The Sun.
London, England, 1866-12-24 00:00:00

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE—This Day.

LONDON, Dec. 24.—Wind this day at noon—South-
Westerly ; light breeze, and cloudy weather, with a
slight fog.
SWANSEA, Dec. 22.—Wind S.W—Arrived—Favourito,
from Prince Edward's Island.

PORTSMOUTH, Dec. 23.—Wind variable.—Sailed—Ro-
bert Jones, for the Canary Islands ; Willem Jacobus, for
S urinam.

PLYMOUTH, Dec. 23.—Wind W.S.W.—Arrived.—
Norseman, screw steamer, from the Cape of Good Hope.
(Br TELEGRAPH.

PLYMOUTH, Monday Morning.

Her Majesty's screw steamship Gibraltar, 81, Captain
Rabert Coote, from the Meditterranean, arrived in the
Sound this morning. Her crew will be paid off, and she
will be paid out of commission.
GRAVESEND, Monday Morning.

Arrived, Dec. 23—Haabet, from Yetod ; Marsdon, from
Cronstadt ; Ida; from St. Valery ; Result from Guernsey.
Arrived, Dec. 24—North of Scotland, from Hernosand ;
Jean Bort, from Gravelines ; Catherine, from Christiania ;
Planet, steamer, from Hamburg ; Thetis, steamer, from
Lisbon; Maas, steamer, from Hamburg ; Seine et Tamlse,
steamer, from Paris; Dolphin, steamer, from Antwerp;
Lion, steamer, from Dantzic.

DEAL, Monday Morning.

No arrivals.

The Duke of Beaufort's Salmon Fisheries.

IMPORTANT DECISION OF THE FISHERY
COMMISSIONERS.

CHEPSTOW, Saturday.

To-day the special commissioners for inquiring into the
legality of fixed nets and other engines on the salmon rivers
of England delivered their judgment on the claims made by
the Duke of Beaufort to certain cribs and stopping-nets on
the river Wye, between Monmouth and• Chepstow, which
had been argued before them on the previous day. Mr.
Hughes, barrister, of the South Wales circuit, supported
the duke's claim.

Tho Chairman of the commission, James Paterson, Esq., in
delivering judgment, described the nature of the engines
olaitned. A crib is an artificial bank of stone, projecting into
the river, for the sole purpose of cre..ting b
current, within which is placed a stopping-net s
(held
byr back
men
with poles in a boat), and a boat fixed to the soil with
stakes. They had uo doubt that the whole of these things
taken together constituted a fixed engine, while the crib
taken by itself was a weir, and as such came within the
things prohibited in navigable rivers by the statute of 25
Edward 111. The direct evidence of antiquity required
could seldom or never be produced, but there must at least
be evidence of such a continuous modern use that the prior
existence of the thing might be reasonably inferred from
what had followed. In the present case the claimant had
produced in most of the instances not only evidence of user
during living memory, but had fortified his case with docu-
ments of title of the most extensive kind. Letters patent
of 6 Charles 1., relating to the manor of Monmouth, ex-
pressly mentioned weirs, banks, fisheries, and fishings. The
document of title relating to the other manors were also of
the widest description, and they formed such a basis for the
modern user that the two things coupled together made
up a chain of title which might reasonably be presumed to
reach back as far as the time of Edward L In the numer-
ous claims made by his grace they had carefully considered
all the evidence of user during living memory, and wherein
that had been satisfactorily established they had come to
the conclusion that such crib or stop-net existed from be-
fore the reign of Edward 1., and was now legal. Accord-
ingly, going through the list of his grace's claims in the
several fisheries of Monmouth Fshery, Redbrook Fishery,
and Upper Fishery, extending along the Wye from Mon-
mouth to Chepstow Bridge, the commissioners declared
legal the greater part of the cribs and stopping-nets claizned,
abolishing those only in respect of which the proof of user
according to the rules laid down above was not satisfactory.
They, however, declared that the number of stop-nets and
boats to be used at one time at all the, places named must
be limited to 13.

JUDGES ALWAYS AT FAULT.

(From Punch.)

The report of an assault case which occurred in the
Court of Common Pleas, before Lord Chief Justice Bovil
and a special jury, the other day, contains the subjoined
passage, commencing with a statement given in evidonce:
" The defendant would not let the cabman into the
house, saying, Don't put your foot insido my door, or you
will have to pay fifty bob.' (Laughter.)
"The Lord Chief Justice—Fifty "What ?
" Mr. Stratton (examining counsel) it means shillings,
my lord." _ _

There is one particular wherein the learning of learned
judges appears to be commonly at fault. Their lordships
in general evince a remarkable unacquaintanee with those
synonyms which, amongst the masses, are usually substi-
tuted for words which have a place in "Johnson's Die-
'
tionary.,, In short, no judge ever seems to understand
slang. As, for instance, when a witness is undergoing an
examination, and there ensues a colloquy of this sort :--
Counsel—And then you said, what ?
Witness—And then I said, " Here's me and aßill agin
you two and that other bloke."
Judge—What does he say, Brother Gabbles ?
Counsel —Bloke, my Lud ; a word in use among the
humbler classes. It means man.

Judgo—Homo or rir?
Counsel (griming) Vi r my Lud.

Judge—Very well ; go on.
Counsel (to witness)—And then you said, " Here's me
and Bill agin you two and that other bloke." Well, and
what did the prisoner say?
Witness—He said I'm good for two-and-a•kick.