The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1861-04-23 00:00:00

TIIE DORCHESTER ARBITRATION
CASE.

We should very much like to know if anything on
ilia earth, or under it, or above it, exists about
%%Inch English people won't go to law. The
Cent.ueror, in the tint charter hp granted to
" William the Bishop" and Godfrey the Portreeve,,'
declared that henceforth his English subjects should
lu " all law worthy," and for eight centuries we
hive been availing ourselves of this privilege of legal
worthiness,and suing with might and main in all the
courts in the kingdom. Have we inherited this
mania of litiAation from our in varlera from Normandy,
where to this day, interminable lawsuits arise from
the upsetting of a cask of cider, or the tearing of a
erfrithoise cap belonging to a pretty payeatiiie by
wine jealous rival? It is all very well to quote the
rustic maxim, "De 11011 rural ler," but in
country, so far as regards civil CMOs, the law
t.ikes cognizance of the pettiest things that were
ever heard out of the kingdom of little lilliput,
The Jesuit, Don Sanchez, tells us, in elaborate
e.usuistry, that it is nut exactly justifiable to run a
through the body for a box on the oar, but the
licords of our law courts are full of solemn suits
which ought to have been amicably settled without
is issuing of a writ. Mr. Scrjeant Snubbins, in
Pickwick," is described as burying himself in the
arguments ora case in which somebody unknown
liad interfered with a right of way of which nobody
;er availed himself ; had there is the traditional
.ietion, again, of " Stradling ow,ita Styles" respect-
ing the "pied horses' and the "horses that were
pied." An Englishman will "take the law" of his
neighbour, or his relations, or his guardians, or his
ife's trustees, or the proprietor of the large house
Oat is being built near him. He has generally all
many lawsuits as lie has shares in a company; and
each legacy in a will has usually its separate slice of
litigation. As to slander, the wok threatens her
ioistress if she complains that the soup is burnt or
tile mutton raw. Not a drunken footman can be
turned out of doors by his master, but he invokes
t:.o tenors of the courts of Westminster on his
bead. Many a convivial meeting is adjourned to the
',nut of Common Pleas, and any man who has heard
...outlier man say that he had been told by some one
who was qualified to know that certain rumours
w era current about some one, has his remedy at kw
on brings his action fur defamation.

But, besides courts of common law, other courts
have been established for the settlement of disputes.
The Legislature in its wi dom, no doubt, in permit-
ting certain cases to be settled by arbitration, had a
three-fold object in view—the more speedy settle.
went of the matter in dispute, the saving of mote,

and the mutual arrangement by friends of the liti-
gants who would b supposed to better understand
the merits of the dispute than could be arrived at by
a jury. That these objects are frequently attained
there can be no doubt, but as every rule has its ex-
ceptions, we must expect in the natural order of
events that there will be some failures. When, how-
ever, failures do occur, they are not always to be
regarded as ineepemble from the system of arbitra-
tion, the nature of the question at issue, nor as
necessarily redounding to the s. isilom or penetration
of the parties sitting in judgment on the ease.
The solemn ceremony attending an arbitration
tribunal has lately been enacted at Dorchester. A
large amount of evidence was tendered, two hole
days were consumed in reference to the matter, and
now the award has been given. The doeumett
setting forth the award is a real mu/hint in parr°,
containing the whole case in a "nutshell." and as it
will, we doubt not, be read by our friends with a
great deal of interest, we here give it in its
entirety :
"To all, to whom these presents shall come, I, James
Barstow, of the Inner Teuiple, Barriater at Law, send
greeting.
" Whereas at the date first lace:di:after mentioned. VI
arbitration was pending, ender the Public Health _Act,
ISK before William Abbstt and John Chaniiincy
hams, as arbitrators between George Henry Davis
and Joseph Robinaon. arbitrators,
called the claimants,
and the Town Council, acting as the Local Board of
Health, in and for the Borough of Dorchester, in the
Comity of Dorset, hereinafter celled the respondents,
ar s,it matter of which arbitration was the claim for
compensation for damage, apoil, and injury, alleged by
the claimants to have been committed by the respon-
, dents to certain freehold property of the claimants,
being No. 22, South Street, in Dorchester aforesaid, and
the said arbitrators having duly made and subscribed
the declaration respired by the said Act before they
entered upon the reference, did by writing uuder their
hands, on the Twentieth day of March last, appoint Inc
the said James Barstow to be an umpire to hear and
determine the said claim in case of difference between
them in regard to the same, the said arbitrators did
differ in regard to the subject matter of the said refer-
ence, whereby notice was sent to me by the parties on
the Twenty-second day of the mid March, whereby I
accepted the said umpireship, and before I entered ou
such reference did make and rubscribe the declaration
required by the said Act, which declaration is hermit*
annexed.

" Now know ye, that I the said umpire, having heard
the said several parties by their attorneys, and having
heard and considered tha evidence on both sides, do
hereby make my award touching the waster so referred,
a.‘ follows, that is to say :
"1 award and find that the claimants had sustained
damage in respect to the matter of their complaint to
the amount of One Shilling and no more, which I order
to he paid to them by the respondent's when demanded.
" I order that the several parties bear their own costs
of the reference, and that the costs of this my award
shell be paid half by the claimants and half by the
respondents, and in case of taking up the award,leither
shall pay or contribute more than half ouch costs, I order
that the other shall on demand repay the sum so paid
in °sem f one-half.
" The amount in dispute did not exceed 1:500.
" Witness my hand the Bth day of April, in the year
of our Lord 18ti1. . .

" Signed and published in the presence of John
Robert Butler, clerk to the said James Barstow.
(Signed)
JAMES BARSTOW•

Now the first thing that seems naturally to strike
ones attention on twirling this document is, the pro-
found aninutencas,the wise discernment, the nice die.
criwination displayed by Mr. Barstow in arriving at
his decision. A person with less keen perceptions
would have hit widely of such a mark. Talk of
target practice among our rifle volunteers, they
must far ever, after this, hide their dimin-
ished heads from very shame. it is a thorough
splitting of hairs. We have often seen justice re-
presented as sitting blindfold balancing a pair of
scales; but justice surely cannot be blind to pene-
trate ten feet below the surface of the earth and be
able to tell to a moral certainty that a sewer carried
under one's house is a damage to that freehold, for all
time 'cast, present, and to conic, to the extent of
just one alining, and not a single farthing more nor
less. Hunting for a needle in a pottle of hay must
henceforth be regarded as mere child's play, and the
" tarnation cuteness. of our transatlantic cousins is
beaten hollow. Mr. Barstow evidently did not very
highly regard the evidence given on either side.
Had be believed the witnesses who declared that the
sewer under the house was a positive benefit to the
property in question, he could not have awarded a
shilling damages; while on the other hand, the
claimants would not have been saddled with their I
own coats, bad their witnesses' testimony been re-
garded. But by what method of reasoning do we
:naive at a shilling compensation? Perhaps after Ail
we were wrong in saying that justice was gifted with
a keen perception—upon second thoughts we
aroj inclined to believe that she was blindfold
while endeavouring to balance her scales.
But in all seriousness. Can one for a moment
believe that the Local Beard of Health did not de-
preciate the value of the property in question by
carrying a public sewer under the house and thereby
obtain the power to enter on those premises when-
ever it might think fit, the prevention of the pro-
prietors, under any circumstances, from excavating
for the purpose of erecting it basement story without
permission, and even the prevention entirely of
such erection, if the whim or caprice of the mem-
bers should so dispose them' For the taking away
of these tights pertaining to a freehold, surely the
claimaata were fairly, in honour and in justice, en-
titled to some consideration. Yet even their letters
were cost aside with contempt. We venture
to say that nut a single member of the Board would,
in his private capacity, have acted thus ; and can it
be considered a virtue in a public body, to act in a
manner which in private life would be branded
with disgrace? We are quite aware what is the
answer the Board would give to these remarks—
that if compensation were given to one it must he
to all, and that the end justified the means. This
may be the logic of public bodies, but it is not the
logic of equity and justice. The letter from the
Ceneral Board, the contents of which it has been
sought to enshroud an so much mystery, plainly set
forth that the opinion of the Commissioners was
against the arguments set up by the Local Authorities
Other Local Boards, besides that at Dorchester, have
asked the same question, and we know what the
answer has been—that the parties are entitled to
compensation under the Act. The amount of com.
pensation is another question, but we speak
I advisedly when we say that the Dorchester Local
Board knowing this -or at all events might have
known if they would, were not justified, either in
treating the claimants' applications to them in the
contemptuous manner they did, nor in having saddled
the ratepayers with the expense of the late arbi-
tration.

DORCHESTER PITCHED CORN MARKET, Saturday,
April 20th.—There was a large attendance, but only
one sack pitched. The trade seemed principally in
seeds and things of minor importance, and the tone
vas about the same. Millers were not anxious, and
prices not lower. As soon as the spring sowing is
were complete, we expect a larger supply and an
equally good demand.
Distis. BAKER AND ENSOR'S FORTNIGHTLY
SALF.. —The quantity of stock at this market was
little less than the last, and the quality of the
greater part being crime, a brisk and good demand
was the result. Beef nearly all sold at improving
prices. Sonic huge bulls fetched from £25 to £2fi.
DOID.HENTER VoLUNTERH/L—Tho Dorset Rifle
Corps left by the midday train on Monday last,
and proceeded to Cattistock and the surrounding
neighbourhood in order to get recruits to form a
subdivision or section of the 3rd Dorset. The corps,
after marching through the di:trict, proceeded to the
Grimstone station, where, through the kindness of
(1. Starr, Esq., the train was especially stopped
for the accommodation of the corps.
How THE MILITIA LIVE.-IVc were asked by
Mr. Hayward, the contractor for the army, to inspect
some beef which had been refused by the MINA
officials. We can ouly say that in our opinion, as
well as that of the public generally, the beef is
excellent, and we shall have no objection to give
Mr. Hayward 7d. per lb. for the whole of it. We
trust that the man who objects to eat such, may
soon recover his lost appetite and may never want
for worse.

ST. Fruit's CIIUKCIL—On Sunday morning last,
an excellent sermon was preached by the rector,
the Rev. Morton Cohion, in behalf of the Indian
Famine Relief Fund. The rev. gentleman took
for his text the 11th chapter of Acts, 29th verse.
—"Then the disciples, every man according to his
ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren
which dwelt in Judea." In the course of the
sermon the cause of our fellow subjects in India was
most ably advocated, and the rector expressed
his conviction that such a congregation as the one
present needed no reminder of hie to induce every
one to give accenting to his means. The subscriptions
amounted to 4.6 is 2d.

INDIAN r AMINE itZLIKI F1.7240.—A sermon WU
preached at All Saints' Church, on Sunday morning
last, by the Rev. J. F. F. Davidson, the respected
curate, on behalf of the sufferers in India. The rev.
gentlemen took for his text the 20th verse of the 2nd
chapter Ist, St. Peter—" Having your conversation
honest among the Gentiles ; that, whereas they
speak against you as evil doers they may, by your
good works which they shall behold, glorify God in
the Day of visitation." In the course of his remarks
Use rev. gentlemen said that we as a nation had not

walked honestly before the heathen world—we had
not set them a Christian example ; on the contrary,
our countrymen in India had been guilty
of the worst
crimes, and it behoved us now, in this tho day of
their visitation, to show them that we deplored the
evil example of our people, and by our liberality and
Christian kindness so to work upon them, as to induce
them the more readily to accept the blessed gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ.—The collection atnounted
to f 5 7id.
FUItDINc roN CM:RCM—On Sunday two sermons
were preached at St. George's Church, Fordington,
by the Rev. H. Monte, vicar, in aid of the sufferer.*
by the famine in India. The rev, gentleman took his
text in the morning from Colossians iii., 12 aud 13
verses ; and in the evening from Isaiah sl., 10 and 11
verses. The sum collected was £5.
We regret to learn that on Friday last the wife of
General Allelic!, of Bewlish House, was thrown from
her carriage and broke her leo.
Conossn's INQUTZT.—An inquest was held at the
county gaol on Saturday last before Giles Symonds,
Esq., coroner, on the body of a prisoner named
.111 red l'pahsll, aged 29 years. The deceased was
convicted at the last assizes, but soon alter entering
the prison he was taken ill. Ho was removed to the
hospital, where, after lingering for some time, he
died. From the evidence of the surgeon it appeared
that death was caused by disease of tho lungs, and a
; verdict tr trit etlvet was returned.
ferderick C'roos, a native of Furdington, but for
many years in the Royal Artillery, was ou Monday
appieliended by P.C. Cousins for stealing a copper
tea kettle, the property of Mrs. Cog, of the Queen's
own. The article had cost 165., and he broke it up,
and sold it to Mrs. Ilutford, marine store dealer, for
old copper.
CoMIGTTED TO TUC GOACIIEsTER GAOL. -- Hard
Ird,uur : Richard Stone. breaking windows at
\Weymouth, 14 dayb ; Abu Maria Hayward and
Hatualetta Davies, vagrancy at Biandford, 2
calendar months; Emma Scott, stealing turnip green
at Wimboriie St. Giles, 14 ilays ,• Anu Crocker, stealing
saucepan at Ferdington, 2 calendar months ; John
Hatcher, stealing i1•111111Cr at Menthe% 3 calendar
months ; Jane Bevis, stealing breath at Bridport, 1
calendar month ; Sarah Sprackling, stealing b.ef at
Weymouth, 14 days. haprieusesessi : William Curtin,
assault at Cerne Abbas, 1 calendar month.