The Sun.
London, England, 1869-05-06 00:00:00

LAW AND POLICE.

THE LONDON, CHATHAM, AND DOVER RAILWAY.—An
important decision was given on Wednesday, by Vim-
Chancellor Stuart, in the affairs of the London, Chatham,
and Do ver Railway. An application had been made on behalf
of the creditors and shareholders requiring the directors
to pay into court the sum of £150,000 now in their
hands. The Arrangement Act of the company provided
that certain moneys should be applied to capital and
others to income, and it was alleged that the directors had
applied to capital money which ought to have been
reckoned as income. The Vice-Chancellor did not grant
the application, but issued an order restraining the
directors from applying the money to any purpose what-
ever until the judgment of the Court of Appeal had been
taken.

THE ELECTION OF Mn. 13IRLEY.—In the Court of
Common Pleas, on Wednesday, an inquiry was held into
the legality of Mr. Birley's election for Manchester. It will
be remembered that the objection raised to his election
was based on the ground that he was a contractor with
the Government. Mr. Birley is a member of the firm of
Macintosh and Co., of Cannon-street, London, and
Cambridge-street, Manchester, patentees of the vulcanized
indiarubber. There had been dealings between this firm
and the Secretary of State for India and the Broadmoor
Asylum for Criminal Lunatics. The question was whether
these contracts were within the meaning of the statute,
and therefore whether they disqualified Mr. Birley as
"tuber. Mr. Manisty, for the petitioners, said
that, he should take the third contract on'y,
that pith the Secretary of State for India,
as the stiongest case. On the 13th of June, 1863,
the respondent's company was invited to tender for
the supply of certain goods ; on the ISth of July a tender
was sent in, and on the 17th of August the goods
were delivered. Mr. Mellish, for the defence,
said he should argue that the contract was not
within the statute. The money for the payment
was paid out of the revenues of India, and was not voted
by Parliament. As to the lunatic asylum case, he
should contend that the contract was made with
the secretary for the asylum, with no notice to the
respondent's firm that he was a Government agent,
and the contract must be knowingly made with an
agent of the Government. Mr. Manisty, in answer to
these arguments, submitted that the Indian Secretary
was a public officer under the Crown, Rho had made these
contracts with the respondent, and who was liable to be
influenced by the Crown through this medium. As for
the asylum contract, lie argued that the fact of the
respondent's not knowing that it was within the provi-
sions of the statute made no difference. Mr. Mellish
contended that there was no Secretary of State
for India when the statute was framed, and
mean~ie
Rielit
tGi
moseT.enrt,t:ob:departments.acaGoetEnnitci
"agerliftfliuseigre --1143111e1ifahi afier fBPeiverii.
eisniArEot to
contract
p:
übrt,deha, asylum,
ghnewmikciiti
hwinastnhoteth awtnu:theoecboceon
court
ttnhteutvoheker
ePnyte, an apprentice,t was charged
batistihneasCteerntarnadl Cmriismtriensasl, Cbyouartttawciit,sliinagtttebneipm in attempting to murder
the night
with a poker. Neither master nor
mistresssecolaullt could identify
him, but there was no trace of anyone
else
there. The jury found the prisoner guilty, but recom.
mended him to mercy. Sentence was deferred.
ving been

DOWN WITH lIIM.—And here we must pause t notice one of the amiable privileges which certain
1 palities arrogated in the days of old. It was this • 11/%111.
ever their magistrates happened to displease them, the burghers were given to flinging them headlong fromthe
e windows of the Rathhaus, or 'town Hall. So that the cry,
"Down with So-and-so," vague as it is just now,
was
-
tolerably intelligible in the Middle Ages. The
custom,
of of course, had an origin ; but that is a matter of
dispute. Be the origin, however, what it may
he thing itself was sufficiently common. In thi;
way the weavers of Louvain disposed of no less than
zeventeen of their magistrates in 1:i82 ; •thus, too, the
citizens of Breslau dealt with the whole body of their
town-courcillors in 1420; and thus the good people of
Vienna got rid of t eir obnoxious burgomaster and syndics
in 1461. Traces of the same pleasant custom may be met
with in the record:. and in the civic architecture of
Nuremberg, Augsburf.-, Daidzi:•, and half a hundred
-.tiler places. But it was at Prague that defenestration,
as they called it, was practised in all its glory. And
lilt without sufficient reason. No other zne(Vreval
,:ity was halt so well qualified to assert the
Drivilege, or so admirably adapted to exercise it.
Prague was tenanted by various races—conquering and
conquered. These, of course, hated One another devoutly.
and took the utmost pains to preserve intact their several
barbarous dialects and conflicting usages. Anti from the
days of Huss and Zisca downwards bitter religions animo-
sities were superadded to the other choice elements of dis-
cord. Besides. the city was al ways thronged by thousands
of students—sturdy fellows all -- %dm delighted in a riot.
give full scope to the defenes.tr.ating
'des the place. was divided into three
pith its separate liathhaus.
hiaent
The time the magistrates of most
efoaonit:lthi,
German ton
ael municipalities,
tucolgi
other
neutralise this custom very
considerably, by providing secret outlets from the council-
chamber, specimens of which may be noticed at Itatisbon
and other places to this very day.--.'rem " Walieneein
and His Times,'.in the Cciriqiill Magazine for May.