The Sun.
London, England, 1834-06-14 00:00:00

BUTTEMONT V. TAYLOR.

_. _._ . _...... ,
His LORDSHIP dismissed the motion in this case
without costs.

COURT OF KING'S BENCH, JUNE 13.

(Sittings after Trinity Term before Lord DENMAN.)
" THE OLD COUNTRY GENTLEMAN."
MURRAY V. PURDY.

This was an action brought in the name of Mr.
Murray, of the Edinburgh Theatre, against the
defendant, a composer of music, for invasion of
copyright, in pirating and publishing a song called
" The Old English Gentleman," alleged to be
written by the plaintiff, composed by Dewar, and
sung by Murray and Stanley. It was also sung
and published by Phillips in London after the pub-
lication by the defendant. The plaintiff's song was
published in 1830, and this action, though nominally
brought by Murray, was the action of Robertson
the publisher. The fact was made out by the fol-
lowing letter from Mr. Murray to the defendant :
" To my great surprise I have learned that an action has
been brought in my name against you for pirating a song
called ' The Old Country Gentleman,' and I beg to say
the question is wholly unauthorised by me."
The history of the question appeared from the
evidence to be this :—A humorous old song, called
" The Old Courtier," written two hundred years
ago, and set to music at least one hundred years
since by a composer whose name has been lost, con-
tains the sense and substance of the words in Mr.
Murray's song. The defendant was furnished with
the air by Mr. Crewe, a bookseller, and having
taken some of the words in Murray's song, the
question was whether Murray, as a plagiary, had
acquired that sort of copyright which entitled him
to support an action for piracy.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL opened the case for
the plaintiff.

Sir JAMES SCARLETT for the defendant, de-
scribed the song to be an old composition to which
Mr. Murray or Mr. Robertson could have no ex-
clusive claim.

The jury without hesitation found a verdict for
:he defendant.

COURT OF COMMON PLEAS, JUNE 13.

LILLYNVIIITE V. BOULTER,

This was an action brought by the plaintiff to re-
cover a sum of 291., the amount of a bill given to
the defendant to get discounted.
The plaintiff gave the bill in question, the ac-
ceptance of Mr. Dicas, the attorney, to the de-
fendant, to get discounted, which he never did or
returned it, but alleged that it had been stolen from
him when a robbery was committed in the bar of
his public-house.
For the defendant it was contended that he
placed the bill in question in a box where he kept
300 sovereigns, and by some means or other it was
abstracted from it.--7Verdict,for the plaintiff-291.

INSOLVENT DEBTORS' COURT, JUNE 13.

David Apted, late of Crown-row, Walworth,
grocer, and one of the collectors for the land and
assessed taxes of the parish of St. Mary, Newing-
ton, was opposed by Mr. COOKE on the part of W.
Miller and Warwick Weston, Esqrs., commissioners
of the land and assessed taxes for the east division
of Brixton. He was supported by Mr. WOOD-
ROFFE.

The insolvent was questioned as to his debts, and
discharged as to all except that due to the opposing
creditor.

The court adjourned till Monday.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

MANSION-HOUSE

A man named Wiliam Clark, a parishioner of
Bishopsgate, charged Mr. Booker, one of the
parish officers, with having stopped his half-pay as
an artilleryman in the service of the East India
Company.

Mr. Clark was allowed Is. a-day for past services,
and, determined to do good, he had, about a year
and a half ago, departed from the vices of the town,
and betaken himself to the country, where he was
prevent'd from continuing the work of benevolence
he had undertaken by the sudden stop of his means
of living.
Mr. Booker said that Mr. Clark's half-pay had
been stopped because that gentleman had thought
proper, upon the pretence of a call from above, to
desert his family, the consequence of which was that
his wife, although she inhabited a large house in the
parish, was not only unable to pay the rates and
taxes, but the parish would be obliged actually to
relieve her necessities.

The LORD MAYOR—Why did you leave your
wife to starvation, Mr. Clark?
Mr. Clark—l can't say, my lord, as I deserted
her or any body else what you call deserted, but I
left town to preach the gospel to sinners.
The LORD MAYOR—Are you not aware that
you commit a very great sin in abandoning your
wife ? Mr. Clark—Show me the body, man,
woman, or child, as arn't a sinner, and I'll go back.
Don't you tell me of sin ; we are all on us sinners.

The LORD MAYOR—But you are an extra
sinner, Mr. Clark, and must be punished if you per-
severe in the crime of leaving your wife without the
means of existence. Mr. Clark—The Lord will
assist her ; I'm sure I always remember her in my
prayers.
The LORD MAYOR—But you must help her with
your halfpay. How could you think of running
away from her for a year and a half without settling
half the money upon her ? Mr. Clark—l divided
with her as long as I could ; but I found I was
obliged to preach to mankind, to show them the
way they was to go to glory ; so away I goes. But
I was deceived by a person as goed along wi' me.
The LORD MAYOR—What was that person ?
Mr. Clark—He was in my line. I preached and
he preached, but he received the money and he
gived me nothing whatsomever.
The LORD MAYOR—Then you consulted your
own good in a worldly sense in taking up this new
calling? Mr. Clark—l never got nothing. Don't
say I looked for the goods of this world ; but any
man as preaches wants a summit of wittles arter it,
and so I was obliged for to stop a little with my
wife's allowance. I used to fetch her every farden I
yarned some time ago, so she oughtn't for to say
anything.
Mrs. Clark declared that though her husband had
chosen to give religious instruction he was by no
means particular in telling the truth, and she did
not think that his congregation, after hearing him
cracking his throat for an hour, would be so hard-
hearted as to leave him as he left her.

Mr. Clark—You are all wrong. I wants to
save sinners, and I'll do it without axing for the va-
lue of a halfpenny.
Mr. Booker—He had better, my Lord, take his
wife along with him, as he is not willing to make
her an allowance.

Mrs. Clark objected to such an arrangement, as
she knew he could insist upon living upon her
earnings, so that she would run the risk of what
she called a " double mess of starvation," hard work
and no wittles.

The LORD MAYOR—But you have not told us,
Mr. Clark, where you have been all this time.
Mr. Clark—Where have I been ! Pooh, that's
all past and gone into eternity, my Lord. You see,
my Lord, we can't call back the time as goes,
though we can call back that as is coming.
Mr. Booker—He boasted to his congregation
wherever he went that he left his wife and home
for their sakes, and if we do not stop his pay she
must become a burden to the parish. It is a trick
now amongst idle fellows to go about talking non-
sense, which they pass off for religious inspiration
by introducing scriptural phrases.
The Loan MAYOR—He must give half of his
half-pay to his wife, and he may as well consent as
be compelled.
Mr. Clark—l must, must I? The LORD MAYOR
—No doubt of it ; and you had better give it with
a good grace.
Mr. Clark—What ! the half on it ? Well, let
her have it in the name of the Lord, and the
Lord prosper her with it, for he tempers the wind
to the shorn lamb.