The Sun.
London, England, 1868-08-07 00:00:00

LAW AND POLICE.

HEAVY DAMAGES AGAINST A RAILWAY tOMPANY.—At
the Wells Assizes an action has been brought by Mr.
Thatcher, a commercial traveller, against the Cambrian
Railway Company for injuries sustained by him through
the negligence of the company. The plaintiff was a pas-
senger on the defendants' line in May last, and
when at Welchpool a serious collision occurred, in which
he sustained injuries. The company admitted that they
had been guilty of negligence, and the only question was
as to the amount of compensation, which it was ultimately
agreed should be £1,750.
MURDER OF A WIFE.—At the same assizes William
Hayward was indicted for the wilful murdtr of Ann Hay-
ward on the 7th of May last. On the day in question the
prisoner, the deceased, and her brother had taken break-
fast, when the latter went out of the house, but in a short
time was called back by the accused. Best (the brother)
was alarmed, and going inside the house he saw his sister
sitting on a chair, quite dead ; her dress was oa fire,
smoking. He immediately gave an alarm, and several
persons came to the house. Upon a hasty examination it
appeared that the poor woman had been shot. One of
the persons said, " Well, William, you have done it now."
He :replied, " Yes, it can't be helped." There was
a gun in the room which had been recently
discharged, and there was a strong smell of powder
in the room. Best said to the prisoner, "You
rogue, you have shot my sister !" The prisoner replied,
" Have I? " The gun had been unloaded some ten days
previously ; there were caps and powder and shot in a
drawer in the pantry. It was proved most conclusively
that the prisoner was of unsound mind, and such being
the case he was ordered to be detained during her
Majesty's pleasure.
STRANGE CASES OF PERJURY. —At the same assizes,
three young men, named Payne, Hooper, and Woodland,
were indicted for perjury. The prosecutor, Mr.
Hawkins, was a gentleman who devotes much of
his time to scientific researches, and had a boy named
Bowden in his employ, whom he dismissed.
Soon afterwards the boy's mother took out. a summons
against the prisoner for immoral conduct, which was dis-
missed without Mr. Hawkins being called on for his
defence. The prosecutor then summoned Bowden for
attempting to extort money. That charge was dismissed,
but directly after Bowden and Payne, one of the
Prisoners in the present case, took out separate sum-
monses for indecent assaults against Mr. Hawkins, but at
the bearing Payne was committed forperjury, and the other
prisoner, who had given evidence for Payne, was also
indicted. After the case had proceeded some way, Mr.
Trevor, the clerk of the county magistrates for the division
of Bridgwater, was called to produce the information and
depositions of Payne which contained the alleged perjury,
when it appeared from the evidence of Mr. Trevor that
the deposition of Payne bad never been read over to him
by the magistrates or their clerk before lie signed it. The
learned judge thereupon decided that the indictments
could not be sustained, and the prisoners were acquitted.
Mr. Justice Mellor expressed his surprise at the care-
lessness of the magistrates, and remarked that the case
did not fail on its merits, but on technical objections.
ACTION AGAINST THE LONDON AND NORTH-WESTERN
RAILWAY.—At the Manchester Assizes an action was
brought against the above-named company for injuries
sustained by a collision on their line. The plaintiff was a
passenger by the defendants' train from Hindley Green to
Wigan on the 14th of December last, and after proceeding
until within 300 or 400 yards of Wigan Station the train
ran into a luggage train, and the consequence was that the
plaintiff bad his head severely cut, his knees contused, and
suffered other injuries of a general character. The jury
gave £455 damages.
ATTEMPTING TO AD3IINISTER POISON.—At the same
assizes, Robert Wilkinson was indicted for attempting to
administer poison to a man named Wolfenden. The
prisoner's mother held a policy of assurance on the life of
the prosecutor, and on the day in question the accused
waited for Wolfenden till he left work, and then accom-
.panied him to a public-house, where they partook of ale.
, The prisoner offered to pay for a glass for Wolfenden,
and went out of the room, but almost immediately

reappeared with a glass of ale, but Wolfenden noticed
something floating on the top, and refused to drink it. It
was ascertained by an analytical test that the ale contained
sufficient opium to cause death. The prisoner was
sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment with hard
labour.

ALLEGED MURDER BY A SOLDIER.—At the Westminster
Police-court, John Bowler, a private in the Grenadier
Guards, was charged with causing the death of William
Pemberton, a comrade. The parties were in the canteen,
and after having some high words the deceased made use
of an offensive epithet, when the accused knocked him
down and kicked him with sufficient violence to cause
death. It was elicited that the cause of the quarrel was
the deceased kissing a woman in the canteen. The
accused was remanded on a charge of wilful murder.
IMPORTANT ACTION FOR LIBEL—The action for libel
raised by Sir Joseph M`Kenna against Mr. Usborne, a
large shareholder in the National Bank, has been com-
menced at Cork. Mr. Sullivan, Q.C., in opening the case,
said that Mr. Usborne had urged Sir J. M'Kenna to ad-
vance him £lO,OOO of the bank money, to be applied in
enhancing the shares of the hank in the market; and on
S:r J. M`Kenna refusing to sanction this proposition, Mr.
Usborne addressed a letter to the directors of the bank,
stating that Sir Joseph M`Kenna's name appeared as
director in connection with certain disreputable schemes.
The case has not concluded.

The Liverpool Town Council have resolved to
increase the salary of Major Grcig, the head constAble,
from MO to Xl,OOO per annum.