The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-02-09 00:00:00

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EAST SURREY ELECTION

(From the Correspondent of the Morning Herald)

CROYDON, SATURDAY.—The committees of both the can-
didates have been all day busily engaged in making prepara-
tions for this important election. Notwithstanding the , se-
verity of the weather, an immense number of the gentry of
the neighbourhood, and, indeed, from all parts of the county,
have expressed their,intention to join Mr. Antrobus's pro-
cession, and escort him into the town on Monday ; and it is
arranged that his friends are to meet at the Whitesheaf, on
Thornton Heath, about a mile from Croydon, at nine o'clock,
and then proceed to the Town Hall, where the writ will be
read, and the other-formalities proceeded with ; and the can-
didates and their friends will then adjourn to the Fair Field,
where the hustings' are erected. The radical party, it is
said, are determined not to be behindhand in making a
show, and they have been actively employed -in endeavouring
to get up a "demonstration" on behalf of their man—Mr.
Alcock.

Notwithstanding all the trumpeting of the, radicals, it is.
believed by themselves that the radical candidate has no
chance against Mr. Antrobus, and many of them do not
scruple to admit that Mr. Alcock's meetings in the 'county
have been complete failures. True, a number of the rabble
in the different market towns threw up their caps for him,
but the electors—the yeomen of the county—studiously kept
aloof from him, or if any of them were present at his meet-
ings, it was only to satisfy their curiosity, and from them he
received no support. The farmers of East Surrey are too
much alive to their own interest and that of their county to
give support to the man who would in return give his sanc-
tion to a measure which all thinking minds believe will ine-
vitably bring them to ruin. It was rumoured on Saturday
that Mr. Alcock, feeling the hopelessness of his cause, did
not feel inclined to be " liberal" enough to incur the great
expense of a contest, and that he intended to resign on the
day of nomination. Our correspondent, however, was not
able to trace the rumour to any authentic source, and it is
probable, therefore, that Mr. Alcock will go to the poll. The
opinion of well-informed parties is, that the majority of Mr.
Antrobus will be from six to eight hundred.

LEGAL INTELLIGENCE,

COURT OF EXCHEQUER, SATURDAY, FEB. 6.
(Sittings at Nisi Prins, before Lord ABINGER and a Spe-

cial Jury.)
DUNN V. ALEXANDER,

The plaintiff conducted his case in person, while the de-
fendant was represented by Sir F. Pollock and Mr. Bodkin,

This was an action of trespass, brought by: ti;a7PCiali
(who has obtained an unenviable notoriety by reason of his
indefatigable pursuit of Miss Burdett Coutts) to recover com-
pensation at the hands of the defendant, for having arrested
and imprisoned him without reasonable cause on the 18th of
June last. According to the statement of the plaintiff, who
represented himself to be a member of the bar, it appeared
that the defendant had given him into the custody of a po-
liceman, under the provisions of the recent statute, 2 and 3

Victoria, chapter 47, the 54th section of which authorizes

the arrest of any rerson ringing or knocking at the door of
any house without lawful excuse, and with intent to alarm or
disturb the inhabitants thereof. This statute, the plaintiff
now contended, did not apply to the circumstances under
which he had knocked at the defendant's door, and so thought
Mr. Rawlinson, the magistrate of Marylebone police-office,
before whomthe charge was brought, for that gentleman had
dismissed it. For the trespass thus committed this action
was brought. He, the plaintiff, however, would not leave the

_. _ , . , ...„....,., .....
case in uncertainty, for he would call witnesses, and produced
proofs to show that he was justified in knocking at the door.
With this view, the plaintiff proceeded to go into a long his-
tory of what he called " the transaction" between himself
and the lady above mentioned, which has so often brought
before the public the name of Miss Burdett Coutts, com-
mencing with the first letters addressed by him in 1838 to that

lady, his pursuit of her to Harrowgate, and closing vtith an
avowal of his firm belief that Sir F. Burdett and other friends
of Miss Coutts were opposed to her own inclination to favour
his pretensions, and had thwarted her wishes upon that sub-
lect by forcing her to adopt the steps taken to put an end to
his intrusion. Acting upon that impression, the defendant
had continued to urge his suit by presenting himself to the
attention of Miss Coutts at every opportunity, and had
on the 18th of May, 1840, addressed a letter to her, which, as
he concluded Sir F. Pollock would produce, he would read a
copy to the jury. From this, which was a most rigmarole
production, the plaintiff read a patitgraph, in which he begged
of Miss Courts to give him a personal interview, at the resi-
dence of her friend Mrs. Alexander, in the Regent's-park,

. •
with a view to arranging some means of bringing about a
union, at least so we understood the object of the letter. In
pursuance of this intention it was that he (the plaintiff) had
repaired to the house of the defendant, and there knocked,
having in the meantime seen Miss Coutts enter, a fact which
was a sufficient warranty for his conduct and quite enough to
take the case out of the statute, if it was ever meant to apply
to such matter.

In support of this case the plaintiff then put in the neces-
sary documents and examined several witnesses ; after which
the plaintiff called upon Miss Coutts herself to appear as a
witness, though he did not seem to expect to see her, as he
turned to Sir F. Pollock, and asked; 'doubtingly, whether
that lady was forthcoming, to which the reply was, " Oh,
yes, certainly. Miss Coutts has been subpoenaed by you,
and she will appear in obedience to the process of the court.
Upon this that lady made her appearance from the judge's
waiting-room, and took her seat upon the bench, being ac-
companied by her father, who seemed much affected, and
also several ladies, among whom we observed the Hon. Mrs.
R. Scarlett. Miss Coutts, on being sworn, was examined by
the plaintiff touching his correspondence, and about the for-
mer transaction at Harrowgate, when he was taken up at her
instance before the magistrates of that place, it being his ap-
parent object to elicit some concession that he had reason to
believe his addresses were acceptable, because Miss Coutts
had not returned his first letter, at the close of which was a
passage to the effect that if the letter was retained the writer
would follow her to Harrowgate. This the plaintiff would
seem to set up as not only an excuse, but as a justification
for his conduct, alleging that where honourable proposals
were made to a lady by a total stranger, even by person, it
was the bounden duty of that lady to read his effusions, and
follow out the directions therein given. The witness, how-
stated, that having never met the plaintiff in a room, and not
having thy slightest knowledge of him whatever the letters
were treated as mere impertinence at first, and no notice
taken of them, and that on the recurrence of others in a simi-
lar hand, they were never opened, but either thrown into the
fire, treated as waste paper, or handed over to her solicitor
to be dealt with as he might advise, with the view of putting
an end to the annoyance and persecution to which they sub-
jected their object.
On cross-examination by Sir F. Pollock, Miss Coutts fur-
ther stated, that for the last two years and a half the conduct
of the plaintiff towards her had been one continued source
of annoyance ; that go where she would, he was sure to fol-
low her, and throw himself in. her path, either seeking a per-
sonal interview or writing letters to her, which were never
read, or sending " bouquets of flowers," as he himself term-
ed them. At one time he followed her to Norwood, and
there used to watch her through a hedge, sometimes waving
his handkerchief to her, and pursuing such a course of intru-
sive impertinence as to render it necessary to secure the at-
tendance of a policeman. About the 18th of May, 1840,
Miss Coutts stated that a letter came, which she gave to her
solicitors (the one nOw produced, the contents of which,
when read in court by the judge, seemed to surprise her
much). and took no more notice of. On the 18th of June
she deposed, that being on her way to take a walk in the Re-
gent's Park, she observed from her carriage window the
plaintiff walking down Bond-street; that having arrived at
,the Park, she was much surprised and frightened to perceive
the plaintiff approaching from an opposite direction, as if
with a view to accost her. Upon this she called the footman
to her aid, and took refuge in Mr. Alexander's garden for a
few minutes. As, howevet, the plaintiff still continued to
hover about the premises, Miss Coutts went into the house,
where, after a few minutes spent in anxious fear, the plaintiff
rapped. Iu consequence of this,. Mr. Alexander went out,
and the plaintiff was given in charge. In answer to the ques-
tions of the learned counsel, Miss Coutts further declared in
the most emphatic language, that so far from having given
the most remote encouragement to the plaintiff, he had been,
ever since his first intrusion and persecution, the object of
her most decided disgust and aversion, as well as of her fear
and dread. '

Sir F. Pollock addressed the jury in a strain of great indig-
nation, after which, Lord Abinger summed up.
The jury retired for a few minutes from the court, and re-
turned a verdict for the defendant, adding, that if the defend-
ant was not protected by the statute, and the plaintiff should
be entitled to a verdict, they had estimated the damages at
one farthing—a termination of the cause which was most
warmly greeted by the audience, who gave 'audible vent to
their feelings as the plaintiff retired from the court.

The Lord Chancellor has recently decided the very impor-
tant question, which until this decision was considered settled
the reverse of the present judgment, that timber trees of
twenty years growth, spring from the stock of old trees, are
not subject to tithes.