The Sun.
London, England, 1802-08-30 00:00:00

LEWES SCRUTINY.

Eleaiori took place on the sth and 6th of-
July, t i3Ot.
Candidat6:Laighe Fion. Lord Fit,Art. Ostoß:tE,
Wi(km, the Old Member, and Capt: Sii_ELLEr,
The numbers at the Close of the l'uif were ;
Lord F. Osborne, - 214
Mr. Slielleyi - - - 179
:Ur. Kemp, - - - - 1173

.4 Scrutiny was then detnanded for Mr. Kr_rstr ;
being-granted by the Returning Officers, it corn-
menced on Monday the 16th instant, and term's_
nated on Monday the 231 instant.
Counsel for Mr.- SEIELLEY, Mr. MARIerATT
Agents, Mr. KELL, and Mr. HILL, ofLewes.
Counsel for Mr. KEM?, Mr. Liitox, of New.
Square, Lincoln's-Inn ; Agents, Mr. GWYNNE, of
Lewes, and Mr. M. DEAIcE, of Carey-street, Lifi.
coln's-Inn.

At-the dose of
.the Scrtitny the numbers were'ct
Lord F. Osboine _ 208
Mr. Shelley .;• •• 169
Mr. Kemp - 164.
Much legal discussiOn On various points took
place on the Scrutiny.—The Returning Officers
had for their legal Adviser Mr. Co3tra.Top, the Bar:.
rister, who assisted Mr. MAI NWAR ING at the last
Middlesex EleCtion.
I(Mk'S. Counsel contended, that the Right
of Elettion in LeJes was vested in Inhabitants
Householders, legal& left/ed, paying Scot and
hot, and to this position the Agents ot Lord FRAN-
CIS OSBORNE assented. Mr. SHELLET's Counsel)
on the other hand, asserted, the right was in Inha'..
bitants, 'Householders, paying Scot and Lot, with-
out the additicinal qualification of being legal?"
settled.

In support of the former position, it was proved
that it had been. the usage of the Borough, .at all
Ele&ions, to rejet the votes of persons who resided
in Lewes, under a Certificate from any Parish out
of the Borough, but to admit pers(44 to vote, who
.resided in any one of the Parishes of Lewes, under
a Certificate from another of those Parishes. Hence
it was inferred, and indeed such was the universal.
opinion. of the oldest inhabitants in Lewes, that a
legal ettldtnent in some or one of the Parishes in
the Borough, as well as residence as an Householder,,
was a necessary qualification. This point would
have been established, had a pamphlet, written on
the occasion of a disputed Eleaion in 1734, been
admitted in 'evidence. On that occasion, a i'etitiOn
to the House of Commons being presented, ,and the
House deciding a patticolar point against the Peti_
tioners, they abandoned the Petition, and the House
then determined in whom the right of Eledion was,
vested.

As the retruning 'Officers 'did not think them-
selves competent Li decide this question of Right,
the contest became much narrowed, and Mr. K.Emt.
was consequently induced to relinquish the Prosecu-
tion of the Scrutiny ;Mud his claim to the return is
now, therefore, reserved for the decision of a C,utn,
mittee of the House of Commons.
At the close of the Scrutiny Mr. KEMP addressed
the Eledors : after thanking them for paSt favours
he observed, that he had represented LeweE more
than zo years, during which time he had pre-.,erved
their honour and his' ownL---He had been teinprtt,
,but had ever resisted—He had been a Member in
substance., not irtformz-Lnever pairing off, 'but mak-
ing:a'point of attending his duty in Parliathent ;
that they were Pebtors to him for -hip time-spent
in their service, and he to them'for the 'gratifita.
tion, the honour Of representing th&n 'had -doer
his feelings. A temporary interruption had taken
place between them as'ConititUents, and him. their
Representative; but he .was-.not the leis Ilttaelled
to-the-Borough, nor' were his whites for their-suc-
cess and prosperity less sir.cere.

The extra duty ,in g.Osia on Tar has been re..
duced from 96 cop.-per ton to 13; making the
whole export duties no move th;:n 2; cop.:per ton.
At Archangel, &c., the price of that article hai in
consequence advanced: to 29,0 cop. per ton. The
stock on hand, both, of the last year and prevent
summer,s is very large, so that a t&iuttion is ex..
petted, the more especially as the deniand from Eng-.
land is. greatly- reduced

'Lately was married, at St. Anne's,. Westminster,
Mr. BRADLEY, jun. of Reading, to Miss L4wa
RENCE, of the same place.

.At the Assizes for the county of Somerset,, on
Wednesday last, Miehtiel Raxter, John Green, and
JohnVei mara, were tried on a charge of com-
mitting a rape*on a young woman named Sexey
Hicks, who swore that on the 4th of M.iy, as she
Was travelling on foot from Wells to Star Easton,
the; Prisoners, with. several others, who were all
soldiers, and were escorting .a baggage waggon,
-took her into a lane and effetted their purpose. The
evidence of this woman was contradi,sed in the Most
material points. Capt. MORLAND gave the three
prisoners a most excellent character ; -they had
fought under him, and were as remarkable for hr.,
manity as for courage. The Judge said, nothing
could affeet Baxter or M‘Naniara, and as to Green,
the evidence, against him was vague and contradic-
tory. The Jury acquitted the two former,
_and,
found Green Guilty, The Judge desired them to
re-consider their verdil. They did, and persisted in
it, but recommended Green to mercy.

At Liv:erpool, a child, a few days since, playing
with the stopper of a vinegar cruet, accidentally
swallowed it, when the bulb of the stopper,. being
.ttiolargA to pass through, and closing the orifice of
the windpipe, the child was suffocated before it
could he withdra,...ll::

great number of Witnesses proved the differ-
ent aCts Of Ownership stated by the Counsel to have
been exercised over thi'S hedge, by the former Pro-
prietors of the Brandsforth Estate : they differed,
however, as to the custom of the Country deciding
the property of a Boundary-Hedge in the manner
Mr.eARK had stated : two of them said, that whose.
ever prOperty the hedge in question might be, yet
two or three of the trees which were. the subjeCt of
.the present action, stocd at least two feet removed
from the hedge on Mr. Russel's side of it. •
Mr. 'formic, on the pip of the' Defendant, ,
said, that this last piece of evidence, extraded by.
the Plaintiff's Counsel from the :Witnesses, only
shewed a shabby attempt on the part of. the Plaintiff
to steal a Verdia, by proving a minute damage,
when the action professed, to be for a serious
.one ;
those attempts, however, generally shewed a.:siuk-
ing cause, and, in the present instance, he trusted,
would be,unavailing. As to general aEs of Owner-
Ship, he could prove as many of them on the part
of those from whom the Defendant derived his title,
as the Plaintiff had proved : they too.had cut-down
trees in former periods, 'and clipped the hedge when
they thought proper ; and as for repairing it, he
had many more instances to prove, of the hedge
having_ been repaired by the Defendant,, and those
from whom he claimed, than the Plaintiff bad pro.
' duced on his side. He concluded by submitting it to
his Lordship, as well as*.the Jury, that if it appeared
that there was no general custom of the Country,
determining the property, there were as many ads
of Ownership on the one side as on theother,; and
that the parties had always Ted this hedge as
tenants in common ;. in such case the present actionwould not lie.
A great ,number of 'Witnesses proved the different
alts of Ownership he had stated :'some of them' con. .
tradiaed,, in point of fad, what one or_ two of the
Plaintiff's Witnesies had sworn, and all of them
were unacquainted with that principle which the
Plaintiff had relied on, as the'custOm of the Country. •
Mr: Justice CHAMBitE said, that, in his-opinion,-
neither of the parties had an exclusive right to talk
of shabby attempts on the-side of the other. When
it was considered that the present aaion was be-
tweert Gentlemen of Considerable fortune, who pro-
fessed to despise the value
.of.the trees in question,
but were only anxious to determine the right of
property, he considered it at least as shabby on the
pall of the Defendant to catch at little points of
non,su;t, and to contend that this adios was not
• properly brought, as it was on the part of the Plain-
tiff to enaeavour to steal a verdia, by proving that
one or two of the trees,
.cut by the Defendant's or-
ders, lay' two feet from this Boundary-hedge, and on
the Plaintiff's side : if a verdkt was given for._ the
value of those one or two trees, it could
.haVe no
sort of bearing, no more than a non suit. on the
'other side would 'have upon the question which the
parties professed theitiselves so desirous to bring to
an issue, whose property this Bouudary-hedge teally
was for his part he wished that, instead of an
aaion of trover, some other 'species of action had
been brought, in which a vertHt given Would be
more decisive of the right : as,the case now stood,
he thought the Jury had better not pay. too much
attention to those nice and hair-breadth distinctions,
which it might have been the duty of Counsel to •
suggest ; but which, if supposed to form the basis
of their verdia, would, instead of deciding any
thing, lay open divide:field for future -litigation :
-he thought they had better form their decision on
the broad principle of comparing the credibility of
the nmnber of Witnesses on the one side, and the
ads they proved, with those produced on
,the other
side. His Lordship then summed up, with great
accuracy; and at considerable length, the evidence
' given by the prodigious number of Witnesses, that
had been called in this cause.---Verdi ?for Defendant

-LONDON ; Printed by BUCHANAN Witt }-1, LAN, (of Bow-street, Covent-Garden); and Published by WILLIAM ARMICER SCRIPPS, '(of Horse.
At the Suti.Offiet) NO. 111 2, 'Strand ; where Adverristmenth Ordcir for the raper,• Lefteri for the &direr, &c, (post.i4