The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-12 00:00:00

LAW AND POLICE.

A CAB PROPRIETOR AND THE PRIVILEGED CABHEN.—
A. curious case of assault arising out of the recent cab
strike came before the Clerkenwell magistrates on Satur-
day. The complainant was a cab proprietor, and on arriv-
ing at King's-cross Station entered a cub. He was recog-
nised by the " privileged cabmen," and on refusing to alight
was taken round to the place where cabs are washed. The
horse was taken out, the cab tilted up, by which complainant
was much hurt, and several buckets of water emptied upon
him. The driver of the cab was charged with the assault,
but the magistrate held that complainant's proper course
would have been to have summoned the cab-driver instead
of refusing to alight, and that he had thereby brought
much of what had occurred upon himself. The defendant,
therefore, was fined only 40s. and 2s. costs.
SAD RESULT OF DRUNKENNESS.-At the county magus-
trates' office, Canterbury, on Saturday last, a ladylike
person, named Catherine Herron, who appeared in court
attired in deep mourning, and is said to be highly con-
vected, was brought up in the custody of the police,
charged with stealing an article of clothing at Herne
Bay. The evidence adduced at the inquiry shewed that
on the preceding Thursday the prisoner, who had been
staying at the Bay, entered the house of a person named
Farley whilst the worse for drink, and stole a child's
jacket, which she afterwards disposed of at a shop in
Herne Bay. The magistrates ordered the accused to
undergo twenty-one days' imprisonment in the gaol at
Maidstone.

PERSONAL LIIGGAGE.—A case of great importance to
railway travellers was heard at the Exeter County Court
on Friday, before Mr. Serjeant Petersdorff. The question
raised was, What can be deemed the correct definition
of the term " personal luggage," with respect to the obli-
gations of railway companies in the event of luggage being
lost by them? The case arose on a suit for damages against
the South Devon Railway Company on account of the
removal by the company of a box containing photographic
apparatus from the train at Teignmouth, instead of send-
ing it on to Bovey Tracey, where the plaintiff was going.
The judge, referring to Mr. Marshall's work on the liabili-
ties of railway companies, said it was there laid down that
" the obligation to carry the luggage of a passenger, and
the responsibility for its safety as common carriers, does
not apply to goods unconnected with the personal use,
comfort, or convenience of the passenger." In the case
of Phillips v. the London and North-Western Rail-
way Company, it was decided that a solicitor's docu-
ments in an action in which he was professionally
engaged could not be regarded as personal luggage ; and,
in a case against the Midland Railway Company, argued
in the Court of Exchequer, it was held that an artist's
pencil sketches were not his personal luggage. The test,
therefore, was whether the articles were necessary for the
personal use and convenience of the traveller. If they
did not fall within that description, the owner was not
entitled to seek compensation from a company, and he
must decide unequivocally that a mechanical apparatus
used for the purpose of photography could not fall within
the description of personal luggage. The plaintiff was
accordingly nonsuited.
THE RACHEL CASE.--It is feared that the public have
not yet heard the last of the Rachel-Borradaile scandal.
It has been stated that civil proceedings will be taken to
obtain the restitution of the money obtained from the
prosecutrix, and in that case the convict would be
examined as a witness. Hitherto she has been excluded
from giving her version of the transactions.

A. statement has reached Cork that the Govern-
ment had ordered the discharge of six of the Fenian con-
victs confined in Dartmoor Prison. The only name men-
tioned in connection with this act of clemency is that of
Edward Brophy, who, it will be remembered, was arrested
at Sandymount, Dublin, in September 1865, in connection
with James Stephens. Brophy was sentenced to ten years'
penal servitude. We don't make the statement on
authority, but as the indirect intimation of the fact,
which one of their relations in this city received.—
Cork Examiner.

STABBING CASES.—Several serious cases of stab-
bing were disposed of at the Thames Police-court, on
Saturday. In one a negro was charged with stabbing an
Irish shipmate, and the latter being in a dying state at the
hospital the prisoner was remanded. In another a seaman
was charged with stabbing the chief mate and attempting
to murder the captain of his ship when on the high seas ;
and in a third an American stands charged with the
murder of a shipmate. The two latter are committed for
trial.

A HACKNEYED SUBJECT.—It sometimes would
appear that Pope's aphorism is reversed, and that the
proper study of mankind is woman. We counted no
fewer than three articles in a late number of a popular
journal devoted to this one theme, and penned with a
caustic earnestness of purpose that suggests a division of
the sexes beyond the pale of ritualism. Nor have women
themselves ceased to damage their own cause. All the
folly, in fact, of both sexes has exercised itself on the
position of women. Lecturers, male and female, discuss
woman, her nature, and her mission, as though she were
some abstract animal, instead of being half the human
race : while not a few transcendentalists despise a partner-
ship of rights to assert an aptitude for universal dominion,
and would reduce man to the servitude of which Cuddie
Headrigg was so sensible, who had all his life been trodden
down by women. " There was first my mither, then there
was Leddy Margaret, didna let me ca' my soul my ain ;
and now I hae gotten a wife, and she's like to tak' the
guiding o' me a'thegither." Jenny only anticipates much
feminine pretension of our age in her reply, " And amna
I the best guide ever ye had in a' your life?"-:-Blackwood's
314;azine.