924 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[June 2, 1884. 



was 17 tons, aucl ia October 20 tons. At the time of 

 the publication of the prospectus, of wliich the plaintiff 

 complained (that of the French compauy), a few tons 

 only of the ilate powder manufactured at Kurrachee had 

 reached England, and two cargoes were on their way, 

 but the shares of the English company hail been sold 

 at a very considerable premium — £5 shares having been 

 sold for as much as £17 and in December 1880 one 

 Voung, a Colonial broker, had proposed to take the 

 whole of the company's produce, and had afterwards in 

 February entered into a contract for it. These being 

 the circumstances as to the position and prospects of 

 the Eng:lish compauy the circumstances leading to the 

 publication of the prospectus of the French company 

 and to the formation of that company in which the 

 plaintiff had taken his shares, were as follow. One 

 of the objects of the English company was to sell the 

 patent rights of the company, among which was a French 

 patent th«y had acquired from Henley, and there was a 

 resolution to sell it for not less than £50,1)00, and also to 

 divide thu amount of the purchase-money among the share- 

 holders as a bonus. In February, 1881, an agreement was 

 entered into between the English company and one Talbot 

 Haymen (a brother of the defendant Haynien), as a trustee 

 for the French Company, whereby he was lo purchase the 

 French patent for that Compauy for £50,tlllo, and the 

 memorandum of Association of the French Company dated 

 February 4tn, 1881, stated as one of its objects the carrying 

 out of this contract, and next day a Company was incorpor- 

 ated. The plaintiff had had no connexion with the 

 English Company, and he had, he said, on the 1st of 

 February 1881 seen a " proof " of the prospectus, and had 

 applied for a hundred shares, and on the 7th he received a 

 copy of the prospectus, and confirmed his application in a 

 letter in which he .stated that he read the prospectus, and 

 his c:tse was that he had made his application on the 

 faith of the statements in the prospectus, iu which, how- 

 ever, the only statements complained of as fraudident 

 were contained in the following paragraph relating to the 

 English Company : — " From the success attending the Com- 

 panv formed for the working of Henley's English patent, 

 when a duty of 2d ^ lb is payable and the coffee sold at 

 Is ^ tb, the directors feel justified in stating that they 

 confidently believe the profits of this Company will be 

 more than sufficient to pay dividends of at least 50 per 

 cent, on the nominal capital, and will exceed those of 

 the company working the English patent which, having 

 been formed a little over 12 months, has entered into 

 a contract which will yield the return by way of annual 

 dividends, of a sum equal to the whole paid-up cap- 

 ital of the company of £34,000." The plaintiff's case 

 was that these statements were fraudulent, and that he 

 had taken his shares upon the faith of their truth. But 

 he admitted that he saw the prospectus in a paper called 

 the Financier of the 7th of Februarj', and that paper 

 contained a long report of an extraordinary general meet- 

 ing of the EngHsh company, including a report of a 

 speech of tiie defendant Haymen, in which he used lan- 

 guage rather expressive of confidence in the future pros- 

 pects of the company than stating as a fact that 

 commercial profits had yet been made, and he spoke of 

 profits " expected to be made,'' and that in the future 

 great profits would be made. The plaintiff also admitted 

 that he had tasted the material itself, and that he had 

 faith iu it as a product for ordinary commercial purposes 

 and for ordinary consumption. And the copy of the 

 Financier in which the prospectus appeared had also a 

 leading article strongly in favour of the French company, 

 and stating th.at the direction was "identical with that 

 of the original and highly successful company." And, 

 further, the plaintiff admitted that he had acted partly 

 upon what had been said to him by a a person who had 

 first shown him the prospectus. At the trial it was 

 admitted on the part of the defendant Haymen that 

 he was responsible for the publication of the prospectus, 

 but it was denied on the part of the' other two defen- 

 dants. The learned judge, however, put it strongly to 

 the jury that they were responsible for it, because they 

 were so largely interested in the EngUsli company, being 

 in fact, the holders of more than three-fourths of the 

 whole of the shares. The mode in which the learned 

 Judge dealt with the question of the jirospectus was this 

 ,^He read the passuj^e relied upon to the jury, and said 



" Itit could haveheen successfully contended that allthat 

 was mere confident expectation, I do not think this action 

 could have been maintained, because a man is entitled 

 to commend anything with which he is connected, so 

 long as it is a mitter of belief ; but when he comes to 

 statements of existing facts in respect of it, then if they 

 are false to his knowledge, he becomes responsible to any- 

 body who has been induced thereby to part with his 

 money." And in conclusion, he left questions to the jury 

 on which they found as follows :— (1) I'hat the defendants 

 were responsible for the contents and for the issuing of 

 the prospectus ; (2) that the statements in it relied on 

 by the plaintiff were false ; (3) that the defendants knew 

 them to be false or were ignorant whether they were 

 true or false, and made them recklessly ; (4) that the 

 plaintiff was misled by these false statements or some of 

 them, and was materially influenced by them to part %vith 

 his money ; and so the verdict was entered for the plain- 

 tiif, and judgment given accordingly. This was an ap- 

 plication for a new trial on the grounds of misdirection 

 and that the verdict was against the evidence, and the 

 case had been argued at great length before Mr . Justice 

 Denman and Mr. Justice Mauisty. 



Mr. C. KusseU, Q. 0., and Mr." ChanneU for the plaint- 

 iff Sir H. Gift'ard, Q. C, Mr. Pollard, and Mr. M'JIillan 

 for the defendants. 



The Court had taken time to consider their judgment, 

 and that judgment was now dehvered in favoiu' of the 

 defendants.— Kmes. nf India, May 3rd. 



Vegetable Eenset.— A Kurrachee paper learns 

 that the successful experiments on the farm of H. E. 

 the Governor of Bombay with the Puneria berries 

 ( Wilhania coagulans) in producing a perfect curd for 

 cheese-making, have induced an American firm of 

 dairymen, Messrs. Burrell and Whiteman of Little 

 Fall ', Xew York, to address ,Sir James Fergusson on 

 the subject, and accordingly a supply of about ten 

 pounds of these berries has been procured from Sind 

 and forwardpd to them for experiment. 



The Norwegian. Scuueeler, mentions some striking 

 peculiaritifs of pUnts in high latitudes. He says 

 that seeds produced iu these regions are much larger 

 and weigh mope than those grown in more temperate 

 climates. The leaves, also, of most plants are larger 

 in the nnrih than those of the same species farther 

 south. Flowers which are white in warmer climates. 

 become colored when they blossom in the 'north. All 

 these differences he ascribes to the continued light of 

 long days. — 'Jaffna College Miscellany." 



Vegetaju.es and I'EriT.— People need to be frequently 

 reminded of the fact that if they m.ake a practice of using 

 a variety of vegetables and fruit as a part of their ordinary 

 diet the doctor will not be needed to prescribe for them 

 so frequently. jVsparagus is a strong diuretic, and forms 

 part of the cure for rheumatic patients at such health re- 

 .sorts as Aix-les-Bains. Parsley is also useful as a diuretic, 

 and those requiring such aid should make free use of it. 

 Carrots are understood by the peasants of Savoy to be a 

 specific for jaundice, and, although they are thought to be 

 hard of digestion, it is only the yellow core that is so. 

 Onions are admitted to be rich in those alkaline elements 

 which counteract the poison of rheumatic gout, and peo])le 

 who are of studious or sedentary habits should make a free 

 use of them, gently stewed and served with other veget- 

 ables. The stalks of the cauliflower if properly cooked al.«o 

 serve a like [purpose. Celery has acquired a' great reput- 

 ation as a remedy for rheumatism, and in many cases has 

 proved beneficial. Watercress is prescribed by many medical 

 men as helpful to the liver and lungs. Many other veget- 

 ables are u.seful, not only for their special medicinal pro- 

 perties, but as general regidators of the bowels and as 

 correctives, and withal they contain vahialile elements of 

 nutrition which shoidd commend them apart from every 

 other consideration. — Qiuenslaiidei: 



SKINNY MEN. 

 " ^VeUs' Health Renewer " restores health and vigor, 

 cures Dyspcp.sia, Impotence, Debillity. B. S. Madoii & 

 Co., Bombay, General Agents. 



