The Sun.
London, England, 1868-03-07 00:00:00

LAW AND POLICE.

WHAT CONSTITUTES AN UNRESERVED APPLICATION FOR
SHARES ?--There were two applications of importance

before Vice-Chancellor Stuart on Friday in the matter of
the Universal Banking Corporation. The first was an

application by one Mr. Harrison to have his name removed
from the list on which he had been placed as the holder of

fifty shares ; the other by the official liquidator to fix a
Mr. Rogers's name on the list as the holder of 100 shares.
Both these gentlemen had been induced to apply for the

shares on the understanding between them and an agent

of the company that they should be appointed local
directors or managers ; both had sent in the usual uncon-
ditional form of application for shares ; neither had paid
the deposit, and each had received an unconditional letter
of allotment. Subsequently to the allotment Mr. Har-
rison had by a letter declined "to undertake the
responsibilities and duties of the office proposed," but he
had neNer expressly withdrawn his application for shares ;
while Mr. Rogers, at an interview to which he was invited
by the manager on the subject of his appointment, had
said that he was unable to pay the deposit, was then told
that he could not have the appointment, and had a month
later written to request the return of his letter of applica-
tion. The Vice-CLancellor held that Mr. Harrison had
treated his agreement for the appointment as distinct from
his contract to take the sham-es, while Mr. Rogers's appli-

cation for shares was conditional on receiving the appoint-
ment ; he accordingly refused both motions with costs,
holding that Mr. Ilarrisoris name ought to be retained,
and Mr. Rogers's name ought not to be inserted on the
list of contributories. The official liquidator was allowed
his costs in Mr. Itegers's case out of the estate.
REFUSING TO BUY AFTER ACCEPTING AT AUCTION.—
Mr. Justice Lush has had before him, at the Lancaster
Assizes, the case of Smith v. Morton, which was an action
to recover the difference in price on the resale of a small
plot of land. The land in question was sold by auction by
the plaintiff, and,the:defendant bid £260 foiit, when it was
knocked down to him, and he afterwards signed the con-
tract of sale. He seemed, however, to have rued his pur-
chase, and then said that he only bid to raise the price as
a friend of the plaintiff's, he having heard the plaintiff
say that he would not sell the land for less than £270.
He refused thereupon to complete the purchase, and
the land was resold for £lOO less than on the previous sale.
To recover this sum and the expenses incurred the present
action was brought. The plaintiff had a verdict for £llB.
CONVICTION OF A BANK MANAGER.-:At the assizes at
Lancaster, Mr. David Nicol, manager of the Blackburn
branch of the Manchester and Liverpool District Bank,
has been convicted of forgery, and sentenced to fifteen
months' imprisonment, with hard labour.

A FRAUDULENT BANKRUPT.—At the Warwick Assizes

before Mr. Justice Hannen, John Pickburn pleaded
guilty to an indictment charging him with concealing and
embezzling property and omitting property from his
schedule, with intent to defraud his creditors. The
prisoner was a tinman and brazier, and was adjudicated
a bankrupt on his own petition, returning himself as with-
out assets. Information having been obtained that the
bankrupt had purchased quantities of metal from trades-
men in Birmingham, shortly before his bankruptcy,
which was unaccounted for either in his estate paper or on
his examination, a search was on the 28th of July insti-
tuted on his premises, when the goods in question were
found concealed in various places, a considerable quantity
of the metal being found in a pond near the house.
These facts having been brought under the notice of the
county court judge, he directed this prosecution to be

instituted. The prisoner was sentenced to ten months' im-
prisonment with hard labour.
UNLAWFULLY RECEIVING A LUNATIC.—At the Wor.
tester Assizes C. E. Sheward was charged before the
Lord Chief Baron with receiving a certain lunatic without
an order as required by the Lunacy Actl. Mr. Huddle-
ston, Q.C., said the prosecution was only instituted for the
purpose of carrying out the law. There was no suggestion
of improper treatment. The prisoner, having pleaded
guilty, was ordered to enter into his own recognisances to
appear if called upon.
BREACH OF PROMISE OF MARRIAGE.—At the North-
ampton Assizes Mr. Baron Martin had before him an
action by a Miss Plant for a breach of promise of marriage
against one Mr. Rawson. There was no doubt that the
defendant had promised marriage, and had broken his pro-
mise by marrying another woman. The only quistion was
one of damages. The plaintiff had given up a dressmaker's
business at the request of the defendant, who was a haber-
dasher. A verdict was given for plaintiff ; £75 damages.
ALLEGED FORGERY.—Mr. Goodman, a young man who
had been clerk to the Buenos Ayres Great Southern Rall-
way Company, was charged at the Mansion House on
Friday with having forged and uttered a cheque for £527
drawn on the bank of Messrs. Glyn and Co. Prisoner
was committed for ti ial.
SHOCKING CASE OF ALLEGED SEVERITY.— A very
shocking case of severity on the part of a schoolmistress,
of which an infant said to be not four years of age was
the victim, has been investigated at the Westminster
Police-court. Margaret Welch, aged 16, an assistant
teacher at the school connected with the Convent of St.
Vincent de Paul, Pimlico, was - charged with having im-
mersed the feet and legs of a child named Ellen Brown in
a copper of boiling water, whereby she was seriously
injured. The child appears to have been unwilling
to attend school. To punish her, she was "kept in"
after school hours ; a knife was called for to cut her
feet off for crying, and Miss Welch gave point to this
terrorism by taking out a pocket saw and chewing it to
the poor child. Eventually the little culprit was taken to
the wash-house, and set to stand on the side of an open
copper, in which clothes were boiling, four feet above the
ground. Somehow the child got into the copper, and its
legs as high as the knees were severely scalded. The
charge is that the governess actually put the child's legs
into the boiling fluid ; and the defence is that the child
slipped in. The case was adjourned for further evi-
dence,