The Sun.
London, England, 1818-01-17 00:00:00

CAPE TOWN, OcT. 25.

The following most interesting and important
Extract of a Letter from Mr. Walker, command-
ing his Majesty's ship the Dispatch, has been
transmitted to his Excellency the Governor, by
Commissioner Sir Jableel Bt:enton. It will be
highly gratifying to the Colonists, to see the fa.
vouralde result of the endeavours to open the
Knysna as a harbour, and it will be equally ac-
ceptible to all nautical men to know, that there
is a safe and commodious port upon the east coast
of this settletnent

I hasten to inform yon, that I arrived off
the month of the Knysna, early this morning, with
light variable winds from the N.E. quarter, and a
heavy swell from the S.W. which prevented my
examining the entrance. At ten, a strong S.E.
wind set in, but the tide not answering till three
in the afternoon, we were obliged to wait the
flow. About two, the wind inclined to veer more
to the'eastward, and I cicemed it most prudent to
attempt the bar under a press of sail, an(' it being
then dead low water, we ran in with great faci-
lity, although the sea was breaking all over the
entrance."

The letters from the Cape state, that the Eng-
lish merebantinan, the Elizabeth, which, bad been
taken to sea by deserters from the 60th Regi-
ment, and by convicts, on the Ilth November,
was supposed to have entirely escaped. She was
pursued by a sloop and a brig, but as.f.he pro-
ceeded to sea in the night of the 11th, and the
others did not leave the anchorage till a late hour
of the following day, little chance of capture was
entertained. The principal in arranging this
seizure was reported to be a young man who had
committed forgery at the Cape, and had been ba-
nished to Robin Island (the Botany Bay of the
Cape) where the vessel was seized. •

. .
We are sorry to find that both the papers from
the Cape, and the private letters, confirm the ac-
counts already received,. that the Dutch had com-
mitted great excesses in theii• restored Colonies.—
The immediate cause of the revolt at Saporana
was, that the Dutch Resident had ordered a woman
to he flogged naked in the bazaar. The murder of
the natives (prisoners) at Java is also mentioned,

CONNAUGHT PLACE.—The skeleton of the mag-
nificent edifice erected some years since at Bays-
water, adjoining Connaught-place, which was
intended to be finished fur the Duke of GLou-
casrEa, has given some indications of pre-
mature decay. His Royal Highness entered
into a contract with the builder, which was vio-
lated by the latter introducing timber called the
American pine, which is a wood of a very perish-
able nature. The Duke soon after met with Lord
CHOLMONDELEY, and . bought the house he now
resides in. The elevation of the above is con-
siderable, and commands the most diversified pros-
pects.. Connaught-place is rising into estimation
daily, in consequence of a tunnel having been
formed across-Hyde Pat k .to Knightsbridge, which
carries off the great body of water which would
frequently rush from the high lands, and over-
whelm the district.

The Earl of CARLISLE gave 150 cart loads of
coals to the indigent poor of Brampton, in Cum-
berland, la,t week ; they also received 10 bushels
of oatmeal from the Rev. Mr. ItAI4SUAW.

Early on Friday morning the house of Mr.
Henry Osborn, at Small Heath, was entered by
some depredators, who succeeded in carrying off
a quantity of plate, money, &e.—They gained aft-
mission by cutting out one of the panes of the
front sitting-room window, and• with a crow,
forcing the inside shutters. Mr. Osborn being
disturbed, immediately alarmed his servants, and
perceiving a light from the sitting-room, they
attempted to enter it, but found the door fast-
ened on the inside. Upon Mr. Osborn's open-
ing the front door, the thieves precipitately de-
camped by jumping through the window by which
they entered ; and such was the haste in which
their escape was effected, that two hats were found
in the carriage sweep, in one of which were
a pair of gloves and a pistol belonging to the de-
predators. Several silver spoons, knives, forks,
&c. were also found in the path fromstbe house to
the outer gate.—(Birmingham Chronicle, Jan, 15d

LAW INTELLIGENCE.

COURT OF CHANG-I:MY, JAN: Is.
Ex--parte the BANK of ENGLAND in the Matter of

ST EPHE N

This was an application by Sir ARTHUR PIGOTT,
in behalf of the Governor• and Company of the
Bank of England, on. an amended petition, for
an order of the Court to the Commissioners to
admit Mr. John Sparks Cox to vote in the choice
of assignees in the affair of Stephens 'a bankrupt.
The sante application had been •made on a pre-
vious. petition, but was refused by the Court, on
the ground that a special and not a general pots, r
of attorney Should have been given by the Con—
'piny to their clerk, Mr. Cox, to justify the Con .
wissioners in ado►itting him as agent for the Com-
pany to vote in the choice of Assignees Jr) con-
formity with that principle laid down by th,, Court,
the Governor awl Company had attended their
petition, having previously made that instrument
special, which wa: before general, in their deput-
ing Mr. Cox to act for thew in the appointment
of assignees.
To the application thus made on the amended
petition by Sir Arthur Pigott, Mr. MONTAGUE,
who was Counsel for the petitioning creditor, had
no objection. _

The- LORD CHANCELLOR Said he could not, as
the case stood, make a general order, but
,that a
declaration by recital might be made which would
answer the object el the peition.
• . .

.•
To this Sir ARTHUR PIGoTT assented, and the
declaration by way of recital was ordered.

VICE CHANCELLOR'S CVURT, JAN. 16.

His Honour the VICE:CHANCELLOR has made a
most important regulation respecting the Suitors
in this Court, and' one that will in no inconsider-
able-degree expedite' the business, as well as act
impartially by all. it is as folio : That the hst of
Causes set down for hearing each day shall be call•
ed over in regular order, beginning with the first in
the paper for the day ; if the parties are not ready
to proceed with it, the Court will proceed on to
the next, and.so on till they come to one that is
ready, when all those that have been previously
called on will he placed at the bottom of the
list. ShOuld the cause about to be argued oc-
cupy the whole day, then those placed at the bot-
tom will come on in regular order ; but should
the Court a second time call on them, and they
prove to be unprepared, then they are to be
struck out of the list. 11;s honour proceeded on
this principle yesterday, and out of the twelve
Demurrers set down for hearing, five were struck
out

COURT OF KING'S BENCH, JAN, 10.

THE METROPOLITAN BAZAAR

IdIST V. RAWLINS.

This was an action by the plaintiff to recover
front the defendant, as representative of the Eagle
Fire Insurance Company, a sum of 30001. as a
compensation for losses sustained by the plaintiff
in the destruction of his house and property by fire,
insured with the said Company.
The trial occupied the whole day.
Mr. TOPPING, in stating the case for the plain•
tiff, said he had followed business as an eminent
dealer in china, glass, and earthernware, in Fleet.
street, the corner of Salisbury-court, London,
and had been many years an insurer at the defen•
(lanes office ; toed he directed his observations to
the reprehensible. conduct of this Company in
seeking to evade the just claims of the plaintiff in
compensation for his ruinous damages tinder the
policy of this Company ;. who, instead of per-
forming the conditions of their insurance, sought
to evade that performance by a plea in their de-
claration in answer to this action, in which they
not only charged on the plaintiff a fraudulent at-
tempt to demand compensation for losses he never
sustained—for they denied that he had any pro-
perty or interest whatsoever in the premises, or
the goods thereon, at the time the fire in question
had occured, but they also attempted to support
their refusal ,of payment upon the , further plea
that the plaintiff had, in order to.found his claim,
actually set fire to the premises with his own
hand, and thereby bad the hardihood to risque the
loss of his own lite by an ignominious punishment
in order to obtain a sum
,of money front the de-
fendants, and this too 'at a time when he was ac-
tually in treaty with a respectable company tosell
his property and premises for a larger sum of mo-
ney than the amount of his insurance. His
client, it was true, was a spirited adventirrer in
trade, and, like many respectable men of like de-
scription, had become a bankrupt through the
excessive %.icissittides of the times ; but his credi-
tors, satisfied of his honour and integrity, after
a full investigation of his affairs, had allowed him
a composition, and the statute of bankruptcy was
superseded. He had afterwards., at a considera-
ble expellee, fitted up his house and premises into
that splendid emporium of commerce, called The
Metropolitan Bazaar, which unfortunately failed to
answer his extuctations, and was finally closed in
the beginning of the year 1816. In the 514,
following, the premises and all the property there-
in were consumed by accidental fire, and the de-
:lendants, in order to elude their just payment of
his claims, seemed to have taken advantage of his
Misfortunes, and, as they thought, defenceless
situation ; and to screen themselves by an endea-
vour to cast the foulest infamy on his character,
.and to involve him in the guilt Of a capital felons:.
.'Die evidence be should adduce, however, w,aald
not only scout this foul stigma from theoptita.
lion of his client, but fully entitle biTh.AO a ver-
dict from the Jury.
A great nomber of witnessea were examined, to
prove that the premises indtherroperty thereon,
at the time of the fire,,opeetled in value the
amount of tire eum insured, and claimed by this
action ; and amongst thetest, a Mr. Davenport,
a partner in a respectable house in Staffordshire,
and formerly a creditor of the plaintiff previous to
his bankruptcy, proved, that be was in treaty
with the plaintiff very shortly previous to the fire,
to purchase his premises and stock on band, and
had agreed to pay for them, as a great bargain,
25001. ; although be considered the expensive
fixtures, though costing the plaintiff above 100/,
of no value to him, andaltbough the house wa;
burnt down, yet there was an expectation of pro_
curing a renewal of the lease for 14 years i and

it ir CIA .fre'l" (a'S pl'-ti'Ve4, t'hat the ass4gtices
'7Oll for ti•e.premises; in consequence Of.
'En-11 re i,wal having bi,ehntrained. ,
Oa die partof the defendants, Ms. ScAytterr,
in addressing the--Jury, expressed the.tin‘villing-,
tiess, as well as the impolicy, of an endeavour on
.
the part of, his clients, in any case of this nature,.
to attach Inv" criminal imputation to an insurer
in the plsintiff's situation. If, however, he might:
borrow at, 'observation -from the speech Of the
Novae and Learned Lord who usually presides inthis.
tow.t. on a similar necasion, he would say," that
a public Company, situated like his clients, ‘rere
bray performinga hotinden duty in resisting the sus-
picious claims of persons whO tbey had reasonable
rrounds to believe were acting fraudulently.".-;-.
"The Fire Ins.,rance Offices, if they acted by a
'too prompt and indiscriminate facility of paying all
demands which might be made on them, world
only encourage such claims, and give a premium'
`upon upon the crime of arson, which there was..
much reason to believe was but too frequent in
`lbis country, for the very purpose of defrauding
the Fire Insurance Offices. In a neighbouring
'country (France) such offices were piobibited all
•together, from the precise consideration, that in ,
England, where they abound, there are inure in-
stances of conflagration to private houses, than
in all the rest of Europe ; clearly the result of
those faCilities to fraud here held out delimpients
in this way, and -the extreme difficulty of bring-
ing home to them the proofs of guilt. Hitherto
the Jury had heard only one side of•the question;
but, he should bring a number of respectable.,wit-
nesses to prove beyond-doubt that the plaintiff in
this case had, with his own band, set fire to, his;
premises,. for a purpose .too obvious to he yies-
dotted. •

A number of witnesses, resident close to the
plaintiff's house, were then examined, who prtked
the circuinsta,ce of the 'fire having broken nut it,
the premises of the plaintiff on.the day stated, and
having been first observcd to proceed trout a room
on the attic story, which he occupied as a count-
ing-house,, where be had been him-ielf that.day
between eleven and one o'clock. No fire was
alight in the house;. no servant or other person
resident there; for it teas shut up after the hail
close of the Bazaar. The plaintiff had a candle
in his room, and coals to make an Occasional fire.
The fire 'first appeared to burst front. his room, and
to ignite, the whole story, to burst through-the
floor, and through the ceilings' below, and through
the ceiling and roof above.; and in fact the
whole premises were destroyed before the en-
gines arrived. It 'appeared also,. that the, de7
fendant had been about eleven. o'clock that day to
meet a Gentleman named Duch!le, a wine and oil
merchant, in litshopsgate-street, to treat' about
the purchase of a house and small farm near Croy-
don ; and that he al.:reed.todine with that gentle-
man at two o'clock, in order to. proceed by the
stage-coach for Croydon after two o'clock. That
in the mean time, the plaiiitiffliad employed him-
'self in going to Gate-srreet, Lincoln's Inn-Fields,
where he dwelt, to apprize his, wife of this • en-
gagetueht ; and afterwards, at his counting-house
on the premises in Fleet-s:reet, be employvd him-
self in examining papers, and burning with his
candle such as were unimportant ; that he left
this place a little after one, and proceeded to
Eishopsgate-street to dinner ; from thence he
Went with his friend to Croydon by the lirk4liton
coach, and on returuirg that evening at nine
o'clock to town, he heard of the fire-at his house
in Fleet-arreet, which had broken out-in a very
shot t time after.he left it.

'.l%te evidence being closed, Mr. TorriNG ad-
dressed the Jury in behalf of his client, and very
forcibly inveighed against the conduct of the de-
fend-nits, and the danger in tvhich any mail would
-be placed, if, when endeavouring to enforce his
just claims to compensation against die uninst re-
fusal of an Insurance Company, he shwild find
himself opposed, not only by every, possible stra-
tagem to defeat his, just demands, but even by
charges of capital felony, milking at once towards
the ruin of his character, and the ignominious de-
struction of his life.

[This observation excited outside the bar of the
Court some symptoms Of clamorous applause.]
Mr. Justice BAILEY instantly called on the She-
iifl-Depute to preserve order, and forbad any ex-
pression of approval
,or rlis pprobation, so fre-
quently upetvitig to the injury of justice.
-Mr. TOPPING having concluded his address,
Mr. Justice BAILEY proceeded shortly to sum
up the evidence for the Jury, with forcible, but
impartial observations on the case of the plaintiff,
whose character his Lordship was desirous should
go forth to the public, totally exempt trout those
prejudices attempted to be attached to him in the
course of this day's proceedings. The Jury would
irnpartially ar.d minutely consider the whole of
the evidence, and award him such damages, as,
upon a fair calculation on the sevtral items stated
in evidence, ht. should appear to be intitled to.
The Jury, utter a very short consultation, re-
turned a verdict for the/plaintiff.—Darnaires,
2,800/. ; Costs, 40s.