150 
THE GARDENERS’ CHRONICLE. 
[Mar. 4, 
Railways.—The following are the returns for the past 
week :—Greenwich, 626/.; Eastern Counties, 873/.; Croy- 
don, 1702. ; Liverpool and Manchester, 3,3262. ; Brighton, 
2,2231. ; Newcastle and Carlisle, 1,203/. ; Grand Junction, 
6,0871,; York and North Midland, 474/.; Blackwall, 
465/.; Great North of England, 1,109/.; Sheffield and 
Manchester, 273/.; Manchester and Birmingham, 2,2292.; 
Manchester and Leeds, 3,613/.; Midland Counties, 
2,083/. ; Hull and Selby, 8007. ; Edinburgh and Glasgow, 
,592/.; Birmingl and Gl 1,4602.; Man- 
chester and Derby, 9987.; North Midland, 3,400. ; Great 
Western, 10,4267.; London and Birmingham, 12,6472. 5 
Northern and Eastern, 1,011/.; South-Eastern, 1,065/. 
—The half-yearly meeting of the South-Western Company 
took place on Saturday. A dividend of 1/. 12s. 6d. per 
share was declared for the last half-year, being an addition 
of Ys. 6d. per share on comparison with the previous six 
months, and a surplus was left of nearly 7,000/., the share- 
holders to pay the income-tax. The gross revenue for the 
half-year, (including a balance of 515/. 6s. 7d. from the 
former account, 8572. 13s. 1d. for rent, interest, and pier 
dues), amounted to 173,6307. 11s. 4d., and the proportion 
of the working expenses to the receipts had been reduced 
from about 39% to 35% per cent.—The meeting of the 
North Midland Company took place on Friday last at 
Leeds. It was expected, from the great opposition 
raised to the course the new directors have pursued, to 
have furnished much discussion on the subject of the 
general management ; but it appears to have passed off 
rea ith ding the disapprobation expressed at 
reduction made in the working of the establishment. 
The Report states the net profit for the last six months to 
be 52,442/,, out of which a dividend of 1/. 12s. 6d. per 
share on the 100/. shares, of 16s. 3d. per share on the 501. 
shares, and of 10s. 10d. per share on the 33/. shares, was 
declared payable on the 10th inst. The accounts showed 
a decrease of receipts of 527/. 7s. 4d., as compared with 
the corresponding period of 1841, and a decrease of 
11,2947. 8s. 4d. in the expenditure. The directors expect 
an accession to their traffic during the present half-year, 
by the conveyance of passengers to the meeting of the 
Agricultural Society, which is to be held at Derby this 
season.—At a meeting of the Statistical Society last week, 
a paper by Mr. Tremenheere, on the Agricultural Statistics 
of various parishes in Middlesex, was read; in which the 
effect produced on the Oxford road by the Great Western 
Railway was particularly noticed. It appeared, from the 
facts stated in this Paper, that not only had the posting 
‘on the road been almost destroyed, but the prices in the 
Southall cattle-market had been seriously affected by the 
railway. Much discontent prevails amon the farmers 
in consequence of the facility which the railway affords 
for the rapid transfer of stock from one county to an- 
other, and which deprives them of the advantages of their 
proximity to London. 500 head of sheep and 100 head of 
cattle are often suddenly introduced into the market, by 
means of the railway, from the west of England; so that the 
prices have been forced down, and the Middlesex farmer 
compelled to sell at a loss, or to withdraw himself from com- 
petition. The sale of hay and corn is also at a discount, in 
consequence of the diminution in thenumber of post-horses. 
Since the grand blast of Round Down Cliff, to the west- 
ward of Dover, on the line of the South Eastern Railway, 
many thousand tons of chalk hayg been blown into the sea, 
by a similar process, on a smaller scale; and another blast, 
by which 50,000 yards of chalk were dislodged, took place 
on Thursday, consisting of about 7,000Ibs. of gunpowder, 
which were ignited by the voltaic battery—On Monday a 
special train left the Shoreditch station of the EasternCoun- 
ties Railway, conveying the directors of the company, and 
those of the Northern and Eastern Railway, together with 
300 or 400 of the shareholders, and the greater portion of 
the company’s staff, for the purpose of inspecting the line 
on the opening from Brentwood to Colchester. The total 
length of line proposed to be opened was 51 miles; 
174 of which have been opened to the public for some 
years past. The train proceeded smoothly as far as 
Brentwood, where they were retarded in their progress 
through the cutting in q' of the unfinished state 
of the works and rails, which had only been completed on 
day. Another impediment occurred at 
Shenfield, where large piles of timber had been tempo- 
rarily erected in lieu of the embankment, which it was 
found could not be completed in time. The trains having 
with difficulty crossed over this, arrived at that part of the 
Report announced a balance in hand of 13,1441., out of 
which it was resolved to declare a dividend of 3s. per 
share on the new shares, and 2s. 9d. per share on the 
original shares. In the passenger traffic there had been 
an increase for the half-year of 4,000/., and the accounts 
of the general management show a decrease in expense to 
nearly the same amount. 
IRELAND. 
Dublin.—The installation of the Hon. Henry Paken- 
ham, as Dean of St. Patrick’s, took place on the 24th, with 
the usual solemnities.—The subscriptions to “the Ma- 
thew Testimonial,’’ which is likely to be a great public 
building, for literary and scientific objects, are pouring in 
from all quarters. The following letter has been received 
from the late Lord-Lieutenant, Earl Fortescue, dated Feb, 
21 :—*I request that you will add the inclosed 25/. in my 
name to the subscription for a testimonial to the Rev. Mr. 
Mathew, as a small mark of that interest which all who 
have the welfare of Ireland at heart must, I think, feel in 
the success of his exertions. Few men on record, in any 
age or country, have, within the same space of time, con- 
tributed as much as he has to the moral improvement of 
theirfellow-creatures—none, I am sure, ever devoted them- 
selves to any good.work with more untiring zeal, or more 
unaffected and single-minded benevolence.’’ From Lord 
Ashburton, who is not connected by property with Ireland, 
the following communication has been received :—‘ Al 
though personally unconnected with Ireland, I beg to have 
my name added to the list of subscribers towards the tes- 
timonial to be erected to commemorate the eminent ser- 
vices of the Rev. T. Mathew to his country and to hu- 
manity.”-—The Commissioners of Education in Ireland 
have issued circulars to the managers of the National 
Schools, stating that they are desirous to introduce Wil- 
hem’s system of Vocal Music, and that if they are disposed 
to make a trial, on notifying their wishes to the Commis- 
sioners, grants of books, &c. will be made.—The weekly 
meeting of the Repeal Association took place on Mon. 
day, when Mr. O’Connell addressed the meeting at great 
length on the usual topics. He stated that the American 
sympathy for Ireland had been re-echoed in the more 
southern latitudes of the Mexican Republic, and that the 
Hon. W. Thompson, the Minister of the United States in 
Mexico, was also the Minister of the Irishman and the 
stranger. The rent for the week was 185/. 4s. 73d. 
Tuam.—An occurrence of a very tragical nature took 
place a few days since near this town, which has caused 
great sensation in the county. It appears that Mr. 
Michael Ward, son of Mr. Ward, of Doon Castle, in the 
county of Galway, and his wife, had not for some time 
been on amicable terms. A serious difference arose be- 
tween them, to avoid which Mr. Ward retired to the 
kitchen for the purpose of seeing his dogs fed. Mrs, 
Ward followed, and shot him with a pistol loaded with 
slugs. After a vain struggle to detain her in his grasp, 
Mr, Ward sank down bleeding and exhausted, and is sai 
to be in great danger. The lady, who is’a grand-niece of 
the late Lord Clanmorris, has for the present escaped. 
Lab, 
Courr or Common Prieas.—Moore, Clerk, v. Drummond, 
Clerk.—This was an action of slander. The circumstances which 
gave rise to it made, at the time, considerable noise, and were 
fully noticed in this Paper. The plaintiff is the Rev. William 
Carter Moore, B.A., curate of St. Peter’s and St. Mary’s, at 
Boston, in Lincolnshire ; and the defendant is also a clergyman, 
and the incumbent of the Chapel Royal, Brighton. n July 30, 
the plaintiff, accompanied by his son, a member of St. John’s 
College, Cambridge, went to Brighton for the recovery of his 
health ; and on Sunday morning, the 3ist, the plaintiff and his 
ing then entire strangers to defendant, entered the Chapel 
aving been detained 
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defendant said—‘t My dear friends, nov n sual to 
address you after the sermon, but I beg to inform you that there 
are two notorious pi in the i and there- 
fore be careful.” That announcement turned the eyes of the 
congregation to the strangers, who had before attracted some 
attention by coming late into the church ; considerable confusion 
ensued, and the plaintiff and his son were followed from the 
chapel by a crowd of persons. Upon inquiring the cause of the 
assemblage, they were informed that they were the persons 
against whom the defendant had cautioned his congregation. 
Necessarily annoyed at such a suspicion, they with difficulty 
persuaded @ person to accompany them to the hotel where they 
were staying, and thence to the house of a lady in Cannon-place, 
where their ility was i proved, That was 
the offence of which the plaintiff now complained, and in sup- 
ort of his case <i several persons who were present on 
the occasion, and heard the words spoken, to depose to the 
above facts, and also several witnesses to prove the perfect 
line which lies between Shenfield and M at 
which place another timber structure, several hundred 
yards long, carried over a chasm of many feet deep, had 
to be encountered. There the trains came to a halt, from 
its having been discovered that the necessary timbers had 
not been thrown across. In this spot the trains waited 
for nearly four hours, for the purpose of enabling the 
carpenters to bridge the way over. The necessary closure 
having been effected, a pilot-engine was sent forward in 
order to try the stability of the rafters, but even under 
the burthen of a single engine, the structure was observed 
to bulge and give way, and the engineer pronounced it 
would be unsafe to proceed. A-return to town was the 
consequence, the i lers ‘strongly expressing their 
disappointment at the day’s disasters. The half-yearly 
meeting of this company was held on Tuesday, when the 
particulars of the above disappointment were officially 
made known. Mr. Braithwaite, the engineer, attributed 
the failure to the saturated state of the ground in conse- 
quence of the late wet weather, and stated that an experi- 
mental engine had subsequently traversed the line with 
perfect safety. Gen. Pasley, the Government inspector, 
had undertaken to examine the line in the course of the 
present week, and there was no doubt that it would be 
open for public traffic in abouta fortnight, The Directors’ 
r of his character. Sir T. Wilde addressed the jury 
for the defendant, and contended that this action ought not to 
ave been brought, inasmuch as the defendant, as soon as he 
discovered he had made a mistake in respect of the persons 
whom he considered the plaintiff and his son tobe, wrote a letter 
to the plaintiff, expressing in the strongest terms his regret that 
the circumstance had occurred, and stating the manner in whic! 
it had happened —viz., that shortly before the plaintiff and his 
son entered the church, information had been received by the 
defendant that two notorions pickpockets had been driven from 
Christ Church, having come there in a fly, and that they had 
afterwards gone to several other chapels in Brighton. That the 
close arrival of the plaintiff and his son led him to believe they 
were the parties, and to make the address to his audience which 
had given rise to these proceedings. Evidence was called t 
prove this statement. ¢ Lord Chief Justice having summed 
up, the jur fter having been absent for some time, found a 
verdict for the plaintiff—Damages, 40s, 
‘Assizu INTeEDLIGENCE.—WusTHRN Crecurr, (Winchester).— 
Incendiary Fires.—Charles Parrott and William Sparkes were 
indicted for having set fire to a barn and outhouse at Havant on 
the 28th April. It appeared, that on the night of the 28th April 
Mr. Atherley’s barn was on fire. The prisoners, who lived in 
the neighbourhood, were at a public-house at 11 o’clock that 
f matches, which the land- 
lord gave them. The prisoners left the house together. 
house was shut up, but upon their calling, the landlord opened 
the door, and upon their request gave them the matches. Soon 
after this the barn was observed to be on fire. The prisoners 
Were seen in the neighbourhood immediately upon the fire being 
discovered, and they assisted to extinguish it. The statements 
made by the prisoners before the magistrates were put in, wherein 
> 
° 
they made a full confession of having set. the premises on fire. 
Mr. Serjeant Atcherley then summed up; the jury found the pri- 
soners Guilty, and they were sentenced to be transported for life. 
—William Barnes, a butler, and Elizabeth Pollard, a lady’s maid, 
were indicted for having, on the 1st September, burglariously 
entered the dwelling-house of the Dowager Lady Lisle, at Mill- 
Paper at the time, 
discovered chiefly by the vigilance of the gardener. Aftera long 
examination of witnesses, the jury acquitted the female, and 
question the prisoner went to the police station at Abingdon, and 
ham. He was then locked up, but had not been long in the 
cell before he cried out for water, and when he was supplied with 
it said that he could not rest easy in_his mind, as he had com- 
mitted a very grave offence. This offence, he said, consisted in 
his having set fire to Mr. Latham’s rick, which he had done 
with some lucifer matches. Counsel addressed the jury for the 
prisoner, contending that the jury ought not to give credence 
to the prisoner’s own confessions, as many men were induced 
to accuse themselves of crimes from a morbid love of notoriety. 
r, Justice Erskine summed up, and the jury found the prisoner 
Guilty. He was sentenced to transportation for 15 years. 
Oxrorp Circurr (Reading).—Thomas Paice, a lad 19 years of 
age, was indicted for maliciously setting fire to the dwelling- 
house of his master, the Rev. John Sloper, on the 6th February, 
the prosecutor and his wife then being therein. 
Guilty, and sentence of death was recorded, accompanied by an 
intimation i 
known to the law, and one whi 
find, had prevailed in this county to an alarming extent. It was, 
therefore, absolutely necessary that a severe example should be 
proved to have been guilty of the com- 
for crimes, might occasionally tempt men to acts which the law 
would not justify, but which were committed for the purpose 
of relieving themselves from hunger; but crimes like those of 
eight years been employed in the work-rooms, and bore an excel- 
lent character. The Judge, in summing up, pointed out the 
improbability that a person in good circumstances, and with a 
good character, would enter the stores with felonious intentions, 
and the jury at once returned a verdict of Acquittal. 
Norruern reouir.—(Lancaster).— John O'Neil and John 
Braithwaite were charged with stealing 57 sheep, the property 
r . Morphet, a farmer, residing at Hornby, near Lan- 
caster, on the 12th February, the particulars of which were given 
in our last. It appeared that on the night in question, the 
prisoners entered the prosecutor’s field, and drove away the 
whole of his flock of sheep. Next day they offered them in the 
neighbourhood to several butchers, but at so cheap a rate as to 
excite suspicion, and, in consequence, they we 
custody, and the sheep restored to the owner. Th 
the prisoners Guilty. The Judge seutenced O’Neil to 
transportation, and the other prisoner to 3. months’ imprisonment. 
—The Chartist Trials.—The trial of Mr. Feargus O’Connor and 
the other Chartists implicated in the late riots, commenced on 
Wednesday before Mr. Baron Rolfe and a special jury. All the 
defendants, amounting in number to 59, appeared except Dr. 
M‘Donall, who was represented by Mr. Sergeant Murphy, and 
who, it is understood, will abide the event of the trial, an 
come in for judgment accordingly. The Attorney-General 
opened the case with a speech of considerable length, in which 
he stated to the jury the nature o: evidence which he was 
about to adduce, and the effect which that evidence would have 
upon the defendants. His speech was chiefly remarkable for the 
calmness of its tone, for the temper and forbearance which it ex- 
hibited towards the defendants, and for the pride which he con- 
fessed he felt, that during an_outbreak of so serious and ex- 
tensive a character as that of August last, Englishmen had so 
far remembered what was due to themselves and to their 
country, that, though many acts of illegal character and dan. 
ous itted, yet on the whole a 
degree of tion had been exhibited by 
s. The charge against the defendants, as 
stated by the Attorney-General, was endeavouring, by large 
assemblies of persons combined, by force, violence, menaces, 
and intimidation, to produce such a degree of alarm and terror 
throughout the country, as to produce a change in some of the 
fundamental points of the Constitution. The evidence of the 
different witnesses was, on the whole, rather favourable to the 
defendants, showing continual exhortations to peaceful and 
orderly conduct, and that the original cause and the general 
character of the turnout was for “a fair day’s wages for a fair 
day’s work,” and not for the promulgation of the Charter. It 
ir testimony, that it was not till some days 
2 ncement that a portion of the turnouts thought 
it advisable to mix up the Charter question with the wages, nor 
did they do it atlength without considerable opposition and divi- 
sion. It also appeared that at Staleybridge, where the first turn- 
out took place, the men were under notice from their masters to 
give up work unless they consented to a reduction of 25 per 
cent. upon their wages; and that, therefore, it did not altogether 
bear the character of a voluntary strike. It was also proved 
that though many of the men wanted to return to work, they 
were prevented by a combination of the mill-owners, who deter- 
mined to shut their factory doors for a month ; and had. they not 
done this, it was alleged that there was every probability that 
the strike, and its consequent disturbances, would have much 
