The National Register.
London, England, 1811-01-20 00:00:00

TIIE NATIONAL REGISTER.

NALTRCAL LNTELLIGENCE.

GALLANT ACTION.
The Cumberland, Willarn Barrett, master, from Quebec
to London, was attacked on Sunday morning, between Folke-
stone and Dover, by four French privateers. The first that
cone up with her, hailed to know if he wanted a pilmedot Capt.
it having suspicion pf her, replied in the negative' • imiately
after another privateer ordered him to lay back his mainyard,
and the wholoof them commenced a fire of musketry, and two
of them ran alongside and boarded the Cumberland, previous to
which the Captain had ordered all the ship's crew into the cabin ;
they being armed with their boarding pikes, as soon as about
9.0 men came on board, the Captain ordered the ship to be
sheered off from the privateers, leaving the Frenchmen no good .
retreat ; il:nd on the ship being boarded, the privateer ceased
bring: i i the mean time the ship's company rushed forward
t
and etc fed the deck; the greater part of the boarders being
killed, and the remainder jumped overboard. Immediately
after mother came alongside, and told the Captain they would
give 110 quarts; on hearing this, the ship's company cheered
them', and they were boarded and cleared in like mariner. This
was repeated three times afterwards, with the like glorious
success on the part of ;he ship's crew, and their taking three
.priseners, two of whom were wounde:l, and one has since died
of his weunds. Immediately after this Capt. Barrett discharged
three of his cerronades, loaded with ronnd and cannister shot ;
the first Vr-4S seen to cart' away the: rook: mast of one of the pri-
vateers, and the second carried away the bowsprit of another,
and it was supposed destroyed many of the men, as they were
heard to cry out, and the shots were heard to strike the vesseL—
Thcy then made oft, and the Cumberland proceeded for the
Downs. We are sorry to fey, Mr. Coward, Chief Mate, is
wounded isathe :.houlder, and that one man on board the Cum-
berland has died of his wcatels. The loss on the part of the
ersetry is supposee. to be nearly 60. Caetein B. kil!ed three him-
self, one of evl ich he v. 4:. oLiig: d to put his foot on to extricate
his pike. 'This is flii.t °sett to to the most gallant defence made
by any rnerdetnt. ship dt.r the war ;as ner crew consisted
r
only of 26 men, aed those of the erivateers, according to the
prisoner's s.:-I.iLeilt, tc CIO mete—. ['he Lords of the Admiralty
have beer ph eeed lo treeress te t):a. Committee for maeaging the
affairs at Lloyd's, th::ir Lerdelties' satisfaction at the gallantry
exhibited on this ere asion, and their intention to grant to each
eat the crew cf the Cm-a:Tulsa, as a mark of their Lordships
favour, a prottc.i(.a tteru the impress for the space of three
years.
—_

upon having his pudding, and proceeded to break op the seals.
On opening the overt it was found, that his pudding was at the
back, and that many dishes must be removed before the identi-
cal one could be come at. The owners of the different dishes
taking advantage of this circumstance, ran away with their pro..
perty. The breach of the order of e Priest will be brought
before the heads of the Synagogue.
•

LAW REPORT S.

COURT OF KING'S BENCH, GUILDHALL, JAN. 16

DEFAMATION 4
LEMAITRE V. JACKS.
Mr. TERRY opened the prosecution on the part of the plaintiff.
This was an action for certain slanderous and malicious words,
tending to destroy the reputation of the plaintiff ; and the re-
cord contained a variety of counts, the first of **whist' was, that
in a certain conversation or colloquy of and concerning the cha-
racter of Sir F. Burdett, the defendant, Jacks, had said, " What
opinion could he formed of Sir F. Burdett, who had associated
with convicted traitors, such as Despard, Lemaitre, ere O'Con-
nor," thereby representing the plaintiff as a convicted traitor.
There were other counts ; and the 6th and last of them was, that
in the said colloquy the dfendant had represented the plaintiff
as a traitor.
Mr. GARROW then addressed the Jury on the part of the
plaintiff. For the last ten years of his life, his client's character
had been perfectly unexceptionable ; he was a citizen • of Lou..
cion, the master of a family, in a respectable way of business,
and had gone through various offices to which he had been
called, with great credit and decorum. With regard to the earlier
part of the plaintiff's life, he had nothing to conceal: at the age
of eighteeen, he bad joined societies, some of the members of
which were engaged in the pursuit of Reform in Parliament,
while others of them, perhaps, were actuated by the worst of
purpose's. In those feverish times when the Legislature in their
wisdom thought fit to suspen4 the Habeas Corpus Act, his
client was imprisoned on suspicion of disloyalty. He then went
through a long course of cruel suffering, the corporeal effects of
which he felt tothis day, and from which he was never likely
to completely recover. Both the accuser and the accusation
were concealed ; and when brought to the :bar. .to tyke his trial,
the Attot ney-General of that day said, that he had no evidence
to adduce against him. After so many years had expired, after
the indiscretions of youth, if any there were, had been forgotten,
Mr. Jacks; in a public assembly of the Common Council of the
City of London, had gone out. of his way to attack Mr. Le-
maitre, and without the smallest provocation had publi hed of
him the foulest falsehood and the most abominable calumily.
His client having learned the charge, very naturally applied for
some explanation or apology ; which surely any man of a well-
regulated mind would have been forward to give. What atone-
ment did Mr. Jacks make? He left with his partner in busines-
the following written answer to 'Mr. Lemaitre's application s
4 I have spoken with several of my friends who were present:
none of whom recollect the words you ascribe to me; and se,
eoral of them have. no recollection of your name being mn-
tioned, at all, nor was it noticed next day in any of the nes-
papers.' Mr. Jacks did not venture to say that he had not used
the expressions; and it should be prove( that he had actually
used them, and that numbers cried out shanty .1 shame ! oil
the occasion. The letter went on to state, ' that he apprehends
that, as a member of the Common Council, he had a right to
state his opinions on public measures, and also on men whose
conduct had come forward to public view.' Mr. Jacks seemed
to thiuk, that he might say all sorts of things of all sorts of men ;
but his Lordship and the Jury would that day teach hitn a very
different &striae. The letter went on to add, 64 Having this
privilege, I feel no .disposition to apologise to you for any sen-
timent uttered by my me in the course of my public duty." Was
it, then, the high privilege of the Court of Common Council, ill
the opinion of this Member of it, to ruin the reputation of any
man whom lie pleased to attack ? On receiving this answer,
Mr. Lemaitre felt himself compelled to have recourse to a Coen
of Justice. He himself, and his wife. and children, bad lived
for years without suspicion and without reproach. He .knew
that in his Lordship he should always. find the protector of
character, and that a loyal Jury would fully appreciate the value
of reputation.
Mr. GARROW then proceeded to call the witnesses.
Mr. Samuel Miller was then called and examined. Knows
the plaintiff for the last ten years. Recollects being at a meet-
ing of the Common Council early in June last, upon the subject
cf Parliamentary Refor:n. Mr. Quin spoke, as did Mr. Jacks.
Recollects a passage in Mr. Jacks' speech injurious to the characa-
ter of the pla.ntiff : has a perfect recollection of the plaintiff: hl
a perfect recollection of the passage, and states it to be as fol-
cows ; 14 Wag. 02illiCell can be formed of Sir Francis *Burdett*