The Statesman.
London, England, 1809-11-06 00:00:00

To the EDITOR of TDB STATESM4N.

Sin —A very silly writer in Bell's Weekly
Messenger of yesterday, spurts a great deal of
theatrical law, of which be knoweth no more
than I opine he cloth of any other, and yet he
may perchance be clerk to a trading justice. To
confute him would be idle, for he Both constantly
confute himself in the cuurae of his journey.
. But though this sapient gentleman calla the sub.
scription for the assistance of persons considered
as unjustly prosecuted, by the Prot,rierurs and
Managers of Cosent-Garden Theat►e, '6 a gross
indecorum," how a subscription fur the relief of
those we apprehend have been wronged by Mi.
gistrates and Managers, or Managers and Ma.
gistrates, for, according to the present system, I
know not which should take rank, can be We-
colons, I conceive nut. As to his law on the
subject, let Up with the rest. •
lie also attacks the projectors of a New Them.
tre. I know them not ; and the deprecating the
indignation of the Covent-Garden gang, I think
contemptible. The conflagration at Drury. Lane,
was certainly accidental, and was against their
interests; that at Covent-Garden I firmly believe,
equally so, although it might be fur their interest.
Nor do I think they thew themselves Learned in the
law ; their application for a Patent should be to
the King, in whom the power is already vested by
Parliament. As to the illegality of a Subscrip-
tion, to endeavour to obtain Law, the fellow is
fool or knave. It is a contradiction in terms.—So
studious of decorum have been the sobscriberi,that
the conduct of the Magistrates is not even glanced
at, though it must have been in their contempla.
tion, as it soon will also be in that of the Court
of King's Bench. It is pity Mr. Harris is impli.
cated in the mistier. Ile has passed a long life,
Kith, I believe, much esteem ; and though, per-
haps, In the early part, he might, like Falstaff,
have had to have cried " out triton women," he
has, I understand, been many years married to
one of the most' amiable of the sex.
A SUBSCRIBER AND AN OLD BARRISTER.
Oct. 90, 1009.

-471,1,r
•
• dig/ ••'
• 13
c•NI

•••:.

21111) 1.4.4.5i.E X SESSIONS.
. Friday, Noventbete 3.
Trueuses a. xos•r.ea. —Tit is wit a p mein ti on
instituted by Mr. Elliott, *Chief Officer of the
East India Company's ship Wexford, for an as.
sank cominittes: by the D..fetulasit, the Caps' tel
servant. Mr. Elliutt slated, that he had been in
the I Alia Company's 'cilice upwards of 20 years,
and had put himself to the calicoee and trouble
of this prosecution, solely in the hope of checking
the spirit of insubordination, which constantly
reigned in the ships, on their homeward-bound
arrivals in the river, when the ship's discipline was
discontinued, to the frequent imiiinext danger of
both ship and cargo : he said, that i.i the evening
of the day laid in the indictment, he observed one
of the Lascars filing a cut on the starboard side
of the middy ; the prosecutor said, that as he
himself tic, spied the starboard silk, of the same
birth, he was by no means desirous of so near a
neighbevr, and directed it to be taken below ; on
which th, Defendant, the Captain' servant, who
ordered the cot for his own accommodation, came
into the birth, much intoxicated, using most opa
prelacies's epithets and ex pi elisions, and ass tutting
the prosecutor, which he was restrained froni
chastising net the spot, by the impropriety of be.
ing involved in personal contest undet such circuits.
stances ; he therefore prefei red the present indict.
ment. The facts were proved by witnesses, and
the defendant, having no defence to make, he was
instantly found guilty, and sentenced to three
months' imprisonment in Coldballt Fields prison.