The Sun.
London, England, 1801-07-13 00:00:00

tad to ?arena the execution of Wills to dispose of
teal estates. It was. a rule which embraced the
most momentous point belonging to those whose ac-
tions- were
,to be canvassed in a Court of Justice,
namely, their Honour. That great Oracle of the
Law advised its Profeisors, when they had to attend
the execution of Wills,- to take with thorn anen'of
. good anoral charaaer. This advice seemed to have •
been followed by the person. who drew the Will.
Here were three persons who were, then at least,
_persons of charaaer, and this must .be,adinitted by
the Defendant in this Cause, because his own Case
depended at least on-the charaaer of :one pf them.
This Witness, Cooperson, at, an aftive and early.
.part of his life, for this was now near sixteen years
ago, when he wrote a good hand, as appeared in the-
Attestation to this Will, had signed a- formal in-
strtunent stating, " that the Testatrix executed this
Will :in, the presence of these three-Witnesses, who
also in her presence, and .in the presence of
.each
_other, signed their names as Witnesses thereto.'!—,
This was what , this Witness signed as the ..most
solemn aft. This was sixteen years ago. The day
of debate on this business was deferred until the -
other Witnesses to this solemn transaaion, were,
by the hand of God,
.removed from this transitory
Jife ; the charaCter of the other two Witnesses was
Attacked by this man, who expeaecl to be believed'
under circumstances, the like to which were, per..
haps, never exhibited-to a Jury. This man, totally
unknown to Mr. Walker, totally unknowing Mr.
Walker, going up the, Hampstead road, is accosted ,
by a men who asks bins if his name is Cooperson ?
He says " yes," and then by a coincidence that
, never happened before, and neyele-will again with-
out a miracle, he happens to, be .the very man whom
Mr, Walker. wanted, in order to prove this,conspi- -
racy- of making a Will. to &prise hind of an estate.
hit Lordship_ said he_ did not know whence iteori,
ginated, but there. was a gigantic villainy .somee
;where. He. lktid no desire to lay any load on. the
reputation of anyetnan,tvithout proof to fasten it ;
but this W,itness was „taken direftly, to the Cham-
bers ofAir. Bromley, the
_Attorney for Mr. Wal-
ker. -What
,was hatched there, or ,whether any
thing was. hatched .there, his:Lordship ,wou:d not
presume to say, but it was a little 9dd, that this
was the first place to which. such a Witness _.was
taken. When a point was doubiful, and opinion
-fluCtuating, it was, always better to have one good
string to .one's bow than three. -bad ones. The
ATTORNY:GENEItAL, not froth want of abilities,
for, they were consummate, but.from necessity,.. and
it was,the necessity and difficulty of a Case that af-
forded-the greatest scope for transc,endantabilities,
put this Case on three grounds :—Either that the
Will was not executed at all "by the. Testatrix,. that
is, that.her wind wasenot assenting. to it, or, , that
she was. intoxicated at the time of the execution,
and, had not sufficient possession
.of. her faculties at
the time of its execution ; or, .that the servant Betty
Budding, had -obtained over. her an undue influence
to the exclusion of her relations, First then, Was
it notexecuted 'on the.clay it bore date ? , Certainly,
that , was not.denied, but it was executed unfairly ;
so said one of the. Witnesses. who attested it. There
'was a time when it was doubtful whether -a man
should he allowed to come into a Court of Justice to
give evidence against the validity of his own aCt,
to invalidate his own testimony, and to Koclainvhis
crap infamy, uponaaa th—to prove as a Witness in one
Case, that he was an infamous Witness in another.
There. had been Jadges. who had said , that they
would not hear such a 'Witness. But there was one
whose name was not to he mentioned bat with
honour, Sir josaata Jetty;., a Judge- of consummate
abilities and unotteetionable integrity, -who, while
Chief Justice, Chester, . had.received the evidence
of the Witnesses to, a Will, who swore against it ;
lie thought it better to receive their evidence and
observe upon it, than to rejea it altogether. - They
swore against the. Will ; , the Will was established
by the Jury, fer they clid not. belieee those Wit.
tmesses who thus peoclainied, their own infamy—
that Will was_ established with the a,pprobation.of
all the intelligent, and honest part of mankinde„
His Lordship here :recited the Case of the Will
of Mr. jolliffe, which was tried at Bar in the.
Court of. ,King's Bench. •The ,Witnesses-,swore
against that , The • Jury 4bund for the
'Will. The; Witnessea_ were afterwards indicted for
Perjury, .convicted, And
.sentenced for transpor-
tildes)); but for some reason, they obtained mercy.
Here were thtee-,Witnesses to the Will, who were,
all, of good cliaraCter-at this time ; of whom a good
charatter had ,been given. *Generally speaking,
where mankind were governed by 'Laws., and the
principles of religion instilled into them, they were
of good charmer, and were to he so taken, .unless
the contrary appeared. None of us came into the
world with had characters, -we: had, all, . good ones
to a &iven time oflife, until by-some act, we migiat
forfeit the good opinion of our neighbours. The
two attesting Witnesses to this Will, Mr. Gale and
Mr. Humphries, were not, this day, in Court, . to
an;wer for themselves, and. to protea their own re-
pu'ation—but they were, this day, in. Court, by
the representation of others—a respetable body of
man. They were, therefore, to be
,considered as .1
Laving made their appearance in that Court, and
declared that the execution of this Will was a fair
-transaction, for so their attestation of the Will in. :1
_dicated, and, it, was fair to conclude, 'they would
have sworn, if they were now , in Court, since re-
,speaable men had said they were very respectable.
•Miserable, indeed, would he the lot of a man, if there
was to he. no-tenderness for his reputation, when he
,departed this life. Still more•miserableWould the
Jury. feel themselves if they thought that their attes-
tation should be attacked by a person who had
_joined them in it, and had survived ,them ; and
_that it was to be taken for granted that. their
charmers were impeachable, because they -were-,
not present .to answer for themselves, and that
upon the testimony of a person who was giving
evidence to shew that that which he did, him.
- self, as a solemn aft, was an impudent and a
wicked., mockery. It would be most enormous,
if the most solemn deeds or instruments were '
to he thus set aside--,41-1-this Will. could not be
supported, his Lordship said, he knew hot tvlio
Could lie upon his pillow after he had made his Will,

1.0 N DON : I' railed
At the Sus.thrlic

SHIP NEWS.

GRAVESEND, JULY 9.

Passed by—the Embden.Packet, Peterson, from Hattbrot.
Sailed the Economy, Peale, for Petersburgh ; Weiriholt,
Scott, for Copenhagen ; Juffrow kJbing, Visser, for Calais ;
Vrow Johanna, —, for Dunkirk; and Faaor, —, for
Stettn.
joi.s ro. Passed by,—the Thomas, Gardner, from St. Se_
bastion's ;, Maria Margretta, Werks,
_from Boulogne ; and
Lucia, Cook, from Boston.
Sailed—the,Anna, Cornigc, for, India ; Margretta, Baker,
for St. Vallery ; Murdock, —, for. Baltimpre; Duckworth,
Thomas, for Martinique ; Cupid, Vickerman ; Flora, Ro-
binson, and Good Intent, , for Petersburgh: