The Sun.
London, England, 1868-03-02 00:00:00

LOANS ON SHARES.

On Saturday Vice-Unancenor M dins gave judgment in
the case of Langton v. Waite, which had been previously
argued. In December 1865 the plaintiff, Charles Langton,
being the _holder of £22,000 of the stock of the Grand
Trunk Railway of Canada, and being desirous of bor-
rowing £6,000, applied to the defendant for the purpose,
and after some negotiation an advance was effected for
three months at 7i per cent. per annum, the railway
stock being transferred to the defendant as security.
About the middle of February 1866 the plaintiff sold the
£22,000 stock so pledged at 42 per cent., and to enable him to
complete the transaction he applied, through his agents,
to the stockbrokers acting for the defendant to be al-
lowed to pay off the £6,000 with interest for the whole
period for which the money had been boriowed. The
defendant, however, refused to re-transfer the• stock before
the expiration of three months, and the plaintiff, in conse-
quence, was obliged to pay to the purchaser the differ-
ence between the pr:c2 at which he agreed to sell and
the price at which the same amount of stock was subse-
quently bou.,ait by the purchaser, the amount of the
difference being £BBO. In j ursuanee of his contra
Mr. Langton repaid th £6,009 and interest on t'l3
28th of March, and thereupon the £.22,000 stock was
retransferred to his name ; but subsequently, on discover-
ing that defendant had on the 14th and 15th of February
sold his stock at 46, and had afterwards replaced it at a
much lower rate, making, as it was alleged, a profit of
£3,000, this suit was instituted to enfores the plaintiff's
claim to the profit so made. The demand was resisted by
the defendant on the grounds—first, that the contract was
with ltlev.rs. Price and Putt, the stockbrokers, and not
with Mr. Langton ; secondly, that the sale and repurchase
of the stock was right in itself and in accordance with
the contract ; and thirdly, that it was in accordance with
the custom of thy Stock Exchange, which enabled the
lender of money on the security of stock to deal with
such stock in any way he thought fit during the period of
the loan, unless there was an express stipulation to the
contrary.

The Vice-Chancellor said the law was clearly settled
that a principal might sue on a contract entered into on
his behalf by an agent, though his name was wholly
concealed at the time of the transaction, and in this
case, the parties on both sides being brokers, the
defendant mast have known that Messrs. Price were only
agents for the borrower. But if there had been any
doubt upon the subject it must have been removed by the
production of the transfer executed by the plaintiff.
The second ground of defence also failed, the law
being that in the absence of express contract, the
pa,wnee of property could not sell it till the debt
for which it was pledged became payable. Then as to the
custom of the Stock Exchange, which was the point mainly
relied on, a custom which gave the lender of money on
security power to sell the security whenever he thought
proper would be manifestly unjust, because it would place
the borrower completely at the mercy of the lender, who
might convert the security, appropriate the proceeds to
his own use, and at the expiration of the loan be unable
to hand over to the borrower that which belonged to
him. And the evidence, including that of the deputy
chairman of the committee of the Stock Exchange, went to
shew that there was no rule or custom authorising the sale
of stock deposited as security. There was no dispute as
to the right to transfer the pledge to another person, and
it would be very hard upon the lender if he were not per-
mitted to do so ; but with ,regard to any power of selling
the security, the 6th rule of the Stock Exchange was con-
clusive, the words being, " In all cases of loans on the
deposit of securities, the lender is bound to return the iden-
tical securities deposited, unless it is otherwise stipu-
lated at the time of making the loan." The defendant
had, therefore, no right to sell the stock, and if it had not
been for that wrongful sale he would no doubt have been
reacly in the middle of February to retransfer the security
to the plaintiff, who would lrava been saved the loss
incurred by him on the sale of the stock. There must be
a declaration that the defendant was not entitled to sell
the £22,000 stock, and an account taken of the proceeds
of the sale, the amount so found to be handed over to
the plaintiff. The costs of the suit must be paid by the
defendant.

THE EDUCATION OF THE LABOURING CLASSES.-,,
A general meeting of the Shropshire Chamber of Agricul-
ture has been held at Shrewsbury, for the purpose of dis-
cussing, and passing resolutions upon, the question of
the education of the labouring easses in rural districts.
On the motion of Mr. D. F. Atcherley, a landowner in
the county, the following. resolutions were unani-
mously adopted :-1. " That such a modification of the
system of the Committee of the Council on Education is
required as will enable small agricultural parishes, and
those remote from towns, to provide elementary education
on the spot for the children of small occupiers of land and
of agricultural labourers." 2. "That this meeting, whilst
c:wdially approving of the extension in rural parishes of
the voluntary principle in education, desires to express its
disapproval of that which is compulsory." Mr. IL Jasper
Moore, M.P., au:l pre3ident of tha Central Chamber of
Agriculture, successfully moved that the alternate clay
system of edu ation enforced by Cie Factory,- Acts, and re
comtnnuled by l'..ofea3or Fawcett in his bill, and by Pro%
fessor Leone L':vi in his recent report to the House of
Commons, is not applicable to the condition of agricul.
tural labourers." Mr. Meiro, a tenant farmer, moved ar
amendment to the effect that "The voluntary system
having proved inadequate to the purposes of education,
more especially in the agricultural districts, it is desirable
that a local rate, based upon income tax and property tax
be levied for that object." This amendment, however,
found no seconder. At the conclusion of the discussion,
deputies were appointed to attend the council meeting of
the Central Chamber, to be held in London this week, for
the purpose of discussing the general question of educa.
tional legislation.

ROMAN AFFAIRS.

(From the Roman Correspondent of the Westminster Gazette.)

ROME, February 22.
The Pope has been going his usual round of
the Carnevale santificato. On Tuesday morn-
ing to the Caravita and Bambin' Jesii, where,
I am told, he pronounced a very moving
address ; also to the convent of the Sepolte vive,
one of the strictest of orders, as.may be gathered
from its name. On Thursday to San Lorenzo
in Damaso ; on Monday he will go to the Jesit,
and so on. Nor has he forgone his afternoon
drives, as I believe is usual at this season. On
Wednesday he again drove up Monte Mario,
and came down the hill on foot. Another day
I met him walking in the Villa Doria Gardens
—and walking briskly, too. Indeed, as I heard
an enthusiastic bystander exclaim as he drove
by, over the Ponte Sisto on Monday—" He
seems to grow younger, instead of older, like
other men !'

We are now in full carnival. Thursday,
known as Giovedi grass° is always one of the
gayest days. The people are fully in it, and
many of the shops all over the town were shut
to enable the people belonging to them to
attend the festivities of the Corso. The num-
ber of wheeled pageants was not very great,
but there was a large proportion of costumed
throwers of confetti among the pedestrians,
and most vigorous was the throwing between
them and the well-filled balconies all through
the day. The masked festini at the theatres
were crowded, as well as many others in pri-
vate houses, the return of the popular orders
from which in joyous parties with timbrel and
song might be heard all through the night.
If any stories reach you of conflicts between
soldiers and bourgeois, do not believe them.
It is curious how these things get originated.
I have sifted one or two that were brought
me, and found them to have arisen from silly
misapprehension of details, aided by great ex-
aggeration. Besides this, I have constantly
observed the greatest good humour prevailing
between the military and civilians in their joint
merry-making. By way of sample, I saw a
bourgeois who was apparently paying more at-
tention to the showers of sugar plums falling
from above than to the obstructions impeding
the footway, fall flat on his face on the pave,
very likely tripped up by some of the mischiev-
ous urchins who, as may be imagined, swarm
in the Corso in these days, ready for any
impish trick. Instantly three Frenchmen of
the Roman Legion, who were disporting them-
selves near, raised him up and carried him,
without regard to the damage to their uni-
forms from the blood streaming from his face,
to a pastry-cook's shop, where they bathed
his face with cold water, and continued their
attentions until they had thoroughly set him
to-rights again. .
Probably an ungrounded fear of collisions
has operated to keep some of our countrymen
away from the Corso. They have certainly not
appeared there in their usual force. For some
reason the file of soldiers who used to keep the
line of the race has been omitted from the pro-
gramme this year ; of course it gives the ap-
pearance of greater sans ggne, but it has re-
moved a very useful restraint on the eagerness
of the foolhardy multitude, who, in spite of all
remonstrance, will press forward to get the
nearest stand to the flying scud of riderless
horses, or the scarcely less rapid flight of the
Mossa of dragoons which precedes them. The
consequence has been that one or two people
have been knocked down, though I do not
think there has been any serious accident.

The great event of the week has been the
ball at Prince Doria's to celebrate the betrothal
of his daughter, Donna Gwendoline, with
Marchese Somaglia of Milan, which I men-
tioned some three months ago. The wedding
is to take place on the last day of carnival, but
weddings are comparatively quiet affairs here;
the gaiety of the matter centres in the betrothal
ball. Nothing can surpass the splendour of
this one, which, in the hospitality of its in-
vitations, as well as in the sumptuousness of
its arrangements and the brilliant display of
bridal gifts, was princely indeed.

I have not spoken lately of expectations of
another invasion, lest one should become weari-
some by repetition, but you know the spring
was long ago fixed as the time to look out of
it, and the belief in this continues to exist
here. Rumours continue also to reach us of
red-shirts weaving, and their wearers gather-
ing round our frontier. Another six weeks
is the span of breathing time to which they
limit us, and many are the words quoted from
high authorities, including the Pope himself,
which float about in confirmation of them.
Meantime the arrivals of recruits for the
Zo uave and other regiments continue with un-
abated activity, and among them this week are
some good English names again. The Dutch
continue also to keep up the proportion they
have attained. It is very remarkable, and I
do not think the fact can be too muchpressed
on home attention, how nobly and unboastfully
this little country is represented in the ranks
of the Pope's defenders. Besides not a few
in the Swiss Rifles, there must be some 3,000
in the Zouaves, and yet the Catholic population
of Holland must be both smaller and less
wealthy than that of England. The follow-
ing st atistics of Dutch Catholicity may not be
uninteresting at the present moment :
Holland is now divided into five dioceses,
each furnished with its own seminaries. Vari-
ous religious orders for both sexes are repre-
sented by flourishing houses. A Dutch priest
fonn ded twenty-six years ago a congregation
of Brothers of the Immaculate Conception for
the education of children of the middle and
poorer classes. It alreadynumbers eight houses.
A year earlier four nuns of our Lady of Mercy
established themselves at Amsterdam ; and,
when they went to nurse one of their sick poor,
it had to be by stealth, and by a circuitous route
of back streets. Now their numbers are con-
siderably augmented. They pass through any
quarter unmolested, and their services are even
sought after by the very Protestants.
Sisters of Charity have been established in
Holland for 37 years past. There are nearly
1,000 of them in 68 houses, and their schools
are attended by 24,000 children. There are
112 in Amsterdam alone. The Society of St.
Vincent de Paul has 124 conferences fully re-
cognized by the State.

Now that Austria has removed the prohi-
bition against recruiting for the Papal army,
we are promised a strong reinforcement of
young nobles from Hungary, with equipments,
arms, and horses, and money enough to save
them from being any charge to, the Papal Ex-
chequer.
Portugal also is shaking off her torpor, and
promising some recruits. From Prussia they
come too in sufficient numbers to testify to
the good feeling of the Catholic population in
that country. There, as in other countries,
the greatest praise is due to the committees
whose zeal is so efficacibusly employed in pro-
viding the Pontifical army, not only with men,
but also with cloth for uniforms, linen, books,
provisions, and even pay, so as to obviate as
much as possible breaking in on the Peter's
Pence. The popular movement there in favour
of the Holy See is leading the Government
more and more every day to strengthen its
assurances of support to the Holy Father.
True, jealousy of France has some part in
this also, and " Beware of Napoleon ' is as
much Herr von Arnim's advice
,as " Rely on
King William."
France, meantime, seeks to hide her projects,
which the friends of the Empire let out but too
plainly. And Austria continues her fatal down
ward path towards the borders of an abyss from
which it would seem that nothing—not even
the present awakening of her population to
the needs of Catholicity—can save her.

In the midst of all 'the Holy See obntinues
to observe the utmost prudence and reserve,
committing itself to the policy of no one
country in particular, but pursuing its own
line steadily, and without suffering itself to be
lured aside.

The Trappists have entered into possession
of their new establishment at the Tre Fontane.
Cardinal Milesi-Ferretti, a relation of the Pope,