Star.
London, England, 1821-12-14 00:00:00

HARMER V. PROUD.

. Mr. GURNEY, for the. plaintiff, stated his client
sought, in this action, to recover a compensation for
a very serious injury, which he had sustained by the
conduct of the defendant. The declaration charged
the defendant with having maliciously, and without
probable cause, indicted the plaintiff for a conspiracy.
Mr. Harmer was an attorney, and had been for 20
years ; and desirous of standing well with the Court
in which he practised, and with the Public, he had
been obliged to bring the present action. It was pain-
ful to him to have the statement which he had to
snake, because, in doing so, he should be under the
necessity of mentioning the name of an individual of
high rank, not now in this country. In the year
Mb, a young woman named Roberts, accompanied

Up her fatl,er, cattle to Mr. Homer to state her case;
and require professional advice and assistance. The
case which she stated was in substance as follows:—
She bad been earning her living in a respectable man-
ner, when she was accidentally met by one of the
Duke de San Carlo,'s establishment, who represented
himself as a Spanish merchant, and adopted every
means in his power to seduce her. Unfortunately be at
length succeeded in his endeavours, she consented to
his wishes; and Mr. Piccard, which name he went
by, took lodgings for her. Here she resided, and
passed by his name; and he, from time to time, vi-
sited hes. Suffice it to say, that Piccard and the
Duke San Carlos were one and the same person.—
She soon became pregnant, when Mr. Piccard re-
laxed his attentions, and, ultimately, she was deserted
and left destitute, and without support. Anxious to
obtain the means of living, she applied to Mr. Hat-
mer, and stated her complaint. Mr. Harmer had
never seen her before, and suspected her statements
might be exaggerated. Some part, however, might
he thought be true, and humanity induced him to
advocate her cause. He knew a Gentleman who was
known to the Duke, and he determined to apply to
him on the subject. This Gentleman was Mr. Gold-
smith, an individual well known in the literary world;
to him Mr. Harmer applied, and he went to the Duke.
The Duke did not deny his knowledge of Mrs. Pic-
card, and expressed a wish that Mr. Harmer should
see his Attorney on the subject. Mr. Harmer, ac-
cordingly, did see'Mr. Fraud, the present defendant,
and urged the distress of the unfortunate young wo-
man, and Mr. Froud authorised Mr. Harmer to ad-
vance her £5. This he accordingly did ; and after-
wards, when her necessities required, £5 more, sup-
posing the individual who had authorised advancing
£5, would not refuse to pay the £lO, under such cir-
cumstances. He afterwards applied to Mr. Freud
for payment of the £lO, but he refused to pay even
the first £5, and advised that the young woman
should go to the workhouse. To this, however, her
friends would not consent, and, ultimately, she was
obliged to appear before a Magistrate at Bow-street,
and swear the child, which she did, to the Duke. In
the meantime, Mr. Harmer, not being able to ob-
rain payment of the £lO advanced, informed Mr.
Goldsmith, who advised him to write to the Duke,'
which be accordingly did, and was shortly after
very much surprised by hearing, not from the
Duke, but that Mr. Froud had preferred a bill of
indictment against hiin at the Middlesex Sessions,
for having conspired with a person named Leigh,
to extort money from the Duke San Carlos. Mr.
Harmer, however, had never seen Mr. Leigh, to
his knowledge, in the whale course of his lite; but ;
it afterwards turned out that Mr. Leigh, who is a
Clergyman, having by chance heard of this young
woman's situation, had interfered from motives oil
humanity, and had written to the Duke. At-. Har-
mer, on application, was informed a true hill had
been found by the Grand Jury ; and that the only
evidence at tire back of the bill was that of Mr.
Froud, the Solicitor to the prosecution. Mr. H:rrmer,
upon this information, gave Mr. Frond notice, that
he should be ready to go to trial the following Mon-
day; but Mr. Frond laughed at him, and said the
thing would take the usual course. He did, in fact,
remove the cause, by certiorari, into the Court of
King's Bench. Still he wished to introduce delay,
but Mr. Harmer ruled him to trial ; and when the
cause was called on, the Attorney-General stated
there was no prosecution: spoke in the highest terms
of Mr. Harmer, and acknowledged there were no
grounds for the prosecution; and Mr. Harmer was
acquitted instantly. Still, however, Mr. Harmer had
felt it necessary to bring the present action to justify
himself, and iu defence of his character; and the
Jury would now have to say, whether, under all the
circumstances, the defendant had not instituted a
malicious, groundless, and unfounded prosecution
for conspiracy, against the plaintiff, without any pro-
bable cause?

Mr. Lowav put in the record and office copy of the
acquittal of Mr. Harmer. The proceedings against
Mr. Harmer for the conspiracy were also put in.
Upon the reading these latter it was discovered by
Mr. Serjeant PEACE, Counsel for the defendant,
that there was a variance between the record and the
declaratinn, the family name of the Duke being spelt
in one Infandado Caravajal ; and in the other Infan-
tado Caravagal. The substitution of g for j, the
Learned CHIEF JUSTICE decided was a variance,
which must prove fatal to the proceedings, and the
plaintiff was nonsulted. _

Lord HOLLAND was in attendance to give evi-
dence. His Lordship sat on the Bench with the
CHIEF JUSTICE.
THY KING D. THE MAYOR OF CAMBRIDGE.

This was a proceeding in the way of quo trarranto,
against the Mayor of Cimbridge, for refusing to ad-
mrt a person named Nash, the son of a freeman, to
the freedom of that Borough.
Mr. SCARLKTT stated, on behalf of the complain-
ant, that the question was important to the general
interests of the country. It was a question whether
all sons of freemen, or the eldest sons only, were en-
titled to the freedom of the town of Cambridge ; and
as the freemen of that place were voters for Members
of Parliament, the elective franchise would be nar-
rowed or extended according to the decision of the
Jury upon the point. Mr. Scarlett then said, that
he was prepared to thee a right, from time imme-
morial, of admission to all sons of freemen ; and sat
down by lamenting that he should be compelled to'
occupy a considerable portion of the time of the Court.
An immense mass of documentary evidence was II
then given, the detail of which would be quite unin-
teresting to our Readers; and it appeared, that in the
reigns of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, the Corpora-
tion had made bye-laws, regulating the description of
persons to be admitted as freemen, and the terms of
their admission.

The LORD CH' JUSTICE thought, that if, from
time immemorial, all sons of freemen had had a right
to be admitted, the Corporation could not at those
times have made their own arrangements as to the
manner of, and qualification for admission. Verdict
for the defendant. •

In the night of the 6th inst. Mr. HOGA N'S house, in
Broad-street, was stripped of a quantity of lad, but
the noise in removing it having awaked the family,
the robbers ran off without their booty ; 66 pounds,
cut up iu pieces, were found after them. Suspicion
attaches to the watchman stationed iu the street, who
hits been put into confinement.