The Sun.
London, England, 1858-11-05 00:00:00

MR. COMMISSIONER FAKE.

Mr. Commissioner fane has addressed the
following letter to the editor of the Daily News :
" Sin,—ln your publication of yesterday you
have censured my conduct, as a Commissioner of
the Court of Bankruptcy, in connexion with a case
of Saunders, a bankrupt, in rather unmeasured
language. Saunders was a very old and nervous
person. He appeared to me to be shedding tears,
and to be much agitated during the whole of his
examination by Mr. Sargood, which lasted about
five hours. It appeared that he had carried on
business most respectably for thirty years at Theme,
as a saddler and harness maker. He was made
bankrupt by his own son /Ton an alleged balance
of debt, amounting to £259, the principal debit
against him being £4BO for wages at 255. a week
from January, 1852, to June, 1858. The act of
bankruptcy was a very honest act, being an
assignment by the bankrupt of all his property to
a trustee for his creditors. Only two creditors
have come forward to prove. I could not, under
such circumstances, help feeling for the misfortunes
of this hardworking old man, made bankrupt by
his own son, upon so stale a debt, after thirty
years' successful trading. It appears by the pro-
ceedings that, in April last, the bankrupt had
occasion for £lOO, and had asked a Mr. Lay to lend
it him, which Mr. Lay had agreed to do on having
security on some property supposed to belong to his
wife in fee. Mr. Lay advanced £5O before exam-
ining the title ; but on investigation it turned out
that the bankrupt's wife had only a life interest,
upon which Mr. Lay declined to advance the
immediate
second £5O, and insisted upon the
return of the first £5O. The bankrupt had already
used it, and was unable to return it. Mr. Lay sued
him. Law costs soon raised the debt of
£5O to
£7O ; judgment was obtained, and execution issued
for the £7O. In these distressing circumstances
the bankrupt's son-in-law, one Walker, came
forward, paid the sheriff the £7O for Lay,
and took the usual bill of sale from the sheriff
of the property so seized. Of course the property,
which consisted of some furniture and a small
stock in trade, having been bought of the sheriff
by Walker, was Walker's property. Walker,
though not the son but only the son-m-law of the
bankrupt, permitted the bankrupt to make what use
of it he pleased, thus acting towards the old man and
his wife with the kindness which their nearer re-
lation would have done well to imitate. All the
above facts were patent on the proceedings, and
must have been known to Mr. Burkitt, the solici-
tor, and Mr. Sargood, the counsel. I take shame
to myself for not having known them so accurately
at the hearing as Ido now. I have not, however,
presided in a court of justice 25 years without
being able to see who are honest and who knavish.
I soon saw that Saunders was an honest man, and
of course took his part against his son, who had
made him bankrupt, and his son's supporters. My
reward was the adoption of a tone of insult from
Mr. Sargood and the solicitor who instructed him,
to which. I dare say I replied in a tone expressing
what I felt towards persons aiding such a son
against such a father.
Such are the facts of the case in reference to
which you have expressed to your readers your
judgment, that" the conduct of Mr. Commissioner
Fane on this occasion was such as deeply to dis-
grace the administration of British justice." I
doubt not that your love of justice will induce you
to give your readers my statement as well as your
own, and thus enable them to form their own judg-
ment.—l am, &c. C. FANE.
P.S.—A complaint is made that I quitted the
I court abruptly. I did not leave it till half-past
four on Saturday, and I left it then lest I, should be
' too late to leave town by train. All the offices of
the Court of Bankruptcy are closed at two o'clock
on Saturday, in accordance with the wish so gene-
rally expressed that Saturday should be deemed a
half-holiday. On the Thursday before I sat from
one till half-past ten, listening to an examinaiion.
by Mr. Sargood. C. F.
4, Upper Brook-street, Nov. 3.

IMPROVEMENT IN STEAM BOILERS.

M. Carrey, an officer in the French navy, has in-
vented an apparatus by which the loss of calorie
throuoh the funnel of a steam-boiler is considerably
diminished. A kilogramme of coal is sufficient to
transform from 12 to 13 kilogrammes of water raised
to the temperature of 86 deg. Fah. into steam ; but
this theoretical result is far from being attained in
practice, a kilogramme of coal being scarcely suffi-
cient to reduce 7, and in some cases 4 kil. of water
into steam. The consequence is that more coal is
consumed than would be necessary, and that vessels
are obliged to carry a much larger provision of fuel
than is usually. convenient. The three chief causes
by which caloric is lost are-1, the escape through
the chimney of the gases produced by combustion,
which are always charged with a considerable
quantity of caloric ; 2, imperfect combustion ; and
3, radiation. M. Carrev's invention for removing
or at least considerably diminishing these causes
rests on the principle that wire gauze has the pro-
perty of rapidly absorbing the caloric of a current
of warm air passing through it, and as rapidly com-
municating it to one of cold air passing in a contrary
direction. M. Carrey, therefore, introduces into tho
funnel a moveable shaft supporting a pile of pieces
of wire-gauze, or else a bundle of small quadrangu-
lar tubes of very thin metal, producing the same
effect as the gauze. The gases which escape through
the funnel meet this apparatus on their way, and in
passing through are deprived of all their caloric.
The shaft now turns upon itself, until the wire-
gauze, charged with caloric, is brought into con-
tact with a current of cold air supplied by a venti-
lator. This air, on its way to the fire-place, de-
prives:the gauze of all its caloric, and carries it into
the furnace, which by this means receives a warm
instead of a cold blast. The operation described is
continuous, for while the shaft carries one pile of
wire-gauze over to the cold current it presents an-
other pile to the warm one. By this contrivance,
therefore, all the caloric usually lost-is saved and
carried back to the furnace, where it aids in render-
ing the combustion more complete; the dimensions
of the boiler may consequently be reduced, and ra-
diation therefore diminished. The power of com-
bustion being increased, it also follows that certain
kinds of combustibles, now rejected as being of .an.
inferior quality, may be advantageously employed.
on board ship.