The Statesman.
London, England, 1809-07-19 00:00:00

V BY A.GON•
rdN.

A cause was tried at the Surrey Sessions, On
Monday, which excited no small degree of amuse-
ment. It appeared from the evidence, that Mr.
Sauey. Dixon, a Common Councilman of the
City of London, was attracted by a little row that
happened to be kicked up in the Blackfriars'
Road, as he was on his way to Walwurth, be-
tween eleven and twelve at night, un the 425th of
March last. On arriving at the scene of action,
Mr. Samuel Dixon found a constable in the act of
restraining that liberty, to which all are by nature
entitled...in plain English, two womeu and a
man were in custody for making a riot at
that unseasonable beer of the night. Mr. Samuel
Dixon, who, it seems, if we aro to believe the
statement of his Counsel, was perfectly sober,
but at that moment, in the disposition to argue
phllusephically rather than legally, very sagaci-
ously stated, as an abstract propolition, that the
Constable had no right to interrupt persons who
were passing on the highway ;—to this argument
Mr. Constable replied, by staring the offence, which
not only justified, but imposed on him the duty of
that interruption. Mr. S. Dixon rejoilied, hr col.
Taring the constable, who, calling to his assistance
anotherspecial pleader of the nattiest Perrin, they,
tugether, woad certain weighty arguments, by
which Mr. Seined Dixon was reduced to quietude
...upon which he immediately demurred to the ju.
risdiction of the constables : " Unhand me, vil.
lain," says he, "for lam a Common Council.
man of the City of London !!".-.to which the un-
mannerly constable had the impudence to answer,
that he cured nut who or what he was, to the
watch-house he must go. The Common Couneil.
man again resorted 'to certain substantial *rim.
went, ; but, after several attempts to escape, by
treading on the toes of the constables, its the
watch-house he was at length, foaming with
rage, like a lion in the talk, conducted. Here
he fell into a fit of heroics, fur on bring asked
his name.—" My name," says he, " is Sameel—
" I suppose you will next ask who gave me that
name."—A very natural inference for a boy of
eight years old—thobgh we are unfortunately so
dense as not to perceive the wit of this observation
in a sober Common Councilman of sixty. The
awful disclosure of his sirname this cautious Civic
Counsellor refused to make, until two accidental
spectators became answerable for his future ap-
pearance.

Mr. Nolan made an ingenious speech in which
he took the same ground a ith the meek, pa•sive,
and much-injured Mrs. Lucy Sinclair Sutherland,
who pleaded the delicacy of her form, when op-
opposed to that of Mr. Turuer,...Mr. Nolan
urged the improbability of a man of 60 making so
stout a resistance.-.. The, constables and watchmen
shook their heads. The civic orator thou address-
ing the Court, declared upon his honour, that he
merely expostulated with the constable (here that
Officer shook his head) ; that he was himself
first assaulted; that in addition to his word
of honour, he had made an affidavit to that
effect, that he thought it a duty to his coun-
try to act as he had dune; and that he had
lived io London 40 years. The Jury, however,
in spite of the word of honour and affidavit of
Mr. Samuel Dixon, believed the oath of the wit-
nesses, and must grieved we are to record that the
Civic Orator was found guilty, and fined 20P.
Is this Mr. Samuel Diton, who requested the
j Court to acquit him on the strength of his word
of honour and affidavit, in defiance of the testi-
mony of two competent, credible, dis i nitre Atedlun..
impeached, and unimpeachable witnesses, the same
IMr. Samuel Dixon who has given notice of
a motion in the Court of Common Council,
to rescind the •ote of thanks to Colonel
Wardle, by reason of a verdict given against
that Gentleman, on the evidence of two witnesses
who are asserted by him to have given false evi-
dome, and whose testimony is, from notorious
facts, known by all to be questionable p We have
not the pleasnre to be acquainted with Mr. Samuel
Dixon, and merely ask this question for informa-
tion. From the well-knows eacocthe: loquendi
of Mr. Orator Dixon, as he is sometimes called,
we should he inclined to imagine that it must be
the same Gentleman who made the curious speech
to the Court of Quarter Sessions, which we have
recorded.