Star. — London, England, 1809-12-08 00:00:00

EAST-INDIA SHIPPING. An account has been received at the India(House, by the Purser of the LORD CASTLEREAGH, Of c,i!•:l:re of the Ilunery S raEATii.AII early in pi June last, by the French frigate Caro -1 ship, v ' 6 .11 the OCEAN, extra ship, sailed 73011.4:il (it is said) the `.(3th April. Oc-EA: escaped, and procre&d to Prince of . T... 1: .'s's i siand vith the intelligence. i t :s midld, that the Caroline, with both her prizes,. 47iven on shore at the island of Bourbon by ;:. block;:ding squadron off the Isle of France. was lost in Bengal River. NEPTUN I, TRUE BRITON, CunBERLANn, and S.• Al rn CASTLE, arrived at Bombay the 25th June, ; ,11 The WARLEY arrived in the Downs the 7th inst. Tile LORD MELVILLE, PERSEVERANCE, LORD DEN CARNATIC, NoTTINGIIAM, and BARING, arrived at rila.!ras en the 3d and sth July last. L'XIVERSITT OF OXFORD. A ¶}:f ONI) I.F r! I.FI 10 THE MEMBERS OF CONVOCATION, ' , NOM ihN INDEPENDENT MASTER OF ARTS. Oxford, December 5. M r . Eutren— in rry letter, inserted a few days s:nce in your Parer, I requested the attention of the Members of Convocation to the remonstrances of the University against the doctrines of Lord GRENVILLE. It appeared evident frcm them, that he and we were cer:pletely the ant prides of each other. That when elontrht it our duty to travel one road, his Lord. s'pi t t took another, and directly the opposite. M) (Lief reaqm for the publication of that letter was, twcanse T was satisfied, as I still am, that many hun-' atreds of ()Is absented Members were not fully in !Ormcd ot these pra r eeding% They are now brought under no;:ce, and the weight will be justly appre. .'att.d. It will be remembered that a nontibrcet has 1„..•n three times expressed against the principles of Lot.: 6usNvit.LE, by three solemn and unanimous' passel in the Public Convocation 1-1,-use of the I Whoever thinks of this will pause a few, rrinrtes, ar must feel himself under the urgency cf . , ra:thini; short " of immediate and uncontroulahle, vcces:,:tv", (such are Lord GEENVILLL'S words), if I:e can be induced to enter the walls of the same ....rtvocation Nonse, and declare that man deserv. of the confidence of the University, against such resolutions tre recorded. What has hisi Lor:ishin done to redee.n himself, and work out the o! . this academical attainder ? He refund to, tl.? INC: a pledge not to renew the Catholic Has he given us that pledge ? No, for I > publicly a:.sert, that his letter to the Principil of :a.:ca Nose most positively rtfuset it. What is is i orchlip's merit then at this moment ? That of ,til,born inflexibility ;—a whimsical reason this for is submission. After giving ycu this cauticn not yorrender your consistency and character to the KEN VII.Y. ITES, let me intreat you next to take care ;t they seize and run away with your privileges. explain what I mean. I rather think that many -.v,t quite apprised of the powers belonging the ()Tice of our Chancellor. I have not time examine into P:11 of them : but I will select one a specimen ;-0;:r Chancellor, be it recollected, the Reeper of our Seal, the right of possession . . ad dominion over which belongs exclusively and; %Lit, to him, though he may delegate its use rf he' Should Lord GletNvteer. be raised to this • . sf.ce, only consider how the privilege of addressing td petizioning will be effected. Do you suppose his ordship will allow the Seal to be affixed to a peti -a directly and personally le yelled against himself ? 1, no, will his Lordship say, you have petitioned already, and until you understand good 7eeding better, and are brought a little more to your nses, f shall lock up the Seals in my strong box at - ronnock. in the mean time, what becomes e r f this of thinking and speaking ? Are you certain 'it can get the better of his Lordship ? Be not conkident of this. Ent if relief may be had, how I 't to be get at ? Tierfttineli the medium of a strug eith your own Chanceller inkVestrrinster llall ; :;it, to rescue from violence that first article in tdetrical Bill of Rights, the right of declaring ni.imenrei ; an action ‹ ;ainst the Keeper of the: aye , l* the University tor running away with j ynet deilv!,- your then, to Lord CIIEN-i for ti.e peipose only of die - If:fling yourselves oely -,et..i:o t i of defence •igainst his attacks ? rein de to s , oh ithitios rout under-gra app:euil for zinispheriireceeou. proccei rn t.., the examination of .t point ereei mince to the interests of the Univer-• wetiki in reality be the effect of and the operation of the of the Catholic Test La-.vs, no far as the Uni ceneerred, for :he chscussion of this measure weilid require twenty letters in e one , . Let us look therefore at its peculiar our,elecs. Yon ale aware that at pre ., re:cited bar:lees which prevent the admis- Ca:holies into c mploymeias under Govern ?, the necramental test, and the oath of ah , netli eorne others of the striae d C!1:`;% - ti r.t v e rnp . :,,cs to ab(lsh, Pr d in :e Sl:bh:l'ute en oath or protestation, to the taste of the Catholic:, which !.tipposed to he a renunciation of the power of the See of P.ory.. in this country. ;ley/ etialificatien the Catholics are to be Zhe Members of the fetablished .I.lreissibLity to the legislative, as well as and executive fimction what ?. Jet: alco well await that at present the eec:s, ;0;1 the oily t Jl 7, which by local Sta- U;ll:er,ity ;.tand in the way of Catholics, .- . :tee Dail: of abjuration, and the subscription .. articles. Now I will ask any man, e. et. C. possibly believe that these religious ceielfeaticns can be kept on foot in the y, when the very same, and all others of si ••7ite rt, have been suppressed and abolished in partnieat of the state ? Will Lord GREN. allow the Catholics to be pricked and teased f. se Le iars ard thorns at Oxford, which he has root and branch in every other pa;t of the King's dominions ? D o you really think that after ] his Lordship has taken down the doors of all the Courts of Justice, of the Horse Guards, the Admi ralty, the Parliament House, the Council Chaniber, and the Closet ofehe Sovereign, f o r t h e i ntro d uct i on of Papists, that the University alone will be indulged with their exclusion ? When this public Equaliza tion Law has passed, your College gates will tumble from their rusty, crazy hinges with a single kick.— The Catholics will not take the trouble of picking the lock, though in the reign of JAMES 11. they were not inexpert at that work, and, as we recollect, got pos session of the cloysters at Magdalen. I assert it then to be a consequence directly and necessarily flowing from Lord GRENYILLE's equalizing principle, that Catholic Laymen will obtain a right of matriculation in the University. How can it be refused to them by Lord GRENvILEE, consistently with his own hy pothesis ? Put if it should, will they put up with a iefusal ? No, they will read to his Lordship, his own protest, and possibly they may throw it in his face, as a voucher to prove that whatever they demand they must have. If the public law is sacrificed to their whiles, will the private law remain unaltered ? lithe Constitution of the State itself is new modelled be cause they require it, is it to be imagined that their modesty, delicacy, or forbearance, will abstain from insisting that the municipal Constitution of the Uni versity should be surrendered to them also ? Very short-lived indeed will be the Lex Loci of the Univer s;ty, when every public law which a Papist objects to shall have been erased by Lord GRENVILLE from the Statute Book. The Members of the Catholic Com munion may, from that moment, without difficulty, be Undergraduates, Fellows, and Heads of Colleges, Tutors, Professors, and Magistrates of the University; nay, a Catholic might even become our Chancellor : for if my supposition of fact be true, that religious Tests will vanish at Oxford, as I say they must do, as soon as Lord GRENVILLE has put an extinguisher upon them in every other quarter of the empire, my deduction is indisputable, that every place and pre ferment in the Univetsity tenable by a Layman, will instantly become accessible to the Lay Catholic as well as to the Lay PrAtestant ; for nothing as I have before shewn impedes the matriculation of Catholics, except those religious tests, which, for all CIVIL purposes, and in ALL other places throughout the whole Em pire, are to be superseded by Lord GItENVILLE's sys tem. I have spoken only of the Lay or Civil branch of the University, that is, of those is ho are not bound to take Orders by the Statutes of the different colleges: all these, I say, might be papists : a pretty consider ahle limb of the Whole ! I do not stop hereto ask how the clerical branch of it will stand its ground "tariet cum proximus artist ?" Whether Lord GRENVILLE has thought of these things I know not, but if he has they may be precisely what he wishes ; he Iliay think, per haps, that the reformation itself is become obsolete, and ought, like an olcl worn out servant, to be put upon ihe suferanr.uated list, in order to make way for some fresh hands now out of employ, but likely to be a little more bustling and active. We must prepare ourselves for something splendid ; for Lord GRES vILLE told the House of Lords that the force of reason, !.ke the rays of the sun, was breakiq out upon them. I do indeed'expect from his Lordship something very resplendent, and so ought the University too : I can imagine the illumination which is to issue forth and beam upon us froth all the pores of his threatened Catholic Bill ; and I have (feebly I admit) endea voured to describe some few of its rays ; but for one, I declare that I dread the coming of this solstice of lustre: I know that it ve ill bring heat with it, as well as light, and I am alarmed for myself and the whole University, lest it be too much for us, and affect us like a coup de scleil. When I observe the cors:LT:ll - confidence of Lord CRENvILLE, and when I hear him treat as visionary those apprehensions which till the present moment have been deemed well found ed, what have I for my security but his speculation ? One of his Lordship's theories is, that the Catholic few cannot injure the Protestant many; that their strength is insufficient thotigh their designs were mis chievcus : he ridicules the idea of numbers being over-ruled, and supposes that the mass of a People may repose with safety mole sua. To this maxiM of Lord . GRENVILLE I shall oppose the wisdom of our illustrious CLARENDON, for whose chair his Lordship is so vehemently struggling. I am told by that great man, an eye-witness to the troubles of former times, that the disasters which he relates were not produced by a vmeral coidination and universal allartacy j the whole nation frcm rfligion and allesiance. I learn from him that a country than be overthrown, from causes limited and partial, against the real voice of :he people, and the preponderancy of mere numbers. Lord GRENVILLE tells us, that we want no protection from the Catholics, nor bolts or bars, no boundaries or scearatiens between us ; that see have nothing more to do, when his Catholic Bill has passed, than to go to bed without a safeguard, in the same securi• ty as our forefathers did with it, reposing in the con sciousness of oar own innocence; but the Noble His torian, who has better explored the springs of public I mischief and disturbance, instructs us that one main source of the commotions he saw was, the " januit ting Me innocent to he possessed with laziness and sleep in the most visible article of danger." Against this lethargy, I for one will keep my eyes open. In the election of Lord Gime:nue to be our Chancellor, quod Deus avertat, I ea , . discern the seed plot of future misfor tune to the University, and every branch of our ex isting establishments. As far as I can, the:•efore, I will resist the CRENVILLITT:S ; for it is the conviction of my mind, that if the University once submits . to the dominion of GRENVILLIS M , the day i s not f ar ois rant when it must stoop the head under the yoke Of Catholfc:sin. AN INDErk;NDENT :kIAsTER. Mr. I - Ittrat Ixnrs has been returned for Ross-shire, l after a warm contest, in which the candidates were' nearly on a par. The Rev. DANIEL NiunnAv was last week e onseL crated Archbishop of Therapolis, an ancient See in Phrygia. The ceremony took place in Liffey-street Chapel, Dublin. At no period has our Indian Commerce suffered' greater losses than within the last 12 months; 15 or' 16 vessels having been captured or lost within that time. -1 The footpad who has committed so many rob: beries of late, in the neighbourhood of Corbam, in, Hampshire, was shotin the thigh, and taken by an Officer belonging to the ath Regiment, on Tuesday night last. • LAID INTELLIGENCE. COURT OF CHANCERY. GOMPURTY V. GOMPERTY• This was a question on the, construction of a will, The testator divided his property into fifteen share;— two shares to each of five sons ; one share each to four daughters ; and one share to the children of a daughter deceascd ; velth an option to the sons to pay to each of the diughters £3000,, in lieu of their shares—but giving the father of the deceased dati:_th tees children an Option whether to accept of this .£3OOO or take his share. The sons paid the daugh ter's 4:3000 each for their shares—khe Lather of the children of the deceased daughter insisted upon his share. The daughters were to have the interest far life—the capital at their deaths to . go to their lawful heirs. There were two qu - estions here—) st. 'Whe ther the surplus of the shares of the daughters, after paying their £3OOO each, belonged to the brothers only, or whether the children of the deceased daugh ter had not a right to an llth share of it-2d. VYbe ther the words ' lawful heirs' did not give an abso• lute property to the daughters in their shares, and of course to the sons who purchased them, notwithstan• ding the limitation ? The CHANCELLOR decided, that the surplus be. longed to the sons only—that in the daughters' shares they had only a life estate—remainder to their lawful heirs—and thatlAwFtm heirs are here meant children. Lot ;:st• if era: pub a..ca ord %;t1 1 ,b ,- .'rn subr to itrret GRENviI li'st the' :11 ex t' the o exam spt the 1. 4 Ind dor ,!•!y to ce, oi petit —a dire no, nscs, I it C. 411 C. 411 '! to L .I'.! Sll • IV;11 1 :r A 111 C t.. • , .1: • .• • OA ri COURT OF KING'S-BENCH, DEC. G. THE KING V. THE DUKE OF GORDON. Mr. WIGLEY opened this case on the part of the prosesution. It was an indictment charging the noble Defendant with an assault, with intent to commit a rape on Sarah, the wife of Thomas NVaite. In ano ther count the Defendant was charged with commit ting a common assault on the said Sarah. Mr. PARKE followed on the same side—lt had sel dom been his duty to conduct criminal prosecutions in that Court, any! when, at any time, it fell to his lot to do so on the Circuit, it had been his uniform prac tice to under -state, rather than to overstate his case, and to confine himself to a detail of the facts he should be able to prove, leaving the inferences to be deduced from those facts to the Judge and Jury. Notwith standing the rank of the defendant in this case, he should not be induced to depart from his usual prac tice, on the present occasion. The prosecutrix was Sarah, the wife of Thomas Waite. They were both persons in a very inferior rank of life, the husband being a journeyman carpenter, and the prosecutrix, at the time of the assault in question, beia - g a domestic servant with Lady Mary Stanley. It was something, however, in favour of her character, which be knew would be impeached, that she had lived furtive years with Lady Margaret, and that in Spring Oites, when the assault was committed, her Ladyship had Isft her house, furniture, &c. in the prosecutrix's care, which at least argued that she had considerable confidence in her fidelity. The prosecutrix was then unmarried, but was married on die Ist of May that year. Lady Mary Margaret, as most Ladies did who went to the country, let her heuse during her absence. The de fendant took it front Lady Margaret, who left the prosecutrix to take care of it fur her. The Duke, he (Mr. Parke) believed, was about 60 years of a g e, and for many years he had not lived with the Duchess. On the (23d of March, whale he lived in Ledy Mar. earet's house, it was certain that his conduct had been most singular. It would be objected, he un derstood, that the defendant was too old to have at tempted an offence of the nature charged. He (Mr. Parke) was afraid, however, that the annals of that Court afforded too many instances to the contrary, to allow a doubt to remain that even the age of 70 did not prevent men from attempts of this kind.— This woman, then living in the house, and the Duke dining alone, the Learned Counsel should state circumstances which antecedently went to slim the intent of the defendant. On a particular day, which should be proved, the Defendant dining alone, a man servant of his, of the name of Flem ing, came to the prosecutrix, and desired that she would shut the window-shutters of his Grace's dining room. She said that was not her business, and re quested that the servant would do so himself. He went away, but immediately returned, saying that his master would now allow any person to shut them but the servant of the house. She accordingly went to shut the window-shutters, when the Duke entered into conversation with her, enquiring if she belonged to the town or the country ? She said to the coun try. He then asked her to drink a glass of wine,' which she dcclined, saying, she was not accustomed to drink wine. He insisted upon it, a n d b roug h t h er a glass of wine; which she then drank and went away. A few (lees afterwards, she was asked by another of the Duke', servants to go and shut the windows. Immediately on her going into the room, the Duke began a talking to her, and asked her to have some apples, saying, that he had same very fine ones. The prosecutrit refused, when the Duke again offered her wine. This she also refused, say ing, that it would be Unbecoming in her to drink with a person in his station. This interview ended in her accepting of some fruit. On a third occasion the prosecutrix was again ordered into the Duke's di ' ning-room by Fleming. He then insisted on kissing her, which the prosecutrix refused to consent to, as she was then on the point of marriage with another man nearer her own age. The Duke on this occa sion slipped a piece of money into her hand, desithig her to purchase a gown with it. The prosectin ix did not, as she ought to have done, return it, but kept it, as she had done the fruit, and on her going out of the room found it to be a new shilling. The fourth time was on the 2d of May, when the prose- I cutrix having again gone into the dining-room to shtit the window-shutters, intentionally left the door open. The defendant desired her to shut it, which having done, he offered her wine, and placing him self between her and the door, asked if she had - bought her gown, and taking her by the arms, desir ed her to kiss him. This she refused to do, on which he said, in that case, he would kiss her. He then pro ceeded to put his hand into her breast, and take other more indecent liberties, when the prosecutrix, having been married the day, before, pushed him from her upon the carpet, and ran out of the room. The Learned Counsel would not assert that his Lordship would say that this amounted to an attempt to com mit a rape, nor should he (Mr. Parke) even go the length of alledging that the defendant meant to at- . tempt any such thing, or to go the full length of . . committing a felony ; but he would ten the Jury what it was; it was a most indecent assault ; and the defendant hoped by thgse liberties repeated - to in duce the prosecutrix to comply with what he wished. In evidence_of this, having surprised the prosecutrix in one of the rooms, by herself, a fortnight after this, he made up toiler, asked why she was so bashful, caught her. round the waist, And asked why she would not comply with his wishes ? The Learned Counsel had already alluded to an objection, which he understood would be made as to the Noble Duke's age. There was another objection, that though the attempt charged on had takea place in. May, 1808, the indicterent had not Leer preferred till AprillBo9, being an inuTt al of eleven months. It was to be obse; ved, however, that the prose.c:lttix and her bus, baral vyre low and illiterate, and had to contend wi!h a person of elevated rank. This, to be sure, was no obstacle to the obtaiaing of justice : but he might fairly adduce it as an apology for persons in the situation of, t!:e prosecutrix and her husband, who might naturally be supposed to. have been intimidated by such disparity of rank, and of the means 4if procuring justice. Besides, the defen dant had imm e di ate ly gone to Bad:, from thence to Scotland, and had only returned to this country a .short time before tlie indictment was preferred. He vats ready to admit that it was uniformly held to be almost decisive in cases of rape, that concealment for any length of time sla_suld have been practised. This (Fr) net apply to the Present case, for here no actual violative had taken place. He was also fi-ee to con fess, that if any propositions had been mule on the part of his client, since the prosecution had commen ced, fOr the !)prpose of- compounding :le same, that would be decisive against them. Fle was instructed, however, -that.noue such had been made ; and as to the indisposition of the prosecutrix, when the case formerly stood far trial, the medical gentleman who attended her was present sy, and would satisfac torily prove it. The - prosecurri-, Sarah "Waite, was th:n called, but did not appear. The Art . ouNEv-G,..NLaAr, E.. 4 no objecticm that in the mean time the next cause should go on if the pro secutri-,: wo.s not ready, . Mr. P.%.1( ICE said, no power on cal :h should have induced him to proceed in opening the case, if he had not understood the witnescs were ready to support it. . . . Tli; Attorney for the prosecution 'vent out, in search of his witnesses ; and, atter some time, re turned and informed the Court that he could no whire find them. rrheA TTORN . EY GLNEILALsaid the prosecutrix dared not to appear. He should have proved her a most abandoned womana notorious strumpet. The man whom the now called her husband he could prove to have another wife, tvho called on the prosecutrix and intimated the.circumstance to her before the connec tion between her and her alledged husband. Lord Et.t.i.:tintoucts said, there was really no. thing in the statement to warrant the charge. At all events, there being no evidence in support of the prosecution, the Jury must of necessity find the De. fendant not guilty. The Jury, accordingly, found the Defendant Not In about half an hour afterwards, and while ano ther trial was going on, a note was handed in from the agent for the prosecution, to Mr. Wigley, and by him handed to Mr. Parke, to which the latter replied, " I cannot help it." The ATTORNEY-GENERAL. immediately stood up, and said he Was informed that the prosecutrix, in the case whiCh had been last before the Court, had now made her appearance. This being the case, he was still ready to proceed in the trial. Lord Es LEtotonoucu said lie could not consent to it; were lie to do so it would be trifling with the jus tice of the country. . _ Mr. GARROW—" It is an infamous sequel of an infaMous story." - Mr. PA4KE said; he felt extremely hurt that he should have opened the case. Had he known that the prosecutrix wets not present, no consideration whatever should haw induced him to do so ; nor should lie have thought of now brio Sing it before his Lordship ; on the contrary, he had declined doing so, when the Attorney-General himself mentioned it, without at all informing him (Mr. Parke) that he meant to do so. The ATTORNI:Y-CEYERAL said, he suspected the attorney for the prosecution, afraid that his conduct here might me.et him in another place where he was a public officer, had found it convenient, on his owa account, Low to bring forward the prosecutrix. The ATI:AO:EV vindicated himself from this charge. Mr. I'.ltY.l: said, h 2 understood the Attorney had not been out of Court. The ArroaNEV•GENERAL, on this, declared himself satistied. Lord ELLENnOROUGII said, the time for going into the triaLwas clearly gone by. He would have waited as lug as the attorney for the prosecution had de sired, rather than any prosecutor should be disap. pointed of appealing to the justice of his country.— If he had understood that any accident had happen ed, he would have waited till new. The prosecu trix, however, must have known that this case stood first, and the hour of sitting of that Court was well understood. The attorney, however, had gone out in search of his client, and on his return, without ex pressing- any hope atat she might still appear, had told that she was nowhere to be found. On that in formation the case was sent to the Jury, the verdict had been ;,then and entered, and it was impossible now to go back. 1 7 * CHAMBERS V. BROWN. Th:s was an action to recover six different penalties on three transactions on renewals of a Bill of Ex change for £3os), and on three transactions on re newals of a Bill of Exchange for £350,. in each of which transactions usurious interest, in the names of premium, commission, &c. bad been exacted by a person of the name of Launcelot, as agent for the defendant, from a gentleman of the name of Slade, who had become a bankrupt, and on whose estate the plaintiff, a respectable banker, was the assignee. The ATTORNEY-GENERAL stated the case on the part of the plaintiff. This was not an action similai to those which Juiies were accustomed to meet witk in the hands of con.— was a gentleman of the circumstance of mmon informers. The plaintiff the first respectability, who, from E his being assignee on the estate