The Sun.
London, England, 1868-05-04 00:00:00

LAW AND POLICE.

FATAL AFFRAY IN EDINBURGII.-At the Edinburgh
Police-court, a young man, named James Tweedie, was
remitted on a charge of culpable homicide, in causing the
death of a gentleman's servant, named John Kerr, in
Princes-street. It appears that on Wednesday evening
last Tweedie, Kerr, and two ladies were taking shelter
fram the rain under the porch of the Bedford Hotel,
when Kerr, it is said, used insulting language towards the
ladies. Tweedie reprimanded Kerr for his conduct, and
during an altercation which ensued Kerr struck Tweedie a
blow on the face. Tweedie did not retaliate at the time,
but he followed Kerr along Princes-street, and, when
opposite Waverley Bridge, attacked him and felled him to
the grovvl. Kerr's head came in contact with the kerb-
stone, a-v' h's skull was fractured. He was able to walk
home, but he afterwards sank rapidly, and died the follow-
ing night.

IMPORTANT DECISION WITH REGARD TO BANKS.—At
the sittings of the Court for the Consideration of Crown
Cases Reserved, the case of Regina v. Brackenbridge and
others came on for hearing. The prisoner was indicted
for engraving on a plate part of a promissory note pur
porting to be a banknote of the British Linen Company
(who were bankers in Scotland). The indictment was
framed under the 24th and 25th of Victoria, cap. 98, sec-
tion 16, which declared that whoever should, without
lawful authority, engrave, &c., any promissory note, &c.,
of the Governor and Company of the Bank of England
or of Ireland, or of any other body, corporation, or person
carrying on business as bankers, should be guilty of felony ;
but in the 55th section of the same Act it was stated that
it should extend to Scotland. The case was tried before
Mr. Justice Smith, when it was urged that, as this was a
forgery upon a bank in Scotland, this Act did not apply.
The counsel for the Crown urged that the 55th section, con.
taining the exception as to Scotland, was not intended by
the Legislature to prevent a prosecution for a forgery com-
mitted in England upon a bank in Scotland being sustained.
The Chief Baron said this was a very important question,
but the Court were of opinion that a bank in Scotland or
in the colonies must be taken to he included in this Act.
The conviction was, therefore, affirmed.
Is A CLERGYMAN ON DUTY LIABLE TO PAY TOLL ?—ln
the Court of Queen's Bench an appeal of the Rev. C.
Layard against a man named Overy was heard. This was
a case relating to a claim by a clergyman of exemption
from toll on going to visit a sick parishioner. It was an
appeal by the perpetual curate of St. John's, Wembly,
against a conviction by magistrates of Middlesex at Edg-
ware for denying payment of toll on the turnpike-road
between Rickmansworth and Sudbury. The facts were
that the rev. defendant was sent for on the day in ques-
tion to visit a sick parishioner within his parish, and that
he went to visit her in a pony carriage drawn by one
pony, and that he took with him in the carriage
wife and two daughters. He could have gone the whole
Iris
wife
way through his own parish, but thieedist, ce
Tollwas
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towas visit
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in favour
claimed, e col f
gre3fltlii secenodn, theconvicted
tt
magistrates, however,
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ys sick
taking
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his wife and daughter with him for an airing.

It is probable that the Rev. F. K. Leighton,
P.D., of All Souls', Oxford, will be offered the vacant
bishopric of Hereford.
Mn. PARRY, M. P., or THE SITITATION.—A letter
has been forwarded to a constituent by Mr. Parry, M.P.
for Boston. He says :—" I fear that the whole
movement is relapsing into a party strucgle, for the reten-
tion of power on the oae side and for the gain of it on the
other ; and I hold srong conscientious feelings a2a;nst the
Church, or indeed any religious community, being used
political party ends.

111 E LATE EDITION of " THE SUN" at
q W. SMITH'S, •' Camden Stores," 78, Park-street, Camden

0 ?fa.

LONDON, MONDAY, MAY 4, 1868.

We have now before us the particulars of the fare-
well dinner to CHARLES DICKENS, and they will be
found very interesting. So much attention has
been directed to all the details that have been fur-
nished of this visit to America that the closing
scene will not fail to be regarded with pleasure.
It is satisfactory to notice that the most perfect
success attended the affair, and that the feeling
which animated the assembly was throughout of
the most cordial and ftieudly character. Mr.
GREELEY commenced the speeches of the even-
ing, and related an interesting anecdote in
connection with the object of their meeting.
Thirty-four years ago he printed one of Mr.
DICKENS'S earlier stories in the first number of the
first journal with which his name was connected,
and where, in truth, he had met with a real
"David Copperfield in Italia." Alluding further
as to the manner in which their distinguished guest
had elevated himself, he said that he was not
ashamed of having come up " from the lower
rounds of the ladder of the press," and though none
of those present had reached so high, still his suc-
cess was a sign of hope and encouragement to every
one of them. "We are each successful in his triumph
in seeing how he has done ; how nobly, how untir-
ingly he has done it ; with what thorough success he
has preached the gospel of humanity, until even
nobles and kings have listened in admiration. I
say we have in this success of his an encouragement
to every one of us, saying ' far up higher.' " When
Mr. DICKENS rose to respond the enthusiasn_ and
excitement were so great that for some time he
could not be heard. During his speech he
referred to the extraordinary tales he
had heard of himself relating to his doings
in America, and the printed news which
bore reference to his doings and sayings had
amazed him more than any " printed news" he
had ever read in his life. All these marvellous
tales had been surpassed by the intimation that
he was compiling a work on America, which was
the more astounding as he had made it well known
to his publishers on both sides of the Atlantic that
he had positively declared that no consideration
would ever induce him to write another book on
America.

Considerable satisfaction was evidently expe-
rienced by the remarks which Mr. DICKENS made
as to his impressions on that his second visit to
America. He desired, he said, whenever oppor-
tunity offered itself, to express his high and grateful
sense of his second reception in America, and to
bear his honest testimony to " the national gene-
rosity and magnanimity." The changes which
have taken place since the period of Mr. DICKENS'S
last visit across the Atlantic have been striking and
almost marvellous. Those years, he admitted,
" have not passed without making changes
in me, and I am not so arrogant as to sup-
pose that I have nothing to learn and nothing
to correct in extreme impressions since I was here
first." This passage in his speech was loudly cheered,
and on his return to England Mr. DICKENS declared
that he should bear such testimony to the gigantic
changes in the country for the benefit of his country-
men, and also record his noble reception, and this ho
should have allied to every copy of the work in which
be alluded to America, not in love and cheerfulness,
but in justice and honour. Points of difference, of
course, there must ever be, hut that is not to be
wondered at, and, as it is effectively put here, it
rests with the two great nations to uphold the great
Anglo-Saxon race and all its achievements before
the world. Conseruing the chance of a war ever
taking place, Mr. DICKENS referred to the point in
the most spirited manner, and with real American
force of expression. He said that honest minds and
both sides the Atlantic must believe that it would
be better for this globe "to be riven by an earth-
quake, fired by a comet, overrun by an iceberg, and
abandoned to the Arctic fox and bear, than that it
should present the spectacle of those two great na-
tions, each of which has in its own way and hour,
striven so hard and so successfully for freedom, ever
again being arrayed the one against the other."

Mr. DICKENS read for the last time before an
American audience at Steinway Hall, and delivered
at the end some impressive remarks. The
shadow must pass, he said, which had been hovering
over them for some time, and in reading PEGOTTY'S
words he had felt their full significance, (g My
future life lies over the sea." The relations be-
tween him and his American listeners must be
broken for ever, in actual meaning, but in thought
and memory they would long survive. By the
winter fireside, or in the green English summer
weather, Mr. DICKENS has declared that he will
often recall to mind the assemblies that have lis-
tened to his words; and we belLve that the feeling
will be reciprocated, and that in long years
to come, when the shadows of life have
fallen and buried in oblivion much that now seems
important around us, there will be many to re-
member this visit of our great novelist and humorist
to the far West, and that they will tell their chil-
dren and impart to strangers the success which
attended his voyage across the broad Atlantic,
and it is not expecting too much to say that even
now we may derive great benefit in our mutual re-
lations with America from the kindly feelings and