Star.
London, England, 1829-10-24 00:00:00

LAW AT BRIGHTON.

A case that has just transpired we shall take the
liberty of citing in illustration of the state of the law. It is
that of a disputed debt. The particulars are these :
Mellish, a coachman, and a very respectable man, had agreed to
supply a young woman, named Streeter, who keeps a fruit and
green-grocer's shop in this town, with a certain quantity of wal-
nuts. at a stated price. The agreement was not reduced to
writing. The walnuts were delivered. Streeter says they were
not according to sample. Mellish says the contrary. She refuses
to pay, and he insists. This transaction took place, we believe, in
1826. Well—at length Mellish applies to a lawyer, who issues a
summons from the County Court—to which the defendant puts
in an appearance. The cause proceeds step by step, trout the
July Court, 1828, to that held on the Bth of October, 1829, when
the matter comes on for trial. The evidence, as a matter of
course. is conflicting; but the plaintiff has the good luck to get a
verdict to the fall amount claimed by him, with Is. superadded as
damages, carrying costs.
Now cornea the gist of the matter. Plaintiffs attorney de-
livers the bill of costs, which of course is submitted to taxation.
It comes out of the fiery ordeal, and assumes the following shape :
sf a. d.
Bill of costs 4l 1 0
Damages 0 1 0

41 2 0
Taxed off

28 7 6
1 0 0

£29 7 6

. _
Falstaff s three quarts of sack to one poor halfpenny-worth of
bread is a fool to this. Debt-11! Costs of plaintiff's attorney-
-411! fur defendant's attorney will also have a bill of costs.
Now, observe the operation. The plaintiff, who gains his cause,
loses not only the sum sought to be recovered by him, but 1 11. 14s.
6d. besides. This, be it remarked, is a favourable case; because
the defendant is solvent. But had ebe been insolvent, the whole
of the 411. 2s. costs would have fallen upon the plaintiff, because
the lawyer always secures his money.
Now, without offering a remark on the respectability or other-
wise of that practice which would either carry into court or defend
an action for so contemptible a consideration (we write in re-
ference to the sum claimed, not the costs), it must be evident to
every trader that the existence of a Court of Requests in this
town would be attended with incalculable benefit. In the above
case, the plaintiff—presuming upon the goodness of his case, for we
do not venture an opinion as to its merits—would have recovered
his due, without inflicting arch an amount of damages upon the
defendant ; which damages, be it observed, is so much taken from
industry, for the support of that which yitlds nothing to the
country.—Brighton Guardian.

STATISTICS OF DEVONSHIRE.

From the Taunton Courier.
From the return of a &übsidy granted by Parliament to
King Edward 111. in the fifty-first year of his reign (1377), of 4d.
to be paid by every lay person in the kingdom, as well male as
female, of the agl: of fourteen years and upwards, real mendicants
only accepted, it appears that there was collected in the city of
Exeter £29. for 1,560 lay persons.
Town of Plymouth, £BO 12s. 4d. for 4,857 lay persons.
Town of Dartmouth, £8 Bs. Sd. fur 506 lay persons—
And for the rest of the county of Devon, £760 1 ls. for 45,635 lay
persons.
In comparing the number of persons of fourteen years of age
and upwards, living in 1377, with the persons of the same age,
living in the year 1821, they will stand as under—
In 1377 there were living in Exeter 1,560 persons, each of whom
was 14 years of age and upwards ; and in 1821, according to the
proportion of the population returns, there were, in round numbers,
15,000 persons of that age and upwards.
In Plymouth, in 1377, there were 4,837 persons of fourteen
years of age and upwards; whilst in 1821, in the two parishes of
St. Andrew and Charles the Martyr (net reckoning Stoke Dame-
rel and Stonehouse), there were 13.500 persons, aged 14 and up-
wards ; but, if those two places be included, then the number will
be 38,255.
In Dartmouth, in 1377, there were 506 persons of 14 years of
age and upwards; and in 1821 the number was 2,800.
And in the rest of the county of Devon there were 45,635 lay
persons, aged 14 years and upwards ; whilst in 1821 there were
274,000.
And In the same year, 1377, by another subsidy granted by the
Clergy, it appeared there were in the Diocese of Exeter 758 bene-
ficed Ecclesiastics ; and 1,248 not beneficed—namely, in the county
of Devon 559 beneficed, and 756 not beneficed; and in Cornwall
199 beneficed, and 487 not beneficed.
In the preceding year there were in all England 15,380 beneficed
Clergymen, and 13,781 not beneficed : making together 29,161
religious persons then in England, who were subject to the pay.
ment of this subsidy. These facts are particulsrly curious and in.
teresting. as showing the immense increase in the population of this
country in 450 years.
While I am on this subject, I will add another curious enume-
ration relating to Devonshire, which is furnished by Domesday
Book, and shows the actual state of that county in 1086, the 80th
year of William the Conqueror. The land in the county of Devon
was then in the hands of 76 proprietors. The whole number of
the several classes of men in that county, as divided into Vtllani
Bordarii, Sec. was 16,690; and estimating that all these men had
families, and each family consisted of four persons, then the popu-
lation of the county of Devon, 20 years after the Conquest, may be
considered as amounting to 66,700 persons. But in 1821 the po-
pulation of Devonshire was 439,040.
When Domesday Book was compiled in 1086, there were in
Devonshire 17 fishermen, 296 swineherds, and 3,210 persons are
enumerated as being in a state of absolute slavery under the re-
spective landholders of the county. At the same time there were
157 woods, 117 salt-works (Salina), and 79 water-mills.
In Domesday Book we find frequent mention of goldsmiths,
and we know that the Angle Saxons had also their goldsmiths,
silversmiths, and coppersmiths. Bowyers, or makers of cross-
bows, are frequent:y mentioned ; so are carpenters, potters, and
potteries, bakers and brewers, which latter were chiefly women.
In the customs of the city of Chester it is said that any person
who brewed bad ale should either be placed in a ducking-chair,
and plunged into a pool of muddy water, or, in lieu of that pu-
nishment, should forfeit four shillings. Both war and agriculture
want the smith; hence that was one of the most important trades
of the Saxons, and accordingly we find the smith frequently men.
tinned. In the city of Hereford there were six smiths, who paid
each one penny for his forge, and who made 120 pieces of iron
from the King's ore. To each of them threepence was paid as a
custom, and they were freed from all other services. In a district
of Somerutshire it is stated that a mill yielded as for rent two
gumbos of iron. Gloucester paid to the King 36 dickers of iron,
and 100 ductile rods, to make nails for the King's ships.—We also
meet with butchers, barbers, ernbruiderers, saddlers, parchment-
makers, and salt-makers.
In Exeter, at the same period, the King bad 285 houses which
paid all customs, amounting to 181. per annum ; and 48 houses
had been destroyed after the King had come into England. The
burgesses had as much land without the city as could be culti-
vated by 12 ploughs; and this land paid no taxes but to the city
itself. In Barnstaple there were 40 burgesses within the borough,
and nine without; 23 houses had been laid in ruins after King
William had landed in England. Besides these, Baldwin, the
Sheriff, had seven houses in Barnstaple, and six others which were
then in ruins. In the borough of Lidford the King had 28 bur-
gesses—that is, men carrying on some trade or manufacture—and
40 without the borough ; altogether they paid the King 60s. for his
protection. Forty houses had been destroyed after the King
lauded in England. The burgesses bad as much land without the
borough as could he tilled with two ploughs. In Totneu there
were 95 burgesses within the borough, and 13 without, who were
employed in cultivating the land. Those 110 burgesses paid the
King 81. annually.
SUGAR.PRICE OF
The Average Price of Beowe or Muscovano Surma, competed
front the Returns made in the Week ending the 20th day of Oct.
1829, is 265. 104 d. per cwt. exclusive of the Duties of Customs paid
or payable thereon on the importation thereof into Great Britain.
CAUTIOUS PROCEEDING OF AN .4.1 d ER MAN MI •
urseta.—A portrair-painter,who was desirous to obtain likenesses of
the Members of the present Cabinet—perhaps in the belief that there
will never be such another Cabinet—in the course of his visits for
that purpose. called upon Mr. Secretary Branch, and propounded
his request after the following fashinti :—.4 Sir, I am desirous to
obtain a portrait of the present illustrious Cabinet. I have called
on the other Members, who have kindly acceded to my wishes.
Will you do me a like favour, and permit me, a: your leisure, to
wait upon you for the purpose of obtaining a sitting?" The Se-
cretary put down his pen, and drew himself up in au attitude of
peculiar dignity ; he turned the subject over and over in his mind ;
examined, re-examined, and riddled the question, to discover if it
contained any occult meaning, or whether or not it might not be a
scheine of the opposition party to obtain a fac-simile of his talented
self for physiognomists, or phrenologists, to play their tricks upon ;
and, being unable to come to any satisfactory result, he at length
solemnly responded, " Sir, have the goodness to submit your pro-
position to me in writing, and I will think of it." The portrait-
painter instantly evaporated, astonished at the profulkdify which
dwells in the head of the Navy Department.—Anericon Paper.