Star.
London, England, 1809-11-22 00:00:00

TIIK KING V. WOOLMEN, ACC.

Mr. HoLnoin moved for a Rule to shew cause why
a writ of Mandamus should not be directed to the
Corporation of Meat Grimsby, enjoining them to re-
place William Fraser into the situation of Town-
Clerk of that Borough. Mr. Fraser had been ap-
pointed to this situation in the year 1807, and had
faithfully discharged the duties of his office from that
time, till, on the Bth of August last, being obliged to
gu to York, he had been taken ill, in consequence of
which he was detained at Hull for a few days. The ,1
Corporation Meetings were always held on a Tues-
day.
On Friday the llth August, however, a meet-
ing of the inhabitants was held for the purpose of
presenting a memorial against a rate then fixed for
the Borough, and a message was sent to Mr. Fraser's
Clerk, in his absence, desiring that the Corporation-
Seal might be sent for the purpose of having it affix-
ed to this Memorial. The Clerk knowing that un-
justifiable artifices against Mr. Fraser had formerly
been resorted to by General Loft, and others who
were at the head of this business, refused to send it,
knowing that the Memorial not being a Coiporate
Act, the Seal was unnecessary ; and, at the next
Meeting of the Corporation, Mr. Fraser was ionnved,
on a pretence that he had willfully absented himself
from his duty at the time alluded to.
Mr. Justice LE BLANC—" This was the pretence
jfor removing him ?"
Mr. Hor.itoTn" It WAL"—Rule granted.

COURT OF CHANCERY, NOV. 18.
EX-PARTE FIRM IN.
This was an application on the part of the Peti-
tioher to have a Commission of Bankrupt, which had
been taken out against him, superseded, anit.the tosts
paid by Mr. Woodgate, the solicitor, by whom the
commission had been taken out.

Sir S. ROMILLY, Mr. WEATHERAcLL, Mr. MONTA-
GUE, and Mr. PEncocic, severally stated the case on
the part of the Petitioner, at considerable length, so
as to occupy the greater part of the day. The Peti-
tioner, it appeared, was an attorney, and a man of
considerable property, residing at the Rookery, near
Colchester, in Essex. He was subject to occasional
fits of melancholy, when his mind was much depres-
sed, and when the state of his affairs, which were
somewhat involved, contributed to increase the agi-
tation under which he otherwise laboured. At one
of these periods it was proposed by his friends, that
to relieve his mind, and to procure him more ease
and quiet, he should execute a Trust Deed, for the
paying off his debts. Mr. Woodgate was consulted
on this occasion, and recommended, as the best mode
of proceeding, that a commission of bankrupt should
he taken nut. Against this the Petitioner strongly
remonstrated, on the ground, among others, of the
disgrace such a measure would bring on his family,
and that the Petitioner must thereby, almost as a
matter of necessity, lose his business, which was of,
considerable value. Mr. 'Woodgate, however, insisted
that this was indispeasibly necessary, and though se-
veral of the Petitioner's friends also objected to it,
and even offered themselves to borrow money for the
Petitioner, or proposed the sale of the Rookery, for
which a purchaser could at the moment be had, if
that could prevent such a step, the commission was ;
notwithstanding taken out, and the act of bankruptcy
relied on was, that the Petitioner had quitted his
house to avoid his creditors, at the time when he had
been persuaded to go to the house of a friend for the
sake of amusement. The Petitioner, though he never
ceased to disapprove of the taking out of the commis-
sion of bankrupt, thought it his duty, after it was
taken out, to give every assistance to his assignees in
bringing his affairs to a speedy adjustment. The
discovery, however, of a latent correspondence, pre-
vious to the issuing of the commission, betrieen Mr.
Woodgate and Colonel Masters, a near relative of
the Petitioner's wife, on the subject of his affairs, to-
gether with an opinion expressed by the Commission-
ers, on the Petitioner's third examination, as to the ex-
traordinary nature of the commission, rendered it an
incumbent duty on the Petitioner to prefer the pre-
sent application.

A number of affidavits were then read by the
Learned Counsel, detailing the circumstances before
stated, and many others, tending to prove the pecu-
liar hardship of the petitioner's case. These affida-
vits had been answered by Mr. Woodgate, who vin-
dicated himself, principally on the assertion that the
commission had been taken out with the concurrence
of the petitioner's friends. No particular friends, i
however, had been named by him, except Mr. Coke,l
and yet this Gentleman, in his affidavit, expressly de.
nied such concurrence, declaring that, to avert the
necessity of having recourse to the commission, he
had offered himself to borrow money for the peti-
tioner. Even Colonel Masters, the Learned Counsel
contended, would not have agreed to a commission
being taken out, had he been left to the free exercise
of his own judgment.
At the third examination, the Commissioners in-
sisted that an account of the bankrupt's affairs should
be rendered; and Mr. Woodgate, at the moment,
made out a statement, by which it appeared that there
would be a surplus of £29,000. If such an account
could be made out at the moment, by a person situ-
ated as Mr. Woodgate was, what might not the ac-
tual surplus be supposed to be ? Yet even on this
sheaving, the Commissioners had declared it to be
th.n r opinions
that the taking out of the Commission

was the most unaccountable, harsh, and Itnneeessary
measure they had ever witnessed.
To be farther heard on Monday. •
Nov. 20.—ux PARTE FIRMIN, A RANERCPT.
This day the Lord CHANCELLOR gave judgment in
this cause. He observed, it was quite evident, from
the state of this Gentleman's property, that he had
moth more than sufficient to pay his debts, indeed to
the amount of many thousand pounds. It had been
said, indeed, on the behalf of Mr. Woodgate and
Mr. Masters? that by making him a bankrupt they
thought they would but relieve his mind from the
anxiety under which it laboured, from a supposition
that his creditors were pressing him. On this head
:the mind of the unfortunate Gentleman seemed to have
,been-in a state of morbid sensibility, and if those per-
sons, taking advantage of this morbid feeling, for
reasons best known to themselves, prevailed upon Mr.
Firmin to commit an act of bankruptcy, he was bound
to say that the Commission ought to be superseded,
and that all the expences should be paid by those per-
sons who exerted this influence. On these grounds
I he ordered the Commission to be superseded.