The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-03-10 00:00:00

#~

THE BRITISH PRESS.

tion, it will be your duty and province to throw out the bills. I
mention this to guide you in your inquiry, and to save your
valuable time ; for if once the bills are found, you know the pri-
sonera must be put upon their trials, and can only be discharged
by a verdict of not guilty. If you throw out the bills in the first
instance, and circumstances should cdlerwards be brought against
them, fresh charges may be preferred ; and you will further take
care that the names are rightl sated in the iodinments. There
is one case that I wish to caR yar particular attention to ; it is
the charge of manslaughter, against • person who kept a cow of
a vicious nature, whereby one of his Majesty's subjects met with
his death and the question for your consideration will be,
whether the owner knew, of his own previous knowledge, the
evil disposition of the animal, in order to warrant your finding a
bill of this nature. There is another, that of a person charged
with maliciously shooting; and in order to bring home to the
prisoner the capital charge, it will be necessary to know, that at
the time he committed the an the prisoner knew the pistol to be
loaded. and fired it with an intention of doing some grievous
bodily harm. There are three others charged with the crime of
rape, which also require your serious consideration : they are cues
that do not benefit the public in their publicity, and unless the
evidence be complete against the prlsoncn, the better way would
be not to find the bills for the capital pan, and they may be after.
wards indicted for the misdemeanour. To that for forgery you will
give your equal attention, and take care not to find a true bill on
suspicious circumstances. I am (said his Lordship), not aware
that there la any further occasion to detain you. You are men of
experience, and possess that useful and valuable knowledge which
will be your best guide. You will therefore, now, Gentlemen,
proceed to find your bills."—His Lordship, previously to making
the charge, invited them to dinner.
BIUAMY.
Thomas O'Hara, aged 44, stood charged with having intermar-
ried with Hannah Duttio, his first wife, Sarah Hilton, being still
elite.
Mr. Aatrwour st, on the part of the Crown, stated the nature of
the case, and called
Elizabeth Pedley--She knows the prisoner at the bar ; was pre-
sent at the Cathedral Church et Manchester; saw the prisoner
and Sarah fililton merriest there; knows of their having lived
together afterwards ; the time might have been six years. Sarah
Hilton is still in Manchester, and was so when she left;
saw her six months ago there; don't know why they were sepa-
rated.
Hannah DO% examined—She knows the prisoner ; was married
to him at Ashbury in July ; she lived with him at Macclesfield
two months after their marriage ; he afterwards went to Al anches-
ter ; witness also went there and found he had another wife; went
on purpose to take him into custody ; it was in September she ob-
tained a warrant at Manchester. . .

By the J DOE —She was at Manchester when he was taken;
was a widow about five years; is likely to have a child ; has none
at present; is now with child ; did not live with him before their
marriage; had property by her children; the prisoner tried to get
it ; lie told her he bad no wif,- and deserved any punishment if he
bad.
Wm. Eilby, constable, examined—lle apprehended the prisoner
on the 17th or September at Manchester.
This was the case on the part of the prosecution.
The Learned Ju DOE asked the prisoner if he had any witnesses
to call, to which he replied in the negative ; but that Sarah Hilton
had lef► him tour years ago, during which time he had not seen
her, and that he had heard she had 'sired with another man. She
had left him on the fish of November. The man she lived with was
named Robert Lennox.
His Lounsni, charged the Jury, and said, that his wife having
left him did nut justify his itilerinarriage with Hannah Dian. The
case had been clearly made out against the prisoner by the evidence
for the prosecution, end it would be for then; to pronounce a vet.
diet accordingly.
The Jury consulted for a few moments, and brought in a verdict
of Gni*.
The Learned JUDGE, on passing judgment, remarked on the
er.onuity of the crime on which the prisoner had been found
guilty, and sentenced him to one year's imprisonment and lewd
labour.
HIGHWAY ROBBERIES.

Richard aged 20. charged
with haring assaulted John Bowden on the King's highway, at
Ardwick, and robbing him of one silver watch, two pp-knives,
nne silk purse one half crown, one sixpence, one pair of silver.
spectacles, and one silk handkerchief, his property, were found
Guilty—Dena.
John Darker, aged 23, and 19trt. Sidebotiom. aged 24, charged
with having assaulted Thomas Heward on the King's highway, at
Sethford, and robbing him of ten provincial bank notes, fur the
payment of 11. each, one watch, one key, and one watch-key, his
pr perry, were found Grilty—Death.

EXECUTION OF A PARRICIDE.
Monts, Fusel:Aar 26.
I gave you an account, in • forma letter, of the trial and con-
demnation of Louis Vigne for the murder of his father, by
plunging a knife into his bean. Yesterday was the day appointed
for the execution of the monster. The guillotine had been erected
on Ls Place at a very early hour, and, at twelve o'eleck
precisely the wretched man was conveyed in a cart from the prison
to the scaffold. He was strongly guarded by gendarmes, and oa
his arrival at the foot of the guillotine a Clergyman was in readi-
ness to receive his confession, and read the funeral service. Vigne
appeared to derive so much consolation from the religious &drawl-
: tion administered by the Clergyman, that he exhibited, when
amending the steps of the scaffold, a degree of enthusiastic cheer.
Nines' that astonished the assembled crowd. The executioner
I was about to bind him to the fatal board, when he requested per.
mission to address the multitude ; and although there are few in..
stances of a French culprit making what is termed in England
" a last dying speech and confession," on this occasion the usual
regulation was dispensed with, and he spoke in agaudible voice,
and with contrite zealousness, as follows :—" MyTtiends, I am
now to suffer for the most dreadful crime man can commit. I
acknowlege the justice of my sentence, and pray you, with the
sincerest penitence, to forgive the shocking example I have shown
you in taking away the life of a parent. I hope and trust that
the Almighty will listen to my last prayer, and pardon all my
sins. I have been a very wicked man. Listen to the voice of re-
ligion—di not deride the Holy Precepts, as I have always done—
be good, and you will be happy. Farewell, my friends ; forgive me
my enormous crime." Then, turning to the executioner, he said,
"I am ready ; do your duty." The people who were assembled,
to the number of several thousands, were much affected, and many
of them shed tears, The unhappy man then placed his arm upon
the block, and his band was separated with one blow of an axe ;
he was then placed under the fatal knife, the black veil that covered
his face was removed, and in the same instant his bead was severed
front the body. The sight was most awful, and several females
who were in the crowd fainted.
_seterteeemOseettor

COMMERCIAL INTLI.I.IOINC E.—Extract of a private
letter from Calcutta, dated the 22d August, 1824, received
by way of Greenock :
" The season Is not yet sufficiently advanced to enable us to
form a very accurate guess at the quantity of indigo likely to be
produced; but were I inclined at present to alter the opinion for-
merly given you (say F. Mils. 90,000), I would rather cleanse
than add to my estimate. I think, however, the larger portion of
produce this season will be of superior quality to that of last year ;
but it is not expected that the best will find here a higher price
than Sa. Rs. 300 to 32i per F. Ald. Nothing has yet been done
in the way of contracts for the produce of Factories; all hauds
seem inclined to remain quiet till a more certain estimate of the
produce of the season can be formed. From , where our
principal Factory is situated, we have wretched accounts, and our
produce will certainly come short even of last year. Cotton is
coming down the country for sale in considerable quantities, but,
as yet, I have heard of no sales (at least to any extent) for the
European market. The Company's ships have been loading for
China, but that country is the only one to which any quantity has
been exported from Calcutta. Sugars must be almost left out of
the question as regards our trade to England, unless we are put on
a par with the \Vest Indies. A heavy stock is now in the market,
but without purchasers."
Uri NDOW TAX.—The Mayor, in compliance with a re-
quisition which has been presented to him, has appointed
, Friday next for a meeting in the Town Hall, to consider of
the propriety of apth petitioning the House of Commons
for the repeal of The Window Tax; and from what fell
from Mr. Huskisson on. Friday evening respecting the
Wine Duties, we suppose that he will now support the
prayer of the pet it ioners.—Liverpoo! Advertiser of Tuesday.
There are only five prisoners for trial at the cnsuitig
Assizes for Nottinghamshire.
At Kit-Male market yesterday there was but a poor
supply of good cattle. There were about 140 Irish beasts,
but being chiefly of as inferior quality, the best sorts met
ready sale at Cd. and inferior bid. to 6d. per lb. In sheep
t here was not much doing ; they brought 6ld. to per
.—Livcipaol Paper of Tutlay.
MIDDLESEX HOSPITAL Martini 8, 1825.—Mondily
Return of Patients for February, from the. Ist to the 281 h
inclusive:—
In -Patients admitted by Letters 105
plt to by Accidents 20
125
Out.Dstients admitted by Letters 120
Ditto by Accidents 61
181
In-Patien,'s Discharged gt
Remaining in the Hospital 192
DESTRUCTIVE FIR E.—Yesterday morning, a most
alarming and destvietive fire broke nut in the shop of alt. %flitting,
a Venetian blied-nmker, In Rose and Crown-court, fifoorfields.
The flames obtained attar an ascendancy as to communicate with
the house of Messrs. Ksiight and Co. tea-dealers, comer of Broad.
street Buildings, then ono the house of .Me. Debrek, merchant,l
No. 18, Broad-one' Buiidings ; and even the opposite houses in
Broad-street Buildings es. opted by Mr. King, city surveyor
and architect, and r. Alltivd, stockbroker, *lva fell a prey t•
them. A woman and two children got out of Mr. Whiting's
dining-ram window, on the lead', and were rescued from their
perilous situation by the exertions of the people. After the arri-
val of the parish and fire engines, lbw fireman were obliged, for a
considerable length of time, to be mare spectators, front 'laid
water. After • supply had been obtained, the conflagration was
checked- No liege wens lost, but there were several other houses
damaged.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.

COURT OF CHANCERY, WEDNIIDAY, M*aeu 9.

IrANSANDAU V. MOORE AND MITCHELL, CHAIRMAN •ND
SECRETARY TO THE BRITISH ANNUITY COMPANY.
11r. Kw tour to-day argued in opposition to the demurrer and
support of the bill that the demurrer could not be maintained, on
the ground of insufficiency of parties. That this Court would only
carry on a partnership with a view to its dissolution, he admitted,
but an application to the Court by a partner, to restrain his co-
partners trotn doing an act contrary to the stipulations of the part-
nership, would rot be callin upon the Court to manage the part-
nership from time to time. g_ But he naked, was this a partnership of
the ordinary description ?
The Loan CHANCELLOR-137 the Act the Chairman or Se-
cretary may sue a stranger, and rice versa ; hut the Act does not
authorise them to sue each other; and if the Company take the
semblance of a corporation, this Court ought to give no relief
whatever.
Mr. K/I/OHY resumed—lf it were competent for one party to
dissolve the partnership, the Act would be at an end.
The Loan CHANCELLOR—The question is, whether, if the
plaintiff were to give notice of his intention to dissolve the partner-
ship, any Court would support it against him. It it either a Com-
pany ora corporate character, which would be illegal, or h is a
partnership according to the rules of the ceininort law. Would it
not be competent for any person cued. by the Chairman or Secretary
to show that the Company was rot a legal one ? It is also a ques-
tion hor &decree can be made against the absent shareholder.
Ought not the plaintiff to bring before the Court at least all who
are known to be. Directors and Proprietors?
31r. }Carious uid, there had been a change in them. He was
not aware that the Company had assumed a corporate character.
There was no common seal. if there were an assumption of that
character by other partners in matters to which he was not a party,
be was ::ot bound by it.
The LORD CHANCELLOR observed, that it was very soon
found that if you tried the Secretary and he could not pay, you
had no remedy; and that gave rise to an enactment that the per-
son who recovered against tie Secretary might sue out execution
against any individual of the Company. It was then discovered
that you could not tell who were the members; and an enact-
ment was added that a memorial of the names of the proprietors
should be inrolled. The Court could only enforce its order by a
coniniittal to the Fleet; but how could that be clone with all the
members of a Company s He believed it was the intention of the
Legislature to pass an Act to make the cs4;inal shareholders
answerable for all acts of the partnerships. He perceived in all
the Hills for Companies before the House of Lords some clause in
them to take those Companies out of the Bubble Act, 6 Geo. 1. but
he hoped Parliament would not allow such arose, to stand.
31r. Sttoutir replied in support of the demurrer. It had been
said by his Learned Friends on :he other side, that the Company
hail gulled, caught, &c. Mr. Vansandsu. Mr. Sugden could only
say, if they had caught him, they assuredly had caught a tartar. and
therefore they had made no such very great catch on that angling
occasion I The plaintiff' had stated in his bill an Act of Parlia-
ment. which at once put him out of the Court ; because that Act
slated that the names of all members of companies must be me. '
morialisal within three calendar months after the formation of the
compsaies, otherwise they would not be entitled to the benefit of
the Act ; and so far from that having been done here, one of the
partners himself (the plaintiff) had said he bad no means of nam-
ing his copartnen. The Learned Counsel had no doubt that this
demurrer was a good demurrer.
The LORD CHANCELLOR paid, it was utterly impossible to say
in a country like this, that great benefit was not to be derived by
large commercial bodies. The policy of the law some years ago
was, not for the Court to say whether those bodies should or should
not exist, but that it should be referred to the Crown for that purr '
pose : and then, if they were to exist, that their existence should be
by charter or Act of Parliament. Of late, however, there have
been a great variety of companies and partnerships formed without
the sanction of a charter or Act of Parliament ; with respect to
which it did no: become his Lordship to say more titan that, if
such companies and partnerships are legal, it was the duty of every
Court of Justice to dispense the law of the country. It would be
; well for the persons who may hereafter become concerned in corn.
paniea sad partnership, to take care that those concerns were
clearly legal bodies. There were several Acts now before Parlia-
ment, containing clauses which, if passed into a law, would, let
the companies be what. they might, take them out of the 6th of
George the First, but which, his Lordship trusted, Parliament
would not allow to pass. This bill was bled by Mr. Vansandau
only, and professing merely to be for the benefit of him.
self, against the Chairman and Secretary of the Company. One
question would be, whether under this Act of Parliament both
the Chairman and the Secretary could be sued ? and another would
be, whether the plaintiff, as a partner of the Company, could tile a
bill after the three months had elapsed mentioned in the Act of
Parliament? Taking this bill as a bill open to a demurrer, from
west of parties, his Lordship thought this objection clearly tenable ;
and, indeed, that it would be impossible for any 'gentleman to
frame a bill, aiming at what this bill aimed, without being open
to that objection. The object 31r. l'ansandau had here was not an
object which ought to be very much favoured in a court of justice:
in the first place, the prospectus held out to the public a capital
of three millions of pounds ; but there was a great differeoce be-
tween paying and subscribing that amount of money. In the next
place, 21. only per share was paid as a deposit ; and.this Court was
now sought to asp, (though this Company, if a legal Company,
must have proved its establishment before Parliament. and if esta-
blished by a deed, must have shown that deed to Parliament), in
a case in which the common principles of partnership is to ap-
ply, that the Directors shall, from time to time, be called into
Court whenever aa individual pleases to have it said, with respect
to acts which the Directors might think proper to do, that the
shall not, but that the Court shall be the directors regarding such
acts: this certainly was a species of relief wkigh this Court does
not g've in psi tnership concerns. The bill stilted, that several of
the present Directors were original Directors; and that being so, it
was the duty of the plaintiff at least to have brought them by
name before fee Court, calling upon them to say who were the
other original Directors—so that the Court might make a decree
which would operate upon them. Both upon the mond of wane
of parties and most of equity on the face of the bill, his Lordship
was clearly of opinion that the bill was derourrable, end therefore
tire demurrer would have to be allowed.
Mr. HEALD then observed, that his Lordship's present de-
cision—that this bill was detnurrabls from want of parties—would
be of most grave importance, as would be shown in other cases
of Companies that are to come before the Court, and where,
perhaps, it would be well for the Legislature to inform them
what they were to do; because, if accounts could not be di-
rected to hr taken without having all the parties concerned
in a Company before the Ccurt, it was very clear that in many
cases no accounts could be called for at all.
. .

His LORDSHIP was my happy in thinking that it was not his
duty to sit here for Oa purpose of informing parties how they were
to frame bills, because in many instances it would be a most diffi-
cult task to say how they could come into this Court at all.
Mr. HEALD applied for leave to amend his bill.
His Lour:ism o refused it, but had no objection to give this
judgment without prejudice us a new bill being tiled.

POLICE.

MANSION-HOUSE.

Nine female children were brought before the LORD Marin by
Brady, an officer, who stated the following circumstances :
A great number of little girls, some of whom were under 13
years of age, are in the habit of infesting the avenues to Lloyd's
and other places for the transaction of public business ; they are all
oa the town, and in the very lowest state of depravity. Their cus-
tomers are in general elderly gentlemen, who have been sometimes
seen about the lobbies acuAnnanied by those little wretches, whom
their parents find it impoasible to rechzim, and who are therefore
left to take their chance of a livelihood by begging, and prostitu-
tion, and robbery.
One of the children wept ; the rest seemed to care nothing about
themselves or any of those arouni them.
The Lonu 3lsvoa, who is quite at a loss in what manner to
dispose of these unfortunate creatures, ordered them to be brought
before him on a :tonic day.

110 W-STREET.
Yesterday, William Sawn!, s middle-iged man, whn was
stated to have been at one time a very considerable fanner In the
western part of Middlesex, was brought up in the custody of Mr,
Cook, the High Constable of liounslow division, on the charge of
stealing a bav gelding value 507. and a pony value 157. the pro-
perty of Dlr. John Poyle, of West Boatley, near East Orinstead,
Sussex.
Be was committed for further examination.

PORTSMOUTH, MARCH 9.—The Diadem, transport,
has gone out of harbour this afternoon, and will proceed,
as soon as the wind permits, to Falmouth, to take on
board the officers rind men of the 31st regiment, saved from
the Kent, to bring them back to this port.
THE SILK Txxue.—Among the various improvements
of the present (lay we know of none of rr.nre national and gene-
ral importance than the recent invention of
.anew method of wind-.
ing and doubling silk by Mann. Hadnall..Spilsbury, and Crusts, of
Leek. do effective is this simple contrivance, that the very finest
thread of this material may be wound from the skein or hank at an
unlimited speed, and without the possibility el breakage. In the
silk trade in particular this discovery is of the very utmost import-
ance, especially at a period when every nerve must he strained to
stand in competition with other countries in the same branch of
manufacture. The most essential difficulty that has hitherto arisen
in the manufacture of silk is that which presents Itself in the wind-
ing of it. In tine silks this difficulty mar be safely laid to occa-
Rion one half of the expe.ise of its whole manufacture;
there are certain descriptions of Cris article which, though of su-
perior quality from their extreme fineness, have been found impos-
sible to wind, and which have in consequenc! been for some yeah
lying in thiscountrl untouched. 'phis difficulty is, however, now
done away with. One most important fact strikes us as resulting I
from this discovery, namely, that the Importation of foreign thrown'
silks must (from the great facility which this method of winding I
presents to thesilk throsster of this country) in tha course of a very I
short time effectually cease. Although this patent has been sealed
only a few weeks, it is already extending itself throughout the
trade, and the demand for the machinery is, we understand, unpre-
cedented.
The value of this invention is greatly enhenced by
its ready application to the machinery at a very moderate
earns:.