The Sun.
London, England, 1841-04-10 00:00:00

PRIVY COUNCIL.-(THIS. DAY.)

The Jalicial Committee again assembled this morning

The SOLICITOR•GENBRAL resumed his address in the
case of

WOOD ♦ND OTHERS V. GOODLAKE AND HITEDINGS.

After reading the communication which had tbken place
between the executors and his client respectirg the Codicil,
he contended tha,, from their perfect knowledge of the
hand-writing of Mr. Wood, and the probable disposition of
his property, and from their conduct when they in.
spected the document, at that time they had no doubt of
its authenticity. When they inspected it they expressed
no surprise. It was unfortunate that almost every step

taken by the executors was open to suspicion. Mr. Helps
desired to be present at the search among the documents
of the deceased, but an application being made by him for
that purpose, it was refused. 'The Mayor of Gloucester,
who was interested in the property merely as a member of
the corporation, was to be present, but Mr. Helps, a re-
lation of the deceased, and one deeply interested in the
search, was refused. It was not, therefore, a fair and open
sea ch. The parties were well aware of the inference which
would naturally he drawn from their conduct, for with re-
gard to the burning of papers: they had concealed facts;
had they burned them believing bona fide that they
were useless and of no consequence, vihen it appeared
that they were of the utmost importance, they would
have come forward at once and told what they had
done. Instead of acting in that open and candid manner
the evidence showed that Mr. Chadborn actually denied
that any testamentary papers had been burned at all. The
Learned Gentleman read theevidence given upon this point
in the Court below, from which it appeared that although
Mr. Chadborn had deposed that no papers had been
burned, the fact was proved by the servants of the de-
ceased, and that the respondents rad afierwards admitted
that they had burned papery, one of which was an iastruc-
don for a disposition of the property, and was not that a
testamentary paper?
Lord LYNDHURST—What led them to make such an ad-
mission—to admit that they had burned a paper of a testa-
mentary nature?

The ATTORNEY-GENERAL—In answer to the general
allegation, they disclosed the whole truth upon their oaths.
The SOLICITOR-GENERAL denied that they had done so.
The question was not whether the papers destroyed were
useless or not ; in such a case it was requisite that every
paper, if it was in any form, or in any way could be con-
strued to be, at all a testamentary paper, should have been
preserved. The admissions of Mr. Chadborn had not

teen brought out by any regard to truth—they were made
in the first place in the fear that some other person had
given some information, and he wotild put it to
their Lordships whether Mr. Chadborn, who had been
in the profession for 27 years in Gloucester, had
trade the admissions in such a manner, and at such times
as tl show that they were the promptings of an extreme
desire that truth stionld be known. He confidently
stated thst the whole evidence showed an anxious desire
to conceal the fact of burning any papers ; and when that
could no longer be kept in darkness, the admissions were
made in such a manner as to show that much was kept back.
Th case which these parties put forward, was that they
were entitled to probate of these three papers, as bciog the
last will and testament of the testator. They alleged that
the papers marked) A and B were duly attested by three
witnesses. Their Lordships would observe that the par-
ties who made that statement were deeply interested in the
matte.r. The attesting witnesses positively denied that
the paper was net producei in the presence of the par-
t;es. On the contrary, the testator was represented to
have taken it into his band, and in the presence of
the attesting witnesses, to have stated, " I publish
this as my last will and testament." It was
said that he then gave the paper to Chadborn, and said
" Take Cate of this," and that it was put into a cashbox in
_ _

ti,e room where the testator was in the habit of keeping
gold and notes, and that with the sanction of the testator
it was afterwards removed up stairs to his private bank-
ing-room. Now, their Lordships would observe that the
servants who had in the first instance, before ten or
twelve respectable parties, denied that any papers were
destroyed or burned, afterwards on their oaths stated that
they were, and the only object appeared to be to endeavour
to throw discredit upon the testimony cf these persons.
The Learned Counsel then proceeded at some length to
comment upon the evidence of the subscribing witnesses.
Now, the evidence of Mr. Hyatt as to the handwriting must
he received with considerable caution. He received
from Cbadborn a statement of the manner in which
he had been seat for to receive instructions about the
preparation of Vie will—that he was desired to come the
following day for further instructions, but having fre-
gee qtly received similar directions which had come to
nothing, he neglected to go; that, having been suddenly
seat for, he left a party, dressed as he was, and drew up the
will on the moment; and, in short, there was so much of
detail given to lull suspicion that it was clear a very con-
siderable impression was intended to be produced upon
the witness. It appeared that Mr. Hyatt had some rea-
son to believe that Mr. Wood would remember him in his
a ill, but his name not having been mentioned in the
codicil, it was' natural that he should view a codicil so
drawn up with very great jealousy and suspicion, and state
that " he hardly knew what to say, and could not
tell whether it was his handwriting or not, and that
it looked so badly he could not think it was his."
The next uitnes to the handwriting, Flicks, said that be
did net believe the signature of Mr. Wood to the codicil
wi.s in his handwriting. Both these witnesses gave their
evidence in such a way as showed that they were nut form-
ing an opinion merely upon the character cf the hand-
writing, but that they took it in connexion Faith certain
other circumstances as to the probability of the testator
having acted in a particular way. Such testimony must
certainly be received with considerable caution ; and then
they had the evidence of the engraver, who stated that
fac-similes of the signature were made " for the purpose of
discovering the author of the forgery." It would appear
from that what the animus of the witness was. It was
clear that be believed that a forgery had been com-
mitted, and the fac-similes were taken for the
purpose of having it generally understood and
believed that a forgery had been committed.
The Learned Judge had commented very strongly upon
the impropriety of allowing fac similes to be made of such
a document; it was calculated to create a prejudice in the
minds of the witnesses, and might have led to the destruc-
tion of the document itself. He (the Solicitor-General)
challenged his Learned Friend to show any precedent for
resorting to such a proceeding, and he thought it looked
somewhatlike a deception upon the Court, because it com-
menced by a direct tampering with the witnesses. One
witness otsbelieved the handwriting, because the word
" council" was written for '6 counsel," another because a
sum was written in figures instead of et length, aad
in short, it was from corresponding circumstances, and
not fr,,m any consideration of the character of the writing,
that the evidence of most of the witnesses was deduced.
All the witnesses, as the Learned Judge had observed,
had come to the consideraiion of the handwriting of the
codicil impressed with the conviction that it was, as Mr.
Chadborn had designated it, " an atrocious forgery." The
Court could, therefore, place no reliance upon testimony
so given. Again, a class of witnesses had denied the
handwiting, err the ground that the letters were not formed
in the manner in which Mr. Wood usually wrote them.
They relied upon the inspection and examination of other
books and documents written by the testator, but when
these. documents were reluctantly produced in Court
they established the utter fallacy of the statements
of the witnesses. Was he not, therefore, justified
in asserting that the case had been get up by
fraud, misrepresentation, and in breach of good faith,
and that the difficulties of the case, as it at present stood,
had been produced by the attempt to deprive' parties of
:he property to which they were justly entitled. If their
Lordships were insensible to the mode in which the c Ise
had been brought before them—if they omitted t 3 look at
the quarter from wl ence the witnesses were produced,
and the bras that had evidently been given to their minds,
they would forget all those points which could guide them
to a proper consideration of the case.
The case was proceeding when we went to press.

LLO YD'S SH IPPING-(THIS DAY.)

LONDON, APRIL 10.--Wind this day at noon N., fresh
westerly breeze, and cloudy weather.
DRAL, APRIL 9.—Wind W. N. W.—Arrived the Lady Ken-
neway, from Calcutta ; Reliance, ditto ' • Greenlaw, ditto ;
Lady Hilda, Barbadoes; Zante, Trieste; John Blake, Trieste;
Tvso, Christie, Honduras. Arrived from the River the Pa-
cific, Coffin, for the South Seas ; Tync, New Zealand ; Bur
hampooter, Sydney ; Elizabeth, Demerara ; Velocity, Que-
bec ; General Hewett, ditto ; John, ditto ; Lady Wood, Prince
Edward's Island; Egham, Lisbon. Sailed the Science, for
the Mauritius; St, George, Launceston; Lawrence, Foster,
Calcutta; Dowthorpe, Cape of Good Hope; Protector, De-
merara ; Camerons, Young, Berbice ; Ruby, May, St. Kitt's ;
Lady Seaton, Tann, Montreal; Hercules, Renaut, Quebec;
Prince George, ditto ; Mentor, ditto ; Edward, ditto ; York-
shire, ditto; Romanoff, Miramichi ; Naiad, Constantinople;
Mercury, Valparaiso; Vestal, Mosley, Quebec.
PORTSMOUTH, APRIL 9.—Wind N. W. to W.—Arrived the
John, Daniel, from Youghal ; Eleanora, Jackson, Calcutta ;
Jane, Havers, Sydney, New South Wales.
COWES, APRIL B.—Arrived the Doran, Loveta, from Ma-
nilla ; Victoria, from Matanzas, with rudder damaged, loss of
sails, &c. ; Isabella, Blythe, Mauritius.
DARTMOUTH, APRIL 6.—Arrived the Charles, Quint, from
Havannah, leaky. Sailed the Maria, Cleet, for Quebec ;
Buckingham, ditto ; Calypso, Millman, Richebucto ; Ame-
thist, Miramichi ; Malabar, Bombay.
PLYMOUTH, Aran. variable.—Arrived the Hebe,
Glenelg, Bombay ; Herondale, Coast of Africa.
Stag, from Rio Janeiro ; Roslyn Castle, Quebec ; Tweed, do.;
Asia, do. ;
Arrived off the Lady Reboa, from- St. Michael's ; British
a
Queen, do.
FALMOUTH, Aram B.—Wind S.W.—Arrived the Lucre-
tia, from Bumos Ayres ; Andus, Brocklebank, Pernambuco ;
Escot, Hall for Boston, after being in long. 26, very leaky,
withpern
almosbsucoof sails,
ustdisch
Elizabeth, discharge
Barbadoes.
e; Amelia, Mullnolland,
for
OFF PORTLAND, APRIL 9.—The Constellation, Leroce,
from Calcutta. . _ _
Sailc an
Sailed must
e

Burster, APRIL B.—Arrived the Coral, from St. Michael's.
Sailed the Great Western, for New Ycrk ; Aurelian, Quebec ;
Volumbario, sit. Übes.
KING'S Roan, Aram 9.—Put back the Arabian, for Syd-
ney, New South Wales.
.SCILLY, Amu. 2.—Sailed the Abeona, for Havannall.
ST. IVES, APRIL B.—The Briton, from Newport, to Ply-
mouth, foundered about 10 E. N.E. off the Head last night.
Crew saved.
LIVERPOOL, APRIL 9. —Wind N. N. W.—Arrived, the
Jackson, Jackson, from Laguna ; Countess Arran, Charleston ;
Bradshaw, ditto; Franconia, J. Marks, Susqueliannah ; Phi-
ladelphia, Albtna, Sierra Leone
Patrang, Palermo ;
Despique, dos Amigos, Lisbon; Thomas Carly, Buenos Ayres;
Thomas Leach, ditto ; Charles Jones, Cnba. Sailed the
;
John Francis, Kent, for Quebec; Isabella, Granby, Gibraltar.
Put back, the Llama; La Guayra. Sydney, for Jamaica ; Jo-
sephine, Miramichi ; Robert A. Parke, Quebec ; Sapphire,
Montreal; Penrith, ditto. Arrived off, the George Canning,
Mauritius. The Mary Elizabeth, from China, which was on the
Skerries, and afterwards taken to Holyhead, has been towed in
here. The Camilla has arrived from Rathlin Island, from the
Matthew Bell, on shore there. The Sidney, which sailed for
Jamaica on the 7th inst., has put back, having been on shore
in the Victoria Channel, and must dis Charge. The Harvest
Home, from St. John's to this port, which was ou shore on
Heelsraouth,las been got off; and taken into St. Judetvall
Roads.