The Sun.
London, England, 1866-02-12 00:00:00

THEATRICAL LICENCES

Mr. LOCKE asked the Secretary of State for the Home
Department whether his attention had been directed to the
present state of the law as to the licensing of theatres and
other places of amusement in the metropolis ; and whether
it was his intention to bring in a bill on the subject?
Sir G. GREY said his attention had been called to the
matter, which was a very complicated one, and principally
retained in old and obsolete statutes. The Under Secre-
tary of State intended to move for a committee to consider
those laws, and that inquiry had better take place before
any alteration was attempted to be made in the law. The
committee would be moved for on au early day.
a POOR IN THE METROPOLIS. _ _

Viscount CidI4I3OURTE TsiTeli;eFresident of the
Poor-law Board whether it was his intention to introduce
any measure for more effectually securing the execution of
the laws relating to the poor in the metropolis?
Mr. VILLIERS said it was the intention of the Govern-
ment to introduce a bill on the subject. The measure was
founded upon the report of the committee appointed in the
last Parliament.

SUEZ CANAL.
Mr. SANDFORD asked the Under Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs whether the award of the Emperor of the
French in the affairs of the Suez Canal had been definitively
accepted; and, if so, whether her Majesty's Government
adhere to that award, and whether they would lay the
papers relating to it upon the table of the house ?
Mr. LAYARD said the award of the French Govern-
ment was not yet complete, and therefore he could not at
the present moment give the hon. member the information
he required.

THE ELECTION FOR KING'S COUNTY-BREACH

OF PRIVILEGE.
Mr. AYRTON called attention to what he considered
was a very grave breach of the privileges of Parliament.
The rights of members elected to seats in that house had
been greatly violated, and some very stringent notice
ought to be taken of the matter. At the last elec-
tion for the King's County, at which there were
throe candidates, and for which the returning officer
made a return that Sir Patrick O'Brien had been selected,
it afterwards turned out on the poll books being counted
up that the election had fallen upon Mr. Pope Hennessey.
That gentleman was prevented taking his seat in the
house in consequence of his name not baying been re-
turned at the top of the poll by the Under-Slieriff of
the county, xvho acted as returning officer on the occasion
He characterised the blunders committed by the returning
officer as a disgrace to a schoolboy, and the extent of the
evil, he said, could not be fully imagined, because, through
the mistake of a returning officer, it was possible for a
Prime Minister to be kept from taking his seat in con-
sequence of the blunder of one of the returning officers.
He moved that the Sheriff for King's county be called to
the bar of the house, and be examined with respect to the
mattter.

The motion having been seconded,
Sir P. 0. BRIEN pledged his honour as a gentleman,
that he believed that he had a majority of votes on the
occasion of the last election for the King's county. He
would say no more, but leave the house while the matter
was under discussion. _ _ _

The ATTORNEY-GENERAL thought the house
ought not to agree to the motion of the hon. member,
because there were rules laid down for their guidance,
which it would be unwise to depart from. In the matters
of disputed elections a petition was to be presented
and recognisances entered into, and then a thorough in-
vestigation was made into all matters connected with the
said election. He did not think it would be advisable that
this practice should be altered and its place taken by an
examination viva voce at the bar of the house. He thought
after an hon. member of that house had pledged his honour
that he believed he had been duly elected, the hon. mem-
ber for the Tower Hamlets would withdraw his motion.
Mr. AYRTON said, after the declaration of the hon.
member, he should not persevere with his motion.
The motion was then by leave withdrawn.
THE CATTLE PLAGUE BILL.

Sir G. GREY, in rising to bring in this bill, said it was
unfortunately but too true that the cattle plague had be-
come so prevalent that some action on the part of Parlia-
ment was urgently and immediately required. The right
hon. gentleman having alluded to the various efforts that
had been made to stay the plague without success, said
meetings had been held all over the country, and one
of the last resolutions passed at the Council of the Royal
Agricultural Society, and which had been placed in the
hands of the Government that day was that, "no method
of dealing with the cattle plague at the present time
will be of any avail unless it provides for the immediate
slaughter and burial at lest 6 feet deep of all cattle suffer-
ing from the disease ; making compensation to the owners
in such mode and extent as shall be considered advisable."
That was the opinion of various important bodies, amongst
which was the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scot-
land ; and as all efforts to arrest the progress of the disease
had signally failed, and all suggestion had failed to effect
a cure, it appeared to the Government that
the only way of stopping the dangerous disease was the
immediate slaughtering of all animals affected with the
terrible disease. (Hear, hear.) It had been strongly
urged on the Government that during the exist-
ence of the cattle plague all imported cattle,
sheep and swine should be slaughtered at the port at which
they might be landed, and that their dides, skins, and fat
be disinfected there, but he might as well mention that
Ireland would not come under the general bill, but would be
dealt within a separate measure. The bill of the Government
directed that the local authorities of counties and boroughs
should at once order that all animals affected by the dis-
ease should be slaughtered, and that adequate compensa-
gi.o.o bu 8. van. whaula bialowor• ie.:-
animals affected in comparison with those not at present
visibly so. The scale of compensation would be two-thirds
of the value of the animals slaughtered.
[LEFT SPEAKING.]

LAW INTELLIGENCE.—This Day.

COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH.

(Sittings at Nisi Prins before the Lord Chief Justice
and a Special Jury.)
CAMPBELL V. LORD WENLOCIC.

The hearing of this case was resumed, and the
following witnesses were called for the defence :
Benjamin Kearsley said that he had been em-
ployed on different occasions by Lord Wenlock to
work at houses which he had taken from time to
time in London, and was engaged in taking down
bedsteads at 49, Eaton-place on the 28th of April
last. He found 16 bugs in the front attic at the
head-board. He sent for Mr. Abbott, and during
the absence of his messenger he killed seven more
bugs. A housemaid of Colonel Campbell's was at
work in the house, and she admitted to hitu that
the room had not been cleaned for three or four
months before. He sent for some water and soda,
and found afterwards between 20 and 30 bugs.
There were enough of the vermin to infest a whole
house in warm weather. He put up the bed that
came from his lordship's house in Yorkshire, which
were quite clean and packed in clean matting. He
examined them carefully.

Ellen llardcastle said she was one of the house-
maids in Lord Wenlock's family. She went to the
house in Eaton-place on Saturday, the 22d of April
last. She slept in the back attic, and something
bit her during the night. She struck the light, but
could find nothing. The next night she slept in the
back room below, but was not disturbed then. Tho
day before she was with Mr. Abbott in the best bed-
room where the four-post bed was, and while the
bed was being cleaned something was brushed on
Mr. Abbott's face. He put his hand to his head
and killed abug. He handed it to her and said is not
this a new thing ? (Laughter.) On the Friday after she
was in the front attic with Mr. Abbott, he killed
about 18 or 20 bugs. The next day she found five
or six bugs on the floor crushed. 2
The witness was cross-examined. He understood
that bugs took three weeks before the birth, and 11
weeks before they became an insect.
whenß b
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laugh.)
h d.
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Henry Tiffin—He was a professor of naturalll:l not know
philosophy with respect to these insects. (Laughter.)
He made it his business to destroy them, and he
was considered efficient. Bugs increased very
rapidly. If the weather were warm eggs were laid
in June or early in July. After the eggs were laid
the bug came out of them in about a fortnight.
(Laughter.) One bug could produce as many as
90 during the season. Bugs travelled about the
house, and on one occasion he had seen a troop
of 15 walking leisurely up stairs. (Laughter.)
Mr. Bovill—l suppose they walk down stairs
also ?

Witness—Oh, yes.
Mr. Bovill—Up stairs, down stairs, and into
my lady's chamber. (Great laughter.)

This closed the evidence for the defence•

His lordship having summed up,
The jury then retired, and after an absence of
one hour and 40 minutes, returned a verdict for
plaintiff for 500 guineas, the full amount claimed.

---
The Fatal Accident on the Great Western

Railway.

INQUEST TIIIS DAY.
BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
LEAMINGTON, Feb. 12.
An inquest was held at the Town-hall this day
evidence, the
deathjury ; returnedan
dthat
on the body of Daniel Giles, who was killed on
a
no blame whatever
the Great Western Railway, near Leamington, on
Saturday.
unAanfitinermills verdicteari
hearing
gihe
"Accidental of
,A
attached to any of the com-
pany's servants."