Star.
London, England, 1820-03-31 00:00:00

KEENE V. WHITEWICK.

• This was an action against the defendant, a Ma-
gistrate of this county, to recover a compensation in
damages fa? maliciously, and without any reasona-
ble or probable cause, presenting a certain bank.
erected by the plaintiff, near the King's highway,
leading from Chertsey, as a nuisance.
The case, on the part of the plaintiff, was in sub-
stance this :--The plaintiff was a tanner by trade,
and occupied an estate on one side of the road op-
posite to that of the defendant. In consequence of
great inconvenience experienced by the overflowing
of a ditch by the road-side next to the plaintiff's pre-
mises, which continually flood.) the road, and
thereby constantly kept it out of repair, the plaintiff'
'erected a bank for the purpose• of keeping the water
in its natural channel, so as to guard against such
'inconvenience, without obstructing or narrowing the
highway.
M the Michaelmas Quarter Sessions, 1818, the de-
fendant presented the bank as a nuisance; and the
presentment having been removed by certiorari into
the King's Bench, rt.came on to be tried at the last
Spring Assizes; but the defendant not being pre-
pared with evidence to support the prosecution, the
plaintiff was acquitted, who, in consequence of the
proceeding, had incurred expenses to the amount of
f.:1150 and upwards.
It was suggested that the defendant was influenced
by motives of malice, for the purpose of hanosing
the plaintiff, and that his object was to remove the
alleged nuisance; for the better-enabling,him to en-
close a part of tl.e road, so as to increase and im-
prove his own lawn. •
The defence set up was, that the bank in question
was, in fact, a nuisance, and an obstruction to the
road, and that therefore the defendant had reason-
able and probable cause for the presentment.
Several witnesses were examined 19 sustain the de-
fence, and, among others, three County Magistrates,
who deposed that the bank was a nuisance.
The case, which occupied nearly the whole of
Wednesday, went to the Jtiry, under. the Learned
Judge's directions, who left it to them to say, upon
the facts proved, whether the defendant had reasona-
ble and probable cause for the presentment ?
The Jurf, of which six were talesmen, after a

♦short delibaratiOa, foga Alleirsertfact far the plairi-
tiffLtamites
GARPIENTER V; BURTON.
This was an action for slanderous words' spoken of
the plaintiff, a young woman aged 26, imputing
ter acts of incontinence with him, whereby she Jolt
a matrimonial connection with a young man. The
damages were laid at ENO.
The case proved on the part of the plaintiff, war;
in substance this t—The plaintiff was the daughter
of a respectable shopkeeper at Hampton, and the
defendant a shoemaker in the same village, a a idower
of 66, and represented to he remarkably ugly. Ha
had paid his addresses to 'the plaintiff, but was aot
received with favour and discovering that a younger
man, named Davis, was coarting the plaintiff with
more probability of success, he was heard to ratty
"0! I see Tom Davis is the favourite; but take
good care she shan't hive him or aa•bodv else;" and
accordingy he boasted that she had bestowed upor:
him favours with the .greatest liberality. To alt.:
Davis, with whom she Kass under an cn.Tageraeat of
marriage, he represented her as little better than a
prostitute, and described the supposed taasiliatitias
to which he had been a twitted, with a degree of
brutal particularity scarcely credible. The
was described as a young woman of chaste and vir-
tuous habits from her infancy, and Air. Davis swo:e
that he had broken off the match in consequence of
the slanderous report of the defendant.
Mr. MARRYATT addressed the Jury on behalf cf
the defendant, stating, that unless they believed !hat
the plaintiff had lot her marriage in consequence of
the word: spoken by the defendant, she would 'not be
entitled to :my damages • and, in all probability. he
only waited the verdict of the Jury to establish him.
self as a master baker, and carry home the plaintiff
as a partner through life.
The CHIEF BARON, in summing up, said he coul I
hardly imagine conduct more unmanly and brutal
than that of the defendant, who, if he had received
favours, ought to have been the-last man in the world
to publish them.
The Jury, after a short deliberation, found•their
verdict for the plaintiff.—Damaaas V2OO.
At Shrewsbury Assizes, Thgers, for a bur--
glary, was left for execution. Feaenteen others were
capiLaily convicted, but were all reprieved ; two were
ordered to be transported for seven years. The causes
at Nisi Prins were very unproductive to the Cieatle,
men at the Bar.

Saturday, as Mr. LErgE, of Chester-street, Grosve.
nor-place, was passing through Henrietta-.treet,Cor
‘i.:nt-gat den, he was robbed near Messrs. %Vetoiria,
the barkers, of his pocket-book, centaining a P2OO
and forty El Bank-notes. He was not in the election
crowd, but c:-as passing through the street, and
,was
not sensible of being robbed a: the time afterwards,
on his discovering die loss of his pocket-book, he re-
collected that a man had pres.ed against him when
he was near Mes rs. Wntonfs, the bankers. Ile,
knowing the number and dare of the ElOO r.ote, gave
information at the Bat.k of England. On Tuesday
the note was paid into the Bank, and information was
sent to Mr. LEEKE with all speed, when, upon hi-.
quirt', it turned out that the note had been paid into-
the Bank by a silversmith and jeweller, in Cornhill,
who said he received it on Saturday afternoon of a
man for the sale of come foreign gold coin, and • the
time proved to be about an luau after the robbery.
Bow-seitern—Yesterday, If Buttunde: went an examination,
charged with uttering fbrged Bank of England notes to a very
great extent. He had been a master butcher, near Fitzroy..
square, which place he left some time since. The charges
against him yesterday were for uttering six one-pound Bank-
notes. Two of them were uttered to Mr. Dove, a butcher in
Great Wild-street, Lincoln's-inn-fields, on the 22d of January
last, at two different times, in the purchase of meat, at a whole.
sale rate, he being known to Mr. Dove as a butcher, and he
pretending he wanted it for customers, and paid two one-pound
Bank-notes. On Saturday sennight, he passed through Fleet-
market, dressed as a butcher, without a hat, with a tray under
his arm, and purchased at the shop of Mr. Celins, a loin, and
fore-rib of beef, to the amount of £1 lea. 7d. in payment, giving
his reference as journeyman to Mr. Cross. a hint:her, of Clare-
market. The same afternoon, and under similar citrumstencee,
he purchased at Mr. Steptoe's shop, in Fleet-market, meat to the
amount of £ Is. Id. and gave his reference to Mr. (-c*, Clary.
market. An the notes proved to be forged, and Mr. Crewe only
knew the prisoner by sight. He was committed for further
examination.
Flag.—Tuesday morning, et about half-past three o'clock, the•
house occupied by Mr. Marshall, baker, adjoining to Little-stile,
in the Cathedral-yard, /teeter, was discovered to be on the. It
originated in the lower part of the house, and burnt with such
fury as to excite serious apprehension for the safety of the whets
of that part of the Cathedral-yard and the upper part of South.
street. The engines belonging to the Chamber, the nre Offices,
and the Barracks, were very promptly brought out; but, water
being very scarce, the fire increased with great rapidity ; and the
column of smoke and flame which rose over the city, presented
a most grand and awful appearance. A supply of water being
obtained from the pumps of the houses in the neighbourhood,
the engines began to play with effect, and the fire was got under
abut six o'clock ; at which time scarcely any part of Mr. Mar-
shall's house remained. The fire had spread so far in the lower
part of this house, before the inmates were alarmed, that they
escaped with great difficulty, and some of them were seriously
hurt. Mr. Marshall had his hands and feet so much cut b#
breaking out a window through which to escape, that he was
obliged to be carried to the HospitaL The wife of Mr. Bow.
ring, a :lazier, who lodged in the house, had a particularly
narrow escape; she Ores, herself and child out at a window, to
some persons who caught them below. Mr. Bowring lost, we
are told, nearly £5O in notes. Mr. Bonnets, who leads the Bard
at theTheatre, was very seriously bruised. There are six or see.*
houses snore or less damaged; two in the Church-yard wholly
burnt down, and the others is South-street, where the names
raged so furiously at one time, as to set fire to a house on the or-
polite side of the street. Some wretches were detected in steal.
ing cheese from the shop of Mr. Channing, whose house was
partly burnt. The Globe and Ring Joha Taverns narrowly
escaped. Great praise is due to the inhabitants and the milit4re
for their exertions on this occasion.

Nvisi
TO 1

1131
hon
seventh

To t 1
at the 3

!,) 30 11

vatit-so,
tention
of cond
and obt:

Akin.