Star. — London, England, 1809-10-13 00:00:00

THE LATE DUEL. The s:.itements of Lord CArcurneAsli's friends, of tre circumstances which led to the duel viith Mr. coNiNc, have for some time been before the public. IVe now lay before onr readers a copy of the state. 4ner. circ:6 tted by the friends of Mr. CANNING, as sa answer to the unqualified charges brought against that gentian:ln by Lori ASTLRH . t;AGH• 1 .1 1 , 2 letters which preceded the duel, namely Lord O,I:F!:FACII'S letter to Mr. CANNING, dated 19th t:ecternber, and Mr. CANNING'S answer, dated the J .. 4 nt --ared in the STAR of Monday last, and need t e repeated. ~11:e following is a statement of the course of that 'Ton a misapprehension cf the leading transacion , which, Lord CASTLEREAGH'S letter appears to have been founded : al t perfectly true, that so long ago as Easter Air. CANNING had represented to the Luke of PORT WD the insufficiency (in his opinion) of the Govern- • !ren t, as then constituted, to carry on the affairs of the ceantry, under all the difficulties of the times, and had requested that, unless some change should be eirectcd in it, lie might be permitted to resign his di ce . It is equally true that in the course of the dis cussion, arose out of this representation, it Was proposed to Mr. CANNING, and accepted by him, as the condition of his consenting to retain the seals of the F or eign Office, that a change should be made in the War Department. 14 But it is not true that the time at which that t h augc was ultimately proposed to be made, was of Car.stsc.'s choice ; and it is not true that he was p art y or consenting to the concealment of that inten ded change front Lord CASTLERF.AGII. With respect to the concealment, Mr. CANNINO, some short time previous to the date of Lord CASTLIt- K AGli's letter, without the smallest suspicion of the existence of any intention on the part of Lord CAS TLEItEACII to Make such an appeal to Mr. CANNING as that letter contains, but upon information that some misapprehension did exist as to Mr. CANNING'S sup posed concurrence in the reserve which had been prac r:st.d towards Lord CAsinliftEncilt, transmitted to one Lard (...I:7I,EftrAGP'S most intimate friends, to be con.ainiteated whenever lie might think proper, the cony of ri letter addressed by Mr. CANN:NG to the Ihke PortmAND, in the month of July, in which requests, in justice to himself,. that it ni-r be remernpered, whenever hereafter this conceal- • nieut s tall be alledged (as he doubts not that it will ) as an act of injustice towards Lord CAS HZ.E.RiII, that it did not originate in his suggestion ; ..-that so far from desiring it, he conceived, however eircneoiisly, Lord CAN/DEN to be the sure chatinel of comnitinication to Lord CASTLEREAGH ; and that up to a vry late period he believed such communication to have been actually made.' The copy of this letter, and of the Duke of rour- LIND'S answer:to it, acknowledging Mr. CANNING'S rep! +:-d remonstrances against the concealment,' are Ptiii in the possession of Lord CASTLEREAGH'S The communication to Lord CAstnEN, to which tnisletler refers, W3S made on the 23th of April, with Mr. C lyN:NG's knowledge, and at his particular de sire. Lnd CAMDEN being the near connection and si..) , t confidential friend of Lord CASTLEREAGH, it nucr caul red to Mr. CANNING, nor was it credible t. him, till he received the most positive asseverations of the iact, that Lord CAMDEN had kept back such a communication from Lord CASTLEREAGH. " With respect to the period at which the change in ti•c War Department was to take place, Mr. CAN );ING was induced, in the first instance, to consent to isp , stponement till the rising of Parliament, partly' by iiae representations made to himself of the incon- N,liencies Of any change in the middle of a Session, but principally from a consideration of the particular circumstances under which Lord CASTLEREAGH stood tlic House of Commons after Easter ;—circum stances , Allich would have given to his removal, at ttat p• •1 of the Session, a character which it was ' 4l3 'n:7 Lo part of Mr. CA. NANG'S wish that it should M•••• howeve:•, received the most posi. '''e Forr;= , c, th:.t a change in the War Department s: place immediately upon the close of the 5. , :=11. When that time anived, the earnest and er.trcatic; of most of Lord CASTLEREAGH'S Tht t;l• • Cal:met, were employed to prevail upon to consent to the poctponement c , f' the '' At le:lgt - n, and most reluctamly, he .lid glve its'ci;g postponed to the period proposed 1.. t _ - 7, !CA:".l.xitEntal's friends, viz. The termination L.:pelitie,n then in - preparation ; but he did so T i en tl mo,t distinct and solemn assurances, that • 14hatever :night he the issue of the Expedition, the (h: , nge .11,.iald take place at that period ; that the f•ci::10 of the War Department should then be offered to Loid WEI.LitiLIY (the person for whose accession " Ifie Cabinet, Mr. CANNING was known to be most anxious), and that the intcrcal should.be diligently e!npli'yed by Lcrcl CAsTLEREAcr's friends, in prepar ing Lord CALTIAIILAGAI'S mind to acquiesce in such an :.rranzr:reent a a wi, thc•refore matter of astonishment to Mr. CAN!:INf•I then :it the issue of the expedition, he re minded 1:12 Duke of PortmAxn, that the time was row COIN: for Grace's writing to Lord WELLESLEY, to find, CIA sc, far from the interval having been cm i)loyed by Lord CAsTun*A.isn's friends, in preparing Lord CASTLEREAGH for the change, the same reserve had been continued towards him, against which Mr. CANNING had before so earnestly remonstrated. Being informed of this circumstance by the Duke of PORT.. LAND ) and learning at the same time from his Grace, that there ~ere other difficulties attending the pro mised arrangement, of which Mr. CANNING had not before been apprised ; and that the Duke of PORT LAND had himself come to a determination to retire from office, Mr. CANNING instantly, and before any step whatever had been taken towards carrying the promised arrangement into effect, withdrew his claim, and requested the Duke of PORTLAND to tender his (Mr. CANNING'S). resignation, at the same time with his Grace's, to the KING. This was on Wednesday, the 6th of September, previously to the Levee ,of that day. ' 1 All question of the performance of the promise made to Mr. CANNING being thus at an end, the re serve which Lord CASTLEREAGH'S friends had hitherto so perseveringly practised towards Lord CASTLE.. REACH, appears to have been laid aside. Lord CAS. TLEREAGII was now made acquainted with the nature of the arrangement which had been intended to have been proposed to him. 66 What may have been the reasons which preven ted Lord CASTLEREAGH'S friends from fulfilling the assurances given to Mr. CANNING, that Lord CASTLE REAGH'S mind should be prepared by their communi cations for the arrangement intended to be carried into effect ; and what the motives for the disclosure to Lord CASTLEREAGH, after that arrangement had ceased to be in contemplation, it is not for Mr. CAN NING to explain." COMMON COUNCIL. A Cqurt of Common Council was held in their Court Room yesterday, on several special matters. ADDRESS TO lIIS MAJE•TN. Mr. Sheriff Wool) informed the Court, that ag.-eea bly to the Resolution of a former Court, he had yes terday waited cu his Majesty, to know on what day his Majesty would be pleased to receive the Address of that Court on the occasion ~f the 50th anniversary of his Majesty's Accession to the Throne, when his Majesty had been most graci, ..isly pleased to signify it to be his Majesty's pleasure to receive the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Corporation of the City of London, on Wednesday, the Ist day of November next, at two o'cloLk, at the Queen's Palace. Mr. S. DIXON 1'05.2- Mr. Alderman 'Noon continued—that in conse quence of the day fixed far receiving the Address, some alteration in the wording of it might probably Ix come nue:sary. Mr: S. DIXON said, this was exactly the re.tson of his rising. The Address would require some altera tion, having been framed on the presumption that the Corporation would have proceeded from the Church to St. James's, or Buckingham-house, and would thus Live had an opportunity of presenting their Ad dress on the same day on which they went to Church to celebrate the Anniversary of its return. These alterations would be best made in a Committee. He should now move, " That the Committee who pre pared the Address do retire, make the necessary al terations, and report the same to the Court." It was then ordered, that his Majesty's most gra cious Answer to the request of the Sheriffs be entered on the Journals, and that the Committee who pre pared the Address do retire, make the' necessary al teraliops thereon, and report the same to the .:ourt. After retiring for' some time, the Committee re turned, when the alterations made by them o'i the Address were agreed to. It was ordered, on the motion of Mr. S. DIXON, that the same Committee be instructed to make the proper arrangements for carrying the Resolution of the Court, as to the Procession to St. Paul's, on the 25th current, into effect. Meal to detain the Court long, upon Many what • sisi.bc be inclined to term a ridiculssai paragiaph, whoa had appeared in a Morning Paper; relating to him as a Member of that Court. The paragraph stated, that the. editor *as in possession of the sub stance of the motion which he intended to make in that Court to-day, but which, out of compassion to him he would not state:. It called on all the friends of good order to attend andopposeso atrocious a libel.' Now, he declared solemnly, that he ha.d not either written or communicated his mdtion to any one,- and so it was impossible fit the editor of -the paper in question to know it. He was the last man who would wish to influence the press, as he thought liberty of printing was equally valuable with liberty of speech. 'With respect to calumnies every man could vindicate his honour, and he thought he was now doing his duty to the Court, by publicly declaring the whole paragraph a falsehood. There was another paragraph which stated that the Lord Mayor had issued an order .for the exclusion of strangers, in consequence of some insults offered to some Members of the Court ; this he was convinced, was equally unfounded. He could not, of course, trace the author of the para graphs, but if he thought they clandestinely origi nated with any Member of that Court, he would not belong to it. Mr. WAITHMAN declared, that he thought the pa ragraphs in question gross and scandalous libels, faith upon the Court and the Lord Mayor. On his coining I into *court that day, he had questioned both the wo Alderman and his Lordship on the subject, an ey had both, he was sure truly, denied the alle gations. Editors might, to be sure, insert what lies and libels they chose in their papers, and this was not the first time they had done so.—Something of this kind was done on the question in that Court relative to Sir Home Popham ' • and he had seen a paragraph very late*, imputing the origin of the Jubilee to a Mr. James Dixon, of Walworth—(4 itot,±). Put he had little doubt such paragraphs came from a Member of that Court, and he,thought he had the very man in his eye—(he looked full at Mr. Dixon— (! loud laugh). If such proceedings could be brought home to any man, he could not be sufficiently repro bated by that Court. He was convinced the worthy Magistrates had spoken truth, when they denied haw ing given any foundation for such paragraphs ; they were too open for such. He thought some future no tice of the business might be necessary. Mr. J. DIXON said he had been grossly insulted as he was passing into the Court. on the last day of its sitting. Mr. WAITII74AN said he had not denied the para graph. Mr. Dixon reprobated the introduction of names into their debates, and said he should be ashamed to remain in the Court if it was allowed. Many gross paragraphs had before appeared in other papers, and the Hon. Member had not noticed them. Indeed, it was notorious, that no person put in so many para graphs as he did himself. [Here" there was a loud cry of Order, and no motion appearing before the Court, the business Was concluded.] Mr. Deputy KENIIII.I4 at the late hour of the day, which it then vas, would not enter into his motion for expunging from the minutes of the Court the Re solutions of the Ist of August, relating to Colonel Wardle, but he did hope, that another day the sum monses of the Members would not by. filled with other business, put over the head of his motion. It was referred to the Committee for General Pur poses, to consider and report to the Court, in respect to what steps are fit to be taken, for obtaining an effi cient Magistrate for the town and borough of South wark. NAVAL IN773.LIGENCE. PLYMOUTH-DOCK, OCTOBER 11. Owing to the severity of the weather, there hare been no arrivals or sailings this day. . . . - Remain in liamoaze— l'onnant, Scipittn, Yorlc, Captain, In trepid, Acasta, Unite„lniazon, Armitle, Amethyst, la Niemen, Hussar, Plover, Partrike, Thais, Swallow, Scylla, In solian, Sandwich, and Snapper. In the Sound, ac.—The Dolphin, Naiad, Amelia, Albicore, Orestes, Gleaner, Arrow, Weazle, Mariner, Harlequin, and Whiting. PORTSMOUTH, OCTOBER 12. Mr. Alderman Wool) presented a Petition from a Society, describing itself as the Philanthropic Society of Mile-end, stating, that a number of persons had some years ago formed themselves into a Society for the Relief of Poor prisoners, more particularly be longing to their own district, or known to the indi viduals composing their Society. That in the course of a few years, thongh their funds were limited, they had the satisfaction of knowing that their exertions had not been unavailing, they having relieved from prison upw.irds of live hundred, and afforded occa sional relief to upwards of 2,800, from the period of their establishment, in the year 1793. The Worthy Sheriff did not wish to propose any thing extravagant from the funds of the Corporation, and concluded with moving, " That there be granted for the pur poses of this benevolent institution a sum of 1001." After some observations from Messrs. Box, JACKS, and Dtxox, all in favour of the institution, the vote was unanimously agreed to, the Standing Order : GREENOCK, OCTOBER 9. being, in this instance, dispensed with. 1 The Jean, SMITH, arrived at Port-Glasgow from Mr. Deputy Box presented a Report from the Corn- . Prince Edward's Island, sailed thence Ist ult. On mittce of Finance, to whom it had been referred, to the 15th, spoke the Nancy, WADGEWOOD, front Mary consider of retrenchments in the City Revenue, stating port for Kramichi, in lat. .50 long. 40. 59. had lost it to be their opinion, that it would be proper, and the head of her mainmast. On the 17th, spoke the for the interests of the Corporation, that the Office of Hero, CAMPBELL, of.. this port, for Quebec, lat. 49. Clerk of the Works should be paid by a salary rather 56. long. 38. 34. all well. The Fortitude, DouGALL, than by a commission. He moved, " That this Re- : and The Margaret, M-Douom.r., both of this port, for ! Honduras, were spoke 18th ult. lat. 41. 44.10ng. 15. port be approved of by the Court." Mr. SLADE entered into the merits of the Gentle- : all well. FROM LLOYD'S LIST. man who at present held this office, and quoted the G RAVESEND, OCTUJIEIt 12.—Arrived the Mary, Kitchen, opinion of a Committee in the year 1793, to whom f rom M uga d ore . S a il e d t h e R e t r ib ut i on , , for Cadiz ;.. 1 it appeared that as a commission bore a proportion to Margaret, Simpson, for Gibraltar ; Hector, Griffiths, for Dub-1 the business performed, that was a better mode of . lin ; and the Enigkeit, —, for Gottenburga. paying tilt,. labours of such an office than by a salary,l ARRIVALS. which might be too much or too little, according to I At Liverpool, the Flays, Guskin, from New Brunswick, and circumstances. He moved, That the Report do lie ' Shaw, Jackson, from Antigua. At Dublin, the Providence, Ro on, berts, and Resolution, Roberts, from London. Off Sicily, the the table. i Venus, Clisp, from the River Plate. At I.eith, the Concord, Mr. KEMBLE, Mr. JACKS, Mr. WAITIIMAN, ?cc. Fowler, from Quebec, and John, Hall, from Cadiz. At Maran supported the Report. I ham, the Clarence, Jackson, from Liverpool. • .3' On a shew of hands, the motion of Mr. DepDty FROM THE MONITEVR or THE 27TH uvr.—St.Maloes, Sopt. Box was carried by a large majority, and the Report 21.—The following ships are captured: l'Homme, of itoo tons, laden with sugar and rum ; and two ships, with timber, front as agreed to, ordered to be referred to the Court of Quebec. Aldermen. 1 The Hope, Cole, of Charleston, has been on shore near Varel, COMPLAINT AGAINST A NEWSPAPER. condemned, and sold. Mr. Alderman Goonszas.acsaid it was not his in- The Eden, Peptic, from Grenada to Loudon, is takes and car ried into Liam. Sailed the GANNETT sloop of war, for Guernsey, without taking convoy.—Wind Easterly. DEAL, OCTOBER 12. Arrived this morning the Betsey cutter, from Flu shing.—The CHEROKEE, sloop of war is just appointed convoy to take the Dunmore, Mucus:Lt., to the West ward ; it is ,expected they will sail this evening.— Wind East ; more moderate weather. YARMOUTH, OCTOBER 18. I Put into this port with loss of anchors and cables,' the Anna Maria, J. M. 'Vox WESTINGEN master, (of Hamburgh) from Noorden, bound to London, with 1 beans and oats ; also a Dutch vessel, laden with tim ber, but could not learn her name. Arrived the VIXEN On -brig, from the Baltie , with letters from the fleet. ne P.M. a large fleet has now appeared in the offing, supposed from the Baltic, under convoy, . among whom are several sail of foreigners, with signals for pilots. LAW bitALiitiiiii6l; • SURREY sES:I3NS, tiCfOISER. i i t\SOL't'ENI DrISTORS. A number of prisoners from the King's Bench anti . Horsemonger.lane, remanded lest Sessti e ns Ac count of some informalities in the Notices in er sd in the Gazette, and defective Schedules, were br eelit - up and dischareed ; among them was John Deere Riby, remanded list Sessions under the 34th clause of the Act, for obtaining ironmongery rods to, the eminent of £314., and n take pretences,' of Mr. Felth-int. of St. Martin's-lane. It appearedat Ws last exam n ttion, that when he orders I the goods in question, he stetedtto Mr. Feltharn that they sere to be s lit to t tenes Ayres, whereas, in fact, they were feed by a broker 'it London fur onethitd of their s a' tae. Mr. LAWS, on the pent occasion, conteaded, on the part of the prisoner, that the oods n id, as stated by Mr. Riley, been intended for Buenos Ayres; but that int7rvening circumstances had prevented it. To proie this, he called Mr. Malden, who stated, that he was an Under writer at Lloyd's, in October, 1806. Mr. Riley, who is his father-in-law, consulted him on the subject of sending the goods in question to 1310 nos Ayres ; the witness NI-waded him not to send t:iem, giving as a reason, that the place would be overstocked, as I our niitchants, owing to the letters written by Sir Home ikS Eftetn, were Buenos-A yre , -mad ' • it was, however, witlagreat difficulty he persuaded him not to send them, as they were already lodged on the cus tom-house Keys, for the purpose of being shipped.— The witness, at the desire of Mr. Riley, had after. wards consulted a gentleman, where would be the best fcreign market to send the goods to, and it was settled to consign them to a mercantile house at Ton ningcn ; the next Hamburgh mail, however, which at-lived brought infbrmation that the place was in ossi.ssion of the French. 'The goods remained after wards upwards of four months in the warehotise, and were then sold by auction for £l4O. The Court were of opinion that the prisoner's case did not come within the meaning of the 34th clause, and he was ordered to be discharged. SHERIFF'S COURT, OCTOBER 12. RIDGE V. ot.D.ActiE. Mr. HARIUSHN stated, that the Jury were called upon in this case to assess damages between Samuel Ridge, a farmer renting a considerable quantity of land in the neighbourhood of London, in an action • against the defendant, who was huntsman to the Berkeley Hunt. He had, he said, the honour of ad dressing a considerable number of the Jury upon a for mer occasion, in an action against Mr. Salter, one of the Proprietors of the Hunt, and he had hoped that the result of that proceeding, and the verdict which was afterwards given at the list Hertford Assizes against the Hon. Mr. Cape', would have prevented the ne cessity of any other Jury being applied to far the pur pose cf awarding darnaees on the same subject. It was necessary he should properly explain the. reason, the Plaintiff, in defence of his own property, had deemed it necessary to institute this i.upiiry. Soon after the late verdict, the Berkeley hounds were car ried to Tattersall's, apparently for the purpose of being sold. It, however, turned out, that they were `ought in by one of the farmer proprietors, and then before the leaves were off the trees, and before the linntin o i* season generally- commenced, the same per sons who before composed the Hunt returned to their favourite diversion ;f pursuing fOxes, and seemed de termined to enjoy it, whatever damages might be the consequences of it. The Jury would be astonish ed to hear, that the Plaintiff, in the course of a few years, sustained a loss of upwards of I.'fioo in cdr,se (pence of the persons composing the Berkeley hunt continually riding over his Lind. The Learned Coun sel proceeded to state, that the system of under-drai nage, and the getieral nature of cultivation, in the neighbourhood of Edgwarebury, where the Plaintiff resided, rendered hunting mach more injurious to the farmer than probably it might be in other pans or the country. He observed, that the Hunt was not now conducted as when it was under the manage. ment of Lord Berkeley or Lord Sefton ; at those pe riods, it was composed of persons who were them selves large proprietors—who studiously avoided do. ing any thing that was unsportsman-like, or commit ting any trespass that was calculated to injury or an noy the farmers. The Hunt was now conducted in a manner widely different. The day of turning-out was advertised, a splendid dinner was providtd to regale the hunters with afterwards, and the spot -e -lected was hi the immediate vicinity of London, The consequence was, that - the Hunt, instead of being altogether composed of gentlemen of rank and fortune, who were known, and were competent :co pay damages it they committed trespasses, was made I up of a mixture of persons from London—horse-dea lers, clerks, and people who, having no substance of their own out of which they could indemnify the farmer, laughed at the destruction they made, well knowing that the farmer would never consider it worth his while to seek indemnity from them. He should have no difficulty in proving in aggravation of the case, that the defendant, who was huntsman to the former owners, was likewise huntsman to the pre sent ones ; and that his employers were determined to hunt, let the consequences be what they would. He trusted that the verdict would be such as would shew them, that the law laid down by a Learned Judge was not to be treated with contempt, or vio lated with impunity. These facts were clearly proved by the evidence produced on the part of the plaintiff. Mr. AUBERT, the defendant's Solicitor, in the ab sence of Mr. Marryatt, his Counsel, addressed the Jury with much ability and ingenuity, in mitigation of damages. The argument upon which he, princi pally relied was, that the damages already recovered by the Plaintiff amply compensated him for any in jury he might have sustained ; and he therefore trus ted the damages, in the present instance, would be merely nominal. There was another action against Cowley, the whipper-in ; but as the circumstances and evidence were exactly the same as in the former case, it was agreed the two actions should be consolidated, that the verdict of the Jury should refer to both, and that the damages should be afterwards apportioned. The UNDER SHERIFF repeated the evidence, and accompanied it with a few observations. The Jury consulted a short time, and assessed the damages at se6o--N3O to be paid by each defendant. „ IT . , i ;i 11 I.