14 MAY 1836, Page 10

In the Court of King's Bench, on Saturday, Sir John

Campbell showed cause against a rule for a mandamus issued for the purpose of compelling the Lords of the Treasury to return to its place in the Treasury minute-book, the minute which ordered the payment of 1661 per annum to Mr. Carmichael Smyth. Sir John contended, that this motion could not be supported for a moment— The object of the rule was, in fact, to make their Lordships abdicate their judicial functions, and take on themselves the powers of a legislative and exe- cutive body. He could not conceive on what principle the rule could be sup- ported ; and he should as soon think of being instructed by the Emperor of Russia to move for a quo warranto to be directed to the Lords of the -Admi- ralty calling on them to show cause by what authority they hail sent a fleet into the Black Sea, as that a rule of this sort could be made absolute.

After hearing counsel in support of the rule, Lord Denman said— There was not the slightest foundation for this application. The minute of the Lords of the Treasury was revokable the very day it was made; and this court could not interfere with the opinion of the Lords of the Trea- sury, on the subject of business, which was the proper subject fur the exercise of their discretion.

The rule was discharged. [Very properly, we doubt not. But if there " was not the slightest foundation" for the rule, why did the Court grant it in the first instance ?] On the same day, Sir John Compel] applied for a rule for a criminal information against the publisher of the Morning Chronicle, on behalf of Messrs. Kelly and Dundas, the unseated Members of Ipswich ; on the ground that, in giving the account of the proceedings in Court when the four Ipswich bribers were sentenced to various punishments, the Chronicle had selected the two affidavits of Pilgrim and Barnes for publication out of several others; the two affidavits in question containing statements against Kelly and Dundas, which those gentlemen swore to be false. Sir John said, that the account of the proceedings was unfair, and that those particular affidavits ought not to have been published alone. The rule was granted by Lord Denman.

At the Central Criminal Court, on Thursday, Sarah Price, a woman of respectable appearance and connexions, surrendered upon an indict. ment charging her with stealing, at Greenwich, a board of the value of fourpence, the property of John Lawrence. The prosecutor, an aged gentleman, stated that he has an enclosed ground at Greenwich, and the board now produced was part of the fence. There had been a very high wind, and the pale might have blown away. Mr. Charles Phillips, for the defendant, said that was the fact ; and being near her own house, this person picked it up, and is now disgraced by being placed at the bar to take her trial. The Jury stopped the case and delivered a verdict of acquittal. The Court refused to allow the pro- secutor his expenses.

In the Under Sheriff's Court, on Thursday, Mr. Kemp, the Sheriff's officer, made proclamation in open Court, and called upon the following noblemen and gentlemen to surrender themselves to the custody of the Sheriffs of Middlesex, upon pain of being declared outlaws— The Right Honourable William Paget, commonly called Lord William Paget, Edward Thynne, commonly called Lord Edward Thynne, the Reverend John Capel Hanbury Tracy, Charles Gore, commonly called the Honourable Charles Gore, Sir Francis Vincent, Bart., George Burkett, George Herbert, John Scott, George Giles How, Henry Vetch, W. Byrne, Edward R. Buller, Ed- ward Hull, Robert Abbey, Hugh Andrew Fraser, Henry Leigh Hunt, J. 0. Luxford, Nicholas Power, T. Sowerby, and the Reverend William Hamilton Maxwell.

[Here is a pretty list !—lords, honourables, baronets, and parsons ! Alas for the "higher orders of society ! "1

On Thursday, a deputation appointed at the last meeting of Magis- trates for the county of Middlesex, to confer with Government on the

question of the Chairman's salary, waited by appointment on Lord John Russell, at the Home Office, for the purpose of learning the de-

cision of Government on the subject ; when his Lordship acquainted the deputation that his Majesty's Ministers, after having having given all due consideration to the memorial of the magistrates, determined that they could not sanction the payment of the salary, unless Govern- ment bad also the power of appointing the Chairman.