Star.
London, England, 1825-07-09 00:00:00

LAW REPORT.

COURT OF KING'S BENCH, JULY 8.
MAINE V. COOPER.
This was an action of trespass, by Mr. Maine, the
proprietor of Hanworth Park, Middlesex, to try a right
assumed by the Crown in the banks of a cut made
through his grounds. The defendant justifies under
the Crown, and the question in issue was, whether the
„freehold of the banks was in the Crown, or whether the
right of the Crown was restricted to the use of theirs
for the purpose of draining the stream? The case, as
opened, appeared of great length ; but llr. SCA RLETT,
for the plaintiff, having produced an old grant of the
'Park, without reservation, and there being contradic-
tory evidence of usage, the Loan CHIEF JUSTICE ex-
pressed a strong opinion that the words of the grant
must prevail, to %It'd!, after the examination of two
witnesses, the ATTORNEY-GENERAL yielded. A. nomi-
nal verdict was accordingly taken for the plaintiff,
negativing the claim set up by the Crown.
COURT OF COMMON PLEAS, JULY a.
BEDELL V. RUSSELL.
This was an action of an alleged assault brought by
the plaintiff, a seaman On board of a South Sea Whaler,
called the Emily, to recover compensation in damages
from the defendant, who was Captain of the vessel, for
the injuries he sustained, by having been shot in the
neck by some Dutch soldiers, in the Bay of the Island
of Ternate, in the year 1821. The defendant pleaded
a justification, in which he said that he had been obliged
to order the soldiers to fire, because the crew had been
at the time in a state of mutiny.
Mr. Serjeant WILDS then stated the case. The de-
fendant was Captain of the ship Emily, when she was
lying in the bay of Ternate, in her passage through the
Molucca Islands. During her stay there, the crew
were allots ed to go on shore, one-half at a time, but
some of them remained all night, contrary to the Cap-
tain's express orders. He remonstrated with them for
this impropriety, but received nothing but abuse. On
another day he ordered them not to stay on shore with-
out his special permission; but instead of obeying him,
they remained as before, and among them was Bedell,
the plaireiff. The Captain accused them next day of
their misconduct, and struck one of them, Neagle, in
consequence of some provocation he received. Neagle
immediately said, that if be was struck again, hepould
knock the Captain down the main hatchway. Some of
the crew were in the rigging working, and jumped
down on deck, saying to Neagle. Tom's right, give
it him well, the ' A general disposition was new
displayed by the chief part of the crew to mutiny, and
the Captain in vain tried to call them to their duty.
They continued in so refractory a state, that he was
induced to go on shore and seek the assistance of the
Dutch Governor. A military officer and soldiers then I
came on board, but the crew saw them coming, and
aimed themselves with harpoons and handspikes, de-
claring that they would not suffer any of the men to be
flogged by the Dutch. The Captain called them to
order, but they refused, and struck their harpoon poles
on the deck in defiance. The soldiers were then orde:ed
to fire, when the plaintiff and two others were wounded.
'These were the facts of the case, which he would prove
in evidence, and he trusted that the Jury would con-
sider them sufficient to warrant the conduct of the
Captain, who-was openly braved on board his own ship.
The only witnesses called to prove this, were two ap-
prentices. Their evidence amounted to this, that the
crew had been in a state of insubordination at the time,
Atli had expressed that they would not stand the flog-
ging system of the Captain any longer—that it would
be better to wait till the ship proceeded to sea, when
they could be clear of the Dutch soldiers, who could not
afford any assistance to the Captain.
By the cross-examination it appeared that the soldiers
consisted of two bodies, Dutch and blacks ; they were
ranged on the quarter-deck, and the men were on the
forecastle; there was an in.erval between their firing ;
they fired four or five times, and three men fell: Smith