Star.
London, England, 1819-07-21 00:00:00

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TRE, HAniARKET.

This amusing Summer Theatre opened last night
for the Season, with a Company of considerable
strength—Jones, LISTON, RUSSBEL, J. RUSSELL,
Mrs. DAVENPORT, Mrs. GIBBS, Mrs. EDWIN, ,and
some other good performers; under the superintend-
ance of TERRY, himself a very able actor, as well as
a very respectable man. 77re Soldier's Daughter was
the Play, selected, we presume, chiefly for the pur-
pose of restoring to us, after an absence of some.
years, an old favourite, in the person of Mrs. EDWIN.
This Lady was welcomed with fervent applause,
. and her whole performance, as the Widow Cheerly.
,proved that her talents are nothing deteriorated since
'we had last the pleasure of enjoying them. All that
rich vivacitl and humour which once contributed so
'largely to the enteitanment of the town, are still in
full sow, and were successfully exerted on this occa-
sion, to give an indifferent character first-rate impor-
tance. The oi iginat Epilogue, which, in some parts,
seenied peculiarly applicable to the situation in which
she last night stood, she recited with great anima-
tion, and her efforts were rewarded with the most
flattering testimonials of approbation from all parts
of the house. -
• . Jonas played Frank with all his wonted animation;
and Timothy Quaint found an appropriately ludicrous
representative in !Asian:.
The entertainments of the evening closed with a
new Parce, called Wet Weather.
The title has little to d 6 with the plot ; but we can
forgive the liberty taken in this respect with Wet
Weatiee, for the sake of the excellent dry humour
with which the piece abounds. Liston, as an up-
start illiterate Baronet, who wishes to become fashion.;
able and accomplished, and yet more, the husband of i
• a beautiful young Lady, bad a multitude of whimsi-
eel things to utter, and nearly all of them operited
• :powerfully on the risible muscles of the audience;:
In attempting to articulate the letter h, he declared
• his difficulty iu exasFfrating, and talked of his yeo-
manry corps manuttng over the whole of the field!
JONES, as the scheming lover, who triumphs over the
booby-Baronet, was a fruitful source of merriment ;
the mischievous servant was well sustained by J.
RUSSELL ; and Miss liI;AUMONT, lions Covent-Gar-
den Theatre, made a most successful debut as the
• heroine. Excessive laughter caused the only inter-
ruption experienced during the progress of the piece;
and univei applafase signified the recision of the
audience on its merits, when the curtain fell, and it
was anenenced fur repetition this evening.
. The Tneatre has been newly painted in distemper
during the recess, and the whole interior presents that
teat but unostentatious appearance, which has been
preserved here for so many years, where it has been
the policy of the Maeagers to reserve their exuber-
• ance m ornaeet for the stage; and we cannot but
feel some regret when we reflact that the present is
the last season in which this favourite abode of the
Muses will be seen--=suet., cr nearly such, as it was
is the time of its fiist Proprietor, the celebrated rOOTZ,
account of the improvementt now in progress,
• which will cam.: it to be pulled down in the course of
the ensuing year.•

• TOWER DOCK TOLL.—The laudable exertions of
• Mr. Griffiths in support of the privileges of the City,
• lei* respect to the toll4bar at Tower Dock, were at-
tended, as our Bei/Liars know, with. entirosuccts. The
proceedings were terminated br the following letter
-from Messrs.'Smith and Son, Solicitors to the Board
.of-Ordnance, addressed to William Lewis Ft: Nman,
%Esq. Solicitor to the Corporation oflondon •

. russ—Tipe Irwe received a ununualcatiop boot the Board of
Ordhaboe, Signifying that the Easter General and Boa:Chew
dlkoded crag Ordnance toll-bar -at Tower Dock. which is-the
meet Odds action, to be removed. The principal clerk of the
' sweells at the TOwer infor&os us, that the whole wail be removed
to-sorrow, and the collector of the toll withdrawn. •
If you will have the gnotincas to send us an ace.ount of the
glentin oasts, we will discharge them.
We are, Sir. your meat obedient humble Porton%

Austin-friars, Jy 2, 1819. . SMITH and BUY.
Ltr.conorit's t....PonT.—Y,:sttrelay the REcoaDEA
made a Report to' the Pett;cE Renews in Council of
the following prisoners under sentence of death. in
liewgate, viz.
John Smith, dins Scanlon, for highway robbery ;
ley, Jane Brown, Matti.) Bluzzioti, and 11=4% Dow!ing, Let'
stealing goods privately in a shop ; Jl.hn Burgess, for houte-1
breaking in the day-lime ; Patrick M'Coort, Robert node%
and Judith Bryan, for stealing goods, &c. in dwelling-baussar
Edward sbribhs, for uttering a forged XI bank-note; jobta
Sec: ring and John Green, for stealing a gelding; and Samuel
Lowndtt, for forging an acceptance to a Bill of &clang"
When his Royal Highness was pleased to respite the
whole during pleasure.
Yesterday the Governor of the Penitentiary, Mil
bank, charged Mrs. Holmes, landlady of the Half.
Noon- public-house, in Toth ill-street, at Queen-squatv,
vrith having offended against the Statute for, the re.
gulations of the Prison, by conveying letters, clan-
destinely, to a prisoner there confined.—She was fined
40s. but the full penalty is £5.
. Tuesday se'nnight the three men who had escaped
from the jail of Dundee on the Bth instant, were ap-
prehended at Perth, and sent off to Dundee.
Monday se'nnight the inhabitants of Errol were
al irmed by a fire which broke out in the middle of
the village. After raging with great violence for.
nearly two hours, it was happily extinguished by the
exertions of the individuals whom the alarm had col.
lected to the spot.
Monday se'nnight, while a little girl was bathing,
close to the machines at Le:th, she unfortunately cut
her leg, a little below the knee; on being brought,
from the water, she appeared somewhat faint, and'
v+hill the owner of the bathing-machine was in the
azt cf binding up the wound, she took a lock-jaw
and expired in a few moments.
•
Monday afternoon, as the servant of Capt. H.uointe,
of Ditton, was riding up the hill from Wimbledon'
Common to Kingston, he was ran against by a post-
chaise, the shafts of which run into the chest of the
animal, and caused its immediate death. The servant
was not hurt.
Thursday was held the Anniversary Meeting..of
the Somerset Bible Society, at Wrington. It was
1 to see forty Clergymen of the ChMch of
' present; and oily three Dissenting Minis-
they did not speak. This meeting is a for-
-ient against thosefriends of the Church
'vho wish to deter members of that esta-
. supporting the Society, and whose
throw the power of that immenscln-
hands of Dissenters excltuively.

LONDON SESVONS.

STEAM BOATS.
BROONSON To: Tug WATERMINS. COMPANY.

1 This was an appeal to the Court to set aside the
conviction of Thomas Brookson and others, proprie-.
ton.. of the Engineer Margate Steam-boat, by the
, Master and Rulers of the Water:n(lns' Company, for
carrying a greater number of passengers than is al-
lowed' by the 'Act of Parliament.
Mr. BOLLAND, for the Appellants, saM that Steam-
boats were never contemplated by the Act of Par-
liament. The 10th George 11. and the 54th of the
King, spoke of 4, tilt-boat, row-barge, or any other
boat or wherry," the largest of which was of consi-
derably less tonnage than Steamboats. It would
be unjust, therefore, to affix the penalty laid down
in a very old Act oiParliament, for an offence which
never could have been foreseen. Here he could not
' help remarking, that when the late Lord Stanhope
talked of the introduction. of Steam-boats, and was
bold enough to anticipate their crossing the Atlantic,
his observations were regarded as the reveries of a
madman. He (Mr. B9lland), however, was one of
those who gave credit to the prognostications of his
Lordship, and' hidirvea to• see the day when Steam-
boats had actually erossed'the Atlantic, and arrived
safely in a British port. •
Samuel Sparrow, a witness, said, that he knew.
Brookson, the Commander of the Engineer Steam-
packet. On the 10th of April, he saw her between
Gravesend.and London, having on board ninety-
nine passengers. Tbe fares, he believed, were be-
tween 2s. and Ss. .

- -
Cross-examined:—He did not see Brookson paid
the fare by any of the passengers.
Mr. BOLLAND submitted that the ease was not
i made out either in law or in fact. In the first place
he koritended, that this boat was not within the
meaning of the Act ; and, Secondly, that it was not
i • •
proved that the Appellant had worked either for
[hire or gain. But even waving these points, for ttr_.
sake of arguMent, he would suggest another prin-
ciple against the conviction. The object of the 1.0.;
gislature in axing the number of passengers for cer-
tain sized boast ,was,, douleticts,..the prevention Of
danger, and the Act expressly made it a fcloau and
transportable offence; where an :accident -occurred
through a breach of the first rule. He would, therp-
fore, ask the Learned Recorder, if he was sitting
elsewhere, and 'ffrOokson was tried for an accident
under similar circHmstances, could his Lordship di-
feet the Jury Fluid a verdict of conviction, when a
description of Itis boat was not to be found in the Act
of Parliament? The fact was, that the prohibition)
of the Legislature extended to boats, &c. of not
more than 15 tons, and the tonnage of the Steam-
boat was perhaps, 300 ! Upon these grounds the con-
viction, he contended, must be qeasiscd.
Mr. MALY said, he was of opinion, with his friend,
that it was not so much the kind of boat, but the
dangerous number of passengers which was contem-
plated by the Legislature. As to the position, that
hire or gain was not proved, that was easily an-
swered. Where was good prima facie evidence of
the fart,,and the thing had often been inferred by
Jtuies with retard to Stage-coaches, where no actual
payment for rare: was, made out. Men of common
sense could easily see this; and though it was for the
opposite party to prove that they had carried all
their passengers gratuitously, yet the offence would
be the same, for who would attempt to deny that
ninety-nine persons in a boat was not an alarming
and _dangerous timber to carry? The description
in the Act, of " any other boat or wherry," applied
most completely in the present case, and, the boat
being worked by steam was no answer toilu) con-
viction. Suppose, he would ask, that it became prac-
ticable to work the Stage coaches by steam, would
that justify the owners in taking such a, nunmer of
additional passengers as would lead to accident and
danger 1'
ne !taco/twat said, that it struck li!ni forcibly
that the Steam-boat is questien partook as much pf
the principle of a ship as a boat.
The RECOUDZR and the Caurt then proceeded to
examine the record of the conviction, when it was
discovered that it was theie stated to be for " an
offence," and not "offences." If the penalty ex-
tended, as it might, in law, to every individual be-
loud the prescribed number, it could net of course
be called a single offence. This objection alone,
therefore, waving the point of non-description of the
boat (which might have been more fully considered
ItiV the Court), was fatal to the conviction, which
must be quashed. .
Mr. A,LLEy hoped it would not go abroad, that
because of such an error in words the proceedings
were in themselves wrong, and that Masters of these
boats were to be allowed to carry such a number of
passengers as Paten lead to great mischief and danger.
Mr. 13oz.sasin also trusted, that so useful and va•
luable a discovery as the Steam-boats was not to be
exploded or injured upon grounds that were not only
not equitable but illegal.
The Cooat ordered the Appeal to be allowed,
and the conviction quashed.

SURNEY Sessrows.—These Sessions were held- on-
Monday at Horsemonger-lane, before Mr. Tztorrea
(Chairman) and a full Bench of Magistrates.—J. it;
Sugdex was indicted for assaulting Mary Mortam,
an interesting looking girl of 17, with iutent.t.-. vio
late her person.—The defendant is a Gentleman of
some respectability, and the prosecutrix was his ser-
vant. On the day stated in-the indictment, it was
proved, that he sent her from his usual residence to
a cottage at a placecalled Mount Garden, but which
was unoccupied, for the purpose of doing some work.
This was on the Sunday 'morning ; and while the
family were absent at a place of worship, he followed
her to the cottage, and committed the assault in
question. She immediately ran home screaming,
told her mother the story, and the prosecution was
instituted.—The Counsel for the defendant treated
the whole charge very lightly, and as but one of ant
thinking gallantry. 'The extent of the 'swat, he
said, was but an embrace.---The-Juiry *Ma him!
Guilty of a common assault. '
At the York ftessions Thomas &Viz& On seal
tented to be thmsported for seven years, for having;
in; conjunction with Henry •Fearby, stolen 61bi. oir.
mutton.- On heating his -sentence he exclaimed'
" Thanky'e :I' anti weih•it had bee; i better steak!'
Two men tebetrauspgrted for albs, of matron ! and
I'll lie d-.-d if either aLtuateir it !"' •

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