The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-01-18 00:00:00

INSOLVENT DEBTORS' COURT

IN RE W. F. FARLEY.—RAISING MONEY UNDER
POST-OFFICE STAMPS.—This insolvent was opposed by
Mr. Cooke for Messrs. Evans and Payne. The trade
debts amounted to £1,700. It appeared that the insolvent
had kept a toy-shop, and was appointed letter-receiver by
the posttoffice authorities; for which he was paid £56
a-year. On the postoffice being removed from his house,
he was found " wanting " in the sum of £331 17s.'4d.—
Mr. Cooke put several questions to the insolvent, and
from his replies, it transpired that he had been in the habit
of pawning postage stamps, and that he had disposed of as
many as twenty-five to thirty pounds' worth at a time in
this way.. Altogether he had raised about £3OO upon his
" government security." The rate at which the money
was lent him was 10 per cent., receiving from the pawn-
broker £lB for every £2O worth of stamps,—Mr. Cooke
submitted that the pawnbroker who had sanctioned this
dishonest traffic must be entered as a creditor, and must
also be examined.—The Commissioner said there was no
doubt whatever that the insolvent had wilfully left all
mention of these transactions out of his schedule, for the
purpose of screening himself and the pawnbroker. A
traffic in government stamps—which the insolvent had re-
ceived from the crown to sell in his official capacity—
would never be sanctioned. The matter must he sifted
to the bottom, and the whole particulars set forth. The
ease would therefore stand adjourned for a week.—Ad-
journed accordingly.

MR. SEYMOUR'S DEFENCE OF REID.—Mr. Seymour,
like Mr. C. Phillips, whose example he has followed, is
an Irishman. It is important to the English bar that it
should be asserted, that the principles enunciated by Mr.
Seymour are, as it would appear, merely importations
from the other side of the channel, and are not born and
bred, and domiciled on our own soil. Mr. Seymour as-
serts that counsel is bound to preserve the secret reposed
in him in professional confidence, So far he is right.
Counsel is not bound to read his brief to the jury. He is
also, says Mr. Seymour, equally bound "to frame the
best defence in his power from the evidence given at his
trial." Here lurks the fallacy. This is the truth, but not
the whole truth. He should have added, "provided that
in doing so he violates no moral obligation ; ' and a fore-
most duty is, that we shall inflict no wrong upon others
even for our advantage. The definition of the duty of
counsel we take to be this. He is to say for the prisoner
what he might say for himself had he the ability. His
business is to show to the court, not so much that the

prisoner is or is not guilty of the crime char
is not legelly proved to be guilty ; and thi
even with a full knowledge ,of guilt in fact
slightest violation of the strictest morality.
this, religion and morality 'forbid the resort_

thout tt

so monstri

Law Times.

Jae. IS, 1848.

RAILWAY AFFAIRS.
The differences of the Lancaster and Preston and ill
Canal Company are not yet healed. At the spell:
meeting the conferences between the boards of the ttrt
corporations were stated to have terminated without sal
result—except an intimation from the Canal Company
seeking legal assistance.
Four men were buried alive by the falling of a bri dt.
on the branch railway from Rawenstall to Bacup, al
fell upon them while they were repairing some damage.:
had sustained by the floods. After several hours two we"
got out alive, but in a dangerous state. The otbe'
named Bently and Halstead, were both dead.
From our official returns it appears that the amount
traffic, for the last week, on upwards of 3,423 miles °1
railway was £160,026, thus accounted for :—£81,077
the conveyance of nassengers only, £39,720 for the ear'
riage of goods, and a remainder of £39,229 for passeng"
and goods together, not respectively apportioned ; bei
an increase of £21,726 over the corresponding week
the former year, when the mileage was 2,660. Ye,
average earnings per mile for last week were £47, wilno
in 1847 they were £52.
ATTEMPT TO DESTROY A PASSENGER TRAIN.—At
quarter sessions held at Cardiff on the 9th of this mon/Dv
William Scott was convicted and sentenced to, sever
years' transportation, for wilfully attempting- to ore' „
turn a passenger train on the Taff Vale Railway, Dr
removing the rails. The train proceeded at its usual rat!:
and with apparent security, until it had arrived 18 meet
from Cardiff. when the engine, tender, and three of the,
carriages went off the line. Fortunately for the lives el,
the passengers, the engine went off on the side ofttir
mountain. On inspecting the line, it was diseovered e
two of the rails had been taken up. Had the tails lees
displaced only a few yards further on, the train must WI
gone into the river.

AMBERGATE, NOTTINGHAM, AND BOSTON RAILWAI.€
—W. F. Norton, Esq. (the chairman) and the whole e'
the directors of this company, met at Bottesford, 014
Tuesday, for the purpose of looking over the line froffi
that place to Grantham, a distance of aboUt seven and'
a-half miles—which they found in a very forward state"
four and a-half miles of the permanent way having be
laid, and the remainder nearly ready to receive the per'
manent way. The bridges, culverts, and enibankments,
are all nearly finished. They then viewed the Gonesti,
tunnel, near Grantham, which is upwards of .fire huudree
yards long, nearly halt of 'Which iS completed'. 'atithifter"
wards walked through the cutting at tbe, east' ,end' of the
tunnel, and examined the station ground at'Giantham
and also the branch line to the wharf. The directors es.
pressed themselves highly satisfied with the program
made.

FATAL RAILWAY RIOTS.—On the sth inst. a numb
of navvies engaged on the Aberdeen railway were paid
their wages, after which they began at midnight to 010c''
insults to some of the villagers at Stonehaven, who Wei'_,,
then engaged in celebrating Christmas in the old style'
Towards morning a good many houses were forcibly es'
tered, and soon after it became evident that a premedi'
tated attack was about to be made. The constabulte
force were able to hold in check the earlier disturbances.;
but the Highlandmen, being armed with bludgeons, 101"
perfectly ferocious, every attempt to resist their barbara',
onslaught was futile, and the police had to abandon tb'
ground. Houses were now broken into, bakers' and but'
chers' shops ransacked, spirit cellars in some cases eirr
tied, and one young man was so severely bruised by ti's
blows of a ruffian that he died on Wednesday night;
others were more or less bruised, and some of them u°/r
lie in a very hopeless condition.
ACCIDENT ON THE LONDON AND SOUTII-WESTER
RAILWAY.—On Friday, the six o'clock p.m: up-tram
from Southampton had proceeded as far as a place calk'
Frimley, about a mile and a half on the Southampton
side of Woking, when, owing to some disarrangement!'
the machinery of the engine, it was brought to a stalorA
still. The engine-driver in charge of the train, DOI'
Martland, immediately proceeded to repair the defect,
and, in order to prevent the possibility of accident, t,.11!
second guard was sent back with a red light to stay t'w
progress of the usual night luggage-train from Southamr
ton. This officer had been gone twenty minutes "sch,e_.,,°
the expected train was heard approaching, and, in orelei
to insure safety, another person was sent back with 0
red lamp. This person had scarcely cleared the WA;
senger-train, when the luggage-train ran into it with
terrific force, carrying destruction on every side. Mai'
land, the engine-driver, who was just putting tut
finishing stroke to the repairs of his engine—the his
1
guard holding his lamp to him at the time—was crushe",
to death beneath it, and the breaksman and the stoker 0:
the luggage-train were very seriously injured, the forte'
more especially.