An action for ejectment, to try the validity of the
will of the late Lord Rancliff, was brought at the Nottingham assizes. Lord Ran- cliff left large property to Mrs. Burtt, his mistress ; she has since married, and although ten years have elapsed since Lord Rancliff died, and ten since Sir C. Rumbold acquiesced in the will, his brother, Sir Arthur, thought fit to revive the dispute. It was of no avail. He had no new evidence to bring, and the jury decided against Sir Arthur as soon as they were appealed to. At the same assizes, Robert White and John Davis, lace manufac- turers, both young men, were found guilty of feloniously forging two bills of exchange, and sentenced, White to six, and Davis to four, years' penal servitude. Francis Edward Shipley, colliery proprietor, has been found guilty at Nottingham of forging and uttering bills of exchange. There was no doubt of his guilt. Mr. Shipley was a young man who had borne a good character, but unhappily he drew "irregular" bills, that is, he forged acceptances. The jury, on the strength of good character, recommended him to mercy. Sentence, three years' penal servitude.
At Aylesbury Mr. Bliss, a farmer, has obtained a verdict against the
• London and North Western Railway Com.pany for damages alleged to have been caused by a heated coal or cinder ejected from a loco- motive into Mr. Bliss's stackyard, thereby causing a conflagration. One question was whether the stackyard was placed too near the line, and the jury decided that Mr. Bliss was not guilty of culpable negligence in planting his ricks within forty-three feet of the line !
At Worcester, one Vick, an attendant at a lunatic asylumn, has been sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment with hard labour for inflicting grievous bodily harm upon a patient. At Exeter, Robert Hackett, a private in the Gist Regiment, was found guilty of the murder of Sergeant Jones, a comrade with whom he had fought through the Indian campaign. Hackett was under the impression that a friend of his had been insulted by the sergeant. He fetched his rifle, loaded it, walked into the room where Jones was, and shot him, firing his piece from the hip. Hackett was sen- tenced to be hung.
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