The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1805-08-26 00:00:00

sHßEwsfirri?r, At.o. 23.

On Saturday last, the Commission for holding
the Assize for this county, was opened before Sir
SODLISEPI LAWRENCE, Knight ; his Lordship attend-
ed Divine Siirvice nn Sunday morning, at St. Chad's.
where an aparopr;ate Sermon was preached by the
Rev. Mr. Salt, Chaplain to Thomas Whitmore,
Esq. Sheriff. from St. Like, xiv. 41.
Lord Chief Justice ELLEN soitonon haring been
detained by the lengthof business in the Nisi frier
Court at Hereford, did not arrive here till Sunday
afternoon. On Monday morning, their Lordships
proceeded to business.
The LORD COME Justine, in a eoncie but ins- I
pressive charge to the Grand Jury (after having
expressed his pleasure for the fit st time of visiting
this part of the kingdom under His Majesty's Com-
mission of Assize), intimated, that he scarce thought
it necessary then to enforce the high importance of
attaching to the education of Gentlemen (especially
those placed in similar situations of eminence to the
Jury he then addressed) a conversant knowledge of,
an acqusint.nce with, the laws of their country ;
and more particularly those which so lndliantly dis
tinguished the glory and defence of Great-Britain ;
for, though he could not speak experimentally of the
condud and decisions of those Gentlemen, on whom
a dispensation of the British Laws depended, for this
county ; yet, from the tenor of substantial repre-
sentation, he was folly assured, such was their opi•
nion of the involving station in which they were
placed, as E.lpreclme the necessity of his expatiat-
ing on a subj.,6l, the incumbency of investigating
which, they were so fully convinced of.
The following prisoners took their trials :
Sotsannab Nick, for at, dine wino,. article, from the Awe!.
beg-hoo so. of Sarah Barges., of Much Weo,lon-lc ; ()avid Jones,
aged 92, Fir secreting, embessoling, iw dosstois.ng a boll of .Ic-
ehang.-, in the Pu.st Office, at ttswe,ort IVilltent Jettisons,
for a bay gelding, the pron-rtv •ot the Rev Thnn,ts
Alban, of Ludlow ; and Thomas Caner, (or .teatong a westiocr
lawn), thv ioroperty ot Richard Lowe, of Motr,:le, tecevo.3l
sentence of death.
The causes at :fits Pewit were more in number,
and of greater interest than has been remembered
for some years ; owing to which, the business of that
Court did not finish till a late hour on Wed esday
night.
An issue of considerable interest, directed by the
Court of Chancery, was tried at these Assizes. ie
which John Richard Meredith Warter, an Infant,
and Others, were Plaintiffs, and Joseph Warter,
Esq. and Margat etta his Wife, Defendants. The
ebjeft Was to try the validity of the Will of the
late Dr. Meredith, of Pentrebychan Hall, Denbigh-
shire. It appeared on the trial that in the month of
May, ISOI, when it was admitted by all parties that
the I estator was in a state of mind pettedly com-
petent, he had given instrudintis for the Will in
question, which contained on the whole an unexcep-
tionable disposition of the property, amounting to
about loom. per annum, but that the Will was
not executed till the Bth of September following, and
Was then nothing more than the original draft con-
taining numerous alterations, abbreviations, and in-
terlineations ; that in this interval the Testator, who,
from the time of his taking possession of the estate,
upon the death of his elder brother in 1800, had
contra fed the habit of excessive drirkings, was at-
tacked with violent and frequert fits of epilepsy,
that his memory Was et intervals totally gone, and
WAS generally impaired, and that the whole had
brought on, at times, considerable wanderings of
mind, to so preat a degree, that the Testator would
converse for a length of time,with imaginary persons,
as it present, and even with ptrsons who had been
long dead, and that he had been affeded in this
manner not only in the early part of the night lin-
rrediately before the day, in which he had made his
Will, but on several preceding days ; but having in
the latter part of the night had some refreshing sleep,
he appeared cool and sensible when hi executed the
Will, and afterwards dined down stairs with several
• friends and discovered no symptoms of delirium.—
The cause was opened in an able manner by Mr.
D•UNCLY for the Plaintiffs, and answered in an Ma-.
pressive speech by Mr. I )A IL as. who came down on
a special retainer. He relied on the Case of Attor-
ntiy- Gen. sd. ;her, 3 Brown, Ca.Cas. 01, which, in
many of the circumstances, strongly resembled the
present, particularly in ics being the execution of a le-
sal instrument of importance, in itself of a very proper
nature, in the presence of persons of respedability,
to whom the party at the time appeared perfectly
Competent, and which instrument was nevertheless
considered ins alid ; the difference appearing to be,
that, in the one case, there had been a complete and
'tenni derangement of considerable length, though
it admitted of intervals of apparet.t sanity ; whereas
in the other, though there were frequent wander-
ings, they proceeded not from insanity, but from de-
Nfity anA A,- cause was concluded on
rod alalny ; and it IV pear-
of the Conrt, that it was
invited investigation, but
ing the Will, was equitable

bitty and diwahe. The
both side; with candoir an
ed the universal senhation i
a c iwit: .r,c9gcotly ii
s'lrt .4‘ ..‘• elvskaislishis
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