The Press. — 1854-08-12 (London, England)

ANOTHER EXIGRA.NT PASSENGER ACTION has been brought before. a jtiry, the defendants being the well• known shipping firm of Wigram and Co. The plaintiff in the case, Mr. Fieldhouse, formerly carried on the business of a wheelwright at Melbourne, in Australia. The present action was brought. to recover compensation for a breach of contract in putting the plaintiff and his family in inferior cabins on a voyage from Melbourne to London, he having taken passages in the ship Kent, the property of the defendants, for that voyage. The plaintiff also complained of the filthy state of the ship and badness of the provisions. The evidence offered on both sides during the progress of the case was very voluminous, and, as usual, very conflicting. The witnesses for the plaintiff deposed to a variety of discomforts from dirt, insufficient accommodation, bad or scanty provisions, &c., while the defendants produced testimony to show that these causes of complaint were either non-existent or presented nothing more than the ordinary disagrimens inevitable in the course of long voyages, further protracted by accidents of wind and weather. The case occupied two entire days at the Devizes Assizes, and terminate,don Tuesday night in a verdict for the plaintiff—Damages, 501. AN ENGLISH CASE OF ABDUCTION was tried at Appleby, on the northern circuit., upon the 4th inst., when John Atkinson stood charged with having, on the morning of the 25th of May, unlawfully taken Anne Jane Ward, an unmarried girl, under the age of sixteen years, out of the possession, and against the will, of Jane Bishop, who had at the time the lawful care and charge of the said Anne Jane Ward. The prisoner was a music-master, who gave lessons at Miss Bishop's school, where Miss Ward was one of his pupils. The girl seems to have been prematurely developed, both in mind and person. Some of the witnesses stated that she appeared to be sixteen or seventeen, and several letters read in court showed an unusual precocity of sentiment and contrivance. It was proved that she was a consenting party, having voluntarily and vary skilfully contrived to escape from the school and join her lover, when the pair proceeded to Gretna-green and were united by the officiating practitioner of the place. They were, however, closely followed, and the prisoner was arrested very shortly afterwards. On the trial it was ruled that the consent of a girl so young and RO situated did not justify the abduction ; and Mr. Atkinson, being found Guilty, was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment in the county gaol.  glltibtats anb Offturts.  AN INQUEST was held on Tuesday relative to the sudden death of Robert Snow, Esq., aged furry-nine, late of the firm of Snow, Dean, PaukSttallan, and Co., of the Strand, bankers. It appeared by the evidence that deceased, who had previsusly been subject to fits of an epileptic character. was found dead in his bedroom by a servant on the previous Friday morning. The post-mortem examination showed that death was occasioned by disease of the heart, and the jury returned a verdict accordingly. Dn. OusnAmstry, the inedical superintendent of the Worcester City and County Lunatic Asylum at Powick, committed suicide on Monday last by taking prussic acid. Dr. Grahamsley was in Worcester on Saturday in his usual health and spirits, and no cause is assigned for the melancholy deed. The doctor was a Scotchman by birth, and was appointed to the asylum at its completion about two or three years ago. He was greatly respected in Worcester. THE CONVICT LEWELLYN GAIMATT TALMADGE HARvEy, who murdered the poor girl Mary Richards, was executed on the morning of yesterday week, the 4th inst, in front of Exeter gaol. Tim Loss OF THE Situ Gu/nare, of Liverpool, with the fate of the captain and mate, who perished in attempting to save the gold from the ship, wasnotified at Lloyd's on Saturday last, through a letter forwarded by their agent at Cape Coast, dated likt. June. The Gamete went ashore on the beach, about sixty miles westward of the Cape, on the morning of the 26th of May last. The captain and mate were drowned, owing to their having loaded themselves with gold, which immediately sank them, and neither was Seen to rise after. The natives congregated in large numbers on the beach, robbing the survivors, and seized everything that come from the wreck. The bodies of the captain and mate were afterwards found, stripped of everything, and completely naked. The ship became a total loss. Two OF Tar DrvEas employed in the diving-bell belonging to the Clyde trustees, and stationed on the rock in the bed of the Clyde at Spiershedge, near Renfrew, were engaged in blasting a piece of rock at the bottom of the river, when from some accidental canse an explosion took place, and splinters of the rock were (lashed into the bell, injuring severely, if not fatally, both of the workmen. Their names are Stirling and M'Nair. The latter, it is feared, cannot survive his injuries. ,