The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1851-06-17 00:00:00

country

The inquiry into the recent melancholy catastrophe on
the Brighton and Lewes line of railway was resumed on
Friday, at Lewes. It was clearly proved that the train
was thrown off the line by a wooden sleeper having been
placed on the outer rail, but no light was thrown upon the
agency by which it was placed there. The proceedings
were adjourned until Saturday, when the jury returned the
following verdict :—" We find that the deaths of the de-
ceased were caused by the train running off the rails and
passing over the Newmarket archway ; that a broken
sleeper was found on the spot after the accident, but by
what means it came there does not appear to the jury;
that in this instance the tender preceded the engine, and
that the train passed down the Falmer incline at a greater
rate than directed by the company, and the jury are of
opinion that such practices are dangerous, and that had
the engine been placed first, or the tender been provided
with iron guards, the probability of safety would have been
much increased ; that the jury express their regret that so
much connected with this accident should have been moved
before their inspection, by which they were prevented
from so complete an examination as otherwise might have
been afforded."

LAW INTELLIGENCE,

Lord Dundrennan, a Scotch judge, the successor of
Lord Jeffrey, died on Tuesday at Edinburgh.
SERIOUS DAMAGES.-A Bail Court jury has given
£1,500 damages to a Post-office clerk, who sued the
North-Western Company for damages in consequence of
serious injuries received b 3 him while he was sorting the
letters as the train was in progress. The cause of the ac-
cident was a collision near Harrow.

Mrs:Qrs. Blackwood were sued, on Friday, at the Court of
Common Pleas, for £5,000 damages for libel on Captain
Helshaw, the hero of a trial for duelling in a recent paper
in Blackwood's Magazine, the plaintiff contending that,
by the publication of the life, his good name and reputa-
tion had been brought into public scandal and disgrace,
and that he had been shunned and avoided by divers per-
s )ns. For the defence, an honourable regret was expressed,
and the case was adjourned until yesterday, in order that a
satisfactory apology might he framed.

In the Bail Court, on Thursday, the Rev. Peter Daly,
Roman Catholic priest, of Galway, in Ireland, obtained a
rule to shew cause why a criminal information should not
be filed against Bradbury and Evans, printers of Punch,
for a libel on that gentleman in the publication of the 19th
April. The article complained of was headed " A Chris-
tian Hero—his Cross and Lucifer Box," and commented
with great severity upon a speech said to have been de-
livered by the plaintiff at a dinner in Galway, which
speech, in fact, was spoken by another party, Mr. John
Francis Blake.

THE NORTHERN CIRCUIT.—The lion .Mr. Baron Platt,
and the Hon. Mr. Justice Williams, the judges appointed
for this circuit, have fixed the following days for holding
the assizes in the several counties comprised within this
circuit :—Yorkshire : Saturday, July 12, at the Castle of
York. City of York : The same day, at the Guildhall of
the city. Durham : Saturday, July 26, at Durham.
Northumberland : Thursday, July 31, at Newcastle-on-
Tyne. Town of Newcastle : The same day, at the same
place. Cumberland : Monday, August 4, at Carlisle.
Westmoreland : Thuisday, August 7, at Appleby. Lan-
cashire (Northern Division) : Saturday, August 9, at the
Castle, at Lancaster. South Division : Wednesday, Au-
gust 13, at Liverpool.

DKLAYS IN CIIANCERY.—From the very centre of the
dead level of modern social and humanitarian institutions
crops out occasionally a harsh and jagged anomaly, serv-
ing only too faithfully and vividly to remind us over what
rude and barbarous elements our civilization is spread,
and how near the rock lies the smooth and smiling sur-
fece. Thus, in our " law report" of Friday, in the same
sheet which contains the doings of the Great Exhibition,
the meetings of alt manner of philanthropic societies, and
the deliberations of that legislature which is the model
after which all Europe aspires in vain, is found the follow-
ing case :

FRISBY V. STAFFORI

"This was a motion made on behalf of :lir. Walter Manners
for the payment of £5,400 into-court.
"The suit was instituted in 1815, and a motion made in 1817
for payment of the money into court. The case was now argued
at some length.

" Mr. R. 'Palmer said he would be content to take an order
for payment into court, on or before the last seal, of a sum to
lie named in the order, being equal to, at the price of the day,
the amount of ..f5,400. Three-and-a• Half per Cents. the costs
of the order to be costs in the cause.

" This was agreed to, and the order was accordingly made."
We probably expose ourselves to the reproach of being
little versed in the mysteries of Chancery, by offering a
single remark on the facts which this brief report discloses.
No doubt a Chancery suit of only six-and-thirty years
standing is a thing at which it argues great ignorance to
a mere
express either astonishment or indignation.
co.Tifebnaitrtsyp-aseix
years are something in the life of a man, of a nation, of a
e
bete
Chan-
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tohtreheemvyeanka
rionefaaa
apnl
da
briefn
re et
n,i
ehltwue tirn%i
renewing
interval,
euasht,
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decent pause in the slow and stately march by which
parties proceed to what, by a fine irony, we are in
the habit of calling "equitable relief." When this old
suit was new, the counsel who have succeeded to its ma-
nagement were probably babes in arms, and the judge
before whom it is heard a truant schoolboy. Since the
parties first applied to this dilatory tribunal for the deter-
mination of their rights three monarchs have succeeded
to the aged Prince in whose reign it was commenced ; two
dynasties have reigned and perished in France, to give
place to a republic,. which this inexhaustible litigation
may probably survive. The occupant of every throne in
Europe, and every prominent office in the English church
and state, has been changed, but still the inexorable
Chancery suit holds on its way, permanent in the midst
of never-ending change, the only immutable thing in an
era of restless transition. Mr. Roundell Palmer said he
would be content with payment before the last seal. At
the rate, and on the scale at which Chancery moves, the
last trumpet would seem a more appropriate term.--
T imec