The Sun.
London, England, 1869-09-18 00:00:00

rilli SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 18, 1869.

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state of partial intoxication. He was not to be
compared with the ruffians alluded to above, but
there is no doubt that he was under the influence of
think at the time he committed the fatal act. He
had fallen into a state of morbid depression, awl his
former mates, from mistaken kindness, had been in

the habit of giving him drink to keep up his spirits
and by way of good fellowship. JUDGE and his family
were by no means in the deep distress which
so often befalls the poor. Although his Luture
prospects were not bright, there was no immediate
peril. The house was comfortably furnished and the
family were provided with food. The habit of drink-
ing was obviously the indirect cause of the commis-
sion of the crime, and had JUDGE been a sober man ho
might have passed through the hour of trial as
hundreds have done before him. In the cases of
JOYCE and NAYLOR, nothing seemed to occasion
distress but the drunken habits of the husbands.
Such cases as these convey to the mind a far more
unenviable and hopeless impression than that which
arises from a recital of the calamities occasioned by
unavoidable disaster. They are also far more nume-
rous. The loss of life by drunkenness is about as
large every week as the whole list of losses by ship-
wreck for a year. The evil cannot with safety be
neglected, nor is the case so hopeless as at first sight
appears. These wife-beatings and murders always
prevail in exact proportion to the facilities
which are afforded for obtaining drink ; given the
number of the public-house, and you have the num-
ber of ruined homes. Human nature is not so bad
as it seems in the police-court. There we usually
have human nature and alcohol. The tragedies
which we deplore are the result of the compound.
To allow both elements to be constantly in contact
with one another is about as wise as it was to place
the petroleum and lucifer matches together on the
deck of the passenger steamer. So long as contact
is allowed, there will be the usual proportion of
" accidents." 'We cannot dispense with human
nature, which may be regarded as the petroleum, but
we are not obliged to place public-houses, correspond-
ing to the lucifer-matches, alongside of it ; and if
broken ribs and broken hearts have any claim upon
our sympathy, we may show it by taking the stum-
bling-block out of the way, even if its removal
involves a serious effort and some personal inconve-
nience to ourselves.

WIIETHEIL regarded from a medical or a maternal
point of view, the subject of vaccination is one of
grave importance. Its thorough ventilation, there-
fore, in the columns of the public press should be a
source >of satisfaction rather than regret. The
opinions expressed upon the value of the practice,
and the statements of results that have
arisen from following it, are as diverse as
they generally are in controversies of this kind. A
remarkable instance of the way in which effects are
ascribed to causes with which in truth they have not
the most remote connection, is given by a surgeon
who entered upon practice at Exmouth twenty years
ago. He then vaccinated the first child he
had ushered into the world, and found, to
his great annoyance, that very soon after
the infant was covered with eruptions constantly
discharging. The conclusion at which the parents
arrived was natural enough. They thought, and did
not hesitate to say, that the matter used was impure.
When, however, in due course a second child was
born, the doctor persuaded the parents not to have it
vaccinated. In the meantime he had learnt much
of their medical history and was not sur-
prised to find that this second child was
soon after birth attacked more seriously than
the first who had been vaccinated. Now, here
was a case where, being the subjects of hereditary
skin disease, the parents attributed to vaccination the
ills their children inherited from themselves. If credit
is to be attached to the judgment of numerous medi-
cal practitioners, this is no unusual circumstance. But
there is another cause why results of a disastrous
kind follow vaccination, and are unjustly assigned to it,
for there are very few who are able, or who even make
the effort, to discriminate between a disorder which
simply succeeds the operation and one which may be
traced to it as the exciting cause. As is justly
pointed out by our medical contemporary, the Lancet,
it is sufficient for vaccination to have been performed
for parents to credit it with everything that follows.
The letter of Dr. SEATON, senior medical inspector of
the Privy Council, dealing with the case of the
child, ALICE Hunsox, to which attention has already
been called in our columns, plainly prove this. It
was not the introduction of vaccine virus into the
body that caused the loss of health in the
child, and the terrible skin disease from which it
suffered, but these things were the result of its
weak and delicate condition of the child when
taken to undergo the operation. But behind all
this—and it will be a strong point with the anti-
vaccinators—remains the question why vaccination
should have been performed while such a condition
of health existed. The child was taken to the medical
officer, the public vaccinator. It was for him, it will
be urged, to tell the parents what they, from their
want of medical knowledge, may be supposed not to
have known, and to have abstained from performing the
operation at a time so inopportune. But here again it is
the mother who is in fault. Instead of taking her child
during the proper hours to the house of the
public vaccinator, she went at a time when
she could only receive the attention of an assistant.
The law, which compels vaccination, is hardly to
be made responsible for that which has turned out to
a circumstance so untoward, which might with fore-
thought and care have been entirely avoided. The
daily instances of evasion of the law which are occur-
ring all over the country, as proved by the prosecutions
that are instituted and the convicitions that follow
them, shew how strongly rooted in the minds of parents
is the prejudice against vaccination. Here steps in
the question, how is that prejudice to be removed?
Punishment will not do it. Let a mother only have
the conviction in her mind that by vaccination she
will expose her child to danger and disease, and
though fifty Acts of Parliament enact that she is to
subject it to the operation, she will inevitably break
through them all. The only cure for the outcry of
ignorance now being raised against vaccination is, we
take it, plainly to teach the advantages which
result from the invaluable discovery of JENNEB.

THE ALBERT ASSURA NCE COMPANY.

Five petitions in re the Albert insurance Company
were heard before Vice-Chancellor James at sittings
in Chambers yesterday. A large array of counsel appeared to
represent the several petitioners and other parties
interested, and the court, which was thrown open for the
occasion, was crowded to excess.
Mr. Higgins said he appeared for the first of the peti-
tioners, Mr. J. McLauchlan, a shareholder, who presented
a petition on the 11th of August.
His Honour observed that the newspapers had for some
time past contained nothing but references to the Albert
Company—[Mr. Higgins : And Lord Byron. (Laughter.)]
—and he desired to contradict 'a
statement that ho had
authorised the spending of £lO,OOO on mortgages of the
policy-holders.
Mr. Higgins believed the srholo expenses had not ex-
ceeded £25.
His Honour said there must an order for winding up the
affairs of the company; the only question was on whoso
petition the order should be made.
Mr. Higgins stated that the gentlemen who had been
appointed provisionally ought to have had an opportunity
of stating what they had done. There were in the affair
2,600 policy-holders, and the premiums were payable at
the rate of nearly 100 per day to the amount of about
£l,OOO. The office had been kept open every day. The
first step taken by the liquidators was to open a separate
account into which the premiums could be paid for the
present, and this had had the effect of keeping a very
large portion of the business going. Tho only hope of
anything reaching the policy holders or creditors
lay in the adoption of a tolerant course of conduct on all
sides.

His Honour said he had before made an order for a
separate account, and of course gentlemen who paid money
into that account would have it back again without lia-
bility for costs, &c. Ho did not mean to allow them to be
" sweated "in any way. (A laugh.)
Mr. Higgins went on to say that his petition had been
presented by a shareholder merely because the company
was not incorporated ; but it was to all intents and
purposes the petition of the company. There were four
other petitions besides Mr. Bl'Lauchlan's, which was filed
on the 11th of August. The secend was filed on the 12th
ult. by the executors of Mr. Buckmaster, who were credi-
tors to the amount of £1,080; the third was on the 20th
ult., by Mr. A. A. Moore, the holder of fifteen shares; the
fourth on the 31st ult, by Mr. W. Wilson, a creditor on a
policy for £5OO ; and a fifth by Mr. J. P.
White. Ho submitted that the order for winding
up should be made on the first petition, or at
the most on the first and second. The first was sufficient
for the purpose, and was presented with perfect bond fide
by the directors ; but the three latter petitions were pre-
sented with a full knowledge of the proceedings before his
Honour at an earlier date, and were merely an attempt to
come in on the assets, which were already burdened quite
enough. In fact, unless some arrangement was made, it
would be impossible to pay more than two shillings in
the pound. (" Oh !"( He hoped gentlemen present would
not factiously oppose the scheme which had already
been proposed with the sanction of the court—(" No, no,")
—to this extent : the court sanctioned the making of a
proposal to the meetings ordered to be held throughout the
country.
Mr. Graham Hastings supported this petition.
Mr. Kekewich appeared in support of the second peti-

tion (Mr. Buckmaster's) and objected to an order being
made on any but the first and second.
Mr. T. Hughes, Q.C., M.P., and Mr. Ince supported the
third petition, that of Mr. Inver°, who was the holder of
fifteen shares, purchased in 1859. They urged that
there were reasons to complain of Mr. Kirby, and that the
petition had been presented by gentlemen who were solici-
tors to the London Guarantee and Accident C,mpany,
which was really a part of the Albert; and of which Mr.
Kirby was a director. Mr. Moore had written to the sup-
porters of the second petition asking for a guarantee that
they would prosecute their petition, and the latter had
declined to give any such undertaking. This shelved the
ground for the prosecution of the third petition.
His Honour : With the hope of costs. (Laughter')
Mr. Ince said the petition represented 371 shares (out of
,bout 20,000), worth £7,420 ; creditors to the amount of
£300; and policy-holders to the amount of £37,450;
although heavy to the representatives of the direetcrs,
who had managed to lose 8-'2- millions, these would probably
seem small figures.

His Honour : These figures do not justify a man in pre-
senting a petition after the others were presented. I shall
not allow any costs.

Mr. Amphlett, Q.C., M.P., appeared for Mr. Wilson, the
fourth petitioner, who, he said, had been unablo to obtain
from the representatives of Mr. Buckmaster a guarantee
that they would seek a winding-up. This petition was from
policy-holders.

Mr. Edlin, Q.C., appeared to support the fifth petition,
which, he said, was presented by Mr. White, Mr. Best, and
Messrs. Edward and Samuel Holt. Mr. Whito was a

present creditor, Mr. Best was the holder of a policy
which had become a present claim, and the Messrs. Holt
were policy-holders, the one for £2,000 and the other for
£1,500, upon which £l,OOO had been paid. It was admit-
ted that the first petition was from the directors, and his
objection to the second was that it was got up in collusion
with the first.

Mr. Cookson claimed that the affairs of the Indian policy-
itolders should be kept distinct from those of the English
policy-holders, on the ground that the mortality tables
for the former were higher than the latter.
His Honour expressed an opinion that no distinction
could be made. He would make no order.
Mr. Karslake, Q.C., on behalf of a large body of policy-
holders, approved of the first, or the first and second
uetitions.

A succession of learned gentlemen then adddressed his

Honour in the interest of the various London and provincial
committees, and some amusement was occasioned by their
contests for precedence; some founding their claims for
special consideration on the fact that they were large bodies,
and others on the circumstance that they were the "original
committees."

The_ Vice-Chancellor said he *as of opinion that the

.n-der for compulsory winding-up ought to be made upon
the first petition—that of a shareholder, Mr. McLaughlan
—and upon the petition of the gentlemen represented by
Mr. Amphlett (Mr. Wilson and others.) The one repre-
sented the company and the shareholders, and the other
was substantially the petition of the policy-holders--thus
both sides would be able to appear in Chambers. He
hoped they would see their way, without litigation other
than that in Chambers, to making the best of this very
bad affair. The order would be that the first petitioners,
the supporters of the fourth petition, and the official
liquidators would have their costs; and he had great
pleasure in saying that he would not give a farthing of
costs to anybody else whatever. (Applause.) Ho disliked
excessively the mode in which insolvent companies were
made carcases to plunder.

Mr. Locock Webb said he had ft summons in this
.natter which he wished to bring before his Honour. It
was for the appointment of somebody to represent the
policy-holders.

The Vice-Chancellor said ho could not deal with sum-
monses at that sitting. They were all premature; and
the only order ho should make would be that each appli-
cant should pay his own costs. Many of them were mere
experiments to see if anything could be made out of the
costs.

Mr. T. Hughes, Q.C., said he also had a petition, but it
was for the removal of Mr. Kirby from the position of
provisional official liquidator, and tho appointment of Mr.
White in his stead.

His Honour : I know nothing about Mr. Kirby.
Mr. Higgins said Mr. Kirby had the misfortune to be

the son of the previous manager of the company.
He had already signified his readiness to retire
from his present position, for he had no desire to continue
in the performance of his present painful duties.
After an animated discussion, in which innumerable
lounsel appeared to take part,
His Honour directed that Mr. Kirby should retire from
his present post, and that Mr. Price should remain the

sole provisional liquidator, but he also ordered that the
party who had taken cut the summons should pay his own

costs. (Laughter.)
As barristers rose in every part of the Chambers to
address his Honour, he peremptorily declined to hear
nything more on summonses, and left the bench amidst
cries of "If your Honour will hear me! "
It was stated that no less than forty-five counsel wert
engaged in the case.

A fatal boiler explosion took place in an oil mill a'

Hull on Thursday. Cno man was killed and a youth was
severoly scalded, and damage was doco to tho amount of
about .£l,OOO. The disaster is attributed to carelessness.

A gentleman received an unpaid letter, commenc-
ing, "Sir, your letter yesterday bears upon its face the
r.tunp of falsehood." His answer was brief and to the
purpose :—" I only wish your letter of yesterday bore upon
its face a stamp of any kind."

THE YOMISIIIRE ITARVEST.—In the wide agri-
cultural district of the North and East Ridings nothing
has been done this week owing to continued wet—thun-
derstorms, hailstorms, and tremendous rains. Some of
the Wold farmers are in the awkward predicament of
having most of the corn out—all in some cases—con-
fidence having been felt in the stability of the 'weather,
and the object being to got all cut down before, starting
to lead, a plan much practised, but which rarely ana*Tril•
On the moor farms, harvest has only just got incely 0,.00(
A week of tirY WcAthoN WY gMtIY ;WM,