The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-10 00:00:00

LAW AND '(LICE.

PECIILIAR ACTI6N FOR LißEL.—ni case o Parker o.
Thompson, which was tried at Westminster before Mr.
Justice Lush, was an action for libel. The plaintiff was
the vestry clerk of Fulham, and the defendant the pro-
prietor of the West London Observer. It appeared that at
a vestry meeting complaints were made that one of the
rate collectors had committed errors of account. At that
meeting a Mr. Bryant, in the course of his speech, made
use of certain observations which led to the impression
that the vestry clerk had cooked the accounts. The speech
was reported in the defendant's paper with an interpola-
tion, " It was believed that the vestry clerk had sent in
his resignation." The plaintiff, seeing the report, instructed
his solicitor to write the defendant a letter demanding an
apology and a contradiction inserted in that. newspaper,
but no notice was taken of it. The plaintiff was
now ready to accept an apology and a verdict to carry
costs, The defendant said he never received the letter,
and that he never refused to insert an apology. Mr.
Bryant said the report of his speech was a correct one.
The jury returned a verdict for plaintiff ; damages; £25.

IXTORTANT CONVICTION UNDER THE SMOKE NUISANCE
Acv.—At the Southwark Police•court, the Messrs.
Hepburn, extensive tanners, of Bermondsey, were
fined £5 and costs for using furnaces in their works
which did not consume their own smoke. The inspector,
after looking over the works, gave the defendants notice
of the alteration required, and they promised to see to it,
but at the conclusion of a month it was still undone.
Twenty-one days more were allowed, and on_ the work
not being then completed the present charge was
preferred.

ACTION FOB DAMAGES FOB A FATAL RAILWAY ACCT.
DENT. —A case which was tried at the Manchester Assizes,
raised an important question. It was an action by' a
widow against the Oldham, Ashton, and Guide Bridge
Railway Company. The plaintiff's husband, on the 9th
of February, took a London and North-Western ticket
to go from Oldham to Greenfield. He was crossing the
line to get to the platform from which the train would
start, when 'he was knocked down and killed by a train
belonging to the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire
Railway Company. It was contended that the mode of
conducting the station was so dangerous that it was not
to be wondered at that the man was killed. Persons
were obliged to cross the Jane and to run about to find
where the train would start from. For the defence the
point of law was raised whether, when the contract
was with another company, and deceased was
killed by another company's train, the defend-
ants could be made liable. His lordship was
inclined to think not, but refused to stop the case on that
account. Ultimately the jury were discharged, not being
able to agree. His lordship said that he merely took the
verdict for form's sake, as the plaintiff was poor, and it
would save litigation. The point raised was a radical
defect in the case.

ANOTHER ACTION AGAINST A RAILWAY COMPANY.
:.-
21,250 DAMAGES.—In another railway case tried at
Manchester, the plaintiff, a cotton-spinner and manu•
facturer, laid his damages at £4,000. While the plaintiff,
wife, and children were travelling from Huddersfield to
Todmorden, on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway,
an accident happened, and plaintiff was injured, as he
alleged, seriously. The defence was that his injuries were
very small, but it was shewn that he could not attend
market for three months, and Mr. Baron Martin said
he was entitled to substantial damages. The jury returned
a verdict for £1,250.

AN ACTION FOR TIMBRELLAS.—Another case at the
Manchester Assizes was an action brought against ashippee
named Wehner, to recover £154 is. lid., the balance of
an account on sale of 4,000 dozen umbrellas. The
umbrellas had been ordered for the Calcutta market, at
the rate of 1,000 dozen per month, but the deliveries being'
behind time, the manufacturer agreed to a deduction being
made in order that the goods might be sent by steamer
instead of sailing vessel, to save the Calcutta season.
The defendant, however, sent the umbrellas by the over-',
land route, and deducted the amount in question. The
jury found for the plaintiff for the amount claimed.
INCENDIARISM BY A GlRL.—Eliza Sparrow, a girl aged
15 years, has just been convicted at Norwich Assizes of
setting fire to a coalshed, outhouse, and other premic.s of
her master, Mr. George Bunn, at Acle. The prisoner
confessed to the constable's wife that she had done the
acts charged, not thinking that she was doing any harm,
but tempted to do so. After the failure of one attempt
she said she felt so bad she did not know what to do, and
could not sleep ; that the thought came into her head
again on the Simdr.y following, when she took a match and
set fire to the straw. She was sentenced to a month's iza
prisonment and hard labour, at the expiration of which
time she was to go to a reformatory for five years. -

ATTEMPT TO MURDER A POLICEMAN.—A young Irish..
woman, named Mary Quirk, was brought up at the Sal-
-1 ford Town Hall, charged with attempting to shoot a police-
man who is alleged to have seduced her. Police-constable
Sowerby said he was on duty on Sunday night, and
at about eight o'clock was going along the Crescent
in the direction of the Pendleton Police-office,
when the prisoner overtook Lim and walked alongside
of him until he got to the office. He endeavoured to
persuade her to go homo because he was on duty, but
she refused to do so. After calling at the Pendleton Police-.
office, at about a quarter to nine, he got upon an omnibus
going from Pendleton to Manchester, and the prisoner got
inside. He got off the omnibus at the corner of Oldfield-
road, and walked in the direction of the Salford Police-
office. At the corner of Bezley.square he saw the prisoner,
and again asked her to go home. She replied that she
would if she 'liked. He then left her and went to the
police-office, where he remained from half-past nine until
twenty minutes to two. He then left the office to go
home, and was turning from Kirkley-street into Bruns-
wick-street, when he again saw the prisoner. She said
to him, "It is the last time I shall come. You have
two cartes de visite of mind ; will you give them to me ?"
He replied that he would bring them to her. He then
saw her raise her arm and at the same instant heard the
report of a pistol, and felt a smarting sensation in his
right arm and in his eyes from the effects of the flash. He
did not see the prisoner again. She had repeatedly told
him she would shoot bim. He ceased to keep company
with her about two months ago. The prisoner cross-
examined Sowerby to chew that he had used her very ill,
and was with another woman at the time when the pistol
was discharged. The prisoner said the policeman had
kept company with her for five years. Mr. Trafford
advised the prisoner to reserve her statements with re-',
gard to Sowerby's conduct to her, and committed her for'
trial.

TILE COMItERCIAL BANE CORPORATION.—An application
to the Master of the Rolls in the matter of the above
company, for consent to a call of £lO per share required
to satisfy the liabilities of the old company, was opposed
by the shareholders of the existing company (which was
formed out of the old one) on the ground that questions
were in dispute between the two companies, and therefore
the question should stand over. His lordship, however,
consented to the application.

THE POWER OP A COMPANY TO ACCEPT BILLS.—In the
matter of the General Estates Bank the power of -the
directors to accept bills on the part of the company was
questioned, there being no special power given to them in
the articles of association. His lordship the Master of
the Rolls held that the directors had the power.

MR. CAVE, M.P. FOR BARNSTAPLE, IN THE COURT OT
EXCHEQUER.—On Monday an action was tried in the Court
of Exchequer, which throws considerable light upon the.
unseen current of an election to the City shrievalty. The
defendant was Mr. Thomas Cave, M.P. for Barnstaple,
in 1863 Sheriff of London. The plaintiff was a Mr. Hayes,
who had helped him to obtain that distinction, and now'
claimed 100 guineas for his services, which he alleges that
he specially stipulated should be paid him.. Plaintiff and
defendant each appeared as witnesses, and contradicted
each other so flatly as to make the case one of personal
veracity. On the one hand, Mr. Hayes swore that Mr.
Cave made a contract with him for the £lOO, and Mr.
Cave as distinctly swore that 'what Mr. Hayes had said
was false. Mr. Hayes stated that Mr. Serjeant Tindal
Atkinson was employed to act as orator on the day of
the election. This also was denied. The jury, after a
little deliberation, found for the defendant.

FEARFUL DEATH. —Mr. Alderman Lioorge Job-
ling, of Tynemouth, one of the owners of Belside, Walker,
and other collieries in Northumberland, and a borough
magistrate in North Shields, met with a frightful death at
the Irowden station of the Tynemouth branch of the North-
rastern Railway, on Sunday night. Mr. Jobling, on Sun-
day, had been dining with his cousin, Mr. Thomas Jobling,
at Willington House. Ho appears to have gone on the line
of railway at the west end of the Willingtou Viaduct, and
was walking down to catch the train from Neu castle to
Tynemouth at Howden. He had evidently forgotten that
the train leaves Newcastle at a quarter to nine on
Sunday evening; instead of nine o'clock as on week-
days ; and he had been walking within the down rails.
He was overtaken by the quarter to nine train before
he could reach the Howden station. His attention
had been called to the noise made by the approaching
train.. He turned round to look, and was immediately
struck by the buffers of the engine and thrown under the
wheels and crushed to death. The engine-man felt that
he had gone over something, and as soon as the train
stopped at Howden a party ran back to the spot where the
accident occurred, and found Mr. Jobling's body dread.
fully mutilated. It was removed to the railway station at
Howden, where the coroner's Inquest will by held,—
Eerthcro 1201 P igxProi

IL IAI A NUTSIIELT.

The November- number of the New York Fr&
Trade journal, called The League, republishes an
article first issued two years ago in the New York
Evening Post, as it finds in the case commented on,
" Protection in a Nutshell." The thread works
owned by Hartford capitalists at Willimantic are
the most extensive in the country, and at that time
they had just finished a new mill 400 feet long,
five storeys high, and built of granite—a work
of great labour and cost, constructed out of the
profits of the company without disturbing its
capital, which, with this addition, was estimated at
$1,000,000. These profits were over 300 per cent.,
and it was therefore an easy matter for Vie com-
pany to make this addition to its factory, and a
wise expenditure in increasing the productive
power of so profitable a business. The Hartford
Tunes, boasting of these results, thus continued its
comments :—" Thread that used to cost the needle-
woman four cents a spool, now costs ten—the same
as the imported English thread of J. and P. COATS.
One reason why COATS'S thread works more
smoothly on the machine, and is better liked than
our, is in the fact that the greater dampness of the
English climate is more favourable than our dry
air to spinning cotton. Again the highly electric
condition of the atmosphere of the Western
World is probably unfavourable to the necessary
compactness and smoothness sought for in the
fabrication of this article, the etrands and fibres
being more inclined to rough up and fly off.' "
This unconscious admission—though unseen by
the writer—was quickly detected by the oppo-
nent 3 of the Protection system, and enabled them
to condense the subject into a nutshell. Here
is a manufacture, says the Free-trader,w hich, from
physical causes, cannot be brought to perfection in
America, but which, by enormous protection, has
been made to pay 300 per cent. profit. The tariff
on imported threads is equal to 70 per cent. in gold
on the cost; the tax on the domestic article is 6 per
cent. in currency. The effect has been twofold.
The three—cord glazed threads, such as male by this
company, cost much less in England, and are sold
at lower prices than the six-cord goods. but the
duty has raised them to the same price; and the
sewing woman in the United States has to pay as
much for the one as for the other. The price of the
best ought not to exceed 6 cents a spool, even with
gold at 140, while the price, as the Hartford Times
observer, is 10 cents. The difference comes out of the
pockets of the needlewomen and their customers. By
thus raising the price 40 per cent., the Hartford capi-
talists are enabled to divide three timer their ori-
ginal capital per annum. The effect on the natiocal
revenue has been to entail a loss of nearly $200,000
per annum, as spool cotton used to pay a yearly
income of half a million, while now it gives but
$300,000. Thus the revenue suffers in an equal
proportion ; both the State and te poor being
robbed of 40 per cent. to pay the lucky speculators
300 per cent. on their investment. We would like
to know what the country gains by the Willimantic
Thrcadworks. What the company gains is dis-
tinctly stated, and what the country loses is as
clearly put. Though a factory has been established,
which furnishes employment to a certain number of
citizens, it does not follow that such employment
must benefit either the country or the indi-
viduals. In the presence of a great emergency,
when whole classes have been thrown out of em-
ployment, it may be necessary to set aside the rules
of political economy, and furnish work without
regard to its productiveness or necessity. No
country can, however, habitually set aside these
laws without increasing the evils it seeks to alle-
viate. In other words, there is a ceaseless
danger in fostering manufactures for which a coun-
try has not a physical capacity, because the ten-
dency is to train hands and lead individuals to
rely on a craft artificially supported, and thus rest-
ing on a false foundation, which may at any time
give way, leaving them in the air. As the United
States have not arrived at that stage which makes
it even a temporary boon to labour to rest any indus-
stry on a false foundation, we cannot suppose that
these Threadworks are beneficial to the hands em-
ployed. The question of gain thus becomes narrowed
to the proprietors. It may appear absurd to assert
that a man who receives 300 per cent. on his capital,
has not made a judicious and lucky investment. Yet
it may be so. Those who embark money in
fostering industry not suitable to the country in
which they live rest their capital on the same false
foundation as the worker does his labour. Un-
doubtedly in such a case as the Willimantic Thread-
works the prudent capitalist can repl tee from his
enormous dividends the sum he has employed,
and thus if the pleasing phantom vanishes, remain as
he was before. Experience, however, shows that
few men act thus. Ile has stepped into a fortune,
and he assumes the position in society to which he
considers his judicious investment has elevated him,
and henceforth commences the career of anxiety
and worry which all must in some degree experience
whose position rests on an insecure basis. The
labourer, after a probationary period of suffering,
can turn his hand to another employment ; his
capital remains, although his peculiar handicraft
may have disappeared from the industries of his
country. But not so the capitalist, whose
money sinks into the quicksand on which he has
placed it, never again to be seen. Dreading this
result, he becomes a frantic Protectionist. His mind
is imbued with one idea to such an extent that a
proprietor of the Threadworks may have persuaded
himself that the prosperity of the United States rests,
not on Protection generally, but mainly on the spe-
cific and ad valoreneluties piled upon theßri tis h fabric,
which enables him to realise so enormous a return.
The arguments of such a man are amusing to those
who know better than himself how his mind has r e-
ceived the bent. "To elevate the lowest on the
rung of the ladder, and to bring up the masses,
ought to be the object of a commonwealth. Manu-
factures most tend to elevate labour, as a strong
demand raises wages, and enables the workman to
secure his fair share of profits. Protection is tee
only means a'. establishingmanufactures on a perma-
nent basis. Therefore, the object of a Republic, in the
interest of its poorer citizens, ought to be to protect
industry." So arguing he puts his 300 per cent. in
his pocket soothed with the comfortable doctrine that
he is a true patriot, working for the interest of the
toiling masses. This is, indeed, a royal road, and
when he is jostled on it by a rude Free-trader, we
cannot be surprised at the bitterness with which he
resents the obstruction. Great Britain. is the
country whose competition he fears ; and it is there-
fore against Great Britain that the Protectionist
arguments are mainly directed. Unfortunately for
England, the tone unwisely expressed by her press
has enabled him to assume that her attitude during
the rebellion was unfriendly ; and this has been
so resented by the United States that a weight has
been given to arguments they would otherwise
not have possessed. Is the country, he asks, to
destroy her manufactures to benefit those of our
English enemies who will use the very strength
derived from out folly to injure us. Thus
he , backs his arguments by an appeal to pre-
judice, which, alike in nations as in individuals,
often oversways reason and judgment. The League
sums up in these words : " Protection" finds
antagonism everywhere ;• Free Trade' believes
in the harmony of all interests ; Protec-
tion' sets nation at variance with nation ; Free
Trade' is a peacemaker. Protection' believes in
the necessity of guarding labour against the tyraeny
of capital ; Free Trade' teaches that labour and
capital are natural allies, necessary to one another,
and that but for the ill-judged interference of Go-
vernment, they would work in harmonious co-ope-
ration to their mutual good."--ele9/o-elinericen
7imes.

The Philo-Drarnatic Society gave their eleventh
entertainment at the "Polygraphic Hall" on the 28th
ult., before a fashionable an't enthusiastic audience, the
pc,rformance commencing with the farce " Retained for the
Defence," followed by the drama " The Wreck Ashore,"
and concluding with the farce " The Unfinished Gentle-
man." The pieces were placed upon the stage effectually,
the dresses and accessories were really capital, the per-
formers wore well up in their different parts ; and all
contributed, in a greater or less degree, to the real success
of a very clever amateur performance.
STEEPLECHASE FORFEIT LIST. —Faithless Sarah's forfeit
is paid.