The Sun.
London, England, 1847-02-08 00:00:00

EXCHEQUER CRAMBEI?, Feb. 6.

(Sittings in Error, before Lord Chief Justice WILDE, Mr.
Justice PATTESOII, Mr. Justice COLERIDGE, Mr. Justice
MAULE, Mr. Justice WIGIITMAN, Mr Justice CRESSWELL,
and Mr. Justice WILLIAMS.) . _ _

Their Lordships sat for the purpose of hearing Exchequer
causes ; no case, however, of interest to the public wa* de-
cided upon.

COURT OF EXCHEQUER.—Feb. 6.

TOOVRY v. BROWN.
Mr. Parry appeared for the plaintiff, Mr. Whateley for the
defendant.
This was an action in which the plaintiff, a bookseller in
Pall-mall, sought to recover a sum of money for books sup-
plied by him to the son of the defendant, who was a student
of King's College, and preparing for the university in order
to obtain admission into the Church of England.
Mr. PARRY, in opening the case, said that the books were
supplied to the son, a youth of 19 years of age, but who had
been somewhat extravagant in his habits, and who was at
present at sea. The books were taken by the son to the
residence of his father.
Mr. WHATELEY, on the part of the defendant, contended
that the books supplied for the use of the son were not of
such a nature as were required by him in preparing for the
Church of England. Among the works supplied were those
of Pusey, Newman, Ward, Christie "On the Holy Virgin,"
Carey's Translation of Dante, Romish Missal and Breviary,
and other works of a Catholic tendency.
From the evidence of the Rev. John Brewer, one of the
tutors of King's College Hospital, it appeared.that several of
the works were not such as he would recommend to be
placed in the hands of a youth preparing for the Church of
England ; and further, that the youth in question, in
consequence of reading such works, and having contracted ,
habits of intimacy with a Catholic gentleman, had been
induced to leave the Church of England, and go over to
the Romish Church.
The LORD CHIEF BARON said that in his opinion there
was no evidence to go to the jury of the original liability of
the defendant, or of any authority having been given to the
plaintiff to supply his son with the books in question; he
thought, therefore, that the plaintiff ought to be called.
Plaintiff nonsuited accordingly.
- ABSENCE OF COUNSEL.—BAKER V. LACK.

This was an action for a bill of exchange upon 1001. When
the case was called on,
The solicitor for the defendant said that Mr. Corrie was his
counsel, and he would go and fetch him. The counsel, how-
ever, was not forthcoming, and the case was therefore treated
as an undefended cause, and a verdict given for the plaintiff
for the amount sought.
Mr. ARCIIBOLD, the counsel for the plaintiff, applied for
speedy execution.
The Loup CmEr BARON—I see there is a similar action,
the next in order ; let that be disposed of first.
BAKEII_I7. E J LACK was then called on.

The Solicitor—My counsel. Mr. Corrie, is not here.
The LORD CIIIEV BARON—Then if you have a defence for
your client, you shall be at liberty to call your witnesses.
The Solicitor—My Lord, Mr. Corrie has ,sot the brief and
papers, and I have only a few memoranda with me.
The LORD CHIEF BARON—WeII, you must do the best you
can. If you have your witnesses here they will prove your
defence, if you have any.
Mr. Ancimom—My Lord, there is no defence; it is idle
to say there is.
The LORD CHIEF BARON--We must see that, Mr. Arch-
bold. Now, let the solicitor call his witnesses.
This was done, and the first witness was a Mr. Pattison,
who said he was the clerk to a Mr. Wilson, the solicitor of a
Mr. Semple, who was the holder of this bill at the time it be-
came due. The present plaintiff was one of the parties
to the bill, and therefore; he and the others were
served with due notice of its dishonour. The plaintiff even-
tually took it up. He could not say exactly, from recollection,
when the bill had been paid and then handed to the plaintiff.
Mr. Semple was next examined, and he proved having
ultimately, some time in December, as we understood, re-
ceived the checks for the bill from the present plaintiff.
The solicitor now said that he proposed to prove through
Mr. Wilson, the solicitor to this last witness, that the plain-
tiff was not the holder of the bill at the time he had brought
the action.

Mr. ABM:MOLD—No, you can't do—it is a most disgraceful
proceeding—you can't do that.
The Loan CatEr BARON—Mr. Archbold, I must do justice
in this matter; and when a party is left without his counsel
we ought not to press too severely against a gentleman who is
endeavouring to supply that information which he had in-
structed his counsel to place before the jury.
Mr. ARCHBOLD— But, my Lord, he cannot do it.
The LORD CHIEF BARON—Mr. Archbold, I am here to do
justice, and I must let this gentleman place the jury in pos-
session of the truth of this transaction. There is a plea on
the record which lam bound to try, and I must do it. Has
the solicitor to the last witness subpoenaed Mr. Wilson?
The solicitor replied in the affirmative; but he.is not here,
I find.

The LORD CHIEF BARON—Then call him on his subpcena.
Cornwall Baron Wilson having been called,
The solicitor said that, before r. Wileon had gone away
he had M
said that his clerk would give all the information he
could.
The clerk here said he might be able if he had the books
or the papers, but from recollection he could not.
The SOLICITOI3.—Here are some of the papers.
Mr. ARCHBOLD—No, no, Sir; we cannot have that. We
cannot have any of your papers here.
The LORD CHIEF BARON—Mr. Archbold, we must have
the truth, and if the solicitor to the holder of the bill at the
time it became due thinks proper not to attend to his sub-
poena, we must get it from his clerk, who says that, by re-
ference to the papers, he may be able to give us the real his
tory of this matter. The jury must know the truth, Mr.
Archbold, if it can be arrived at.
The papers were then handed to Mr. Patteson, the clerk
to Mr. Wilson, who then clearly proved that at the time
the present action was lost the bill was in the possession of
Wilson, and not in that of the plaintiff, and remained there
some time afterwards.
Mr. ARCHbOLD then, on behalf of the plaintiff, with great
warmth of manner, animadverted upon the defence which
had been set up on this occasion, the more so as the defen-
dant had admitted the handwriting. But where was Mr.
Wilson ?
The LORD CHIEF BARoN—That is the question, Mr. Arch-
bold—where is Mr. Wilson? Mr. Wilson thinks proper to
go--,out of the way when be ought to have been here, and then
it is left to the clerk, who, to his great honour, I say it, has
given us the true history of the matter, al _hough that state-
Inuit has told against themselves. It is highly creditable to
his branch of the profession that there are some of them who
have some true sense of justice. He has done himself much
honour and credit.
Mr. ARCHBOLD proceeded to contend that the defence was
most disgraceful, and that the plaintiff was, of course, enti-
tled to a verdict.
The LORD CHIEF BARON told the jury that the only mat-
ter for thsai to consider, was, what was the v:-.rdiet
were to return as sensible 'men, and as men who were
alive to the truth of the case and to their own truth.
The question then was, whether this bill had been in