The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1804-08-07 00:00:00

WARWICK AS! ZTS.

coot', vo. v. Tilt EMU. OT wanartoit.
This was an *Flinn to recover a compensation in
damages against the Defendant, as Lord-Lieutenant
and Cartes Rotulorum of the -county of Warwick, for
a trespass committed by him upon the property of
the Plaintiff. The damages were laid at 1,0001.
Mr. DA YREL 1. stated the case, on the part of the
Plaintiff, whom he described as the sun of a thry
respettable Gentleman in this county. Ile was pos-
sessed of a small independent fortune, was married
to a lady of the greatest respeaahility, with whom
he lives in a domestic manner; in the wintet resid-
ing in London, and in the summer in various pans
of the country. The Learned Counsel then stated the
various places to witich the family had gone in the
course of the summer ; x length the Plaintiff, in the
beginning t/f Se temher, 1603, was called to Lon-
don to attend his mother, who was extremely ill.
He left in the possession of George Hands, the
Warwick carrier, two trunks and a hamper, to be
forwarded to Hampton Lucy, near this town. These
packages, on the 9th of September (by an order
which the Learned Counsel read, signed by the De-
fendant), were seized by one of the constables of the
parish of St. Mary, and conveyed to the guard.
house, and an order was sent to two military officers
high in command in the Warwickshire Militia. to
attend on the fidlowing Sunday, with the
Defendant, to examine the contents. Accordingly,
en the Sunday. the Lord-Lieutenant, Cannel Pack-
wood, Major Wheeler, the Constable Kemp, and a
blacksmith, who was sent for to break open the
musk, assembled in the guard-home, where they
began to rout out the contents, which consisted of
dirty linen belonging to Mrs. Cooke, and the rest of
the family. But all this was done, for sv!‘at pur-
pose it was impassible for him to guess. "the Plain-
tiff had been eenouneed in the face of iris country as
a •rritot to f. lan I ors inch charge bad been sub-
stantiated, and yet the Noble Defendant, wrat had
been the cause of his iisgrace, had not tendered any
amends, or, as was his duty, set the Plaintiff right
in the eyes of the world. Several witnmses pteved
the facts stated he the Learned Counsel.
Mr. Serjcant VALGILIti then addressed the Jury,
on the part of the Defendant. He observed upon
the nature of the action, which wa,, stated to he to
recover damages " for seizing, detaining, and In tak-
ing open, and forcing certain trunks and hampers,
tossing. tumbline, and damaging the saint ;" for
which the Plaintiff had laid his damages at one thou-
sand pounds. It was their province to estimate
what damages the Plaintiff hal sustained in this
tossing and tumbling about, to er.title him to claim
osc thoviond potiodl! The Learned Serjeant then
proceeded to comment upon the statement of the
Plaintiff's Counsel, in which he had content the con-
clusion, that all the Defendant had done, was to he
considered in a military capacity. He contended,
the Jury were not hound so to consider it; they
were to recorea, that the Defendant united in his
official capacity, not only land-Lieutenant, hut Ctrs-
to; R,tu'orom. He was the head of the :dagistracy
of the county; all the Magistrates throughout
tl,e county deriving .their an hnrity from him.—
The questions for the Jury to decide were, with re-
'pea en the law and the facts rf the case—whether
the DtlenJant was authorised to represent to the
Secretary of State, circumstances which had come
within his knowledge as Ou.Oos Regadorrop, respelling
the Plaintiff's condr...l, and upon that representation
the consequences that followed. With respeed to
the question of damages, he should submit, nnder
the direttion of the Learned Judge, that one penny,
or one shilling, was sallirieot, supposing the lawn
the caw was in the Plaintiff's fayoar, for no specific
damage had been proved. The Learned S.rjeant
then detailed what he denominated the hasps of the
case, namely, that the Plaintiff had come to Ilan p-
ton Lucy, taken lodgings there at a Mr. Pritchard's,
where his conduit had tacked suspicion of his loy-
alty, from these cirenmstaaces, that he would nr t
allow his le..ters to be fetched from the Post Office,
but went fox them Lintself: that he terused to sign
the paper which v.as delivered to him for the Gene-
ral Defence of the Country t these, and scrne other
circumstances, were efinstrued by a Mr. Osborn, a
miller at that place, o synnstoms of disaffet n , itr
consequence of which he commu.:icated the me to
the Defendant, who, noon this come:.: .ie i ion,
wrote to Mr. Seere.:n y Ye. ke, and rec iv. ~t orders to
a-t as appeared bestut him for the safe:; of the State.
Sir NASA Gana. 1.11:11glIt the question of law
was mearly in the Plaintiff's favow, and therefore
evidence need not be produced. He observed, that
the Plaintiff had a right to recove.., to the amount
of the damages he had sustained; none, however.
had I.).ea proved. lie then put it to the Jury to
say, whether any evidence was addneed to show that
the Defendant ailed from an evil spirit. In a crisis
like the present, there was Food reason for Magis-
trates to be circumspect; if they dared to do any
thing maliciously, they would be punished.
The Jury gave a verdict for the Plaintiff, One
Shiliiag damages, which carries costs of suit.