Star.
London, England, 1819-03-16 00:00:00

LAW*IN7#IOOENCE.

0. VICE-CH.SII6OLOR' MAT* 111.91 CH se.
• . WXAR
gr. 2ART- gated, that this walla the object
of whi to•eomped thedeieadant, who was a
Solicitor, to reconvey to the plaintiff an: annuity,
upon receiving the sum origlnalty paid for it. The
facts of the case were these :—Mrs, Wear, a lady ad-
vanced in years, having a sum of money in her hands,
appropriated it to the purchase ;of an annuity f‘ir her
own life and the life of Captain Macdonongh, her
nephew. , Some time after she had so purchased the
annuity, she happened to be in Edinburgh, and in a
situation of great distress; she became acquainted with
the defendant, who undertook to raise a sum of money
for her relied, Upon his return to Londoo„a cor-
respondence took place between them on the subject.
The defendant wrote her a letter, stating the diffi-
culty there was of raising money—talked of the ex-
tortions of money-lenders, observing what a sad race
of men they were, and that Mrs. Wear must by no
means have any thing to do with them; but that if
even she did apply to them, they could not in con-
science offer her less than two years and three quar-
ters purchase for her annuity. After writing several
letters, he proposed to advance her £2OO himself;
but he informed her, that having consulted Counsel,
they were of opinion she could give no security other-
wise than by the assignment of her annuity bond;
and that such assignment must be absolute, and not
redeensable—otherws a the loan would be liable to
the operation of the U,sury Laws. He, however, as-
sured her, that, although the assignment should ap.:
Ipear to be absolute, he should consider that he held
it for her and Captain Micdonough, whenever they
thought pfoper to repay him the £2OO. 13efore the
defendant lent the lady the money, he continued in-
forming her of the great scarcity of cash; that he had
been in• the City among the monied men, but had
Found it very difficult to raise money at any rate.—
Any one, said the Learned Counsel, would have ima-
gined that he was predicating of raising a sum to pay
off the national debt, instead of a poor £2OO to re-
lieve the necessities of an old laity in Scotland. The
correspondence at length terminated by the plaintiff
assigning her interest in the annuity nominally for
£230; but, in fact, for £2OO only, the other thirty
pounds having. been deducted for the expense of the
assignment. The annuity was regularly paid till
some time in the year 1816, when Mrs. Wear, think-
ing she had paid sufficiently for the use of the £2OO,
applied to be at liberty to redeem it for the sum she
had received.—" No," said the defendant; " you have
sold the annuity to me absolutely—there is no clause
of redemption—and if I did say you should redeem
it, I did not mean that it should
_be in payment of
£2OO, but by paying as much as it might be worth.
Pay me, therefore, the fair market price, and I will
reconvey it to you."—The plaintiff considering this a
violation of the contract, commenced the present suit*
to compel the defendant to perform his engagement.
The VICE-CHANCELLOR said, it was plain the
voney had been advanced by the defendant, on the
condition that if it was repaid, the annuity was to be
re-assigned. It appeared to him a very clear case—
if two persons, enraged in an annuity transaction,
should be of opinion that, a clause •of redemption
would make a contract illegal, and should therefore
avoid inserting it, this Cowl would not insert it for
them. It was the defendant's own fault there had
not been a clause of redemption. Was it to be said,
that when a Solicitor had ntisadvisad his client, he
should be permitted to make his own misconduct an
excuse for the non-performance of his engagement?
The order of the Court was, that the defendant should
reconvey the annuity, and pay'the costs of this suit.

YORK ASSIZES, MARCH 9.

Thom Robin:ex was charged with stealing, on
the 30th Of January last, at Wetherby, the mail-bags,
containing the letters for Knaresborough, Harrogate,
and Ripley ; such bags being in the possession of a
person employed by the Post-office for the convey-
ance of the mail from Wetherby so those places.
At the time this robbery was committed, the mail
from Wetherby, containing the letters for the above-'
named places, was conveyed on horseback..br a per-
son of the same of Benjamin Dobson. These bags
contained both the London and country letters. On
Saturday, the 30th of January, about hal4ast five
o'clock in the morning, Dobson received from Mr.
Hunsley, the post-master of. Wetherby, four bags
containing the letters; which he put into the portman-
teau used for that purpose, and fastened it upon his
horie, which was standing at the stable-door, about
SO yards from Mr. Hunsley's house; being lime in
his arm, he left the horse to get Mr.•Hunsley's ser-
vant to assist him to put on hit great coat. On his
return, although he had not been absent more than
two or three minutes, he found that the straps had
been cut, and the portmanteau, containing the mail,
takeri away. An alarm was instantly given, and
search after the robber commenced. In the course
of the same day the bags, with the whole of the let-
ters and newspapers, were found in a wood, about
two Miles pad a half from Wetherby, called Noble
Wood. olledawers had been opened, and Ake con-
tents taken Wt. The person who found them took
them the same eviniing to the Post-office, wherethey
were sealed with the office seal, and forwarded to
their respective destinations. About -three hours
after the robbery had been committed, the prisoner
was seen coming out of Noble Wood, and going in a
direction towards Wag-hill, where he was seen at a
public-house, in company with a person of the name
of Rhodes, who again saw him at.a public-hon.* at
Askham Bryan, near this-city. The prisoner, upon
this occasion, exhibited to Rhodes a £2OO Bank post,
bill, and the half of a £5O
Bank-note, which he said
were the fruits of a Chancery suit, in which he had
been successful. He was thontraced to this city, and'
found in a public-house,. from whence he escaped,
and endeavoured to conceal himself in a hay-ehazip
her, in an idjoining yard, but was immediate
covered ; in the same place was found a pocket-book,'
containing a £2OO Bank post-bill, lour £5 notes, tide"
half of a £5O Bank-note, and a great variety of other
bills and notes, to the amount of about £520. The
Bank post-bill had '
of Messrs. Smith,
Mr. Henry* Fisher,
country notes had
the house of Waken, ~.
These wens proved in
rive Post-octet at Y