bt Rittrapulio.
At a meeting of the Middlesex Magistrates on Thursday, a financial report was presented, which showed that while some reduction has been made in the charges for prisons, a large increase has occurred in the ex- penditure upon lunatic asylums. This led to the necessity of voting a larger rate than usual for the support of these increasing institutions.
A deputation from the National Sunday League has had an interview of an hour with the Bishop of London. They explained their views, gave him a mass of information, and retired much gratified." Dr. Tait rightly thinks that "mutual conferences of this kind are calculated to produce general harmony."
A very complicated and extraordinary appeal case has occupied a great deal of the time of the Lord Chancellor and Lords Justices. A Mrs. Sheppard died in: 18.57, and her property was a cause of dispute. Her alleged husband's next of kin claimed on one side and her legatees on the other. The former gained the cause in the court below. Hence the appeal. The allegation of the plaintiff's in the ease is that Mrs. Sheppard was not Mrs. Sheppard, since she was already a wife, Mrs. Masters, when she married Sheppard. The other side contend that Masters and Sheppard were the same persons, and that they were married a second time to remedy an informality in the first marriage. The ease is complicated beyond descrip- tion. The Lord Chancellor has reserved his judgment.
Mr. Mark Napier of Edinburgh filed a bill in Chancery to restrain Messrs. Routledge from publishing Mr. James Grant's "Memoirs of Montrose." The allegation was that Mr. Grant had made an improper use of certain publications on the same subject by Mr. Napier. Vice-Chancellor Wood refused the injunction. There was evidence of Mr. Grant's fair and legiti- mate use of Mr. Napier's works, although he might not have received that courteous recognition which might have been due to him. Still there was no evidence of undue or unjustifiable appropriation of Mr. Napiees labours. Mr. Grant had made some acknowledgement of Mr. Napiees labours al- though it could have been wished that there had appeared a full and hand- some recognition of them, in a conspicuous part of his work. Upon the question of costs, he thought Messrs. Routledge had acted most properly throughout, and were entitled to their costs, the plaintiff not beimg entitled to the relief asked by his bill, this being an inquiry, upon the plaintiff's undertaking, as to the defendant's loss by any stoppage of the sale of their work in consequence of the motion.
The Court of Queen's Bench have refused an application for an attach- ment against one of the jury who heard the ease of Smith versus the Great Northern Railway Company. Mr. Smith, it may be remembered, was in- jured in an accident on that Company's line. The jury were for giving one farthing damages but Lord Campbell would not receive the verdict. The juryman was said be a friend of the attorney of the company, and had ex- pressed his determination in the Jury-room not to give more than one far- thing damages after Lord Campbell had sent them back. The Court re- fused to take notice of what occurred in the Jury-room; and Lord Campbell said it would be "most lamentable if the sacred institution of trial by Jury were infringed by applications of this sort."
The same Court sitting in hence have refused an application for a new trial in the case of Hughes verses Lady Dinorben. Mr. Hughes, the plain- tiff, was heir to the Dinorben estates;' Lady Dinorben is the widow of the late Lord Dinorben. The present Lord a lunatic, was the issue of a first mar- riage, and not the son of the present Lady Dinorben. When Mr. Hughes was about to be married to the daughter of the present Lord Ravensworth, certain anonymous letters, teeming with libels against Mr. Hughes, were addressed to the young lady's father, grandfather, and other persons. It was suspected that Lady Dinorben was the writer • inquiries were made, and evidence discovered confirming the suspicion. Whereupon an action was brought and a verdict obtained for Mr. Hughes. The application for a new trial was granted on the ground of misdirection, and further that cer- tain anonymous letters had been improperly admitted in evidence; and that the verdict was against the evidence. The Court held that there had been no misdirection ; that the verdict satisfied the Judge, Lord Campbell ; and that the objection to the letters should have been taken at the time.
In the Court of Exchequer, Mr. Coward, financial manager of the Morn- ing Post, brought an action against Mr. Baddeley, a fire-brigade inspector, for fake imprisonment. It appears that Mr. Coward, on his way from the house of a friend to his office, saw a fire at Islington. Mr. Baddeley was
directing the engine, and did not do it to the satisfaction of Mr. i Coward, who interfered, and volunteered h criticisms. He did so twice, the second time, Mr. Baddeley says, with violence. Thereupon Mr. Baddeley gave him into custody for assaulting an officer in the execution of his duty. The inspector at the station-house added to the charge that of drunkenness ; and Mr. Coward was confined all night in a most filthy cell with two thieves. The police refused to seek or take bail—they acting on the rule not to take bail when they suppose a man is drunk. The next morning, Mr. Coward was liberated by the Clerkenwell Magistrate. There was no evidence that Mr. Coward assaulted Baddeley, or that he was drunk. The Jury found for the plaintiff damages 101.; and Baron Bramwell severely commented on the stupid conduct of the police in refusing bail, and placing Mr. Coward in a stinking hole. [It is understood that the cells are not now in the condi- tion they were when Mr. Coward was improperly shut up in one.] In August last, as Mr. Appleford hearing that a Mr. Piper wanted a part- ner with 10001. capital, obtained him one in three days; and preferred a charge for commission of 5 per cent on the capital. The rapidity of the trans- action seems to have astonished Piper and he objected to pay the commission. An action in the Sheriff's Court followed, and Mr. Piper has been ordered to pay 601. and costs.
Last week the sympathies of the benevolent were aroused by an appeal from a Mrs. Newell to the Lambeth Magistrate for aid in finding her lost daughter, Jane Newell, a ballet-girl. That young person has now come to r" and the whole story of her innocence, distress of mind, and her in- vincible virtue, turn out to be an imposition. On her first appearance Miss Newell described herself as decoyed into a house in Pimlico, where she was detained, and in vain tempted to err. This story was suspicious, and the woman who kept the house was summoned. It now appears from the confession of the girl herself, that she had been seduced some time ago ; that she knew how to obtain money from gentlemen ; that she went wil- lingly to the Pimlico house; • and did there as she was bidden, sharing the profits with the woman who kept it. All this being manifest, Mr. Norton dismissed the summons, and detained the money subscribed for the benefit of the Newel's. It is not clear whether the mother knew of the erratic
conduct of her daughter ; but there is some reason to suspect she did, and shared the proceeds.
Three women, a mother and two daughters, Smith by name, have been remanded on a charge of ate-alinq vast quantities of toys from the German Fair Bazaar in Regent Street. 1 hey were employed to serve in the bazaar. One day a reticule belonging to the youngest prisoner fell and disclosed a number of toys. Mr. Cremer, the proprietor, accompanied the girl home, and found, in a wretched abode, tea services, jewelry, toys, all which Mr. Cremer claims as his property. Ile is also inclined to think that they em- bezzled his money.
Harry Bolen°, clown at Drury Lane, was summoned to Bow Streetifor assaulting a "supernumerary.' It appeared that the latter body receive the sham kicks and blows in the pantomime and get up the "rows. ' They do this for a shilling a night. But they are not content with playing the part assigned to them. They "skylark " on their own account, which em- barrasses the "clowns" and destroys the proper effect of a "scene." In the present case, Boleno punished the mutinous "super" off the stage. M. St. Maine, harlequin, said they had enough of peril to encounter in the scenes of the pantomime without being exposed to further risk from the in- subordination of the "supers." Mr. Henry, believing the charge to be per- fectly frivolous, dismissed the summons.
Further inquiry into the causes of the accident at the Polytechnic only seems to confirm the first impression that tho staircase fell because the stone steps were weakened by being cut close to their insertion in the wall, to admit the iron-trellis placed on the worn portions of the steps. Mr. Nelson an architect, submitted a report to the jury pointing out several se- rious dangers to the public in the present construction of the Polytechnic, and suggesting the propriety of instituting regular surveys of all places of amusement., The inquiry is again adjourned.
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