion of
the proceedings a choir of 700 children from the various
refuges and homes of London delighted the audience by
singing a number of pieces under the direction of Mr.
J. Proudman, and accompanied by the organ. The Earl
of ,Shaftesbury, referring to the children, said it would
not be easy to forget the sight they presented, and he
asked his hearers whether their minds could be more
pleased, their hearts more gratified, or their natural
aspirations more satisfied, than by what they had
seen and heard. Let them then go to-morrow to the slums
of Bethnal Green, Sh( reditch, Westminster, and the
Mint, and they would discover from what degradation
these happy children had been rescued, and the vast field
there remained for the labours of those who were engaged
in this good work. Be shuddered to think what England
might have been now had it not been commenced some
five-and-twenty or thirty years ago.—ln the course of the
evening Mr. Ford, the secretary of the union, read a
statement, exhibiting its progress, and referring to the
good likely to result from the conference now being held
in London. During the past year the union had made
grants to the extent of over £2,000, and, in addition to the
training-ships at Newcastle, Southampton, Glasgow, and
Liverpool, which had been opened this year, three others
would shortly be placed at Bristol, Dundee, and Edin-
burgh. Reformatories had also been established in
Jamaica, and, under the influence of Miss Carpenter and
Lord Lawrence, at no distant date they would be extended
to India.

The Marine Society, the City of London Truss Society,
the Solicitcrs' Benevolent Society, the Royal Hospital for
Diseases of the Chest, the Tailors' Benevolent Institution,
&c., held meetings.

At Willis's Rooms a drawing for an album for the
benefit of the Dramatic College at Maybury took place.

The lncMpendance Beige reports that the Emperor
of the French has been bitten in the calf of the leg by a
small dog. The wound does not signify, but his Majesty is
reported to have remarked in a jocular way, "it is a Lad
sign."

A man respectably dressed, and believed to be a
_ _

foreign sailor, was found dead, with his skull terribly
fractured, on the railway between Cork and Mallow,
yesterday morning. The circumstances give rise to a
suspicion that ho has been robbed and murdered while tra-
velling over the line.

The Duke of Abercorn, who is now on the Conti-
tinent, has written stating that should the health of his
daughter, Lady Mount-Edgecumbe, permit of his coming to
England, he will consider it his duty to protest publicly
against the Irish Church scheme, which, while it will not
have the smallest effect in allaying discontent, will inflict
irreprmale injury ui on Ireland.

The strike in the South Yorkshire coal trade still
continues, and the ill-feeling between the unionists and
non-unionists seems to be increasing. At the Denaby Main
Colliery they Lave again been in colislon. As two of the
latter were proceeding to their Lcmcs on Mcnday evening
they were attacked by a body of the men locked outrand
very brutally ill-treated. Three men are in custody en the
charge of being implicated iu the assault.

Two boys, the eldest not over 12 years of age,
were charged at the Liverpool Toltec-court on Tuesday with
having set fro to a stable in Northumberland-street,
Liverpcol. The your ger prisoner, it appeared, suggested
to his companion the idea of setting fire to the stable,
and informing the cwner, with the view of getting a reward.
They accordingly threw a lighted match among the straw,
and then went to the owner and told him his stable was on
fire. The latter, to their astonishment, gave the lads ibto
custody. They were remanded.

In the Court of Divorce on 'Thursday 11Iis. Godrich
applied fcr permission to file another petition against her
husband for judicial sepal aticn. She stated that she was
prosecuting for perjury the women rpon whose evi-
dence she had b. en found guilty of adultery ha the suit
instituted against her by her husband, and that she obtained
true bills against two of them, end was indicting a
third. She had no means, her husband having made
her no allowance for fcur months, and one of her objects
in filing the petition was to obtain alimony. Lord Penzance
informed her that he bad no discretion in the matter. It
was quite open to Ler to file a fresh petition, Lut he could
give her no advice. Mrs. Godrich thanked his lordship and
retired.

Domestic scandals in high life seem to multiply
now-a-days. The London correspondent of Saunders's News
Letter announces a fresh one. Ho thus describes the parties
to it :—"A gentleman well known in the upper circles has
eloped with the wife of a friend, a lady who has for the
last few years taken a prominent part in tho beau
monde. The former is a near relative of a naval Barcnet,
not long deceased; the latter comes of a spotting race,
and abandons not only an estimable husband and an enviable
position in the world, but leaves also a youthful family to,
one day, blush for her disgrace. I fear it to ho but too true
that proceedings are taken for bringing before the Divorce
Court the sad case of matrimonial infidelity which society
has been of late so generally discussing. It is asserted that
the eldest son of ono of your earls has been selected as co-
respondent." _

A tabulated account of the gross public income
and expenditure for the year ending March 31st, 1869, has
been published as a Parliamentary paper. With the fact that
the total ordinary expenditure was £2,905,824 in excess
of the total income, the public is already sufficiently fami-
liar, but on account of the balances of the public
money, given on the same sheet, is more novel. At the
commencement of the last financial year the Exchequer
balance was £1,781,845. The money raised by additions to the
funded and unfunded debt, by annuities and Exchequerbonds,
as well as by Bank advances and repayments on account
of advances for public works, &c., brings the sum
up to £10,696,081. This has been so far disposed of by the
paying off of Exchequer tends, by repayment of Bank ad-
vances, by advances for public works, and by meeting the
deficiency of income, that the remaining balance in the
Banks of England and Ireland on the 31st of March, 1869,
was £4,707,258.
THE WEDGWOOD MEMORIAL INSTITUTE AT
BURSLEM.—The Wedgwood Memorial Institute at Burs-
lem, the foundation stone of which was laid by the Pre-
mier several years since, was formally opened on Wednes-
day by Earl de Grey and Ripon, Lord President of the
Council. The Free Libraries and Museums Act had been
adopted by the inhabitants in connection with this institution
which will also include a school of art and other educational
agencies. The building itself is constructed entirely of
ceramic materials, and the design of the architect, Mr.
R. Edgar, of London, has been to illustrate in the facade
the mode in which terracotta and other enrichments may
be introduced, not for the mere purpose of ornamentation
and veneering, but as pArts of the actual structure of an
edifice. In this particular the building is one of excep-
tional interest and value. The institution is inaugurated
by an art exhibition, which will probably remain open
for several months. The Department
1)o1.cell
Scienceer°l;epereetn;
Art have made a very rich and liberal contributionf and
the South Kensington Museum. There is a fine c lrorn
tion of oil and water-colour paintings by
inil,laGisa,stßinoesaau, Bonheur,Leiahton, IC'uoprilieeyr,
Brltn,n‘lN:lTieitwo:
illustrated f
s
De Bruycker, and many other artists of era ineUce ; and
the history of British pottery
stanlded IBvoroitcd °
own
theo
n
the Celtic or Ancient British,
the lrzaotimedn y
periods.Medi 'There
ei
sa Seventeenthsuperb collection Century,
of Vho lIrae1:1, e
t thealr'lowduenGairle,ywiNie.ares
honouredpr oduetie nwsi
tohf a everypubli
cdreesccerpi description, o E
an address was presented to his lordship on behalf of the
inhabitants. At a luncheon held subsequently, under the
presidency of Lord de Grey, addresses suitable to the
occasion were delivered by his lordship, the Bight Hon.
and other gen
c, 14, Aslde4ey, M,P.,
tle
. men,