The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-07-11 00:00:00

LAW INTELLIGENCE.

A bill has been brought in by Mr. Fitzroy Kelly, ter
vesting the power of appointing the Chartity Trustees
belonging to Municipal bodies in the Town Council and
burgesses at large:
A deputation from the Coroners of England and Wales,
consisting of Mr. Todd, coroner of Hants; Mr. Cattar,
coroner of Kent ; Mr. Caines of Somersetshire ; Mr.
Kewney, of Lincolnshire; Mr. Curry of Liverpool; and
Mr. Lewis of Essex, had an interview with Lord G.
Somerset on Wednesday at Gwydyr-house.
ACTION FOR LIBEL.—In the Court of Queen's Bench,
on the Ist inst., an action for libel was brought by the sec-
retary of the Thames Haven Railway Company against
the publisher of the Railway Times. The damages were
laid at a £l,OOO, and the jury returned a verdict, one far-
thing : the judge refusing to certify.
By an act of parliament passed on the 31st of May,
making new regulations respecting voters' claims, notices,
revising barristers' courts. &c., each barrister, for going
the revising circuit, is to have two hundred guineas ; and
if assistant barristers are required, they are to have five
guineas per day, and three guineas per day for travelling
expenses.

INCOME-TAX.---NEW ENACTMENTS.—In an act passed
a few days back, respecting assessed taxes, two provisions
appear to simplify some difficulties in the Income-tax
Act. It is declared that the Commissioners of Stamps
and Taxes are to direct where parties shall be assessed to
the Income-tax in cases where they are liable. to be
assessed in more than one place. The second enactment
is to relieve parties who may be doubly charged, in part or
whole, respecting any occupation in one or more districts.
The commissioners are authorized to direct that the whole
or part of such assessments shall be vacgted and dis-
charged.

WILL OF ROBERT SOUTIIEY, THE POET LAUREATE._
The will of Robert Southey, late of Keswick, in the
county of Cumberland, has just issued under s.al of the
Archbishop of Canterbury. The executors named are
Henry Herbert Southey (the brother) and Henry Taylor.
After desiring that he may be decently buried, he directs
that £2OOO be invested in the funds, and the interest paid
to his wife, Caroline Southey. The remainder of his pro-
perty to be equally divided between his four children,
Charles Cuthbert Southey, Edith Mary Warter, Bertha
Hill, and Katherine Southey. The property is sworn
under £l2ooo.—Britannia.

IRISH BANKRUPTCIES.-It may not perhaps be gene-
rally known, that, although Ireland, as far as cases of
bankruptcy are concerned, is under the old law, persons
residing there and trading to England may, without hav-
ing any place of business in this country, be made English
bankrupts, and so receive all the benefit of the new law.
Several Irish bankrupts have recently come before the
Liverpool District Court, having been made bankrupts
by parties resident in Liverpool. These, however, have
chiefly been in cases where the fiat has been friendly, and
probably because allowance of the certificate rests here
with the commissioner, and not, as in Ireland, with the
creditors.

MkSSRS. HARFORD, DAVIES & Co.—A meeting of
the creditors of this firm was held on Tuesday, at their
office in Small-street to take into consideration, the ex-
pediency of continuing the Iron Works of thg Company.
A resolution was passed (with only one disseElient) con-
firming the proceedings in carrying on the works hitherto.
A second resolution declared that the works should be
carried on till the choice of Assignees ; and that the as-
signees chosen should call a meeting of the creditors to
determine upon their future course of proceeding. We
understand that the total liabilities, of Messrs. Harford
and Co. amount to about £341,200, of which security is
held for £34,986 : that the assets are estimated at
£93,000, besides the surplus of the price realised by the
works above the mortgagees. The works were valued in
1841 at £270,000, and the mortgages are stated at from
£40,000 to £60,000.

PRESBYTERIAN MARRIAGES: IMPORTANT DECISION.
—A legal decision was given, on Friday, which will create
no small dismay in the Presbyterian North of Ireland.
The Judges attended in the House of Lords, and gave
their unanimous opinion on the subject of Presbyterian
marriages, referred to them on a technical point taken in
the case of the Queen v. Mellis, a man charged with
bigamy. An Irish Protestant married a Protestant Dis-
senting woman, per verha de preesenti, in the house of a
Presbyterian minister. He afterwards came to England
and married another woman ; the first still alive. Prose-
cuted for bigamy, his counsel objected that the former
ceremony was no marriage. The Judges now decided that
the contract per verba de prasenti is only a contract for
marriage, (down to the Marriage Act of 1827 indissoluble
between the parties, though not since ;) but it is not a
marriage, in order to which the contract must take place
in the presence of a priest in orders: the Presbyterian
minister was not a priest in orders; therefore the former
ceremony was not a marriage. To allay the alarm which
this decision would create in Ireland, Lord Brougham de-
clared that it did not follow that the House of Lords would
affirm it, or that the Legislature would refuse to pass an
act to provide for the emergency by an ex post facto law.
On the motion of the Lord Chancellor, the further con-
sideration of the subject was deferred. Lord Campbell re-
serving all expression of opinion.