The Sun.
London, England, 1858-06-21 00:00:00

THE SUN, lAYND ON, MONDAY EVENING, JUNE 21, 1858.

of officer who considered himself agrieved should be
heard, and his case considered by the Royal Commis-
sioners. The commissioners had had a large mass' of
information laid before them from every class of officers,
andl they thought it unnecessary to take further
evidence. With reference to the first question the
Royal Commission were desirous of making an early re-
port, and he did not think it necessary to suspend that

eport.
COMMISSIONERS FOR EXHIBITION OF 1851

BILL.

On the min for going into commission on this bill,
Mr. SLANEY hoped that under the bill provision
would be made for retaining an open space in front of
Kensington Museum.
Tne house then went into committee.

On clause 1,
Sir H. WILLOUGHBY complained that no time
was fixed by the final clause for the repayment of the
money by the commissioners into the exchequer.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said it
was impossible to specify the exact time when the money
to be advanced should be repaid, as the arrangement for
raising the money depended on the passing of the bill.
It was to the interest of the commissioners that the bill
should be passed as soon as possible.
Mr. ALCOCK. adverted to the different manner in
which this scheme was dealt with to that of the scheme
for Batter ea-park and Chelsea new bridge. In one
case the capital only was to be returned, whilst in the
other the capital and 70,000/. interest were to be returned.
Under these circumstances, he thought her Majesty's
Government were bound to throw Chel ea New Bridge
open to the public.
Sir H. WILLOUGBY moved an amendment to the
clause that the money should be repaid within one year
or sooner,

After some remarks from Mr. WILSON,
Mr. GLADSTONE said it might be inconvenient to
let this arrangement stand over. He concurred with
the limits proposed.
After some remarks from the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer, Mr. Spooner, M. Coningham, and Mr. Black-
burn,
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said
the commissioners were ready to pay the money within
any reasonable time. _ _ _

vlr. BLACKBURN submitted that a period should
be fixed for i=s repayment. Let the committee fix it at
five years. That would be a reasonable time.
The amendment was then agreed to.
Mr. ALCOCK moved, as an amendment, in clause 1,
line 2, after '' 1851," leave out to " two pence," in line
4, and insert "all sums of money which have been paid
by the Treasury on account of the Kensington Gore
Estate, or any disbursement therewith, together with a
moiety of the net rents received by the commissioners."
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER opposed
the amendment. If carried, it would destroy the ar-
rangement proposed.
The amendment was negatived without a division.
Mr. BLACKBURN then moved, as an amendment,
that the commissioners should pay 5 per cent, interest
on the purchase money from the pa,,sing of the act.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER objected
to the amendment as unfair towards the commissioners.

Mr. WILSON suggested that it would be better to
make the commissioners continue to pay up half the rents
of the property, which was annually increasing in value.
The house then divided—
For the amendment 99
Against it
Majority —lO9

The amendment was lost.
Mr. S. HERBERT suggested that a portion of the
land in question might be advantageously taken by her
Majesty's Government in lieu of money for
barrack accommodation. The longer they delayed
purchasing a site for barrack accommodation the
more they would have to pay for it, from the daily in-
creasing value of land.
The CHANCELLOR cf the EXCHEQUER said the
suggestion was worthy of consideration, but that was
n,)t the question for the. consideration of the committee.

The commissioners were prepared to carry out the plan
of 1852, and asked the Government to do so, or enable
them to do Fo untrammelled by her Majesty's Govern-
ment, and the latter thought it desirable to withdraw on
having the public money repaid.
Mr. KINNAIRD paid the Royal Commissilners
could not repay the 180,000/. without they sold a por-
tion of the land, and he saw no reason wby her Majesty's
Governmett might not take a portion of the land in part
payment.

The CHANCELLOR el the EXCHEQUER Paid the
Royal Commissioners did not intend to sell any portion
of the land, but some of it would be let on lease for
building, aq originally contemplated in the scheme of
1552. It was intended to erect a great artistic and in-
dustrial college at South Kensington for the education
of the people.
Mr. B. HOPE reported there were to be schools of
art, and that the second should be at Brompton, where
the people would not go to be educated.

Alter some further discussion,
Mr. AYRTON said that it was unfair for the Royal
Commissioners to have all the advantages of this scheme.
He understood that the land, which ryas purchased
at 3,0001. per acre, was now worth 5,0001. per acre,
and a rental of 6001. per acre. If they were to let
15 acres on builchng leases, there would be sufficient
rent to pay the interest cf recovery.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said
the original scheme prevented it. The otject of the
scheme was to disburse the money for the purpose of
science and art, and _it was being carried out.
The clause accordingly was then agreed to.
Oa clause 2,
Mr. ALCOCK moved the otnision of tie clause.
[LEFT SPEAKING.]

LAW INTELLIGENCE.—June 19.

COURT OF COMMON PLEAS.

'Sittings at Nisi Prius in Middlesex—Before Lord
Chief Justice Cockburn and a special jury.)
RICE V. GRAHAM.-EXTRAORDINARY CHARGE OF
ASSAULT AGAINST A COLONEL.

The plaintiff in this case was a lodging-house-
keeper, and some time ago he let apartments in
the house, 3, Park-street, Grosvenor-square, to
the defendant, Lieutenant-Colonel Graham. The
action was to recover damages for an assault, and
for injury done to some furniture in the apart-
ments.

Mr. O'Malley, Q. C. and Mr. Russell, appeared
for the plaintiff ; and NI r. Sergeant Ballantine and
Mr. Quoin for the defendant.
Mr. Richard Rice said—l am the plaintiff, and I
get my living by going out waiting and by keeping
a lodging-house. In the latter part of last year
Colonel Graham had my principal apartments, at
4/ 15s a week, including attendance. On ew
Year's Day last I put a dish of apples on the table
—the apples belonging to Colonel Graham—
and I pointed out that one was rotten. The
colonel said, "Take it away, " and I did
so. He said rather angrily, " Why do you put
rotten apples on the table l" and asked me where I
kept them, and I said, "In the sideboard." He
said, " Why do you keep them where they will
rot ?" I said, in a proper tone and manner, that
they would probably rot the same anywhere else.
He said, " What I" and I repeated the words. He
then got up, came to me, and said, "Go out of the
room, you scoundrel." I said, "I will, sir, as
soon as I have got my things." He instantly caught
hold of me to put me out of the room. I said, " I
don't go out like this." Colonel Graham has lost
part of his right arm, but has on the end of the
artificial arm an iron stump. He struck me twice
in the face. The lamp was upset and put out, and
we got on the floor. I let him get up, and he
struck me once while lying on his back, and again
when lie got up. We still scuffed. He took hold
of my right hand and put it in his mouth, and
held it there for more than a minute. I thought
he would bite my finger off. Whilst my hand
was in his mouth he struck at me, and bit the
door, on which there are seven distinct marks
made by the iron stump. The butler's
tray was upset, and knives were lying about
the floor. I thought that a man who would biie
might do worse, and I called for the police. Two
policeman came. I then had hold of the colonel,
who was lying on his face on the floor. I after-
wards went into the room again, in consequence of
the oil having been upset, and the things lying
about. He came at me in a menacing way, and
said, "Get out of the room, you scoundrel," and I
went. I had two black eyes for more than a
month, and had a bruise on my forehead. The
damage to the furniture was 3/. 17s. 6d., and oil
was also upset on the carpet, and glass broken.
Compensation was applied for next day, and pro-
ceedings threatened, and the answer was a letter
from the colonel's attorneys, saying they would
appear to process.
The witness was cross-examined, but his fir:A
statement was not materially alter ed.

Mrs. Emma Rice—l am the plaintiff's wife. I
was at home when the affair occurred. I got
home at half-past five. My husband was sand-
ing at the door. His face was much bruisei,
and there was blood over his face, shirt, and
trousers. Colonel Graham was gone out. He
cline home at about half--part nine. He was very
quiet when I went into the room There were no
marks of violence on him. The next morning the
colonel said he would leave, and I said be must
give a week's notice. He said he had done it, and
wou]d go to-morrow. I asked for compensation for
the broken furniture, and he said he would not pay
a farthing.
HenryElliker—l am an upholsterer. "I went to
the plaintiff's house on New Year's Day, at a quar-
ter to eight. Mr. Rice was at the door with the
policeman. There was much blood on him. One of
his eyes was much swollen. I saw the colonel next
day; there were no marks on him. The damage to
the furniture was 3/. 17s. ficl. There were seven
marks on the door of the colonel's room made by
some blunt instrument, a quarter of an inch deep.
Gecrge Thorpe, a police constable, said—When
I went into the room the colonel was on the floor,
and the plaintiff was holding him, apparently to
prevent his striking him. They then got up. The
plaintiff had bruises on the face, and his finger was
bitten arid the flesh torn. There was a good deal of
blood. The plaintiff was so exhausted tint he could
not speak for some time. There were no marks of
violence on the colonel.

Mr. Sergeaut B addressed the jury for
the detendaut, and then produced the following
evidence.

Col. Graham said—l am a major in her Majesty's
19th Font, and a breve c lune!. I lost my right
arm in the Crimea, where I was aide-de-camp to
General Eyre. I took the apartments of the plain-
tiff in November last. On the evening of the Ist of
January I was dining by myself, and after dinner
tuned to the fire to read, when Rice put the apples
on the table, and said some or one was rotten, and
I said. "7 ake them away." I asked, " Where do
you keep them ?" and when he told me said, "Why
the deuce do you keep them there; it is too hot."
He said in an insolent tone, " I do not make the
apples bad." I said, "Leave the room ; you are
insolent." I told him to leave more than onoe. He
said, "I will not leave ; it is my room." I sail Le
was an impertinent scoundrel. I putmy hand on his
shoulder to remove him. He seized me round the
throat with great forcie with one h tnd, at the same time
catching me round the body with his other arm,
pinning my arms down. We then struggled some
little time, and in the struggle the tablecloth was
pulled off, causing the lamp and other things to be
thrown down. It ended in my being thrown down.
I was undermost He had his hand on my throat,
and held so tightly that I thought I should be en
tirely throttled. I tried to get my left hand loose.
succeeded,l and struck at his face as he was 13.3ud-
ing over me. This made him draw back a little, and
I succeeded in getting on my legs. He regained
hold of my throat, and forced me into a corner. He
had hold of my throat with his tight hand, and
kept his other arm round my waist, pinning my
arms to my side. Being nearly throttled, the only
way I could make him leave hold was by biting his
finger, which I did severely. This made him loose
his hold, and I got my left arm and the stump of
the right arm free. I contrived to get him by the
back of the head, and it was then I struck him with
the stump. I confess at this time I tried to do him
all the harm I could. The stump is a leather stump,
and there is a socket into which a hook may be
fitted. The secket did the harm. (It was a socket
projecting some distance from the stump.) Th 3
struggle continued f r some short time, he cailing
out all the time "police." It ended by his throw-
ing me down again, and grasping my throat, nearly
throttling me. It is not true that I put his finger
into my month and bit if. I got hold of it with my
mouth whilst he bad hold of my throat.
The Lord Chief Justice—l do not know how you
could kite the hand without carrying it to your
mouth.

Witness—lt is difficult to explain, but I should
not bite any man unless obliged. did not carry
the hand to my mouth. I bit him to make him re-
lease my throat. I got several bruises on my head,
hu,t I bathed the place to prevent there being any
mark. The chief injury was on my throat from
being nearly throttled.
Cross-examined—l was very much excited, but
lean say I did not put his fing, r into my mouth.
1 hit him to make him release my throat. I was
excited when I called him " an impertinent scoun-
drel," but I only put my hand on him in a
very qu;et way. I bad told him once or twice b -
fore to leave the ro,-.m. I had got his head "in
Chancel y " when I pummelled him with the stump.
Re-examined--I cannot tell exaedy how I got
his finger in my mouth. I had before felt a throt-
tling serration.
To the jury—When I called him "an impel ti-
nent scoundrel.'' I told him to leave the room, and
put my hand on his shoulder. He then seized me
by the throat, and thou I struck him. The man
had twice before refused in the most insole:it man-
ner to leave the room before I put my hand on his
shoulder.

The Lc•rd Chief Ju,tice directed the Pity that it
was admitted that the defendant had committed the
first assault by putting his hand on the plaintiff's
shoulder, but the important question was whether
ti►e defendant wag justified in what he had done.
If the defendant had ordered the p'aiutiff to qut
the room and he hid positively refused to do so,
he became a trespasser, and the defendant was en-
titled to use necessary violence to remove him. The
plaintiff, however, on the record, said that even
admitting this to be true, the defendant had used
unnecessary violence.
The jury foutd a verdict for the plaintiff—
damages, 251.

[ADVERTISEIIENT.]-11ollovvay'a Pilip.—Thera is no
hazard in saying that the popularity of Professor Hollis-
way's remedies in this c mntry is without a parallel. The
in:tanCEB in whith Lick persons pr, fessionally condemned
to death have recovered under the operation of these
miracle• working pillß, are so nunierons and so well
autenticated, that the most stubborn incredulity is
sileuc d. Hots of sufferers from indigestion, liter cow
plaints, ncrvons debility, disorders of the bowe's, epi-
ulenPatpicprfiotasehaan
medicineis wea3elT have been cured by this
when every other means had
unapproachable
other
failed. The press teems with the testimonials cf the
parties, and while we wonder wo are cirnpelled . to be-
!Jove. —Soltl by al! iredlcine vori[l:;rs thioughcist the
World, and at Professor eitalAsiauiut, 241;
Strand, London.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.—June 18.

MANSION-HOUSE.---john Francis Grossmith,
licensed• victualler, the Three Tuns, Jewry-street,
Aldgate, appearel in discharge of his recognisances,
for further examination on a charge of having vio-
lently assaulted the Rev. E. J. May, head master
of the Brewers' Company's School, Trinity-square,
Tower-hill.

Mr. T. Atkinson appeared for the prosecution,
and Mr. Sleigh for the defendant.
On the previous occasion Mr. May was too ill to
attend, owing to the injuries he had received, and
the evidence taken was confined to medical testi-
money regarding the nature and extent of those in-
juries.

Mr. Atkinson, in opening the case, now said that
the form into which the charge would ultimately
solve itself might be either that of a felony, or a
misdemeanour under Lord Campbell's act accord-
ing to the character of the evidence which he should
bring forward ; but the assault of which the Rev.
Mr. May complained was one of the most savage
attacks it was possible for the malice of man to
conceive or for his revenge to execute. The learned
gentleman then stated the character of the assault,
and called

The Rev. E. J. May, who said, I am head mas-
ter of the Brewer's School, Trinity-square, and live
there. I remember Monday, the 7th of Jane.
About twenty minutes to twelve at night some one
knocked at my door. lam a bachelor, and have
a housekeeper in my house ; that is all. At the
time of the knocking at the door she was in bed,
the house being all locked up and the key taken
up stairs, and I was on my way to bed when I heard
the knocking. I called out " Who is there 1" and
a voice said, " I want to see the Rev. Mr. May
immediately." I went to the door, and wiliout
opening it answered, " You cannot see the Rev.
Mr. May now. He is going to bed, and you must
come in the daytime." The voice again replied,
"I want to see the Rev. Mr. May very particu-
larly." After some little further parleying I fetched
the key and opened the door, which appeared to be
pu•hed from the outside, as it flew open suddenly.
The defendant -immediately rushed past me, and
went into :a room at the end of a passage. I did
not say anything to him as he passed me, but fol-
lowed to see what he wanted. When I entered
the room he got between me and the door, and said
to me, " You caned my boy some months ago. He
is ill now, but I am a man as well as you are;
and so saying he showed me in a rather signihcant
manner a stick in his hand. The stick now pro-
duced is the stick, which he left behind hitn. (The
stick referred to was a knotty walking-stick,
rather heavy, and about an inch in diameter
at the butt-end, and tapering to half that
thickness at the bott ma. I wished to get
rid of Mr. Grossinitb, and replied to him, "It is
too late to enter..into such particulars to-night,
If you wish to say anything about it come in the
day-time, and I shall be happy to hear what you
have to say. It is past 12 o'clock, and I was actu-
ally going bp
to bed." Mr. Grossmith replied,
raising his stick to his shoulder in a threatening
manner, "D— you ; suppose I take it out of you."
I believe I said, but I am not sure, "I would ad-
vise you not." I made to go to the street door,
with the intention of getting a policeman's aid, say-
ing, as I passed him, "Mr. Grossantb, I must re-
quest you to leave my house." As soon as I said
that Mr. Gtossmith" exclaimed, "D— you, you
brute, I'll murder you," at the same time sti ik-
ing me ou the head wi h the stick. The first blow
knocked the candlestick out of my hand and extin-
guished the light, and he repeated the blow several
times on my head with the stick, exclaiming, " I'd
murder you—l'll do for you." I Mt teat my
saftest plan was to keep within range of his stick,
and I hit at his face tight and lefr, as well as I could
in the dark, and at last wrenched the stick out of
his hand. I heard some water run down the wAI

from the flower-pots which had been upset, and
thought it was blood running from my head, which
was bleeding very much. I believed that I was
dying, and with all the strength I could muster I
struck a downright blow at him with the stick, and
Le went down on the ground. He immediately
caught hold of my feet and jerked them forward,
throwing me on my back on the staircase. He
then sprang upon me, kneeling on my chess, and
with his left hand seized my throat, continuing
to bit me with his right hand. I called for help as
loud as I could, crying, " Mason, Mason, Police,
Police" (Mason being my housekeeper). When
I raised the cry for the police defendant ex-
claimed, " you, I'll stop your cries. I'll mutt•
der you before any help can come to you. I came on
purpose to murder you, and I'll do it." We con-
tinued to struggle together, I with my left hand
endeavouring to wrest his hand from my throat,
and. in the struggle we got near the street door, the
struggle having con inued at least ten minutes
before we did so. I immediately made a plunge
forward at the lock, knowing exactly where to find
it, and opened the door. He, at the same moment,
relaxed his hold on my throat, and struck me a
blow on the chest with his right hand, which sent
me reeling the whole length of the passage. He
then ran off saying, "You d— rascal, I'll murder
you yet." He left his hat and stick behind him.
I went immediately to the station-house in Seeth-
ing-lane, and from thence with some officers to Mr.
Grossmit.li's house, but we did not see him there.
I then went back to the station-house, and from
thence to Mr. Moore's, the surgeon, to have my
wounds dressed.

Cross-ex: wined by Mr. Sleigh—l have been head-
master of the school about six years. I was sum-
moned to this court upon a charge of assaulting Mr.
Grossmith's little boy, and upon that cliarg3 the
Lord Mayor held me td bail to take my trial, but
tl'le bill was ignored by the grand jury. I have also,
and since that time, been summoned on another
occasion on a charge of excessively belting the son
of the Rev. Mr. R,berts, who was a pupil in the
school, and who has since been removed from the
school. That summons was withdrawn; and the
charge, therefore' was not publicly investigated.
On the night when Mr. Grosmith came to me

he did not tell we his name bcfcre I opened the
door. If he had, I should not have opened the door.
When I opened the door, I do not recollect his
saying, "My poor child is dying," but only that
his child was 111. I did not hear him say, "I
have been forc.:d to carry him ups'airs to bed to-
night, as he is too ill to walk." When he got in he
did not endeavour to talk about the state of his

By Mr. Atkinson----The son of the Rev. Mr.
Roberts has been dismissed from my school for bad
behaviour arid fur crueLy to the other boys.
By Mr. Sleigh—The boy Roberts was dismissed
after the summons was taken out, but he had been
sent home once before, when he was brought back
by his mo:her.
Mr. F. G. Moore, surgeon, deposed that ou the
night of the assault he found some wounds on the
heal of Mr. May, 0110 of which divided the scalp,
but without injuring the bone, and also some
wounds on the arms. The wounds were not of a
dangerous character ; but they rencllred Mr. May
unfit to att.ind his duty, as it was necessary for him
to have perfect quiet. Witnei,s had been attending
Mr. May up to the present time.
After some corroborative evidence as to ths state
of Mr. May after the assault,
Mr. Atkinson vid his case was concluded..

Mr. May was then recalled at the desire of Mr.
Sleigh, and in reply to questions put by the
learned gentlemtn trough the Lord M tyor said
—I cannot tell whether Mr. Grossmith, when he
left my house, was bleeding likewise. Oa the oc
casion wh.m'l was summoned here for assaulting
his son, Mr. Grossutith offered to fo,.ego all pro-
ceedings against ma' if I would pay a sum of money
to tt,e poor-box, but I declined to do so.
Mr. Sleigh said he only wished that Mr. May
had acted in the same spirit now that had animated
the defendant on that occasion, and ho hoped that
he (Mr. Sleigh) should not now appeal to his
Christian feeling in vain. It would have been
better, under all the circumstances, if the case had
not teen brought to that court at all ; but being
there, Le hoped it would be disposed of in a sum-
mary manner. He bad been compelled to ask Mr.
May about Oe matter which give rise to this un-
fortunate case, as it was in consequence of the
weak and suffering state of his poor chill, a deli-
ode boy, who had been . getting gradually
worse since that time, and whose days perhaps
were numbered, that Mr. Grossmith sought Mr.
May for explanation. He did not meant ) say that
the child's coneition had been produced entirely by
the violence of Mr. May, but he would say that
the defendant was honestly under the impression
and belief that his child's days had been shortened
by the severity of the punishment that had been
inflict- d upon him ; and, knowing this fact, it was
with the greatest surprise that he had beard his
learned friend (Mr. Atkinson) characterise the
assault as one of the most malicious and unpro-
voked a'tacks that the mind of man could con-
ceive. That there had been assault in point of
law ho could not deny, but:it was plain the defen-
dant acted from the impulse of an injured man, to
whom explanation had been refused, after his ten-
derest feelings had been outraged. Ile asked the
Lord Mayor to deal with the mater summarily,
and though he did not ask the rev. prosecutor, in
the language of that gospel whore doctrines he
preached, to offer one &leek when the other bad
been smitten, or because his brother had offended
against him seven times, to forgive him seventy
times seven—he did appeal to him to show that he
was ikChristian minister, not only in profession but
also in practice and in.spirD, by, not throwitto-r4,
obstacle in the way of r: Azaanaary ..;et4lenierif or
matter by 4- pec,liiiin'y 4ne.
4tkinaiS; in reply, said it was a very painful
•

duty which he had to perform, for he felt as much as
Mr. Sleigh for the position in which the defendant
had placed himself, but it must Lot go forth into
the world that a man might at midnight go to a
house armed with such a stick as that which had
been produced, to demand explanations, and com-
mit a most murderous assault, if, at that unreason-
able hour, explanations were refused. As to the
evidence, it was of the most damnatory character,
and it was idle to talk of offering an apology after
such an assault. Taking all the circumstances into
account, it was for the Lord Mayor to decide whe-
ther the case did not come .under the law which
made an assault a felony. It was perfectly clear
that the defendant went forthe purpose of commit-
ting an assault, and not for explanation, and in his
(Mr. Atkinson's) opinion, the case came within
Peel's Ac', as it was called, so as to leave the Court
no choice in the matter, but to commit the defen-
dant for trial for felony.
The Lord Mayor—The evidence having been
gone into, the case is quite out of the hands of Mr.
May, and to my mind the evidence is quite conclu-
sive as to the nature of the assault, so that I can
only commit the defendant to take his trial for
felony.

Defendant, who left himself in the hands of his
legal adviser, was committed accordingly, but was
admitted to bail, himself in 2001. and two sureties
in 1001. each.

THE TRIALS OF SIR H. MEUX AND
LJDY DINORBEN.

(From, the Times.)
If a great scandal would burst and die we might
pass to windward and go on our way in silence.
But it is not the custom of such things to come
stillborn. They walk the town, they offend our
deceit instincts, they give occasion to the populace
to say to one another, " See that mean dirty thing.
It has escaped from a great house. All great houses
have familiars such as this, but they are kept close
at home." Nothing can be more natural, but no-
thing can be more unjust. When the private life
of some rich or noble house is revealed it is because
some unusual circumstance has disturbed its ordi-
nary tenor. The curtain always rises, not upon
a calm domestic scene, where every member of the
family is most unostentatiously employed in the
duties, the pleasures, and the affections of home ;
but there are 12. sworn jurors of puzzled aspect,
a judge much lamenting that he is obliged to play
the part of moderator in the great strife of conflict-
ing scandals, witnesses who have ransacked their
memories to prodtEle every little dark-coloured fact,
and a long array of lawyers, applying Vie micro-
scope of their venal rhetoric to every small word or
act, or scrap of writing. With these helps a small
matter may be worked up into a large scandal.
Moreover, the public does not always trouble itself
to distinguish between the fringes and skirtings and
the solid broadcloth. There are men and women
who figure in " high life" for the first and last time
in the report of a divorce case. It is not more just
to estimate the morals of our higher classes by the
proceedings in the House of Lords or the Court of
Chancery than it.would be to judge of our middle
classes by the reports of the Bankruptcy Courts, or
of ~ur lower classes by the revelations of the police
offices.

The past week saw the termination of two of these
uncomfortable cases which unfortunately do not
expend all their discredit upon those immediately
concerned in them. No one, we presume, would
care to become the historian of the house of Meux,
and it is fortunately unnecessary to go further back
in point of date than the year 1841, when the pre-
sent Sir Henry Meux, having passed through Eton
and Christchurch, and being strong in body, if not
in mind, succeeded to the Hertfordshire estate and
to the enormous profits of the brewery. How he
spent this income it is useless now to inquire. He
has three sisters, Lady Malden, Mrs. Arabin, and
Lady Smijth. Lady Malden previous to her marriage
had kept his house for him, and to her he had obli-
gations which he seems to have most generously dis.
charged. In 1855 this rich and prosperous man
married a daughter of Lord Ernest Bruce, and a
son was born to him. He was therefore at what
men call the height of his prosperity, when the
shadow of a terrible doom stole over him. Before
his son was born he made a will, leaving his real
property to any eldest son, and 20,0001. each to
any. other children he might have. His wife took a
life interest in the remainder, but his sisters were
not mentioned. The law, however, would remedy
this omission in case the infant son of Sir Henry
should die. Sir Henry's sisters would then take
as coheiresses on the termination of Lady Meux's
life interest. In July, 1857, Sir Henry made a
codicil to this will, and thereby left his property to
his children, but, if there should be no children,
then to his wife absolu'ely. B.3twe2n the will and
codicil, therefore, there is no practical difference if
the infant, Henry Bruce Meux, should grow up to
manhood. But there is a chance that this child
may die, and if that should happen the property
would, under the terms of the will, go to the sisters
after the.death of Lady Meux, and would go to the
widow absolutely under the terms of the codicil.
Sir Henry Meux has hecome an idiot. About that
there is no question. No one is interested in ques-
tioning it. The whole inquiry is a tight over the
anticipated or imagined grave of the infant b ay.
Tt.e object of the sisters is to prove that their bro-
ther was mad on the 31 of 3 uly, 1337 ; if it can be
established that he was sane up to the 41t of July
it is sufficient to answer the purposes of the wife.
It is an edifying contest, and the proceedings pre
serve a consistent relation to their object. It was
proved that before the close of 1856 Sir Henry shot
badly, and in some Cambridgeshire cover-shooting
shot General Hall in the leg. Lord Charles Ctinton
remarked that -it Henry had au impediment in his
speech, but was not drunk. The Hun. Charles
Butler found a difficulty in understanding what he
said. Sir Henry told a Mr. Blagg that certain
voters would vote for him whohe (sir. Blagg) knew
would not do so. Mr. Marjoribanks remarked
that he walked badly. Lord Ranelagh recom-
mended him to give up Hertfordshire and stand
for Middlesex, for the :ame reason, it is to be sup-
posed, as that given for Hamlet's being sent to
England. Moreover, when he canvassed he left
to his professional agents the work of persuasion,
and limited his own form of salutation to " Will
you vote for me ? I am the senior member." The
sisters three, moreover, in their anxiety for truth,
or in industrious prosecution of their case, ranged
the menia's of the household in their ranks. Sir
Henry had intimated a belief that his butler was a
liar, and had serutiuisel the weekly bills of his
French cook. The doctors, as usual, differed—' hey
differed in contraries and in contradieto-ries, they
differed ceteg rical!y and hypetheticilly, they dif-
fered subjectively and otijce.ively, they differed in
diagnosis and in treatment. Weighing their evi-
dence in a pair of scales, the overweight seems to be
the opinion of Sir Benjamin Brodie—namely, that
ho did not think Sir Henry's judgment upon the
qualification of an attorney worth much. We could
bnd 50 attorneys to say as much for Sir Benjamin
Brodie. Far be it from us to say that Sir Henry
was not quite mid when he shot badly, and walked
badly, and talked badly, and canvassed badly, and
doubted the veracity of his butler and profanely
questioned the accounts of his French cook. There
certainly were some other facts which would carry
the case rather further. But, if we must admit that
each of the imputed acts of commission and omis-
sion is au important item in an indictment against
a man's sanity, we must also tremble to think of the
mental cindition of 'natty people we have been
associating with for years. After a nine days'
wrangle, at a cat of some 6001. or 7001. a day, over
the broken intellect of this poor lunatic, the jury
came to the very sensible verdict that they could
not tell when his insanity assumed an aspect which
rendered him incapable of testamentary disposition.
They were right. As we approach and pass the sol-
stice we can can detect a change of temperature ;
but who can tell by his own mere organs of sense
at what moment he is passing the line ? The jury
seem to have felt that the inquiry, so far as
it was a contest, was unnecessary. Their de-
cision as t ) the validity of this codicil would
have been binding on no one. It was only an un-
seemly scramble for a better place in a future fight
—a fight only to com© off in case of the untimely
death of the baby. Throughout this melancholy
exhibition the palm of unhlushing coolness must
be awarded to Mr. Montagu Chambers. During a
contest wherein every champion bore as his motto
" Auri sacra fames," this philsophical and ethical
ornament of the Bar and •the Legislature read a
serious lecture to Lady Meux upon the evils of too
great riches, the disadvantages of wealth, to a
widow sought in marriage by an ardent lover, and
the danger of exciting the loquacity of an evil-
Ppeak'ng world which might accrue from the fact of
a mother having a pecuniary interest in the death
of her offspring. The delicacy and good taste of
this appeal, under the peculiar circumstances of the
case, cannot be too highly extolled.
What shall we say of the other cause ceebre of
the week ? The plot is so quaint that it remits us to
the French memoirs of the time of the Regency, or
to the earlier historiettes of the Court of good King
Charles 11. It may be stated in very few words.
A dowager lady of rank occupies her leisure in
writing scandalous anonymous letters of, to, and
about her nephew, and when ho expostulates
sends her brother, a fighting Colonel, who has
already "had the misfortune" to kill his man, to
demand satisfaction ; which we must suppose means
to shoot the nephew through the body, or at least
to break an Arm or leg. This new phase of nepotism
;Ha sttlimitt:d to the double lights of the police-
court and the Court of Queen's Bench. The un-
happy eoplacw, to avoid fighting the brother of big
11,110.0's wife, wag Gavelled to ono into court and

tell his sad tale of persecution. He had lived for six
'
years under a perpetual shower of filth. Wherever
he turned the postman met him with a letter, and
this letter always contained precisely thebmost dis-
agreeable thing that could be suggested to him at
that particular moment. There is a French farce
wherein the heroine is persecuted nearly to death
for repeating a little scandal. Having inadvertently
said that a gentleman's wife bad been unfaithful to
him, the husband makes her responsible for the
name of his rival. By every post, in every society,
wherever she may be, she receives a letter with the
unvarying inquiry, "Madame, s'il vous plait—son
nom." She found the persecution insufferable. So
Mr. Hughes, when he was about to be married,
found himself assailed by imputations that he was
insolvent, illegitimate, eaten up with the king's
evil, and subject to hereditary madness. When he
does get married he cannot receive his mother into
his own house but the postman arrives at his mother-
in-law's door with a protest. Even his housekeeper
is not allowed to pursue her course in peace, and
the butler is shot through the character by an epis-
tolary revolver. Now, a man may know himself to
be very solvent and very healthy, and may find the
society of his mother a solace, and may know his
servants to be honest, but still get impatient of a
pertinacious correspondence such as this. He may
be innocent of band boxes, and of those who carry
them, and yet not like to be called " Bat dbox
Hughes." But if the offence had terminated here
we need not have had a public esclandre. A private
exposure would have been sufficient; society would
have punished this Candia, who draws her poisons
from the inkpot. An old woman's spite and malig-
nity are not thought worthy of much notice, unless.
they could succeed in effecting mischief; and in this
case there was no special damage, as the lawyers
call it. Bat when these letters are followed up by
the visit of a fighting colonel and by public denial
upon oath of the authorship of the letters, we seem
to see a shameful act deepening in colour to a crime.
We are startled to find a woman of rank coming
into a ccurt of justice, and solemnly, in the face of
the world, committing what the jury found to be
perjury; but we have no right to be surprised that
a woman who could write the letters produced upon
this trial should try to shield herself from the dis-
grace of detection even by such awful means. The
jury have declared that the scandalous anonymous
letters which so persecuted poor Mr. Hughes were
written by Lady Dinorben, and this after she bad
appeared in the witness-box and had on her oath
repudiated them. The Judge's summing up and
the evidence in the case seem fully to bear out
the verdict. By a retributive piece of poetical
justice, the wickedest and most unwomanly
words which the letters contained wore written in
the natural handwriting of the writer.
We began by deprecating that habit of unjust
generalisation which imputes to a whole class the
irregularities of a few unworthy members, but we
have no mercy for persons in the enj Iment of dis-
tinctive titles and a certain social rank who commit
offences against good taste and proper delicacy of
feeling, still less when they commit crimes. Their
temptations are less and their edocat'on is better,
and their example is more pern thus, than when
the offenders are from the common ranks. They
are also more amenable to the voice of society than
to the whip of the law, and they must submit to
point a moral though they do not adorn a tale.