Widnes Examiner. — 1882-07-29 (Widnes, Cheshire, England)

EXTRAORDINARY MONEY LENDING CAM—Another extraordinary case of money lending,in which a man named Townend, of Manchester, was the defendant, came before one of the Judges at the Manchester Assizes on Saturday. A watchmaker named Sivel, but imperfectly acquainted with the English language, applied to the defendant—who trades at several places in Manchester and elsewhere, under different names—for a loan of £l2O. The interest was to be 10 per cent., and repayment was to be made at the rate of £3 per month for a time, and then per month. Sivel received a cheque for £6O, and he crossed another cheque for a like amount, which the defendant was to send to a money lender at Leeds for the purpose of redeeming some jewellery, which jewellery he was afterwards to forward to Sivel's address at Whitehaven, but did not. A bill of sale on Sivel's stock, \raised at £5BO, was duly executed, but, according to his account, he did not understand its purport. He also stated that he was told the first instalment was due on the 21st March. Oa the 7th March, however, the defendant seized the whole of Sivel's stock and had it conveyed to Manchester and sold. According to the bill of sale the first instalment became due on the 6th March. Sivel offered to pay three instalments and the cost that had been incurred by the bailiffs, hut the latter would not yield unless they got £203. The Judge said that, if what the plaintiff stated was correct, there existed in Manchester a " most mischievous conspiracy which deserved thorough exposure." He also commented on the different aliases assumed by the defendant, adding that what surprised him most of all was that he should keep out of the witness-box when charges of fraud of a serious character were made against him. The jury found for the plaintiff, damages rm.  The Ex-Guicowar o Baroda died on Thursday. The Parcel Post Bill was iss,led on Thursday. Its chief provision, a payment of tifty-five per cent. of the receipts to the railway companies, has already ben made known.  Some further correspondence respecting Zululand was issued on Thursday. Governor Sir H. Bulwer makes some severe strictures on Bishop Colenso's interference in Zulu affairs. _ _  A most destructive fire occurred at Exeter on Thursday morning. Six large business houses were destroyed. The fire broke out in a draper's warehouse, and the inmates narrowly escaped. The damage is estimated at £50,000. Reports from all parts of Scotland show that notwithstanding the heavy rainfall this month, an abundant harvest is expected. The crops require only a fortnight to reach maturity. All the cereals will be above the average of recent years. On Thursday morning, the Governor of Her Majesty's county prison at Nottingham, receiVal instructions to the effect that the sentence of death passed on Herbert Snell, for the murder of a farmer, at South Wheatley, East Retford had been commuted to one of penal servitude for  Early on Thursday morning, a destructive fire broke out in Cheapside-street, Anderson, Glasgow. The premises of Messrs. Joseph Walker, Parker, and Company, lead workers? and Messrs. France and Morgan, brass and. bell founders, were totally destroyed. The damage is estimated at £lO,