The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1803-02-25 00:00:00

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• LAW .1N71311761Ve1....- . . .

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. ICING% BENCH, WESTMINSTER, Fes. 24.
Lord ELLZII so amnia was expeded to have sat at
Guildhall The Jury assembled, and waited till
near hilf past two, when word was brought, that his
Lordship had been trying flee or six remaining'
causes at Westminster ; that one of them bad *ace*.
pied a considerable time, and that there was no Rro-
bali2ity of his being able to reach the city in time.
The Jury were accordingly dismissed. The causes
tried at Westminster were interesting only to the
parties.

COURT OF COMMON PLEAS, GUILDHALL, F5a..24.
Sittings after Term, before Lord ALv. ANtsi.
THomisom against !HILTON.
.CROCOINLES AND HUMMING-BIRDS.
This was an action of great importance to natu-
ralists and nicknackitarians. The Plaintiff was a
person justly celebrated for his extraordinary inge-
nuity in stuffing and embalming animals. He could
equally impart the semblance of real life, to the mor.
tal remains of a lion or a cockchafer. It kto a ge-
nius like his the admireri of Nature's rare and beau-
tiful productions are indebted for the preservation of
those wonderful animals, birds, and reptiles which
enrich the British and Leverian Museum, the cabi-
net of Sir Hans Sloane, and other colleEtions of lesser
notoriety. Without the aid of his sublime art,
Cooke, Le Valliant, Damberger, and others who
have explored the globe, might as well have staid
at home, at least as far as regards the naturalist. In
vain might birds of radiant plumage have been
caught, if the application of the science of preserving
them after death had not been the means of trans-
/hitting their properties and singularities to distant
c km ites, and subsequent generations.
The Defendant in this action had been fortunate
enough to obtan a trensendous crocodile of the Nile,
adorned with crests, scales of gold, and a triple row
of teeth ; he had also procured specimens of all the
birds that build their nests within the Tropics, and
no doubt he had, besides, a splendid collection of
orang-outangs, lions, tygers, cameleopards, bears,
'wolves, mountain-cats, and dor-mice ; but this did
not appear in evidence. It was, however, proved he
had an original inhabitant of the banks of the Phasis,
a king's-Rater, a fly-bird, and a humming-bird. All
these he wished to have embalmed, conformably to
the principles adopted by the anticnt Egyptians.
This the Plaintiff expressly undertook to do, and he
performed his task in a manner that gave entire sa-
tisfaction to the Defendant ; but however delighted
the Defendant was with his crocodile and humming-
bird, he experienced very different sensations when
the bill was sent in : he refused to pay it, and em-
ployed a person of the name of Hart to examine the
work, and report his opinion. Now it happened
that Hart had set up the profession of a stuffer of
animals in oppositidn to the Plaintiff, and of
course it was natural he would have a ten-
dency to undervalue his labours. He reported,
that so far from stuffing the humming-bird as he
ought to have done, he had only been humming
the Defendant ; instead of putting in artificial eyes,
to resemble those of nature, he had left the wi-
thered orbs without the least appearance of specu-
lation ; the same objection applied to the other birds,
but in a more material degree to the crocodile,
which absolutely appeared as blind as a bat. The
Defendant contended it was not within the scope
of his contract to find eyes for the blind ; he was no
occulist, his business was to stuff the birds, and his
demand was not to be counteracted by such stuff as
the Defendant wished to impose upon the Court.
Lord ALvsis LEY was of opinion, that as the
Plaintiff had been employed to perform fanciful
work, he had a right to charge a fasulfid price, and
that it was unjust, upon the opinion of a rival in
trade, to cut down his demand.
The Jury were of the same opinions and gave the
Plaintiff the full amount of his bill.

VIEW
OF THVNATURAL SMALL-POI, &C.

Fir Twelve Centuries, this Disease has been known to
1--
continue its ravages, deitruying probably in every year
an entiweess proportion of the whole population of the
jIVORLD

General Character.

Mortality.

In some Instances Mild,

but fur the most part
Violent Painful,
_

Loathsome, Contagious,
and dangerous to Life.

For the most part Mild,

but in some instanceii
Violent, Painful, Loath-
some, and dungiiroui

to Lite.

Uniformly M3d, inof-
fen•ive, free from Pain
or, D.lnger, awl an In-
fallible Precetttive
the Small-Pete

One in Six, who have the
Disease, DIES. At least
half of Mankind have it;
consequently, (hie in Ttuelre
of the Human Race perish
by One Disease! In Lon-
don 3000 annually.
In the United Kingdom
49,000. .

One in SOO Inoculated
DIES. lu London pro-
bably One* One Hurd !
Inoculation of Small-Pox,
by spreading the Disease,
has increased its general
Mortality by 17 in every
10U0.,