The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1824-05-18 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF TIIE BRITISH PRESS.

Sit —ln consequence of a Bill which is now in progress throsiiii
the House of Commons, intiouled a Bill to amend the al:est.!
Acts for the encouragement or Hanks fur Savings in England aio.i
Ireland," in which there is a clause that affects the intermits u:
Friendly Societies, a general anxiety prevails among the witemliets
of those Institutions. and the following is the copy of • petiate.i
which is bring handed about for signature in great haste, ks NW
having been ordered for Committee to-morrow evening.
" To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom to
Parliament assembled. The humble petition of the several perms
whose names are hereunto subscribed ; _ _

liheweth—" That your petitioners are members of the
Benefit Society, and that by an Act, fill George 111. " far the
further encouragement and protection of ',timidly Societies, sad fur
preventing frauds and abuses therein," the advantages which hag
previously been confined to Banks for Saving!, relative to the ye) -
inent of their funds into the Bank, and receiving interest at the sow
of about 4' per cent. were extended also to Benefit Societies,
" That in consequence of this, many Societies have been esti.,
bhshed, and others altered in their plans, the calculations telteeeof
have been rounded upon the aforesaid rate of interest.
" That under the motet-non of the aforesaid Aete Bens*
Societies have been improving ever since it was passed.
t• That if the advantages held out by. the aforesaid Act be with.
drawn, many Societies will be seriously injured, sad these
security endangered.
" That your petitioners have found, with concern, that • BIM Is
now before your Honourable House, • to amend the several Acts
for the encouragement of Banks for Savings in England sad ht-
land,' containing a clause, which, if pasted into a law, pill de-
prive benefit societies of the aforesaid advantages.
" Your petitioners therefore pray, that so much of the said Rill
as shall relate to the alteration or amendment of the aforesaid Act
fi9 Geo. 111. • for the further encouragement of friendly eeineties.
and for preventing frauds and abuses therein,' nal net peso interns
law. " And your petitioners, Res"
Now, without making any observation as to the expediency of
t such a measure, as regards all societies not at present enrolled, or
all future societies, I would put it :o the justice of the Right Ho.
nourahle proposer of the clause in question, how he can turn r(14111•1
upon those societies', whore, plan, and rules and regulations, ha
been founded upon the faith of an Act of Parliament, withdrai.
the condition, and deprive then' of the promised assistance? I ass
doubtful if the Right llonounible mover has considered the exits's(
of the evil which his contemplated measure will create; and I be;.
permission to inform the numerous members of societies, who may
be ignorant of the tact, that each of them individually, or M.
number of them collectively, may petition the House upon tho.
subject; and that, contrary to the opinion generally entertaineu
bib::working classes, a petition may be written upon papa.
are few Members of Parliament who would refuse to present
a petition upon such an important subject, and it is the duty of
societies to point out the evils of the measure.
I am, Sir, yours, ax.
Y. L

May IS.

A Valenciennes Paper mimes the following cetrious anecdote
A celebrated preacher at Madrid having lately expatiated on tlis
outlining' of the wicked in the next world, ex clair.ted, •' Is it tut
sunniving we should continue to sin ? Oh (Intl ! why aufferest the rt
the wicked and the ungrateful to live ?" In pronouncing/ tlit,e
words, he struck his forehead with greet violence, which the whit
andience imitated; in an instant several thousand slaps on the t:•v
head remanded throughout the church. This fact nay give an lucu
of the stri.kinic effects of the pulpit eloquence in Spain. I la.vot
been an eye-witnevi of this sycopaitic slapping the face is sec nvi
churches in Lisbon, at the Kt low tie isgrizaws (sealant of Iticusy„
es Good Friday,

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11111
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II

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LAW INTELLIGENCE.

'COURT CV KING'S BENCH, MoxoaiT, MAT 17•

_ -ey was not ally a Trustee but the Chairmin of. the Truce- 1
VITS,; that it was the duty of the Trustees to appoint the Treasurer, !
IWO pan his accounts; and that Mr. Sketchley had usually large
' ain his hands. The deponent further suited, that by law it was
bed there should be an annual meeting of the trustees, to pass
'ii
fitessurer's accounts, which were, within thirty days afterwards,
thinunitted to the Clerk of the Peace, for the inspection of
ItaliM :at tCy men
tnafts faor 1823,fee.who fiZnadalrilet bad y
had aeantotabler;
Ned ; a complaint was laid before the Magistrates, who dn-
. II for want of jurisdiction, the penalty being above 54W.
' nit concluded with saying, that it was the firm belief of
Aloponent that Mr. Sketchtey had acted from corrupt motives,
pot causing the table of tolls to be put up. and in not having
ittibual accounts passed and transmitted according to law.
til
was another affidavit, confirming the application to see the
segspta, and the answers given, that they had not been trans.
—W. SCARLETT this day appeared to shew cause against the
Idle." He said he had a very abort answer to make to the affidavit
by. which the rule was obtained. Mr. Sketchley, in his affidavit,
stated, that there was no salary attached to the office of treasurer;
that.he had received no gratuity whatever, that it was not a place
of profit, that he had not sought to obtain it, and that he had sc.
teptW it purely as an honourable employment. He further stated,
that 'he had never acted as chairman on any question relating to
the Amounts, though the compliment had usually been paid him
On other occasions ; that in point of fact, the accounts were kept
14 the clerk of the trustees, and produced at every meeting, and
that lie paid no money but on a warrant signed by seven trustees,
Whllpespect to the annual passing of the accounts, Mr. Sketchley
stat 4. that prior to the last Act, the year's accounts were
=WI*, a January and February ; but at a meeting of the
trustees on the 3d of February, it was resolved that the general
=ail audit should take place in April. By the Act it was pro-
s, " that an annual meeting of the trustees should be held in
Apri or September : and they had conceived therefore that they
ought not to audit the accounts at any earlier period. The ac.
counts of 1822 were audited under the old Act, and the accounts
of ffiffil would have been audited in February, if the new Act had
not passed. Mr. Sketchley was always prepared, and desirous to
pay whatever the trustees had directed him to pay. The large
lan* fn Ida hands was principally lying there for the payment
of the principal and interest of certain bonds which the holden.
did not choose to deliver up. 51r. Sketchley denied that even the
collectors had received more tolls than they were entitled to until be
was tabmena'd as a witness on the complaint before Sir Richard
Bin* On the passing of the new Act a board was put up, ems.
taming die words of the Act. The 3d of George IV. imposed a
toll or half,as much again on carts whose -wheels were beyond a
certain breadth. The next year that prevision was repealed, and
at a Meeting of the trustees a beard was ordered to be put up,
stating that such carts would be exempted from the additional toll,
bur main terms that market-carts were exempted. The trustees had
not the slightest interest in unduly exacting, as the tolls were let
for a number of years on lease, and therefore an imputation of at.
minidity against them, for omitting to put up the board, was
without tiny just foundation. !'hey had not passed the annual ae.
comae till April, and there too the imputation of criminality was
without foundation. There were several affidavits as to the into.
grity and honour of Mr. Sketchley. The office of treasurer was to
him a matter of indifference, except as a mark of respect and can.'
Weser. He had never acted on any question relating to his own
conduct. The Learned Counsel contended therefore that the mule
should be discharged with carts.
Mr. Lawts, on the *me side, argued the absence of all poled.
,Oity of etwomt motive on the pant of Mr. riketchley.
Mr. 1511011011Aac in support of the rule, observed, that his
Learned Friends hail expressed great surprise that he should sitrek
sugar. Sketehley as the object of a criminal information, as if it
' win not most material to select the trustee whose name appeared on
e hoard Chairman.
l fi as
caexterr —Point out where that appears in the affidavits.
Loin CHIET JUSTICE—You say it II natural to Wee;
the iltilavidbelgrbose name appears on every board. In which ail-
&slit la it so Meted P
L ISHQH6tiAii--Certalnly it is not distinctly SO stated, but It
Is a baud was put up by him.
The Loin CILUST jUSTICE—He denies that.
'Mr. °Neoax— tis a matter of common notoriety that turn.
• bond; have the name of the Chairman and another trustee.
he Loan CHIEF JUSTICE—It is not known to me. I have
erne boards, I think, with the name of the clerk of the trustees
nuoirau—lt is not so hefe.
` CII-- --.cr —How dot how that ?
...

pike 6.
The
111101. _
Tts LORD JUSTICE—How doe
Mr. Hitettianasi proceeded. Mr. Sketchley was acting not
mares a bustee but as treasurer, and those two offices were wholly
iacknpatible by. Act of Parliament. His Learned Friend (Mr.
initiatt)had omitted that part of the ease altogether. The holding
of Ogee two offices was coctrary to the express provisions of the
Act.
The LORD Cu lEF JUSTICE—Do the terms- of the Trokibition
y directly to the office of treasurer by name, or generally to any
office of pofit ?
Mr. BROUGH•M—To any office of profit, under which we in.
elude that of treasurer. Mr. Sketchley might have taken it merely
no
an honourable employment, and have received no gratuity or
orlalfy midet it might be an office of profit and advantage within
she Aim Whatever motive Induced -him to accept it, it might
poem locearive, and it might be lucrative though neither salary
nor try were attached to it. He had not sworn that no profit
or followed the office. Ile found heavy sureties, and he
, taMlAlei slat he had sometimes a floating balance of 4,0001. in his
• Lo
IZI‘, itti o CCHIEFJIISTICR—For the infringement of the Act
4 g a trustee fium accepting a place of profit under tie
• net, I see there is a specific penalty of WM
Mr. BROUGUAN.—That is if he take the office after he is ap.
pointed a trusses. The penalty is particular, the prohibition is
'genera, we have no means of punishing the offender but by a
infeentasion. The Learned Counsel argued that Mr.
-dlostehley was interested in exacting the high tolls, because it in.
..:enMesed the balance in his hands.
r.i 1.-41 fr.; Scat LitT.—The balance was always forthcoming.
• • Me, Retooonast.—That we do DOI deny. We do not proceed
I mgribm Mr. Sketckley as an embezzler.
H• the-lionnenizr Just' ICE said, that mpg to the practice
fast COY • criminal information could not be sled unless tiers
;+mta+reaeeanenbie mined to suppose that the act complained of pro-
geed .froes-eonupt motives. The pint for the Court to coossder
iliettwer, m either view.of the matter, what had been mini-,
slltamar'striied, lontldly, la emitting to put up the board, or in de-
- ying for an improper length of time to submit his accounts to the
tier, Mt. Menhir, had acted corruptly. It appeared to the
that neither Mr. bketchley, nor any other trustee, could get
advantage from permitting the lessees to take a higher toll than
melielbught. On that ground the Court could not grant a criminal
feeformatton ageism him alone. With respect to the other point, It
thdthat the trustees had resolved not to audit the accounts
Peril. It was impossible to say that Mr. Ske:chley acted iser.
ropePtin delaying to do what the trustees would not allow hint to
• .41:- There was another point, name*, that he had held the office
administer while he was trustee, and that, as a plate of profit, it
vat within the Act of Parliament. The Act prohibited any person
Isom holding an office of profit before he resigned his trust under a
I=sll of •10111. It had been urged that this did not apply to Mr,
ey. It was not necessary to put a construction on that pro-
e4 iso and If not necessary, it was prudent to abstain, ea the at-
. notion of the Court might be galled to the question again. If it
Aims doubtful whether the penal clause applied to Mr. Sketchley's
elm, the Court could not grant &criminal information, because thav
was a proeeedingto which recourse could not be had, unless he was
'dearly exempt from all other penalties. The Court was of opinion
VW there was an inconsistency in holding the office of treasurer
-while ha remained a trustee, because in the latter capacity he was
into of the persons who ought to pass his own accounts. Whether
It was a place of profit admitted of question. It was probable, that'
in large sums were floating in his hands, it might be a place of
prof tOsirt that depended on the arrangement with his banks % It
lad not appeared that he had made any profit. The Court, there.'
fore,_ought not to grant a criminal information ; yet, as his conduct
washy 110 means trreprehensible, the Court would discharge the
rule, but without costs.
LORD BYRON'S VISION OF JUDGMENT.
KING V. JOSIN HUNT.
moved the judgment of the Court on the
'witted before the Lord Chief-Juctice of a

) late King.
ice said, that as the Court would rii.e
at Nits Prias, he should nut have

4 had been waiting all lam term, and had
moving the Court.
ed between Mr. SCAILETT Ind Mr.
,aa agreed that an early day nest it eek

The Court then role, and Mr. Justice LITTLZDALZ Sit St Nisi
Pr ism

MARE V. HOXPIIRITS.
This was an action to recover compensation in damages for bodily
injuries sustained by the plaintiff in consequence of the negligent ,
, overthrow of the defendant's coach, on which he was an outside .
KENSINGTON ROAD TRUST. passenger.
THE KING P.SAMU EL SEETCHLEY, ESQ. Mr. CoMYN opened the pleadings. 1
last term a rule was obtained by Mr. Brougham, calling upon l, Mr. Grays stated the case. 'The defendant was the proprietor
raXteatatchley, the Chairman and Treasurer of the Trustees of the of a stage running Irons Kilburn to the Bank. fhi the 19:h Sep-
t.iroad, to thew cause why a criminal information should tember, the plaintiff, a respectable surveyor in the Regent's Park,
not Iliad against him, foe not having caused slue notice to be was riding outside the coach, when, through the overdriving and
girds of the repeal of certain tolls. and fax not passing his accounts, . negligence of the defendant's son, who acted as the coachman, the
aslalayteegutred. The application was founded on an affidavit. 1 coach was overact, and the plaintiff severely injured.
by MrAVilliam Cobbett, apolitical notoriety, which stated, that Mr. Swainson, from Somerset (louse, then proved that the de-
by the 34 ile IV., it wars enacted, that the toll on one-horse carts , fondant was the proprietor of the Kilburn stage, No. 4.407.
should be raised from 3d. to 41d. liv a subsequent Act the toll was 1 Ms. Barnard sworn—l am a surgeon. residing in the City-road.
• deduced to 3d. from theist of January 18:13. The increased I was standing at toy own door on the 19th of September. I ()b-
-uil, bowever, was exacted on the Kensington-road till the Ilkh of , served the stage coming on the offiside at the usual pace, which is
( lid, when it was diocontinued, in consequence of a coin- I shamefully quick, endangering every passenger. There was another
Idged by thtdeponent before the Magistrates at Row-street.', coach following on the near.side. When the latter coach came up.
In
the interval a sum of 301. was overcharged weekly. On the Humphries drew across, so as to prevent it from passing. The coo-
2eil September the deponent went to the collectors, and warned sequence was, dia. coming up with so mach velocity, Humphries's
'bent* desist, but they disregarded him. When the case was coach was overthrown. Mr. Mare, who was one of the outside
e Sir R. Birnse,it was found that the tolls were rented by passengers, was on the ground. Ii is ancle was dislocated, and a
- 4 wher7iniatt: leCrlZleldt:ebluievt believed
tcl ibethaanlierewinsior tioa;kvede I:ihner i I=lll htn"lini emredz htisedes. II arfetderuwctitis"eh dislocation
W conveyed withr rum,
home to
an) whereupon , whereuPon Mr. Sketchier, who was subpet:ra'd as • 1 Regent's Park Place. Ile was confined two months neatly. Mr.
bythedtaponent, and sat on the bench; said, I recent- Mare had some medical friends whose assistance I received. Ile
mend Levi to suspend taking the aid." The result of this cam. will never fully recover from the injuries he has suffered.
'Mint ems, that the practice was prevented for the future, but no Cross-examined—l was examined in support of a bill of indict-
remedy TM obtained for the past. The deponent expressed his went preferred by Mr. Mare. The hill was found, hut there was
astonishment to hear this Jew declare that he had conversed with Ino trial. Mr. Mare wits put into the box. but not exaniined. The
Met italsidand Let Viv, and other Members and Clerks of the House case was dropped by direction of Mr. ('chat.
of Cdmmous, as to the provisions of the General Turnpike Act. I Mr. Coke, an outside passenger on the same day, proved that
The east went on to state, that every trustee of a turnpike road i the coach was overthrown through the ncligence of the defendant's
... ud to pot up a table of tolls* which iu this cute had been 1 son who drove it.
7dE; that the treasurership was • place of gook, that Mr. I Mr. SCARLETT for the defence, contended that his client was
!At. tehley - . ___ - ..._ . -.— -_. - he had

the object of a conspiracy among tie stage-owners, because he
established his conveyance direct from Kilburn to the Bank. Some
of his rivals had removed the linch-pin, and that, and not the
negligence of the driver, was the cause of the accident.
Three witnesses were examined to support the defence.
Mr. Justice LITTLEDALE said that the question was whether
the injuries sustained by the plaintiff had arisen from the negligence
of the defetxlant's coachman. If they had so arisen, the plaintiff
was entitled to reasonable damages.
The Jury, after deliberating about a quarter of an hour, found a
verdict for the pl.tintilf—Da.nages 40/

,t MIMI Ut emery e •
TILL LIMO
Mr. ADOLPHUS men move
411eiendant, who was convicted
-libel upon the memory of the
The LORD CatErJurrit
at one o'clock foe the Sittings
• time for this aim.
KT. ADOLPH us said, be hi
rail bed an opportunity of mo•
fame conversation ensued
ADOLPHUS, after which it wi
edeould be Sited.