Vrouilitiol.

Mr. Sidney Herbert communicated by circular, this week, to the Scot- tish Lord-Lieutenants her Majesty's approbation of the soldierlike bearing and loyalty of the Volunteers who, figured at the Royal review, accompanied by a general order from Sir James Yorke Scarlett, the Adjutant-General, expressing with admirable point the sentiments of his Sovereign.

Mr. Sidney Gurney writes to the Times in correction of the statements of "Observer," upon the conduct of Mr. Justice Keating, which we quoted last week-

" When the Commission was opened on the previous day, the Crown Court was adjourned to ten o'clock. Your correspondent states that the Grand Jury were summoned for nine, leaving it to be inferred that, when the Judge took his seat at ten, he had already detained the Grand Jury for an hour. If they were so detained, the detention was owing, not to the Judge, but to the circumstance of the Under-Sheriff having summoned the Grand Jury for an hour earlier than that at which the business of the Crown Court ever commences. Upon the Judge taking his seat, he was naturally surprised at finding no Grand Jurymen in court. It appears that a custom prevails in the county of Dorset for the Grand Jury to assemble in their room, and not to come into court till they are informed that the Judge has taken his seat. It unfortunately happened that there was some delay on the part of the officer whose duty it was to apprise the Grand Jury of the presence of the Judge in court, and the Judge, in ignorance of the custom referred to, naturally supposed that the Grand Jury were not in attendance. He seemed surprised and a little annoyed, but on being informed that it had been more usual to commence business at half-past ten or eleven o'clock on the first day of the Assizes, he directed the Court to be adjourned till eleven o'clock, intimating certainly that defaulters would.be fined. During the Judge's absence from court, an explanation of the misapprehension which had occurred had entirely removed his momentary feeling of annoyance and, in charging the Grand Jury on his return, he described himself as per- fectly satisfied, and expressed his regret at the momentary misapprehension which had existed."

The action of Miss Fray against her late attorney, Mr. Voules, came to a termination on Saturday. The defendant's answer was that he had actually paid out of his own pocket, in the actions against Mrs. Potter and the Earl and Countess of Zetland. He refused to compromise until the late Serjeant Wilkins, Mies Fray's counsel, said it would be madness to go on, and that she should take any offer made to her : the Serjeant himself explained the terms, and endorsed them on his brief, as 'did also Mr. Doyle, the junior. The Lord Chief Justice said he remembered being Lord Zetland's counsel in the cause, and being very angry at the compromise made. Miss Fray was gratified at the amount of costs to which she had put the Earl, as his lord- ship had doubtless paid a high fee to Sir A. Cockburn, the counsel ; but Sir A. Cockburn, the presiding Judge, looking at his old brief, said the fee was "a very moderate one." The Jury interposed, and cut .short the case by a verdict for Mr. Voules.

Mr. Edwards, a post-office travelling clerk between Preston and London, sued the North Western Railway Company, at Guildford Assizes, for an injury to the spine received in an accident from the company's negligence on the 19th of February last, near Wigan. The company's answer was that the injury was not permanent. Damages, 350/.

Mr. Goff, a builde at Wood Green, sued the Great Northern Railway Company for damages occasioned by false imprisonment. He had been given into custody for travelling on the line without a ticket, with intent to defraud. The plaintiff had travelled from town with a retain ticket, visited his home, where he found his sister-in-law, who also had a return ticket of a previous day ; he took up her ticket instead of his own, and on his return by rail was given into custody, and carried before Mr. Tyrwhitt, who dis- charged him on his promise to return on the following day With the proper ticket which he did. The company relied on the defendant's negligence for an answer, and raised a point of,law, which was reserved, as to whether the imprisonment was with their authority, a line of defence Mr. Chambers de- nounced as "shabby." Meanwhile, the Jury expressed their opinion by a verdict for 501. damages.

Mr. Clarke, proprietor of a cotton-mill, appeared as a defendant, fhe suit of one of his labourers, Holmes, at Liverpool Anises, to ensue. in damages, for an accident by a " scutehing " machine. It was Holmes's jnty to oil the wheels in order to prevent the centre heating. By the 7tlifluic. cap. 16, sec. 21, and 19 and 20 Vie. cap. 38, see. 4, millowners are req to box-off all shafts of machinery giving motive power, to protect wo children, and others from accident. This machine was not boxed-off on the 9th of July 1859, as Holmes was oiling the wheels, the sleeve of his shirt was caught and his arm was shattered. Recovering, he returned to his em- ployment at Mr. Clarke's, for two months, on work of a light character, and afterwards for four months at Mr. Clarke's brother's. The defendant objected that the plaintiff knowingly accepted a dangerous employment, and had been guilty of negligence. But the Judge reserved the point of law, and the Jury assessed the damages at 200/.

At Liverpool Assizes on Monday, Captain Leslie found guilty at the last assizes on an indictment for falsely imprisoning five Chilian gentlemen, who were political prisoners sentenced to be banished, and who was em- ployed by the Chilian Government to bring them in his ship to this coun- try, and land them in Liverpool, was brought up for judgment. A case having been reserved for the opinion of the Court of Criminal Appeal, the conviction was affirmed, that Court being of opinion that, although per- fectly justified in detaining the prosecutors so long as his ship was in Chilian waters, yet that their detention against their will was unlawful when the defendant had passed out of the boundaries of that country. He was fined Is., and discharged.

At Guildford Assizes on Monday, Hooper, a carman in the employ of the Midland Railway Company, sued his employers for false imprisonment. He had been intrusted with the delivery of a quantity of goods including oranges. One of the boxes, either by accident or design, had been burst open, and Hooper was observed to take one of several lying about and suck it. On weighing the case, it was found to be thirteen pounds short. Mr. Corrie, the magistrate, was about to deal summarily, but Hooper claimed to be heard before a Jury, who acquitted him. Damages 501.

A man named Waters was taken down from Millbank Penitentiary to Wells, for trial, accompanied by two warders under a writ of habeas cor- pus. He was a convict in Dartmoor, from which he escaped ; journeyed to Wells, and stole a watch, for which he was arraigned and convicted. He had been captured in London as an escaped convict and lodged in Millbank. An application was made for the expenses of transit to Wells, but Mr. Baron Channel doubted whether he had power to make the order. The learned Judge consulted Mr. Justice Keating, and both Judges were of opinion that the expenses could not be allowed under the Act of Parliament.

Sarah Farman, a servant-girl, out for a holiday on Whit Monday last, charged Henry Cook, at Gloucester Assizes, on Monday, with jumping out from behind a hedge, and stealing from her a shilling and an orange ; she also alleged he threatened to kill her if she told any one, and that he set his dog at her. On her return to her master's house, she did not mention the transaction to any one, and subsequently gave as a reason that she was afraid of her life. On Wednesday following, being ill, she went to her mother's, and was seized with an epileptic fit ; recovering from which, she then, for the first time, made this accusation. Witnesses gave Cook a good character, and the Judge told the Jury he believed the defence set up was true, viz., that the girl, recovering from the fit, laboured under a delusion of a robbery, which she believed in and repeated as a truth. Verdict, Not guilty.

A contest between trustees and creditors was decided in a trial at Bristol on Tuesday : Mr. Tupper and two others, trustees under a deed of arrangement made by Richard Clements, proprietor of the Prince's Club, sued Mr. Foulkes, a creditor who executed the deed for his contribution towards the costs in- curred. It was objected by the defendant that the action would not lie as the affairs were in Chancery, and it was a question whether the plaintiffs had correctly, executed their trust. Mr. Justice Keating overruled the ob- jection on the ground of a covenant, and directed a verdict for the trustees for 100/.

At Liverpool &ash:es Mr. Harrison, a schoolmaster, and Mr. Ainley for a libel, in which the plaintiff was charged with speaking irreverently of the Bible, and teaching the children under his care that it was full of lies." For the defendant, several children were called. One of them, a little girl, twelve years of age, stated that the plaintiff had taught the children in her class that the Bible contained lies ; that the story about Lazarus and Dives was a lie—that the rich man could not call out from Hell to Heaven, as he could not be heard—it was a lie. On being cross-examined, she said the plaintiffhad sometimes taught them that the word "hell" meant "the gravel" in particular passages. Another child stated that the plaintiff had said that passage in the 20th chapter of St. Matthew about the two blind men calling out to Jesus to give them sight was a lie, and also that the 19th chapter of Revelations was not to be believed ; it was full of lies. Several other children were called, who said they never heard the plaintiff use any such expressions in his teaching. The arguments of counsel converted the Assize Court into a Theological College ; Mr. Overend, in his reply, going with all the ardour of a professional theologian and quite as much ability, into the questions upon which the libel hinged; he contended that the plaintiff had simply, as was his duty, endeavoured to explain certain passages of the Bible according to the best received authorities, and had explained that in certain passages the word "hell" must not be taken literally as a place of torment ; that it meant " the grave," and the learned counsel referred to several of the annotations to the Oxford edition of the Bible in proof of this, and this was so with regard to the passage referred to regarding Dives and Lazarus ; and be contended that the reference to the blind men in the 20th chapter of St. Matthew had, in like manner, been explained not to be correct, the other Evangelists mentioning the same facts as occurring to one blind man. It was these explanations which the children had muumprehended, and in the coarse language of the country they had interpreted that which the plaintiff had endeavoured to explain as an inaccuracy, and not to be relied on, to be telling them it was a lie. The jury found for the plaintiff; damages, one farthing. Each party will have to pay his own costs, from which it follows that theological, scholastic ex- positions, and moral. literary libels, are very costly and not at all conclusive of the points in dispute.

Great excitement prevails in Wilts as to the confession, or rather allega- tion, of a man named "Edmund John," who announced himself as the murderer of little Kent, to the police at Wolverton Station last week. Brought to Trowbridge and examined before the Magistrates, he gave a somewhat unsatisfactory account of himself generally, but tolerably conclu- sive as to the condition of his mental powers. His story is that he was bribed with a sovereign by Mr. Kent to murder the child, which was handed to him out of the window. Subsequently, he denied having been in that part of the country before.

The Grand Jury at Liverpool, made a presentment to Mr. Baron Martin, which was read by their foreman, Mr. A Egerton, M.P.' upon the subject

of allowances to witnesses and officials which have been so greatly reduced of late years, as to produce frequent miscarriages of justice. The Grand Jury severely deprecated the present tariff of payments. The inquest arising out of the terrible accident at Dover has been delayed for want of a coroner, one of the two unfortunate victims being the coroner of Dover himself. The Lord Chief Justice of England as Coroner in chief was believed to possess the power of appointing a coroner pro tent but this is an error, conaequently the inquest wafted until the Dover Council appointed the official to succeed Mr. Thompson. With great solemnity the remains of one of two victims of the accident at Dover have been committed to the grave. All classes, civil, municipal, and military, assembled to mark their sense of the worth of Mr. Monger. The funeral of Mr. Thompson was privately conducted, in accordance with the wishes of his sorrowing friends, but the Town Council have placed on their records a memorial of his worth, and it is proposed to erect a stained glass window to his memory.