Star.
London, England, 1809-12-28 00:00:00

CilltIOUS CAUSE.

TDE EiNG AND THE LORD OF THE MANOR OF HOL-
DERNF.SSL,

The curious suit between the Crown and MAXWELL
CONSTABLE, EA. Lord of the Manor of Holdernesse,
in. Yorkshire, is at length determined : it is of much
importance to LcrJs oF Manors on the sea coast.
A cask of wine was floated on shore on the coast of
the Manor of Holdernesse. The Coast Bailiff, and som
Custom-House Officers, on hearing of the stranger's
arrival, went immediately to pay a complimentary
vist : The Officers laid hold of one end of the cask,
and said; " This belongs to the King ;" the Bailiff
laid hold of the other end, and said it belonged to
the Lord of the Manor. Say the Officers, "it is
smuggled, it has not paid-„the Port duty ; said the
Batli " I think it is Madeira." - The Officers smiled
at the honest man's blunder, and,:-explained they
meant the Duty on Wineimported. Says the Bailiff,
46 It has been in nu port, it has come by itself on the
beach." Poth parties remained inflexible ; and the
Officers having, after grave consultation, determined,
that the Bailiff could not drink the cask of wine while
they went to,their Custom-house, at a short distance,
for advice, proposed that the wine should be put into
a small but ; but •the Bair thinking it safer within
the Lord's immediate jurisdiction, in the mean time
remoVed it to the cellar of the baronial chateau. The
Officers returned._ on this : " Oh, ho !" said they,
" now we have you ; the • wine is our's to all intents
and purposes, as it ha: been renamed without a fiernrit."
Says the Bailiff, " if- I had. not removed the wine
without a permit, the sea would the next tide."---
" Then," quoth the officers, " the sea would have
been put into the Court of Exchequer." The Bailiff
shut the great hall door in their faces.
The Lord was exchequered ; that is, the Attorney-
General filed his information •against him ; learned
lawyers were engaged on both sides ; the Crown law-
yers said the officers'were certainly right ; the Lord's
lawyers said he certainly was.
The cause came on at York Assizes, and the noise
it made was as great as the contested election there.
All the winebibbing Lords of Manors in that and the
adjoining counties were present, and the Court was
consequently very much crowded. A special verdict
;vas found, which left the question for the determina-
tion of the Court of Exchequer.
It came on to be argued, Sir Roger de Coverley's
dictum, that " a great deal may be said on both sides,"
was demonstrated to the fullest extent, by the long-
robed hand of wordy combatants- engaged by the
Crown and the Lord of the Manor.

The Court took time to deliberate and on the last
day of last Term, pronounced judgment that it was a
case which the Actrequiring permits for the removal
of wine did not embrace, the Act only alluding to
wine which had paid duty; that from the• case in
Vaughan, it was clear, that wine to be liable to duty
must be imported ; that wine, as Vaughan said, could
not be imported by itself, but must be by tht. agency
of some one else ; and that it was in that case deter-1
mined, that wine wrecked could not be subject to
duty. The Lord keeps the- wine, and will have to'
pay an enormous bill of costs for the defence of his
rights, as in informations by the Attorney-General,
though the verdict is with the Defendant, he does not
get his costs. John Bull will—(but hold, we have just
mentioned the name of Mr. Attorney)—and the
Counsel who were in the cause say, in their opinion,
it was_ one of the best casks of wine which ever
reached the English coast.