The Sun.
London, England, 1857-05-04 00:00:00

BRISTOL AND EXETER.

Mr. J. B. Badham has resigned the office of se-
cretary to this line, which he has filled with much
ability since the formation of the company.
Ill-
health is the reason of Mr. B.'s retirement. Mr.
W. Harwood, acountant of the company, will, it is
understood, be appointed secretary in the room of
Mr. Badham.

INVERNESS AND ABERDEEN JUNCTION.
The half-yearly meeting was held at Inverness on
Wednesday.
The directors reported that all their works from
Keith to Nairn were in progress. The land ar-
rangements had all been completed, and although
calls had been more rapidly made than had been at
one time anticipated, the works would be the sooner
finished and earlier returns be obtained in conse-
quence. From the present state of the works it
was quite expected that the line from Keith to
Malban on the south end, and from Dalvey to
Nairn on the north end, would be opened in the
autumn.

Mr. GENTLE, of Dell, suggested that an amalga-
mation of interests should take place among the
northern companies, and it was answered that, as
respects the Inverness and Nairn, and the Inver-
ness and Aberdeen Junction, arrangements were in
progress with a view to their being united, but at
present no further union was contemplated.
The report was adopted, and the Marquis of
Staftbrd, Mr. W. J. Taylor, Mr. A. Matheson,
M.P., and the Hon. C. Bruce were re-elected di-
rectors.
It was stated tnat about eight hundred men are
at work on the line.

THE BANK OF LONDON AND THE JOINT-
STOCK COMPANIES JOURNAL.

At the Mansion House on Saturday Mr. Wm.
Cockburn (who a few days previously appeared in
answer to a summons which charged him with
having knowingly, willingly, and maliciously pub-
lisheda libel concerning the Bank of London), and.
Mr. John Lawson attended upon a summons charg-
ing them with having unlawfully conspired, com-
bined, and agreed together to injure the Bank of
London in their reputation and character of bankers.
Mr. Bodkin, instructed by Messrs. Tyrell, Paine,
and Co., again appeared in support of the prose-
cution.

Mr. Wontner attended for Mr. Cockburn, and
Mr. Metcalfe for Mr. Lawson.
Mr. Bodkin said—My Lord Mayor, the ad-
journment which took place when we were last
before your lordship, has procured the attend-
mice of the other defendant, Mr. Lawson, who
is now before you, and, leaving that indivi-
dual charge against Mr. Cockburn with respect
to which the lad Simms was taken into custody, for
the publication of that particular libel, as it at pre-
sent stand= it is for me now to give you a short
outline of the circumstances, which I am in a con-
dition to prove, as supportine this very serious
charge against both defendants. Mr. Cockburn,
when he was last before your lordship, said that
this was not so much an individual question as a
question of the freedom of the press. You may
remember that that was an observation that excited
the unrestrained risibility of even the spectators
around him. Freedom of thepress can have no con-
nexion whatever with a system of this kind ; and
those who are engaged in conducting or promoting
the respectable portion of the press of this country
would, I am sure, be first to denounce and condemn
and, if they could, to assist in punishing, those
who engage in proceedings such as I am in a
condition to prove against the defendants.
Whatever exteut the commentaries of the press of
this kingdom may be permitted, no man can doubt
that to use the press for the purpose either of
gratifying private malignity or of extorting money
from others is a system that cannot for a mementbe
tolerated in any civilised country. Your lordship is
aware what has led to this charge ; it was the ap-
prehension of the lad who was examined beforeyou
when we wore here last, but I am now in a condi-
tion distinctly to show that from the period when,
as you are aware, a person of the name of Pringle
was taken into custody and committed from this
place to the Central Criminal Court for trial, for en-
deavouring by letter to extort money from the Bank
of London, he at that time representing himself to
have been acting on behalf ot the defendant, Me.
Lawson—from that period this system of annoy-
ance has continued to the present time. Of course
that attempt of Pringleto extort money from them
entirely failed, and the directors of the bank
would indeed be open to the suggestion that they
were not persons who were fit to be entrusted
with the management of a great commercial
concern if they would from any private motives
of their own, or from a desire to escape any
portion of the consequences of the malignity of
others, permit themselves for a moment to be de-
terred from the performance of their duty by at-
tempts such as those that I attribute to the two de-
fendants before you. Now on that occasion your
lordship is aware that the man Pringle, who very
much as it seems to me stood in a situation if not
identical at least analogous to that which the de-
fendants now occupy, namely, that he was an in-
strument in the hands of Mr. Lawson, although it
is impossible to say he was an innocent instrument,
yet upon that occasion he was, from considerations
which I need not now go into, treated with a
leniency which I will not say was misplaced as it re-
garded him. Your lordship is aware that upon a
public recantation of what he had uttered, and pro-
mises not to repeat the offence, be was permitted
to go at large without the stain upon his character
which would have resulted from a conviction of the
offence with which he was then charged. I have
no evidence in my power at present to show that
Pringle has since that period mire I himself up
with any similar proceeding, and I hope that the
leniency which was then shown him has had a good
effect upon his conduct. But from that period Mr.
Lawson, who was, there cannot be a doubt, the
person who put Pringle in motion, has sought by
every means in his power to assail and injure the
character and reputation of the Bank of London,
whether for the purpose of gratifying his malignity,
in consequence of his failing to establish his claim,
or pretended claim, that he said be had upon the
directors, or for the purpose of inducing them to
purchase peace by the sacrifice of a portion of the
funds of the shareholders of the bank, I do not
know. It is sufficient for me to show that he has
been the means of carrying on this system of an-
noyance through the publication in question—the
Joint Stock Companies Journal—in which from the
time when Pringle was permitted togo, article after
article has appeared, calculated beyond all doubt to
lower the opinion of the public with respect to the
credit and stability of this bank. Now I am in a
condition to show you that Mr. Lawson employed a
printer for the printing of this newspaper. I shall
call a gentleman before you who was so employed
by him. Mr. Lawson is supposed to be (and I be-
lieve with good reason) the author, the writer, if
not of all, at least of several of the articles in ques-
tion ; and although some pains have been taken by
the defendants to get back from the printer the
manuscripts which have been sent there, and the
proofs which have been corrected by Mr. Lawson,
yet still some have been left behind, and I am in a
condition to put them before you and to prove be-
yond all doubt that his handwriting was used in
the correction of these proofs. I shall also prove
that he ordered the printing, and that he held him-
self to be, as I believe he is, the propriet and con-
ductor f this journal. Now, that being so, he
seems to have called in to his aid the other defend-
ant who stands by his side, Mr. Cockburn, and
then, by means altogether unheard of with respect
to any publication claiming the character of or ap-
proach to respectability, they have resorted to th e
expedient of getting this journal hawked about by
these wretched boys ; and in order that the annoy-
ance might be as complete as possible the boys
have been sent through the public streets with these
placards hung round their necks, and have been
ordered to leave these libels in the various banking
houses in the neighbourhood of the Bank of Lon-
don. In fact the defendants have conducted them-
selves in every possible way with a view to ruin the
reputation and character of the bank against which
their efforts have been levelled. That is the nature
of the case that I am now in a condition to prove
against both of these persons, and the charge is that
of having wickedly conspired to injure those gentle-
men who are carrying on this very great commercial
concern in the City, by the publication of defama-
tory matters such as those of which I have eiven
you a specimen, and some more of which it will be
my dtry hereafter to read. Now something has been
said about the right of public writers to comment
upon the transactions of the day. No doubt that
is a right which it would be very greatly to the in-
jury ot the people of this country if it were im-
properly limited or restrained, but I think you
will see' from the way in which this pub-
lication has been concocted and carried on, that
those who encouraged it were not actuated by any
bona fide intention or motive of eelightenine or
instructing the public, but that they were fully
aware at the time they embarked in it, from the
fact of their trying to cover their proceedings with
mystery and disguise, that they were engaged in
an illegal course of conduct. For instance, Mr.
Lawson, who, I understand, is either a clerk or
employed in some capacity in the City of London
Poor-law Union, whose office is in St. Mary-axe,
in the City, introduced himself or is introduced to
the printer, whom I shall call before you, under
the male of Mr. Williams, and not under his own
name, in order that there should be no means of
tracing to him him any evil deed of which any
person had a right to complain. I also stated be-
fore, and I repeat, that there is no entry of this
journal at the Stamp-office at Somerset-house, as
is usual. There is great difficulty in tracing, on
the part of any person who may be injured by any
article in it, who are the people to be held in any de-
gree responsible for the publication. An observation
escaped me the other day with respect to this publica-
tion which I described as a " cheap publication." I
was corrected, and told that its price was fourpence,
and I find that that is so, but I beg that it may be
understood that in stating that I did not intend
making the slighteft reflection upon cheap publica
tions, some of which undoubtedly contribute
largely to the instruction, education, and amuse-
ment of the people ; and I should be very sorry to
make any observations to their prejudice. But I
am sure that with any respectable journal, and at
whatever price it may be published, you will always
have the means of finding out who are the parties
connected with it, that they will not sail under false
colours, or endeavour to screen themselves by the
adoption of false names ; that they will give to
those of whose conduct, through inadvertence,
they have complained, the opportunity of correct-
ing any misstatements which may have been made
respecting them, and that they will readily furnish
the names of the authors of misstatements, with a
view of granting redress. As I said before, this
system of annoyance has gone on till it has been
found a matter of impossibility to bear with it any
longer, and having snored in the matter, it is the
inteution of the directors of the Bank of London to
prosecute this charge with that vigour which I am
sure will enable them to put down a system of so
base and infamous a nature as that which has been
pursued by these defendants.
Mr. Paul Graham, of the firm of Graham and
Co., printers, New Street-square, was then sworn,

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, MAY_ 4, 1857.