The Sun.
London, England, 1826-03-13 00:00:00

NORTHERN CIRCUIT-LANCASTER.

VISEY v. REDMAYNE AND ANpTMER MA.CitrriATE.
This was an action for an assault committed by the defen4
dams in their capacity as magistrates for the County Palatine
of Lancaster, on the plaintiff by the,commitment 'of her person
to the prison of the House of Cartectian ftir Preatonoin a
charge of Bastardy. The case excited an :extraordinary de-
grarl ee of interest, and the Court was filled; to an otstrflew at an
ey hour.
Tee ATToIO (Mr; Scarlett) *tilted-- the case
to the jury,—The plaintiff in this action was leyoung woman
who had attracted the attention of-a gentleman by whom she
,had happened to have two children, and who still enjoyed his
protection, whose name he would leave hiS learned friend (Mr.
Sergeant Cross) to make such comments uponas he.pleased,
if it could answer his purpose. Tire learned gentleman then
cited the Act of the first of James, which warranted the com-.
mitment to prison in cases of bastardy, for a period not exceed-
ing twelve months, nor for a less period than six weeks ; and
the subsequent Acts of James and Elizabeth, as also that of the
fiftieth George 111., chapter first, in cases of bastardy, which
Act of James gave the Magistrates poiver to discharge out of
custody, where it was shewn that the persons so committed had
acted with prom iety subsequent to her commitment, but then
this Act did not authorize Magistrates to commit, on mere
suspicion. Even the great Lord Kenyon, doubted such su
rogative in any case, under the Vagrant Act. inn Ins Lord.
ship cited Palmer's case to the contrary. • in this instance the
warrant was illegal, and the gaoler would have beten. perfectly
justified in not receiving her into his custody, no conviction
having taken place. Here In the plaintiff7's mast an aptilica-
tion bad been made to the Magistrates tier her liberation, but
they contained unmoved and inexorable, nor wouNiabey abate
a single jot of her sentence until the Court of King's Bench
had been moved 'to set the commitment aside, and When they
found that they could not help themselves, they ordered her
to be discharged out of custody, and it was for this assault
she now sought, at the hands of the Jury, a compensation
in damages, for those wrongs she had sustained. and the pri-
vationa she had endured so long, and which called, tar exem.
plary damages.- ,The Learned Gentleman then called witnesses
to move the fact.

The defendant called no witnesses, and Mr. Serge:lnt Cnoss
rose and commenced his address to the Jury, by 4aimounting
on the speech of his Learned Friend the Attorney-tlieneral, and
ridiculing the will for exemplary damages Ice an unqualified
abuse, as he called it, of an untbrunate woman. No I tiol this
action was not brought by the plaintiff from her nwnalesire to
vindicate her character, for she had none to lose. No, she was
only the nominal party ; who was the real plaintiff it did not
require much sagacity to learn ? why was ft any other than
her prochain anti, her avowed protector, the gallant Colonel
who had been found at the very respectable house aim
tuate on St. George's-quay; he who had himself,'too,
,com-
mitted two women to prison under 'similar circumstances.
What was the case ? Why the Magistrates had doneabcir duty,
.and but for an error in judgment, the power to imprison would
never have been questioned. The Jury had heard the case for
the plaintiff; and a precious one it was 1 In what an amiable
light had his Learned Friend's client been placed. Let the Jury
look to the house where the plaintiff resided take a peer at the
Colonel behind the scenee; and then add the bill of indictment
with it, then what a picture had they before them. Then came
the question of damages. Now what was the phatiff entitled
to ask at their hands ?—nominal only, if any. The Learned
Gentleman concluded at length by calling on the Jpry to give
the least damages they could.
Baron Hummel:. in his Charge to the Jury, seid,itlitit it was
clear that the plaintiff must recover a verdict, bin whet &Maps
they would assess for the assault complained of was, pheir parti-
cular province ; that the warrant for her commitment to the
house of correction, when no convictiOa had takiin ifface, Was
clearly illegal in point of law—of this there could be bp doubt.
The Imprisonment she had antrered hail been eleven weeks,
and it was for this imprisonment the action hail been brought.
It would he absurd, however, to attribute to there respectable
gentlemen, and these magistrates too, any malice against the
plaintiff: They had, in exercise of the power given them in the
Act of James t., committed a clerical error, nothing more ;
that they possessed the rightto commit was not doubted : there
could' be no personal ill-will or malice in their sending the
plaintiff to gaol; and if they believed it to be as he thought, it
was a mere error in judment—then it would be hard to visit
such error by awarding heavy damages, and in his opinion it
Would have been far better it the plaintiff had not hreuglit her
action at all—there had been a most melancholy disclosure of
facts that did the plaintiff's canna nor Colonel Bradshaw any
credit. the Lordship, after recapitulating the evidence, said,
that the Jury woaid tal'e into their congitioration all the circum-
stances of the case, and give such temperate damages as the
nature of the case warranted.
The Jury found for the piaintiff—Dameiges, One Fitrthlng.

Stqlotts apptrehensioils of (li4t urba tire li:lve ttoeti
for some time felt at Mold„ in Flintshire, ;t town at, twelve
miles from Chester. It appears that it Cornl4l Coninany POMO
time ago undertook the working of lead mines in that noigh-
boorhotxl, anti introduced it great number of their own coun-
trymen into their works, from aniong4 whim, sh 4 made as
many CaCaptains(ovenes‘rs) a., were neeessitrY for Ihe whnle "IP-
cern. The Welch. miners thought. the, VorAi'll t..11"1118 "1"
voured their own countrymen : anti also ingac' u'Jw‘lt AtPPI2"
week the Welehmen went -fri, it. brislY to the wcrks.. where they
from them, which went into their own pee,'" " '‘.""44.aY
singled out one of the most; obnexiOui,gf flit cr,-, ,1,4 i-
;listed on his quittinv the,rotintryonor rooducte., Lin. through
the tnwn of .110141. i. ftitii ,Ituving-jstit him faitily fn! i the road,
Oiled no further violence. ,11rn 11'21 tii.lT, huNi±,ver, the
NVelchnicil refused to wittsl strut "Iv '''''''l3'n /in haw. not
dared to do s (T. en
io ii,jintl htts Ir g occa,:iunnny ii,,,Mrnhled in
large bodies. and v's.o4loti th''L" dekr'n'tthtion not,ta return
to their work till all their rricYnnees rire t,-edret,,,,a ,veamity,
of preettutiminet'e been thought ne,cssary by the cirvil power.
ehestei to Mold, where,they ore ut present quarttTed.
and about rit.t men or the 60th !lino enlpq Vr I -vu -
.1 , let irom .n.