The Sun.
London, England, 1828-11-20 00:00:00

The ATTORNSY-GENERAL then proceeded to ad-
dress the. Jury for the defendants. The action
which they had to try, and which had called them
out of the pleasant groves and meadows of Hertford-
' shire, to sit, if he might use an expression of Burke,
In metaphysical abstraction and solitude, separated
from the rest of the world, related to a very valuable.
pro
ungainlyper
ty in Cornwall, which, though it was rough
and
in
mineral productions. In the course of the observe-
was
exrnareamnyelyprliacchesanind ibtseaeuxritfeurinairil apt.:
pantieoanrsacvel:ich lie should feel it his duty to offer to
their consideration, he should be under the necessity
of travelling down a dark period of five centuries,
and perhaps more, which his Learned Friend, who
would produce no title for his client, and who would
not show quo nonzine or quo jure he held it, seemed
to think might be got over very elliptically; and
when he had brought his travels from the ultinut
hule of Doomsday, at which he should commence
them, down to the period in which the ill-treated
Joshua Rowe, whom his Learned Friend had placed
in inisericordia, had obtained his title to this p:e_
perty in the year 1814, he was disposed to think,
that with the mass of evidence which he had to sub•
mit to them, he should he censurable for taking up too
little of their time rather than for taking up too
much. Before, however, he proceeded to Dooms-
day, he would venture to make one or two observa-
tions ; and the first should be, that if a man chose to
buy a law-suit with his property, he had a perfect
right to do so ; but if he did so, he had no right
!subsequently to complain that the law-snit had been
rotqht against him. Now he would sboxe,,that in
the year 1812, two years before Mi. Rowe taurchased
the property of Lernellon, he was aware that copper
was found in the East Crinnis mine, which, as ap-
peared from the evidence of that Cornish tactician
whom they bad seen in the witness-box, was only
twenty-four yards from the locus in quo this ore had
been seized. He would shew that Mr. Rowe knew
that all copper in the Duchy of Cornwall was held
under lease from the Duchy, and that he had been
examining in the Duchy office, and the books of the
Duchy Assession Courts, for the purpose of learning
the nature of the rights and tenures of the Duchy
lands. He would likewise shew that Mr. Rowe was
acquainted with all the circumstances of the locality
in which he had sunk his shaft, or atleast of one
contiguous to it by thirty or forty yards, and he
would shew this by the best of all evidence—a letter
written by Mr. Rowe to Mr. Rashleigh, in 1812,
congratulating him that he, as lessee of the
Duchy of Cornwall, was entitled to all the ore
found in the East Crinuis mine. The learned Attor-
ney General then requested the attention of the
Court whilst he shortly described the Nature of the
Duke of Cornwall's rights iu the Duchy of Corn-
, wall. The Duchy was founded by Royal charter on
the 17th of March, in the 11th year of the reign of
Edward 111., Anna .Doziini la" It had been de-
cided in the Prince's case, reported in 8 Coke, that
this charter had the force of an Act of Parliament.
There was a peculiar limitation in the charter us to
the enjoyment of the Duchy,—namely, that it should
go only to the first-born son of the Kiug. When there
was HO Duke of Cornwall, the Duchy merged in
the Crown. Of course that merger would take
place where the first-born son died, leaving his fa-
ther the reigning monarch, or where the reigning
monarch had no son. The Duke of Cornwall could
not alienate as against the Crown, nor could the
Crown as against the Duke. Front the period of
the institution of the Duchy down to the present
time, this splendid endowment bad been held by
individuals hearing the title of Dukes of Cornwall
for 261 years, and by the Crown (when there were
no Dukes of Cornwall under the circumstances he
bad mentioned) far 230 years. At all times the
legal title, or fee, remained in the Crown. The
temporary existence of the Duke of Cornwall took
only the freehold interest from the Crown painelie
he was the Duke of Cornwall. He now came
to the question of the plaintiff's right to the
land. At the outset he would state, that it was
not his intention to deny that the plaintiff, as
a tenant in the Duchy, had an indefeasible right
to renew his holding of land, or take out a new
cepit every seven years; or, in other words, to go
on renewing the tenure which he held at rents
and services under the Duke. His Learned Friend
bad called the land in dispute Rowe's Lemellon,
after the plaintiff's name. It was well that the
Jury should not be misled upon this point, although
it was not of great importance. The real name,
however, of the locality was Nancy Mellon. Thin
name was to be found applied to the land iq (pee,
tion during the course of five centuries, 'down to
the present time, in the rolls of a court peculiar to
the Duchy of Cornwall, called the Assession Cowie
In those documents Nancy .lellon appearedflouriah-
ing, proprio vigore, unalloyed by the plaintiff's baser
matter. The plaintiff's proposition was,
that he
was entitled to the minerals co:Liained in the laud
which he held. His (the Attorney-Gemini's) pro-
position was, that accer•ling to the plaintiff's
tenure
and the custom of the manor, he had only an inhe-
ritable quantity of the estate, which did not amount
tboasaenreiiiiuihreer: inheritable freehold. fbreeechaollde.dft
erwTPhaheetaprieltaemi,ntitgihffhe'rs was a
it vas
less than a freehold, for its burps and roots were
renewable every seven years.
.In 1774, Nancy Mel-
The assessional courts
ASl•tel.rmern:elusd every t:lAs'ietvheanm;eaurn:
fbltcoooayrnm‘lvNtell:haiieicSsnhhtpasohn:tieprrpriotleoosaiSsidPdeeaseesrloaliefotrdleidleeb.odyf renewing the holdings of 'iee
rct
eeeinsisaaitilvi
ttesid.yi,d Upon
olepdapienelgari rlevanatse wal a fine was paid, If a
fothreerfei
forfeited.
these.
There courtswer
were
ui
n.
stances of this. How, then, it meld be pretended that
the plaintiff, who held under this tenure, was in
possession of a freehold, he could not conceive. The
Learned Attorney-General here read an extract from
the roll of the Assessional Court, held in 1774, when
Simmons surrendered Nancy Mellon to Witham, his
heirs and assigns, for ever, " according to the custom
of the manor." In tho same document it was stated
that Witham furnished securities for reparations and
paymentof rent,hi
s t tenure
e alsoevery
eagr y agreed
seven
years.topay a fine on
knewtheeon
that s
renewal
Friend was au universal genius, and
u
but yet he could not even gue;s by what sutorelike
e 0 almost any thing he undertook,
of
Learnedaccomplishprocess he could attempt to stitch up these septen-
nial renewals into a snug and compact freehold, "The
Learned Counsel then detailed, at great length, the
particulars of the documentary evidence which lie in-
tended to adduce, to prove the title of the Crown to
the Duchy of eernwall, and the uninterrupted en,
joyment, for a long series of years, of all the minerals,
including those of copper, within the 17 manors be-
longing to the Duchy; and also to show the nature of
the tenure, and the course of holding prior to, at, and
subsequent to the time of tho creation of the Duchy, in
the
year 13 38. He next adverted to the evidence
which he intended to lay before the Jury, to show
that leases of the copper minerals had been granted
under the Crown from the year 1698, and that
under those leases the mines had been worked to a
considerable extent by the different lessees and tht.it.
suggestedtisfied that that
it
would
the legal
be
under-tenants for a period of upwards of. a century
without interruption. After entering into same
minor details, the Learned Counsel concluded
speech of six hours by expressing his confidence
that when the Jury had heard the. whole of the evi-
dence,rgbr theyao t
hnd e
t not in hee tenants of the Duchy manor.
minerals ,
u question was vested in the
fully
satisfied
Crown,i
betterLo not t
rdTgObegin the evidence at that late hour
(six o'clock.)
By consent of both parties (who expressed their
desire that the Jury should be placed under no re-
straint), the proceedings were then adjourned to ten
o'clock to-morrow (this day.)