The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1824-11-25 00:00:00

THE BRITISH PI.;;ESF4.

4th and 13th of George the Third. The intli of George ill. way
enacted for the cnnsolidation of the bark annuities in 114: 411, (if
lieOrge 111. if it was found necessary to enact the 25th of
George 111. the hank annuities from the 4th to the 25th of that
reign were without protection. At all times it was admitted that
this instrument had been signed, sealed, and delivered then it
must be admitted to him, that it had all those characteristics of a
deed, when it was treated as a letter of attorney, distinct front a
deed. He wished to direct their Lordships' attention to an (hoer.
ration which fell front a member of the Court. It does not fidlow
that the Bth George I. and the subsequent statute, meant letters
of attorney, stymy& scaled. and delivered. lie was prepared with
a satisfactory answer to this. Ile would call their Lordships' at-
tention to the act of the legislature in a parallel case. Antrim
should have done an, he would expect their Lordships' approbation
in assuming that the l-gislature had in this case distinctly con-
templwed, in letters of attorney, " letters signed, sealed, and de-
livered." Warrano no the payment of money or delivery of goods,
stood 'in precisely the same situation, with the instrument in
question. They might be by deed. The propositions with which
he had to contend, therefore, must be, that the Bth of George 11.
applied to warrants for payment of money or delivery or goods.
He would ask the Legislature; he should certainly Pay no; they
expressly said that they did not. It was stated in the preamble of
the Bth George 11. that no punishment was provided by that Sta.
tote fur forging powers of attorney, &c. t but the 7th of George 11.
set out in the preamble, that " Whereas receipts for bills, war-
rants, or orders for the payment of motley, have not been made
punishable," &c.; and then this Act goes on to provide punish-
ment for forging such iostrutnents. The Bth therefore expressly
excluded such instruments, clearly because punishment for them
was provided by another Statute. The use which it had been at-
, tempted to make of the 48th of Georg..? 111. somewhat surprised
him; because the Act had said nothing of lettere of attorney,
therefore it was assumed that they must have been included in the
124 of George 11. The 11th of George 111. did not mention letters
of attorney, and no inference could be drawn from it, or any other
observation appiesible to this, funher than to record the feet of the
omission. The pendia!' object of that Act was to make the dispos-
ing or uttering certain instruments capital, some doubts having
arisen no the subject. The Learned Gentleman proceeded to ana-
lyse the several Ac:s of Parliament to which he referred in his
argument yesterday, to chew that letters of ettomey were not
therein considered as deeds, and that MI Act of Porliament re.
girded as deeds, Instruments which were only signed, sealed, and
delivered. He bail searched for authorities, which asserted that a
signed and sealed instrument was a deed; he could find none:
and it should not be takers for granted, on the unsupported
assertion of the Learned Sergeant Boaanquet. A deed must be'
a writing confirming a grant, or making a contract; and this
definition, which was supported by all the eminent writers,
was not shaken by any thing that fell from the Invented Suer.
grant; nor was it shown that a power of attorney made such
a grans or contract as to fulfil the terms of the definition.
He had now addressed their Lordships on those topics which he
thought available fur his elicit. The two propositions he had
endeavoured to establish were—First, that this instrument was not
*deed; he hoped he had succeeded In convincing their Lordships that
it was not; if he had not so etairely.yet he hoped that Itched at least
plc ed tiot question in such a point of view before them, as to
satisfy diem that it was at least ambiguous and equivocal. If he
had dons so, then the other part of his argument would be mainly
aided, nomely—that it was not within the intention of the Legisla-
ture, in the Act ander which the indictment was drawn up. if
KAI upon these points he should have tailed, he would humbly sub-
mit to their Lorshitte the maxim which had been laid down and
acted upon by Lord Chief Justice Abbott, t' it althongh the offence
should come within the very words of an Act of Parliament, yet, if
the spirit and intention of the Legislature did not concede and se-
cold with them, the benefit should extend to the party against
whom the words would otherwise prevail, and he had now urged
whatever his own researches, and the suggestions of his Learned
Friends, from whose superior legal information he derived great
advantage in conducting this argument, enabled him tourer. If e had
doe:sloe,.•d an arduous and a painful duty, he feared, imperfectly.
It might hare been that the anxiety of his mind may have clouded
hisjadgment, and perhaps impeded him in the due execution of his
duty. If he had too roughly, and not with sufficient delicacy,
touched the decisions of Judges of which it was his duty to speak
on such a time as the present, respectfully but firmly, he regretted
it. and begged to assure their Lordships, that lie was, both by in.
clination, and the strongest ties of duty, disposed to regard the as-
sembled Judges of England, and their decisions, with the greatest
reverence. He implored them, for the unhappy gentleman on
whose behalf he appeared, to come to a decision unfettered by
precedents, Both be (Mr. B.) and his unfortunateclient, what.
ever that decision might be, would bow to it with reverence, in the
confident feeling that that decision would be the result of consum-
mate learnino and deliberate impartial justice.
The LORD CJIIE? JUSTtCL intimated, that Sir. Brnderick
had fully and most satisfactorily discharged the duties of an ad-
vocate to his client.

The Court was then cleared, and their Lordships remained
in c menhaden in their chamber.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE BRITISH PRESS.

Sta—As an opinion seems to be entertained by many
persons that forgery is a crime seldom if ever pardoned,
I beg leave to refer you to an instance, in addition to many
that have ken, and still more that might be produced, its
which this offence has been pardoned ; and there seems no
reason why it should not, when we all know that crimes
far more heinous in themselves, as having in them more of
moral turpitude, have received the Royal mercy. The in-
stance to which,l am about to refer is in itself extremely
remarkable, it being a cue in which the proffered mercy
of the Crown was deliberately reffised. It was that of
Mr. Samuel Burt, who was tried and convicted at the Old
Bailey Sessions in July 1;85, for the forgery of a banker's
dtdsght of 100!.; he was recommended to eatery by the
Jury ; and ou being asked the usual question, Why sen-
tence of death should not be passed upon him, he thus ad-
dressed the Recorder:—
" My Lord—l am sensible of the crime which I have ann.
rained, and for which I justly deserve to suffer. .31y life I have
forfeited, and I wish to resign it int* the hands of him who gave it
me. To give my reasons for this would only satisfy an idle euri.
amity; no one can feel a more sensible heartfelt sathfaction in the
hopes of shortly passing into eternity, wherein I trust I shall meet
with great felicity. 1 have sot the least desire to live; and as
the Jury and the Cotter, on my trial, thought proper to recom-
mend me to mercy, if his Majesty shook', in consequence flirter!,
grant me a respite, I here vow, in the Mee or neaten, that I will
pot an end to my own existence as soon sal can. It is death that
I wish for, because nothing but death can extricate me from rte
troubles in which my follies have involved ms."
At the close of the Sessions, he was brought up with the
other convicts, and received sentence of death, after which
he was put to the bar, and informed that his Majesty, in
his Royal clemency, had been grac:ously pleased to extend
his merry to him, upon condition that he should be trans-
ported during his milord life. The prisoner bowed re-
spectfully to the Court, and addressing himself to the
Recorder, returned " his unfeigned thanks fur the kind-
ness of the Recorder, the Sheriff's, and the other Gentlemen
who had interested themselves in his favour, and bad so
effectually represented his unhappy case to the Throne,
that his Majesty, whose humanity could only be equalled
by his bye of virtue, ha I extended his mercy. But, how-
ever flattering the prospect of preserving life might be to •
man in a different situation, vet he, now that he was sunk
and degraded in society, was totally insensible of the bless-
ing. Life was no longer an object with him, as it was ut-
terly impessible that Ire could be joined in union with the
person that was dearer to him than life itself. Under such
circumstances he was truly sensible of his Majesty's good-,
ness and clemency, yet be must positively decline the terms ,
offered to him; preferring death to the prolongation of a
life -.which could not be otherwise than truly miserable."
The whole Court was astonished at this address, and
after consultation Mr. Recorder remanded the prisoner
back to the gaol, to be brought up again the first day of
the next Sessions, on which day be was brought up to the
bar, and his pardon again read to him ; which being done,
he made a very modest and sensible apology for having de-
clined Iris Majesty's great goodness to him, he then desir-
ing to die, but now he most thankfully embraced the same,
only wishing to be united to a beloved object, in despair for
whom Ee had committed the fact which brought on all
his troubles.

The young woman alluded to humanely consented to marry
this sia4appy mus, but she died before Me marriage cusid
take effect.
You will find the above case recorded in the Annual Re-
gister for 1786, p. 34, and 1787, pp. 6 and 12.
Harley.rtreet, Nov. 54. L. M.

At the Brighton fair a piece of flannel was prevented,
viovett by water power, which is supposed to save half the
expense of weaving by hand. The use of water power fur
the manufacture of flannel is an American invention.—
Rhode Island Paper.
Catholic rent, to the amount of 150/. is just collected in
the several parishes of thin city, and wiii shortly be
re-
witted to the Asseciation in Dublin. Of late increased
energy is visible on the part of the collectors, which is at-
tributable to the presence of the Raman Catholic pries:-
hood, who accompany them in their se►eral districts.--
Limn ick Chronicle.

It is with pain we hear that Mr. (-Wiley. of East Wel-
lington, only survived his accident on Saturday wrek a fkw
hours. The nnfortunate goal-man was, wild: busting.
thrown by his horse taking fright, dragged by the stirrup,
and suffered the tenure of two broktu nun, btsidts bin
ether severe iu.;urics.—E.rdrr l'up:r.