Star.
London, England, 1804-12-21 00:00:00

LAW INTELLIOENCE.COURT OF KING'S BENCH.

IN CONTIRO►OIOII mom Tilt PILICtill*G

GREENLAND FISHERY.

Suet v. Thornsw.—This *Sinn came nn in the
form of a Wiit of Inquiry for damages, the Defen-
dant having let judgment go by default.
Mr. Leans, Connfel for the Plaintiff, made a for.
Bible ulitrelis to the Jury. He Rated, that this 'was a
Special ACtinn on the cafe againli the defendant, for
imprefling divers rotated feamen from the Ihip
Sims. on her homeward.bound voyage; and for the
damage foßained by the plaintiffs in confequence
thereof. The praftice of impreffing Greenland fea-
men, who are protected by Ad of Parliament, had
become fo common, the efficen in the Navyregiriling
their proteßions as frivolous and ufelefs, that the
merchants were driven to this mode of claiming their
rights. They had long patiently endured the injury,
not willing to appear to countetaa Government, till
the *tiled of the Admiralty to their remonfirances,
and the ezpence in procuring the rdenis difcharges,
bad ethaulted their patience. He elated the injury
swamis that mu/ naturally info. to the trade, it the
pronsition was not eriti•reed. The men are trained
to the finite by long habit, and become accußomed
ig de to the rigours of a Northern climate. The
Greenland trade is a nurfery for feamen, and an im-
portant remote In the commercial Freatnefs of the
nottotry. on %larch our naval fuperiority meth de;
pawls. The weed was entitled by her ti nnage to
prom& tsween the had only tt on bawd when the
entered al Yarmouth, where the defendant, who is
a Uentssiont au board the Monmouth, the Admi;
Vara imprelfed foot men out of the it that were
Zed. A (dies *or= came on Wrs Wetly after the ai
front Yartmeth, by which (be IoR her fore-
' tetp, mein, and Meseta waits, and (Whined other cLs-
mut the amount of qui.
Learned Comfit having fußantiated his cafe
by miasma, the Ivry returned their vercliet.—Da.
te7ol.
were two oiler actions, at the fuit of the
bail fe imprelred, for alfault and falfe imprifes.
1141.2043amailes 101. in each.

• O. rmosirsdil.
L., lids was an anion on • policy of inftwauce made
'bp the Defestilast oe the fcbooner Idaty, from Bar.
Melees to Cork which was captured on her paffage
by e'rreedi privateer.
Mr. &saute hid, that it was admitted, on the
=:ryftise Plaintii. that a letter, written on tile rah
by the owner at Barbadoes to his
nettle lan, directing the inforance to be made.
and which was received in this 'country on the sgth
March, when the policy was itatned:.:ely opened,
had not hien communicated to the Defendant at the
timehe underwrote the policy. It was, on the other
band agreed by the Defendant, that the proteß taken
*mad be elleemed evidence of the capture. Thefe
mutual concelgons would bring the quellion within
narrow Monde. The letter teem the owner to his
agent here, dated toth January, bore that the 'reel
was eimetled to fail from Barbadoes in three weeks,
er at fartheß a month, from that date t and if a man
of war did not by that time prefent itfelt as a con-
voy to guard her froli the privateers &ante% the
llllaads, that the owner would 'sunlit her to the care
• Sties 'of the large armed vegeta, which he knew
*Odd he Malt altdet that time. This letter arriv.
ilia the agth Mirth, on which day application was
Obbie to** Defendant to usderwrite the policy, but
which he ad sot figgaa till the loth April. The de•
fence which he wdsaiead was to be fel op, indeed
Ilse aaly discs which he could figure. was, that
**sewed maR, from the tenor of this letter, which
, had net been communicated to the Defendant. have

Gees prefamed to be miffing at the time the inoiicy
was sOderwitittes. This, M. ErOcine raid, he old
.k able to Ikw from the general andertanding of
Eezecan
in the trade, could wit have been in the con.
' of the agent who applied to have the po-
ted, or oldie Defendant, had he been aware
of the contents of the letter, at the time he under-

wrote the policy. The only reafon then for inferting
a *warranty that the velfel Should fail before the
of Ana, as bad been done in this policy, mull have
proceeded from this eircumilane, that the hurricanes
commeseing generally after that period, greater rilk
attached to yards which did not leave the country
previous to this 1 a of Afton.
The Clerk of the Plaintiff's agent proved, that on
the a9tb March he appli'd to the Defendant to ex-
ecute the policy, which was figned on the loth April.
He admitted that the Defendant Aced him, when the
veld was to fail ? to which be gave for anfwcr,
that he was not Waive. The Defendant then diced
if he was to warrant its failing befor the id of Au-
ral ? which the witnefa Paid was his intention, when
a warranty to that effelt was pot into the policy.
Several captains who bad long traded to the
Well Indies Paid, that (even or eight weeks made a
good average voyage from Barbadoes to Cork ; and
that a veffel expelled to fail on that voyage in three
or four weeks from the loth January, could not on
the 19th March be confidered a miffing hip.
.1 Mr. GARROW, for the defendant, contended, that
w` till once the title " concealment" could be expunged
from his Learned Friend Mr. Parke's book on infix-
lance. and from every other book which had ever
been publilbed on the fubjelf, it would be unnecefi
fary fur him to fpend many words to flew that a
claim under a policy like the present could not be
maintained. He would recommend it to every gen•
tleman about to apply for having a policy of au-
rance underwritten, to follow the *claim of his-
Learned friend Mr. EREKII4I, in another cafe—to
empty the bureaus of every paper at all conneded
with the buf:nefs and to submit them to the perufal
of the parties intending to underwrite, that an equal
advantage and an equal underllanding might ezt
on all fides before the execution of fuch a contrad.
But if inch a practice were not to prevail, he would
recomm:nd to his Learned Friend Mr. Parke. en
the antliority of the cafe now before his Lordfhip and
the Jury, in addition to the title s. Concealment," to
add, as a branch, and a necelTary one, of that rom-
prehenfive term in his valuable book, " wow of en.
planation " Here it was morainal the •ttent for the
plaintiff w r. in poll'effatr of the probable time when
the •L 'I-I to be infused would fail. Was it
not his yto have explained this to the onderwri-
t7r ? At all e‘ents, being himfelf in poireffion of
ii...„tlichl.ouvledge that the rad was to fail kveris I