The Sun.
London, England, 1868-06-26 00:00:00

MEZA.NCHTLr Dkj-h3r-OP A FREYCY:Ei

LADY.

An inquesi has been held at the residence of R. T.
Coombe, Esq., late high sheriff for Somerset, Earnshill,
Curry Rivel, by W. W. Munckton, Esq., on the body of
!Nldlle. Schnell, a French lady, who met her death by drown.
'ng. On Sunday morning Miss Coombe, her cousin, Miss
[Tare, and her governess, Mdlle. Schnell, attended divine
service at the parish church.- About four o'clock inthe after-
noon Miss Coombe, Miss Hare, and Mdlle. Schnell, who
was 28 years of age, and had only been with Miss Coombe
about a week, went to a place called the Hatch House,
which is situated on the river Isle, about a mile from the
mansion. In order to understand the nature of the sad
accident it will be necessary to describe the house, which
is built on piers, and approached on the Earnshill side by
A bridge, the entrance being a doorway from that bridge.
Inside the house are five hatchways for the purpose
of drawing up the water for supplying the fish-
ponds and meadows on the Earnshill domain.
The bottom of the river in the house is paved,
as well as about 18 feet outside the house. On the north
side there is a wooden kerb, level with the stones, to pre-
vent the stones from being washed away, and beyond this
there is a hole, eight feet in depth, the water on the pave-
ment being only three feet six inches. The young ladieF,
after putting on bathing dresses, descended by a ladder
into the river, Miss Coomve having previously pointed out
to her governess the hole. Miss Coombe and the governess
proceeded to the end of the pavement outside the house,
and she told the governess she must not go beyond where
she was then standing. In a moment or two more Miss
Coombe found herself in deep water, clutched by the
governess, but how she came there she knows not. Miss
Coombe, with great presence of mind, called franti-
crily to Miss Hare, who was then descending the
ladder, and she shouted, " Don't be afraid ; I'll come to
you." All three were good swimmers. Miss Hare pushed
a log of wood towards the drowning pair, and swam towards
them, when one of them seized her, and all were struggling
in deep water for life. They all rose to the surface, when
Miss Hare freed Miss Coombe, and pushed her towards the
shallow water. By that time Miss Hare succeeded in
getting away from the grasp of the governess, and both
ran up the ladder. They were a mile from any house, but
with only a gown and shoes on each they ran to the man.
sion. Assistance was rendered, and Mr. Coombe found
the poor governess dead in a deep hole. The jury returned
a verdict of accidentally drowned.

LAW AND POLICE.

CLAIM AGAINST A RAILWAY COMPANY.—In the Court
of Common Pleas a case was heard in which Mr. Jabez
Scott, a corn dealer, at Derby, brought an action against
the Midland Railway Company for injuries sustained by
him in a collision on the defendants' line. The liability
was admitted, and the only question was as to the
amount of damages. The plaintiff was about 42
years old at the time of the accident, and the net
profits of his business were in 1863 £B3l, in 1864
£845, in 1865 £1,322, in 1866 £1,824, and in 1867
£2,741. This last year was one in which the profits
in the trade were exceptionally large, and, indeed, the
plaintiff made the sum mentioned in spite of the fact that
he was able to give very little attention to his business.
The plaintiff on being examined swore that he enjoyed
excellent health prior to the accident. It was arranged
that the verdict should be for £2,500.
CURIOUS ACTION FOR INJURIES SUSTAINED.—In the
Court of Exchequer, a young man named Hughes brought
an action against Mr. Millichamp, the potter, of Lambeth,
for injuries sustained whilst engaged on the premises.
The facts arc some what singular. One afternoon, towards
the close of 1862, the plaintiff, . having his back turned
towards a cylinder, which was worked by a steam-
engine, was in the act of putting on his coat when it
became entangled in the engine, and the plaintiff's arm
being drawn within the vortex of the wheel, it was so
severely torn and crushed that amputation had to be in-
stantly performed. After a time the plaintiff returned
to the defendant's employment, and continued to receive
the same wages as before. The defence was that the acci-
dent was caused by the plaintiff's own negligence, as he
was well aware of the exposed position of the wheel. The
jury gave £2OO damages.
WHAT IS A WELSHER?—At the Westminster Police-
court, John Murphy was charged under Lord Campbell's
Act with publishing a malicious libel. The prosecutor, a
cigar dealer, had been in the habit of betting and
attending races. On the last Derby day he lost a large
sum of money, some of which was to the defendant
Murphy ; and on refusing to pay, defendant walked up and
down in front of the shop with a placard on his back, which
set forth that the complainant was a " welsher."
The magistrate was clearly of opinion that though the
prosecutor had not acted rightly, the action of the prisoner
was illegal. A similar case was quoted where the plea of
justification was successful. Mr. Arnold replied that such
proceedings were calculated to lead to a breach of the
peace. The defendant was bound over to keep the peace
for twelve months, the magistrate stating that would be
over next year's Derby.
WHAT IS A LIBEL I—At the Hammersmith Police-
court, Mr. N. T. Hicks, a retired comedian, was charged
with using threatening and abusive language whereby a
breach of the peace might have been committed. The
defendant went into the shop of Mr. Wiggins, a butter-
man, to whom he was indebted, and held up an envelope,
which he had received from a collector, on the corner of
which was "Debt Department," and told the complainant
that a man who sent such a thing as that to a gentleman
ought to be kicked, and used other abusive expressions.
Mr. Selfe said that the defendant had acted wrongly, but
such an envelope as the one produced was calculated to
make a man angry, and if a person were summoned before
him for sending one like it, he should view it as an insulting
libel. The defendant entered into his own recognisances,
and so the affair ended.
STRANGE DELUSION. —At the Marlborough - street
Police-Court, two cabmen, named Webster and Syett,
were summoned before Mr. Knox, for assaulting Mr.
William Milton, of No. 8, Booth-place, Oxford-street.
The complainant said he was a publisher. He had pub-
lished works of his own composition. These works had
excited the animosity of the medical profession, and various
schemes were practised to stop the sale of his publications
and to annoy him. While selling his publications
Regent-street, one of the defendants purposely drove his
cab against him and hurt his side, and the other used his
whip over him. He was satisfied that the cabmen had been
set on him by certain persons of the medical profession.
The complainant had published a work on the flyleaf of
which was his portrait, which was said by him to be the
means of preventing him from being kidnapped. The
contents of the pamphlet were to the effect that the author
had discovered the secret of causing lunacy as practised by
the medical profession. There were at this moment
41,276 pauper lunatics, but how many among the noble
and wealthy he had no means of ascertaining. The
secret of creating lunacy was by the administration of
strychnine in a peculiar way. A certain heat was
emitted with particular classes, especially bakers, which
caused sickness and feverish anxiety. The complainant
had written to the Clerkenwell News warning him of the
designs of the medical profession towards Prince Alfred
and the Royal Family that in furtherance of these
designs the Prince had been decoyed to Australia, the
setting fire to the booth erected to entertain him at Sand-
hurst having failed of its purpose. In addition to the
lunacy project there was another dreadful scheme
afloat, which had already brought under subjection
39 clergymen, 8 judges, 197 lawyers, 340 merchants, 680
mechanics, 466 farmers, 240 gentlemen, 805 women, and
1,300 rich men's daughters. The new scheme could be
practised as secretly on the bishop as on the most depraved,
on the teetotaler as on the drunkard. The publication
went on in this strain, and was evidently the production of
a disordered imagination. After a good deal of argument
by the complainant, who appeared perfectly rational, the
defendants denied being at the place where the assault
was stated to have been committed, and Mr. Knox dis-
missed the case.

THE IRISH CHERCH.—We understand that a
petition to the Queen from the women of Ireland has been
received at the Home Office against the disestablishment
and disendowment of the Irish Church. The petition has
been signed by 143,235 persons, and it is stated that more
signatures might have been obtained if further time had
been allowed for that purpose. —Times.

FIELD DAY AT WOOLWICH. - Thursday was a
grand field day for the troops at Woolwich, a large por-
tion being reviewed on Woolwich Common. The following
troops took part in the movements : Two batteries of
Royal Horse Artillery, Lieutenant-Colonel Mitchel com-
manding D battery, and Major Saunders E battery ; five
troops of the 17th Lancers, under Lieut.-Col. Lowe.
Colonel Phillpotts, Royal Horse Artillery, commanded the
whole, under the superintendence of Major-General G.
C. Wavle, C. 8., commandant of the Woolwich gar-

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, JUNE 26, 1868,

cated ; and as for the qualification that, at all events, Par-
liament might take away what Parliament had given—in
the first place, Parliament could not properly take away
what it had given (else Blenheim and Strathfieldsaye
were not safe) ; and, in the second place, Parliament did
not give the Church of Ireland its property. But what,
he asked, was the Roman Catholic grievance which called
for so violent a remedy as this ? The Catholics in Ireland
had at present equality, unless equality implied equality
of possessions. They had, in fact, everything they
wanted, except their neighbours' goods. The present
movement was, in fact, due to a strange combination of
Catholics and of enemies of all religious endowments. k
How novel a view it was that such a disendowment could
be legitimate he showed by quotations from Lords
Plunkett, Palmerston, and Grey, and Mr. Gladstone.
After adverting to the special difficulties of a gradual
dis-establishment, and to the impropriety of call-
ing on her Majesty to act in direct opposition to the terms
of her Coronation Oath, ho dilated on the positive evils
which would result from depriving Ireland of the class of
resident gentry supplied now by the clergy, and the sub-
stitution of a more intemperate ministry. It would be a
conclusion dangerous to England, and inconsistent with
the preservation of the Union ; but to Ireland it would be
fatal. He warned the house not to shrink from deciding
as it thought right by the fear of a conflict which it had
not provoked with tho other house, or with a current of
public feeling of which he doubted the existence.
The Earl of KIMBERLEY missed in the preceding
speech any reference to justice to Ireland. He himself
still saw a distinction bAween private property, to which
there were natural heirs, and Church property, to which
he thought the whole nation was heir ; and he could not
perceive the distinction between the principle of the pre-
sent proposal for dealing with Church property, and the
not very distant dealing with tithes, which was not usually
represented as confiscation. Ho defended, moreover, the
plea for the bill drawn from the consideration of Fenianism.
It would be dangerous to legislate in a panic on threats of
disaffection; but it was wise, when there was disaffection.
to legislate with a view to remove its cause. As for the
kind of legislation, he himself had at one time been some-
what in favour of concurrent endowment ; but to carry
out that the consent of the different religious bodies must
be obtained, and it now appeared that they repudiated any
such plan.
The Bishop of LONDON explained certain expressions
of his which had been construed as imputing unworthy
motives to the author of the bill. He denied that this
bill was founded on the precedent of that of 1833, or of
any other Suspensory Bill, and showed that the present
bill would entirely stopthe action of the Church wherever
a vacancy occurred. But his main objection was that
there was not before them any scheme of disestablishment.
When there was, their lordships would doubtless consider
it carefully ; but at present, besides discovering numerous
difficulties in the way of forming such a scheme, he could
not discover the need for it, or, indeed, among moderate
Irish Catholics the desire for it. Peace was what Ireland
required. The Irish Church Establishment might be
modified with advantage ; but to destroy it would he to
hand over Ireland altogether to the Roman Catholic
Church, and to bring on the repeal of the Union.
The debate was adjourned on the motion of Lord
Lyttelton.
The house adjourned at 35 minutes past 12.

HOUSE OF COMMONS-LAST EVENING.

The SPEAKER took the Chair at 4 o'clock.

NEW MEMBER.
Mr. IIEYGATE took the oaths and his seat for Stamford.
THE BRISTOL ELECTION PETITION.
Mr. HowEs brought up the report of this committ o
which stated that Mr. Miles was not duly elected, and
that the last election for Bristol was a void elec-
tion. That bribery had been committed to a great
extent, but that it was not proved to have been com-
mitted with the knowledge of Mr. Miles. That
personation and treating took pace, but the committee
were not of opinion that extensive corruption had taken
place considering the large number of registered electors

for the city.
Mr. Sergeant GAZELEE gave notice that to-morrow
he should move that the Attorney-General be instructed
to prosecute the parties found guilty of bribery at the last

election for Bristol.
THE NEW LAW COURTS.
In reply to Mr. BENTINCK,
Mr. BOOTH said he could not state whether the judges
were unanimous in favour of the ext3rnal elevation of Mr.
Street. With respect to placing the design in the library
he could see no advantage to be gained by so doing. The
whole of the papers upon the matter would very shortly

be laid on the table of the house.
TLIE CARRIERS ACT.
Mr. CARTER asked the Vico-President of the Board of
Trade whether her Majesty's Government, in withdraw-
ing from the Railways Regulation Bill the clauses they
had inserted in it for amending, in certain respects, the
General Carriers Act, are satisfied that the provisions of
that Act, passed forty years since, are suitable to the re-
quirements of the present day; or whether the Govern.
ment are still of opinion that the Carriers Act requires
amendment, and ought to be revised by Parliament.
Mr. CAVE said that after the greatest consideration the
Board of Trade were of opinion that the Carriers Act now
in force was not suited for the present time. An inquiry
would be made not; session, after which he hoped a new
act would bo introduced to Parliament.

frequently occurring ?" Would Mr. Disraeli mention
half-a-dozen, say ? In what foreign Court was the name
of England "a name of suspicion ?" Lord Russell, he
maintained, had preserved the peace of Europe in the
Danish and American wars, when the Conservative party
did everything t?aoy could to involve the country in war ;
and, provoked b:y the loud denials of the Ministerialists to
this sweeping statement, Mr. Layard launched into a sharp
attack on Lord Stanley's foreign policy.
Mr. COCHRANE retaliated that Mr. Disraeli's language
was absolutely true, and described the results of Lord
Russell's "meddle and muddle" policy.
Mr. GLAD STONE protested earnestly against the strain
of this and other orations which Mr. Disraeli was in the
habit of making- to similar sympathetic audiences. These
inflated eulogies of himself and sweeping condemnations
of his opponents • were part of a system of which Mr. Glad-
stone remarked th at it must bo more damaging to the Go-
vernment than to its opponents. He refused to allow Mr.
Disraeli to take retige, in the pretext that it was only the
general foreign policy of the late Cabinet which he had
attacked, for during a great part of that administration
Lord Clarendon had frequently been consulted on foreign
affairs, and bad been charged with an important mission.
On this and on other occasions Mr. Disraeli had done his
beet to injure Lord Clarendon, but on each occasion it
was in the teeth of direct and emphatic testimonies by
Lord Derby to Lord Cla:•endon's public services.
Lord STANLEY brought the controversy to an end
by a brief defence of the acw of his foreign administration
impugned by Mr. Layard, particularly iu regard to the
Alabama claims, the Spanish claims, the Luxembourg
guarantee, and the Cretan insurrection.
In Committee of Supply, Mr. HADFIELD made his
annual motion for the reduction of the Regium Donum,
but, yielding to the advice of several Irish Liberal mem-
bers, he did not press it, but allowed the vote to be taken
in its entirety.
A number of votes in Class VII. of the Civil Service
Estimates were agreed to, as well as a vote of £300,000 on
account of the Packet Servic ) Vote.
The house then took up the Corrupt Practices Bill.
On clause 5 a third or fourth discussion of the main
principle of the bill was raised by an amendment of Mr.
Craufurd, to retain the jurisdiction in the hands of the
house, instead of transferring it to two Judges.
Mr. HARDY'S reply to the proposal was a very distinct
intimation that as the Government considered the traneer-
of jurisdiction the essence of the bill, they would hardly
think it worth while to go on with it if the change were
made. This was repeated by the Solicitor-General, who
argued that the house had really parted with the power
when it consented to allow election petitions to be tried
under statute, and dwelt on the importance of a local

inquiry.
The amendment was supported by Mr. Sandford, Mr.
Wykebam-Martin, Mr. Denman, Mr. Paul, and others.
Mr. MILL argued in favour of a preliminary local in-
quiry by a revising barrister at the public expense ; and
Mr. CUILDERS, admitting the importance of a local
inquiry, suggested that it should be confided to a barrister
who would collect evidence, and lay it afterwards before
a select committee, which should have the power of de-
termining whether the election were void or not.
Mr. HIBBERT, who was generally favourable to the
bill, replied that Mr. Childers' plan would double the ex-
pense.
Mr. LOWE pointed out as arguments against the pre-
sent tribunal that it was composed of men liable to suspi-
cion of political bias, and that it sacrificed the advantages
of prompt and local inquiry. In favour of it there was but
one—the importance of retaining the jurisdiction in the
hands of the house—to which ho replied that the house, as
a body, had long ago parted with it. The only fault he
found with the bill was the selection of two judges to try
these petitions, preferring that they should be referred to
the whole body of the judges.
Sir R. PALMER and Sir G. GREY were in favour of re-
taining the present tribunals with amendments, and Sir
Roundell looked for the cure of corruption to the encou-
ragement of a healthier public opinion.
Lord AMBERLEY and Mr. T. CAVE made some observa-
tions to an impatient house, and on a division the amend-
ment was rejected by a majority of 20-178 to 158.
A lengthened squabble on the question of adjournment
followed. A motion by Mr. Bouverie to report progress
was defeated by 201 to 68, and Mr. Esmonde, though there
were loud protests from all sides, next moved that the
Chairman leave the chair. In the course of a somewhat
heated conversation, the Chancellor of the Exchequer
charged Mr. Gladstone with obstructing the bill by voting
for reporting progress, which drew an angry reply from
Mr. Gladstone. More than an hour was wasted in this
conflict, and in the end the further progress of tho bill was
adjourned until Monday.
The Irish Reform Bill was read a third time and passed,
and some other orders of the day having been forwarded a
stage, the house adjourned at 10 minutes to 2 o'clock.