The Sun.
London, England, 1825-05-16 00:00:00

LAW INTELLIGENCE.

COURT. OF CHANCERY, MAY 14.
nr-AIcz3P)RX 1,4 XU aLAAJORGANSIIIILE CANAL COMPANr,
Thy Wa metioamade by Mr.. HALALD, on the part of Mr.
Blikanore, for the commitment of Mr. Guest, and three others,
to the Fleet Prison,
,for-.a contempt .of the injunctions of the
Court. , It will be reoollected that a motion of this nature was
some time since submitted against the same parties, for a sirni-
larollen4, alleged to have been committed, viz. by deepening
and widening the Olamorganshire Canal, to the injury of the
plaintiff?* property. The motion was than refused, after con-
eiderable argument. Ceunsel were fully heard to-day on both
sides, and various affidavits were read. In the result, his
.Lordship refused the motion as to three of the parties, and re.
served the question with respect. to Mr. Guest, as to whom
"rne Partieu.4nicautuatances were applicable.
.sir RE ent...e.nrohnlr PAGE• TVRNEA. •
The petition presented in this lunacy was on the part of Mr.
COrbet, solicitor, paying .to•have access to Sir ta. P. Turner,
now-confined for debt in the Marshalsea prison.
The Loan Cstzrcri.x.ox thought he had no jurisdiction
to act, the lunatic being in the Mashalsea prinon. He had
been more harassed and perplexed by this case than by any he
ever recollected, and the difficulties which presented themselves
were almost insurmountable. The application now. was by a
Solicitor to hare access to Sir 0. P: Turner. It was well
known that solicitors after Solicitors had had access to him,
and all of them had declined to traverse the inquisition. It
was not in the power of the Court to corn* any man to tra-
verse the inquisition, or to take any step knit, and the parties
were all, placed in the most distressing situation. Ile believed
that a Bill would be brought into Parliament this Session to
.remedy the inconvenience. In the mean time, however, it was
not is . his power to act. He would, however, candidly ac-
knoWledge, that if the leave of the Court. were required to Sir
G. P. Turner to traverse, it would undoubtedly be refused.

---.~--.

SECO:',IDARIEsi OFFICE, 31AF 14.
CORNWALL MINFS.

• MALL, e. vlv ZAN AK D OTH'XaS.
At half-past twelve o'clock this day an inquisition was taken
in this cause, before the Under-Sheriff and a Special Jury, fur
the purpose of ascertaining the amount of damages sueitained
by theplaintiff, in consequence of his mining property in Corn-
wall having been seized, withheld from him, and partly sold,
under' process which beetled-Dot of the Court of Srannary, in that
county, of which the defendant was tht Vice-Warden. Jadg-
, meat was suffered to pass by default. The damages were laid
at 20,060/.
CUttnsel for the plaintiff—Mr. BROUGHAM, Mr. T/NDALL,
and Mr. ABRAHAM ; for the defendant—the COMmoN SEA-
C. AZTS and Mr., P ARKE.
Mr. AWReeseet opened the pleadings. •
Mr. Bit° oattam stated the case. The plaintiff, Mr. Hap,
wasasbe said; a gentleman of great celebrity in mining pursuits
previous to the month of April, 1822,.when. the transaction arose
which led to this inquiry. He belonged originally not to Corn.
wall, but to Northumberland, which the Jury would hereafter
find wes a material ingredient it this case. The principal de-
fendant was also a gentleman of great celebrity, and the father
of Sir Hussey Vivian. He was the Vice-Warden of what was
called the Court of Stannaries, the Warden of which was the
Marquis Hertford. This Court of Stannuries was one of those
Courts of ancient jurisdiction which proceeded by rules of their
,own—rules unknown, indeed diametrically opposite to those of
the Courts of Common Lew, with which the public at large
were fortunately more familiar. Lucky-would it be, if those
persons who looked with so much dissatisfaction at the ancient
loins of trial by jury, and who were so alive to the possible
mistakes of jurors, would just turn their eyes to these Courts
Of local jurisdiction, which were exempt from the public eye,
and taste a little of' the bliss they were so calculated to admi-
nisier. • Such a contrast would, he had no doubt, remove much
of the prejudice in certain high quarters, touching the pos-
.sitle 'Wore of juries. The jurisdiction of this. Vice-Warden
was over all etannitries or. questions . arising out of them--
that was, in plain English, over the concerns of all tin
mines (Stannery was a Latin word meaning Tinnery). Now
this, power did not apply to other 'metals yr minerals, be-
sides tin ; it did not effect Black Jack—(a laugh)—which
was partly copper, and by name vulgarly applied to the
Neble Warden in this county, just as Copper Jack was to his:
lice-Warden. Black Jack had zinc in it, and necessarily some
copper, but no tin. Copper had, however, of late much super.
ceded and diminished the use of tin working in these mines;
but, nevertheless, the Stannary Court contended for a right
over the copper mining as well as the tin. The process of
this.COurt wee very peculiar—first went forth a risen, who said.
the Proprietor of the mine owed him LI.; then oat was issued a
summons for the party to appear is Court ; this Was followed
by an attachment, and then came a decree, which nailed up the
mining property till the Ceurt thoughtproper to decree its sale;
and every body acquainted .with such summary processes of
sale, must know that the produce was uniformly not the most,
but the leasi, which an article could fetch under every possible
disadvantage. But this was not all; the process comprehended
not only the debt of the particular iodividual who sued out the
prociess, but all others generally to whom the party wits or
might be indebted. So that it far exceeded, in the sweep of
its . jurisdiction, the sphere of the Court of Parliament, the
High Court of Chancery (as it was called), and all the other
Courts known in and about Westminster Hall. But odd
enough was all this, when it was his duty to tell the
Jury, that there was not a shadow of foundation for the
assumed jurisdiction of this Court, in the manner in
which it had been. acted on, They had no jurisdiction over
copper-works ; the whole thing was admitted by the defendant
himself to be a trespass, by his suffering judgment to go by de-
fault.. Two years ago he contended he was right, bitten) coming
to town; and consulting the Common Serjeant and Mr. Scarlett,
they laughed at his assumed jurisdiction ; they told him--" 0,
you must keep this law of yours to the Stannaries ; it won't do
in town. We lawyers have had no such law since the timaof
Noah, and we are not instructed before the flood."—(el laugh.)
—They then rationally advised the Vice Warden to revoke his
plea, and throw himself on the mercy of a Jury, in the Sheriff's
Court. There was one very peculiar beauty in the construction
of this Cornish Court. They had been already told who were
the • Warden and Vice-Warden, but the Secretary was an
attorney of the name of Edwards, who' was also a respectable
man, and who indeed acted as the judge, the assessor, The ex-
pounder of the law for die Stannuries. Mr. Vie:an, the Vice-
‘Varden, was a very respectable country gentleman; but no
lawyer, nor could anybody expect -him to know more of law
than the lead did. Of that lead he was an excellent judge,
for by it he made his gold; but law had lie none. The Court,
however,' adjudicated upon matters of law; hut how did it
proceed ? Why, Mr. Edwards' the attorney, nodded his head
arid. said, <<this is the law." Well, Mr. Vivian nodded his
head in assenting respouse, and forth came the injunction, the
decree, the order of sale,. and all the other machinery for the
speedy conversion of property. The constitution of the Court
was first odd ; the jurisdiction of it assumed odd ; but then the
drollest thing of all remained to be told, which was, that Mr.
Edwards practised professionallysin this Court, and had the
heavy duty imposed on him of taxing his own costs.—(a laugh),
--and why not? lie best knew the value of his own labours,
and the rate at which he thought they ought to be estimated.
And tide opened a famous, field of action in
a Court In which
the party suing out process not only acted for himself, but tor
the whole world at large.
_The spa tans plaintiff could sue for
the Crown, but . the Staunary . man distanced him hol-
low in the compendious sphere of his operation. So
much for the Court--now as to themalice of thparties who
had injured the plaintiff. There was fo long thne is
whyycournewel.airlei
seizing& prejudice its the county of Cornwall r
too
—riot Trenchmen, whom their ancestors calleacrii'ist 'fQrel'lcsurt
they designated as foreigner* all person born out -of their
wurssors;
county, so that to the Cornish man the Sornersetshire man was
a foreignsr. Suppose the men of Northumb ' (of whom
were to , catch ithaCovererrirstk Lniner near
the plaintiff waa one)
that\ve
1- their works, and, say to him, " Now we
North, we shall speedily dispose of you ;'
.
and exemplif
say, " How can yon ? it is we, not you,i
would,tat hi
Stan-
nary.' Northumberland might reply,.
noce
factt:tur
Stannery for Overwhelming man;
by pitching him head foremost closet' one ofeheir jag the
s
admitted that to aupposd such- err act would be more mita bu;
not less illegal, than the plan -of ruin undet cover of assumed
law, which was Acted upon by the-Corntsh
then in this 'pr ess'
of ther Stannary. .The Learned llentienerm then re64ied tn°c
particulare of Ate plaintiff-'s•• ease. aPPeared that in
Apt
822, Mr. Hall was processed for two debts by persoi h- -111
Heath and Robing, of thirtysthree pounds and twllent‘ fiedse:
pounds- encli ; for these. detwassexecution was eventualtve-hi-UL
po his property, theugh elong protested against the
jueiSdicticn of the Court of Stannarisa his mines ~Pre locked

up, his mills stnpped, . .
his w ()Ike -In:aken down, e.tic% injured, and • sold for little-Or nothiiii;,elakough•
.there was enough to have
sold for a much larger still:l.omi the claim leftuntauched. And
in this state had his property Veen withheld andwithdrawn from
lilmirom April; 1824 to the December cf that year. During
this dilapidation of his Property he had still his clerks unease..
ployed, as they were to maintain, while his.mines were filing
with water through neglect ; indeed, one of his men was really
&owned.-
'The C0.Mi1.01.1 zsEXtGEArfT—In your schedule of damages
you have Made no clirge fur the drowned man.
Mr. lixoUG,kiaikt admitted there wain() charge made,. but
thereerfikht possiblihave arisen a charge of murder, if loss of
life hiidattended this illegal ,proceeding. He implored the Jury
to take thii peculiar injury of the
,plaintiff into their censidera7
tiOr.i, Arid award Such damages as would prevent a recurrence
of a Similar outrage qn the part al gas assumed, authority of
petty juiiidiction.
DoctiMentao .evidence ..was first /Siln, containing u series
ornillniasiong of t!`k -nil:ties in the cause, relating to the duties
of issuing the processes, the Raines and authorities under which
they passed, &c.
Several witnesses then proved the execution and sale of the
Dods ; the protest against both, and a counter-protest made by
the auctioneer, as well as the nature of the mining machinery
seized, amil the prices paid for it.
William Knight was clerk to the plaintiffs at the time of the
sale. He beard one of the defendants say that the mine was a
good one, and if he had money enough' to work it- he could
make enough by it to ride in his carriage. Several persons had
debts due to them from the mine. The mine stopped working
after the lit ofMay, in consequence of the. injunction. •
Pencrease, agent to the plaintiff, stated that the
mine,. if profitably conducted, would produce a clear profit of
6901. per, mouth, by employing 120 men.
Mr. Chilcock, a solicitor of Cornwall, stated, that it was the,
practice of the Vice-Warden's Court to grant injunctions, and
order the sale of refining methinery and stock for the payment
of debts.

This was the plaintiff's case.
Mr. •DEMMAN addressed the Jury for the defendants. It
was a case which required that compensation should be made
to the plaintiff for the loss he had sustained; but he had not
proved that he had sustained any loss by not. working a mine
which might have entailed on him a heavy loss. Mr. Hall re-
presented himself by his' Counsel as a'man of Wealth ; why did
he not pay his mason and his blacksmith, which would have
prevented all the present proceedings ? Mr. Hall purchased
the mine in 1820, and in 1022 he was beginning to work it with
14 men, not one of whom was called to prove what sort of ore
he got, or whether the mine was likely to prove a profit or a
loss. If there was any profit, the books of the party would be
produced. The witness Pencrease, in the warmth of his ima-
gination, stated the profit that might be made at six
hundred anti ninety pounds a month, but he was obliged to ad-
mit that -nothing had been made, nor was there any evidence that
he could have worked -the mine to any advantage during the
time the plaintiff was in possession. It was the establishedcus-
torn in Cornwall to sell the materials of mines for the payment
of debts incurred in- working them ; and the defendants had no
notion that they were exceeding the law when they made the
sale. They only wished to receive payment of their debt, and
had Mr. Hall paid them, the proceedings would have been in-
stantly stopped. He laMented that the plea of justification had
been withdrawn fMIII the record; as he conceived it could be
well supported by the custom and the-facts. At all events,
nothing was more necessary to get rid of-all the inconvenience,
but that Mr. flail should pay his debts.- Two days betbre
the sale, indeed, he offered to pay the two creditors who had
commenced the proceedings ; but then it impossible to
restore.him the property, unless he paid all who had then
proved debts against the mine. The action was an experiment
on the credulity of tile Jury, iu the expectation that a greater
profit Might be made of the mine in that room, than even could
be made of it in Cornwall.
The 1711DXR SHERIFF charged the Jury, that as there was
no evidence of any malicious intention on the part of the de:
fendants, they were only called on to remunerate the plaintiff
fur theactitil loss be had sustained.
The Jury retired for a short time, and returned a verdict--;
Damages, NINE HeSIMIXD POrNDE.