The Statesman.
London, England, 1819-12-25 00:00:00

THE STATESMAN.

master of the emelt, and the remainder of his crew, that
on the 27th March, *beat sine o'clock is the morning,
be was fishing of ['airtight, on the tout of Suffolk,
with five hands on board, Including himself, his trolling
geer out, and going at the rate el not more than twe
kaets as leer, when he saw a fleet of nearly a handled
sail conslog dews chassel, before a fresh breeze, with
all sails eat, and going at the rate of ten knots an hour,
se tleereabestr. One of these vessels, the Conte* came
se near shore, that lie and his crew fearing a would
be 'won them, billed her repeatedly, but receiged no an-'
ewer ; and one of the crew went to the mast-head to look
out, but could see nobody at all on hoard the ship. It
was impossible for them to get out of her way, because
of their trolling gear being out and their sails down, and
presently she muesli, knocked inithe stern of the smack,
cut one of the men right through the middle, and drown-
ed another, and the stuack instantly filling with water, she
sank, the rest of the crew saving themselves with the ut-
most difficulty by climbing up the bows of the Coutest.
When they got upon deck, they could not see a single
person onboard her except the men et the wheel, the
Captain, nnil the whole crew bring below at breakfast,
without the slightest idea of what had happened. The
Captain, however, appeared greatly distressed at the cir-
cumstance, blamed hmeself of suffering his men to be
all below at the same time, and wrote a letter to his
owners, stating that he had unfortunately run down the
smack, and calling upon them to make some compensa-
tion to her master. This letter he put into the hands
of the master, telling him it would procure him satis-
faction for Lis loss. Ile and his crew were then put
ashore, and the Contest proceeded un her voyage.
Air. SIARILTATT, for the plaintiff. contended, that it
was the bounden duty of every ship proreedieg du n
channel, to keep two men ronstautiv station's! in the
forecastle to keep a lookout; and If the Contest had
dune so, this lamentable catastrophe would not have hap-
pened. On the contrary, howeler. her I 'apfain hail Teen
goiltv of the grossest neglect, and the plaintiff Iva, fully
entitled to a verdict.

Mr. SCARLIETT, for 1111. defendant, contended, that the
fishinconnark had no right to have been trol::ng is such
a situation, when a fleet. un far .oat ciretimttam.e., it as
in sight; and he should prove by the evidi th.•
Captain ut the l'ontext, and several of hi/ cern , the
statement of the mr•ter the 6-ping-smack was COTO.
pletely erroneon.; that the Captain and a proper wateli
ivere on dark ; that they took every possible tue..ns to
avoid the accident ; and that the master of the -mark
might hare easi!t :iroille.l it, by clotting away I.i. troll-
gerr. .1% to the Captain's letter to his owners, it
had been written in the Ilion,s of the moment, simply
with a Tier: to procure setae little cousidcration 6.r ilia
master of the •..!ack ; bat was by no means intended to
admit that they were respunsilde for the tibia:it damage.
He then called the Captain and three of his crew, who
all swore in point biank einstra,icion of the catentent
on the other si he.

Tile Loan CHIEF Jerrtcc made a perspicuous sum-
ming' op, pointing out *trend inconsistencies in the de-
fendant's evidence, awl observing that, as was generally
thr rase in causes of this description, the 'vintner seas
so completely at variance, that it remained with the
Jury to say which side they thought must enti:;el to
credit.

The Jure itrrii”,:istely returned a verdict for the
plaintiffc •
The further proceeding's were postponed until :he 7th
January

Sir J. !ansa observed, that In such a case the parish
Wirers were the proper tribunal. but be would hart no
objectiowto adjust their differences If they could agree
between theurseives.
Mr. Clesdos (wbodurieg the recital or his wife's story.
was continually smiling) observed. that the worthy Ma-
gistrate's endeavour to-bring about a conciliation would
be useless. His wife wu his disgrace and his children's
disgrace, and be could never comma to take her under
his roof again. He then went on to state that she was so
addicted to drinking spirits. sad partiMarly gin, that
her expenditure in that pernicious article alone was suf-
ficient to rain man of ordinary means. Frequently
bad she been compelled to go to bed through hubris-
leaving him the unpleasant dare of waiting on com-
pany, and apologising for what ((or want of a better
reason) he was fain to call her indisposition. Even that
very morning, as they were cooing to the Justice Room,
she ran into the Talbot Inn, and drank a large bumper
of brandy which he was obliged to pay for, and she was
continually running him in debt in a similar man-
ner. He had no objection to allow her 801. or 1001.
a-year, but the children he was determined she should
not hare.

Mrs. amnion, with singular modesty, admitted that
she was fond of gin, and drank a tolerable portion of
that hevrrage, but she maintained that it was neces,ary
to her existence, and sloe could not do without it. As
to the charges which her husband bad so unsparingly
made against her, she could only Dry that his awn clou-
ded was far worse, ant! she could prove that he had
brought other females home to her bed.
Sir J. EAISFIL—If, under any circumstances, he ever
did that, he is a scoundrel.

Mr. Glendon denied the charge altogether, giving it
as his opinion that the idea must have originated from
the disordered state of her brain.

The Alderman finding it hopeless to Loring about a re-
conciliation between them, sent for the parish officers,
when Mr. C. pledged himself to allow her a settlement;
and having pit in haii to keep the peace towards her,
the rase terminated.