The Sun.
London, England, 1867-11-18 00:00:00

LAW INTELLIOENCE,---This Day

COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH.
DARBY V. BEALES AND OTHERS.
The arguments in this case were resumed this day,
and the proceedings were not concluded when we
went to press.

COURT OF EXCHEQUER.

FERGUSON V. TIIE WASHOE UNITED CONSOLIDATED

GOLD AND SILVER WASHING COMPANY.

This was a peculiar case, specially ordered to be
argued before this Court from a case stated at
nisi prius. It was an action brought by Mr. Fergu-
son, a merchant engaged in mining matters, against
the Washoe Company for a breach of their engage-
ment. According to the terms of the contract regulat-
ing the conduct of the company, the directors were
bound to allot on the reception a certain deposit of
so many shares to the would-be purchaser, and on
that person holding 500 shares he was entitled to
166 shares beyond, and if he had 700 shares
213 more. it appeared that Mr. FergUSson
had sent to the company a cheque for £5OO,
being a deposit of £1 per share for 500 shares, but
although the company had received the money, yet
at a general meeting they had withdrawn the allot-
ment of shares, and the application had been treated
as withdrawn. It was now asked of the court-Ist,
for compensation for the appropriation of £5OO
and the non-allotment of shares ; and 2dly, to
say whether the plaintiff ought to have the 700 and
500 shares placed to his credit.
The Lord Chief Baron considered that £5OO
ought to have been paid into court.
Mr. Hannen said that the first step to be taken
was for the creditors to demand payment of the
£5OO, and he had then the option, if there was
money in hand, either of taking the money on 100
paid-up shares or 500 shares at £l.
The Court took time to consider.

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURr••-This Day.

OLD COURT.

The November Sessions of this Court commenced
to-day before the Lord Mayor and Recorder, the
number of prisoners for trial being 52 males and 7
females.
The Recorder, in charging the jury, remarked
upon the fact that there was only one case in which
human life had been sacrificed; one in which a
German, named Ernest Roder, accused of the murder

of the child of a woman with whom he cohabited
at Woolwich. The case of Edgeley, the city mer-
chant, charged with defrauding the Leeds Bank of
£lOO,OOO, was also adjourned to these sessions. It will
be remembered that the trial was postponed from
the October sessions on account of the absence of
Mr. Greenland, the manager of the Leeds Bank,
through whose intrumentality the money was ad-
vanced to the defendant, and who is at present at
Geneva. It is doubtful whether he will be in attend-
ance at these sessions, and as the counsel for the
defence rely upon his evidence to show that there
was no fraud on the part of Mr. Edgeley in the
transaction, it is probable that, if he be stAl absent,
the trial may be again postponed. Another case of
considerable importance was the charge against Mr.
Robert Short Waters, the former steward to the Earl
of,Shaftesbury, of having einb,;zzle I and applied
to his own use a large su:n of money-belodging
to the noble earl, and which he hal received
on his account in his capacity of steward. There
was a charge of a very serious nature against
a late police-constable named Richard Swith, of
having, with another person, wilfully set fire to
premises that were on his beat while on duty, either
for the purpose of showing his supposed diligence,
he having been the first parson who gave the alarm,
or with some other mischievous object. There was
also a charge of a similar character against a person
named Richard Morris, who kept a public-house
at the east end of the town, and who is accused
of having attempted to destroy his premises by
igniting a quantity of gunpowder in a tin-case by
means of a fuse attached to it. The powder ex-
ploded, but fortunately without doing any serious
mischief, and the offence imputed to the prisoner
was, that he wilfully caused the explosion, which
might have been attended with the most disastrous
results. There were several cases of forgery, and
among them was one of a very peculiar character
against a young man of fashionable appear-
ance, named Walter White, who was said to
be very respectably connected, and who was
charged with having become associated with some
of the stylish prostitutes living at the West-end,
and giving them cheques for different amounts, re-
ceiving money in change, the cheques turning out
to be utterly worthless. There are no less than four
charges of this descriptio❑ against the prisoner, and
he appears to have carried on a regular system
of fraud of the kind referred to upon " ladies" of
this particular class. The case of the fashionable
swindler calling herself the Hon. Geraldine Maurice
and Lady Maurice, which was postponed from the
previous sessions, will also come on at these sessions.
The grand jury having returned, the trials shortly
afterwards commenced, the first being the case of
Eustace and another, who stood charged with the
unlawful possession of a quantity of carpet.