The Statesman.
London, England, 1821-11-24 00:00:00

.a ~.

The Court was occupied until three o'clock in hear-
mg special arguments of no public importance.

Dials V. T►IE BANE OF ENGLAND.
Mr. Sergeant LENS rose after the special arguments
were heard, and said he should not at that late hour
of the day trespass for many minutes upon the Court,
in supporting the rule f►►r a new trial in the case of
Mr. Horatio Davis against the Bank of England. llis
main argument was this—that the proof of a payment
by J. H. Davis to his brother, the plaintiff, of the sum
of 1501. on the 11th of January, the day before the
dividen.ls became due, powerfully influenced the jury
in concluding that at that period the plaintiff wos ac-
quainted with the forgery committed by his brother,
and in finding their verdict accordingly. It was now,
be contended, clear that the money so paid, and the
fact of Which at the trial altogether took the plaintiff
by surprise, was on a family housekeeping account.—
If such an explanation could have at the time been
given on the trial, it might have materially altered
the view taken by the jury of the case. Under such
an altered aspect of so important a fact, be submitted
that justice to a party so peculiarly aggrieved as was
' the plaintiff ought to induce the Court to grant a new

trial.
Mr. Sergeant ONSLOW was about to follow on the
same side, when—
Lord Cater JUSTICE DALLAS interposed, and said,
that every thing which appeared to have been done in
this case on the part of the Bank and their advisers
'seemed to the Court to have fully accorded with their
duty, and with propriety. On the other band, the si-
tuation of the unfortunate gentleman, who was plain-
tiff in the cause, was indeed of the most distressing na-
ture, and 'bust make its way home to the feelings of
very wan who had a heart to feel for the calamities of
his species. But stunning as the Court did there, they
were not to decide upun the suggestions of feeling, bat
on the principles of law; and it was of great interest
to the public security, and to the rights of all the
parties affated, that such as this .. as should have the
calmest and the most mature consideration. The case,
in its principle and eircumstaniett, appeared to
him on the trial to be'altogether new; ancrappearine
so, he felt it • his due)? 'at the time to coMmunicate his
ins.”resilon-to the jiiy. It wiinow.aauiittelf;thit as
the evidente cowl upon the ttial,

.

could be found with the verdict of Jag. Alt
Application was now. however, made for • a new trial;
upon the ground that. the . plaiatiff was entirely
taken by surprise upon the statement of a particilar
fact in evidence—namely, the. payment on a
particular day of a sues of 1504 to him by his
broither. He (the Lord Chief Justice) at. the.
time inquired whether the bill of discovery fled by the
Bank made any allusion to this particular paymeoh,
and had been very properly informed in reply, that it
',could not contain any such allusion, for the fact has
not been ascertained by the Bask natal three• days be-
fere the trial., It was, material to touch. shortly upon •
the most important point of the trial.. It was stem'.
in evidence, that on the 12tit dimmer, the plaintiff
received at the Bapk the small sum of 201, as a divi-
dend upon some long annuities; that although at dm
same moment a much, larger dividend wee due to him
upon his 10,0001. l per cent. ansuities (supposing ho
was ignorant of their transfer), be had never applied
for it, and that though it woolen be bad knowledge
of tbefergerrop.tbe sth of *Mk pet that be setae
commanicated that knowledge to• ;be sank until they
refused payment of the dividends be applied for is the
month of September following. His ettatinct In wide
holding that information from ;be Bask, from March
to Sept.. was certainly so correct; but when the
whole circumstances of his situation were known. then •
was something so peculiar in it as to restrain as ob-
server from commenting upon it with a too rigid harsh-
ness : his situation was most unfortunate, and it was sot
for Judges sitting in a Court of J nstice to affect, like hy-
pocrites, sentiments abstractedly in that Court, which,
out of it, their feeling, mom, would proscribe. It was,
indeed, a violation of the law for a party knowing a
fraud, not within reasonable time to disclose it to the
party who was to suffer by its perpetration; hat they
were here (applying this principle) to call upon a man
to make a disclosure which must immediately lead to
his own brother's trial, and possibly to his conviction
and the infliction of an ignominious death :—and that
too, must be done, not in the case of a party who w .s
to be ruined by the concealmeut of a fact, but of a
great corpoiation, on whom the loss by that conceal-
ment must be comparatively trilling. He knew that
this distinction did not alter the law, and that the
Bank were justly entitled to all that protection in their
corporate capacity, which in his private ettpaeity any
indivittual inizlit claim; but still in the way in Aids
ordinary individuals looked such circutucances
not to be overlooked in the coosiderationof the pl.C.n-
till a conduct. Now, the fact already so mu .h dwelt
upon, of the pleintiffs having received his small .livi-
dead on the 12th of January, at the Bank, anti re-
fraining. then from .lensaieling his larger one ; coupled
with tine fact proved on the trial, that en the very day
before he had received (cons his brother a sum equal
to the amount of the larger dividend; the proof of
such a fact was well calculated to male, and it did
make, beds es his stied and en sty,.
very powerful impression against treWpttinilitl Any
act of the latter which raised an inference that he
knew on the 12th of January, when be went for his
dividend to the Bank, that his brother bad c immitted
the forgery, was certainly calculated to shake h's
claim upon the Bank to its centre. and vitiate the
whole of his conduct in the ease. It was said that
the plaintiff and his mother, Lady Davis, were in the
vicinity of the Court at the time, and had been no
doubt informed of the fact of the 1501. being given
in evidence, and that they might have given the expla-
nation now contained in their affidavits at that trial.
Somebody might indeed have gone and informed theta
of that fact, but it was equally possible, owing.tu etc
afflicted state in which they were at the time, that no
notice was taken of the matter at the mono nt. A
most important explanation was now given respectin;
the 150/. which certainly, if afforded at the time.
would in all probability, have given to the feict a V. y
different complexion in the minds of the Jury fruaa
that which they received is the absence of that ex-
planation. Fron► the affidavits of Mr. Oratio Davis.
' of Lady Davis, and the butler, it was now sworn that
the 150/. alluded to, was paid by J. H. Davis. as his
share of the joint housekeeping account, and that the
plaintiff awl his mother did at the time make co-equal
payments in settliog their housekeeping account..
It was most material, then, after such a statemen', to
enable the plaintiff to have toe benefit of this eapl4.•
nation. At the new trial the same opportunity would
be afforded of putting the argument of coucealtueut
from March to September so that the justice of the
case could not suffer by acceding to the rule now ap-
plied for. The Court, therefore, having a must anxious
wish that the whole question should receive a thorough
consideration, granted the rule for a new trial. There
was no doubt, the Lord Chief Justice added, that the
interest of the Batik and the public would he duly
considered at the new trial.
The other Judges concurred with the Lord Chief
Justice, without delivering their opinions ars mutat...
tively.
Rule for a new trial made absolute.

BOARD (W LXCISF.

Yesterday Thomas Salter appeared upon an informa-
tion charging him with having worked a private still.
without having given notice to the Excise, ecc., where-
by be bad incurred penalties to the amount of 400/
William East, 111/ Excise Officer, stated, that on ;be
13th of July last he went to the house, No. 2. i 6
Queen's Head-cuurt, in the parish of St. James's. Re
found the defendant in the shop at work at his busi-
ness, as a lut-maker.. On searching the house its
witness found in the cellar a complete forty' gallon
still, with full apparatus. in the course .'f his search
the witness fund a bottle 'of raw spirits in a cupsuard
in the defendant's room.
The defendant' "afii rlsitman, who called
hlursefrhilLane. aid 044)110 represented bin s If u
a' siowisiii: had tatien'tlii cellar at 'a rent of 2s • a
week, a,ncrerected a coli a mid oilier stittaratu,,, b
.
tits conceived. fu r.thet Exeicise,.pr his ustne, as, a
scatitWei. TV Vali
e se,' however, tad s;l4 "win

situoitter , mat as !scum:r... -
nu fault wnaLaver I After he Lad ban iu the house, that there was noth►ng
• -