The Statesman.
London, England, 1809-07-07 00:00:00

• tith

LAW INTELLIGENCE.

COURT OF NINO'S BENCH,
Thursday,- .1 my 6.

StriINGI BEWDRIP LORD ILLIMHOROHON IN
GUILDHALL.
SEDUCTION.

• INIESOIII v. tittsmts.
The Areottotiv.Gameasa stated this to be an
action brought for the seduction, by the Defeo.
dant, of the Plaintiffs daughter. It was a case
which would call for the grave attendees of the
Jury. The Plaintiff's daughter had received a re.
ligious education, and had been brought up in the
paths of virtue, and she had no evil sample set
to her. The short statement of the case was this •
'The Plaintiff was a respectable tradesman, who
lived by the river.sitk, afthe bottom of the street
that leads from Salisbury.corrt, Fleet.street, to
the Thames. On the memorable occasion of the
procession up the river, of the remains of the
late Lord Nelson, the Plaintiff admitted a number
of persons on his premises, which commanded a
♦iew of the river. Among the persons so admit.
tell was the Defendant, who then was, and stow
is, the first mate of an Ea.t.lndiaman. lle was
introduced by a gentleman of the name of Knight.
Lu the evening of that day many of. those who
were present at this sight had a dance, and the
Defendant chanced to dance with this young lady,
who was the subject of this action, • thou about
17. An intimacy thus arose between the Defers.
daut and the Plaintiff's family, which be visited
very frequently, but nothing occurred to melte
the suspiciou of the Plaintiff, or any part of his
•family.
After this the Defendant went on a voyage to
India, and returned in the year •18118, when he
renewed his acquaintance with this family at the
Plaintiff's house, which was then at Christchurch.
street, on the oilier side of illackfriars.bridge ;
soon after which, this young woman duped from
her prrents, and it was licit until the 21th of
Mitroh that her parents discovered where she was,
and that was at a lodging in which she was kept by
the Defendant, a place in Taherwicle-row, in the
city. Upon this discovert• of where she was, the
Plaintiff wrote to the Defendant a proper letter,
reproaching him with his Asconductt and telling
him that ho could make no atonement for it but
that of marrying the young woman, to which he
paid no regard whatever; upon which the Plain.
tiff, her father, and his wife, brought the young
woman home, with the hope of reclaiming her,
but she eloped agaiu with the 'Defendant the fol.
lowing day, and hail lived with him iii a state of
fornication ever since, and does so at present.
This was a serious case, and he put it to the Jury
to consider what either of themselves, as probably
most of them were parents, would expect in case
this had happened to one of their own daughters.
had further to observe, that if this young wo.
man, attendiug to the dictates of her conscience,
cud to the principles of that religion in which she
was educated, should ever hillock at her parents'
door, ask forgive:oms, and seek protection, the
dour should be opened unto her, and she should
meet with what •he should so seek ; meanwhile
the Jury would do the injured father's feelings
justice.

The witnesses being called, none appeared. Ilia'
Lndship indulged the Plaintiff's attorney, with
to go to look at er them at the coffee-honse,
and then gently rebuked him fur not taking care
that they were ready before the cause was opened.
The ?tannin's eldest son was the first witness.
Ile said his father was a chair and cabinet-maker,
and iu the year 1803 resided in Salisbury-street,
with premises commanding a view of the river.
He then gave an account of the Defendant, who
is the first mate of an East ludiaman, being in.
troduced, u tue Attorney General had opened,
to his father's family, through the medium of Mr.
Winter; of his dancing with• the sister of the
witness, then of the age of 17 ; it was the night
of the funeral of Lord Nelson ; of his visiting
the family freitient.ly afterwards; and of the final
elopement of the sister of the witness ; the place
to which she went was not discovered fur five
months afterwards by her parents, although the
witness knew where she was about a fortnignt af.
ter she leh'i is tme. His sister requested him nut to
inform their fuller or mother where she was, fur
that w.iuld be her destruction, since, in that case,
Mr. Chafers would go to sea, and never see her
again ; and thus he was prevailed on by his sister
not to tell their parents where ahe w.is ; but his
father endeavoured to discover where she was,
which he found out at last, by the information of
the mother, who inquired at the India !louse wise.
ther the defendant was gone abroad, found he was
not, met him afterwards at the Jerusalem Coffee-
house, where they' found out where the young
woman was, and got her back again in a fort.
night, but she went away again the next morning.
The reason why they did not go sooner for her
was, that she was daugerously ill of a fever, and
vould trot with safety be removed. This witness
knew, fur he vent to sec her in. her illness. • He
was sure it was against the consent of the father
that she went away. She was not present in Court
to-day, but she *as in Court on the first day of
the present sittings, when this cause was expected
to be tried, and was intended to be examined as a
witness; she was the person who fainted and ex-
cited so much emotion in Court on th4t occasion ;
shu was, on that occasion, handed into a hack.
ney.eoach by her father, and she went back to her
present lodgings; but her father never visited her
there.

Thomas Christopher blossom, the next brother,
was then examined ; gave an account of his sister
haring eloped frum her family on the 17th March,
and none of the family knew of it before that
time. The witness said he accompanied his mo-
ther to the Jerusalem Coffee-house, where they
found the Defemlatit, and where the mother put to
the Defendant the question point-blank, fur the
purpose of confusing him—saying, " Yon know
the business I am come upon ;" and he seemed
very much confounded. He said nothing distinct-
ly, but muttered, and seemed frightened. The
mother said, " You know the business I am conic
apou ; but this is net the proper place to speak

about it," and asked him where fie would appoint
s proper place to meet her, and proposed the
Cross Keys, Groceehurch-street, at four o'clock,
.ind they met there accordingly. The motbcr re-
' (rested to know where the yisung woman was.
The mother saw that the DAndant was guilty,
and demanded to know where her child was ; the
Defendant took a pen .and ink, and wrote the di-
, rection, No. 7, Tahernaele-row, saying, at the
same time, that she was dangerously ill, assel beg-
ged of the mother to be good.tempered with her,
and then she might be as well as ever; but it
might be dangerous to cross her in that state. He
tbeti accompanied the mother and witness as fares
Finsbury-square, to conduct them part of the
way, and then left them, and said he would be
&wain the evening. Witness saw his sister af-
terwards; she was so ill then in bed that she could
hardly speak.
Cruse-examined, he said they went four or five
times to see her, but never until they went to de-
mand her home. When she came home she slept
with her sister and her eldest brother in the same
bed, but when they awoke in the morning she was
gone. Her sister that slept with her was 11, and
the brother 18 ; they slept in the same bed with
her to take care of her, but she escaped in the
morning before they were up. Mr. Chivers used
to come very often, until the father and mother
looked cool upon him, and then he kept away,
after which the young woman became very per.
verse, used to provoke her mother, cm purpose to
get out, pretending she was itl mused, al.hough no..
body beat her. About a fortnight after Mt. Chi.
revs left off visiting, she would not live at home;
her father never chastised her, he had very little to
do with her ; she constantly framed excuses to go
out to meet 31r. Chivers. There was nothing im-
proper in her conduct before she went away.—
They had no opportunity of doing any thing im.
proper at her father's; they were never left by
themselves. After she was gone, she frequently
wrote letters to her parents us if they came from
Brentford, and that tor about foil- months ; but
she contrived always to have them Tut into the
letter-box of a house in which there was a clerk
who was imp:tinted with her family, and they al-
ways came without a past-mark, so that they
could never trace her until they found out the Dc.
fendant at the Jerusalem t'uffee-house.

It then appeared in evidence that this young
woman was perfectly modest in her manlier be.
fore her elopement, and perfectly constant to the
Defendant after it, and went by the name of Mrs.
Chivers ever since; that she is now very ill, and
had said to some of the witnesses she hoped the
Court would dispense with her attendance as a
witness this da►.

Here Lord Kra.rstionoucit smggested to the
parties the poiicy of• their coning To an accommo.
dation without proceeding further; upon whith
Mt. Gamily went out of Court, and consulted
his client, but returned without accomplishing
his object; and then addrc;sed the Jury at length
for the Defendant.

Lord ELLENIOROUGH delivered to the Jury a
cry able charge.—Verdirt for the Plaintiff 701.

CURIOUS HottgE CAUSE.
WATERS AGAINST FULLER.

The Defendant in this. Juckeo/mg case is well-
known upon the town as a ci-derant runner for
The Morning Post, but d!silaining the service of
that luminous Print, he has recently sought to add
to his profits in the sale of quack medicines, in
the neighbourhood of Covent-garden, by an oc-
casional traffick in horse-flesh, and particularly
amongst his friends and associateslt Lloyd's Cof.
fee-houte, where his connections are pretty ex.
tensive.—The Plaintiff, Mr. Waters, who resides
in Russell-square, was unfortunately induced, by
the persuasive eloquence of Mr. tuller, to pus.
chase from him an animal, which, to external
appearance, was sound, but, as in the sequel will
be seen, was in fact as little entitled to that
epithet as even the illustrious Post, in whose ser-
vice the Defendant had so frequently displayed his
powers of actkity and invention. Fur this horse,
which the Defendant had puffed off as the very
paragon of all horses, he had the modesty to
exact from Mr. Waters, who gave implicit
to his protestations of the perfect sound-
ness of the animal—the sum of twenty-five
guineas, together with a very useful and sound
horse, with which Mr. Waters, tiluckil:, , could
not be contented, of the value of 50 guineas_♦
making in the whole 75 guineas. In a very few
days the lameness of this sound horse was disco-
vered, and on application to the Defendant to re-
turn that which was delivered to him in exchange,
together with the 25 Iguinms...hc denied. the un-
soundness of the horse, but consentel to take him
back, on condition of only returning 15 out of
the %5 guineas, so paid by the Plaintiff---alledg-
ing that the Plaintiff had spoiled him. The ques-
tion was, whether the horse was sound or unsound.
Mr. Coleman, of the Ve:erinary College, was of
opinion that them horse was unsound. In the off
fore foot he had a thrush, and also a corn in the
heel, in addition to which there was a contraction
of that part, arising from his having been shod by
an ignorant farrier.
In answer to a question from Lord ELLENIIO.
ROUGH, as to the disorder called a thrush being•a
proof of unsoundness, Mr. Coleman thought a
thrush in itself, unaccompanied by other circum-
stances, was nut an absolute proof of unsoundness.
Mr. Coleman's evidence of the unsovodnr•ss of the
horse was corroborated by that of two other wit.
nesses.

Mr. GARROW, with his accustomed ability,
made a very ingenious defence. Several witnesses,
on the part •f the Defendant, were then pitted
against those of the Plaintiff, and all, unit Ewe,
firmly maintained the soundness of the horse.
Numbers were on the point of defeating the Plain-
tiff, when an unexpected mante,ivre, performed
by the concurrence of Lord Ellenborough,
whose well-known patience, in the itivAtiga-
tion of truth, it were presumptuous t ap-
plaud, instantly turned the fortitne of the day.
The subject of the contest, the h.)ese himself, was
announced to be in the neighbourhood of the
Court, from whence, with the permission of
Lord Ellenborongh, At. Coleman, accvapani'd