The Sun.
London, England, 1847-07-28 00:00:00

large by the captain's order and that of Mr. Luscombe.
I took Rose and Nettles into custody.:
By Mr. Sr.,-r,r.---717-.• on fho (1e,.1( in whir•ll
the dent wa; ; ii, % as Lo the wcattcr, and
close with the wet.

Mr. R. a Edmonds—l acted as attorney for this pro-
secution. On the first day Rose and Nettles were not in
custody. I was hot acquainted with the conversation
which the policeman had with Rose when he went to
liberate the captain ; then, by the advice of Counsel, I
had Rose and Nettles taken in custody.
By Mr. Row E—l did state to the magistrates that I
proposed to call Roie and Nettles as witnesses.
This was the ease for the prosecution.
Mr. POULDEN then proceeded to ad tress the jury for
Rose and Nettles, contending that everything which the
crew had (lone on this occasion moss perfectly justified
by the emergency under which they were p!aced. It
was evident that the captain was a man of t violent and
brutal nature, and that his conduct on the 29th of March
was such as to induce the crew (who had a knowledge of
his previous character) to think that it was not safe for
them to proceed farther on the voyage with him if they
valued their lives. This being so, they took the only
course which was open to them ; deprived the captain of
the power of doing injury to any one, and at once brought
the ship to the nearest port, and submitted themselves to
the laws of their country. The Learned Counsel then
commented minutely on the evidence, and concluded by
calling on the jury to acquit the prisoners, and restore
them to liberty and that good character which they had
always borne.
Mr. BLADE then addressed the jury for Stratton in a
most forcible speech, following the same line of defence,
and contending that it was evident, even from the cha-
racter which the captain had been compelled to give
himself, that he was a most brutal man, and having just
come out of Newgate, where ho had been confined for a
most violent attack on one of the crew of the ship he had
formerly commanded, would never have obtained the
command of the James Campbell, or any other ship, if
he had not been a part owner, and that indeed was also
the true cause of the present charge against the crew;
for, no doubt, had he not been a part owner of the James
Campbell he would have been dismissed by the owners
on the complaint of the crew when they brought the
vessel home, and nothing would have been heard of this
' cruel prosecution against them for piracy—a more un-
founded charge than which had never been made, or
against, to use the captain's own words, a " finer set of
young fellows " than those now on their trial.
Mr. STONE then proceeded to address the jury for the
rest of the crew, when

The foreman told the Learned Counsel they would
not trouble him further, as the jury had made up their
minds to acquit all the prisoners.
Mr. Justice WILLIAMS said that it was of great na-
tional importance that this case should be duly consi-
dered, and therefore he should wish to explain his view
of the law of the case to them, and then, if they remained
of the same opinion, they could at once act upon that
opinion, and acquit the prisoners. If, however, they
should then have any doubt, they could hear the Learned
Counsel.

The Learned JUDGE then stated that, in his opinion,
the great question in this case was whether there
had been any reasonable and just cause in the crew
to apprehend danger to their lives, or danger of
grievous bodily harm from the acts of the cap-
tain. It was quite clear that seamen were
not justified in rising and imprisoning their captain
merely for being capricious, giving unreasonable orders,
or harassing his crew; for if there were, there would at
once be an end to all discipline. There was only one
view in which it could be justifiable for a crew to impri:
son their captain, and one case alone, which was, where
the conduct of the captain was such as to endanger the
lives of the crew, or place them in peril of grievous bo-
dilt• harm. If, therefore, the jury thought that there
was reasonable ground for the crew of the James Camp-
bell to b'-lieve themselves placed in a situation of such
peril as this, from the conduct of the captain, that would
be a justification to the crew for the course they h.id
taken, and it wou!d he their duty to aNuit them; but it;
on the other hand, they did not think that there was
such cause existing, •hey must then hear the Learned
Counsel for the prisoners.
The jury said they did not wish to trouble the Learned
Counsel further. They were all of opinion that there
was reasonable ground for the crew to apprehend vio-
lence from the captain, either to life or person ; they
therefore bsgged to return a verdict of Not Guilty against
all the prisoners.
This verdict was received by a burst of applause in the
court, which was with difficulty suppressed.

NISI PRIUS-COilliT.

THE QUEEN ON THE PROSECUTION OF THE BISHOP OF

EXETBR •. THE EDITOR OF THE WESTERN TIMES.

This case has been made a rernanet, owing to the im-
possibility of its being tried in time for the judges to leave
for Cornwall, the commission day for which county is
Wednesday.
The postponement of this case has given the greatest
disappointment.

HOME CIRCUIT. Maidstone, July 26.
CIVIL SlDE.—(Before Mr. BARON PARKE and a
Special Jury.)
EDWARDS AND ANOTHER (ASSIGNEES) V. COOPER.
This action was brought by the assignees appointed under
a fiat of bankruptcy against a person named Thomas
Young, nominally against the defendant, who is the
sheriff of the city of Canterbury, to recover a number of
bills of exchange, amounting in value to between 7001.
and 8001., and which had been seized by him under an
execution prior to the bankruptcy.
Mr. Bovill and Mr. Prentis were for the plaintiffs; Mr.
M. Chambers and Mr. Willis for the defendant.

This case occupied the attention of the Court up to a
late hour on Monday night, and the circumstances ap-
peared to be of rather a singular character. From the
very concise and clear statement of the Learned Counsel
for the plaintiffs, it appeared that in 1841 a person
named Thomas Young, who at that time lived in London,
married the widow of a leather cutter and currier named
Mutton, at Canterbury, and he proceeded to carry on the
trade until 1846, when he became embarrassed, and one
of his creditors in particular was pressing him for pay-
ment of his account, and threatening to take proceed-
ings in bankruptcy against him, and it appeared that he
eventually did so. At the time of the marriage a Mr.
Lepine, a watchmaker at Deal, and who by the marriage
had become Young's brother-in-law, stood in the posi-
tion of a trustee fur some money that was invested in
the business, and he held a judgment as security for the
payment of that money. It appeared that directly
the creditors began t.,king proceedings to make Young
a bankrupt, he went, in company with Lepine, to a per-
son named Russell, who acted as a sort of law-agent at
Deal, and upon the representation that Young owed him
8001. for money advanced; and for an I 0 U, proceedings
11 were taken at the inst wee of Russell against Young,
and no defence being ofr-red judgment and execution
was speedily obts.ined, and under that execution and the
one held by Lepina as trustee, the whole of the stock in
trade, iurniture, and every other vestige of property,
was swept away, so that the other creditors did not get
a single farthing under the bankruptcy. So effectual
were the proceedings of the parties to realise every
vestige of property that could in any way be turned to
account, that it appeared, in order to render the book
debts, which were to a very considerable amount, avail-
able for their purpose, they induced the parties, instead
of waiting for the -usual period of credit to expire, to
give bills of exchange fur the amounts of their re-
spective debts, payable at a lung date, and as it au•
peared that it was a pxceeding contrary to the custom
of the trade to give bills of exchange under such cir-
cumstances, the parties who ob2ectwl to it were 'educed
to consent by having in imma easel a portion ot• their
debt struck oft and ►n others an extended period given
them for payment, and on the result, the whole of
the debts were transferred into the shape of bills of ex
change, and placed in a cash box. This box and its
oontents ware seised by the sheriff under Lupine's exe •
cation, and when the other creditors came in they found
that nothing remained for them. An application was
read* to the sheriff to give them up to the official as-
signee, but he declined to do so, under the indemnity
of the execution creditor, Lupine, and the pre.;ent action
therefore, although nominally brought against the
sheriff . was in point of fact intended to try the ques-
tien whether the proceedings between the bankrupt and
his brother-in law, with regard to the alleged debt due
to the latter, were bona fide, or whether it was not a
fraudulent arrangement made for the purpose of secur-
ing all the bankrupt's property to his own family and
connexions, in fraud of the other creditors. The
Learned Counsel having stated all the facts in support
of the case for the plaintiff, said that if the jury should
be satisfied by the evidence that the seizure of the pro-
perty was the result of a fraud and juggle between the
parties, the sheriff would be bound by their finding a
verdict for the plaintiffs to restore the property; but if
this should not he made out, but they should believe
that the bankrupt had himself procured his property to
be taken in execution by a favoured creditor, in that
case also it would, by a recent statute, vitiate the
transaction, and the plaintiffs would still be entitled to
the property.
Mr. CHAMDERS, at the close of the plaintiff's case,
took some legal objections to the form of the action, but
they were overruled by the Court; and he then made a
long and energetic address to the jury for the defendant,
urging that the transaction was boni fide, and that he
had merely exorcised his just legal right, and that there
was no evidence of anything like fraud in the transaction.
Mr. Baron PARE having gone through the evidence,
The jury deliberated for some time. when they re-
turned a verdict for the plaintiffs, the amount ofdamages
to be rendered nominal, upon the bills in question being
delivered up.

OXFORD CIRCUIT.—Shrewsbury, July 26.
The commission was opened here late on Saturday
evening by Mr. Justice Coleridge. Business commenced
a,t. ten this morning. There were three causes for trial.
Since the last assizes there have been 2,000 cases dis
in
posed of the county courts of this shire; and there are
200 already entered tor trial for the new county court
for the Shrewsbury district. The calendar contained
the names of thirty prisoners, of whom twelve were
marked as unable to read or write, and none as able to
read and write well. There were only six cases that
could not, and ought not, to have been disposed of at
sessions, the gravest of these being a charge of assault-
ing a gamekeeper with intent to kill him. The rest
were the most paltry petty larcencies we ever recollect
to have seen on an assize calendar. Of the causes en-
tered for trial, one was for special jury, and was fixed
for tomorrow. The other two were disposed of before
three o'clock, and then Mr. Justice Erie assisted in try-
ing prisoners. All the criminal business is expected to
bo over this evening, and so probably might all the civil
too if the special jury had been summoned for to-day.
CROWN COURT.—(Before Mr. Justice COLERIDGE.)
Joseph Wall was indicted for having, on the 29th of
January last, at the parish of Acton Round, feloniously
wounded Abel Martin upon the head and face, with intent
to kid him.

Gri,aveg and Mr. B. Kettle conducted the prose-
cution, and Mr. iluddiestoue the defence.