The Sun.
London, England, 1868-09-10 00:00:00

LAW AND POLICE.

INCENDIARY FIRES IN NORTHUMBERLAND. —At North
Shields six navvies have been brought before a county
magistrate on suspicion of setting fire to the stack-yards
of Messrs. Bolton, Stewart, and Watson, farmers, at
Earsdon, on the nights of Saturday and Monday, by
which between fifty and sixty stacks of corn and hay were
destroyed. The prisoners were remanded. They had been
working on a new line of railway in the neighbourhood,
and the county constabulary are in possession of certain
evidence which they will not disclose, but which they state
will connect some of the prisoners at least with this act
of incendiarism.

IMPORTANT CASE UNDER THE MASTER AND SERVANTS
ACT.—At Fraserburg Justices of the Peace Court a case
under the Master and Servants Act, which exhibited some
features of interest, came on for hearing. The com-
plainant, Alexander Smith Currie, had engaged Donald
Al`Leod for the herring•fishing season of eight weeks, at
£l2 12s. wages. Five weeks after the date of the engage-
ment M`Leod deserted the service on the plea of
`.-he complainant having struck him while at sea.
For is breach of engagement the action was raised, and
it was proved that, beyond addressing some angry words to
M*Leod, who appeared not to have been performing his
work satisfactorily, the defence had no foundation in fact.
After a long debate between the litigants' agents, the
justices found for the complainant, and gave judgment to
the effect that of the five weeks' wages— E 7 17s. U.—which
they allowed defendant to have earned, E 3 10s. should be
forfeited in the name of damages to the complainant,
together with 15s. modified expenses.

The Church News states that at a harvest thanks-
giving festival, held at Wimbledon, Surrey, last week,
the organist actually played the Dead March in " Saul "
as a voluntary.

INLAND REVENUE ADHESIVE STAMPS ANL
VALUATIONS.—In reply to an inquiry, the Secretary to the
Board of Inland Revenue writes : " I am directed to
inform you that adhesive stamps cannot legally he used
for denoting the duty payable on appraisements."—
Scotsman.

SUICIDE AT A RAILWAY STATION.—On Wed-
nesday afternoon a bombardier in the Royal Artillery,
named Robert Welsh, threw himself out of the window in
the wooden bridge at the Woolwich Arsenal station on to
the line beneath, falling about thirty feet. When picked
up he was found to be quite dead. The cause of the
suicide has not transpired.

THE LATE LORD HOWARD DE WALDEN.—On
Tuesday the mortal remains of Lord froward de Walden,
late English Minister at the Belgian Court, were brought
to Antwerp, on their way to England. Every demonstra-
tion of respect was shown to the memory of the deceased
nobleman. A military escort accompanied the funeral
cortege from the railway station to the Scheldt, where the
coffin was received on board the Harwich steatner
Zealam. The governor of Antwerp, the burgomaster, and
other local functionaries, the resident British con.luls at
Antwerp and Brussels. several English clergymen, and a
large number of the English residents, took part in the
procession through the streets to the steamer. When the
coffin had been placed in the captain's berth, the military
fired a parting salute, and the steamer 6tatted on her
vslaa „ .

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RAILWAY AND OTHER COMPANIES.

EAST SuMERSET.

The report of the directors sat s that, notwith-
standing the extreme depression ef trade during the
half-year ending June 30, the returns showed a
slight iticr,a.se over the cor esponding hal of 1867,
and the directors felt sanguine that with a revival
of trade the steady increase of traffic on the line
would be maintained. The gross earnings for the
past half-year amounted to £3,582, which, after
paying £1,033 for interest on debenture debt and
rent charges, left £1,530, or 60 pet cent. of balance,
to the Great Weste .n Railway C anpany for work-
ing, and £1,020, or 40 per cent., to the company.
The directors recommended a dividend on the pre-
ference shares at the rate of 4 per cent, per annum
for the last half-year free of income-tax.