had not paid Byrne all the money he had received for him; and in the winter of the same year, he told witness he had employed him to take care of his stables.-Catherine Byrne, daughter of the plaintiff, proved an account delivered by the defendant to her mother. The account was read, and stated the subscriptions received, to the 7th April 1823, to be 151l. 8s. 3 d. -This was the plaintiff's case. Mr. Parkins called Mr. Henry Hunt, who stated, that, in November, 1822, the defendant introduced the plaintiff to him as the injured Byrne, and mentioned the sum that had been subscribed for him to that time, which was certainly under 50l. Two or three days after, Byrne called on him, and said Parkins was going to set him up in a livery-stable, and requested witness to send him his horses.Several witnesses proved payments of small sums by Parkins on Byrne's account.-Mr. Phillips admitted that the plaintiff had received 501. from the defendant.-Mr. Tozer was called and sworn, but it appeared he came only to speak to the character of Scott, who was not examined.-Mr. C. Phillips: Pray, Sir, were you not principal operator to the late Johanna Southcote? The Lord Chief Justice: You need not answer that question; it has nothing to do with this cause.-Witness: My lord, I have no objection to answer it. I was -and I think it an honour of which I may boast before the whole world. The Jury found for the plaintiff, damages 153l. 5s. and costs. Report of the PRIVY COUNCIL. At the court of Carlton-House, the 14th of June, 1825. Pre sent, The King's Most Excel lent Majesty in Council. Whereas, there was this day read at the Board, a report from a committee of the lords of his majesty's most hon. privy council, dated the 7th of last month, in the words following, viz. : "Your majesty having been. pleased, by your order in council of the 15th of November, 1822, to refer unto this committee, the humble petition of William Rough, sergeant at law, late president of the honourable the court of criminal and civil justice of the united colony of Demerara and Essequibo: setting forth, that the petitioner, in the beginning of the year 1816, went out from England in the abovementioned capacity, and resided abroad as president until December 10, 1821. That, however, in the month of October of that year, by a violent act of authority, the petitioner was suspended from the exercise of his functions in such office, by his excellency majorgeneral Murray, lieutenant-governor of the said colony. That the petitioner during the weighty and important disputes that have agitated that colony, over the court of criminal and civil justice, of which it was his lot to preside, has ever been fixed and constant in his determination, fearlessly to confide in the law and in your majesty, a sentiment which at various stages of the contentious transactions in which his duty to your majesty has engaged him, he has undeviatingly and perpetually expressed, that your majesty's principal secretary of state for the colonial department, the right hon. earl Bathurst, although he has not deemed it expedient to refer the petitioner's case, upon his request, for the opinion of your majesty's legal officers, has yet nevertheless been pleased to avoid himself making any final decision thereon, and has further been indulgent enough to engage to the petitioner, that he shall be aided and assisted with all documents and evidence from time to time lodged by the petitioner in his (the colonial) department, so that the petitioner's case may, as a whole, be fully heard and investigated. That the petitioner, there fore, conceiving himself to have been deeply injured and aggrieved by the above act of his excellency major-general John Murray, lieut. governor aforesaid, as well also as oppressed by the general conduct as connected with and leading to the said act of suspension of the said John Murray, from August 1, 1819, down to June and July of the year 1822, respectfully and humbly prays to be permitted, through your majesty's grace and favour, to state publicly his complaint and wrongs before your majesty in council. That the petitioner desirous of avoiding, if possible, the necessity of resorting on his part to his legal remedies of indictment and action (measures painful and distressing), respect fully entreats and begs, that after a perusal of his case, and documents by the right hon. the earl lord president, it be the gracious order and command of your majesty that the petitioner be referred for hearing, and for the production of further evidence to your majesty's right hon. privy council, and therein it may be agreed upon and determined what due reparation should be accorded to the petitioner, for the injuries to his honour and character which in the service of your majesty he has personally and officially sustained; and as the petitioner, if he had recourse to harsher proceedings, would be empowered under the fatherly and protecting statute passed in the 42nd year of your majesty's most pious parent, his late majesty of blessed memory, to pray the punishment of deprivation of professional military rank against a lieutenantgovernor committing wrong, as the petitioner alleges the before-mentioned major-general Murray to have done; so, now the petitioner earnestly prays, that it may be referred by your majesty's gracious sense of justice, to your said right hon. privy council, to say whether such censure be not the only adequate reproof which your right hon. council can recommend to your majesty under the circumstances, to be made good by evidence. Lastly, the petitioner respectfully prays, that your majesty may be graciously pleased to relieve as early as possible the petitioner's mind from the painful consideration that he, as a judicial servant of your majesty, has been interrupted in and removed from (however undeservedly) the exercise of his functions, and with a view to extend to him such relief, that your majesty may be pleased to direct his case to be forthwith referred to your right honourable privy council, as referred. The lords of the committee, in obedience to your majesty's said order of reference, took the said petition into their early consideration, with the documents accompanying the same; and after several meetings on the subject matter thereof, directed that the petitioner should be informed that their lordships having repeatedly taken his said petition into consideration, together with the various and voluminous papers which had been successively presented by him, found it impossible . for them to proceed in the matter, unless he should reduce to a distinct and specific form, such charges as he might be prepared to prove against lieutenant-governor Murray, in order that, if necessary, they might be transmitted to the said lieutenant-governor for his answer; and should also specify distinctly the relief for which he prayed; and their lordships having considered the letters of the petitioner in reply, directed that he should be informed, that in conformity to the intimation which had been conveyed to him, their lordships were ready to receive such articles of charge as he might think himself prepared to prove against the said lieutenantgovernor, and that it would be convenient if he would specify the particular facts to be adduced in proof under each article. And a paper having been accordingly put in by the petitioner, containing sundry articles of charge against the said lieutenant-governor, their lordships directed that a copy of the said paper should be transmitted to your majesty's attorney and solicitor general for their report, whether the said articles of charge were sufficiently precise and proper to be admitted for the purpose of calling on lieutenant-governor Murray to give an answer thereto. And your majesty's said law officers having reported as their opinion, that the said articles of charge were not, in their then state, sufficiently precise to be admitted for the said purpose, the petitioner was informed to that effect; and a further representation, with several additional documents, having been sent in by him, the same were transmitted to the attorney and solicitor general, who having reported that the said further statement of charges, with the exception of the last article, on which lieutenant-governor Murray was accused of illegally suspending the late president (the petitioner) from his office, were still, in their opinion, not sufficiently definite and precise for the purpose of calling on lieutenant-governor Murray to give an answer thereto, the petitioner was acquainted therewith. And their lordships having subsequently received several letters and papers from the petitioner, he was required to state whether he was desirous that the only charge which, in their opinion, was sufficiently precise to be proper to be transmitted for answer to lieutenantgovernor Murray should be so transmitted, or whether he was also prepared to reduce into a more precise shape any or all of the remaining allegations; and the petitioner having given no explicit answer to the said communication, their lordships did, on the 10th of July, 1823, cause a copy of the said petition, and also a copy of the said last article of charge, to be transmitted to lieutenant-governor Murray for his answer in writing to the said charge forthwith. That such answer was not returned for a considerable time, owing to the circumstances represented by lieutenant-governor Murray; but having at length been received, and their lordships having acceded to an application of the petitioner to be heard by counsel, and having signified to him that he was at liberty to be heard by his counsel, and also to the agents of lieutenantgovernor Murray that he might also be heard by his counsel, or otherwise, if he should so think fit; their lordships did, on the 19th and 28th of February, and the 3rd of March last, hear counsel on behalf of both parties, and their lordships having since resumed the consi deration of the whole matter, and having maturely deliberated thereupon, beg leave humbly to submit to your majesty their opinion upon the charge of Mr. Sergeant Rough against lieutenant-governor Murray, as exhibited in the proceedings before them, which charge was as follows: "Your lordships' petitioner complains of the illegal and unwarrantable outrage by which, without delinquency or charge, without a shadow of legal or moral guilt, he was suspended from his office of president. "He complains of every aggravation by which such a proceeding could be accompanied. He complains that his secretary was turned out of his apartments, which were forcibly seized; that his own library, books, and papers were violently taken possession of; that his suspension was blazoned forth in an unnecessary proclamation, published in the Royal Gazette; that his place was filled up by an appointment most illegal and improper; that a mock procession and a vulgar riot, by which the enemies of your petitioner celebrated their triumph over him, the law, and the public peace, was encouraged and applauded by the governor, whose lawless violence had thus gratified their wanton malignity.' "Upon this charge it is the opinion of the lords of the committee, that, under all the circumstances of the case, lieutenant-governor Murray was not justified by any sufficient necessity in suspending Mr. Sergeant Rough from his office of president; and that the conduct of the said lieutenant-governor was likewise reprehensible in not having taken any measures for preventing a procession, of which previous public notice had been given, which procession was evidently designed as an insult to the president (whom he had suspended) and threatened not only his personal safety, but the public peace. "Their lordships beg leave further humbly to submit, that in the transactions which preceded the suspension, and which were accompanied by much irritation between the parties, they see cause to regret the indiscreet conduct pursued by Mr. Sergeant Rough upon some occasions, and also the remissness of lieutenant-governor Murray in not sufficiently maintaining the respect due from the inhabitants of the colony to the judicial character and authority of Mr. Sergeant Rough, and the court over which he presided; and in not endeavouring to protect them from a series of libellous calumnies to which they were exposed. "But the lords of the committee arc induced to think, that the disputes which arose between the parties in question were owing, in a considerable degree, to the undefined nature of their respective authorities as governor and president, in a colony where these offices had been formerly united, and to the difficulties arising from the want of an established table or standard of fees in the courts of justice, concerning which there was a discordance of opinion and a clashing of authorities. "And the lords of the committee beg leave further humbly to submit, that they have thought it their duty to take these difficulties into consideration in forming a judgment upon the conduct of each of the parties." His majesty having taken the said report into consideration, was pleased, by and with the advice of his privy council, to approve there- COURT OF KING'S BENCH, Blore v. Stockdale. Mr. Scarlett stated the case. The plaintiff was a tradesman, carrying on the business of a stonemason and statuary, in Stratfordstreet, Piccadilly; he had been many years a married man, and was the father of a large family of children. The defendant, Mr. Stockdale, was a bookseller, and the publisher of the work in which this libel appeared. The book, upon the face of it, professed to be, a history of the life and adventures of a common prostitute, of the name of Harriet Wilson. The libel was contained in a pretended letter written by Fanny to her sister Harriet, which was in these terms;"Apropos! Talking of vulgarity, I have had a proposal of marriage since I saw you from Mr. Blore the stone-mason, who keeps a shop in Piccadilly. Parker says it is all my fault, for being so very humble and civil to everybody; but you must recollect this man was our near neighbour, and when we were all children together, and I cannot think I had any right to refuse answering his first civil inquiry after my health, by which he no doubt thought, as a man of good property, and better expectations, he did me honour. Since then he has often joined me in my little |