The Sun.
London, England, 1807-06-17 00:00:00

TTACIIMENT.

Mr. LITTLEDAL;; applied for a rule to shew cause
attachment should not be filed against Ro-
bert Mourisey, lisq. and Rowland Bowsey, for re-
sisting the execution of a writ of Fieri foci= issued
Out of this Court.. It. was stated in . the atbdavits,
that Mr..Mounsey was Under Sheriff for Cumber-
land,. and had granted his warrant to a creditor, to
seize the goods of his debtor, and for that purpose
a special bmilitf„ named Patrickson, was employed.
After the Officer had entered into possession, Mr.
lounsey came into the house, and demanded by
what authority Patridison acted, when the latter
skewed Mr. Moiansey his own warrant, granted as
:Under Sheriff. Mr. Mounsey instantly snatched it
from the Officer's. hand, and ran off with it, but
patric4son retained possession of the, house. Sow]
afterwards, Bowey and others came. there,
.and,
mnder,authority of the Under Sheriff, broke the pan,
ne;s of the street-door, :entered . the premises, as-
',faulted the Otiicor, and turned him out of posses-
son'; he, tiowever, still keeping the keys.---41.u1e to
shew cause granted. ; . . • • .

21r. .3Com nothin., ti ht. ;Irgutu.tir
correct. The ground of decis,on in the Court of
'Bench turned entirely- upon a -questioli of
policy,; but he should be able to satisfy their Lord,.
shipti 'not only that the prinjiple with respeCt to
policy was mistaken, but also that, according to the
strict legal and grammatical construaion of, the law,
the I'Llintiti in error had done the, only thing neces-
sary for him to perform, viz. the registration do no.vO
in the port of London. It way a circntirstauce most
important ,for their Lordships' consideration as a
pubi:e (fuestion; because, if this were not sufficient,
nine-troths of the shipping of this great cotnniereial
country, subsiSting by its navigation, might be lost
to its pre:Tent- proprietors. The'•Learned Counsel
said,- he would lay dOwn a few propositions tO•assist
the—construction of, the
.statutes popularly called
Li'vcrpool's A.
'• The plain grathmatical sense of the A&
ai.itiot be departed from upon any notion of policy."
" A statute which treats of things.or persons
a inferior" rank cannot,-• by any 'general words, be
extended
_to those of superior rank."
Having stated these propositions, and briefly rea-
soned up(in them, the Learned Counsel said, that
he •slitnild divide the argument into three heads.
'tst. “ The Plaintiff in error has done all the re-
gister laWs require, by having registered the ship
de novO."

ad. g! The policy of the laws require nothing
more, in a Case„like ite present,. that: a neU:,,regis-
tration."'.

3d. "-The judgment in thCCourt of King's Bench
has proceeded upon complete mistake of the re-
', gister laws; and of their policy."
The. fi,rst: A& upon the...subjeet was the 7th and
sth c. 22. and tlie section applicable
to the tressfisifcif ships to new Owners was the eist,
which .began thes " And be it further enaaecl by
the authority aforesaid, that no ships name reister-
ed shall. be afterwards changed without registering
such ship de nooct;,'wlllch is hereby- *inked to be
deite upon any tratifer of property:to another port,
and delivering up the former' certificate to be cancel-
ed, &c:" Under this when a ship Was sold
to another port a new registrinion WaSOCCessary ; but
the law permitted, its the'case of a partial transfer, in
the same port, that it should be made by indorse-
Mee on the certificate. With this statute his client
had complied,-and therefore, unless the law be ^ova-rietl,.' in the case of such transfer; sir--L' rd Liver-
pool's Ads, no doubt couldarise. The first of these'
Aas'was the 26th Geo. 111. c. 60. -; Mr. SCOTT here
discussed' at great length 'the clauses of this Act, par-
ticularly the 3d, gth, inth, 12th, t,stie and i(th see-
; and in summing up his observations on the
general construaion; he said, that where the ship is
to be tranferred to another port under this aet, there
must be a new register, but where a part only was
too transferred, the indorsement was the substitute for
the new register, for the convenience of trade. This
Act expressly preserved the distinction : for, by the
'ifth seistion, it made an amendment in the former
Aet, and having completed that obje&, it proceeded to
a fresh recital, and then regulated thespeciesof trans-
fer, which is the-alienation of a share in the same
port; and the learned Counsel insisted, that neither
the grammatical nor legal construction would admit
the extension of the 16th section to any but the case
for which it expressly provided. It -contemplated
only the indorsernisnt, and not the present case,
.which was that 0i...1140W registration. Having argued
with much confidence that the Ad of King William
was not at all varied in respe& to new registrations
by the 26th of the King, Mr. Scotr proceeded to
examine.bether any alteration had been made fiy
the only titheol6l applicable to the subjea, w kich is
the 34th Geo. 111. c. 68. This statute, he contend-
ed, related Only to what he called the substitutional
mode of transfer, as by the indorsement, and had
nothinVe do with the new-registration. It confined
itself to a transfer of a share in the same port, and
enacted as follows : Whereas by 'the laws now in
force, upon any alteration of property in any ship or
vessel, in the same port to which such ships or ves-
sels belong; an :indorsement upon the certificate of
regiitry is required to be made ; be it emitted, that
such indorsement shall, from and after- the Ist day
of Jan. 1795, be made in the manner and forM here-
in after expressed, and.shall be signed by the person
transferring the property of the said ship or vessel,
by sale or contra6t, or, agreement for the sale there-
of, or by some person legally authorised by him, her,
or them, and a copy of such indorsement shall be de-
livered tu the person, or, persons, authorized to make
registry, and grant certificate of registry,,. otherwise
such sale or contra&, or agreement for sale thereof,
'shall be utterly null and void, to all intents and pur-
poses whatsoever; and such persons, so authorised to
make registry and grant certificates of registry, are
hereby required to cause an entry thereof to be in-
dorsed on the oath or affidavit upon which the ori-
ginal certificate of registry of such ship or vessel was
obtained, and also make a memorandum of the same
in the book of registry, and shall forthwith give no-
tice thereof to the Commissioners of his. Majesty's
Customs in England and Scotland, under whom they
eespeetively ad." This applied only to the alteration
of' property uptin,sbips in the same port, and some
inattention to this limitation gave rise to the mistake
into which the Court of King's Beach had fallen.—
The grammatical construction was perfectly clear ;
it related merely to the case of indorsement ; for the
Act could not have directed any thing so absurd as
to put an indorsement upon a certificate which was
to he burnt the next moment, for the former certi-
ficate was to-be cancelled. If any thing so strange
had been within the purpose of the Legislature, it
would at least have been explained in language that
was intelligible. ,
Sir hoses' MANSFIELD—" Do they contend ott
the other side that not only a new registry is ne-
cessary, but also the indorsement ?"
Mr. HALL.----" No, my Lord but lam to argue
that all that ought to have been done under these
several Acts should have been performed at New-
castle.'

Mr. SCOTT proceeded to say that the moment the
sale was made, the ship vested in the put-Chaser, who
was the Plaiutiff in error. The Learned Counsel
having gone through the principal .clause;; of the
three Acts, drew this conclusion, that nothing iu the
26th and 34th Geo. 111. varied, the 21st sec. of 7th
and Bth William 111. I4e next endeavoured
to fortify his case. by the usage at the cusom-house
afLoadon,.and explained that the uniform piactice