Potter's Electric News

A YORKSHIRE HORSE CASE. j Bottomley v. Sadler.—(Midland Circuit, Leeds, Aug. 16tb, before Mr Baron Pigott)—The plaintiff i is the head of a manufacturing- firm, who carry on Butteushaw Mills, between Bradford and Keighley, and the defendant is an extensive horse dealer, "whose stables are at Thornborrow House, near Thirsk. Mr Overend, Q.C., and Mr Wills were counsel for the plaintiff; Mr Seymour, Q.C., and Mr Gibbons for the defendant. The plaintiff had bought two horses from the de- fendant, one of them being a bay gelding for which he had given £65, which, when put to work, was pronounced by the plaintiff and his groom to be lame and unsound. The defendant refused to take the horse back unless the plaintiff would sacrifice S35 of the purchase money. The plaintiff, there- fore, sold the horse by auction for X.10, and the defendant bought him. There was a very strong conflict of evidence in the case as to whether oue of the horse's hocks were unsound. The action vias brought for the difference between the price at which the plaintiff had sold the horse and that at which he had bought it; also £ 15, the expenses to which he had been put. Jesse Hanson, veterinary surgeon, of Norwood- green, near Halifax, was one of the witnesses to prove the horse's unsoundness. Be said the defendant bribed' the plaintiff's serving-man by ordering him into the kitchen to have a glass of brandy. Mr Seymour: Had you no brandy? Witness I had sherry. Then you were bribed (laughter). Had you nothing at the plaintiff's expense ?—Yes, two glasses of sherry. Then they doubly bribed you (laughter). I sup- pose you doctor cows as well as horses ?-Yes, and pigs too (laughter). Then you may go back to your piggery (laughter). Mr Wills Was your father a horse-doctor too? Witness: Yes, and my grandfather, my great grandfather, and my great, great grandfather (loud laughter). Then it grows in the family (roars of laughter). Mr Seymour said the defendant cared not for the money question which was involved, but he wished to clear his reputation from the appearance that he had sold the horse either in ignorance That it was a diseased animal, or that knowing it was diseased, he had sold it to the plaintiff. The defendant asserted that the horse at this moment is as sound as it was at the moment it was foaled. He was prepared with an array of scientific witnesses in opposition to Professor Williams.. of Edinburgh, and others, who had been called by the plaintiff. There was sitting in Court Professor Yarnell, of the lloyai Veterinary College. London, who bad said that if called upon to give a perfectly impartial opinion he would do so and he (Mr Seymour) was quite prepared to stand or fall by that gentleman's dictum. Even if he know that every gentleman on the jury was in his favour he would not shrink from that challenge, for he believed that not only Mr Var- nell, but the jury would be of opinion that the horse was without blemish, and thoroughly sound. The Jury demanded an inspection of the horse before they could decide. For that purpose the trial, which began on Thursday evening, was postponed until this morning. They then had a view of the horse, but the Judge, before the view, directed that the jury should not speak to or ask questions from the groom or any' other stranger. Ultimately the jury found a verdict for the plaintiff. Messrs, Virtue and Co. purpose commencing in October, the publication of a new Monthly Magazine, under the editorship of Anthony Trollope. It will be called The New Metropolitan Magazine. The Lords of the Admiralty have"in vited the principal shipbuilding firrae in the United Kingdom to send in ten- ders for the construction of an armour-plated iron ship of about 2300 tons. This vessel is to be supplied with twin screws, and her bottom is to be sheathed with wood, which is to be coppered.—Army and Navy Gazette. Two CHILDREN ATTACKED BY A MAD DOG.—An inquest was held on Saturday in Uethnal Green on Ed- ward Davies, a child of four and a half years eld On the 4th of last month the deceased and his brother were playing in the Old Ford Road, when they were attacked by a large dog, which flew at them and and frightened them very much. The brother of the deceased was bitten. The dog was mad, and both children were taken ill, The other boy was in a hope- less state of hydrophobia, but the deceased bad died, according to the evidence of the surgeon, from an effusion of serum ou the brain brought on by fright. Verdict accordingly. A MOJUIDN GOLDFIELD.—Mr. H. Starr,of Cheapside, sends to the Daily News the following extract from a letter just received, dated Salt Lake City, July 10th — We are having the greatest excitement here I have ever witnessed owing to rich discoveries near the South Pass, seme 250 miles from this cify. These mines are said to exceed any others ever found on this continent for value and extent. Hundreds have gone from this city, and parties are starting almost hourly, night and day. I fear it will seriously effect our harvest, for work hands are already very scarce. This is clearly a gold country, and the masses appear to go crazy after it. It is difficult to foresee the consequences but men cannot eat gold, and a loss of one year's crop here would almost cause a famine.' TRADE FRAUDS.—"We are glad to see that the law can be administered quickly and decisively at times, in cases where it steps in to prevent one man from profiting by the fame and reputation of another, established after years of labour and energy. Messrs Field, of the Upper Marsh, Lambeth, London, the celebrated makers of Soap and Candles, recently obtained a perpetual injunction with costs, against a Perfumer for using the title of United Service' when applied to Soap, for although the defendant in the action prefixed his name to the title as do the plaintiffs, the Vice-Chancellor remarked,' the plan- tiffs had sufficiently established themselves, by a ten yeara' user, as the sole makers of United Service Soap.' Any one asking for that description of soap would mean soap made by the plaintiffs.' THE SCHISM AMONG THE MOBMONS.—A few weeks ago a shipload of 400 Mormon emigrants landed at this port from England, and set out across the plains for the city of Great Salt Lake. By all accounts it seems cer- tain that they will find their paradise in a sad turmoil when they get to it, and the Saints in a most ungodly rum- pus. The schism to which we alluded a short time ago has become so wide, and has made buch un ugly wound, that there is but little prospect of its ever being healed. Brigham. Young is boldly denounced. His followers have ceased to obey him his adversaries set him at defiance. "When he falls the keystone of the Mormon structure is overthrown. The Latter-Day Church cannot outlast its prophesy. It is said that Young is about to remove to the nswly-diseovered gold mines of Utah; but we are loth to believe that he so quickly gives up the right, and it is more probable that he will make a determined stand at at his capital. At any rate, the Mormon difficulty, which has perplexed us for so many years, seems to be rapidly solving itself without our assistance. In another gener- ation we may hope to see the polygamists of the great plains quietly absorbed by a law-abiding and industrious race of new settlers. If they withstand the combined influence of internal discord, the Pacifie Railway, and the tide of immigration which will be attracted to Utah by the discovery of gold in the territory, they will shew a stability and strength of character to which history affwtfs no parallel,—Jfm Jwh Trihm, r WFSLE^AN MOVEMENT AGAINST SMOKING.—During the examination of candidates for ordination at the Wealeyan Conference, a pledge was required from those among them who had used tobacco to abstain altogether from the practice for the future. The Rev J. H. Har- greaves, of New Brighton, declined to give such a pledge, and defended his position, but after an animated discussion it was resolved to defer his ordination for another year. This decision, we are told, has caused some excitement, as the Wesleyan ministry contains a very fair average of habitual smokers.—Pall Mall Gazette. PEDESTRIAN FEAT EXTRAORDINARY.—On-Saturday afternoon last rather a novel feat in pedestrianism took place between Cardiff and Penarth, a distance of four miles. The competitors were two men and a woman, respectively named Edward Dodd, Samuel Watts, and Mrs Rowlands. The distance was to have been performed in 47 minutes, for a sweep stakes of X5. Though the pedestrians were all con- siderably above middle age,—the distance was over- taken with great speed and regularity, until within a short distance of Cardiff, when Mrs Rowlands put the spurt on,' and went in a winner by 200 yards, amidst the cheers and laughter of the crowd waiting to receive them. The champion went in so fresh that she offered to take up any member of the com- pany to run 24 miles more, without interruption, in the same proportionate space of time. No one accepting the challenge, the belt' was unanimously accorded to Mrs Rowlands. THE ,PEOPLE THAT CANNOT WRITE.—A Parlia- mentary paper brings down to 1805 the return of English men and women who, on marrying, have to make their mark on the marriage register instead of signing their names. More than a third of the Welsh- men who married in that year had to make their 'o mark; very nearly a third of the-men of Hereford- shire, Cambridgeshire, and Norfolk were put to the same shift; more than a third of the men of Suffolk, 35 per cent of the men of Bedfordshire, 38 per cent of the men of Staffordshire, and 40 per cent of the men of Monmouthshire. In all Lancashire one man in every four who married had to make his mark. Still, the number of ignorant constantly lessenss. In 1845, 66 8 per cent of the men who married in England and 50'4 per cent of the women were able to write their names on the marriage register: in 1855, jv.5 per cent of the men and 58" S per cent of the women; in 18(15, 775 per cent of the men and 68-8 per cent of the women—more than three-fourths of the men and more than two-thirds of the women. In these 20 years the women have been improving faster than the men. Foremost among the ignorant districts, so far as concerns women, stands South Wales, with more than half its women unable to write their names, and in North Wales, Monmouth- shire, Staffordshire, and Lancashire the number ex- ceeds 46 in the 100. In Bedfordshire, where the chil- dren have been accustomed to work so early at straw- plaiting, two women in every five who married in 1865 had to make their mark. These are people able to marry, and probably included in a smaller proportion of the very lowest, the 'residuum.' It is remarkable that in the eastern counties, and in many counties in the southern half of England, more women sign the marriage register than men. As in 1864, so in 1865, Westmoreland had the largest proportion of its men able to write, nine in every ten and Sussex the largest proportion of its women, more than eight in every ten. TRIAL FOR MURDER.—At the Bristol Summer Assizes, on Thursday, before Mr Justice Willes, Susannah May as, whose age was recorded on the calendar as twenty-seven years, but who a witness deposed was thirty-eight years of age, was tried for the wilful murder of her infant child, at Bedminster, Bristol, in May last. The prisoner was a wife to a man employed by the local board of health, and was a washerwoman. On the 25th of Way, a Saturday, she told a woman who lodged in her house that she was in trouble because, having pawned some clothes that had been entrusted to her for washing, the owner had threatened that if the articles were not returned by the Monday morning he would put the matter into the hands of the police. She said that she would rather die than be sent to gaol thus. Later in the day she told the same woman that she had procured some poison, and it was proved«thnt she had at that time obtained some opium from a chemist on pretence of making a cough mixture with it. She said then that she might be dead by that time to-morrow, but the woman whom she addressed did not pay much attention to the observation. At two o'clock on the Sunday morning the lodger was called to the room in which the prisoner slept with her husband. She was lying on the bed with her infant, sixteen months old, on her arm, and both were suffering from poison. The child was removed to the hospital, and soon afterwards died from the effects of opium: the mother was also taken to the hospital, and received every attention. She was kept awake by being walked up and down for two hours. The doctors saved her life, and she was tried for the murder of the child. The defence was that she was too excited to be accountable for her actions, and that her brain had been affected during her recent confinement. The judge, having summed up, the jury found her guilty of manslaughter with 'extenuating circumstances.' She was sentenced to seven years' penal servitude. TRUE" STORY OF JACK HORNER.—Who has not heard of this wonderful individual ? Who does not remember of being told in his childhood about Jack Horner ? and who has not envied his good fortune when he Sat in the corner eating a Christmas pie, Put in his thumb, And pulled out a plum, And said what a good boy am I ?' Have the children inquired who Jack Horner was ? Here is the tradition When Henry VIII. suppressed the monasteries, and drove the poor old monks from their nests, the title deeds of the Abbey of Mells— including the sumptuous grange built by Abbot Bell- wood—were demanded by the commissioners. The Abbot of Glastonbury determined that he would send them to London, aJd as the documents were very valuable, and the roads infested with thieves, it was difficult to get them to the metropolis in safety. To accomplish this end, however, he devised the following plan: He ordered a pie to be made—as fjne as ever smoked on a refectory table inside he put the documents—the finest filling a pie ever had since pies were first made—he entrusted this dainty to a. lad named Horner to carry up to London, to deliver safely into the hands for whom it was in- tended. But the journey was long, and the da.- was cold, and the boy was hungry, and the pie was tempting, and the chance of detection was small. So the boy broke of a piece of pie and beheld the parchment; he pulled it forth innocently enough, won- dering how it could have reached there—tied up the pastry, and arrived in town. The parcel was de- livered, but the title-deeds of Mails Abbey were missing; Jack had them in his pocket. These were the juciest plums of the pie. Great was the rage of the commissioners, heavy the vengeance they dealt out to the monks. Jack kept his secret, and when peaceable times were restored claimed the estates and received them. Whether Mr Horner deserves the title of 'good boy,' bestowed on him by the nursery lament, is more than doabtful; hoy,ever, k that's the story,— jJJafJ(J;;ínç, ) BRIDGING THE MISSISSIPPI.—The Saint Louis Demo- crat says the plan of Captain James B. Eads for a bridge across the Mississippi at that point has been adopted. Its estimated cost is 5,000,000, dols & threeor four years will be required for its construction. The Democrat thus describes the structure it is the great feature of our bridge that it will accommodate two double tracks of rails, one broad guage, the other narrow, foot passen- gers, and street railway cars, and will not interfere one whit with navigation for, of the three arches which will span together the shores of St. Louis and Illinois, the central one is 515 and the two side ones 498 feet. The two piers which will support these glorious arches will be tremendous masses of masonry. Yet this loca- tion is perhaps the narrowest part of the river within 1 500 miles of its mouth. The pier at the deepest part of the river will be a mass of masonry 200ft. in height, 110 ft. in width, and a breadth tapering from 55ft. to 40ft. The other will probably be 170ft. in height, as the rock is met with some 30ft. nearer to the river bottom.' A RAILWAY TRAIX TURNED INTO A MANTRAP.—A branch in the Madras Presidency runs through a wild re- gion, the inhabitants of which are unsophisticated savages addicted to thievery. The first day the line was opened a number of these Arnadians conspired to intercept the train and have a glorious loot. To accomplish their object they placed some trunks cf trees across the rails; but the engine-driver keeping a very sharp look-out, as it hap- pened to be his first trip on the line in question, descried the trunks while they were at a considerable distance from him. The breaks were then put on, and when the loco- motive had approached within a couple of feet of the trunks it was brought to a stand. Then instantaneous, like Roderick's Dhu's clansmen starting from the heather, natives, previously invisible, swarmed up on all sides, and, crowding into the carriages, began to pillage and plunder everything that they could lay their hands upon. Whiie they were thus agreeably engaged, the guard gave the signal to the driver, who at once reversed his engine and put it to the tap of its speed. The reader may judge of the consternation of the robbers when they found themselves whirled backwards at a pace that rendered escape from the carriages wholly impossible. The few who attempted it were killed on the spot. Thus were our Arcadians nicely caught, and as they were transferred from the novel man-trap to the goal they were no doubt convinced that the fire-brandy can move progressively and retrogressively with equal facility.— Central India Times. ATTEMPTED MURDER TKII UGH JEALOUSY.—At a Special Petty Sessions, held at High Wycombe on Fri- day, before the Rev. G. Phillimore, one of the Bucks county magistrates, a married woman, named Cousins, was charged with attempting to murder Emma Tickers, a girl of eighteen. From the evidence adduced it ap- peared that Mrs. Cousins and her husband had lived un- happily together for some months, the wife alleging that her husband was too intimate with the girl Vickers, and a few weeks since Cousins was fined by the Wycombe magistrates for assaulting his wife. On the evening of the 3rd instant, Ellen Vickers passed Cousins's house, and as she did so made a signal which was answered by Cousins, who immediately left his wife and followed her. This proceeding greatly enraged Mrs. Cousins, and she went in pursuit of the couple, and found them at the Squirrel public-house. Cousins, who saw his wife approach, left the room and concealed himself in a closet'. The two women began quarrelling, and Vickers struck Mrs. Cousins a severe blow on the breast, upon which the lat- ter stabbed her three or four times with a knife in the back. Vickers ran upstairs with the knife sticking in her back, but shortly afterwards irent down again, and begged Mrs. Cousins to remove it, which she did, at the same time remarking that she would go and 1 do for the other '-mepriiiig her husband but as he had locked himself in his retreat, she was unable to get at him. Mrs. Cousins then left the house, and nothing more was heard of her until Tuesday, when she was apprehended by the police at Marlow. Mr. W. G. Haydon,surgeon, deposed that he attended Emma Vickers on the night she was stabbed, and he found that she had four wounds on the outside of the left arm near the shoulder. These wounds were not of a serious character, but there was a fifth stab between the spine and the left shoulder-blade, which was certainly a very dangerous wound, as the knife or instrument used by the prisonerhad punctured the lungs. The girl was constantly spitting and vomiting blood, and he was of opinion that her life was in danger. Superin- tendent Sergeant, of the Bucks constabulary, proved that lie apprehended the prisoner, and while in his custody she said she saw her husband in the public-house with his face doae to that of the injured girl's and that exaspe- rated her so much that she did not know what she was doing till after she had stabbed the girl. The prisoner, who was in a fuming state during nearly the whole of the proceedings, was committed to take her trial at the next assizes on a charge of wilfully and maliciously stub- bing Emma Vickers, with intent to murder her. WILLS AND BEQUESTS.—The will of Mr William Henry Whitbread, of Southill, Beds, was proved in the London Court, on Me 20th ult, under £ 250,000 per- sonalty, the acting executors and trustees being Mr John Manning Needham, Mr Thomas Barnard, of Cople, Beds, and Mr Thomas G. Groves, of Lincoln's-inn-fields; powers being reserved to Messrs. Robert J. Palk and James Leman, the other executors. The will bears date 1863 and there are two codicils, February, 1806, and May, 1867, The testator died at his scat, Soutfcill-park, Biggleswade, on June iil, aged 72. The will is of con- derable length. He bequeaths to his stepdaughter,. Jane, Countess of Antrim, a legacy of £ 14,000, and leaves her the organ at Southill. To his stepson, Turner A. Macan, in addition to other bequests, the sum of £ 2-1,000 for himself, wife, and children. The testator bequeaths to his relict, beyond any other provision, an immediate legacy of £2,000 and an annuity of £ 1,000; the resi- flence at Purt/eet, with the furniture there and at Lowndes-square, and other portions of furniture and plate, and his service of pewter. He appoints his nephew, Samuel Whitbread, to succeed him as a partner in the brewery, and leaves him £50,000, part of his share therein. He leaves an annuity to his late wife's niece, Harriet Q'Callaghan, in addition to an annuity settled by a former deed. To Maria Grey, sister of Ed- ward Codrington Grey, he leaves the interest of tiOlOoo for herself and children. The residue of his property, real and personal, he bequeathed to his brother, Samuel Charles Whitbread. There are no less than 36 annui- tants under the will, besides his widow, whose amounts reach the sum of £ 2,372 per annum. Among them is his steward, Samuel Bailey, and to his wife, should she survive her husband also to his housekeepers, coach- men, gamekeepers, gardeners, and other servants. He has left IGO a year to the widowed daughter of his gamekeeper, Dines, who was murdered many years since, and £ 52 a year to the nurse who attended the testator in his illness in 1SG1. The will of Mr Horatio Ward, a native of the city of New York, United States, but for many years a resident in Engaind, and late of Oana- burgh-terrace, Regent's Park, was proved in the princi- pal registry, on the 11th ult, by the executors, namely Mr William M'Kewan, manager of the London a,ld County Bank; Mr Benjamin Morgan, Secretary to the American Legation; and Mr Henry Paul, Throgmorton- street. The will is dated 1865, and a codicil January, 1867, and was executed at the office of the American Legation. The personalty in this country was sworn to as under £ 90,000. The testator died in Paris, April 28, at the age of 66. There are many specific bequests left to his nephews, nieces, and other relatives and friends, and legacies to his medical attendant and his servants. There is one very interesting bequest which be has made to the surviving; daughters of the Lie Mr Henry Morris, of Philadelphia, of the sum of 19,000 dollars. These ladies,' he states, are the granddaughters of the celebrated Ilenry Morris, of the Revolution, and it will be a surprise to them to receive a legacy from a person they never knew, and perhaps never heard of. It is in return for kindnesses shown me by their father when I was a boy.' The testator bequeaths to the National Soldiers' and Sailors' Home, at Washington, £ 100,000, and to the various asylums or homes in the United States for orphans made by the late war for the restora- tion of the Union, 100,000 dollars.^ The bulk and resi- due of his property he leaves in specified portions among his three nephews and a niece,—namely, Alfredo Ward, Baillie Peyton Ward, Osbert Ward, and Alice lanfan iVw*« THE Oners IN SCOTLAND.—Oats are stretching out I well, but they are dangerously late. We have never seen them farther back at this period of the season. Ha? may now be pronounced a full crop, and if the oat crop be saved in good order there may be nearly an average bulk of fodder for winter use. But there are generally deaf prices after a late harvest, caused by the loss in a back- ward season. Potatoes are improving in the ground, and are down in price. The best are sold at 8d. per stone in Glasgow this week. Turnips have been severely checked by the heavy rains and subsequent cold nights. They are recovering to some extent, but cannot come up to the calculations that were entertained a few weeks ago. Harvest prospects, on the whole, are not of an encourag- ing nature. There has been too little sunshine for wheat. Rust is appearng both on leaf and ear. If there be un. soundness along with extremely late ripening, the yield must prove deficient in the west of Scotland,—Ayr Ad- vertiser. EVASION OF THE EXCISE LAWS.- The proceedings at Bow-street on Friday, made public a system of evasion of the excise laws which is stated to prevail very extensively in some parts of the metropolis. A barber in the New Kent-road was suspected of selling spirits on Sundays during the hours when the pub- lie-liotisis are closed; and an excise officer, with a view to his detection, went to the shop to be shaved. The exciseman's beard speedily disappeared, but nothing was discovered save a suspicious looking glass on a handy shelf. He then said he would have his hair cat, upon which the barber, won by his friendly conversation, asked him If he could do a drop of gin?' That being precisely the thing he was most anxious to do, the exciseman gave a ready assent and the blue ruin' was produced, twopence being charged for it in the settlement. In the other case three women and two men were fonnd drinking in a clothier's shop in the New-cut. Sir Thomas Henry fined each of the defendants £12 10s, the full penalty being £50. THE Fi SUING OFF THE NORTH-EAST COAST.-This week the large fleet of boats from the Tyne, Wear, and Hartlepool, and most of the large fishing villages in Northumberland, appear to have fallen in within the main body of the herring, and have done ex- tremely well indeed. About 70 boats arrived in the Tyne on Tuesday morning, the highest having about 25,000 herring, the worst fished about 7,000, and the quality of the fish is very superior. They were sold by auction at Shields upon dn average of 2s 3d per 100. A great quantity of herring was also taken into Sunderland by boats which sold at Is 9d per 100. A fair amount of mackerel and other fish is being caught and sold at a moderate price. But some sorts of fish, 'jacks,' or coal sails,' as they are called by the fishermen, a sort of salt-water pike, a firm wholesome sort of food when cooked, on account of the quantity caught by the herring fishers, and a sort of prejudice that the poor have against the fisii on account of the coaly colour of its scales, were sold :n Shields on Tuesday as low as Is 9d for seven good fish which would weigh fully five Imperial stone.