The Sun.
London, England, 1850-02-26 00:00:00

THE SUN,

themselves to be. deluded into a belief that there was
arty escape from their lr gal liability to the payment of
calls. When the proper time arrived the details of the
Bill would be submitted to a general meeting. specially
convened for the purpose, when the sense of the pro-
prietors would be regularly taken upon it. The directors
deemed it almost unnecessary to warn the shareholders
against statement; occasionally inserted in newspapers,
or embodied in circulars, issued without authority, re-
specting the affairs of the company. These were ob-
viously mischievous end unfounded.
From the statement of accounts, it appeared that the
total receipts amounted to 144,396/. 165., and the
expenditure to 140,400/. 18.3. 33. leasing a balance of
3,995/. 17-. 93. in the hands of the company.
A. noisy discussion fsllowed upon the motion
for the reception of the report, in the course
of which it was insisted that the directors
wore 'bound to produce the balance-sheet of the
debts and liabilities. After some little hesitation on the
part of the directors, the document was brought forward
and read, and, a 3 far as vre could understand the state-
ments, the debts and liabilities amounted to 34,000/.
The SECRETARY, in reply to some questions, said the
calls upon the 11,200 shares held by the South
Wales Company had been paid up, and he
believed they were liable to pay more calls;
but this was a legal question, which he could
not take upon himself to decide. Under the present Act
they (the directors) were bound to carry the line from
Dublin to Wexford, but they proposed now to limit
it to Wieklow. This proposition would, of course, be
submitted to a special meeting, at which the South Wales
Company would stand in no better position, as far as he
was aware, that the other shareholders.
The discussion terminated in an amendment, to the
effect that a committee of inquiry should be appointed to
investigate the affairs of the company, and to report
upon the most desirable plan which could be adopted to
rescue the shareholders from their present difficulty.
It was suggested that this amendment should be with-
drawn, and that there should Le substituted fsr it ano-
ther, to the effect that a committee of fire shareholders
should be appointed to confer with the directors as t 3
the expediency of shortening the line and reducing the
capital of the company.
Upon the amendment being put, 22 were for it, and 1
against it.

-The Hon. Mr. PONSONBY demanded a poll.
The dissentient shareholders declined to vote, and the
amendment was lost by 67 votes of persons present, and
880 proxy votes.
Another amendment for a committee was made to in-
quire into the accounts. This was negatived upon a poll,
the dissentient shareholders again declining to vote.
The original motion was then carried, and the meet-
ing broke up.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.
COURT OF COMMON PLEAS, Feb. 25.
(Sittings in Banco at Westminster.)
CROLL V. EDGE.

This was an action on the case for an infringement of
a patent for improvements in making gas, and in the ap-
paratus used in transmitting and measuring, and was
tried before the Lord Chief Justice, when a verdict was
found for the defendant. A motion fur a new
trial was subsequently obtained, and argued at con-
siderable length in the course of Hilary Term last
y e tr. The objection taken to the plaintiff's patent, and
this involved the only important question in the case,
was that the f tie of the patent had the effect of exclud-
ing the public from rights which the specification, de-
scribing the real nature of the invention, did not appear
to claim. The patent was granted for " improvements in
making gas, and in the apparatus used in transmitting
end measuring," bat in the title of the patent the in-
vention was stated to be one " for improvements in
making gas, and is" the appa-atus used therein, and in
transmitting and measuring."
Me. Justice MAULE now delivered the judgment of
the Court, staving that although the insertion was slight
as regarded the number of words, it wholly altered the
meaning, and extended substantially the grant cf the
Clown. It was not intended that the patent should
comprehend any improvements in the apparatus used in
making gas. The Court, on that ground, thought that
the direction of the Lord Chief Justice was correct, and
that the difendat.t was entitled to a verdict. The rule
mug, therefore, be discharged.
Discharged accordingly.
(Sittings at Guildhall, before Lord Chief Justice WILDE
and a Special Jury.)

TEE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH COWAN r V. BRETT AND
LITTLE.

This case, which commenced on Thursday last, is one
of three actions which have been brought by the plain-
tiffs against the defendants fur an ellrged infringement
of the several patents of the plaintiffs.
The Attorney-General, Mr. Martin, Q C., Mr. Mon-
tague Smith, and Mr. Grove were counsel fur the plain-
tiffs; and Mr. Cockburn, Q.C., Mr. Webster, and Mr.
Chance f a. the defendants.
The patent alleged to be infringed in this action is a
patent granted to Messrs. Cook and Wheatstone in
1837, for "certain improvements in giving studs and
sounding alarnms in distant place; by electric currents
transmitted through metallic circuits." This patent,
with others, was afterwards assigned to the present
plaintiffs. It would be almost impossible to give a
fair description of the respective telegraphs except
by means of diazrams; the chief difference be-
tween the plaintiffs' and the defendants' being
tLat the plaintiffs' telegraph consisted of five wires,
with a dial plate or index containing the letters of the
alphabet, with five needles fur the purpose of indicating_
the particalar letter intended, and worked by means o;
keys and buttons; while the defendants' consisted of
only one wire, with a dial plate and two needles, which
by the number of their deflections, indicated the parti-
cular sigral intendel, according to a telegraphic code
and worked by means of a handle. A great many sci-
entific witnesses were examined on both sides, whose
evidence was very conflicting, which it would be impos-
sible to give, except in detail. The plaintiffs alleged
that the defendants had infringed their patent in five es-
t eatial particulars, viz.: —l. With respect to the needles,
and the application of stops to prevent their deflection
except in certain angles; 2. With respect to the cross
bar for the purpose of disconnecting and connecting the
several wires at pleasure; 3. In the reciprocating
principle, whereby the same wires were used
in transmitting backwards and forwards; 4. That
the needles worked in planes opposite the ope-
rators at eath end whereby the operator saw that
his message was correctly telegraphed; and 5. The
using receiving machines at intermediate stations, show-
ieg the same signals at those stations as at the termini.
On the part of the plaintiffs it was contended that the
invention of the defendants was a mere colourable eva-
sion of the plaintiffs' patent, and that they produced the
same effect by a process which, although apparently dif-
-ferent, was a mechanical equivalent. The defendants
contended that theirs was an entirely new invention
from the same stock o' knowledge as the plaintiffs', and,
although the effect was the same, the means adopted
n ere essentially different from those pointed out in the
phintiffs' specification. The defendants had only one
wire to the distant place, and the electric circuit via;
completed by using the earth as a conductor. It was not
discoverel until after the plaiatiffs' patent that the earth
could be used as a conductor; and the plaintiffs' specifica•-
tien throughout relates to a metallic circuit; meaning
that the circuit is to be completed by means cf a wire
throughout the entire circuit.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL replied, when
The Learned JUDGE summed up, and shortly pointel
out to the jury the alleged infringements.
The jury found—That the makitig signals to distant
stations was a new invention of the plaintiffs, as alio the
making signals to intermediate stations; that the angu-
lar mutton of the needles on vertical planes and horizon-
tal axes, conjointly with stops, was new; the use of the
dial was not new; that the handle of the defendants for
the purpose of ctaiging the circuits was not an imita-
tion of the cross-bar of the plaintiffs; that th© magnetic
ring and indicator of the defendants was different from
the needle mentioned in the plaintiff,' specification; that
the indication of signals at the same time at distant sta-
'fens was not the plaintiffs' invention; that the defendants'
instrument with one wire and two needles was not the
same as the plaintiffs', and that the system of the tele-
graph was a different system from that of the plaintiffs.
The Learned JUDGE directed the verdict to be entered
f): the plaintiff:, with 54 damages, leave being reserved
to the defendants to move on the following points:—l.
That the defendants' using the earth as a portion of the
circuit was not an infringement of the plaintiffs' patent,
inasmuch as the plaintiffs' invention was based upon the
principle of trausenitting the electric current through a
metallic circuit. 2. That the defendants' system, con-
sisting of one wire, was essentially different from the
system of five wires and five needles of the plaintiffs'.
By arrangement between the parties it was arranged
that a verdict should be taken for the plaintiffs upon all
the issues except "Nut Guilty."

COURT OF EXCHEQUENFeb. 25.
(Sittings in Banco.)
IN RE EIRXINGHAM, CHESTER, AND BIRKENHEAD
RAILWAY.
In this case, which was an action to recover calls upon
180 shares, and in vrhich the defendant pleaded infancy,
Mr. Baron PARKE delivered the judgment of the
Court, making the rule to eater the verdict for the defen-
dant absolute.

This was an action by the Sutherland•• and Newcastle
CHAPLIN V. MILVAINT
Union Joint-Stock Bank to recon colltas from the de-
fendant, who was a shareholder in the c 2 and the
principal question involved in it %VS.', whetlearn)tia
mint entered into
.by the dlfendant was such aes cove-
nant
rower to the plaintiff, as public cfficer of the bank, to
sue for the arresr of calls.
Mr. Baron EIRKE now delivered the judgment of the
Court in favour of the defendant, whose liability it was
considered had not been sufficient!), established.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.
WESTM lIVSTE R.

John Marson, a middle-armed described as a
man ,
builder, residing at Chelsea, and carrying on works
at West Dulwich, who was convicted about three or
four years ago of obtaining goods under false pre-
tences, and also charged with putting off sham
chequer, was finally examined, charged with uttering
a f ,rged 51. note.
The circumstances of the case are briefly these
Oa the 26th of last October, the prisoner called upon
Mr. Frederick Welmshurst, of 4, Robert-street,
Commercial-road, Pimlico, to whom he owed seven
shillings, and upon the latter requesting payment he
handed him a 51. note, which he stated he had received
as a deposit upon the sale of some houses which he had
just disposed cf at Brixton. Mr. Welmshurst got
chsnge for the note at Mr. Winter's, the Rising Sun,
Commercial-road, and gave the prisoner the
difference, deducting the seven shillings. Mrs.
Winter gave the note to Mr. Allen, nephew