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The deputation of Westminster electors appointed to present an address to Sir De Lacy Evans, waited upon him at his residence in Bryanstone Square on Thursday. Sir John Shelley and Mr. Prout were the spokes- men of the party. The address recited the recent gallant services of General Evans, and expressed the great admiration felt by his constitu- ents for his military services. Sir De Lacy replied with much feeling. A compliment more grateful to him, he said, he could not receive, coming as it did from men who supported him through good report and evil report for nearly a quarter of a century ; and who had twice given him leave to absent himself from his duties in Parliament. Various powerful persons had pronounced his services in Spain dishonourable, but the constituency of Westminster had by a majority of 1100 pronounced them honourable. They were not merely exemplifying their kindness to him, but to his comrades. " I do not hesitate to say, there is no instance on record of a young and in- experienced army that have shown greater bravery and devotion to their country than that which landed some few months since in the Crimea. I may be permitted to say that of my comrades • but it would be presumptuous
in me to attribute more than a very small to myself." Nothing in past times can equal the fine, generous, patriotic expression of feeling that has prevailed in the country. on this occasion ; and, with the aid of the French, he had no apprehensions for the result. " Deeply sorry I am that many distresses may be endured and many losses sustained by a prolonga- tion of this struggle ; but it is quite possible—probably it is but the truth— and in my opinion it is our duty and our policy that we should look to a prolonged contest. This is one of those great epochs of which we read in history, where a great power endeavours to master and put down the liber- ties of other nations ; and it is indispensable to those who value liberty, na- tional independence, and the progress of human society, that the contest should be pursued—whatever the sacrifices may be—to a victorious end."
It is reported that Lord Palmerston disapproves of some of the regu- lations proposed by the City authorities for the new market at Copenha- gen Fields,; and especially that he prefers Tuesday to Monday for the chief market-day.
Mr. Justice Coleridge, on Tuesday, delivered the judgment of the Court of Queen's Bench on Mr. Harrison, printer of the Times newspaper, for a libel on the Chairman and Directors of the London and South-Western Railway Company. The Judge said, that the parties represented by Mr. Harrison ought to have endeavoured to prove the truth of the charges pre- ferred in the article. They had not done so, but had disclaimed any mali- cious intention of making an insinuation against the private honour of the prosecutors. The charges preferred had been disproved by affidavits from men of unimpeachable character. The question was not what might be passing in the writer's mind, but what effect his writing had on the public. If a criminal charge was not categorically imputed, it was still easy to make it tell ; and that was the case in the libellous article. The Jury gave their verdict at the last sittings; and there the matter might have rested, but for an article on the 25th December, the purport of which was that the writer did not consider himself interested in the matter, which might be true or false. That course did not reflect credit on the parties who had adopted it ; it would have been more creditable to have candidly acquiesced in the finding of the Jury. That had not been done, and the Court must pass sentence. A fine of 3001. was inflicted, and immediately paid.
In the Court of Admiralty, on Saturday, Dr. Lushington gave judgment in the case of the Franciska, a Danish vessel which was captured on the 22d of May by the blockading squadron in the Baltic. The master professed to be sailing for the squadron itself, in order to ascertain if he might go to Riga. This was one of a number of cases which have been before the Court ; and before pronouncing judgment, Dr. Lushington reviewed the whole law of blockade to ascertain the principles which would govern the decision in all such cases. The judgment is of considerable length, but it presents scarcely any novelty ; its value consisting in the concise and compact form in which it presents the opinion of the standard authorities on the subject. That the blockade is established de facto ; that the force is sufficient to main- tain it ; that it is maintained in act ; that the territory blockaded is in a hostile country,—these are the essentials to a legal blockade. The distance of the blockading squadron from the port which it effectually commands, the want of notification, or the absence of notoriety, does not affect the validity of ,.a blockade, though the two latter circumstances may modify the judg- ment upon a particular shipmaster. In the case of the Baltic, Dr. Lushing- ton pronounced that certain treaties between Sweden and Denmark, incor- porated in treaties with this country and others, granting privileges evi- dently for the noninterruption of local traffic, to Swedish and Danish ships, hostilities notwithstanding, are essentially obscure in their purport, probably out of date, and impotent to overrule the general law of blockade. Casual violations of blockade, through fogs, storms, &c., do not disprove its having been effectively maintained. In the particular case of the Francisks, the vessel was condemned.
The inquest on the body of Mr. Joseph Latham was resumed and con- cluded on Monday. The Jury assembled at Middlesex Hospital. Buranelli, who is convalescent, was produced before them. When a Policeman put in a written statement which he had taken down from the assassin's lips when it was expected he would die in Foley Place, Buranelli did not contest its correctness—it was to the effect that he had murdered Mr. Latham. The Coroner, Jury, and prisoner, went to Foley Place. "Mrs. Lambert" gave evidence while lying on a sofa : she was feeble, and sometimes hysterical ; but her evidence was coherent. She stated that she is the widow of a Mr. Jeanes, a gentleman-farmer of Dorsetshire. She described the murder and the attack on herself. When she and Mr. Latham parted with Buranelli on his leaving his lodging, he seemed to be friendly towards them. The pro.. ceedings were adjourned again to the Hospital; where Mrs. Williamson gave her evidence, describing Buranelli's attempt to enter her room on the fatal morning. Inspector Duigan states that the accused had admitted to him that he bought the pistols four days before the crime was committed. The verdict, of course, was " Wilful murder" against Luigi Buranelli.
The old feud between Coroner Wakley, the Magistrates, and the Police, about their power over prisoners, now broke out afresh, and in a novel way. Mr. Wakley gave his warrant to two parish-constables to convey the mur- derer to Newgate. Inspector Duigan, who held Sir Richard Mayne's warrant against him, wished to take him to the police-station, with the view, appa- rently, of carrying him afterwards before a Magistrate. Mr. Wakley main- tained that his authority was supreme ; the Inspector said he must obey his superiors. Buranelli was put into a cab, and the pariah-constables entered it; but Duigan got on the box. Then there was a long squabble in the yard of the Hospital between the Coroner and the Jury and the Police ; the Foreman of the Jury, Mr. Clement George, obeying the Coroner's call for the aid of all good citizens, pulled the Inspector from the box ; the Inspector shouted to his men to close the gates—to stop the horse. Such an uproar ! In the end, Police, Jury, and prisoner, all drove to George Street Police- station ; and Buranelli there remained in the cab while an officer hurried to Sir Richard Mayne for orders. In half an hour directions came from Sir Richard to take the prisoner to Newgate direct. Thus the Coroner has won the day for once.
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