Star.
London, England, 1809-04-28 00:00:00

LAW INTELLIGENCE.

COURT OF KING'S BENCH, APRIL 27.
TILE KING V ALEXANDER DAVISON, ESQ.
The defendant appeared in the Court.
The ATTORNEY GENERAL said-6, I am to pray
your Lordships for the judgment of the Court on
Alexander Davison, Esquire ; but I should state to
your Lordships, that which I know officially, and
which I presume, has been communicated to you,
which is, that in consequence of what passed in this
Court on a former occasion, Mr. Davison has paid
into the Exchequer 18,1831. and a fraction, being the
amount of the commission which he has received as
agent for Government upon the contracts to which
this prosecution refers."
Mr. illStiCt GROSE----1' That fact is verified by a
et rtificate which has been laid before us, Mr. At.
torney."
The Learned Judge then addressed the defendant
on the subject of the midemeanour cf which he had
been convicted—stating the various counts in the in-
formation, the substance of which was, that the de.
fendant was appointed agent under Government to
procure certain stores for the Barrack Department,
then under the controul of General Delancey ;—was
to have two and a half per cent. upon the amount of
such articles as should be furnished, for his skill and
diligence, in taking care that the articles were of the
best quality, that they were of the quality which they
purported to be, and that they were charged at rea-
sonable prices, according to the state of the market
from time to time, as tkey were furnished ; but that
the defendant had supplied many of these articles out
of his own warehouses, had charged commission as
agent in the purchase of them, as if he had bought
thorn of some other merchant or manufacturer ; and
for that purpose caused hills of parcels to be made
out, hi which he was made debtor to one of his own
clerks, whereby he had, first his profit as merchant

upon the sale, and afterwards his commission as an
agent upon the price of such goods ; whereas his en-
gagement with Government was,.that be should buy
goods of other merchants, and, be content with his
'two and a half per cent. commission for transacting•
the business. Einth was the substance of this case,
upon which the defendant was tried at the sittings
after last Michaelmas Term, and found guilty, which'
the Learned Judge observed, was an offence of a very
serious description, because the purpose for which the
defendant had been appointed agent under Govern.
meat was defeated by it. He was appointed that
agent; and was allowed two and a half per cent. upon
aU the articles he purchased, for the consideration of
his employing his skill and diligence in taking care
that GoVernment should not be imposed upon, either
in the quality of the articles which were purchased,
or the prices charged for them ; he was, in short, a
check upon the merchant who sold his goods to Go.
verument, to take care that no artifice should raise
the price of military stores in the market. But
when, instead of checking others in their charges, he
supplied Government from his own warehouses, he
had no longer• any inducement to keep down, on the
contrary be was interested in enhancing, the price of
such articles in the market, so that the purpose
for which he was appointed agent for Government
was defeated ; and he placed himself in a situation )
in w h-ch the temptation arising from the love of
lucre was more than a common share of human for-
titude could resist ; and accordingly the defendant
h.ld so conducted himself as to become the object
of the animadversion of a Court of Justice, and it was
to be re:,;retted that a person of station in sock y,-
of such connections, of such experience, of such ta-
lents and abilities, -should have so far forgotten what
was due to the public, to his own character, and to
that of his family, as to be guilty of such miscon-
duct. It was true that he had remitted into the Ex-
chequer the sum of 18,18:31. 13s. Id. which was the
amount of the sum received by him as agent under
General Delancey, by way of commission for supply.
ing the Government with stores for the Barrack De-
partment ; and in apportioning the punishment to he
inflicted on the Defendant in this case, the Court
would take into consideration that circumstance.—
But that was by no means a sufficient expiation• of
)1;s offence ; he was not merely a debtor to the public
in a pecuniary, but was also debtor in a moral sense;
the precedent of his case would be hurtful and inju-
rious to the interest of the public, unless marked by
the censure of- the Court, testified by its sentence ;
imstice demanded a further punishment upon him

than the remittance -efl this stila of 18,0001. lest it I
sliould be taken for that which it was not, a retribu-
tion for all the misconduct of the Defendant. The
Court considering the sum which the Defendant had
remitted to Government, the imprisonment he had
already suffered, and all the circumstances of this
case, did order and adjudge, that he be henceforth
imprisoned in his Majesty's jail of Newgate, for 21
calendar months, and that at the expiration of that
time he be discharged.

THE KING V. JOYNSON.

The defendant had been convicted of saying to one
Robert Fallow, at Manchester, where weavers had
entered into a conspiracy to raise their wages—" I ad-
vise you to stick out—you need not be afraid when
Mr. Hanson is at your back—grain will advance—
the ports are shut in the Baltic and America—my
lads, I advise you to stick out—if we can get George
off the throne, and the crown upon the head of the
Prince of. Wales, we shall have all evils remedied—
we shall have peace within a month, and then shall
have peace and plenty."
The ATTORNEY GENERAL thought this a very se-
rious case at first ; but, after hearing Mr. Williams
for the defendant, and Mr. Serjeant Cockell declare
that the Solicitor for the prosecution told him that
he believed these words were uttered in heat and ir-
ritation, perhaps somewhat inflamed by liquor, that
the defendant, almost instantly, repented of them—
was a very respectable man, of an excellent charac-
ter ; the Attorney General assented to whatever le-
nity the Court might be pleased to chew upon the
defendant, who, after a short admonition, was allowed
to depart on his own recognizance in two hundred
pounds, to appear when called upon to abide the
judgment of the Court.