The North-Eastern Weekly Gazette. — 1893-06-17 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

Gateshead _10.9 Halifax ....17•6 Huddersfield 10/ Hull . .18.5  Leeds  Leicester Liverpool.. ..24•7 London .. 181. Manchester. _2lO Newcastle _l7l Norwich ....14•0  Glasgow ....22•5  On Monday evening shyly named Mrs Weston Webb, staying at the Midland Grand Hotel, London, oonamitted suicide in a dreadful manner. Mrs Webb was one of a party of about four or five who were visiting London from the North of England. The lady, who , had apparently been in ill-health, was scumspanied by a nurse and two cousins, a lady and a I gentleman. The party had been at the hotel four days. About seven o'clock the cousin, who was in charge of the lady for an hour or so, relieving the nurse of her duties, had occasion to leave the room for an instant. The moment her back was turned, Mrs Webb, who had exhibited no signs of exceptional excitement, opened the window, climbed on to the stone balcony, and getting over on to the low stone wall , surrounding the balcony, flung herself head foremost on to the pavement of the hotel, a distance of nearly 200 ft. The body was terribly mutilated. At the Birmingham County Court on Tuesday Judge Sir Richard Harrington delivered judgment in a peculiar action for assault heard before him in April. The plaintiff was Samuel Bromwich, a lad of 14, who, while in the Workhouse on a magistrate's order on a Police Court charge, was vaccinated by the defendant, George A. Herraby, one of the Workhouse surgeons. This was said to have been done against his will, and constituted the assault complained of. The defence was that under such circumstances the Guardians stood in loco parentis to the lad, and that he did not object to the vaccination, I which was done 88 a protection against small' pox, then rife in the city. The jury at the hearing found for the defendant on the facts, and the judge, on the points of law, endorsed the verdict and gave judgment for the defendant. The case excited a great amount of intert t not only locally, but as affecting the rights of Poor Law Guardians generally.  Miss Annie Rayson, in business at Chelsea, and living at Wandsworth Common, has just recovered £l5O from the South London Tramways Company, as a consequence of refusing to pay a penny to a tramcar conductor. The fare between Chelsea Bridge and Clapham Junction used to be a penny. Last September it was raised to 10. Mies Rayson did not know this, and paid the customary penny, receiving a ticket. When the car had passed a certain point Miss Rayson was told that there was another penny to pay to Clapham Junction. This she refused to pay, as the increased fare was only Id, and left the car after offering a halfpenny, which was refused. She was iumma.ed before the police magistrate, but the charge was dismissed. She therefore brought an action in the High Court for malicious prosecution. Mr Justice Grantham said that the company had demanded more than their legal fare, and said that it was not intended that persons should be taken before a magistrate and charged with unlawfully and wilfully refusing to pay the fare where they tendered the proper fare, or even if they made a mistake and tendered what they believed to be the proper fare. Moreover, the company tried to treat the young lady as a criminal when they knew she was not one, and to take a criminal proceeding for the purpose of enforcing a civil demand was blackmailing. He refused to stay execution for the £l5O which the jury awarded. 

Article type: Incident