The Sun.
London, England, 1827-08-04 00:00:00

WESTERN CIRCUIT.--DORCHESTER,

Mr., Justice Blinuoucif opened" the Commik here
to-day, and attended Divi4 Service. • An unthnunt.
I)er of persons were assembled in the town for ow-
mission day, in'con.equence of the execution of4it of
inquiry relative to the concerns of a newspaper,nierly
published here by Mr. Thomas Bourne, whose* has
recently occasioned much dlscussion in the Courtetan-
eery, and excited' great interest in the county, patultiy
amongst the lawyers.

BOURNE V. CLARKE, HIGGS, PENNY, ANA BENIETT
An inquisition was held, upon a writ of :inquiry bee
the Under,Sheriff, at the Antelope lun,- to assess 04-
_ _

triages in this case. The Tinder-Sheriff being relate)
one of the parties, appointed an assessor, Mr. Sergi

LAW'S.

From the statement of Mr. Sergeant lirmuE,
whom was Mr. CARTER, it appeared, that the plaintiti
1821, established a newspaper, under the title of °e

. .
Weymouth, Poole, and Dorchester Gazette ; Guerg,
Jersey, and General Western Advertiser;" in tho-
tablishment of which, he expended considerable amyl

having a married a daughter of the defendant Beunett,at
gentleman was applied to by him to assist him in meng
the expense. Bennett became his surety to the Go,n-
merit, for duties, tic., and likewise advanced several sis.
In the course of the progress of the paper an indictmefor

libel was brought against the proprietor by Dr. Dupi of
great celebrity at Weymouth, and a verdict obtained agtst
him, in consequence of which Mr. Bourne had b amd
the Court of King's Bench in London, to receive jlg..
went ; upon this Mr. Bennett became frightened, eat
there should be so heavy a press upon the paper that tre
would be no assets left to meet his demand against .r.
Bourne, and be therefore strenuously and repeatly
pressed the plaintiff to dispose of the copyright of
the Journal. This the plaintiff as constantly refodp
No sooner, however, had he taken his departure for In-.

don, than Mr. Bennett offered: the whole copyrightto•

gether with the types, printing presses, &c., to aar.
Commins, for 2501. The plaintiff finding that his usi-
ness would necessarily detain him in London a conder-
able time, requested a relation of his, Mr. Stephen Borne
to go down to Dorchester for the purpose of superifend•
ing the-Journal during his absence. Bennett, acodent-
ally meeting Mr. Stephen -Bourne, informed him nat he
had offered the paper to Mr. Commius, on which he lat-
ter was much astonished, he having,understood from the
plaintiff, that he bad no intention of dispodng of the
paper. Bennett, however, positively affirmed that lie
had a written authority from his son-in-law, Mr.
Stephen Bourne thought a larger sum might le obtained,
and the defendant, Bennett, expressed his desire of obtain •
ing as large a sum as possible; -upon which 241 r. Stephen
Bourne mentioned the otheralefendants, Clarke, Higgs, and
Penny, as likely to become purchasers. These per-
sops were accordingly aOlieti to, sp., a hargain was
' ls.fwaen e slim of q:301
hand-bills put -about, intimating a.st the property had
changed hands. This coining to the plaintiff -a cars, he irry-,
mediately published a placard, disclaiming the sale, and
gave notice to Clarke and the rest that he had never autho-
rised his father-in-law to make any sale of the property,
and that he would by no means acquiesce in the bargain.
The reply of the three purchasers to this was, that Ben-
nett had pledged himself to hold them harmless, and that
they should, therefore,, not give up the property. The
plaintiff having in vain endeavoured to bring about an ami.
cable arrangement with • the parties, who were now de-
fendants to the present action, found himself under the ne-
cessity of instituting a suit against them to recover a pro-
perty so indisputably his own. Bennett, informed of this
proceeding, directed Mr. Henning, his solicitor, to inform
the plaintiff, that if he did' not desist he would issue a writ
against him for 4,0001. ; Bourne, however, determined not
to abandon his just claim, deemed it advisable to • keep out
Of the way, as he knew that he should be unable to find
bail for so large an amount ; of this absence Bennett
took advantage, and made it the foundation of a cons,-
mission of bankruptcy against the plaintiff. The
consequence of this was, that when the plaintiff's ac-
tion was called on, the bankruptcy was put in as a bar ;
and upon this plea the trial of the action was prevented.
The case was subsequently brought before the Vice-Chan-
cellor, who directed that this plea should not stand good as
to the defendant, Bennett, but made no such exception with
respect to the other defendants; but the case being subse-
quently brought before the Lord Chancellor, his Lordship
decided that the commission of bankruptcy was fraudu-
lently sued out. The action was then proceeded in, and
all the defendants allowed the verdict to go against them by
default, and thence the present writ of inquiry.
The Jury retired for about an hour to consider their ver-
dict, when they. returned to the Court, giving 8001. as the
amount of damages.

TO THE MAGISTRATES OF ENGLAND

AND WALES.

ENTLEMEN,—A Committee of the House of Commons
have made a report relative to lunatics under restraint in
licensed madhouses, and a printed copy of such Report has
been deposited with the clerk of the peace of every county
and ci,ty in the kingdom, for your information.
That Report states, among other things, that " It has
been clearly established in evidence, that there is no due
precaution with respect to the certificates of admission, to
the consideration of discharge, or to the application of any
curative process to the mental malady."
Now, Gentlenden, I entreat you to consider the. calamit-

ous,consequeuces which niust attend these defects, and to
implore you to take all possible pains to enquire into the
extent of the evil, so as to enable Parliament to provide a

remedy.
As to pauper lunatics, I beg leave to remind you, that
by the 55th Geo. 111., cap. 46, sec. 8, you are authorised,'
in petty sessions, to compel overseers to make a return, on
oath, of all pauper lunatics (whether in workhouses or else-
where) maintained by them.
Permit me to request that you will transmit the infor-
mation you may obtain to the Secretary of State for. the
Home Department, in order that the same may be laid be-
fore Parliament. _ . .

The late inquiry in Parliament as to lunatics having, in
some measure, originated with me, I trust you will consi-
der it to be my' duty to procure all possible additional in-
formation, and that you will, on public grounds, exercise
the trouble I seek to-cast upon you. '

I have the honour to be, Gentlemen,
Your obedient servant,
Portland-place, Aug. 1, 1827. ROBERT SEYMOUR

RECOVERY OF DEBTS.—Our reader& should
be apprized that after the Ist of this month, no person can,
in
.the'first instance, he arrested, and held .to bail in any
Court, for a debt under 201. But the remedy in such cases,
is by copy of writ, which, if not paid or appeared to, ac-
cording to the practice of the Court from which it issues,
the plaintiff obtains judgment and recovers his debt and
costs, by execution against the person or effects of the de-
fendant.

It was reported that forged letters of credit in
the name of London bankers, have been made use of by
some individuals travelling on the continent to a conside-
ble amount, and that they have succeeded in obtaining
money on them from foreign banking-houses. As there
may be some mistake in the case, it will not be proper at
present to mention names. The loose mode in which
transactions.of that kind are conducted, does undoubtedly
give great facilities to fraud.