Star.
London, England, 1818-03-30 00:00:00

PERSOPIS AT DEAL.

Nicholas Robillard and J. Arquinbau, two young
midshipmen, were charged on two indictments, for
shooting at two of the inhabitants of Deal, with in-
tent to murder, &c.
As the transaction was detailed in the last case
most fully, we shall state that first, the case having
been much misrepresented by the County Papers :
That indictment charged Robillard and Arquinbau,
the first with shooting at, and the other with aiding
him in shooting at J. Williams, at eight o'clock in
the evening of the 27th day of December, in King-
street, near the Fish-market, Deal. The Prosecutor
described himself as a mariner, and stated that he
was returning home on the evening of the 27th De-
cember, having been for a walk : when he got into
the Fish-market he heard the noise of quarrelling,
and saw Mr. Arquinbau disputing with a man of the
name of Robinson ; he cried out " Hallo ! what's the
matter r when Rohillard stepped up to him, and
said, you are the fellow that just now insulted me.—'
He replied, that he was not, and was ready to go
before the Mayor. Robillard had a pistol in his
hand, and after a few words fired it at him, and
then drew his cutlass. The Prosecutor closed with
him, and in doing so received a wound across his,
face, but he succeeded in throwing Robi!lard down,
and escaped.
In cross-examination he denied that he had ever
seen Robillard to his knowledge before that night,
or that he had been smuggling that evening.
J. Barnes, a grocer, at Deaf, near whose house the
affray happened, said, he heard the noise of the dis-
pute between Arquinbau and Robinson, and he went
to his door. He interposed, and thought he had
succeeded in restoring peace, and had returned to
his shop, when he heard the report of a pistol. The
ball struck his window-shutter. He came out and
found the Prosecutor and the Primer Robillard
struggling on the ground.
Barnes, jun. the son of the list witness, said,
he saw the scuffle ; and he said the Prisoner fired
the pistol when he was standing about five feet xi om
the Prosecutor.
The Prisoners being called upon their defence,
Rohillard read a long paper, which was well corn
posed as to style and matter. He lamented his hard-
ship in standing as a culprit at the bar, for doing no
more than was necessary fer his self-defence in the
performance of a duty which had been imnesed upon
him by his superiors, and not of his own choice, that
of watching the contraband traders—a duty he de-
clared much more unpleasant than facing the enemy
in open battle. He lamented also the manner in
which they had been treated by the Mayor of Deal.
who committed them to close custody, and when
their Captain, under whose orders they had acted,
and whose advice they immediately sought, was re-
fused admission to them, he was told by the Mayor
that they were both drunk. Thus not only denying
them the consolation and advice of their Command-
ing Officer, but at the same time calumniating their
character. The County Journals had no less vilified
them, by stating their conduct as little short of that
of assassins or madmen, representing them as wan-
tonly parading the streets, and firing at the passen-
gers at random. He then alluded to the state of the
town of Deal, in which he said that the habit of illi-
cit trading was so inveterate, that no reward would
induce any inhabitant to
.give information; and he
held in his hand advertisements to the amount of
many thousand pounds reward, all of which had
been unavailing. This was the place where his duty
and ill-fortune compelled him to serve. His vessel
was specially appointed to watch the smugglers, so
that every person on board was obnoxious to the
whole town. He then detailed a variety of instances
in which their officers and parts of their crew had
been beaten, gagged, thrown overboard, and every
insult used against them, and in the case of two
seizures which he had made, he noticed the present
Prosecutors active amongst those who rescued the
goods. On the night in question, they had sentries
along the shore on the watch, and it was his duty to
fro trom post to post. It happened that as lie and
his brother officer were passing the High-street, be
saw three or four men loaded with baskets, such as
they carry tubs in. He pursued, but they escaped,
except one, whom he overtook. The Prosecutor
then came, and by a blow on the breast knocked
him down, which enabled the smugslers to escape.
As soon as lie got up and recovered himself he made
his way through the Fish-market, and then the Pro-
secutor again came up. He immediately said--
" You are the fellow who insulted me ; I will now
take you prisoner." The Prosecutor said, " I will
give it you again," and immediately prepared a box-
ing attitude. The Jury would see that there was no,
equality of personal strength between them, and
therefore he drew his sword, but the Prosecutor
rushed in and bore him down; when they were down
he told the Prosecutor to desist or he would shoot
him ; to which his answer was, " Fire away and be
d—d," and kept kneeling on his breast. lie then
drew his pistol and fired, not intending to kill him,
but to alarm him, for he could easily have shot him '
through the head or body, but he fired close to his I
head, so as to pass him, The Prosecutor then got
up, and ran away. Now, although there were many
witnesses to this transaction, and could, of course, I
speak to the truth of his statement, yet there was no
one who dared give evidence against a smuggles at I
Deal, and it was with the greatest difficulty he could
procure one to come forward, and he must no more I
dare return to that place.
He delivered this address in a very inirressive i
manner, and it evidently had great effect with the
Court and Jury.
Mr. Arquinbau merely said, that what his brother
officer said was strictly true.
Some witnesses were then called who had examined
the fiat k of the ball in the window-shutter, and they
said from its direction it must ha-re been fired by a
person lying on the ground.
This was confirmed by one witness, who saw the
transaction.---The Jury found them Not Guilty.
The first indictment was against Mr. Arquinbau
alone. It appeared, that after Robinson ran away
lie pursued, and, intending to fire at Robinson, his 4
ball unfortunately hit another person, and he was in-
dicted for firing at the person whom he hit.
The Learned Judge immediately held, tLat this

would not do, as the crime consisted in the intent,
and that he must actually be charged for firing at
the person he intended to fire at. On this ground he
directed the Jury to find them Not Guilty.
The prisoners were both very gentlemanly young
men, and selected by their Captain for this disagree-
able service, in consequence of their prudence and
discretion, as was stated by Captain *Culloch, their
Commander. Robillard is a native of Guenise.,, and
Arquinbau a native of Minorca.

THE KING V. PF.NNALI..

This was an indictment against the defendant for
a misdemeanour, and a contempt of an order of the
Magistrates, by not serving the office of Overseer in
the parish of Queenborough.
Mr. Pennall had refused to fill the office, without
assigning any other reason than that he as exempted
by an office he already held under the Board of Ord-
nance ; but this gentleman had produced no instru-
ment to shew that he did fill this office. The defen-
dant had been a resident in the parish of Qaccnbo-
rough for several years, and was perfectly competent
to fill the office. He was a householder, and had
had due notice of the appointment.
Mr. MARRYATT confessed that this case was one
more fit for the consideration of his Lot-thin') than of
the Jury. The defendant was seventy-two years old,
and he could prove that many persons, fifteen and
twenty years younger than the defendant, had never
been called upon to serve the office. But the princi-
pal ground upon which the order of the Magistrates
was resisted was, that the defendant was actually ex-
empted. He took it to be a strict rule Of law, that
all officers under his Majesty were exempted from
parish duties. In this case he held in his hand a writ
of privilege, dated the 14th of March, 1818, reciting
the order of 1664, and totally exempting the defen-
dant from filling the parish office.
Mr. ANDREWS, on the other hand, argued that the
writ of privilege was not sufficient to exempt the de-
fendant : that writ had only recited the order of the
Privy Council of 1664, which of itself had as little
power in granting the exemption as the present writ
issued front the Court of Exchequer.
Mr. Baron GRAHAM confesses, that it did appear
to him, that some respect was due to this instrument
produced, not because it was issued from the Court
of Exchequer, but because that Court could have no
contro,:l when an Act of Parliament was in e...istence,
giving power to Magistrates to appoint three or four
overs,:ers. But the ground upon which he thought'
it was a good writ WAS this, that time out of mind,
it was a part of the Royal prerogative to claim the,
whole exercise of the duties of those who were em-
ployed under Government.

A verdict was accordingly taken for the defen-
dant, subject to an application for a new tri.d, or for
a special verdict.

THE. KING V. PENNALL.

The indictment in this case was for an assault upon
three gentlemen of the names of Marshall, Findlay,
And Batchelor, in his own house, in the parish of
Queenborougli.
Mr. ANDREWS stated the case to the Jury, and ob-
served upon the coarse and irl,vinan manner in which
the dAendant had treated the tl.ree
.;i•ntlenien men-
tioned in the indictment.

John Liptrop Findlay was a churchwarden of the
parish of Queeaborough, and accompanied Mr. Bat-
chelor to the defendant's house to tender the parish
books, on the '24th April, about nine o'clock in the
evening. Mr. Batchelor went in first. Without hav-
ing an opportunity of saying a word, the defendant
ran upon him and forced him against the door, say-
ing, " Get out of my house!" He attempted to an-
swer, that he had come there as instructed by his
duty, and net to insult him, nor did he expose such
treatment from him. While in the act of speaking,
the defendant went to the fire-place, and returned
with the poker grasped in his hand. The defendant
seized him by the collar with one hand, and at-
tempted to strike him with the poker with the other.
Ile avoided the blow with his left arm, and endea-
voured to remonstrate with him, saying there was no
reason for such violence. The defendant made a se-
cond attempt to strike him, still holdir.g bim with
his hand. He attempted it a third time, but witness
seized the poker and took it from him, saying at the
same time, " I shall certainly bring this in evidence
against you." Upon which he said, " Will you? by
bon, but you shan't." The defendant endeavoured
to make a snatch at the poker, and so violent was he
that he fell into the street, but did not lose his feet.
Witness then went away, leaving Mr. Batchelor and
Mr. Marshall to settle as they could. During this
struggle witness used no aggravating language, and
did no more than act in his own defence. Ills busi-
ness at the defendant's was to tender the parish books.
Cross-exansined.--Mr. Pcnnall had desired the wit-
ness not to enter his house again. This was on the
12th April, and witness west in with his hat on. The
defendant remarked it, and witness immediately pulled
it off, saying, " I always pull my hat off in gentle-
men's company." Ile did not say " I never pull my
hat off but in a gentleman's company."
The Jury, at the direction of the Learned Judge,
found a verdict—Guilty.

A GHOST AT Nawaroxow.--Friday night, a nrin
was extremely terrified near Walworth Turnpike, by
the appearance of a figure which he imagined rose
out of the earth in the shape of a woman, with large
horns on her head ; his fright was so great that his
terrific shouts drew the watchman to the spot, who
found the poor man in the utmost perturbation, and
nothing could make him believe but that he had seen
a spectre. The same night, another person gave in-
formation to the watchman that he had seen an ap-
parition a short distance from the turnpike, and that
it vanished into air as he approached it. The watch
men were not free from fear, and began to think that
there was more in what the first person said he saw,
than they before gave him credit for. They saw
nothing more that night, but on the next (Saturday)
about eleven o'clock, soft music was heard by the,
watchmen, and a man came running into Newington
watch-house, and informed the keeper (Mr. Snow),
that the ghost had made its appearance. He ran to-
wards the spot, and to his surprise saw a watchman,
named Mathews, much alarmed, retreating along the
turnpike-road from a figure which appeared quite
naked, and of a gigantic stature. The watchman
called for assistance, and in flying from the supposed
phantom, he called out—" If you follow me
will
shoot you !" Snow, aho was determined to disco-
ver Wititt it was, aisFoacllod the figure, which re-