14 JANUARY 1854, Page 10

The Attorney-General applied to the - Court of Queen's Bench, yesterday, for

a rule to -show cause why a criminal information should not be -filed against Mr. Harrison, printer and publisher of the Times, for an artiole-in November last, passing severe strictures on the character and conduct of several Directors of the South-Western Railway Company. The-proseeuting parties are, the Honourable Francis Scott, Chairman of the Company, and seven other Directors. They prosecute on their individual responsibility and at their private expense. The libel having been read, Lord Campbell re- marked, that the charges were put hypothetically ; they were not absolute or positive. But there were expressions admitting of the construction that fraud had been committed.—Rule to show cause granted.

Lord Campbell gave judgment, yesterday, in an action brought by-Mr- Mowatt against Lord Londesborough, one of the directors of a company formed for constructing a railway from Dover to Deal, to recover the amount of deposits paid on shares. A guarantee had been given by the directors, that if the bill did not pass through Parliament the whole deposit-money 'Mould be returned. The bill did not pans; but, in spite of the guarantee, the directors had deducted preliminary expenses. Lord Campbell held that the deposits ought to have been returned without deduotion, and that the directors were liable.