The National Register.
London, England, 1815-02-19 00:00:00

THE NitTrONAL

I?6_

in your opinion, that the rumour of the present Miss Piggy
. is only the story of thirty years ago revived.
In deliberating upon the advantages which might be deri-
ved from the appearance of this strangely deformed person
among us, it at fist occurred to me, that Parson Tozer
might be allowed to pull bristles from her nose, to use in
sewing up boots and shoes for the faithful ; the wearers of
such being esteemed to have as good a passport to the regi-
ons of bliss, and wholly to stand on the same, ooting as the
sealed of Joanna. But to this plan there is more than one
objection,—first, the cruelty of it, and the apprehension of
the terrible squeaks which the fair suffel er would utter on
patting with the honours of her face, when not all the cares
and attentions of Mts. Underwood would be able to soothe
her pain ; and next, the circumstance that the Rev. Mr.
Tozer has left off making shoes, and taken to mending soles ;
so that he may not be quite so dextrous now in the use of his
war-ends as the corns of the faithful would require. Upon
this part of the business, therefore, I am undecided, except
perhaps that she might have been sent to Vienna, to conclude
the protracted negotiations there, as it must be allowed that
she has one of the necessary qualifications for a diplomatist,
!lamely, a long head.
As to the swinish Lothario, who wants to marry her, and
tent a one pound note to a Morning Paper for the insertion
of his advertisement to that effect, I am surprised that he
should suppose such a beauty mty be so obtained. Undoubt-
edly, if he means to have her, he must won her in grunts.
The old proverb says, that old birds are not caught with chaff;
does he think young pigs arc to be caught with paper? NI,
Mr. Editor, my opinion is, that she should be put up to be
grunted for. But fair play is a jewel ;" so here also I ob-
ject to the Saints and Pogroms as competitors. They have
such a habit of grunting in their places of worship duting the
discourses of their preachers, that we plain men who go to
church shall have no chance with them. In the elegant
amusement usual at country wakes, of grinning through a
horse collar fora cocked-bat, men who had practised with
vinegar were always debarred entrance.

SULPHILUS.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.
COURT OF KING'S BENCH, SATURDAY, FEB. Is.

TIIR KING V. THOMAS BOROUGHS•

This was an information filed against the defendant who was for-
merly Purser of his Majesty's ship Rhin, for having forged certain
certificates purporting to be the certificates of Captain M dcolm,
Commander of the Rhine, setting forth that the store-room of the
Rein had been broken open and robbed of cloathing to the value
of 91.P1. and that the defendant was entitled from the Navy Board to
an allowance to that amount. This certificate was laid by the De-
fendant before the Navy Board, but in consequence of some
irregularity, enquiry took place,' when it appeared that no such
robbery had ever 'alien place, or was the signature to the certificate
the hand writing of ,Captain Malcolm in this discovery the present
proceeding was instituted. and the facts being substantiated the
defendant was found Guilty.
lie was afterwards tried and fonnd Guilty on a similar charge.

COURT OF COMMON PLEAS, THURSDAY, FFII. 16.

(Middlesex Sittings after Term)
DITCHBURN V. GOLDSMITH.

This was an action between the inhabitants of Gravesend, upon a
wager laid by the defendant, who wag a preacher of the doctrines of
the late Joanna Sontlicott, of 2001. to 1001. that site would be. deli-
vered of a male child on or before the 14 of November last. Before
Seijesiit Nest could state the plaintiff's ease, Mr. Serjeant Ons-
rw, Icor tI e Lltfrudant, objected on the grounds of isdeceucy and

ludrirronsness that this action ought not to he tried, and cited
Da Cgsta v. Jones (Cowp. 729 ), which was a wager upon the sex of
Chevalier D'Eoit, in whit!' Lord Mansfield held such wagers void as
would " affect the interest or the feelings of a third person; for in-
stance that such woman has committed adultery, or that an unmar-
ried woman has had a bastard. In that case tin defendant's counsel
objected at the trial, that the plaintiff ought not to recover, because
it was a wager upon a question tending to introduce indecent evi-
dence; to this it was answered that the objection was upon the re-
cord, and Lord Mansfield being of that opinion, overruled the objec-
tion ; but afterward., when the case came before the whole Court in
arrest of judgement, his. Lordship said lie was sorry that the answer
given to the objection Wide at the trial " that it appeared upon the
record " had been so hastily given way to by him ; for though the
indecency of evidence is no objection to its being received where it
is necessary to the decision of a civil or triminal right, yet the wit-
nesses should have been told that they might refuse to give evidence
in a case, where two men, by laying a wager concerning a third per-
son, would compel his physicians, relations., and servants, to die.
close what they knew relative to the &object of the learned serjeant,
added, that the subject of the present wager, Joanna Soulbcott, was
a single woman.
Mr Serjeant Best answered, that Lord Mansfield, in the very case
cited, said "a wager whether the next child shall be a boy or a girl
hurts no one ;" and he should be able to prove, that the defendant
had, in one of his public lectures, declared that Joanna Suutbeott
was to be married by proxy, that the child might not be born a bas-
tard.

The Lord Chief Justice (Gibbs) said his difficulty was not whether
the pi e.ent action was maintainable, but whether any Judge had on
that account refused to try a cause.
Mr. Sedeant Onslow and Mr. Comyn, fur the defendant, instanced
Lord Limghbarongh, who in an action upon a wager whethet there
are more ways than 6 of nicking 7 on the dice, allowing 7 to be the
main and If a nick to 7," ordered the cause to be attack out of the
paper; and the whole Court of Common Pleas afterwards refused
leave to restore it (I H. B. 41); and Lord Ellenborimgh, who re-
fused to try au action on a wager on a point of law in which the
patties have no interest, and the whole Court of King's Bench after.
wards agreed in the propriety of such refusal (x Camp. 408).
The Lord Chief Justice stopped further argument by saying that
he would suffer the came to proceed with a view of making au end
of such cases out of mercy to the parties.
Mr. Serjeant Best then stated his cifie and proved by W. Gordon
that the bet was made at Gravesend on the .sth of September last,
aril by Dr. Reece, that Joanna Southcott was never afterwards de-
livered of any child. Upon cross examination by Mr. Serjeant On-
slow, the Doctor said that he had never heard of her having a hus-
band, and that she passed fur a single woman.
The Lord Chief*Justice—Now that the wager involves the ques-
tion of a single woman having a child, I won't proceed with the
cane.

_
Mr. Campbell (with Mr. Scrjeant Best) suggested, that the woman
herself gave out that she was with child, and prophesied that that
child would be a mate, born before the Ist of November. Were she
alive, therefore, she would have no right to complain of her feelings
being hurt.
The Lord Chief Justice.—So I am to try the extent of a woman's
chastity and delicacy in an action upon a wager. I chose to wait
till the tct abet being a single woman came oat. There is a wide
ditti•rence between a wager whether a marrird woman's next child
shall be a boy or a girl, and whether a woman ►hall have a child at
all. Call the next cause.

The counsel then disputed how the present cause slionld be dis-
posed °robe defendant's counsel pressing for a tionsuit, and the plain-
till's proposing to withdraw a juror.
The Lord Chief Justice declined to interfere, saying—" I refuse
to go on"—and nothing was done.

SATURDAY.
CUNDY V. WALTON.
This was an action, brought by Mr. Candy, late proprietor of the
Pantheon, to recover back certain furniture taken under au execu-
tion for rent, on the grounds that no rent was due. The taking of
the tnrnitnre in question was proved ; and Mr. Serjeant Best, for
the defendant, said, nothing remained for him to do but to prove
the rent was owing. This he would do by a letter under the plain.
tars (mil hand writing, and that would settle the question.—. The
Learned Counsel then put in a letter of Mr. Cundy'a, in which.,
after informing his landlord that he had got his licence renewed, he
conchnles, by saying--" I will wait on you with the rent."
The Chiet Justice here interposed, and said this was an acknowp

MB. 19.

~~

, • . - •
Iriiginent of rent being due, the present action could not therefore
hi- sti,tained ; it too much had been taken, the plaintiff had his re-
tinily in another shape.—Plairditr non-suited.

OLD BAILEY.

The Session; commenced on Wednesday, before the Judges Reath
end Dallas and the C►ty Officers.
Jos. Sweet an attorney, was indicted on the charge of maliciously
shooting at Samuel Sewell, with intent to kill.
The prosecutor, who was described by the Counsel to be an ac.
en!Mint, Kent to the house of the irrisoner to collect a debt ot'
; he saw the prisoner, and intermed him him his errand,- that
he had called for a debt due to a Mr. Brodie. The prisoner, after
some conversation, threatened to kick the prosecutor down stairs,
anti he endeavoured to do so, hut failing in the attempt, he aimed
binwell with a n►usquet, when Sew ell fastened himself into a room,
and on endeavouring afterwards to escape down stairs, the prisoner
lira at him. On a question from the Judge, the prosecutor could
not swear the piece was loaded, and the allegations in the indict•
uncut not having been made out, the prisoner was acquitted.
Wm. G►con, Susan his wife, and Sarah Ward, were indicted for
high treason, in feloniously and hrato►inusly colouring blanks, and
thereby making counterfeit money. The male prisoner had been
detected in tittering conoterleit money, which circumstance led to a
knowledge of his residence, although lie gave the officers of justice
a fictions address. On the officers entering the house, which they
effected by scaling come walls, they found the two prisoners therein,
with their hands black as it they had been been at work. They
foam! the materials for colouring, acquafortis, cream of tartar, and
'blacking to give the base coin the appearance of having been in
circulation, beside s shillings, sixpences, dm in an unfinished state.
The proof against Lacon, the man, was detective, as he was absent,
according to evidence, when the prisoners were detected, and con-
suqueialy could not be aiding and abetting in the treason. He was
acquitted. but the two females were found Guilty.—Death.
%I'a►. James was indicted for rarviiihing Lydia Johnstone, a girl 12
years old. The tale of the prosecntiix w►as far from artless, and her
own evidence was such as to prove the act was nut of that violeueo
suffieb.ot to constitute the crime, and the prisoner vias acquitted.

S ATURD AY.
Robert TaN ler. a deaf man, was put to the bar to be tried on an
indictment vliaiging him with ste.ling a feather bed, valued 41. 10e.
Upon moiling, however, it turned Out that lie wart so deaf as not to
he able to hear the indictment read, he could not therefore plead
and was not put on his trial. But was remanded to be dealt with
as his Majesty may advise.
Tian thy Dism-re way capitally convicted of breaking into the
do chin house of Aline Tennant at Bromley, on the 4th of Feb. and
stealing therein a watch and a one pound note, the property of
Martha Soutltwell. The prisoner, it appeared, found means to gain
admission to the parlour where qrs. Southwell was, and presenting a
piqol to her heed demanded her money, she complied with his de-
mand, and gave him a one pound note, this not satisfying him. she
afterwards gave him her watch. lie lived in the neighbourhood, and
was seen to come from the premises.