Star.
London, England, 1806-07-23 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR lIIM THE STAR:

Sir—ln the report of a Cattle in your paper of the
sth inPr. entitled Kemp.. Scott and Co. (properly &A
(silly), it is incotretly Prated that the Aurora, the
fhip in question, after the had delivered her cargo of
fifh in the Mediterranean, was to proceed toll* Afri-
can CO4O for-Arm, and front thence to the wei
and as the latter part of this flatement is perfealy un-
true (the plaintiffs having no concern whatever in the
Slave TtAde), and prejedicial to their charalter, we
Mall be obliged by your noticing the above inaccu-
racy the earhelt opportunity: at the fame time, we
have alfo to nhferve, that Serjeant Lams was leading
Counfel for the plaintiffs, and not Serjeant B
as Dated, he being retained by the defendant. Sir,
your obedient fervants,

BLIAIDALR and A AAAAA Dia,
New Inn, July 5z,111;6. Plaiatiff's Attornies.

COURT OF KtNO's BENCH, JULY sZ
JOSEPH WILLIAMS V. JOSIPH !INDIA'S.
The Plaintiff is a tea broker in George-II red, Mi.
nories ; the Defendant is a partner in the honfe of
Sir John Earner and Co. wholefale grocers, in Wood-
'flreer. This was an salon for money had and re-
ceived:
Mr. Gas sow, for the Plaintiff, (aid, that however
favourable bis opinion might be of the honk in which
the Defendant was a partner, he had to expofe a
'cafe which would refleft great difhonmar upon any
man in trade in this commercial city. He fhould
produce an inftance of molt fcandalous oppreflion,
employed for the purpofes of extortion. The prin.
ciple of law applicable to this cafe was perfeelly '
clear : if any man pay a fum of money upon an
illegal confideration, he can afterwards recover it
back is this form of aaiorl. The beti were thefe
a perfon of the rame of EASICIOII carried on the tea
trade to a confiderahle extent ; the comnafs of his
bulinefs being too large for hi, means, he became
embarraffed in his circonsdances, and applied to the
Plaintiff for atlittauce. Mr. Eaglcton faid, he fh-tuld
require conflict-able Ann., hot th it he would con.
ttive a -nethod, by whin:. a fuflicient compenfation
timid be given to Mr. Williams. The way was,
by the file of teas h,l,.ne.ing to Mr. Eagletnn one
day, at an inferior p: ice, and the purchafe of them
on a future day, at an ;lured's{ tate. Thut, in con.
fkleration of a loan of sod. teas to that amount
might be fold to-day to Mr. Williams, and put chafed
of him the next day at pet. This praflice was not
[trial, legal, and the Defendant afterwards conn.
dared it as ufutious, treated it as loch, and employed
this as a fcrew, by which he fomewhat cruelly
Iqueesed the Plaintiff. In this flotation, Eagletna
managed to keep his head above water, Williadas
f‘si.dying his credit"o s as the demands became due,
by fending his own clerk to pay the bills, nut daring
to craft Eniztoa with the misers even for the haus

of payment. Such a nate of things could not long
continue : Meffrs. Zanier and Co. and Mars. Con-
fins and Co. became pretty confiderable creditors, the
1 relief afforded by the Plaintiff was anfufficient, and
Mr. Eagleton was arrefted and conducted to the
King's Bench. A perfon of die name of Hand had
likewife contributed in the fame manner, but all was
inadequate to flipply the accumulating neceflities of
this dealer. When Mr. Eagleton got within the
walls of the prifon, he Goon changed his tone with
Mr. Williams, and Paid to him, " Unlefs you come
down with a large furn, I (hall inflitute aftions againfi
you for tifury, you will be ruined, and my debts will
be fatisfied.'"lhe Plaintiff treated this threat with
defiance, and the affirms were commenced by Mr.
Jofeph Hedley and Mr. John Conlin% who condef-
cended to appear on the records of the Court in the
difrefpeftable charatters of tui Tarn informers. If an
affignee, teeing that the bankrupt he reprefents is
ruined by an ufurer, proceeds in this form, not for his
own benefit, but for the advantage of the general
body of creditors, he is, perhaps, jullified in Inch a
proceeding : but if, forgetting the itnerells of the cre-
ditors in general, and to their maniieft prejudice, he
fets the law in motion, not intending to admit the
tranfaftion to come to light in a Court of Plaice, and
merely empinying it as a (crew to extract his own
debt, he appears in a very different predicament—
Such was the condo.% of this Defendant. Mr.Rigby,
a refpedahle attorney, refigned his client, Mr. Cott
fins, into other hands, and would have no concern in
inch dark tranfattions. By there means, the firm of
9651. os. Bd. was extorted trots the Plaintiff, and it
was to be paid in the name of Eagleton, and was to
fatisfy, at zos. in the pound, the entire claim Of Sir
Jubn Earner and Co. on this unfortunate prifoner:—
But more was demanded : 341. t9s. sod. was a claim
for coils by Mr. Carton, -vlso (looped to be the agent
in the affair. Mr. Clarence, whom Mr. Williams
employed to pay the money, laid it down on the
table, to the amount of the former fum of 9651. os.
Bd. ; the Defendant, Mr. Hedley, keep'ng a hawk'.
eye over it all the time, left Mr. Carton fhould put a
finger upon it. Having got Mr. Williams up to the
flicking point for this large furn, they thought it
would be very eafy to let a little more run out, and
include in the payment the 341. leis. sod. This at.
tempt, however, was ioeffeEtual, and, to ute an ex•
prelEon which was fingular on inch an occafion. Mr.
Hedley left it "Co the honour of the party." Mr.
Hedley, an hour ago, had an infolvent debtor in the
King's Bench, now he had 9651. os. Bd. in his pocket.
Siseh were the fruits of thefe artifices. Mr. Eagleton
was releafed, and thofe creditors, who did not em•
ploy this (crew, were-plucked. A commiflion after.
wards iffued, and this perfon is now a bankrupt.—
Mr. Hedley had (truck a docket againit his debtor,
but, after the affair Rated, the procefs died a natural
death. In examining the accounts, it was difcovered
by the Commitfioners, that this furn of 9651. os. Bd.
was paid after the aft of bankruptcy was committed.
The Defendant was well advifed ; he thought the
lea (aid the better, and he refunded the money...-
4 What is that to me ((aid the Learned Comfit) ;
true it is he has paid it back to the bankrupt's ellate,
and he is no richer fur it, but my client has paid the
money out of his purfe to this Defendant, and has no
return for it. lam not at all forry that he has to
pay the money twice over ; I am heartily glad that he
has fallen into his own trap, and I hope this ' New
Way to pay Old Debts' will, for the honour of the
City of London, be hilted off the (cage."
Mr. Eagleton depoted, that his affairs became
much deranged in March dos, when he was debtor
to Mr. Hedley, in the turn of 9651. Bd. and to
Mars. Coufins, to the amount of about 20001. In
this condition of his affairs, he offered them ass. or
155. 6d. iu money down, if they would not proceed
againtl him ; but they Paid they would not take 195.
s lid. He was arreficd, and put is prifon ;he again
fent to Mr. J. Coufins and Mr. Hedley to renew his
propofal, telling them, that honelt men needed no
lawyers, and defiring that none might be 'in atten-
dance. A meeting was hat!, but to no purpofe ; :os.
in the pound they would have, and they hinted they
did not care from whence it came, whether from
Maud, Williams, or any other perfun. The witnefs
fignifying his fears that Mr. Carton would go on
with the toti Tam aetions, even if Meffrs. Coufins and
Mars. Earner and Co. were paid, Mr. John Conlin,
Paid, " If he dare go on with the fuit after I am
paid, I will cut his guts out." Thus ended the in-
terview, and the witnefs was left to his fate. The
aftions, juft referred to, were commenced in conk-
quence of information the witnefs had given to Mr.
Coufins and Mr. Hedicy, relpeding the nature of his
conflation with Maud and Williams. On his crofs-
examination he Paid, that he had property left him
by a Mr. Jenkins ; that the will was fubmitted to the
Court of Chancery ; that Mifs Coventry was one
of the parties ; and that three were concerned in the
will. The Court deemed the whole to be a fraud,
but he fhould always confider himfelf the victim of
injutlice.
Mr. Thomas D. Rigby laid, that there was a meet-
ing in the month of May 5803, at Mr. Eagleton's
bottle in Cheapfiste. There were preterit Mr. Eagle.
ton and his Attorney, Mr. Payne, Mr. Hedley and
his Attorney, Mr. Curio% Mr. Cesfins, and the wit-
nefs. The amount of Mr. Confin's claim, at that
time, was 35461. and of Mr. Medley about wool.-
1 When they entered the room, Mr. Eagleton was fit-
' ting with a number of papers before him, and with
a volume of Impey's Practice, on the table. Mr.
Eagleton detailed a ring !liaise] of his tranfaitions
with Maud and Wil:tarr.s, and Paid, it was the left
,
uiy on which tile penaitics for %dory, on thofe con •
corns. coil' 1 be it:coveted under the itiall2C. The
I witricfs declined undertaking the tai ?ass aliens,
I but Mr. Coulins locked him into the room, and br-
idled upon his compliance, but he in the legal re.
linquifled all interference.

filr. Wm. Clarence, whe paid the money to the
Defendant, tefiified to fuch payment.
Sir VICAILY Grans took an objedion. that both the
Plaintiff and Defendant were in isari deaths, in which
safe the muim of law is swefier conalitiaplrderuir, and
this affirm could not therefore be fupp.rted by the
Plaintiff in maintenance of his own wrong.
Lord &Aker:ant:cm —•• The cafe in wlrch this
matter in ruled is that of Smith and Bromley, in a
note in Douglas: it was to recover back
obtained under pre.enee of proem ill a place cr I
fiee. I will let the eau ego on perhaps they arc
nut in pari drliin; the one may be under ti e grinding
of the other ; but I will lave the point."

jSir VICARY Ogees laid, the Gentlemen of the Jury
would now fee how well the Plaintiff was acquaint:d
with the mechanical power of the !Crew, the exclufite
/ ufe of which was attributed to the defendant. Mr.
Eagleton was ken to be in great dittrels, and that
dills-eft:was occafioned by exorbitant interell being
extnrted from him. The Jury had the fad, the
vouchers were produced, the mode we, ezplair ed, all
was sow expofed in the face of day, and it appeared
at lee, that the (crew was applied by the plaintiff
himfelf, whn had the impudence to intim& Mr. Gaa.
ROW to declare it. open Court, that this instrument
wax alone employed by the Defendant. The (crew
was unceafing in its adivity, and in the prngrefs of
the work, all the money now contende i for in this
action, was refunded to the reprefentetives of the very
perfon for whom the Plaintiff raid he paid the money.
There was no evidence whatever that the money was
paid to compound there penal anions, excepting that
fupplied by Eagleton,whofe teftimonyrnufk be rejeded,
and who was implicated in an affair which had been
referred to on the crufa-examination. The precife
amount of the debt to the Defendant was 9651. ed.
and this was the mat funs paid, fo that the affair
had all the appearance of the latialadion of the debt,
and not of any cullufive arrangement to avoid the
penalties under the flatute. It would now be teen
whore money this was. Mr. Clarence raid, that the
Plaintiff directed him to pay the money in the name
of Eagleton ; thus the plaintiff reprefented the money
to belong to Eaglettm, and as Eagleton's money
it was recovered by the Affignees in the Court of
Common Pleas. The plaintiff now laid it was not
Eagleton's money, but his own money. The Learned
Counfel could not conceive how any ferious propofia
tion could be invented, fo a% to render it recoverable
in thi. form of anion. When it was paid to the
aflignees, then-Mr. Williams came from behind the
fcenes, and laid it was las moues. It might be ca-
ndled, that after it had been paid a fecond time to
Mr. Williams, Mr. Maud would make his appear-
ance : if a third time it was paid to Maud, the glad!
of Jenkins might rife, and fu on, new cl..irtiants
might pal. onward, a itfalitune.
Lord Etaxmaiaonott, after fumming up the (s-
-acral fads in the caufe, and applying them to the
law in filch cafes, raid. that it the Jut y believed the
money was advanced by the plaintiff to the defendant
for the benefit of Eagleton, they would find for the
plaintiff ; but, if they thought that it c•as fo advan-
ced to relieve the plaintiff from there affirms for urn-
rious predicts, they would find for the Defendant.
The Jury. haviug.retired for about an hour, re-
turned with a verdict for the Plaintiff, 9651. ed.