The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-08-28 00:00:00

SHEEP STEALING,

John Whitton, an elderly man, and. Timothy Whitton, a
boy, (his son), were charged with stealing a sheep at Pendle-
ton, the property of John Batterson.
There was nothing peculiar in the case ; and it appeared
that the son was merely employed by his father to leave the
skin at a place of sale.
Mr. WILKINs spoke at considerable length in behalf of
both prisoners. •
Tbe jury found the elder prisoner guilty, and the younger,
by his- lordship's direction, not guilty.

Sentence

on John Whitton was deferred. The boy was

Daniel Atkins, 25, was indicted on a charge of having, at
Liverpool, feloniously cut and stabbed James M`Laughlin.
The prisoner was a witness at a recent trial for assault at
these assizes, and his testimony went to the conviction of the
accused. He is a shoemaker ; and, it appeared, was called
upon by the prosecutor and some other parties while he was
at work, and a quarrel and a challenge having ensued, he
went out, fought the prosecutor, and proved himself the
better man. The prosecutor, it appears, and a number of
others, friends of the convict before alluded to, afterwards
burst into his house, while he was quietly seated, cutting
some tobacco for his pipe, and so assaulted him that he con-
sidered his life in danger, and made use of the knife in his
defence. The jury, after retiring for a short time, returned
a verdict of not guilty, and the prisoner was discharged.
The court adjourned at eight o'clock.

NISI PRIUS COURT

,-THURSDAY

On Mr. Baron ROLFE taking his seat, he informed the
counsel in the last cause tried yesterday, that the jury had
found a verdict for the plaintiff, damages £ll9O, but that the
father-in-law was not privy to the act of bankruptcy; that
the issue of the execution was bona fide on his own account ;
in fact, therefore, that the son-in-law, the bankrupt, had
procured the issue of the execution. Consequently, accord-
ing to his view of the case, the bankruptcy act of last year
protected the father-in-law. What must be done then must
be to enter a verdict for the defendant ; it could not be a
nonsuit, because it resulted, from the finding of the jury,
that the father-in-law was not privy.

THE QUEEN V..THE MANCRESTER AND LEEDS RAILWAY

COMPANY

This was an issue from the Court of Queen's Bench, for
the trial of several questions arising out of a return from the
Manchester and Leeds Railway Company, to a mandamus
obtained at the suit of the trustees of the Rochdale and
Oldham Turnpike Road, and commanding them to comply
with certain directions contained in the act of parliament
authorising the formation of the railway, with regard to a
bridge or viaduct for carrying the line over the turnpike-
road at Rochdale. A special jury was sworn, most of whom
had previously paid a visit to the locua in quo for the pur-
pose of personal inspection.
Messrs. Alexander, Starkie, and Wightman appeared on
behalf of the trustees ; Messrs. Cresswell, Tomlinson, and
Hildyard for the railway company.
The pleadings, which were very voluminous, having been
opened, and one of the most material of the pleas allying
that the company had done what they were required fo do
by the mandamus, Mr. CRESSWELL contended that the
affirmative lay upon the defendants, and consequently that
he had a right to begin. After some discussion the learned
JUDGE decided the question in hia favour, and a _ .

Mr. CltEssw ELL proceeded to open the case for the defend-
ants, illustrating his observations by reference to a very neatly
executed model of the viaduct, turnpike-road, and premises

adjoining

It appeared that in 1836 the company obtained an act em-
powering them to make a railway between Manchester and
Leeds. Subsequently they proposed to carry the line nearer
to Rochdale than they had originally contemplated, and this,
a subsequent act, obtained 'on the sth of May, 1837, enabled
them to do. About the time that application was made for
this act, the Rochdale Canal Company made certain altera-
tions in their line, interfering with the contemplated line of
railway, and in consequence of this, when the company came
before parliament, a clause was introduced in committee,
which imposed upon them the necessity of departing from the
line which it was proposed to take, and to take very nearly
that which they had adopted. It happened, however, that
the property adjoining the new line had not been mentioned
in the books of reference, so that the company had no power
to compel the owners to sell it. The last act pointed out
the place in the outskirts of Rochdale, where the railway was
to cross the turnpike road, and directed that there should be
an opening for the bridge of 30 feet wide, leaving a passage
of 24 feet wide for carriages, &c., and one footpath of six feet
wide, exclusive of the pillars between the carriage road and
the footpath for foot-passengers ; and also that the ground
should be excavated and lower-d so as to keep the turnpike
road on a proper level. By the original plan for the bridge
prepared by Mr. Gooch. one of the engineers of the cons-
pany, it was proposed, in strict conformity. with the act, to
make an opening of thirty feet wide, devoting six feet of it to
a footpath, and the rest to the carriage road. They had just
commenced with the bridge, when Mr. King, one of the
trustees of the turnpike road, Mr. Hibbert, the clerk, and
Mr. Luar, the surveyor to the trustees, called upon Mr.
Gooch at his office in Manchester, and in consequence of
their suggestions the bridge was built as it now stands,
namely, with a centre opening of 24 feet wide, and two side
openings of ten feet wide each, one on each side of the street.
Instead, however, of excavating and lowering the whole road,
only that intended for carriages was lowered, and the foot-
path on each side was left several feet above tliat level, being
protected by retaining walls, and steps being provided at
intervals for the accommodation of passengers and persons
occupying the houses on each side of the street. The

soil Was of a loose and sandy nature, and it was shown,

on the testimony of Mr. Go.och and various other wit:.
nesses, that any further excavation of the road would have
been dangerous to the houses, the foundations of some of which
were very slight, and particularly tb ajarge cotton-mill,

which stood on one side of the street. The case of the de-
fendants was, in fact, that the road in its present state was

much better for the public in every respect, than it would
be if lowered in the manner required by the mandamus. To
prove these points a host of witnesses, including surveyors,
engineers, mill-owners, and others, were examined, many of
them very tediously, apparently to prove, amongst other
matters, that a wide road is better than a narrow one,
where the former can be had. Amongst the witnesses were
two or three members of the firm of Messrs. Livesey and Co.,

cotton-spinners, whose mill fronts the turnpike road, one
end abutting on the railway viaduct. They expressed their
perfect satisfaction with the alteration, and said it was much
better as it was than it would be if the foot-path had
been lowered to the level of the carriage road. They were
of opinion that if the foot-path had been lowered the founda-
tion of the mill would have given way, which, indeed, was
actually the fact with respect to the end abutting on the via-
duct, when the foundations of the latter were laid. Mr.
George Parker Bidder, once the celebrated " calculating boy,"
now surveyor to the London and Blackwall Railway Com,
pany, said that in the formation of the viaduct and footpaths,
the defendants had done all that they were required to do br
the act, and much more than he would have done unless le
were especially consulting the convenience and advatittar ul
the public. After the examination of Amine othei witn,aseS
on the part of the defendants, the court adjourned at aotar-
ter before seven o'clock till this morning, when the caw for
the prosecution will be opened.

—GREAT MEETING IN MAN-
CHESTER.
(Films OUR CORRESPONDENT.).
One of the largest, and at the same time most respectable
meetings ever held in Manchester, took place on Vednesday
night in the Corn Exchange, Hanging Ditch, fir the pur-
pose of considering the propriety of forming a saciety to be
called the Northern Central British India Society for the
purpose of improving. the condition of the natives of British
India by procuring an alteration of their condition as regards
the land tenures, the mode of collecting the revenue, &c.
The boroughreeve, John Brooks, Esq., presided, and among
the leading gentlemen present were Daniel O'Connell, Esq.,
M.P. • Jos. Brotherton, Esq. M.P. ; Sir Thos. Potter ;
Joseph Pease, sen., Esq., Darlington; George Thompson,
Esq.; Charles Lennox Remond, a gentleman of colour, a
deputy from the Anti-Slavery Society of Pennsylvania ; &c. &c.
The first resolution was moved by GEORGE HADFIELD,
Esq.—" That contemplating the awful importance of the
duty imposed on the government and people of England to
consult the interests and remedy the political evils of the mut-
titudinous inhabitants of British India, more than one hun-
dred million of whom are subjected to British dominion, we
anxiously and earnestly desire to rouse public attention to
the manifold. and aggravated grievances which were neces-
sarily concomitant with and resulted from the present system
of landed tenures and revenues prevalent in our East'lndian
territories •, and that we are convinced if the people of Eng-
land can be brought to learn and fully comprehend the
heinous evils resulting from the operation of the present sys-
tem, they will be anxiously desirous:that those evils shall
cease, and a paternal government be immediately substituted
in place of the existing tyranny." _ (Applause.)

BRITISH INDIA

This motion was seconded by Alderm—rm CAL'ENnxit

GEORGE THOMPSON, Esq., then rose and supported the
motion in a speech of great length, in which he read most, of
the documentary evidence which has from time to time been
laid before the public on the present state of India and its
mode of government, and contended that the improvement
sought to be effected by this society in the land tenures, &c.,
would lead to the cultivation of sugar more extensively, and
especially of cotton, and this by its reflex power would ope-
rate upon, and indeed was the only practical mode of bring-
ing to an end the slave trade of. the United States ; while,
on .the other hand, it would be the !neaps of throwing open
to this county an immense field for our manufactures. He
entered into a great many details of the injurious operation
of the land tenures in India, and of the mode adopted by the
Indian government to collect its revenues. He gave
the India Board credit for being anxious to turn to ad-
vantage the opportunity which presented itself of making
that country a cotton-growing country, but denied that
such an alteration had taken place in their land tenures
and the operation of their other laws as would render that
practical to any extent—the distrust occasioned by the hitherto
tyrannical conduct of exacting taxes from them being likely
also-to prove for a time a serious obstacle. He said that the
slave-owners of America, however, already began to read in it
the downfall of their present system, and he exhorted the
meeting to support the object of the British India Society on
the ground of justice to men who were as much their fellow-
subjects as the inhabitants of Middlesex—on the ground of
humanity, on the ground of religion, and on the ground where
no other ground would avail, even of self-interest.

ABSALOM WATIUN, Esq., moved the next-
resolution—
which was to the effect that the redress of the evils now pre-
valent in India, existing as they 4icrin a couuti.y..of thergreat-
-est ea`-tent and" feitility, whose soil was capable of supplying
most of the demands for tropical produce, and whose inhabi-
tants, under an improved system -of government, would be
consumers to an indefinite extent of British manufactures,
would greatly moment the resources of commerce, and pro-
mote the comforts of the industrious population of that coun-
try.

'Mr. JOHN BRIGHT, of Rochdale, seconded the resolution.
which was supported in a long speech by Mr. Remond, and
adopted.
Jos. PEASE, sen., Esq., of Darlington, moved the appoin-
ment of a committee, to carry into effect the spirit of the re-
solutions, and DAVID HOLT, Esq., seconded the motion.
DANIEL O'CoYNELL, Esq., then came forward amidst
great cheering, and spoke at great length on the evils which,
he said, at present afflicted India, including the salt mono-
poly, the forced growth of the poppy, and the mode of levy-
ing rent upon land, not at a fixed rate, but according to ca-
price. The East India Company, he said, denied that the
land was their's : they said to the tenants, " The estate is
your's ; the only thing we lay claim to is to lay what rent we
please upon it.' (Laughter.) He then proceeded to trace
the present system of government in the frequent famines
which had visited that country since the East India Com-
pany held it—hr 1762, in 1764, in 1770, in 1782, in 1793, in
1803 and 1804, in 1820 and 1821, in 1823, in 1833 and 1834,
in 1835 and 1836, and in 1839—famines which swept off mul-
titudes of inhabitants. In describing the results of that go-
vernment as he had done (said Mr. O'Connell), you would
suppose I was drawing upon my imagination—you would
imagine these frightful facts were something to be attributed
to the goules, and ogres, and vampires, and the foul spirits
of fable. Oh, no.! this is the result of British government
—this is the glorious East India triumph. You have your
heroes of one scene or other; you have their feats blazoned
in history ; your magazines and newspapers have told you of
their great battles; how that Wellington or some great sol-
dier or other has rushed to the field, and obtained a victory'.
They have taken care to tell you that ; they take care to tell
you of their victories; their glories; they recite their feasts,
but they forget to tell you of their famines—they forget to
tell you of their crimes, of the insecurity of property, and
of the consequent destruction of life. (Applause.) What
if the East India Company were to come to-morrow and sal,
" We desire to slaughter 500,000 inhabitants of India—ue
wish to cut their throats," would you not be ready to AIJM
for a commission of lunacy against them ? They do'not ask
us to let them slaughter these people with the sword, but
don't they do the Same thing when they ask us to stand by
and see them starve by hundreds of thousands ? (Heart
hear, and applause.)
The thanks of the meeting were afterwards moved to Mr-
O'Connell, and carried amid great applause, and this cow
eluded the proceedings.

.It is enacted by_ the County Constabulary Amendinegt,
Act, that all horses or carriages employed in the service 01
the county police shall be exempted from toll.