The Sun.
London, England, 1824-12-21 00:00:00

LAW INTELLIGENCE.

COURT OF KING'S BENCH, DEC. 20.
CLERK OF THE PEACE FOlt HERTFORD.
STOREY V. UOOXE.
This was an issue directed by the Court of King's Bench to
*try whether the plaintiff or the defendant was clerk of the peace
for the county of Hertford. The father of the present defendant
had enjoyed the office for many years, but during the latter
period of his life his son had assisted him, and after his father's
death he had been tacitly recognized as clerk of the peace. It
was, however, tbr some reason, lately discovered that he had no
real title to the office, and not being able to show any regular
appointment, Storey, the present plaintiff; was legally ap-
pointed in his stead by the Custos Rotulorum of the county,
Lord Verulam. A great deal of documentary evidence was
produced on the part of the plaintiffto show that the defendant
never actually held the office, and that the different returns
and orders were signed by his father, except in a few instances.
Several Magistrates proved that they never considered the
defendant as clerk of the peace, but merely looked upon him
as assistant to his father.

The CHIEF JUSTICE left it to the Jury to say whether they
thought the father of the defendant had resigned his office to
his son ; and if they thought he had, whether he resigned it
verbally. There was no proof of any regular deed.
The rimy, under all the circumstances, found a verdict for
the plaintiff.
The decision invalidates the right of the defendant .o hold
the :Alice. Lord nacre, Lord Vesulatn, and the Marquis of
Salisbury, sat on the Bench during the day.
UUURT OF COMMON PLEAS, DEC. 20.
STOCK EXCHANGE FRACAS.
GOLDSSIID v. GROVES.
Mr. CAMPBELT. stated, that Isaac Lyon Goldsmid lota thi
plaintiff; and Peter Groves the defendant ; it was an action for
assault, the defendant had pleaded the general issue.
Mr. Serjeant VAUGHAN stated that the plaintiffhad thought
it necessary to institute the present action as well for the pro-
tection of his own character, as for the public good. The
plaintiff, Mr. Goldsrnid, was, no doubt, well known to all
of them, as, indeed, he was well known both in the monied
and commercial worlds; the defendant was also a merchant
in the city of London, and, perhaps the Jury, as merchants
themselves, would think, that when a man who was a me.r.
chant, misconducted himself as such, their time could not
be more beneficially occupied than inquiring into the con.
duct of the man who had so miscanducted himself. The
circumstanc.-s of the praent case were these :—ln August lest,
the plaintiff contemplated a journey to Paris, upon the sub.
ject of Spanish Bonds; whilst at Brighton, and a few days
previous to his setting off for Paris, he was waited upon by the
defendant, who appeared anxious to make some confidential
communication regarding the intended journey. Mr. (ioldsmid,
however, declined receiving such communication, saying, that
whatever the defendant toid him he should not consider himself
bound to keep secret. However, after several interviews, at
the defendant'i: earnest solicitation, he introduced him to a very
respectable merchant, named ilaillie, and subsequently the
plaintiff' proceeded on his journey. On the plaintiff's return,
about the middle of October last, he was standing in the
avenue to the Stock Exchange, leading out of Shorter's-court,
when lie was accosted by the defendant, who accused him of
having behaved unliendemnely towards him in the Paris busi-
ness. The plaintiff replied that he believed he was a fool for
having ever had any thing to say to the defendant ; to which
the defendant answered, " No, no it was not fool, it was the
,
other thing." That is, said the Learned Sergeant, he meant my
client was not a fool buti a rogue, that his conduct was not the
result of folly but of knavery, of dishonesty, want of prin-
ciple; that be had conducted himself Improperly. Some
high words ensued, when the defendant, in a menacing man-
ner, brandished his umbrella over the plaintiff's head, and
thrust at hint with It. The Learned Counsel did not mean to
say that it was a brutal assault, but his Lordship would tell
them that it was an assault in point of law, and the Jury would
estimate the damage from Mr. Goldsmid's mental feelines, and
not from the bodily injury he had received ; he thought that
hie client had acted wisely in refraining to take notice of this
assault in the way in which the defendant wishcd,him, but by
having recourse to the present proceeding. The Jury would
recollect where the assault was committed; in the neighbour-
hood, he was going to say, the sanctuary of the Royal Ex-
change ; that place, of all others, where merchants most do
congregate togetior, It was in broad day, in the midst of
numbers of honourable and high-minded men, with whom the
plaintiff was daily doing business, and where of course he would
feel most jealous of his honour. The object of the plaintiff
• was not damages, but he was anxious to .have his character,
honour, and reputation vindicated by the verdict of a Jury of his country. He did not know what topic of defence was to
be resorted to toeday ; but the defendant, it appeared, had
considered it necessary for his defence to illumine the dark
hemisphere of that Court with the presence of that great north-
ern luminary, whose eloquence was proverbial, he who, above
the worse appear the
all other men, bad the talent of making
better cauta,:, (this was in allusion to Mr. Brougham defending
the cause), but this proved the weakness of the ddant's
cue. 'When an extraordinary physician was d inn • '
ca e, it was
evident the disease was of an extraordinary
nature—desperate
diseases required desperate remedies. 'lhe defendant's *
as
would, however, be adorned by the bright eloquence of
thee
great luminary he hadalluded to, while the plaintiff's would derive no aseietanee froml• a case
the humble gifts of Ha adeo.
cate. lie still, however, trusted
that the Jury would see it in
it. proper light, and return such a verdict as would, in the eyes
of all the world, leave the charaet of .
rte' the plaintiff without the
least imputation.
Several witnesses having given evi,l4,„„.
(*the assault as de-
scribed by Mr. Sergeant Vatighan,, 771' -
Mr.. Buotioaros, far the defence, raid,
that the Learn e 1
Sergeant had in his opening speech amused the Jury with a
statement, nine-tenths of latch he had not proved rit, even
it' true, lie was well aware, noti •ev
_a Particle or iota of evi-
dence could have been receivedin that Court; but the story
the Learnisi-Sergeant had told them was, that which his cli nt
had instructed him to tell; from the manner in which it WAS
told, it was impossible the Jury could form the least idea of
what passed between Ate plainuff and defendant previous to',

the assault :complained of. Was the tonduct of the defendant
such as if the plaintiff had 'conducted himself towards him as a
man of honour, and as a man of busineeS;and as if nothing had
previously transpired between them ? , Certainly not; for the
'first words that passed at the Stock Exchange meeting were
these—the defendant addressing himself to the plaintiff, says,
Sir, your conduct towards me has been such as to requite
some explanation ;" something then, must have passed be-
tween the parties; what that something was lie would leave the
Jury to draw their conclusion, fulfitnever could be got at by
evidence. If the plaintiff was so jealous of his honour as ho
was represented, why did he institute this sort of proceeding ?
Why did he not make an affidavit of all the facts that preceded
the assault? Why did he not put that affidavit so made on the
tiles of the Court of King's Bench, and then ask of that Court
to.protect him against the defendant by means of granting a
criminal information. In that case the defendant would have
been called upon to answer Mr. Goldamid's charge on oath.—
The affidavits of both parties would have been read before the
Court of King's Bench, and that Court, which was by its nature
and construction the great conservator of the universal peace
of this realm, would, upon all the facts of the case, have
administered impartial justice between the parties. It was
evident, therefore, from this proceeding, as well as from
the statement of the plaintiff's Learned Counsel, that the
plaintiff's object in this cause was damages, and not the re-
paration of his character. Now, as to the abusive language,
the highly respectable witness, Mr. Ricardo, had told them
that the plaintif had his share of die abuse. and so the
general tenor of the evidence showed ; the expression made
use of by Mr. tioldsmid, that Mr. Groves dare not go to
Paris, conveyed much—it would convey every species of of-
; fence on Mr. Grove's part that a slanderous imination could
suggest—and yet Mr. floldsmid was represented as the only
injured party here: the other expression made use of by
Mr. Goldsmid, namely, that of Go to Messrs. Baring, hear
what they will say of you," also conveyed much insult, and, no
doubt, had a tendency to irritate the defendant, the plaintiff'
was well aware that, after what bad transpired, if lie had carried
this case to the Court of King's Bench for a criminal informa-
Von, he could not have stood there, but he was hopeful that lie
might succeed here ; he admitted that an assault had been com-
mitted, but he was sure the Jury would not visit the defendant
with more than nominal damages. The Learned Sergeant had
remarked upon the attendance of him (Mr. Brougham) to con.
duct this cause, and augured from that circumstance that tie
defendant knew that his case was weak and rotten ; but it was
quite the contrary. lie (Mr. Brougham) was not the extraor-
dinary physician the Learned Sergeant had represented ; he
was in fact in that Court but a sort of quack, and irregular
practitioner. The Learned Sergeants were the skilful physi-
cians, for they wore the cap of learni on _their heads, an ho-
nour to which he was not entitled, fore had not yet taken up
that degree. They then were the skilful physicians, and he
the unskilful; and this spewed that the defendant knew his
cause to be just, that he was content to intrust it to ally hands,
however iirskilful. Ile this, however, as it may, he (Mr. B.)
was contunt toleave it in the hands of the Jury, as 12 honest
men, and was sure that, as far as they were able, they would
do justice to Loth parties.
The [.ono ClilEr JUSTICE, in hill charge to the Jury, said
that the defendant's Counsel had no business to complain of
what passed previously to the assault not being disclosed,
because the Counsel for the plaintiff had put Mr. Millie into
the box, for the purpose of proving what those transactions
were, and the defendant's Counsel had himself objected to his
being examined as to them, and which, in point of law, he had
a right to do ; to the expressions ade use of by the plain,
tiff; if they sad been niede before any insult was offered by
defendant, than they oughr to have a weight in the minds of
the Jury; but they would recollect that the defendant brought
these expresdons on himself by his provoking language to-
wards plaintif : with respect to what the Learned Counsel had
said about the Court of lung .'s Bench, he was right in his de-
scription of tic practice of the Court; but as high as his (the
Learned Judge's) opinion was of that great tribunal,•still he did
not consider ;let this was a case that was altogether calculated
for an appeal :o it. The plaintiff was a merchant, his charac-
ter was dear to him—that character had been publicly tra-
duced, in thepresenee of his brother merchants, by the defen-
dant; and the Plaintiff, perhaps,_ thought that he could not re-
fute the imputations; cast upon him better than by submitting
his case to a Jary, composed of individuals moving in the same
same city in which the insult to -him had been offered. It was
sphere as 'Atwell, and by having their verdict recorded in the
and the Jury
wadoratilidtt thy
awthsitvedrdailmtamgeussttphry fworouthicei plaintiff,
give; of course they
would not award so heavy damages as it great Wily injury
had been sustidued by the plaintiff; but they would give such
temperate ilansges as they thought the circumstances of the
case warranted
a verdict for tee plaintiff—Damages, The Jury consulted for a short timea and then returned with