The Sun.
London, England, 1845-04-29 00:00:00

The Bill having been gone through,
The CHAIRMAN said that he would report specially to the
House in respect to the report of the Board of Trade regard-
ing this Bill. The Board of Trade had reported that the
Belfast and Ballymena Railway would be both expensive
and unremunerative, and that the line of railway would have
but a single line of rails, whereas the evidence showed that
there would be a double line of rails.
After this decision the Committee adjourned to the 20th
of May.

Sub-Committee, No. 1.
This Committee re-assembled at one o'clock, Mr. Strutt in
the chair.
LIVERPOOL AND ORMSKIRK RAILWAY.
This adjourned case came on to day, and the remaining
allegations were ;gone through. Standing orders not com-
plied with in several instances.
RICHMOND AND STAINES RAILWAY.

The petition for this Bill came on to-day; the prepara-
tory forms were gone through, and the further hearing was
adjourned till twelve o'clock to morrow.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.

COURT OF 1' CHEQUER, A iil 28.
TRIAL AT BAR.-THE GREAT DISTILLERY CASE.

THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL V. GEORGE SMITH.
(Continued from our Afternoon Edition of yesterday.)
Edgar •Eldrake examined by Mr. JARvis—Was a surveyor
of Excise. In consequence of differences between Mr. Smith
and the officer in charge sf the premises, respecting the dip
of the receiver, witness and another officer went on Monday,
the 30th March, to test the dip. He found nearly a tenth
more than Drinkwater and Batten had found. Mr. Smith
accounted for the increase, by the dripping of water into the
receiver. Witness tried by holding a quart jug under the
pipe when the water dripped back, to ascertain whether the
fact might be as Mr. Smith had represented. Found that the
jug was full in seven minutes, and that wouldallow the whole
quantity in the pipe to drip back in six or seven hours.
Cross-examined by Mr. KELLY—Found that there was a
reduction of the strength of the spirits from Saturday t )
Monday. The difference was equal to seventeen gallons on
the whole. The Excise did not make any allowance on that
account. They adhered to the dip as found by Batten •1
Saturday.
Re-examined by Mr. JARVIs—The Excise put an addi-
tional cock on the receiver to prevent the trader from running
in water and working of spirit. The difference of seventeen
gallons of spirit would be fully accounted for by evaporation
between Saturday and Monday.
Thomas Frankish, examined by Mr. WILDE :—Was a sur-
veyor of Excise. In March, 1844, went to Mr. Smith's dis-
tillery with the officers, Cameron, Drinkwater, and Batten.
I saw Mr. George Smith, when ameron asked him if there
was not communication between the distillery and the recti-
fving-house ? Cameron added, that no doubt Mr. James
Smith had told him what he {Cameron) had said the pre-
vious day. Mr. Smith said, that Cameron had no right to
assume that his brother ;had told him anything. Cameron
again asked, was there any communication between the two
premises. Mr. Smith said there was, for water, which supplied
the whole neighbourhood, by pipes connected with the Com-
pany's main. Witness was present at the experiment men-
tioned by the other witnesses. He saw the spirits passed
from the vat No. 8 in the distillery to the vat No. 17 in the
rectifying- house. On a subsequent day witness examined
the Water Company's pipes, and found that they had no
connexion with the pipes in Mr. Smith's premises.
Cross- examined by Mr. MARTIN—When Mr. Smith said
to Cameron that the pipes communicating between the two
premises was for the conveyance of water, Smith went away
with Cameron, but witness did not know it was for the purpose
of showing him the course of the pipes. When the experi-
ment was made upon the pipe, it commenced at one o'clock.
The first trial was with water. That was procured from the
tank at the top of the house. They did not think them-
selves ready for the experiment with spirits until five o'clock.
They made those experiments with spirits, of which two
were failures. The third experiment, which was success-
ful, did not commence fulfil eight o'clock. Did not know
whether any material repairs were made upon the
cocks from five o'clock to eight, for he was not
present. He was chiefly in the rectifying-house. When
the water came into the vat No. 17, it ran for five or six
minutes. The spirits then came over and continued running
for about 25 minutes. The officers then ran about 1,100
gallons of water to clear the pipes of all the spirit. That was
done for the satisfaction of all parties, that there might be no
doubt that the spirits had all been driven out. Witness has
been a long time in the Kxcise, and has often found great
variation in the dip of the receiver. Surveys Muir and Co.'s
distillery, and sometimes, but not often, finds a variation in
the dip.
The Soetcrron-GENERAL—Do you find a variation of so
much as two-tenths.
The LORD CHIEF BARON—Mr. Solicitor, you had better
not go into that, which, for aught we know, will be another
issue for trial.—(A laugh.) It is enough to take his an-
swer, that he does find variations.
By the Comes—They found an apparent loss of more than
100 gallons of spirits after the experiment. But that was
accounted for by the imperfect indications of the hygrometer
at the low strength of the spirits, mixed with so much
water. Made several experiments subsequently to
ascertain what the apparent loss would be on
spirits mixed with water in various proportions.
The result of this was, to account satisfactorily for the ap-
parent loss. It was also found that there was lime in the vat,
and that would prevent the hygrometer from acting rightly.
If mud or dregs were mixed with the spirit, the action of the
hygrometer would be disturbed. That instrument acts with
certainty only upon pure spirit, and for that reason it is
never used upon the worts. It is the saccharometer that is
used upon worts. Drinkwater and witness afterwards made
an experiment upon the contents of the vat, which accounted
fully for the decrease.
Their Lordships and the jury then retired for refreshment.
When the Court resumed, the SOLICITOR-GENERAL called
Cameron, who deposed to the same statements as those
which had been made by the previous witnesses as to the
conversation with Mr. Smith, and the experiment upon the
pipe.
The SOLICITOR-GENERAL said he had only called the wit-
ness to give the Learned Counsel for the defence an oppor-
tunity of cross examination.
Mr. WArsost then asked the witness whether he had made
any notes ?—He had, but they contained nothing but dates.
He had them not with him, but they were id a place at a
short distance from the Court. [The witness was then told
to produce the notes, and he withdrew for the purpose.]
The LORD CHIEF BARON—MT. Watson, if you produce
the notes, you must put them in evidence, for the witness
has not used them here as vouchers.
Mr. WATSON declined to make the notes evidence, and, on
the witness's return, proceeded to cross-examine him—Wit-
ness believed that he commenced the experiment with water,
at five o'clock, and not at one ; but he would not swear that
any one who stated that the experiment was commenced at
one o'clock had stated a falsehood. He had a very good me-
mory, and he believed that be did not commence until five
o'clock ; but he would not swear to it.
Mr. Milne, civil engineer to the New River Company
examined by the!SoLiciTon• GENERAL—Had made a survel• of
the premises belonging to Mr. Smith in company with a per-
son named Fox. The model in court is a correct representa-
tion of the premises, on a scale of an eighth of an inch to the
foot. The witness then described, with the aid of the model,
the course of the pipe communicating from the distillery to
the rectifying-house, and explained'that by stopping oft cer-
tain cocks and inserting others, the water -might be turned
off, and wash could be transmitted from' the distillery
to .the rectifying-house. That after those orifices had
been closed the wash might be drawn out by
sypllbns, which would draw out the wash by
side, orifices. There was a screw on No. 8, to which a screw
might* be attached ; and opposite to this there was an orifice,
to- which`there was also a screw attached, and these screws
corresponded, one being a male and the other a female screw.
There were three, nozzles in the premises, one over the
Sink. one over the cistern, and one over the pipe
to which he had alluded. There was a commu-
nication on the vat No. 8, which might be entirely
emptied through the pipe which he had described as commu-
nicating between one part of the premises and another.
There was a communication between the sink and the recti-
fying -house, but a longer nozzle would be required than now
exists. There is a communication also between the vat
under the sink and the 'cistern, by the attachment of a
longer nozzle, and the spirit could also be drawn from the
other vats as from the vat No. 8. If the principle of a
syphon were applied to the pipes, there would be
water drawn off to the extent of 300 gallons, and if the
longer leg of the syphon were applied to the spirit and the
shorter to the water, the spirit would immediately
follow after the water had been drawn off, and this spirit
might be pumped into any of the vats. There was what
was called a dead pipe, there being no outlet at the end of it,
but there were several flanges on the side of the
pipe to which pipes might be applied, and he
conceived that the branch pipes were old and the
flanges of recent origin comparatively. There was no con-
nexion between the East London Water -works Company
and the pipe which ran between the distillery and the rec-
tifying premises, and there was nothing between the main
in Buck's-row and the rectifying premises.
To a question from the CHIEF BARON, the witness replied
that there was no communication between the East London
Water-works Company's main and the distillery premises.
Knowing the premises, he believed that the whole of
the water required for the rectifying premises could
be supplied to the whole of the works, except for the
still heads through the trough in the middle, but by
raising the trough eight feet, the whole of the water might
be poured into the still head.
To the inquiries of Mr. F. KELLY, Mr. Milne replied that
he was aware that a large cistern—one that could supply
many thousand gallons—would be required to be
erected, and that there was no tank on the premises
that could possibly supply the requirement at present.
There were three tanks on the premises, and two establish-
ments were required to supply the premises, and the whole
of the water must come from the main of the Water-works
Company,: &c. The tanks on the premises were supplied
from the main, and it would be necessary to make great
alterations to put machinery on the trough so as to draw off the
water. In order to supply the still heads, there must be pipes
from the trough through the worm tube to the still heads and
the cistern must be enlarged in order to render this commu-
nication available, but if this communication were to be made
efficient, the whole of the premises might be supplied. The
large reservoir was only made last year, the top of the old
reservoir being three feet lower than the trough. At the
present time there was no part of the premises suppllied from
the trough, except that which passed into the worm-tube, and
the remainder ran to waste. There was a pipe which entered
the wash reservoir, which could convey the wash into the
rectifying-house, which entered the reservoir very near the
top, and it would be necessary to have the reservoir full be-
fore the supply could be made to the rectifying-house; but
the pipe went to the bottom of the reservoir, and he conceived
that the power of suction would draw up the wash from the
lower level. There was a gas pipe which ran on a corre-
sponding level with this pipe, but he did not know what this
pipe supplied.
Mr. Charles Fox, a civil engineer upon the Birmingham
Railway, had taken the level of the premises with Mr. Milne.
He had made an examination of the wash reservoir, and he
agreed with Mr. Milne in the levels stated in that gentle-
man's evidence.
Mr. Thomas Kirby was employed in laying down the
pipes in 1836, during which year the rectifying-house was
built, but lie knew nothing of the blind pipe. He was em-
ployed two days in laying down those pipes.
In reply to the CHIEF BARON, the witness stated that he
Ikncw nothing of the box on the main.
This concluded the case for the Crown.
Mr. KELLY stated that as it was necessary to substitute
one model for another, he thought it would be better to ad-
journ the case, especially as if he began then be should occupy
as much time to-morrow as if he began now.
The LORD CHIEF BARON considered that the request of
the Learned Counsel was quite reasonable.
The SOLIMAR-GENERAL had stated to his Learned Friend
that he had uilly shortened the case, and he should,
therefore, be willing to accede to such adjournment.
The Foreman of the Jury said, that though the jury were
aware that these adjournments were quite necessary, yet their
time was very valuable, and the sacrifice of it of great im-
-1 Pertance to themselves; he should Le glad to know whether
they might calculate on the case being concluded to-morrow ?
Mr. KELLY said that he thought he could conclude the state-
ment of the defendants to-morrow; but as the Counsel for
the Crown would reply, he feared the case could not be con-
cluded then.