The Sun.
London, England, 1857-10-12 00:00:00

goke, I got out. of my van and put out poi e
oysters. ntoroughgood called out to. me "Is
there anything father ?" and . I rc-
plied, " No, my son." At this moment there was
a terrific noise, like a great cannon going off, and
something came by me like lightning. I supposed
afterwards it was the body of the driver. The
other poor fellow we-found up the line, lying face
downwards, with his skull blown off, which we
have not been able to find. They were both per-
ferfectly sober. The reason, I suppose, why they
refused to take any more trucks was because we
w( re late, and had to get out of the way of the mail
train.

Mr Beattie, the superintendent of the locomo-
tive department, hero intimated that he should be
happy as far as he was able to give any information
on the subject.

The jury expressed themselves perfectly satisfied
and said it was clear there could be no blame at-
tachable to the company, and that the deaths of
the unfortunate men must have been caused by
&coident.

The inquiry was then terminated by the jury re-
turning a verdict of "Accidentally killed."

PERJURY AND THE SCOTCH PUBLIC-

ROUSE ACT.

Numerous cases of perjury, committed to conceal
offences, have been brought under public notice
since the passing of the Forbes Mackenzie Act re-
stricting the sale of liquor in Scotland. On Thu's-
thy last an extraordinary case of the same crime
being committed, but for a different purpose, viz.,
to procure conviction, was brought before Sheriff
Gordon and a jury at Edinburgh. Two police con-
stables doing duty in plain clothes, named Patrick
Niven and Niel Stewart, who bad been for some
time employed in watching houses suspected to sell
liquor without license, and particulai ly at night
and morning and Sundays, when the licensed houses
were closed, had, instead of merely watching for in-
fractions of the act, entered into a sch, mewith the
wife and sister of Niven to entrap a vegetable dealer
into a sale of spirits, and then, by the women giv-
ing false names in court, and appearing to be un.
connected with the officers, to procure a conviction
in the police court. It did not appear whether the
constables had any personal motive to gratify or
wished merely to show their vigilance ; nor did it
appear whether they had habitually acted on the
entrapping system. The two constables were charged
with subornation of perjury and the two women
with perjury. Niven and his wife failing to appear
warrants were issued for their apprehension, ai-d.
their bail bonds for 601. each were forfeited. Niel
Stewatt and Rose Ann Niven pleaded Not Guilty.
It was then proved in evidence that on the night
of Saturday, the 27th of June, the girl Rose had
been sent by the constables to the shop of Robert
Ferguson, vegetable dealer, to ask for whisky (the
evidence was contradictory on the point as to whe-
ther she received it) ; the constables gave informa-
tion to the effect that Ferguson had made an illicit
sale of spirits ; that a charge was issued against
him ; and that on the 7th of July he was con-
victed before Bailie Blackadder in the police
court on the testimony of Rose Ann Niven,
who falsely gave her name as Mary Harrison, and
gave a false address, and who deponed that she had
been sent for the hisky by Mrs. Harrison, under
which false name Niven 's wife appeared and corro-
borated her evidence. The officers also supported
this false testimony, and Ferguson was ordained
to pay a fine of 1/. 15s. (the minimum penalty), or
go to prison for four days. The superintendent of
police deponed that his instructions to the consta-
bles employed under the Act were only that they
should watch suspected houses, and that the penalty
of entrapping or getting up cases was instant dis-
missal. The magistrate who tried the case deponed
that but for believing that the women were uncon-
nected with the officers and gave true names he
would not have pronounced for conviction. Mrs.
Ferguson deponed that a few days after the trial
witness went through the whole of the neighbour-
hood to see where the people lived who swore
against her husband, but though she knocked at I
every door, she found no persons of the ofto
ee
up
Harrison.theFis bmSoamrkeetd_ac
yloss e, laitaera,nobta
town, she saw the girl who had called herself Mary
name
dasied to
Harrison sitting at a stair-foot, and the agent she
such information
w hat
iluretrhreeaclasneamas and
the present trial. The jury unanimously found
Neil Stewart "guilty" of subornation of •
perjury,
eombtpalionyeedd
Rose Ann Niven of perjury ; but a large • majority
recommended the latter to the leniency of the
Court, in respect of her youth and the influence
brought to bear upon her. The Sheriff sentenced
Stewart to 18 and Rose Ann
Niven
to six months'
imprisonment. He at the same •
time expressed his
perfect satisfaction that the system of entrapping
• was one to which the superintendent gave no couu-
• tenance whatever.