The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1826-02-16 00:00:00

COURT OF EXCLIEQLTCR, WEDNESDAY, FEa. 15.

THE RIRG HUDSON.
This was a proceeding arising from the forfeiture of a large quan-
tity of wheat flour (between 1400 and 1500 sacks) from Mr. Hod-
Son, an opulent corn-factor residing at Hull. This was the case
alluded to in some proceedings which toolt. place at the Mansion
House some time since.
The ATTORNEY.GENE nal. stated, that by the Corn Laws persons
were allowed.to import foreign wheat, and while British wheat was
at a certain price to deposit it under bond in such warehouses,under
the care of his Majesty's Officers of the Customs as they thought
proper. barge quantities had been deposited in his lltajesty's
warehouses, when the owners, as a matter of indulgence, were per-
mined by the Legislatute to take out any portion of it, on the con-
dition that an equivalent quantity of the best fine wheaten flour
Jhouhl be substituted or sent in for every five bushels taken out.
It' flour of an inferior quality were sent in:it was liable toforfelture..
Now, Gentlemen, that there might be no dispute, no litigation, and
no understanding the Act, it declares expressly that the flour
returned shall be of the best quality of fine wheaten flour.
Air. Baron tiannow—You mean " no in'sanderstanding," Mr.
Attorney -General.
Mr. Itunuctiast—My Lord, he is perfectly correct.
The ATTORNLY.UENMIAL in conclusion said, that the sole
point, disentangled of every other, for the Jury to try was, whether
this floor was of the quality required by the Act.
The first witness called was Mr. James month, the warehouse-
keeper for bonded customs at the port of Hull. Ile proved the fact
of Mr. Hudson having sent in a requisition for the delivery of a
quantity of wheat to be ground into flour under the regulations of
the Corn bats. This quantitywas delivered, and an equivalent
quantity was returned.
Cross-examined by Mr. Bnounnam—The lockers, who were
witness's assistants, had access to this flour in the warehouse.
Mr. SuF.PittEltD objected to this course of examination, since,
by the nature of the pleadings, the identity of the flour was ad-
mitted, as, if it was intended to soy that the flour was adulterated
by those in whose custody it was placed, a different course should
have been adopted.
Mr. Baron GARROW held the course taken by Mr. Brougham
to be good. Nothing could be more unjust than to preclude the
defendant from showing that this was not his flour ; that something
had been introduced since his delivery of it, and that no fraud was
imputable to him.
Cruse-examination continued—One of the lockers, a labouring
man, was convicted of taking a quantity of wheat out of the ware-
house a short time since. It was, however, but a trifling quantity,
a pocket-full.
Re-examined—lt was impracticable fur the lockers to take a con-
siderable quantity. The whole was lodged in a warehouse, to
which access could not be had, either by the witness or his men,
without their being under the inspection of the defendant and his
men.
Three witnesses were called to
.prove that the flour returned by
the defendant was of the most inferior quality. One of them, named
Rayner, said his wife made bread of a sample, and it was sour and
so bad in colour and taste that he must have been reduced nearly to
starvation before he could venture to have eaten it.
A miller deposed that it was worse by 30s. in price than fine
flour, which then sold at 50s. He did not think the flour in the
warehouse was worth more than Is. per stone.
The third whiles*, a baker, represented it as such vile trash that
he should have been ashamed to supply his customers with any-
thing of the kind.
Mr. Curtis, the biscuit baker of Wapping, deposed that in his
opinion the flour was neither of' the fineness nor condition required
by the Act. It was of such a low quality, that he hardly knew of
any purpose to which it could have been applied. The price of
fine wheat flour was now Otis. per quarter. He hardly considered
the beat of this worth more than 15s.
Mr. Richard Clarke deposed that he was Galenical Operator to
the Apothecaries' Company. In December 1824, witness went to
Hull, and took 1462 samples from so many sacks pointed out to
him by Slr. Rayner. They were fairly taken, and between that
time and the end of May he analyzed it. Sever..eightlts of it he
supposed to consist of the component parts of wheat flour. The
residue he believed to be chiefly bean Sour. One part consisted of
a black chaff; which he considered to be the chaff of buck wheat.
There were shades of difference in the quality, but none of it was
of the description of floe wheaten flour. He had made some bread
of it, which was bad, brown, and heavy.
Cross-examined by Mr. BROUGHAM.—Witness examined each
of the samples by a separate examination. He had a particular
test by which be distinguished wheat flour from beau flour.
Mr. BROUGHAM—I want to know what this test is ?—Mr.
Clarke. I must be excused from stating it.
Mr. BROUGHAM—it is a secret then ?—Mr. Clarke. I can't
say that it is; other persons may know it; perhaps every chymist
in town know. it.
Sir. limo non m—Then you do not think proper to disclose this
secret, which is in so much the better keeping, as it is known per-
haps; to a great number ?—No answer.
Mr. BROUGHAM—Conie, Sir, tell us what are the component
parts of bean flour. ?—Alr. Clarke. I don't know any thing about
the component parasol bean flour; but when it is mixed with wheat
flour, I can instantly detect It.
Sir. BROUGHAM—What are the component parts of wheat
flour?—Mr. Clarke. Gluten, mucilage, starch, saccharine matter,
and a small portion of ailex.
Mr. BROUGHAM—Now really, Sir, are there not gluten and
idle: in beau flour. ? —Mr. Clarke. I don't know : I ant perfectly
ignorant with respect to bean flour. There are twenty-six kinds of
bean flour, and 1 have never examined the flour produced from
them.
Mr. BROUGHAM—How long may you have been Galenical
Operator to' the Worshipful Company of Apothecaries?-11r. C.
About ten years.
Mr. Buovonase—How long have you been in possession of
this Pythagorean secret about beans, which consists of whet you
know nothmg whatever shout ?—Mr. Clarke, I have given my
particular attention to the analyses of flour a considerable time, and
for the last five years I have been in the habit of analyzing all por-
tions of flour except bean flour.
Mr. Boot:GRAM-1e there any process in chymistty by which a
liquid will distant. fa separate ail the component parts of any ye-
getable, withoutaffecting any of the component parts of another ?
Mr. Clarke. I cannot answer that question.
Mr. BROUGHAM—Do you know any body who is in possession
of this secret of yours, beside yourself ?—Mr. C. 1 do not.
A number of witnesses, Mr. Curtis, Mr. Hayes, Alr. Green, Mr.
Courteis, spoke to the samples which Mr. C. had tried, and de.
elated that as they did not come by any means within the descrip.
tion of' the Act, neither age nor bad keeping would make tine Hour
into coarse, such as this was ; they might change good fine flour
into sour.
Mr. Clarke aria then recalled, at the request of the defendant's

Counsel.
Mr. BROVORAN—Did you never represent that there has
been plaster of Paris, and lime, and hone dust, round in this
flour ?—Mr. Clarke. I never said any thing of the kind. I have
heard of something of the kind.
Mr. BBOCSlllaSt—llid you state any thing of the kind at the
Mansion Bowe before the Lord Mayor ?—Mr. Clarke. Not with
respect to this flour. I nerer made such a charge. I did say that
plaster of Paris had been found in other floor. I hare some flour
now with stones in it. The Editors said—
The ATT oaximt; CV gIIAL—We cannot enter into an exami-
nation of what editors of newspapers a what police reporters way
base said.
This was the case for the Crown.
Mr. BROM:MAX said, the last question he put to Mr.
Clarke was of the greatest importance to his client, as it
had been alleged, openly and publicly, that he
_had mixed
„
and M' • him

particles which he thought were of bean flour, and the other who
fancied that this ruined flour had the flavour of beans in it,
ventured a whisper in confirmation of such a charge. Ile (Mr.
Brougham) did not mean to question the veracity of Mr. Clarke,
who doubles. was as confident of what he saw as that he was the
Galenical operator; but he distinctly meant to question his judg-
ment in this case. The component parts of bean flour were
similar to those of wheat flour, though varying in the proportions.
In one as well as the other would be found gluten and =til-
lage, and perhaps silex ; and it was a thing morally and physi-
call), impossible to be as Alr. Clarke had stated it, that a liquid
might be found which would affect the flour of wlica', without af-
fecting the flour of beans. He was the only scientific man in
this scientific metropolis that could be found to state such a thing,
and that was the reason he was the only chymist called by the
Excise. The Learned Counsel said he did not mean to say that
any of the Revenue laws Were free from objections; he did not
mean to contend that some of them were overloaded with oppres-
sive regulations and absurdities; bbt he did mean to say, that this
Act was one of the most obnoxious and prejudicial Acts in the
statute book. The Learned Counsel said he hoped he should be
able to prove that the flour sent in by Mr. Hudson was of the
first quality relatively to that county, for such an absurdity could
never have been contemplated, that the flour required was to be
the whitest, the purest, and best which the squeamish taste of
this metropolis required. lie should prove that it was the hest
quality, when it went in for the county of York ; that it was dete-
riorated by being kept in a bad warehouse; he should prove that
it was pure in Its. ituality, and he hoped he should be able to
rescue the character of Mr. Hudson, which had been so infamously
aspersed.
A great number of witnesses, chiefly Mr. Hudson's men, were
then called, who swore, that in no stage of the process was any
beans, or any thing of the kind, introduced. They had never
known of such a thing. One of the witnesses admitted that the
value of the flour sent in was 41i. when the price of the best fine
wheat was 555. and 61 s. the quarter in the country. One witness
swore that he had made puddings of it, and never would wish to
,„,st better flour, when it was sect in. Another attributed Ike dete-
'haration of the quality of the flour to the bad warehousing.
The A TTORI4 LY•OENERAI. said he meant to impute nothing
of the nature of fraud to Mr. Hudson. lie did not know but that
lie might have purchased it. The Jury had nothing to do with
the consequences of their verdict in any way. The simple question
was, whether this flour was of the finest quality, and the defendant's
own witness had proved that it was not.
The Jury without any hesitation found a verdict for the
Clown.

lIIGII COURT OF ADMIRALTY, WEDsesDAY, FED. 15.

THE TRINIDAD WEST INDIA MAN.
This cause was heard by Lord STOWELL, assisted by two of the
Brethren of the Trinity }louse.
Dr. JEWNER, in behalf the salvors of this vessel, which had
been exposed to great dinner orshipwreck on the 21st of December,
by running aground on the Skier Sands, near the coast of Gla-
morganshire, briefly stated, that the claims of Jones and the other
salvors (seven in number) were for services rendered to the Trinidad
on that occasion. The vessel, which was bound from the island of
Trinidad to Glasgow, having run aground, hoisted • signal of
distress ; on observing which, the claimants immediately put off
from shore in a boat; and it was by their assistance that the vessel
was afterwards navigated and finally saved. The Master, himself,
admitted that he was so ignorant of his situation at the time of his
running aground, that he had mistaken the coast off which his
vessel then was for the coast of Ireland. The weather had been so
hazy for three days, that he had not been able to make a single ob-
servation to ascertain his position. Ile had quitted his course, had
mistaken the time, and completely lost his reckoning. At the
name time he was so ignorant of the navigation of the Bristol Chan-
nel, in which he admitted that lie had never before been, that the
vessel must inevitably have perished without the assistance of the
present salvors. In ease the Trinidad had been lost, property to
the amount of more than 17,000 f. would, by the admission of the
owners themselves, have been entirely destroyed. In return for
this service, a tender bad been made to Jones and his companions.
of a sum of 11101., a sum which the Learned Doctor contended to
be totally inadequate as a compensation for the salvage of such
valuable property.
Dr. LusnINGTOX appeared. in behalf of the owners of the ves.
set. There would be a very considerable difference in the facts as
stated on the one side from what would be brought forward on the
other. It is true that the vessel had struck upon the sands ; but it
must be remembered that she had got off before the boat reached
her. Ske was then Is+ g-to, and was not at the time considered as
in any danger. The boat from the village on the coast of Glamor.
ganshire did not reach her till between acne and ten o'clock. Jones
was no regular pilot, but said he would undertake to pilot her out'
of the situation in which she was then placed, and be did accord.
ingly pilot her a part of the way. At two o'clock a regular pilot
came on board, who took charge of the vessel, as he was entitled i
to do; an that the whole time that Jones was employed was floral
five or six o'clock in the morning, when the signal of distress was
first perceived on shore, till two in the afternoon, when he resigned
the charge of the vessel to the regular pilot. There was no danger
whatever at that period. Though the master had never been in the,
Bristol Channel, he knew where he was, being perfectly convinced
by the nature of phe bottom, indicated by the matter that adhered i
to the lead hi sounding, that he must be in that neighbourhood ;
he had examined his charts at the time when the alleged salvors
came on board, and was no longer in any doubt on the subject.
Under these circumstance*, it was submitted that 100!. was a pretty
ample compensation for all the assistance that had been rendered
on the occasion.
Affidavits were then read in confirmation of the4different state.
meats on both aides. The water in the held, on one side, was said
to have been three feet; on the other, to have never reached two.
Dr. JEXNER again addressed the Court. Heobserved that the
nature of the bottom must be a very poor criterion for the master
to ascertain his situation. The distance between the village and the
sands on which the vessel had struck, which was only seven miles,
compared with the time which the boat's crew had found necessary
to reach the vessel, was a pretty clear proof that the service was not
attended with so little danger as it had been attempted-to insinuate.
It was true that the vessel had floated off, and was said to have been
under easy sail within the sands. Her situation at this period was
one which every nautical man knows to be the most intricate and
dangerous in the Channel. The gentlemen who sat by his Lordship
would judge if it were probable that the vessel should be standing
under easy sail in a severe gale, and with the tide running in shore.
The master must have been entirely ignorant of the danger which
surrounded him. He was far mare likely to have been drifting to-
wards these sands, as the pilot asserts. His Lordship would not
consider the mere time cf the salvoes' employment, but would have
a due regard to the encouragement which it was necessary to give•
to persons who ventured their lives in such circumstances, panicu.
larly as this was frequently dote in cases where little property was:
concerned. In a case where there was so large a fund to support the
expense, it was an imperative duty to reward them proportionately.
The sum demanded (4000 he therefore considered as by no mean/
a disproportionate compensation.
1)r. LosnisoTON replied that the time which elapsed between
the setting out and the arrival of the boat at the sands was no very
clear proof of danger, and it was not in fact exactly correct. It
was not the setting out of the boat at five or six o'clock in the morn-
ing that was sworn to ; it was sworn that the signal of discreet was
seen from the shore at five or six o'clock in the morning. But
Junes had to collect his six associates, and to prepare to launch the
boat. A considerable time must have been spent in these prelimi-
nary objects. The nature of the bottom had, in all the nautical
books which the Learned Gentleman had ever looked into, been al-
ways considered as some criterion to judge by, however uncertain
it might be; but the gentlemen who assisted his Lordship were
much better qualified than he to determine that point. It might
be so at sea ; he had not been there often enough to know from his
own experience that it was not the case; but it was not very usual,
on land to see foggy weather and a gale at the same tittle. Not.
withstanding all the fug the, signal of distress had been distinctly
seen on shore, so that even thing* that had been sworn to must, in
this case, be taken with grains or allowance. It should also be re-
collected that the boat was not the property of Jones, but a life-
boat which had been built by subscription Rome years before.
hoed STOWELL, after consulting with theßrethren of the Trinity
House, pronounced his decision.--.that PAL was, under all the cir.
'instances of the case, a sufficient compensation.
REG UL AT ION S RESPECTING SLAVES.
. .

In the ease of an appeal from the Vice-Admiralty Court at
Tortola, the particulars of which are already before our readers,
Dr. Darincxy appeared on behalf of the appellant, and con-
tended that the information against the slave owner had been pro-
perly laid, that there was abundant proof that the 47th of the late
King was violated, by conveying slaves into an Island not under
the dominiou of his Majesty. and that the Court was bound to re-
verse the judgment of the Court below.
Lord &totem. T said that as it was the practice, for domestic ac-
commodation, to allow slave owners to employ their slaves upon
tunnies situated on other leinatis, he would not be the first person
to shut the door, and say that practice was not to be continued.
Ile was aware that the inhabitants of those colonies were subject to
many inconveniences, and he would not give any decision which
would inconveniently affect the local practice. In the case before
the Court, all the circumstances were favourable to the slave owner.
Some of the slaves conveyed from Tortola were children, and all
were returned to the Island. On this part of the question, there-
fore, he would confirm the decree of the Court below, but would
decide that the parties should pay their own costs, and not that all
the cost should hill on the Informant, as decreed by the Court at
Tortola.

MEETINGS OF CREDITORS.
AT Till COURT OF COMMISSIONERS OF BANKRUPTS,
BASINGIIALL-STREET.-TIIII DAY. E.

SECOND MEETINGS.
Banker,llle, J. French Horn. Lambeth-walk, victualler . 10
Comfort, E. Hosier-lane, coffin-furniture-manufacturer - 10
Wood, J. Upper Itanelagh-street, Pimlico, carman . 10
FIRST MEETING.
Wigden, W. late of Whitmore-road, llexton, Middlesex, coal.
merchant 10

CORY EXCIIANGE, WEDNEsciase, FED. 15.
The supplies this week consist of 3,800 quarters of ‘Vheat, 5,700
quarters of Barley, 9,300 quarters of Oats, and 7,900 sacks of
Flour. There were but few sales effected of any article to-day.
Prices much the same as last day.
COAL 3IARKET, Fsa.ls.
Ships at Market. ,yhips Sold.
Newcastle. . 41 . Its Od
1 Bookstand . r 10 • 31s $4

plaster of Paris and bone-dust with his flour. Mr. Clarke,
as woo is be heard of this report, which, if it bad been al-
lowed to go uncontradicted, would have been laud to the
character of Mr. 'lndian, went and denied, by a public
statement, what he now denied upon his oath in a Court of
Justice. Retrain Mr. Clubs dung to a suspicion which was of a
grievous *arum of Mr. Hudson. who was oat of the mat opeicat
and respectable tamers is tire ositatry. The charge which Mr.
Clarke *silenced sou not may that the flatter was uot.of. the cha-
racter of liar lbw. bat was adulterated with buck wheat and bean
flour. AU the other witnesses were accustomed to work or sell
hut awl all, taw pt two, use of whom stand that be saw two