BARON GRANT IN COURT.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 150, 13 October 1876, Page 3

BARON GRANT IN COURT.

Tlie hearing of acasj which I mentioned in a former letter, and which has attracted the greatest notice among commercial men throughout the country, was resumed on July 7. This was the case of Twycross r. Grant and others, in which the plaintiff sought to recover from Mr. Albert Grant, the well-known plutocrat and donor of Leicester-Square to the people of London, the amount paid by him (platntiif) upon some shares in the Lisbon Steam Tramway Company, Limited. The ground on which the action was based was that two contracts wiuch had been entered into with reference to the affairs of the Company had not been mentioned in the prospectus. Mr. Grant's counsel having deserted him, lie took up the case himself, and pleaded his own cause in anableand amusing speech, which extended over more than four clays. In the course of it, he indignantly denied that he had bribed the city editors of any of the London papers. He was particularly severe upon the tiUuidard, and its now de-

[ ceased financial editor, Mr. Morrier Evans. I quote the following passage ;^.. - f of Mr. Grant's oratory:—" As to Mr. : Evans, of the Standard, it would have \ b'/t?i ahsurd to attempt to bribe him to | vrrlu: a j.aft", for ho could not- write six iiii<--» grammatically. He oniy cut things out and inserted them under the impression that it was his own article. He was a stout, fresh-coloured man, who walked about with a thick stick, was always vigorous and always ready to serve anybody. (Laughter.) He should never have thought of attempting to bribe him ; he had no notion of writing anything; lie simply estimated an article by its length. (Laughttr.) J'trifh had christened the Standard ' Mrs. Karris,' and had said that it was understood that Mrs. Gamp has instructed a learned gentleman to appear in Court to defend her against the literary Tarquiu. (Laughter.) Instead of being old and worn out, the gay Lucretia was I stid vigorous, and, so far as lie was conl ceraed, as chaste as ever. (Loud laugh- ! tor.)" Mr. Grant was several times apI plntulcd by the spectators, who seemed to i feel for him an admiration second only to | that with which they regarded the " un- | fortunate nobleman now languishing at | Dartmoor," and at the close of his speech, ! the applause was so sustained that the Judge (Lord Coleridge) carried out his threat of having the Court cleared. The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff, and contingently assessed the damages at £7OO. Lord Coleridge refused to enter judgment, so as to allow of the matter being brought before the full Court, and Mr. Grant, in an amusingly cool letter to Tiie Times, has declared his intention of asking judgment to be entered for him. This case will decide no less than eighty-nine other similar actions, so that its importance is manifest. The Times appended to its report of the concluding day's proceedings at the trial, all the notices of the Lisbon Tramways Co., which had appeared in its money column during Mr. Sampson's editorship. They were certainly commonplace enough, and if they were paid for, the person who paid the money certainly did not get value for it in the shape of pulling. Another result of the trial was Lord Henry Lennox's resignation of his post as Chief Commissioner of Works. This was because Lord Coleridge had reflected very strongly iipon the moral conduct of the Directors of the Company, of whom Lord Henry was one. His actioJi in the matter is generally approved.—(>Ut'jo Daily Tinus.