The Warwickshire Herald. — 1891-08-13 (Birmingham, West Midlands, England)

MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT'S PRIVI.  LEGE. In the London Bankruptcy Coort,onFriday,before Mr. Justice Williams, an application recently made to the learned judge for the committal of Mr. F. Wootton Isaacson, M.P., for contempt of court, was heard. A sequestration order had been made against the estate of Walter Armstrong, of Weensland, Hawick, and London, and the Trustee of the estate being desirous of examining Mr. Isaacson, obtained leave to hold a private sitting, making the London Court auxiliary to the Scotch Court for the purpose. Mr. Isaacson, however, raised various objections to the order, and pleaded privilege as • member of Parliament. The matter was accordingly reported by Mr. Registrar (iiffard to the learned judge.—His lordship stated that Mr. Isaacson was duly served with a summons. to be examined in certain bankruptcy proceedings. He attended upon the summons, and by his attendance waived any formal objection to the procedure. The objections which Mr. Isaacson rais.d to the jurisdiction were of a technical character, and would be overruled by the court. His lordship, however, understood that Mr. Isaacson had made an affidavit, in which he expressed his willingness to be examined in the event of his objections being overruled by the court. That being so. the question which remained was whether Mr. isa.,son utild successfully plead privilege as a in intrr or Parliament in tar to an order for his conitnit..ll. Ti' question had arisen In a case decided by Lord limucliam. and the objection appeared io feuriled. Was the application inade ii ,ri.er In Impish Mr. Isaacion, or was it niytli a iiiev•r• than an attachment for the purpose of Z,fete..,,c •ii.. order 0 the court ? He thought that a cornmitiai V,IS in the nature rather of a civil thm, .. punitive process. As a result, however, of the exanlinntion of the authorities, it was clear that the order for committal which had been applied for against Mr. Isaacson— he being a member of Parliament—could not be made. The motion would, therefore, be refused I with coati.  A curious ending to a trial for murder is repotted from Cahors, Gambetta's birthplace. A landowner, named Piganiol, had had a difficulty with his father-in-law about the payment:of his wife's dot. He had not wedded empty-handed, having accumulated a sum of £3OO in gold, which he had, out of boastfulness, handed to the father-in-law, one Molime. The old man not only kept the money, but refused to hand over his daughter's dowry. This led to unpleasantness and high words, in the course of which Piganiol took up a pickaxe and drove it through his father-in-law's skull. The jury seemed to approve of this summary mode of ~.!-!_t)lng family quarrels, an they acquitted Piganiol. The reports of the weather from Upper India are again better. A plentiful supply of rain has fallen in a great portion of the North. West Prc,vincei and in the Punjab, while in some places, sech Simla, the fall has been so excessive as to cause some injury to property. It may now be assumed that there is no immediate cause for anxiety with regard to the crops in Northern India. The coin. mencement of the Attock;Marri line of railway has I been sanctioned as relief works, bat this necessity Is mainly due to the damage done by locusts.