... * .* ?? THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS is the title borne by the holder of the newly established office to which Mr. Maule, Q. C., Recorder of Leeds, has been appointed. Ile is to have a staff of subordinates to assist him in his duties, which are to institute, undertake, or carry on criminal proceedings, and to give advice and assistance to the police and others ; his action, ...

... ?? JURISDICTION OF TIlE RAILWAY COMMISSIONERS.-The decision of the Queen's Bench Division in the suit between the Town Council of Hastings and the South Eastern Railway Comn- pany is one of immense importance, inasmuch as, unless it should be upset upon appeal, it deprives the Commissioners of much of that control which it has hitherto been supposed they could exercise over the Companies. The ...

... ?? A ROMANTIC CASE.--The young gentleman who on the 12th Inst. was sent to Holloway Prison for contempt of Court in running off with and marrying a ward in Chancery, has been released l)y \Vice-Chancellor Mains, on condition of his friends paying the costs of the action. His general good claracter and strict business habits were urged in his behalf, and the Vice-Chancellor remarked that ...

... A RAILWAY COMPENSATION CASE, just decided by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, is interesting from its similarity to the legal question which will probably arise out of the Tay Bridge disaster. It came up in the form of an appeal from the judgment of a Canadian Court. During a violent storm in August last a bridge on the South Eastern Railway of Canada was destroyed, and the train ...

... V.1--Z THE TURF INSURANCE FRAUDS. --It will be remembered that about five years ago two men named Walters and Murray, who had been committed for trial for being concerned in a fraudulent scheme of insurance against losses on the Turf, absconded from their bail. Both evaded capture until last week, when the police arrested Walters on a charge of forging a cheque on the Bank of England. A ...

... . I?c - c ,c A MISTAKE. -It has often been said that policemen will swear anything, and we have somewhere seen an attempt to account for this alleged lack of respect for the sacred character of an oath, ol the principle that familiarity breeds contempt. The other (lay a mistake occurred in the HIull Police Court illustrative of this professional disregard for truth. Two men were in ...

... ?? l A COURT TAILOR'S BILL.-The defeat of Messrs. Goody, of Clifford Street, Bond Street, by Mr. Augustus Lumley, Her Majesty's Marshal of the Ceremonies, will prove a heavy blow to tailors of the old school. The bill, which included the items a full-dress uniform (cash 1154, credit 1271. tar.) and an undress coat (cash 34/. 135., credit 381. 2s.) amounted altogether to 2651. Mr. Lumley, ...

... ?? -. 111\1 Ill. ?7. ,6 .. Wllr?,( F.. 1, M E R ?? AN IMPORTANT DECISION.--In February, 1878, the Belgian mail steamer Parlement Be/ge, while on a voyage between Ostendl and Dover, got into collision with a British steamer. An action was brought in the Admiralty Court to recover damages, and the defence was that the Pariement b'eie sailed under a Royal pennon, and belonged to the Belgian navy, ...

... ?? CONTEMPT OF COURT.--Mr. Rose, a special juryman engaged in trying a libel case in the Exchequer Division on Tuesday, absented himself, and sent a letter to the judge stating that owing to the sudden dissolution of Parliament it was imperative that he should attend to the business of his clients, he being a stockbroker, an(l suggesting that the case should go on, and that he should ...

... ?? R. M ISCONiDUC T AT ELECTION M EETINCS.--Asitis rumoured that an organised system of interference at political meetings is about to be adopted in London and other places, and that the services of professional fighting men have been engaged, it may be well to call attention to the fact that last week a metropolitan miagiitrate imposed a fine of 51. for an assault committed at a recent ...

... ?? E ?? ELECTION OF SCOTCH REPRESENTATIVE PEERS,- A London Solicitor writing to The Tillmes, calls attention to the fact that Sec- tions 3 and 4 of the Supreme Court of Judicature Act, 1873 unite and consolidate the High Court of Chancery and other Courts as one Supreme Court of Judicature in England consisting of two permanent divisions-viz., Her Majesty's High Court of Justice and ...

... ?-R 111-1,11 El.EC ION OFFENCeS.--It was perhaps hardly to be expected that the great excitement into which the country has been thrown by the electoral contests would not in some instances degenerate into rioting and disorder. In several places there have been disturbances of so serious a character that military aid has been called for, and special constables have been sworn in, sticks and ...