The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-18 00:00:00

LAW AND POLICE.

CURIOUS POINTS OF ECCLESIASTICAL LAW.—The Judi-
cial Committee of the Privy Council has before it a case
of right of way to a family vault, in which the counsel has
been requested to address himself to the following points :
Whether a minister can be compelled to perform the
burial service where he has to stand on unconsecuted
ground, and the use of the vault in case of the owner of
the vault changing his religion.

£l,OOO DAMAGE; AGAINST A RAILWAY COMPANY.—On
Monday, at the Liverpool Assizes, an action was brought
by a traveller, named Hyatt, against the Midland Rail-
way Company to recover compensation for injuries sus-
tained by a collision on the defendant's line near Stavely
Station in March last. The company did not deny its
liability, and the medical testimony shewing that the
plaintiff would not be able to resume work for some years,
and that he never would permanently recover, the jury
awarded £l,OOO damages.

ACTION FOR ASSAULT AGAINST THE SON OF THE LATE
LORD MAYOR.—Mr. Justice Blackburn and a common
jury tried the case of Stoner v. Phillips, which was an
action for assault against the son of Sir Benjamin Phidips,
late Lord Mayor. The plaintiff was a provision merchant
at Onnskirk, and had edited the Philanthropic News.
Ile came to London for the purpose of starting a newspaper,
and wrote to Sir B. Phillips about his scheme. No answer was
rptnrned to the letters, and plaintiff called on Sir Benjamin.
Defendant asked plaintiff his name, &e. having tom
him, plaintiff proceeded to say that he intended to
animadvert on Sir Benjamin Phillips's public conduct in
the newspaper he was about to establish, and defendant
immediately took him by the shoulders and thrust him
out of the off ce. Plaintiff now sued for damages on
a ce,Aint of injury sustained. He admitted that he had
written to Sir Benjamin, addressing him " Sir —•
Phillips, Knight, a boasted Liberal that accepts a
paltry knighthood from a tractarian Tory Prime
Minister." He considered he was a Briton striking home.
Before the case was concluded the jury said they had
heard enough, and immediately returned a verdict kJ
the defendant. _ _

THE OArit OF UNBILIEVERS.—In the case of Brad-
laugh v. Dc Rin, which was an action upon a bill of ex-
change tried in the Court of Exchequer, Mr. Bradlaugh
(" Iconoclast ") came forward to give evidence. Mr.
Keane, the counsel for the defendant, objected to his
being sworn, on the ground that he was an avowed
Atheist. The judge said he would take on himself to
allow Mr. Bradlaugh to affirm. Ultimately the counsel
for the defence admitted the facts that Mr. Bradlaugh was
called to prove.

A. SUB-WARDER or /HE HOUSE OF CORRECTION SENT
Tv PRISON.-At the Old Bailey, before the Common
Serjeant, Alfred Williams, a sub-warder of the House
of Correction, was indicted for stealing £2 10s.
The prisoner, by the influence his office gave him, got a
convict, named Burton, to send by him (prisoner) to the
convict's father a request for money. . By representing to
the parents that their son would obtain pudding, &c., if
they gave him the money, the prisoner obtained the
amount he was charged with stealing. The jury found
him guilty, and he was sentenced to twelve months'
imprisonment.

STEALING BOOKS FROM MR. BOHN, THE PUBLISHER.—
James Irving Carl was sentenced in the same court to five
years' penal servitude for stealing £l5 from Messrs.
Dunnett and others, and for stealing a quantity of printed
books belonging to his muter, Mr. Bohn, the publisher.
ATTEMPT TO POISON A MAN AT LISKEARD.—At the
Liskeard Police-court, John Coath, of Liskeard, painter,
was summoned by William Inch, of the same place,
miner, " for feloniously and maliciously administering
a certain noxious drug, called opium or laudanum, to
the said William Inch, with intent to do him grievous
bodily harm." Several witnesses were examined at some
length, the principal one being Mr. Corin, surgeon, who
deposed to being called in on the evening of the ith inst
to attend the complainant, who was suffering from a strong
narcotic and seriously ill, his face being distorted. He
gave him an emetic, which took effect, but complainant
continued seriously ill during the night, but on the follow-
ing day was a little better. Coath, who for many years
past has been addicted to intemperate habits, being still
under the influence of alcohol, was remanded by the magis-
trates, bail being refused. .

THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTIRBURY'S COURT OF APPEAL.
—The Archbishop of Canterbury (assisted by Sir Travers
Twigs) has been engaged in hearing the case of the Rev.
S. Boucher v. the Bishop of St. Asaph and Bangor, &c.
It was an appeal on the part of a clergyman who had
been dismissed from the head mastership of a training
college by the managing committee. The question raised
is whether the archbishop, as visitor of the institution,
has a right to decide a case relative to the appointment or
removal of a principal. Judgment was reserved.

Two MEN KILLED. —An explosion took place
in Belfast on Saturday evening, in a mill belonging to the
Northern Spinning and Weaving Comra'iy. Two men,
named Andrew Porter and Edward Bruce, went into a
boiler house to do some work at the flange of one of the
pipes. When they began to unscrew the flange the steam
violently escaped, lolniting the p;p 3, and immediately filing
the room with the vapour. The two men were suffocated
on the spot, and their blackened and scalded remains were
found soon afterwards near the place where they were
working.

DISTRESS IN BEDFORD:',II IRE. —0 W ing to the
increased disuse of straw as a material fur bonnets, the
straw trade—on which thousands of the residents of
Bedfordshire and the immediately contiguous districts
entirely depend for their sustenance by plaiting and
otherwise preparing the material for manufacture—is
depressed to an unprecedented extent, and several suspen-
sions of traders in straw have been announced during
last week. The poor people of Leighton Buzzard, Luton,
Newport Pagnell, Tring, and other towns and villages,
especially the females, have already begun to experience
much distress ; and the applications to the local boards of
guardians for relief have materially increased within the
last fortnight, and are sure in a short time to be so nume-
rous as to severely test the capacity of the several work-
houses, and the existing funds of the different unions i'
the diAtrict,