The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1851-05-20 00:00:00

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tU STANDARD

oppressed. In this condition the boat was seen by the
Star, and two men were sent to board, who, on seeing no
person, and thinking her derelict, were proceeding to
transfer her gear to their boat, when the owner emerged
from beneath the little half-deck. The cordage and sails
of the tiny craft were speedily transferred, with her
owner, to the deck of the Star, and the adventurous
gentleman found himself on Sunday at anchor ii the
Lagan, instead of, as he originally intended, in the
Thames, pointing to amazed mariners the tiny boat in
which he had effected the passage from Wexford to the
all attractive Exhibition.—Belfast Whig.

LAW INT.ELLIGENCE.

Mr. Duncan M'Neill is to be the new
in the room of Lord Mackenzie.

Scotch judge,

In the Bail Court, on Tuesday, Sir F. Thesiger, on be-
half of the proprietors of the Morning Herald and Morn.
ing Advertiser, expressed their regret that the libels
complained of against the convent of Notre Dame at
Clapham had ever appeared in their papers, as they were
totally unfounded. Having made this public apology, the
plaintiffs consented to the rules obtain
formations beingAlischarged with costs

ARREST OF ABSCONDING DEBTOII—On Tuesday a
bill was printed by order of the House of Lords, brought
forward by the Earl of Harrowby, to facilitate the more
speedy arrest of absconding debtors. It is proposed to
give authority to the Commissioners of Bankruptcy and
Judges of County Courts to issue warrants for the arrest
of absconding debtors. The writs of capias from the su-
perior courts are to issue thereupon. The warrant is to
be auxiliary to such writ of capita, and persons so arrested
may apply to a judge of one of the superior courts to be
discharged. On the payment of the debt and costs the
party arrested to be discharged. In case it should appear
to the satisfaction of a jury in any action brought for
false imprisonment under a warrant authorised to be issued
that such imprisonment was malicious, or that there was
no probable cause of action, then the warrant and the
writ of capias issued thereon shall in either of such cases
be.no ground of justification to the person at whose suit
the same shall have been issued.

EVIDENCE OF A LuNanc.2-The Exchequer Chamber
has given judgment in the case of the Queen a. Hill, the
attendant in one of the Metropolitan Lunatic Asylums,
who was not long since convicted of causing the death of
one of the pauper inmates by violent treatment. The con-
viction had depended on the evidence of a pauper lunatic,
subject to insane delusions as to spirits ; who affirmed
even at the trial that the spirits were then trying to make
him think that the violence he witnessed had happened on
another day than the correct one; but who in other re-
spects was highly intelligent and moral, and gave to the
judge an excellent explanation of the moral obligation of
an oath. It had been objected at the trial, that a person
" non compos mentis" is never admissible as a witness ;
but Justice Coleridge had admitted the evidence, and re-
served the point for grave argument before the Exchequer
Chamber. The Court now held that Mr. Justice Coleridge
was right : the rule is, that the admissibility of the evi-
dence rests with the judge, and then the effect and weight
of the evidence rests with the jury.