The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-25 00:00:00

LAW INTELLIGENCE, Feb. 23.

EQUITY COURTS.

(Sittings at Nisi Prins, at Guildhall, before Mr.
Justice Blackburn and a Common Jury.)
lIOLTON AND WIFE V. BEVAN-ASSAULT.

This was an action brought to recover compensa-
tion in damages for an assault.
Mr. Huddleston and Mr. Griflits were counsel
for the plaintiffs, and Mr. Hawkins and Mr. Field
were for the defendant. _ _

The plaintiff, Robert Holton, was a butler in the
service of the defendant, Mr. Bevan,. who is a ma-
gistrate of Northamptonshire and a London banker.
The other plaintiff; Eliza Holton, wife of Robert
Holton' was engaged as laundress by the defendant
at a salary of £BO per annum, with a cottage to
live in in the village close to Mr. Bevan's seat.
The female plaintiff said that in October last she
received a month's notice to leave the defendant's
service, and that shortly afterwards Mr. Bevan
came to her cottage about 9 at night, and ordered
her to take in some clothes which were hanging out
in the drying ground. She replied that she would
do so as fast as she could. The defendant said he
would have, them brought in at once, and holding
up hiz, stick said "Don't force me to extremities—
I will make you go and latiar, them in," She hsid
" No, sir, you will not." AlCerwards the defendant
left. On a subsequent occasion he came with Mrs.
Good, who was to be her successor, and wished to
show her over the house. Witness refused to per-
mit the defendant to enter her bedroom, as she did
not like gentlemen to go there. She was on the
top of the stairs, and the defendant took her by the
arms and threw her down the stairs. She broke her
fall, and fell on her back, but he followed her and
pushed her down the rest of the stairs. She was then
in the family way, which the defendant knew, and
she sustained severe injuries. He said he would
not be beat by a woman. Her hands and mouth
bled and her body was bruised. On reaching the
bottom of the stairs she locked the front door, and
the defendant struggled with her violently to obtain
the key. He succeeded in getting the key, and
went out. She followed for the purpose of fetching
her husband, when he jammed the gate against her
leg, and said he would not have such a wicked
woman on his premises, adding she was a low wo-
man, and must have come from St. Giles's or Bil-
lingsgate. She had a black eye, and she suffered
much internally.
On being cross-examined she denied having a bad
temper, observing, " but I'm an English woman,
and I don't like to be put upon by anybody, big or
little." (Laughter.) Mr. Bevan, she said, was
lame, and had two wooden fingers. She did not
lay hold of his hat, but kicked it out, and he flung
a chair after her. When she locked the door she
said, " You have come here for your own pleasure,
and now you shall stop for mine," as she wanted
to keep him till her husband came. She called
him a good-for.nothing villain and a cowardly cur
to meddle with a woman, and said he dared not
say anything but to women and boys. He called
her a liar, and said, " He, he! I can laugh at you
now." The witness in conclusion, admitted that she
might have said, "If you were a boy I'd dash your
brains out," but denied that she was very violent.
(Laughter.) On being re-examined, she said that
her father, who was 71 years of age, lived with her,
and she took care of him. The witness, on leaving
the box, went into hysterics and had to be taken
out of court. After the occurrence detailed above,
Mr. Levy was employed to write to Mr. Bevan for
compensation for the assault, and the reply received
was in the following terms :
" Mr. Bevan presents his compliments to Mr.
Levy, and in answer to his courteous communica-
tion begs to say he should be glad to postpone till
after the hunting season the consideration of the
matter of Mrs. Holton's charge of brutal and savage
attack, and then to take Mr. Levy's opinion on the
subject. Mr. Bevan has not set up an attorney at pre-
sent—in short, he can't afford to keep one, but will be
happy to receive anything from Mr. Levy per-
sonally. Mr. Bevan's engagements taking him
much from home, begs to say he may be found at
two places where the hounds meet, and as a friendly
hint advises any one wishing to hold communica-
tion with him on those days to come well mounted
on something that can jump high. Air. Levy will
understand this, no doubt."
Other witnesses were called in support of the
plaintiff's case, including the husband, who created
much laughter by saying, in answer to a question,
he did not know whether his wife had chapped lips
because he never felt them.
Mr. Hawkins, who made an amusing speech for
the defence, contended that Mr. Bevan had acted
in the kindest manner to Mrs. Holton, having only
endeavoured to make an inspection of his own house,
and when she resisted merely pushed her gently
aside. With regard to the alleged injuries, it was
remarkable that the blow said to have been inflicted

on Thursday did not produce a black eye till the
Sunday following. When she went to the doctor
he merely gave her a soothing draught, which was
necessary becausQ she had put herself in a violent
passion. After this affair the husband had a fine
baby produced to him, and it was outside the court

in long clothes and made no complaint. (Laughter.)
Could that have been the case if she had been in-
jured in the way described? As to the letter
written to Mr. Levy in answer to his application
for compensation, Mr. Bevan thought the best way
was to deal with the matter in a jocular way, and
it probably occurred to him that it would have been
a treat to have seen Levy in the hunting field on
horseback, and his little clerk riding on a smaller
animal. It was not unlikely, however, that if
they had gone upon such an expedition they would
never have heard of poor Levy again. (Laughter.)
Mr. Bevan, the defendant, was then called, and
in the course of his evidence said, when he went to
the cottage he heard Mrs. Holton calling him a
blackguard and other epithets. She then came
upstairs and said no one should see her rooms. She
used very abusive and impertinent language • she
put herself in such a position that he was regularly
jammed up. He wished her to go downstairs, and
she refused. He then took her by the elbow and
pushed her four feet six inches to the head of the
stairs. She turned round and seized him by both
hands, and said, " If 1 go downstairs you shall go
too." With some difficulty he disengaged himself,
and in doing so he pulled her back in a sitting pos-
ture on the second step, with her feet on the third
or fourth. She immediately got up and walked
down the remaining stairs. He solemnly swore he
did not push her down. She called hire all sorts of
names and said he was afraid to strike her. The
defendant also stated that he always carried a stick
because he was lame, and that he had shot off two
of his fingers.
In cross-examir.ation he said he had never been
pulled up by a servant. He had flogged a stable
boy on the back with an ash plant many a time. Ile
never compensated their friends. He only gave
them that which they afterwards thanked him for
—wholesome chastisement. lie was trained in the
same way himself in a public school. He admitted
snatching a sheet out of Mrs. Holton's hand. He
was annoyed, but he was a remarkably placid man.
He constantly shook his stick when he was speak-
ing to any one.
Other evidence having been given for the defence,
Mr. C. Noble, a surgeon, said when he saw Mrs.
Holton on the Thursday she showed him a mark on
the back of her hand and on her elbow ; be asked
her if she had received any other injuries, and she
said none. She observed that she had powerful
friends who would at once be set to work, and said,
" I think I had better go to bed and take a compos-
ing draught.' Witness replied, " I think you had,
and keep in a quiet state." She seemed as if she
had been put out, and he sent her a composing
draught. He saw no black-eye, or any other iriju.
ries than those he had mentioned.
The learned Judge having briefly summed up the
case,

The
a verdictjur
jury retired,
forthe
and on returning into court
gave
plaintiff—damages one
farthing.

COURT oF coMMON PLEAS.

Sittings at Nisi Prius—in London—(Before Lord
Chief Justice Erie and a Special Jury.)
THE PATENT TYPE FOUNDING COMPANY V. RICHARD
AND ANOTHER-ALLEGED INFRINGEMENT OF A PATENT.
This was an action to recover damages upon the
ground that the defendants had infringed a patent,
for an improved manufacture of type.
Mr. Lush, Mr. Hindmarch, and Mr. Gates op.
peared for the plaintiffs; and Mr. Knowles, Mr.
Grove, and Mr. Webster for the defendants.
It was stated by the plaintiffs' counsel that the
patent in question was taken out in 1854, by Mr.
Johnson, and this patent was now vested in the
plaintiffs. The defendants, MessrE. Miller and
Richard, were extensive type founders in Edin-
burgh. Before Mr. Johnson's patent type was
made out of a combination of lead and anti-
mony, there being about seventy-five per cent. of
lead. Various attempts had been made to harden
type metal,
zinc, and in the exhibition of 18M there was
some persons using copper and others
shown a French invention for making type out of
copper wire by pressure without fusion. It turned
out, however, that copper would not stand wash-
ing, and the invention, therefore, became useless.
Mr. Johnson had been engaged
since 1849 in in-
quiring into the matter, and he was aware that a
small proportion of tin had been put into type
metal to make it " tougher," but nobody had used
it to " harden" the metal. It could not be accoun-
ted for chemically that a larger proportion of a
soft metal should make the compound harder ; but
Mr. Johnson found that by using a large pro-
portion of tha be could make a metal that would
fuse readily, cool quickly, and come out so
hard that you could use the metal AO a punc4