The Sun.
London, England, 1857-03-30 00:00:00

'MONDAY EVENING,, MARCH 30, 1857.

outside ; he got upon the balcony for that purpose, but
finding that he could not speak from it, he was accom-
panied by his friends to a room over the Examiner
office, at the corner of Market street and Cross-street,
from the window of which he said a few words. The
crowd outside, numbering several thousand persons,
then gradually dispersed.

took place when he was in drink. Very seldom
saw hi n the worse for liquor.
Mr. Ellis,.firtner, of 13romborougb, had known
the plaintiff for the last 20 yearA, and the defen-
dant for the last four years. In June, 1854, wit-
ness attended a sale in Chester, where the defen-
dant purchased several its of land, situate at
Behington. Thought he paid out about 1,5001. or
1,6001. for them. Believed the defendant to be in
good circumstances, and he was apparently well
off.

Cross-examined by Mr. Knowles—He keeps one
servant. Did not know that the land at Bebing-
ton was mortgaged.
Mark Lowe paid he was a servant of the defen-
dant, who rented a shop in the London-road, at
401. a year.

Cross-examined by Mr. Knowles—Did not know
that the shop was mortgaged.
Mr. James having summed up,
Mr. Attorney-General Knowles addressed the
jury for the defence. He said, his learned friend
had appealed to their feelings with regard to the
alleged scandalous reports about the young lady,
but he must remind them that it was not the de-
fendant who brought these slanders into that
court--it was the plaintiff's own friends, and it
was themselves alone they had to thank for the
publicity then given to them. But to dispose of
this romancing case as well as he could. Who
were the parties ? The plaintiff was filling the
very respectable situation of barmaid at the Sports-
man's Arms, and, although his learned friend had
tried to conceal that fact, he (Mr. Knowles) did
not think it a reproach. The defendant was a
retired ropemaker—it would be much better if he
never had retired, apparently—and feeling lonely
in his house at New Ferry had been induced to
drop in at Mrs. Jones's for the comfort of a glass,
and there he had been charmed with the barmaid,
who mixed him his drop of gin-and-water, sweet-
ening it with the fascination of her manner, till at
last, poor fellow, he fell in love, and then he begun
to be under a " breaching" mania—though it
would have been well for him never to have talked
about " breaches" at all ; for it had come to pass
in his individual case. It is really not wonderful
that while the handsome barmaid was stirring up
his glass he should have become fuddled, and be a
little amorous, and so he fell into the temptation
—though he had better have made a rope for him-
self. (Laughter.) The learned counsel drew atten-
tion to the shortness of the courtship, only four
months, and said he was not so rich a man as the
witness had represented ; and, as he was not there
to deny the breach of the promise given, he could
only say that he thought very light damages would
beTquite sufficient for the loss of four months' court-
ship.

His Lordship, in summing up, said, it did. ap-
pear a very heartless thing to send a lawyer to break
off the match, and that, too,'almost at the very
altar. There was certainly nothing brought for-
ward in the evidence against the character of the
young woman showing sufficient reason for the
breaking off of the marriage in such a wanto❑ man-
ner. It was evident that the marriage not taking
place was a great loss to the plaintiff in a pecuniary
point of view, besides the injury done to her feel-
ings by the heartless conduct of the defendant. He
thought she was justly entitled to their verdict,
and it would be for them to say what damages they
thought she was entitled to.

The jury, after a few minutes' consideration, re-
turiaed a verdict for the plaintiff—damages 4001.
The Criminal Court to-day has been occupied
with the trial of two sailors, American citizens, for
the manslaughter of a man named George, who
was on board an American ship coming to this port.
The case was not concluded when our despatch
left,

HOME CIRCUIT—KINGSTON, March 28.
THE QUEEN V. HAWKINS AND OTHERS.
This was an indictment preferred by the Corpo-
ration of the City of London against the defendant,
Mr. Hawkins, who is the chairman, and other re-
sponsible officers, of the London Gas Company, for
a nuisance.
Mr. E. James, Q.C., Mr. Bodkin, Mr. Lush,
and Mr. Sharpe appeared on behalf of the corpora-
tion to conduct the prosecution ; Mr. Sergeant
Ballantine and Mr. Bushby appeared for the de-
fendants.
Mr. E. James, in opening the case, said that the
Corporation of the City of London had felt it their
duty as conservators of the river Thames to insti-
tute the pres-ntproceedings against the defendants,
in order to put a stop to a nuisance of the most
serious character, and one that was calculated
most materially to affect the lives and health of the
public. The defendants represented the London
Gas-works; and they had a large establishment at
Vauxhall ; and, what was complained of them was,
that they caused the refuse matter from the gas to
be thrown into the river opposite their works. He
need hardly inform the jury that the gas refuse was
of the most disgusting description. It was knawu
by persons connected with the trade by the cogno-
men of " blue billy," and it appeared that it evolved
a gas known among scientific persons as " sulphu-
retied hydrogen," which, he believed, was the most
deleterious -Co human life, and of the most offen-
sive character. The defendants appeared to be
perfectly well aware that they had no right to dis-
pose of the refuse from the works in this manner,
as they adopted a very ingenious proceeding with a
view to prevent it from being known that the of-
fensive matter came from their works, and instead
of casting it into the river openly, they contrived
by means of a six-inch iron pipe to convey the re-
fuse matter into the middle of the river, where it
was cast out by means of a steam engine, and mixed
with the water. The city authorities, however,
were not to be so easily deceived, and, suspecting
that there was something wrong about the use of
this pipe, they sent a barge with hose and attached
the hose to the pipe ; the barge was moored near
the spot, and the persons employed for the purpose
quietly awaited the result. They had not remained.
long, however, before the operation commenced, and
the refuse, of course, instead of going into the river,
came into the barge ; and it was then directly seen
what had been going on, and the present prosecu-
tion was the result; the object of the corporation
being, of course, only to abate what they considered
to be a very dangerous nuisance.
Mr. Sergeant BALLANTINE, when Mr. James had
concluded, addressed the Court, and said that there
was no desire on the part of the company whom he
had the honour to represent to oppose the present
proceeding, which be admitted was a very proper
one, with a view to prevent the pollution of the
river ; and the company were ready to do all in their
power to effect the object. He begged at the same
time to state that, although the defendant, Mr.
Hawkins, was no doubt legally responsible in his po=
sition as chairman of the company, yet that he was
known as a gentleman of high respectability and a
member of their profession, and he knew nothing
whatever of the proceeding complained of, and
the :moment it was brought to his knowledge, he
ordered it to be discontinued. The company
were now making arrangements to remove all their
refuse matter to a distance, and had incurred
great expense with that object, and were ready to
do everything that was . necessary to effect
it. A plea of " guilty" might, therefore, be taken
as to some of the defendants, and they would enter
into any recognizauces that might be required as
a security that the nuisance complained of should
be discontinued.
Mr. James consented to this course on the part
of the corporation, and a plea of " Guilty" was ac-
cordingly taken against the chairman and the engi-
neer of the company, and recognizauces were
entered into by them for carrying out the obje
of the prosecution.
This case concluded the business of the assizes.