Mail News.

Thames Star, Volume IIII, Issue 1763, 27 August 1874, Page 2

Mail News.

Beake v. the Bbitish Impbbial Coepoeation (Limited). —This was an notion to recover £1000, the amount of a policy of insurance affected with the defendants on the life of a Dr. Beasley. Mr. Benjamin, Q.C., and Mr. E. Harrison were counsel for ,the plaintiff, the SolicitorGeneral and Mr. G. Lewis appeared for the defendants. It appeared that j)r. Beasley had been insured with the British Imperial Insurance Company for* a few years. He was on a voyage to New Zealand in 1872, having previously obtained leave from the company. to do so, and paid the usual extra sum demanded for the risk. After a short stay- at that colony he returned home. Early last year he again started on a similar voyage, and soon after his arrival at New Zealand was accidentally drowned. His life policy for a £1000 having been assigned to another party, the plaintiff, as such assignee or his executor, claimed the amount from the defendants. His claim, however, being disputed, he brought the present action.- The insurance company put in a variety of pleas, but the main question raised was whether Dr. Beasley, in respect to his second voyage to New Zealand, had.obtained leave and license from the insurance company to travel beyond Europe. On the part of the defendants it was contended that no such leare had been given, and it was further objected that they had received no legal evidence of the death of Dr. Beasley in New Zealand or elsewhere. By a curious coincidence, however, one of the jurors stated that he was in New Zealand afc the time, and could testify as to the truth of the fatal occurrence that occasioned the death of the gentleman in question. It was further argued on behalf of the plaintiff that the leave given to Dr. Beasley by the ' company to go to New Zealand, held good for twelve months, and that his death took place actually a day or two before its expiration. The jury found a verdict? for the plaintiff for the amount claimed wjth interest. Her, Majesty completed the thirtyseventh year of' her reign on June 20th, and the group of Ministers who took the oath of allegiance to her at her accession, Lord Melbourne, Mr. Spring Eice, Lord Cottenham, the Marquis of Lansdowne. Lord Duncannon, Vjspo»at P^lmerston. Glenelg, the Earl of Minto, Sir Johzi Cfij# Hobhouse, Lord Holland, Mr. Poulett Thomson,LprdMorpeth, Mr. Labouchere, Sir John Campbell, and Sir Eobert Monsey Jtfolf are dead. Only two members of the Cabinet of that day survive—• Lord Eußsel, now within a, few weeks of completing his eighty-second year, who was

then Secretary of State for the Home Department, and Earl Grey, then:. Viscount Howick, and Secretary at War, who is ten years younger. Mr. Disraeli entered the House of Commons for Maidstone at the general election which succeeded the dissolution of Parliament immediately following the Queen's accession; Mr. Gladstone had then sat in the first Reform House of Commons s for nearly five years as one of the members for Newark. A London correspondent says that Mr. Disraeli, when at Manchester, received a deputation from Leeds, and in a jovial way promised to visit the latter town in fifteen years. The lime having just expired, the Premier has been reminded of his promise, and it is understood that he will keep it. ' ~ The Hour enumerates as follows the officers at Waterloo who have survived to witness its fifty-ninth anniversary :—1 field-marshal, 9 generals, 5 lieutenantgenerals, 3 major-generals, 5 colonels, 7 lieutenant-colonels, 5 majors, 7 captains, 12 lieutenants, 2 paymasters, 1 quartermaster, 1 surgeon-major, 2 surgeons, and 2 assistant-surgeons, making a total of 62. Of these, 2 colonels, 5 lieutenant-colonels, and 4 majors have retired from the army at different times by the sale of ; their commissions. Of those who actually remain in the service and those on half-pay, 7 are but captains and 12 lieutenants. Field-Marshal Sir William Gomm is at this moment in his eighty-first year of service. Field-Marshal Gomm and General Sir George Bowles were at. the bombardment of Copenhagen in 1807, and Field - Marshal Gomm, General Sir William- Rowan, and Captain Payne, shared in ihe glories of Sir John Moore's victory at Corunna in 1809. These three appear to be very old comrades, for they were together in the Walcheren expedition, the two former at Flushing. Lieut.. Gen. Smith, prcvibuslj to entering the ""army, served for a brief period in the royal navy, were he received three wounds. General Sir Thomas Reed -was wounded at Ferbzeahah, and is the only one of the sixty-two who helped to quell the Indian mutiny. General Lord Sokeby is the only surviving Waterloo officer who fought side by .side with his old foes in the Crimea, and witnessed the fall of Sebastopol; and Sir William Gomm is the only survivor of Roleia (1808). Lieut.Col. Drought and Paymaster Hilliard were at Albuera; Sir William Gomm and Sir Charles Yorke were present at Vimiera. and Sir George Bowels at Talavera. Three were at Busaco, four at Fuentes dOnor, five at Ciudad Rodrigo, seven took part in the desperate and bloody struggles at Badajoz, eleven assisted in Salamanca, while no less than twelve participated in the crowning victory at Vittoria. Four were at the passage of the Bidassoa, fourteen at Nivellej eleven at Hive, eleven at Orthes, and thirteen ■„at Toulouse. Fourteen were present at Quatre Bris, and five—Gen. J. A. Butler, Major-Generals Lloyd and Trevor, Captain White, and Lieut. Cox — were at the capture of Paris (1815). 5