The Sun.
London, England, 1807-11-26 00:00:00

I,ErrER VI.

5I f: ~

I promised in my last Letter„to point out in the
Judgme' nts of the Prize Courts, the clearest illustra-
tion and continuation of the arguments which 1 have

irteci

SirWti.LlA:st GRANT, in pronouncing the sentence
of the COurt of Appeal on the case of the William,
Trtfry,,on the I tth of March, t 806, took a review
of the cases of Colonial Trade which had been pre-
% decided ; some of his observations are so strik-
inly apposite to our prewnt thscussion, that I must
ibeg leave to trouble you with copious extraa,s.
It mist be recolletited that the point which
I am now to establish is, that allowing. (for the sake
of arvat:ll9 that the adoption of Test of importation
by the Courts of Prize, would have precluded dis-
enion on the subjea by the Negotiators, no such Test
ever •tufa adopted ; every attempt to establish a
flithfii I criterion having been frustrated by the in-
genuity of the Traders.

ereeet this purpo,e simply, it would not be ne-
cee,ary to cite so largely as I shall do the words of the
I.,iiister of the Rolls ; bait I find in the judgment
zibeee-mentioued, something that is relative to every
part of thediscussion before us, something that elu-
cidates every observation that I have made, and much
that, after 'we' have cleared away the alledged em-
ban resitnent,will enable us to appreciate the intrinsic
malts of the Eleventh Article. I ain not so partial to
my own writing as to exped to make a matter
clear which Sir WILLIAM GRANT has left obscure.
eletll therefore oared nearly the of the
judgment, and :if afterwards the case remains in
&Jute, I Anil make no attempt to remove it.
Sir WILLIAM GRANT, having stattd the illegality
of the direa trade, proceeds as follo,ws :
" What then, with reference to till's subje6t, is to
becOnsidered as a direa voyage from one place to
another ?. Nobody has, ever. supposed that a mere
deviation from the straightest and shortest course in
w loch the voyage could be performed,would change.
its denomination, and make it cease to be a dire&
one within the intendment of the instruaions. No-
thing can depend'ou the degree or the diredion of
t he deviation; whet her it be of more or fewer leagues,
whether towards the coast of Attica or towards that
of America. Neither will it be contended that the
peiet from which the commencement of a voyage is
to h(:e reckoned, thanges as often as the Ship stops in
the course of it ; nor will it the more change, bee
coteie a party may elio`eSe arbitrarily by, the Ships'
Pepers or. Otherwise, to give the name of a
ditinCt voyage to each stage of a progreSS.
The act of shifting the Cargo front the to the
shore, and from, the shore lack again into the Ship,
dues not necessarily amount to the termination of one
,Vayage and thecommeneernept of another."—*"*
" Let it be supposed that the partybasa motive for
desiring to.make the voyage appear to„begin at some
other place than that of the original lading, and

that he therefore lands the cargo, purely and solely
for the purpose of enabling himself 1Q Vim; that it
was at such other place that -the goods were
taken on board, would this contrivance at all altar
the truth of the Wonld not the real
!voyage still be fro ii the place. of the, original
shipment;:notwithstantling the attempt to give it
the ofipearance of having begun from a difrerent
pklce?. The truth' may not ilways.b4f discernible,
bnt.when it is discovered, it is according to the
urn!, and not according- to the run-low, that we.
ar, to give to the transaction its *charader and delta,
- rf time voyage from the place of lading
t) not really entledo it matters not 11) what. Gas the
.
ptl,/y may have evincM his (Moire slaking it ap.
I;.,;re , That:those aSis have been
attenii.:d with tronclle and expellee may, weigh as
607/ wshinc./2.6. of evidence, to !thew them ,purpose for.
'Nvliich, the a6ls were du is ; but / the evasive fiur.
1/64 be atimititM or proved, we,can Clever le hOund to
acre/it as a subsiitulc fur the ohnrvance of the Law,
the means, however operuse, which have bees employ-,
ed 16 cover a breach of it. Between the neinn/ irtiL
pertation,.by which a Nyage is really entletl, and
the eJlanrat/e importation, which is to give it: the
aiy,l4rance "of' being ended, therei,must necessarily
ha a great resemblance. The aas to bee done must
ahnost entirely the same ; but there . is this dif-
ference between them : _The, landing oflhe cargo,
'the entry at the Custom...house, and the pay nent
of sdch duties as the law of the place requires, are
rte es!iary ingredients in rigenninchnporiation ; the
trole I,..lrpiA' of the owner cannot he enacted with-
out:them. But in a fiaitious importation they are
mere voluntary ceremonies, which have no natural
connexion whatever with the purpose of sending on
• the cargo to another market, and which, therefore,
would never be resorted to by a person entertaining
that purpose,. except with a view of giving to the
voyage which he has resolved to contin'ne the ap-
pearance of being broken by an importation which
ra at n r really to tnake.".—.*io****l;-***

He continues with more particular reference to the
case before the Court, and adds, " It can never be
contended, that an intention to import, once enter-
tained, is equivalent to importation!; and it would
be a contradiclion in terms to say, that, by aas done
after the original intention has been 'abandoned,:
such original intention has been carried into'execu--
tion. Why should a cargo which there was to be
no attempt to sell in America have been entered at
an American Custom-house, and voluntarily 'sub-
jeeted to the payment of any, even the most trifling,
duty ? not because importation. was, or in such a case
could be, intended, but because it was thought expe:-
dient that something should be done which in a British
Prize Court might Pass, far importation. Indeed the
Claimants sEuicro HAVE CONCEIVED that the in-
quiry to be made here was, not whether the importa-
tion WAS real or pretended, but whether the PRE-
TENCE had assumed a particular FORM, and was ac-
companied with certain circumstances which by some
POSITIVE RULE were, in all cases, to STAND FOR
importation, or to be
.conclusive evidence of
,it i. and
it has, I understand, been said, that our departure
from that SUPPOSED rule, in the case of the Essex,
Orne, was a surprise upon the Merchanta of Ame-
rica, who had by our former decisions been led to
believe that proof of landing, and payment of duties,
in America, would in every case be absolutely deci-
sive of the legality of the voyage *****"*." After
having looked
.very attentively into all the cases in
which, as far as I am aware, this sort of question
has occurred, I conceive not only that it will be
impossible to point out a judgment in which any such
UNQUALIFIED DOCTRINE has been laid down, but
that the judgment, antecedent to that in the Essex has
clearly and unequivocally NEGATIVED the existence qf
the alle dged RULE (f DECISION. ,
The first case of the kind, that of the Polly,
Lasky, occurred in the High Court of ADMIRALTiC,,.
in February, Ism) ; the Learned Judge of that Court
expressly disclaimed the attempt to (Nine what should
be deemed universally the TEST of .a Berri% FIDE ins-
portation. He did indeed lay- great and just stress
upon the payment of the American Import Duties,
which was there sworn to ha:lie-been actually made,
but still-it was as EviDENck; !date Butc.l/4 ya)E bit-
. pollution,. " The very state»ont that the thing .in
qu4stion•was. the bona fides ol'ilie importation, did, qf
necessity, exclude the supposiati, that ortE UNIVER-
SAL EFFECT -was, in all cases, to be ascribed to a
....
given set of
.circamstanees,-Othoat. regard to the
manner :in which late it df4as evidence might 4
varied by other circumstances, with Ivhich, in Of-
ferent cases, tl,ey might be found contrasted or
combined." * k .. * * *

• It is to. be observed, that ,this case of the .molly
wag previous to the year 180 t, and appears to have
-been that on which the King's lido°. cate founded his
Report. Sir WILLIAM Glt ANT proceeded to cite the
cases determined on appeal since that period. Th.o
Mercury, Roberts, "by all the documents found on
board, appeared to have been laden at ChUrleston,
and, among those documents, there was an attesta-
tion sworn at the Custoin-Hou'se, that all the parts of
the cargo, which were of foreign growth or mann-
faaure, had been legally imported, and the duties

thereon paid or seemed; it came out, howeverOn
the depositions of the witnesses examined ou the
standing interrogatories, that the cargo had been
laden at. the HAVANNAII, and it never had been landed
at CHARLESTON, the place of Ilse alledged shipment.
It being evident that the touching et CHARLESTON
was for the mere purpose of giving to the voyage
the colour and appearance of having begun there,
we affirmed the sentence of condemnation, without
previously endeavouring to ascertain whether any
duties had really been paid in America. The nue
nature of the transaetion being clearly ascertained,
it seemed imtnaterial(to inquire whether the payment
qf duties' had been one of the means employed to
disguise it.", * .* * * * " The cargo" of ilia
Schoener Freepott " had been landed, and remain-
ed some time on shore ;
,but the Ivlait,:r admitted in
his' claim that, the cargo was intended for the
Spanish iVest India market, and did not even imert
any purpose of importation into America. We
therefore Aimed the sentence of condemnation.—
The cargo having been landed, it might be taken for
granted, that whatever duties were payable had been
paid, but as the case stood, we thought the fa 67 im-
material, and therefore diretied no inquiry with re-
gard to it.. * * * Sir WILLIAM cited other cases,
and ragain` mentioning " The SUPPOSED principle o/
bolding,' that `'landing and PAYMENT of Dulles in
AMERICA did absolutely, and under all circumstances,
'legalize the sabsepent voyage," he adds, I have
strewn that there was not ONE decision in which A?IY

SUCH PRINCIPLE HAD BERN ASAERTED or imPuED,
and that there were at least two decisions which stood

in DIRECT CONTRADICTION TO IT."

•
It is impossible to read the foregoing manes;
without asking;•—»if the letter of Lord HAWKESI3us,y
to Mr, KING, in t 80 t, was either calculated or in-
tended to bind the Courts of Prize. as to their rules
of evidence, how comes it that even the exigence

of such a letter was never alluded to by the Court ?
How -Comes Sir WILLIAM SCOTT 4o overlook
all his judgments? How happenedit that wlien Sir
WILLIAM GRANT, when expressly refuting the
charge of change of principle, thought it unnecessary
to take the slightest notice of the alledged,promise?
Because-Sir WILLIAM GRANT considered the letter;
as every body must who thinks for ten minutes on
the subje&, as a mere piece of information as to
the circumstances of evidence which had theretofore
weighed most strongly on Sir WILLIAM SCOTT,
ignorant then of the degree in which deceitful testi-
~
mony might be found. Had Mr.
,KING applied but
a little earlier, when our Courts were still less in-
formed of the extent of American fraud, it would
probably have been the lot of Lord GRENVILLE, as,
Secretary of State, to communicate a report, in
which the landing of the goods (without any notice
of duties) would have been the supposed test. Had
he applied a few years later, Lord HAWKESBURY,
Lord: MULORAWR, Mr. Fox, or Lord HOWICK,
would have told him, that it would not be sufficient
to prove the payment qf the duties, if there were
other evidence calling into question the sineerity of
the importation.
But, Sir, if the judgment pronounced by • Sir
WILLIAM GRANT, in March, 1806, involved a ievo-,
cation or a contravention of a solemn promise mad&
by Government, under whose authority did he
.speak ? Who composed, in March, 1806, the Court
of Appeal in Prize Causes, of which the Master of
the Rolls was only the mouth7piece ? Whose care'
was it in March, 1806, to preserve4the honour of
the Country in its foreign relations ? Let the advo-
cates of the late:ginisters answer these questions to
themselves; before
,:they repeat their censure upon
Lord.HAwxzsault:Y.

Conceiving,! Sir,:: that the charge against Lord
HAWKESIIIYA.L.A. JAving made a hasty and-gra-
tuitous proMise. t.r4rica," is founded in total
misconception, .it is hardly necessary to repel the
charge of "breaking it in a flagrant and vexatious
manner." By what a& of Lord HA WKESHURY, or
his Colleagues, was the supposed promise violated ?
No farther certainly, than by permitting the Court
of Admiralty to act, as it always had acted, upon
detected fraud! I say, permitting, for the pra6tice
did not spring front Government, but from the
Chair of Justice in Doc-tors' Commons. Ministers
neither originated the praCtice (strangely conceived
wrong!), nor put a stop to it. How was it under
the late Administration? Did Sir Wit.i.rAis SCOTT,
in complaisance, in his equitable administra-
tion of justice ? The very idea is a libel. Did those
Ministers instruct him afresh, or reverse his decrees ?
Certainly not. It surely follows, then, that as far as
there is any deMerit in the breach of a promise never
made, it is shared with the Court of Admiralty,
equally by Lord GRENVILLE and the Duke of PLAIT..
LAND, Lord HENRY PETTY, and Mr. PIIIICEVA L.

gir,. no promise was either made or broken;
Lord Hot.Liktri. and Lord AUCKLAND had the matter
freely before them ;'—how wisely they stipulated for
the honour and advantage of their Country, shall be
discusspd in the next from
DECIUS.

MAILS.
AR/LIM:S-2 Lisbon, 3 Waterford. Dy.s.-.2 9ottenburgli,
2 I )ut)lin, Woterfor,t.

PRICE OP STOCKS
THIS D- I AT O'CLOCK.
C 0115016 •

Tfi E SLT N.

60.004 QUIS DICZRIt FALSUM Alit/LAT.?

LONDON,•
Ttio. It iDAY , NOVEMUitito 26, 1807.

Tuts morning a Lisbon Mai) arrived, :brought by
the Prince of Wales Packet, in eleven days passage.
It is a most. singular circumstance that Madrid
Gazettes dowtrto the 4th inst. bad been received in
Lisbon, which do not contain the Prqclamation which
We yesterday laid before our Readers, nor de they men-
tion any thing .of a plot having been diicovered. This
circumstance is calculated to throw some degree of
doubt upon the intelligence which reached us- -yes-
terday : we are nevertheleis still inclined to give it
credit. It is. very well known that the Prince of
Peace has long been 'desirous of getting the Prince
of Asturias out of the way, in order that, in case of
the death of the king, the succession might fall upon
abrother of the Prince of Asturias, for w hose welfare
the Prince is supposed to be particularly interested.
BUONAPAKTE will, we have no.doubt, give his sap-
port" to the plot to.a certain extent,, liveause it will
forward his own views-; but it is not to be sup-
posed he will suffer the Prince of Peace to realize,

his ambitious projeas. The French, Army has not
yet entered Portugal.'

The Russian Fleet, consisting of seven Sail of the
Line and two Frigates, entered the Tagus on the
Loth inst. under English colouri. The Raven Sloop
or War was fired, at by the forts while laying in
the Tagus on the Gth instant,- so that we may
ennaider nurselve4 nt _ _

denunciation in the Mr niteur may has.i the etre of
-driving the Prince Regent to seek relief from the
only -Nation that can give., it.—Lord SraheeFol,o
arid: Consul GAMBIER still remain at Lisbon.

. The following are the only articles of interest
14.' BAYONNE, OCT. Ig.—The army, of observa4
tion has already begun to put itself in motion. Yetl'
terday a Corps of 2,400, belonging to General
BORDE'S .Division, entered Spain ; others will fol.
19w successively. It appears that the Troops march
straight to Salamanca, where the French Head-quar-
,ters are to be established till further orders."—lia-
drid Gazette, O. 27.)
the
" INYpv.-NE, OCT. g3.--Part of coliugu—
Legation from Paris, passed through this City for
Madrid.

The Whole of General LA BORDIeII division,
with its' artillery, has entered Spain ; that of Gene-
ral LA ROCHE is following. On the 20th arrived 100
.
waggons, for the purpose of conducting provision
and other effects belonging to the Army. Gener4l
KELLERMAN, son of- the Marshal, of that name, in
also arrived.

" It appears that the Commander in Chief," JtJa
NOT, will not leave this place .till the egtiv instat •
by which day all the French Troops will have entorid.
Spain."--(Madrid Gazette, Qa. 00.)
A Russian Squadron, of seven Sail of the,LitA..
and two Frigates, entered the Tagus previous to

the sailing of the Packet ; a Portuguese Messenger
came over in her.

This morning advice was received at the Fillot,
441ka11-Jouse of the arrival of thelpdus off cl'Oq,"
mouth ; she left Madras the 26th, July.- :`
• Lord MINTO left Madras 21st July, for Bengal.
The InduS on the 20th September spoke the Arno.
rican Ship Columbia, which sailed from Batavia the
Bth February, 1807, and from the Isle of France
the 12.3 d of August; she gave the importalit ineel•
ligence of ten Sail of .China Ships being off La-
gullas ,the 12th of September, under convoy of
the Lion, bound, as supposed; for the Cape, having
. had a very long passage from Prince of Wales Island.
The Marquis Welleiley 'had
arrived at thelsle Of
France as a Cartel. The Indus did not touch at S;.
Helena. •

Yesterday, about twelvt, o'clock, His Ms.risra
arrived at the Queen's Palace, from Windsor, where •
the Duke of KENT was 47 waiting to receive Ht
Mtses'ry. The Dukes o( Yank; Cutattattida4h
and st,ssax, arrived awn atter, tapay their reapeas
to thsir RovAL FATMSIII. oft t two cecloot Hit
JESTY' held a private Leveed which Was attended blri,
The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Archbishop of Y.
Bled, tnc Lord titancellor, the Secretaries of State for eft
llorad and foreign Departments, the Fiist Lord of the Aaie,
iniralty, the Master-General of the Ordnance, the chancel..
lbr of the E xeliAluer, the MO Advocate General, she Rea
corder of Lo::don, Eaiis Ilarliutst and Pembroke, yistwunt
Stuploru, Lord ;givers, Major. General Claufnrd, Lieulenank
Colonels Stopfurd and Napier, Major Fletciier, Captain!
Man Fen and Shepherd, and Messrs. Ryder, Fawkner, arla
Villiers.
The following bad the honour of being presented
to Hea IVIAJEsTy-:

Thai Rev.,Dr. Vernon, by the A rchhishop,of Carderbutfi
upon being noutin:tted to tic translated trorn the BlahokqiCiP
ot to the Archbishopriik of York,
Major.(generat Crauturd, upon his bnin4 appointed to tNe ,
command of the 2,41 Regiment Qt Dr,iglion (guards.
The /don, Richard. Ryder, upon his' appointed Midge
Advocate-General, in, the room of Mr. liond, resigned. #.
Earl l'entomke, upon h!..; I„ving appointed Governig
Guernsey, and upon his return to England.
Capt. Shepherd, ol.thr Royal 'Navy, of his Afajestri
the Wilmer, by ~4ord, Mulgravir, upon his return twtir
Copenhagen. '
Li,ut—colonel Stopferd, by his brother, Viscount Stor
ford, upon his return hum Copenhagen. -
tlyt
Lieut.-COL:let Napier, upon his being appointed to
comm,inibe gad Regiment, or Gordon Highlanders, air,
d (g
upon' h.& return tram Copeoligen. s • •
.\l4jor lleteher, tl.o Royal Engineers, upon his rata
ril
Mow. ‘;ppenhagen
Captiiii Manger), of the Royal Navy, upon hie return froth:
-Copbilhagen.
f-t4.A4AINSTI gaVe private'audiences to the Arch--
biShom ut CANTEItI3!.7R y and YOR X, Lords HA WKSI.
BURY and MULURAVE, tfIr.CANNING, PaacaVAP,
and Mr. BOND, who laid before His MAJEsTY lb°
Proceedings of several Courts Martial.
HIS MAJ itSTY. beide Pay 'Council, at which E3°
PElthaoas assisted, and eras sworn into °dice
Governor of Guernsey.
The Austrian Messenger who returned a few daYs
ago from Hollind, was twice dispatched from Lau'
don to Vienna, and each time was detained
Dutch Port until he was examined by a French C.
ficer, then plundered of his papers, both pahh
eel'
and private, and sent back to England. His ' if •
lency Prince STAMM:4BEBG will this day ser"
another Messenger with dispatches lot his Court.
As the last Courier who arrived in this Country fro!
Vienna. came by way. of Paris, iS
belhe boater of .the present dispatches, and is
to
proceed ay the same route.'
Sir Jo N WARREN bad yesterday • -jot/
a long inter+, .
with the Iloarti of Admiralty.. Sir Jon sr will leav°,
t •the same person Moro
own # few days for Portsmouih.
.Liptaards of 170 Danish Vessels,
tured since the declaration of War by the Court
• gaol',
'Denmark, 'were condemned yesterday in D
Commons. _ ' - . -
71 itoivizsE L. L, 'Secretary to Lord _tattat_stoeM
the Er,pedition to Copenhagen, detained or C31,,'i."
is Made Naval S r
keeper at Deal.
Et.oPemewr,—A young Lady of forr
oase
on Sunday morning, from her father 1_
man,
Charioiteir st reel, Bedford-square, with a young re-
a dourest 'in the family. Intelligence were:
.une C‘oPia
the
ceived of the route the fugitives had
pursued by some friends- of 'the Lady, .! cop.
bridge, where they bad rep . . osed .No promisv). .her
return, who expreo" .
day morning, surprised them at the }{oo. P.in,Lb.. could
induce the young Lady to u
_..th
determination to marry the adventurous y.. 74001. A
hid Carried' her off. The Lady's fortu
;.„1.,,,,,,dent of her father.