The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-09-01 00:00:00

V. ALEXANDER MILLER,

The plaintiff, at the instance of the defendant, was taken
into custody for stealing coals from a brick field in 'fox-
teth Park, Liverpool, and. af er being locked up all night,
was discharged by order of the magistrate on the follow-
ing morning. The defendant called witnesses to prove
that the plaintiff had taken the coals, and that he was jus-
tified in arresting. Verdict for the plaintiff; damages,
£5.

ILLEGALITY OF A MORTGAGE STAMP - HUMBERTSON

AND ANOTHER V. EDWARD JONES

The plaintiffs are the executrix and executor of the late
Mr. Humberston, solicitor, of Chester, and the action
was brought to recover a sum of £2 723, with interest,
upon a mortgage deed. The defendant pleaded that the
instrument was invalid, as it had been drawn upon a £7
stamp, whereas it ought only t) have been a £5 stamp.—
Verdict for the plaintiffs, with liberty to move for a non-
suit.

This court was closed at half-past five o'clock

SATURDAY

The special jury causes " Burkinshaw v. Ridsdall and
another,, and Bell, P. S., v. Lord Ingestre," were
withdrawn.

PATERSON V. NEILSON AND OTHERS

This was a special jury cause, in which Henry Paterson
was the plaintiff, and Daniel Neilson and twenty o►hers
were the defendants. It was an action of libel, to which the
defendants pleaded not guilty. on which issue was joined.
Mr. Hoggins hiving opened the pleadings, Mr. KNOWLES
said,—May it please your lordship, gentlemen of the jury,
I am exceedingly happy to inform you that your time will
not be occupied in this case. It was a ease of some im-
portance to the plaintiff, whom I represent. He is a
gentleman of great respectability. the manager of a bank
in Aberdeen, and he complains in this declaration of a
libel which has been published by the defendants. The
defendants, I believe, individually are highly respectable
men. They are the committee of the Stock Exchange
in this town, and, acting under some misrepresentation,
it appears they affixed the name of the plaintiff to the
Stock Exchange board, the meaning of that being to con-
vey to the world that the plaintiff had made default in
some of his transactions. The plaintiff could not sit still
under such an imputation. He held his office so long,
and only so long, as he was deemed to be an honourable,
straightforward, and upright man. He has, therefore.
brought this action, and he is here to-day to support it if
necessary. But lam glad to say that will not be neces-
sary. The defendants, through my learned friend, Mr.
Sergeant Wilkins, are willing to withdraw all imputation
upon the plaintiff's character, and, that being done, the
plaintiff, who has not come here to seek damages, but to
establish a complete and perfect refutation of the charge
made against him, to set himself tight with the public—
that being his only object, he does not press for damages
against the defendants, and will, therefore, take your
verdict, on the strength of that apology, for 40s. only,
with costs as between attorney and client.
Mr. Wit.xiNs.—Gentlemen, my friend Mr. Knowles
has done but justice to the defendants when he has repre-
sented them to you as honourable men. Knowing them,
or the greater portion of them, my friend Mr. Crompton
and myself have taken upon ourselves, in their absence

here to-day, to do that which my learned friend has stated
we are about to do. Gentlemen, all men are liable to
error, more especially when they act precipitately ; and
that has been the case in the present itis,ance. Wi.hnut
the sanction of a great many persons whose names appear
in this action, this gentleman's name was written on the
Stock Exchange board. We did not mean in the slightest
degrt e to attribute to this gentleman, and as there are
others who have commenced actions upon the same score.
I ought to say we did not mean to impute to any of these
gentlemen dishonest or dishonourable conduct. It did
appear to some of the members of the Stock Exchange
that these gentlemen had been strict indeed as to their
legal rights; but they merely thought that, after having
tasted the pie they bad bought, they wished to return it.
They never meant for one single moment to attribute to
these gentlemen dishonest or di-honourable conduct. and,
beyond all question, they certainly rever meant to in-
sinuate that they were defaulters. Under these circum-

stances, I take upon myself, having the sanction of the
experience of my friend Mr. Crompton, to say, that the
defendants never intended to convey auy insinuation so
far as regards the plaintiff, or the other gentlemen, which
should in the slightest degree interfere with their reputa-
tion as gentlemen and men of honour. Every man who
has acted under an erroneous impression must regret that
he has been led into such an error ; and, on the part of
the defendants. I express their sincere regret in this case.

Mr. KNOWLES.—The names are to be immediately re
moved From the board ?
Mr. WILKINS.-0 vet.

The verdict was then taken for 40s.
JENRINSON AND ANOTHER V. HEYWOOD AND ANOTHER

This was another special jury cause, in which Thomas
Jenkir,son and John Edvv.rd Wright were the plaintiffs,
and John Haywi 01 and William Macdonnell the defen-
dants. The action was brought for a breach of contract
in the del•vety of ten cases of oil of peppermint, to which
the defendants pleaded that they (lid not promise.
Mr. DAISES stated the case. 1 he plaintiff, in this case
were drysalters, in a very large and respectable way of bu-
siness, in this town' and the defendants were merchants
in this town; and the action was brought to recover for a
breach of contract in the sale of an article called oil of
peppermint. Tne plaintiffs, being extensive dealers in
the article, not only in this country but in Holland,
wanted to purchase H vinntity of it, and, on the 15rh of
September last year, through the agency of a Mr. Greaves,
they purchased ten cases of oil of peppermint from the
defendants. The contract was in writing. It was made
between Greaves and a person of the name of Jackson,
who acted as agent for the defendants ; and the oil of pep-
permint was sold at the rate of Gs. per lb. The defen•
(laws sent in an invoice on the same date for the ten
casks ; the quantity altogether was more than a ton. Oil
of peppermint, the learned counsel went on to ray, was a
very essential article; it was well known, and it possessed
properties quite peculiar to itself and valuable to che-
tothteheprnhi.alL,
mists. When Greases. made the purchase lie was shown
twelve small phials, which Jackson said contained oil of
d found that
applied the
liespirtiotokoftwwioneof
there was nct any greasy matter mixed with the oil. The
next day Greaves went to Holland to effect the sale of the
article, and, on his retain home, about the middle of n peppermint.
o test o
Oc-
tober, he discovered, in an accidental manner, that this
waa.auything but oil of peppermint which he had bought.

One of the workmen belonging to the establishment of the
plaintiffs complained of having been sudditulsi seized with
a bowel complaint, and he asked for a drop of the oil.
The request was no sooner granted than he seized one of
the phials and gulped a quantity of it down. Greaves ex-
pected to see the man fall dead after having taken a dose
of such strong stuff; but, to his surprise, he found that
the man was untouched, and then he began to suspect
that be had not purchased oil of peppermint. Chemical
tests were accordingly applied, and very soon it was found
that it contained less than ten per cent. of essential oil
of peppermint, and more than ninety per cent. of spirits
of wine; so that, in point of fact. it was an article known
by the name of essence of peppermint, a totally different
from t' of tiers— • T' was tnIA •'•

~Ina oil of peppermun, ots _
feud nits, who took no no.ice of it at that time; but, at
the beginning of November, having already received, be-
fore the discovery of the essence, a payment 0 £l2O on

account, they api)lied for the balance, and then'sorne cor-
respondence took place between the parties, which re-
sulted in the bringing of the action. _ _

After the exarains—tion of witnesses for the plaintiffs,
Mr. Martin addressed the jury for the defendants. He
submitted that this was as unfounded a claim as ever was
set up in a court of justice. It never was pretended, he
said, that the article sold in the present instance was a
similar article to that which was bought and sold by
druggists; but it was contended that it was the article
which for several years had• been bought and sold in
Liverpool, and was known by the name of oil of pepper-
mint. And this was the only question for the jury to
decide. They had simply to tqlf whether it was the article
which in Liverpool was known as oil of peppermint, and
which for years had been bought and sold as such in that
town. t-!e remarked upon the circumstance of Greaves
having applied the test to the phials at the time of the
purchase, and to his having been satisfied with the result.
The jury found a•verdict for the plaintiff, damages £l2O.