The Sun.
London, England, 1824-03-11 00:00:00

LAW INTELLIGENCE.

VIC/C-CHANCELLOR'S COURT, MARCH
LITERARY PROPERTY.
SIR R. PHILLIPS AND G. AND W. B. WH fain.
ITTAKER V. - -
BURN AND SIMPKIN AND. MARSHALL.
This was a motion to dissolve an injunction obtained by ter
plaintiffs to restrain the defendants from continuing the a work, entitled A Chronology of the Events of the IMP' .7 n°
.f'l
Gco. 111. and IV. which the plaintiffs alleged had been pow'
from a work of a similar nature published by them. The
tiffs' bill stated that in 1820 Sir R. Phillips had composed 1112
published a book entitled A Chronologyoftheßvents in then
of George 111. and IV. The first ground on which this /nor:
was supported was that the injunction was directed against Nr,
Fairburn as the principal, and against his servants and agents:
and affidavits were put in on his behalf denying any interealin
the supposed piracy, and declaring that if it had ever beat
sold in his shop, such sale was without his authority, know
ledge, or consent : that a man named Holder whom be eni;
ployed, had the sole interest in the work, and must have sold
surreptitiously. In confirmation of this statement, Holder II
self inn in an affidavit, declaring that the entire property thed
book was vested in him ; that he had employed a person none
Maurice to print it on his account; that in a conversation
which he had held with one of the partners in Slierwou4
house, lie had described it as " a little speculation of his own,
a
and they had taken 50 copies of it from him ; that after he Iltr,
received a letter from the plaintiff's' solicitor, desiring birn
stop the sale of the book, he had again called on Messrs. Sher"
wood to ask them if they intended to discontinue the sale,
which they replied in the negative, and ordered 100 additionsd
copies, which were then sent from Maurice's, the printer's, all
for which they gave the following receipt
" Received of Mr. Maurice 100 additional copies Chroafr
logy, on account of Mr. Holder."
Mr. Maurice, the printer, confirmed the affidavit; and
affidavit of Mr. Wade, the compiler, was then read. It stated;
that the defendants' book was not a servile copy of the plaintifrs
work, because it was divided into sections in a different manner'
It adtnitted that the Chronology of Events which occurred befell
the birth of our Saviour, and those which occurred after, were;
nearly the same in both books ; but it alleged that they leer;
both copies from Rees's Encyclopcedia. That the arrangemea,,
of the discoveries and improvements in the defendants boo
differed ft om that in the plaintiffs',work, being all arranged under
one head at the end of the volume ; that the events recorded
were principally collected from Aikin's History of George ,•
the Annual Register, the Gentleman's Magazine, the MontlA
and the Near Monthly Magasines, and other first-rateperiodlea`
works • that the occurrences and phenomena had received con'
siderable additions from " the Criminal Recorder, Bosianal
the Police Reports, and other interesting publications." It wall
also deposed that Messrs. Whittaker had themselves taken.*
number of the defendants' book, which they had sold to their
customers. The defence therefore rested—first, on the fact that
Fairborn had no interest in the publication, and had not authe"
tided or consented to the sale ; secondly, that if he should be
considered civilly liable on account of the acts of his servant!
although those acts might have been performed without /1„7
knowledge or authority, then he contended that the plaintiff
were not entitled to maintain their injunction, as their woo,
was, like his, nothing more than a copy from other publications.
The VICE-CHANCELLOR said, that in his opinion the de-
fendant Fairburn was civilly responsible for the acts of his ser-
vants, and he could therefore be called on to account to the
plaintiffs for the profits resulting from the sale of the work.--
As, however, he was not criminally responsible, the injuction
could not be maintained against him, so as to render him liable
to the penalties attending the breach of it, should his servants
sell another copy in his shop without his knowledge or consent:
On Holder's own confession the injunction could be maintained
against him, and the case might therefore stand over to enable
the plaintiffs to make him a party to the suit.
The case accordingly stood over for that purpose.

A certain Learned Member of the Long Robe
is not more remarkable for the length of his ova"
tions in a great assembly, than for his facility 11. i
coining new words for their embellishment, "
would pardon his coining," said a witty Member,
46 if he would not utter."

Tex; LATE DUEL.—Mr. COOPER, the Gentle"
man who was wounded in a duel fought near 15"
lington, on Monday morning, has been pro-
nounced out of danger. The wounded Gentlone!
is a native of North Wales, and the dispute ore'
ginated about the antiquity of the Gaelic or
Celtic literature ; Capt. Mona's, being a son of
Scotia, w
contendedi
le i‘,, r
Chi!
a s the
pertinaciouslyvenerableness
that of the Principality.
A few evenings ago, a man, dressed and psi"'
ed like Mr. Ststcr.Ata, of Covent-garden Theatre,
in the character of the Dark Warrior, in the new
defended of the
former,
Opera of Native Land, went into a tavern 19
the neighbourhood of the Theatre, and in a harry
called for supper and wine, stating that he had
just left the stage, and was obliged to return
and finish his part in a short time. He supped
and drank the wine with great speed, and in such'
quantities as induced the waiter to think that he
would not sing the remaining songs of the opera to
the accustomed style. "Illy time is come," said he,
suddenly rising, " I left all my money in my
clothes in my dressing-room, but the waiter cart
come over by-and_by, and I'll discharge the bill:
The waiter said he'd much prefer taking the read,
at once, and intimated his wish without ceremony.
It happened that Mr. Sinclair's servant was ia
the tap-room at the time ; and hearing some con-
versation upon the subject between the landlord
and the waiter, entered the room to relieve the
extraordinary distress of his master ; but he
started back upon seeing a tall Irishman in the
Moorish dress, and his face blackened with
soot. The imposture was exposed as soon as de-
tected, but the Irishman let fly a volley of ostb4
at the waiter, and threatened to pay the
bill with his fist. The landlord, at length, ill-
terfered, and said he should shorten the bu-
siness by sending for a constable. The Irish-
man swore that he had no money ; upon
which his hest said, " Well then, leave one of
your gold seals with me, until you can get th&
amount." The proposal was, with much reluct-
ance, agreed to, and the waiter was thus released
from all responsibility. The Irishman, to the sur-
prise of the landlord, never returned for his seal,
and the landlord told the waiter to take it to a
pawnbrokers, and get upon it as much money as
would pay for the supper and wine, but no more.
The waiter delayed a long time ; and his mister,
upon looking after him, found that he was hi the
custody of au officer, for attempting to impose
upon the pawnbroker, by offering an Egyptian-Or
seal, instead of a gold seal, as a pledge.