The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-05-16 00:00:00

SECONDARIES' OFFICE....SATIIRDAY, MAY 14.

CORNWALL MINES.
HALL V. VIVIAN AND OTHERS.
At half-past twelve o'clock this day an inquisition was taken in
this cause, before the Under-Sheriff and a Special Jury, for the
purpose of ascertaining the amount of damages sustained by the
plaintiff, in conacquence of his mining proprriy in Cornwall haring
been seized, withheld from him, and partly sold, under process
which issued out of the Court of Stannarv, in that county, ot which
the defendant was the Vice-Warden. Judgment was suffered to
pass by default. The damages were laid at 20.000:.
Counsel for the plaintiff; Mr. BROEGITAM, Mr. TINDAI.T.,
and Mr. ABRAHAM ; for the defendant, the COMMON SERGEANT
MA Mr. PARKE.

air. A Biutuam opened the pleadings.
Bnouomam stated the case. The plaintiff, Mr. Hall,
was, he said, a gentleman of great celebrity in mining pursuits
previous to the month of April, 10?2, when the transaction arose
which led to this inquiry. He belonged originally not to Cornwall,
but to Northumberland, which the Jury would hereafter find was a
material ingredient in this case. The principal defendant was also
a gentleman of great celebrity, and the father of Sir Hussey Vivian.
He was the ice-Warden of what was called the Court of Stan.
caries, the Warden of which was the Marquis of Hertford. This
Court of Staanaries was one of those Courts of ancient jurisdiction
which proceeded by ruler of their own—rules unknown, indeed
diametrically opposite to those of the Courts of Common Law,
with which the public at large were fortunately more familiar.
Lucky would it be, if those persons who looked with so much dis-
satisfaction at the ancient form of trial by Jury, and who were so
alive to the possible mistakes of Jurors, would just turn their
eyes to these Courts of local jurisdiction, which were exempt from
the public eye, and taste a little of the bliss they were so calculated
to administer. Such a contrast would, he had no doubt, remove
much of the prejudice in certain h;-;h quarters, touching the pos-
sible errors of Juries. The jurisdiction of this Vite-Warden was
over all stannaries, or questions .arising out of them--that was,
in plain English, over the concerns of all tin mines (Stannery
was a Latin word meaning Tinnery). Now this power thd I.Ot
`ll to other metals or minerals, besides tin ; it did not affect
Black Jack (a laugh), which was partly copper, and by. name
vulgarly applied to the Noble Warden in this county, just as
Copper Jack was to his Vice-Warden. Black Jack had zinc in it.
and necessarily some copper, but no tin. Copper had, however, of
late much superseded and diminished the use of tin working in
these mines ; but, nevertheless, the Stanhary Court contended for
a right over the copper mining as well as the tin. The process of
this Court was very pecaliar—first went forth a man, who said the
proprietor of the mine owed him 51. ; then out sas issued a
summons for the party to appear in Court ; this was followed by an
attachment, and then came a decree, which nailed up the mining
property till the Court thought proper to decree its sale ; and every
body acquainted with tech summary processes of sale, must know
that the produce was uniformly not the most, but the leant, which
an article could fetch under every possible disadvantage.—
But this was not all ; the process comprehended not only the
debt of the particular individual who sued out the process,
I but all other:: generally to whom the party was or might be
indebted. So that it far exceeded, in the sweep of its
jurisdiction, the sphere of the Court of- Parliament, the High
Court of Chancery (an it was called), and all the other courts
known in and about Westminster Hall. But odd enough was all
this, when it was his duty to tell the Jury, that there was not •
shadow of foundation for the assumed jurisdiction of this Court, in
the manner In which it had been acted on. They had no jurisdiction
over copper.works; the whole thing was admitted by the defendant
himself to be a trespass, by his suffering judgment to go by '
de-
fault. Two years ago he contended he was right, but on coming
I to town, and consulting the Common Sergeant and Mr. Searlett,
they laughed at his assumed jurisdiction; they told him—" 0, you
must keep this law of yours to the batnnariea ; it won't do in town.
We lawyers hue had no such law since the time of Noah, and we
are not Instructed before the flood." (A laugh.) They then ra-
tionally advised the Vice-Warden to revoke his plea, and throw
himself on the mercy of a Jury, in the Sheriff's Court. There was
eine very peculiarileauty in the construction of this Cornish Court.
They had been already told who were the Warden and Vice.
Warden, but the Suretavywas an attorney of the nameof Edwards,
who was also a respectable mar, and who indeed acted as the judge,
'the assessor, the expounder of the law fur the Staunarics. Mr.

THE BRITISH PRESS.

Vision, the Vice-Wanda', was a very respectable country gentle-
man, but no lawyer, nor could anybody expect him to know more
of law than the lead did. Of that lead be was an excellent judge,
for by it he made his gold ; hot law had he none. The Court, how-
ever, adjudicated upon matters of law ; but how did it proceed ?
‘Vhy, Mr. Edwards, the attorneyi. nodded his head, and said,
" this is the law." iVell, Mr. Vivian nodded his head in assent-
ing response, and forth came the injunction, the decree, the order
of sale, and all the other machinery for the speedy conversion of
property. The constitution of the Court was first odd ; the juris-
diction of it assumed odd: but then the drollest thing of all remained
to be told, which was, that Mr. Edwards practised professionally in
this Court. and had the heavy duty imposed on him of taxing his
own costs. (A laugh.) And why not ? Ile best knew the value
of his own labours, and the rare at which he thought they
ought to be estimated. And this opened a famous field of
action, in a Court in which the party suing out process not only
acted for himself but for the whole world at large. The qui
tam plaintiff could sue for the Crown, but the Stannary man
distanced him hollow in the compendious sphere of his opera-
tion. So much for the Court—now as to the malice of the par-
ties who had injured the plaintiff. There was for a long time a
strange prejudice in the county of Cornwall against
.fin s—
not Frenchmen, whom their ancestors called mounseo s ; but
they designated as foreigners all persons horn out of their county,
so that to the Cornish man the Somerretshireman was a foreigner.
Suppose the men of Northumberland (of whom the plaintiff was I
one) were to catch a Cornish miner near their works and say to him
" Now we have you here in the North, we shall speedily dispute
of you ;" why Cornwall would say, " llow can you ? it is we„ not
you, that have the Stannary." Northumberland might reply, " We
too have our Stanni.ry for overwhelming a man." ' and exemplify
the fact by pitching him headforemost down one of their coal-pits.
He admitted that to suppose such an act would be more cruel, but
not less illegal, than the plan of ruin under cover of assumed law,
which was acted upcn by the Cornish men in this, process of
their Stannary. The Learned Gentleman then recurred to the
particulars of the plaintiff's case. It appeared that in April
1822 Mr. Hall was processed for two debts by persons named
Heath and Robins, of thirty.three pounds and twenty-five pounds
each ; for these debts, execution was eventually had upon his pro-
perty, though all along he protested against the jurisdiction of the
Court of Stannnari-s ; his mines were locked up, his mills stop-
ped, his works broken-down and injured, and sold for little or
nothing, although there was enough to have sold for a much
larger sum than the claim left untouched. And in this state
had his property been withheld and withdrawn from him
from April 11,'22 to the December of that year. During this dila-
pidation of his property he had still his clerks unemployed, as they
were to maintain, while his mines were filling with water through
neglect ; indeed, one of his men was really drowned.
The COMMON SE RGEAN T—ln your schedule of damages you
have made no charge for the drowned man.
Mr. BR OVOITA m admitted there was no charge made, but there
might possibly have arisen a charge of murder, if loss of life had
attended this illegal proceeding. He implored the Jury to take
this peculiar injury of the plaintiff into their consideration, and
award such damages as would prevent a recurrence of a similar out-
rage on the part of any assumed authority of petty jurisdiction.
Documentary evidence was first put in, containing a series of
admissions of the parties in the cause, relating to the duties of is-
suing the processes, the names and authorities under which they
paosed, &c.
Several witnesses then proved the execution and sale of the goods ;
the protest against both, and a counter-protest made by the auc-
tioneer, as well as the nature of the mining machinery seized, and
the prices paid for it.
William Knight was clerk to the plaintiff at the time of the sale.
He heard one of the defendants say that the mi e was a good one,
and if he had money to work it he could make enough by it to ride
in his carriage. Several persons had debts due to them from the
mine. The mine stopped working after the first of May, in conse-
nuence of the injunction.
William Pcncrease, agent to the plaintiff, stated that the mine,
if profitably conducted, would produce a clear profit of 6901. per
month, by employing 120 men.
Mr. CliilCoCli. a solicitor, of Cornwall, stated, that it was the
practice of the Vice-Warden's Court to grant injunctions, and or-
der the sale of mining machinery and stock fur the payment of
debts.

This was the plaintiff's case.
Mr. De WMA sr addressed the Jury for the defendants. It was a
case which required that compensation should be made to the plain-
tiff for the loss he had sustained ; but he had not proved that he
had sustained any loss by not working a mine which might have
entailed on him a heavy loss. Mr. Hall represented himself by
his Counsel as a man of wealth ; why did he rot pay his mason
and his blacksmith, which would have prevented all the present
proceeding!? Mr. Hall purchased the mine in 1120, and an 1822
he was beginning to work it with fourteen men, not one of whom
was called to prove what sort of ore lie got, or whether the mine
was likely to leave a profit or a loss. If there was any profit, the
books of the party would be produced. The witness Pencreane, in
the warmth of his imagination, stated the profit that might be made
at six hundred and ninety pounds a month, but he was obliged to
admit that nothing had been made, nor waathere any evidence that
he could have worked the mine to any advantage during the time
die plaintiff was in possession. It was' the established custom in
Cornwall to sell the tr.,rterials of mines for the payment of debts
incurred in working them; and the defendants had no notion that
they were exceeding the law when they made the sale. They only
wished to receive payment of their debt, and had Mr. Hall paid
them, the proceedings would have been instantly stopped. He la-
mented that the plea of justification hail been withdrawn from the
record, as he conceived it could be well supported by the custom
and the facts. At all events, nothing more was necessary to get rid
of all the inconvenience, but that Mr. Hall should pay his debts.
Two days before the sale, indeed, he offered to pay the two credit-
ors who had commenced the proceedings ; but then it was impos.
aible to restore nim the property. unless he paid all who had then
proved debts against the mine. The action was an e•.periment on
the credulity of the Jury, in the expectation that a greater profit
might be made of the mine in that room, than even could be made
of at in Cornwall.

The Under• Sheriff charged the Jury, that as there was no evi-
dence of any malicious intention on the part of the defendants, they
were only called on to remunerate the plaintiff for the actual loss he
had sustained.

The Jury retired for a short time, and returned a verdict—Da•
mages, Nine Hundred Pounds.

FROM SATURDAY A' IG 117 'S GAZETTE.

Whitehall, May 11, 1825.
The King has been pleased to direct letters patent to be palmed
under the Great Seal of that part of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, called Ireland. granting to the Right lion.
Sir Benjamin Bloomfield, Knight Grand Cross of the Most lion.
Order of the Bath, and to the heirs male of his body lawfully
begotten, the dignity of a Baron of that part of the said United
Kingdom called Ireland, by the name, style, and title of Baron
Bloomfield, of Oakhampton and Redwood, in the county of
Tipperary.
Crown-Orifice, May 14, 1825.