The National Register.
London, England, 1822-03-10 00:00:00

(LAW INTELLIGENCE.

COURT OF KING'S BENCII.
THURSDAY, MARCH 7.
JACOBS V. ROWLANDS.
This was an action on two bills of exchange, one for
441. 16s. 3,1. the other for 301. 7s. 61. The bills were
drawn by a per,on named English, an apothecary at
Newport, and accepted by the defendant, a widow
woman, catr)ing on the trade of a wharfiliger in the
of Newport. Eliglish had become in-
debted to the plaintiffs. 55111) are (11•0881sts in London,
and the defendant's ton being about to go apprentice to
Eughsli, the defendant accepted the bills in rptestion,
and wade them payable at ')'noon and Co.'s in London.
—oii the bills becoming due they were not paid ; appli-
cation was made to the defendant for payment, when
she said site could not pay, as the acceptance was not
her's but cue of her children's. She could not say which
of thent It vas, it was any utie who was at home at the
time. She, however, acknowledged that her children
111 the habu Of lUf


A witness was now called, who proved the acceptance
to be either the hand-writing of the son of the defendant,
or of one of her daughters, recently dead, but they
wrote so much alike witness could not say which it was.
Mr. Hutchinson suhinitted to his Lordship, that here
was no proof of hand-writing at all. The witness was
only able to say it was the hand-writing of either a son
or a daughter of the defendant's.
The Chief Justice said, here was also the acknow.
ledgments of the defendant, that her children were in
the habit of accepting fur her by her authority, and that
the bills in question were accepted by whichever of her
children were at home, when they were brought for
acceptance.
Verdict for the plaintiff for the amount of the two
bills and interest.

COURT OF COMMON PLEAS.
THURSDAY, MARCH 7.

L1.1311L.....DE BASTOS AND UN. SILVASU. HOOMTEffER.

This was an action brought by the plaintith to rectivvr
damages tur a libel affecting their character as wine-
merchauts.
Sergeant Lens stated the case. The plaintiff 4 he said,
were respectable Portuguese wine-merchants in the city,
and the defendant had been for some time in their
employment as a traveller, to take orders in various
parts of the country. lie sonic time since entered into
the service of another house, and for the purpose of pro-
curing the customers of the plaintill's to deal with his
new employers, he wrote them a circular letter, which
was a libel on the plaintifli of so malignant and treacher.
ens a nature as he was sore the Jury would mark by ex.
emplary ilainAges. The learned Sergeant here read the
letter, as follows _ .

London, 21[h Aug, 1821.

DEAR Sin,—l beg leave to Worm you, that in cutest..
opener of the :created dishonourable and disrespectful con-
duct on tile part of the Put itixtiese clerk, (who acts in the
city for Messrs. de Bastes and Co. who resole in Lisbon),
and t lie initillerent qualities of their wines, I have determined
to separate myself hum such an improper etionexion, and
have joined one of the oldest, and most respectable, and in-
dependent houses in Oporto, unit in this city, (not Yoriu-
geese), in whose honour and probity I can place the fullest
reliance, to execute, with the best quality of wines, the
orders with which I may have the pleasure to be favoured
by you on my next journey, for which purpose I %Manicure
home iu n few days.
Asa very unhandsome occurrence has taken place at
Bristol with one of my oldest friends (Mr. William Cross)
and Bogus, by which he is likely to starer a severe loss,
have to request of you not to accept any bills drawn by
Rastas and Co. or by Richard Lambert and Son, of Bristol,
for the wines which were landed at Plymouth, until l bass
the pleasure to Me you, or you are perfectly couviaced that
the quality will iudemnify you for your acceptance.
1 remain, dear Sir,
Your obedient faithful humble servant,
ALEX. 110OFFSTEFFER.

The learned Sergeant, after reading the letter, said, it
was so far from being true that the defendant had left
the plaintiffs' employment from any part of their trans.
actions being disagreeable to his feelings, that he had
been actually discharged by them, and the other allega.
tions of his letter were equally unfounded ; and even had
they been all true, it would not be a justification of his
conduct.
Five wine-merchants proved their having received
letters from the defendant similar to that read by the
learned Sergeant, but none of them had discontinued
dealing with the plaintiffs in consequence.
There were no witnesses called oil the part of the de.
fembint, and there being no specific damage proved rot
the part of the ',labials, the Jury gave a verdict for din
plain t ffs —Damages 403.