The Court of Queen's Bench was occupied on Friday and
Saturday last with the trial of' an action brought by Mr. Thomas Duncombe M.P., against Mr. T. S. Daniel, a barrister, for a libel published by Mr. Daniel at the time of the last Finsbury election. Mr. Daniel, in a communication to the Tory newspapers, charged Mr. Duncombe with having fraudulently obtained an injunction from the Vice- Chan- cellor, by false affidavits, to prevent a creditor from proceeding against him ; and with defrauding another person, by a check which be knew would be dishonoured, having himself withdrawn the funds which he had stated would be at the bankers to meet it. The defendant pleaded the general issue, also a justification that the libel was true. Many witnesses were examined for plaintiff and defendant ; Sir John Camp- bell addressed the Jury for 111r. Duncombe, and Mr. Daniel was de- fended by Sir William Follett. Lord Denman charged the Jury, to the effect that the accusation of fabricating affidavits was very rashly made, and that the justification on that point entirely failed. With reference to the dishonoured check, Lord Denman remarked, that although Sir John Campbell had made a long statement calculated to impress the minds of the Jury, he had offered no evidence whatever on that point; a practice which Lord Denman condemned as most im- proper, and, as far as his knowledge extended, without precedent. The plea in justification of the defendant was, that the party to whom the check had been given was still a creditor of Mr. Duncombe; but as no proof of the fact had been adduced by the defendant, Mr. Dun- conibe was entitled to a verdict nn that point also. Lord Denman left the question of damages to the Jury ; observing, that because Mr. Daniel was an elector he was by no means entitled to libel a candidate ;
and that the circumstance of his being a Chancery barrister, and there- fore a person whose assertions would carry weight with them, should
have rendered him particularly cautious in his statements. The Jury deliberated about an hour, and returned a verdict for the plaintiff, with 100/. damages.
Mr. Duncombe has placed the 100/. in the bands of his Committee, to be distributed among the charities of the borough of Finsbury.
At the Thames Police-office on Wednesday, James Barnett, the master and part owner of the sloop Prince Regent, his son, mate, and two seamen, were charged with smuggling brandy and geneva. The vessel had long been suspected of being a smuggler; and being searched when in the River on Tuesday, by a custom-house officer, 518 kegs of foreign spirit were found, slung together in smugglers' fashion, ready to be carried to their place of destination with the least delay. The prisoners were remanded till further information could be obtained. The captain declared that he knew nothing of the spirits being on board; and the men said that the job was theirs, and kept a secret from the captain.
A discovery has recently been made, that several large houses in the spirit trade have been for some time carrying on a system of smug- gling with the connivance and aid of Customhouse-officers. The Globe says, that the houses in question "have been in the constant habit of importing the finest brandies and other spirits from the Con- tinent, which have, after gauging, been delivered to them upon the pay- ment of the wine duty of 5s. 6d., instead of the proper spirit duty of 22s. ficl. per gallon. An agent of the party recently received a con- signment of six hogsheads of French brandy, which, by the negligence of some of the persons concerned, were landed in the Queen's warehouse on the ground floor of the Custom House, and through this mistake the whole of the proceedings have been brought to light. On being admitted to entry as wine, one of the hogsheads was seized, having been found to contain brandy, and on closer inspection a peculiarly-constructed tube, of about six inches in diameter, was dis- covered fixed in the cask, reaching from the burg, and extending the depth of the cask, which tube was filled with wine, the remainder of the cask containing brandy ; but the tube in this instance having leaked, the wine became mixed with the brandy, this circumstance led to the discovery and seizure by the gauging officer. Many seizures have been made in different parts of the city, and some Customhouse officers have been suspended.
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