Star.
London, England, 1824-08-14 00:00:00

.• • •
*ASSIZE INTELLIaIk CE.
Totils, A U UST .11:
THI ICING V* RUSLICAND OTHIRS. •
This case excited coasiderable interest, both,.in this
and the neighbouring county, and occupied the anon-
lion of the Court for nearly thirteen hours. '
The following Special Jury having been sworn—
• Sir F. Boynton, Bart. Sir W. Strickland, Bart. Sir. T. Sykes,
Bart. P. Salunah, Esq. J. R. Fowlis, litsq. T. Wilson, Nag. H.
Illastennan, Esq. H. Croft, Req. J. Smith, Esq.. 8 Swanton,
Esq. and J. Reynolds, sad another taienaan.—
Mr. PAaa opened the pleadings.—This, he said, was
an indictment preferred against the defendant Russel,
and others, for a nuisance in the River Tyne. There
were various counts, charging them with having laid
down staiths and gears in that river, to the great ob-
struction of the navigation, and also for having kept
ships an unnecessary time at anchor before the said
staiths, &c. The defendants pleaded Not Guilty. A
suggestion having been placed on the record that a fair
trial could not be obtained in Newcastle, the venire was
removed to the County of York.
Mr. BROUGHAM stated the case to the Jury. The de-
fendants in this indictment were a great Coal Company,
whose property lay in the neighbourhood of the Tyne;
and they, in order the more conveniently to carry on
their own concerns, to lessen the carriage of their coals,
and thereby greatly enhance their gains and profits, bad
erected large structures, called staiths or gears, which
were a kind of railways by which their coals were sent
from the shore immediately on board the vessels ; they,
in fact, connected the property of the. defendants with
the river. The large smith was elevated 38 feet above
the river; the breadth of the rail-way war 56 feet, and
'it projected into the river, at high water, 192 feet ; the
other was the same height and breadth, and projected
172 feet into the water, being a very considerable dis-
tance, and bearing no small- proportion to the whole
breadth of the channel; for that breadth, at high water,
was only five hundred and forty-two yards. He might al-
most stop here, and call upon the Jury to state, under his
ILordship s direction, whether they entertained any doubt
that these staiths were a nuisance, an obstruction, an im-
pediment, a hindrance, a detriment, and an annoyance?
They occupied 1-9th of the river, which his Majesty's
subjects bad a right to navigate, and which they would
navigate, were it not for such an obstruction—an ob-
struction of the height, length, and breadth he had de-
scribed, occupying several hundred cubical yards, and
to be endured only because it added to the great estate
and immense profits of the defendants. To be sure this
nuisance was not of yesterday's construction ; it had
stood for some twenty or thirty years; indeed, so far
back as forty or fifty years, there had been erections of
a similar nature, but to a less extent, and consequently
less prejudicial to the navigation of the river. The
largest, or as it was called the western staith or gear,
was erected about twenty-five years ago, the eastern
rwas erected since that period. He would now call
attention of the Jury to the effects produced, neces-
sarily produced by these staiths upon the navigation of
the river Tyne.—[Here —Vansittart, Esq. whose name
was called in the Special Jerry list, entered the Court,
and was, with the consent of both parties, sworn on the
Jury in the room of the talesman3.—Mr. Brougham
proceeded. He was very glad that this slight interrup-
don had taken place—first, as it afforded his clients the
benefit of the talents and information of the very re-
spectable Gentleman added to the Jury, and also as it
gave him-an opportunity of making some additions to
his statement. He bad alingdy described the extent to
which the staiths projected al high water, the proportion
of their projection at low water was nearly the same.—'
The navigable cheered es lees water was reduced to
200 feet, and opposite the staiths there was a bank of
sand running on the south side of the river to a con-
siderable extent; and here the proportion of the staith
at low water was 40 feet. As to a few feet, more or
less, it made not the slightest difference, and he men-
tioned the exalt distances merely in order to keep the
facts clear before the Jury. If they should be 'satisfied
that the circumstances were as he stated them, and that

the nuisance existed, its extent was quite a matter of
subordinate consideration. Suppose the Gentlemen
of the Jury, who were perhaps unacquainted with
navigation, were to be told that a building had
been projected into a public road, they could not
Joe a moment entertain a doubt of its being an
annoyance to a traveller, and a public nuisance ?
Now the annoyance Iglu infinitely greater in a stream
ai river, for a person's \course upon a road could not be
affected by wind, nor by tide, nor by the accumulation,
or drifting of sand, to all of which casualties a vessel
afloat was subject. In this instance the driving down
of the piles which supported the staiths necessarily
caused a great accumulation of sand round their bases.
But he would not detain the Jury by detailing what
took place under water, be bad so much of what occur-
red above board, as he might say, to detail, that it was
unnecessary to advert to anything else. The first part of
the nuisance was, the obstruction caused to the naviga-
tion by the buoys and their tackle, laid down for the
purpose of mooring the ships that took in coals from
the staiths. Formerly these vessels were loaded by a
spout affixed to the end of the staith, through which the
coals were shot into the vessel's hold. That spout had
been removed, and in its place a machine called a drop
had been substituted. The drop was so constructed as
to lower the coal cart into the ship, and thereby pre-
vent that breakage and mixture of large with small
coals, which took place when vessels were loaded, as
formerly, from the spout. This drop added to the in-
convenience, alit projected forty-one feet from the staith,
being five feet more than the projection of the spout.—
A vessel was placed at the end of this drop to load, and
it not unfrequently happened, that two, and sometimes
three others, were placed abreast of her, waiting for
their cargoes; by which the obstruction was so far in-
creased, as not only to render the passage difficult, but
absolutely to prevent other vessels, or even boats, from
passing at all. There were other circumstances which
rendered this passage more dangerous. They would hear
from the witnesses, that the tide often sets bodily in, or,
as some of them would say, like a sluice, so great was
its force ; so that vessels were at times actually forced
against these structures. The passage between the sand
bank and these staiths was rendered particularly diffi-
cult, when the wind was from the South (the staiths are
on the North Bank), and they would hear instance after
instance in which vessels ran, and sometimes were driven
aground, in endeavouring to avoid being driven against
the staiths. Before the erection of the staiths,vessels could
pass with any wind, and at any time of the tide, but now
they could only pass at the last quarter good, or the first
quarter ebb, and the rest of the tide was lost, and not even
then could vessels pass unless the wind was favourable.
[Here Mr. Brougham pointed out to the Jury from the
plan the nature of the drop, and the manner in which
it projected from the staith in loading the ship.]—