Summing up, his Lordship said it appeared to him, that if plaintiff were intriguing with the directors of the "Mercury" against the authority and powers of the managing director and behind his back, the jury might rightly hold that that had been enough to justify dismissal On the other hand, if the jury were to find that plaintiff was absent on the morning of the Ele-ganta" shop murder when he was wanted in the office, it would be quite insufficient to justify a master dismissing his servant. There was much more stress laid by defendants on the accumulation of instances than individual instances. Defendants wanted their case to be considered from the point of view of an accumulation of such instances.
They could not escape from the position that in April things were not what they should have been in the office. Eventually Mr. Peyton Griffin made up his mind not to stay. Following the meeting with Mr. Sahara, Mr. Davey in conversation with Fraser fervently denied having been in any way responsible for foreigners leaving the firm, with the one exception of Mr. Holland. His Lordship said he could not see anything particularly wrong in Fraser, who had been connected with the company for a considerable time, trying to put his finger on the root of the trouble, and with that object in view seeing one of the directors. It was not clear what Mr. Davey's improper motives could have been.
His Lordship said a good deal had been attached to Mr. Peyton Griffin's evidence. Counsel] for defendants drew attention to the fact that the witness made a charge against Mr. Davey to the board, subsequently withdrew that charge unreservedly, and apologized fully and frankly, while at the same time he still had reason to believe that the charge was true. On this the jury must form their own opinion as to whether a man had' a right to persist in a charge that he believed to be true but could not prove or whether he should for the sake of harmony apologize and withdraw. The importance of it was this: did it in any way lessen the value of Mr. Peyton Griffin's evidence as being the evidence of truth. Mr. Macleod suggested all along that he was talking with his tongue in his cheek.
In the course of a lengthy review of the evidence, which he had not finished when the Court rose for the lunch adjournment, his Lordship said he was very glad that throughout the case, there had never been any suggestion against the plaintiff's ability as a journalist.
The jury retired a few minutes after two o'clock. After an absence of a quarter of an hour, they returned a unanimous verdict for plaintiff on the ground that "de-
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