The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-14 00:00:00

LAW AND POLICE.

Tat IaNgRAL, TRADING COMPANY.—Vice-Chancellor
Wdod had beiore him a motion to disallow a claim by one
Mi. Pratt for £2OO, in the Matter of the winding-up of the
General Trading Company. appeared that Mr. Pratt
was the owner of 100 shares in Harper Twelvetrees
(Limited), and he had paid the sum of £3OO in respect of
them. Harper Twelvetrees some time ago ceased business,
and the assets were assigned to a then new company, the
General Trading Company, which was now under process
of winding-up. Mr. Pratt objected to the proposal for the
assignment of the business at the time it was made, and it
was agreed that he should be paid £2OO, the amount now
in dispute. It was contended, on the part of the official
liquidator, that the arrangement was an improper one, but
the Vice-Chancellor said he saw nothing improper in it.
and the claim must therefore be allowed.

WAsoN V. WALTER.—An application was made in
the Court of Queen's Bench, on the part of Mr. Rigby
Wason, for a rule nisi for a new trial in the case of Wason
v. Walter, which was tried before the Lord Chief Justice
during the after-term sittings in the City of London. This
was the action, to which so much attention was called,
against Mr. Walter, the publisher and part-proprietor of
the Times, for an alleged libel contained in certain speeches
delivered in the House of Lords during a debate on a
petition, presented by Earl Russell from the plaintiff, con-
taining certain charges against Sir Fitzroy Kelly. The
speeches in question were published in the ordinary course,
and commented on by the defendant. The trial resulted
in a verdict for the defendant on all the issues. The charge
of the Lord Chief Justice was excepted to on the ground
that his lordship had informed the jury that if they
believed that the report of the debate in question was a
bond fide report, and was in no respect a partial report,
the defendant was justified in reporting it ; and that, if
they were of opinion that the comments of the defendant
upon the debate constituted a fair and reasonable criticism
of a matter of public interest—as the subject matter of the
petition admittedly was—the defendant was not liable in an
action of libel. The Court granted the application, as the
question of privilege was so important.
FORDITA.II V. THE LONDON, BRIGHTON, AND SOUTH
COAST RAILWAY.—In the Court of Common Pleas an ap-
plication was made for a rule nisi for a new trial in the
above case. It was an action for damages for injury. It
appeared that the plaintiff was, on the Ist SeptAnber last,
a passenger on the defendants' line, and, in getting into
the carriage at Syclenham station he laid hold of the
door in such a way that his left hand was between the
door and the jamb. He stepped into the carriage ; but
before he was completely in a porter or guard shut the door
and violently pinched the plaintiff's hand, and so for a con-
siderable time deprived him of its use. The plaintiff
claimed damages for; this injury, and.at the trial, before
Mr. Justice Byles, he recovered a verdict for £25. It was
now submitted that there was no evidence of any negli-
gence in shutting the door, or at all events that there wt. s
contributory negligence on the part of the plaintiff, in
placing his hand in almost the only place where injury
could happen to it, and the application was granted.

EXCESSIVE DAILIGES.—A rule nisi for a new trial was
also granted in the case of Barker v. the Lancashire and
Yorkshire Railway Company, also an action for damage
for injury through negligence. It was said that the
damages (£1,250) were excessive, as the medical evidence
was contradictory, and the plaintiff had fallen down some
steps after the accident. from which, it was alleged, he had
obtained injury.

FORGERY ON THE LONDON AND COUNTY BANK.—A
series of forgeries upon the London and County Bank
has been investigated at the Alansion House. On the
13th December 1866 a blank cheque-book was stolen from
a parcel sent to the branch bank at Ifalstead, and the
next day and at intervals afterwards the accused, a well-
dressed man of 35, named 'William Dolby, into whose
hands the book had fallen, drew cheques upon the bank
which by various devices he induced tradesmen and others
to cash. Several cases having been proved, Mr. Mullen
asked for and obtained a remand.

POLLUTION OF RIVERS BY GAS WASIIINGS.-011T
readers may nct be aware of the great mischief which is
occasioned by gas companies allowing the water used in
the manufacture of gas to flow into streams and rivers, and
of the penalties which the companies render themselves
liable to for that offence. The water thus polluted is not
only rendered unfit for use, but is Co poisonous a 3 to injure
health and even to destroy life. On the 15th of last No-
vember a quantity of gas washings was allowed to flow
from the Barnsley Gasworks into the town sewer, and
thence into the rivers Dearne and Dan, and the pollution
of those streams was so great as to call for the interference
of the gentry and inhabitants of the district, who insti-
tuted an inquiry, with a view to enforcing the provisions
of the Nuisances Removal Act, 1855, by which any gas
company allowing gas water or gas washings to flow into
any river, stream, or reservoir, aqueduct, or other place
for water, or any drain communicating therewith, shall

i forfeit for every offence the sum of £2OO. It has been
i judicially decided that this Act applies to an involuntary
Proceeding or accident as well as to a wilful violation of
the provisions of the Act. The Barnsley Gas Company
having ascertained and admitted that the offence had been
committed accidentally by some of their servants, have
been met in a liberal spirit by the persons injured by the
pollution ; and we hear that all proceedings to enforce the
£2OO penalty have been withdrawn on the company pay-
ing £2O and the costs incurred. By arrangement the above
sum has been this week paid to the Beckett Dispensary,
one of the most useful of the Barnsley charities. We give
publicity to these facts as a warning to all gas companies,
their officials, and servants, and we cannot too strongly
impress upon the public also the great and growing neces-
sity for keeping all our public streams as free from pollu-
tion as possible.—Sheffield Daily Telegraph.
AN ICE STORM ON TILE. CHILTERN HILLS.
A correspondent of the Times writes :—" These hills were
on Saturday visited by an ice-storm of unparalleled
severity. After some days of frost the wind oic Friday
veered from north to south, and the barometer rapidly
fell. Early on Saturday rain began with half a gale of
wind ; this continued, more or less, all day. Having occa-
sion to pay a visit on the top of the hills, I started about
12 a.m., when it was raining fast and blowing hard ; the
rain, instead of running off my umbrella, froze as it fell.
I do not believe that a single drop during the three hours
Iwas out left it, and when I returned home it was one bright
sheet of ice. The trees and hedges 11",-:'e covered with ice to
the thickness of half an inch in the more exposed places. I
brought a twig home, which on carefully weighing was
found to be ten parts ice to one of wood ; this was by no
means an exceptional case. The trees were frozen so stiffly
that in spite of a strong wind they stood perfectly motionless,
with the exception of the birches and evergreens, which
scattered a show of ice at every blast. The houses and
buildings were coated with ice on their southern aspects,
;lying the appearance of a glass glaze ; the glass in the
windows was also thickly coated. But the icicles on the
sates produced the most extraordinary effect, every bar of
it being covered with ice, from which were suspended rows
of icicles six inches long. These could be counted by hun-
dreds—not hanging straight down, but all inclining, at an
angle of about 30 deg., with the most perfect regularity, to
the north, or away from the wind. The blades of grass
and dead thistles which projected through the snow were
incased in ice to a great thickness ; the snow also was
Coated with a thick coat of ice, which made walking very
fatiguing on the steep sides of the hills. The noise was
very peculiar as the wind shook the ice from the trees ; in-
stead of remaining where it fell, it went rattling to the
bottom, and meeting with the projecting frozen grass the
noise was great. The general aspect of the country
was such as to defy my powers of description. It was as
if every object had been suddenly clipped in liquid glass,
and not until late at night did the south wind and rain
gain the mastery, when the ice fell in heaps under every
tree."

FATAL GUN ACCIDENT IN DEVONSHIRE. —The
deputy coroner for South Devon has held an inquest
at Teignmouth, on the body of Charles Babbage, aged 14,
who was accidentally shot while out shooting a few days
previously. The deceased was the son of the late manager
of the Dawlish Bank, and on Thursday week he and another
lad, named G eorge Aledland, went shooting small birds.
Babbage got on the top of a hedge and then requested
Medland to give him one end of his gun that he might assist
him up. Medland accordingly gave him the muzzle of the
gun (which was loaded and cocked) while he held on to the
stock-end of it ; and he was in the act of being pulled up the
hedge when the gun exploded. Babbage's right arm, from
the elbow to the shoulder, was fearfully shattered by the
charge, as was also a portion of his side. The decct-30.1
fainted, but Medland giving him some water from the
brook close by, he recovered a little, and afterwards,
with the assistance of his comrade, walked partly home,
when he again fell down from exhaustion. Medland
then went for assistance, and on returnitr, 'accompanied
by a man named John Greenslade (another man, named
Tucker, having previously refused to go), he was found
lying in a stream of water, and greatly exhausted from the
loss of blood. He was taken to the infirmary, close by,
but was found to be too weak to hare the limb
amputated.;,
The wound was consequently dressed, and he lingered in
much agony until Thursday following, when mortification
set in ; and, as the last resource to save the poor fellow's
life, the limb was taken off. This, however, proved too
much for him, as he died on the following Saturday
morning. The jury returned a verdict of accidental
death, and cautioned parents against allowing their children
to have the use of firearms. They also complimented
Greenslade for his ready assistance, but censured Tucker
for his inhuman conduct in refusing to render the deceased
any help. Two or three accidents of a like character have
recently occurred in the county.