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NEW MEMBERS OF THE PROFESSION. 
At the meeting of the Court of Examiners of the Royal College 
of Veterinary Surgeons, which was held on Dec. 21st and 22nd, 
the following students of the Royal Veterinary College were admitted 
members of the body corporate. 
Mr. Walter Henry Kemp .... Canterbury. 
„ Richard Alwen Thrale . . . Croydon, Surrey. 
„ Edwin Ware Martock, Somerset. 
„ John Bostock Altrincham, Cheshire. 
„ James Macer Wiston, Huntingdonshire. 
Veterinary Jurisprudence. 
ACTION AGAINST A RAILWAY COMPANY. 
In the Cheltenham County Court, on Friday, before Judge Sumner 
and a special jury, an action of considerable interest was brought 
against the Great Western Railway Company, for the recovery of 
£35 damage alleged to have been sustained by the plaintiff, Mr. 
Beale Brown, of Stalperton Park, a famous sheep-breeder, through 
the delay of the company in the conveyance of a number of sheep 
from Cheltenham to Hereford on the 1 7th of August last, being the 
time when a change from broad to narrow gauge was being made, 
by which delay the above amount was claimed as deterioration, 
calculated at £5 per head. Mr. Gough, of the Oxford circuit, was 
retained for the plaintiff, and Mr. R. S. Helps for the defence. It 
was alleged that the delay in question amounted to absolute cruelty, 
the time occupied for the journey being forty-eight hours, during 
which time the poor animals had been in a state of entire privation, 
and through sheer exhaustion their condition was entirely gone ; 
and whereas in their original state they were valued at £8 10s., 
they only sold for £5 per head. A defence was raised that the 
plaintiff’s agent having signed the consignment note the company 
were by its conditions relieved from all responsibility, but, on the 
contrary, it was held that such an agreement was unreasonable, and 
amounted to oppression upon the party signing it. It was further 
argued that the plaintiff was aware that the direct route was changed, 
and accordingly the time occupied was reasonable. In reply, how- 
ever, it was contended that the whole distance traversed was only 
ninety-six miles by the farthest route. It was also urged that the 
company were not bound to any specified time. Ultimately the jury 
found for the plaintiff at the rate of £2 10s. per head. The hearing 
of the case occupied the greater portion of the day. 
XLIII. 
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