The Sun.
London, England, 1868-06-04 00:00:00

LAW AND POLICE.

CuAncus OF MISCONDUCT BY A CORONEII.—In the Lord
Chalicelior's Court charges brought by Sir Chas. Anderson,
Bart., and others against Mr. Charles Henry Holgate,
coroner of the Parts of Lindsey, in Lincolnshire, have been
heard. It seems that the justices were so dissatisfied with
the conduct of the gentleman in question, that a committee
was appointed to report as to the accuracy of some
rumours that were heard. The committee reported
to the effect that Mr. Holgate's conduct when applied
to for the purpose of or when holding an inquest had been
indecent and improper, that he had excluded medical wit-
nesses on certain occasions, and that he bad behaved
improperly with regard to pecuniary transactions, viz., in
taking receipts from witnesses and neglecting to pay them,
&c. In one of the affidavits the deponent stated that
the coroner was accustomed to smoke a short pipe at
inquests, and hail refused to hold an inquiry
as to the death of an old woman, aged 80, when applied
to by the police, and on that particular occasion he made
use of the words, " It is time the old devil was dead,
unless she thought she was going to live for ever." In
the affidavit filed by Mr. Holgate he denied gene-
rally most of the accusations, but admitted smoking
a short pipe at inquests. After hearing the arguments
the Lord Chancellor delivered a long and lucid judgment,
concluding with saying that he had no alternative but to
direct that a writ of de coranatore exonerando should be
is. ued.

PAroRTANT TO SHAREHOLDERS.—In the same court the
Lord Chancellor decided the case of Kent v. the Freehold
Land and Lrickmaking Company. The plaintiff,Mr. Kent,
applied for 100 shares in the company, which had been
established very shortly before, on the 7th of November,
18C5, and paid a deposit. They Were allotted to him on
the 16th of November, and he received the certificate for
them on the 3rd of January, 1866. In February and in
May in that year calls were made of £1 a share, and paid
by him. On the 2nd of April he received a quarter's
dividend of £6 14s. 11d. A second quarter's dividend
became due on the 16th of May, but was never paid.
On the 13th of August he received notice of a third call,
but having in the meantime, as he alleged, discovered
grow misrepresentations in the prospectus, on the faith of
which he had applied for his shares, he did not pay it ;
and on the Bth of October, an action having been com-
menced against him, he filed a bill against the
company, the directors, and the promoter, to have the
register of the company rectified by removing his name.
lle charged, among other things, that the prospectus con-
tained fraudulent misrepresentations as to the price at
which the property which the company was to work had been
sold, the proportion of capital subscribed by the directors,
and the number of shares taken by the vendor of the property.
The Lord Chancellor said that he could not distinguish
the case from that decided by the House of Lords, in re
Overend, Gurney, and Co., and the bill would therefore
he dismissed.

JUDGES AND THEIR PRIVILEGES.—In the Court of Ex-
chequer, the important question of " Can a judge be sued
for slander uttered in his judicial capacity ?" was decided.
Mr. Scott, an accountant and scrivener, brought an action
in which he claimed £2,000 damages against Mr. J. S tansfeld,
the well-known county court judge of one of the districts
of Yorkshire. The words were made use of when a judg-
ment was delivered, and were these : " You are a harpy,
preying on the vitals of the poor." The defendant
relied on the 15th and 16th Vic., cap. 54, sec. 6, and
9th and 10th Vic., cap. 95, sec. 138 ; but the plaintiff,
in his replication thereto, set forth that the
words were made use of maliciously and with•
out cause. The Lord Chief Baron, in his judgment,
said that the court were of opinion that no action could be
maintained against a county court judge for language
spoken by him in the hearing of a case, even if it were
spoken as alleged in the replication.

THE CHARGES AGAINST A CHURCH CLERGYMAN.— The
case of Moss v. the Rev. Joshua Charles Edwards, rector
of Ingoldswell, Lincolnshire, has been proceeded with,
and is now complete, with 01: e ception of the judgment.
The defendant, who is charged with immoral conduct with
two young women, conductbd his own case, and called the
females in question, who denied that anything imprA,'"
had occurred.

TIIE CIIARGE AGAINST A RAILWAY SEEM NRY.—At
the Mansion House, Edward Bannister Ca ow was
charged on remand with forging six cheques. It will be
remembered that the prisoner was secretary to the Ellam
Valley Railway Company, and absconded, and the next
time lie was heard of was in \Vhitecross-street prison.
After he had been absent a short time it was discovered
that six cheques were missing from the cheque-book.
Evidence was given that the accused, on the same day
that two of the cheques were drawn, had changed some
banknotes for a large amount for some of less value. The
prisoner was again remanded.

SERIOUS CHARGE AGAINST POLICEMEN.-At the Gates-
head Police-court, Police-constable Wilson, stationed at
Ryton, and Police-constable Young, stationed at Craw-
crook, were charged with a very serious offence. A pit-
man was sent to prison for two months for stabbing
Wilson ; but their superintendent has since discovered that
they committed perjury, and has made a charge against
them. The case was adjourned for a week.

EMBEZZLMIENT.-At the Portsmouth Borough Police-
court, on Wednesday, Mr. Henry Hollingsworth, the late
secretary to the Southsea Pier Company, was committed
for trial on a charge of embezzlement. Bail (himself in
£5OO and two sureties of £250 each) was accepted.

OUTBREAK OF A NEW CATTLE PLAGUE.—A
very subtle and terribly fatal disease is now raging among
the cattle in some portions of Illinois. Over one hundred
head have fallen victims to it within the past few days. It
usually kills in a few hours. No premonitory warnings
are given, and although all the skill in the possession of
ordinary practitioners has been brought to bear upon it, it
yields to no remedy or treatment, and is fatal in every
instance. Its name and nature have not yet been de-
termined.

BULLION. —The computed real value of the regis-
_ tered imports of gold and silver bullion and specie into the
United Kingdom from various countries during 1867 was
£23,821,047. Of this sum £61,446 came from Russia,
£216,682 from the Manse Towns, £37,143 frOm Holland,
£23,338 from Belgium, £1,338,462 from France, £341.,244
from Portugal, Azores, and Madeira, £26,751 from Spain
and Canaries, £89,078 from Gibraltar, £54,312fr0m Malta,
£52,328 from Turkey, £106,388 from Egypt, £149,430
from the W est Coast of Africa, £22,425 from British
possessions in Africa, £205,328 from British India,
£5,801,720 from Australia, £2,335 from British Columbia,
£148,718 from the British North American Provinces,
£7,840,862 from Mexico, South. America (except Brazil),
and West Indies, £688,141 from Brazil, £6,408,006 from
the United States, and £66,005 from other countries.
By a comparison of imports during the past nine years,
it appears that those of gold reached their maximum
in 1866 and their minimum in 1861, and that the
largest imports of silver occurred in 1859, and the smallest
in 1861.