The Sun.
London, England, 1809-12-08 00:00:00

A S??.CIA

CHAMBERS V. BROWN.

This was'an action to recover six different penalties 1
on three transactions on renewals of a bill of ex- i
change for 3001. and on three transactions on re,
newals of a bill of exchange for 3501. in each of
which transactions usurious interest, in the .name of
a premium, commissiOn,-&c.bad been exaCied by a .
person of the name of Launcelot, as agent for
the defendant, from a gentleman of the name of
Sl.idH, who_ had become a bankrupt, :and on Whose
estate the plaintiff, a respectable banker; was the.
assignee. ,
The ATTORNEY GENERAL stated the case on the
part of the Plaintiff. This-was not an attionsimilar.
to those which Juries were. accustomed 'to meet with
the'''hands. of connnon informers. I'he Plaintiff
was a gentleman of the first . respectability, who,
from:tho circumstance of his being assignee. on the
estate of an unfortanate gentleman of the name.
of Slade, had an opportunity of seeing that the
most grievous extortion had . been pradised on
the unfortunate bankrupt in some Money deal-7
ings which he unluckily had with an agent of the:
defendant's, the common mode of their dealingq,
being, that for an indulgence of two months, Mr.
Slade should, besides the lauyful interest, pay to the
defendant_ a premium of ten per, cent. in some in-
sta;ces, and eight per cent. in others, and to the agent
a commission of five per cent. for every two months,
besides two guineas for a warrant of attorney,stamps,
&c. It was from a tonvietion of the truth of this state-
rfient and a just indignation at such an abominable
eXtortion, that the present action was bronght. On
an application to the Lord Chancellor, the proof of
the Defendant's debt, which bad been improvidently
allowed under the commission, was ordered to be
expunged, and the bills 'and warrants of attorney to
be delivered up to the present plaintiff. The defen-
dant bad died within these two, days, but that cir-
cumstance did not prevent the present anion from
proceeding, the cause having stood in the paper from
the first day of the present sittings, and being, there-
fore, to be understood as tried on that day, at which
time the Defendant was alive.

Mr. Slade, uho had formerly been a gentleman
of fortune, which he had lost by some unfortunate
speculations in machinery, and 'who being a con-
/
woes,eur.in pi&ures, 'of which he had a considerable
colleEtion, did, by the advice of his friends, and
among others, of Lord Kionaird, then become a
dealer in pictures, ,prOved the case as stated by the
Attorney-General.' He proved three _different- re-
newals of a bill for 3001. and of a bill for 3501.
by a person of the name, of Launcelot, as. agent
for the defendant, on the first renewal of each of
which there was paid, besides the legal interest, a
premium qt t 01. per cent.. for the defendant, a corn-
mission of 51. per cent. to the agent, two guineas
Idt a warrant of attorney, besides stamps and on the
two after renewals, Si.. per cent. to the defendant,
and the other charges as before; each of.these stx
diflerent.payments being for renewals of two months.
each. •

Mr. JARVIS addressed the Jury for the Defendant,
but adduced no witnesses. 1

After a very distinct Charge by , the Learned
Judge.
The without hesitation, found a verdia for
the plaintiff—Darages.s,Bsol.
Lord Holland, Lord Mahon, and severni other
persons of distinction, sat on the Bench during thi

BANK A OTE:S.

On Tuesday se'nuight, June Lone, a noted
fortune•teller, who lived near Wyebridge turn-
pike, Hereford, and Atine Lane, her daughter,
who went by the name of Overton, were brought
frOm Bristol to Hereford ; and on Wednesday they
underwent an examination before the Mayor of.that
city, on the charge of having issued nptes. belonging
to the Newtown Bonk, Montgomeryshire, iuppoS-
to.hare been Lost at' Worcester.

Anne Lahe, alias Overton, charged with having
passed one of tile above notes to Mrs.,Milward, who
keeps a shop at Wyebridge, Hereford, was first ex,.
amined. She said, that' in the latter end of Fe-
bruary, .or the beginning of March, t 108, she went'
to London, accompanied by her daughter, ,a little
girl about eight years old-; that, at the inn where
they stopped at Onford, the child haying.oecasion
to go into the yard, the mother accompanied her ;
and whilst there, she perceived- nn the floor a kind
of leather pouch,
_folded up and fastened with a
.button, which she .picked up ; but hearing some
person exclaiinst hat the coach- was waiting,. she put
it into her: pocket, Without eNarnin 4,4 its, contents,
and proceeded on her journey. On going to bed
in London the next evening, she opened the pouch,
and found that it contained about 23 or 24 notes,
which she supposed to belong to a bank in Glamor-
ganshire (taking, as she said, Montgomery, in or-
namented letters,. for Glamorganshire, though she
could read and 'write) ; that she expeded to hear
some account of their being lost ; bt'a tailing in that,
she passed some of them the beginning of last sum-
mer. On producing to her some of the notes, she
immediately acknowleged they were the same as those
found at. Oxford; and, at the request of the Mayor,.
she wrote her name on the back of one of the notes
issued by her. She also-stated, that she gave (o her
mother, for the purpose of buying some articles for
the children, the note offered to, and detained by,
Mr. Smyth, mercer, of Heretnrd.

Mr. Titsley, of the NeWtOn Dank, had stated in
his deposition, that the notes were lost the latter end
of April ; whereas it appeared, bv.the,above state-
ment, given by Anne Lane, that She found them two
months before that period.
Mrs. Milward, wife of. Mr. Milward, deposed,
that, in the beginning of last .summer, she received
a blank impression of the above notes from Anne
Lane, who, she then supposed, was the wife Of John
Overton, in payment tor goods, valud ss. and that
she gave the prisoner 15s. in change; that, on
showing the cote to_ , Mr. M.ilWard, her husband,
he immediately pronounced it bad, and desired
her to return it t ) the prisbner; who; when she re-
ceived it back, observed, that "her husbind (mean-
ing Overton) gave it to her out of Its coat-pocket in a
/mistake; that he had many moreof them,, as he
was employed to carry them to the proper place to
he filled up." •

Jane Ljne, the mother, was.chargOd with haying
uttered one of the above notes at the shop of Mr,
Smyth, mercer, Hereford. She acknowledged the
faet, and said she received it of her daughter but
that she afterwards paid for the goods; with a goad
bill Of the &wiz of England, which she received of
one. Reynolds, orGattertop, Herefordshire, who had
come to consult her respeding a horQe that was
stolen. They were.bothcornroited for trial.
The gypsey-woman, entered into r5c0,,,cri5;7.1.1-ie,-; in
the sow of uol.. (whicit was deposited). tot her-ap-
pearance to tive .eiidence against the t.ar?es,
On Thursday, , John Overten„ the Worcester
coachman, was re-examined. After the deposi-
tions were read over to [rim, he denied having any
knoMedge whateVer of the notes in question. He
was also coMmitted, 'on suspition of haVing stolen
the said notes.

When Mr. Tilsley went to Hereford, about a
fortnight ago, !he took with him.the piece of leather.
which was tied to: the trail, • containing part of_ the
notes, whin it Was received at the house of Messrs..
Baxtet' and Lloyd, Ludlow, .having the following
direelion written on it Richard Baxter, Esq.
Ludlow, Shropshire."—John -Owen-, one of the
• Police Officers at Herefurd, took particular care of
this piece ofleather, and, and after indefatigable in-
he discovered that Serjeant Shenton, bey
longing to the Staff' at Hertford, frequently wrote
lettersfoP Overton,

Friday morning Shenton appeared at the Coun-
cil Room, and deposed, that the direelion on the
above piece of leather was his hand-writing, 4nd that
he wrote it about six months ago for Overton, but
for what purpose he did not know.
• The notes were lost the latter end of April, 1808)
and the directions, for the purpose of forwarding to
Ludlow the remaining 1730, were written about six
months ago, but it was not delivered till within' he
last month to the turnpike-man,. near Worcester.
Of the small number of the above notes attempted
to be put into circulation, nearly the whole have
been recovered. Those which'were filled up might
have been detected by the most careless observer;
the hnd-i.vriting being so badly executed as not to
bear the smallest resemblance to
.that of a man of
bu.iness, and several of them wete even proffered
without either number, date,. or signature.' - . •