Int Metropolis.
The supporters of the London Fever Hospital held their annual meeting, on Friday evening, at Freemasons Tavern, under the presidency of the Earl of Devon. It was stated that the cases admitted in the past year bad been 1,462; the greatest number in any other year since 1843 having been 646 only. The deaths had been 114. The receipts of the year had been 1,4461.; and the payments 1,993/.
On Monday, the case of Shore versus Barnes was heard by the Judicial Com. mittee of Privy. Council; the Archbishop of York sitting as one of the Judges, The Reverend James Shore was a priest in holy orders of the Church of England, and officiated in Bridgetown Chapel till 1844; at which time he became a Die. center. In that year Mr. Shore obtained the consent of the Duke of Beaufort, the proprietor of his chapel, to register it as a place of worship for Protestant Die. senters; and himself took the oaths prescribed by the act for the relief of Pro- testant Dissenting ministers. At the mstance of the Bishop of Exeter, Mr. Shore was prosecuted, with the view of testing whether he was still amenable to the censures and discipline of the Church that he had sought to leave. Sir Herbert Jenner Fast, by a sentence passed on Mr. Shore in June 1846, affirmed this prin. ciple, and admonished him against the offence of reading prayers or administering the eucharist according to the rites of the Church of England, as he had con- tinued to do since his withdrawal from the National Church. Against this sen- tence the present appeal was brought; but at the very opening of the argument of the appellant's counsel, he was stopped,. and the appeal quashed with costs, on the technical ground that it had not originated at the proper stage of the pro. ceedings in the lower court.
The House of Lords, sitting in appeal, on Thursday dissolved the interdict of the Scotch Court of Session which prohibited the publication of the "Scottish Mercantile Society's Record," commonly called "The Black List," containing the names of parties failing to pay their bills and perform their mercantile engage- ments.
The Court of Exchequer has been occupied three days of this week, at Guild- hall. in trying the case of Buron versus the Honourable Captain Denman. The Crown being the real defendant, the case was tried at bar, before a full bench of four Judges—Barons Parke, Alderson Rolfe, and Platt.
The plaintiff's case was stated by dr. M. D. Hill, Mr. Martin, and Mr. Robin- son ; and was in effect this. M. John Thomas Buron is a Spanish merchant at the Gallinas, a port and the chief town in a small African monarchy under one King Siacca, about 150 miles from Sierra Leone. M. Buron has a large establish- ment of merchandise—warehouses situated on the main land and on a number of islands close to Gallinas. In autumn 1840, there was a great collection of goods of every description in these stores, worth in the whole between 400,000 and 500,000 dollars. M. Buron had at the same time about 300 slaves, worth about 101 each: in fact, he was engaged in the slave-trade with Havanna; that trade being a perfectly lawful trade in the dominions of King Siacca. M. Baron's trade in goods was very large. A cargo of goods arrived for him in Jane 1840, by the Crawford, from Havanna, worth 113,000 dollars ;and in the same year the Alexander left the Gallinas with a cargo of natural produce, including 150 tons of palm-oil. On the 19th November 1840, Captain Denman landed a body of 100 seamen and 50 Kroomen; took possession of all the warehouses, and afterwards burnt them down with all the goods they contained; he also marched his men on the barra- coons, threw them open, took from them and placed on his own ships 300 slaves, and afterwards destroyed the barracoons by the fire of military rockets. IG spiked several cannons and destroyed other munitions of defence, including many hundred barrels of gunpowder, which had been brought for trade or for defence of M. Buren's property, in the event of native wars, which are frequent in those parts. M. Baron's whole property was destroyed or taken from him, and his trade ruined. The present action, however, was brought for no more than 180,000 dollars of damages, as the courts of this country are not by the comity of nations available to the plaintiff for the restoration of his houses or buildings and other property of an immoveable nature.
The plaintiff's witnesses were Marino Dias, his storekeeper, and Pedro Roma- no, an agent residing at Gallinas; both of whom were examined by interpreters: also some of the English sailors who formed part of the expedition under Captain Denman. The evidence, hammered out by interpretation and cross-examination, was a ludicrous exhibition: the "King Siacca" turned out to be KingJaek, a Mulatto; his authority and that of his chiefs seemed to be of no very imposing kind; and the notions which the lawyers squeezed out of the witnesses, respecting the lex loci in the Gallinas, &c., were of the vaguest and wildest description. The defendant was represented by the Attorney-General, Mr. Godson, Mr. Cockburn, and Mr. Wills. His defence was, that he acted under the directions of his Government, and was further authorized by King Siacca, under a treaty with
him. He also alleged that the actual bur and destruction of the goods was not done by himself or his men, but by King Siacca and his people. He admitted the taking away 900 slaves, among them some 90 of the plaintiff's. The defend- ant's version of the case is this. In the year 1840, Captain Denman was the senior commander of that portion of the British Navy employed off the Gallinas and Sierra Leone in the prevention of the slave-trade. On the 30th October 1840, he received directions from Sir Richard Doherty, the Governor of Sierra Leone, to procure the release of a woman named Try Norma a British subject who had been detained as a slave by Manna, the son of King Siacca: Manna had detained Norman to secure by her ransom a debt owed him by the woman's mistress, who resided at Sierra Leone. Captain Denman was glad to make the instructions given him an opportunity of laying personally before King Siacca some complaints respecting the conduct of the Spa- nish slave-traders in Gallinas to the sailors of a ship of Captain Denman's when in distress. He accordingly landed the force which has been mentioned, and put himself in communication with the King; taking possession, it is true, of the property of M. Buron, but placing sentinels over it for protection. The "Ong being bedridden, he was represented at the interviews by his son Manna and "the family of the Rogers," who are aristocrats of power in Gallinas. A treaty was formed under which King Siacca engaged to de- stroy forthwith all the factories of the White slave-dealers, and give up all the slaves in the barracoons at the time of Captain Denman's landing, but had been carried off into the bush. The treaty had a memorandum at foot stating that Captain Denman had at first required all the goods in the stores of the slave-traders to be destroyed; but that King Siacca having declared that those persons had acted in defiance of the laws and thereby forfeited all their goods, Captain Denman had withdrawn that demand, on condition that the King removed them to some place far from the coast. Try Norman was to be liberated, with some other British subjects found in captivity; and in return for being rid of the Spanish usurpers, the people of Gallinas were to assist the English star, and trade with English merchants. This treaty was immediately and faithfully acted on. The King caused the goods to be removed from all the stores, the slaves to be recovered from the bush, and the barracoons to be destroyed by fire, with the slave-trading establishments of the Spaniards. Captain Denman then departed with the slaves he had liberated, and landed them, free men, at Sierra Leone. The whole of these exploits and services have been acknowledged and rewarded by her Majesty's Ministers since they occurred.
The defendant's witnesses were Colonel Sir Richard Doherty, the Governor of Sierra Leone in 1840; Captain Henry Westley Hill, who commanded the Saracen in Captain Denman's squadron, and accompanied him on the expedition in ques- tion; and Mr. John Owen Evans, second master of the Rolla, also in Captain Den-
man's squadron, who wrote the treaty agreed to by King Siacca. Some African natives from the number of the slaves liberated by Captain Denman, who have been educated at Sierra Leone, were also called. The chief point of the cause seems to have been the question, whether the rati- fication of the acts of Captain Denman, which was fully proved to have since been given by the Queen through her Ministers, was equivalent to an order given Were the acts were done—whether, in fact, the maxim of commercial jurispru- dence, " Omnis rati habitio retrotrahitur,.et individuals, priori sequiparatur," which was well known to apply in cases between individuals, was applicable also between sovereign and servant. Mr. Baron Parke was not himself free from doubt on this point—not enough to allow him to dissent from the other members of the Court; who were of opinion that the ratification here was equivalent to a prior command. The Special Jury, gave a verdict substantially for the defendant Capain Den- man; the Court assisting them to arrange it with reference to the venous issues raised by the numerous pleas.
In the Court of Queen's Bench, on Monday, George Henry Strabolgie Neville Plantagenet Harrison, a Brigadier-General in the Peruvian service, was tried for an assault on Major Richard Leslie Bruce Dundee, late of the Fusileers, and head of the elder branch of the Bruce sept. On some motive connected with young halms whose names are not mentioned, General Harrison went up into the bed- room of Major Dundas and demanded that he should sign a written statement, on his honour as a soldier, that he had not traduced the anonymous ladies. This being refused, the General belaboured the Major with a huge stick as he lay in bed. Harrison was found guilty; and Lord Denman sentenced him to imprison- ment for six months and to find sureties for the peace.
At the Mansionhouse, on Saturday, Lieutenant Peregrine Bowen, RN., who has charge of the mails between Liverpool and Dublin, was accused of forging a will. Lieutenant William Musgrove Bowen, R.N., brother of the prisoner, died in China in March 1846; before leaving England, he made a will, apparently in favour of a Mr. Richards; and when the tidings of his death arrived, this will was proved by the executor, Richards. After a time another will was produced at the Prero- gative Office, purporting to be made by the deceased in China, on the 16th March 1846, and leaving all the testator's property to his brother Peregrine. The will appeared to be attested by "John Bell " and "John Wood." A person calling himself John Wood attended at Doctors' Commons to prove the will, on the 2d instant; and he made affidavit accordingly. The witness was dressed like a sailor, chewed tobacco, and had a great deal of hair on his face—more than Lieutenant Bowen when he appeared at the Mansionhouse. But suspicion having been excited, Policeman Headington followed the sailor from the Will-office, tracked him to the Cross Keys in Wood Street, followed him into an omnibus, got into conversation, and went with him by the railway to Liverpool: there he found the sailor John Wood was Lieutenant Peregrine Bowen. Other witnesses gave evidence implicating the accused. When he was arrested, a piece of paper was found on him upon which some one had been writing repeatedly "John Wood," as if to acquire a facility in making the signature. Lieutenant Bowen was remanded.
At the Guildhall Police-office, on Thursday, a person named Mayhew wascharged with forgery. Mr. C. C. Hall, the son of Mr. Benjamin Hall, a Magistrate living at Paddington, had got into pecuniary difficulties some time ago, and put into circulation a number of bills of exchange, thus raising money at a high rate of interest. Mayhew acted as his agent in getting the bills discount.M. At length Mr. Hall confessed his embarrassments to his father, and that gentleman directed his solicitor to pay all claims against his son. When all the bills had been honoured, others were produced which Mr. Hall had never signed. Meet- ing Mayhew, he spoke to him on the subject. Mayhew confessed that he had forged 51r. Hall's name to two bills, and altered the date of a genuine bill. He is remanded for farther examination.
At Worship Street Police-office, on Saturday, Fitch, toll-collector at the Ilford turnpike, was accused of a strange outrage. On Friday afternoon, on an express- train approaching the Ilford station, a gun was fired at one of the first-class car- riages, and a ball passed through the windows: one window was up, and a round hole was made in the glass; the sash was not up on the opposite side, where the bullet seems to have passed out. Fitch was found in the neighbourhood with a gun in his hand; he said he had been shooting at birds before the train came up. When he was placed before the Magistrate, he protested innocence; and he was remanded, in order that witnesses might be brought from the country to identify him.
A Coroner's Jury has met twice to investigate the circumstances attendant on the death of a lady alleged to be a lunatic, in an asylum at Battersea. " Mrs. Shuttleworth," otherwise Miss Rhodes, an elderly lady, was in the enjoyment of an annuity settled on her by a Mr. Shuttleworth, with whom she had lived before his marriage; in 1846, she was found living in a miserable condition at a house in Pimlico, her only companion being a man calling himself " Dr. Quail," who said that he was paid to attend her professionally. As the woman appeared to be insane, medical men signed a certificate for her removal to York House, Battersea. In the beginning of this year she died there. The body was taken to an undertaker's at Knightsbridge, and was about to be buried "in a white deal box"; but a sister of the deceased, having been informed of the death, in- terfered, and got possession of the body. The gentleman who settled the annuity on Miss Rhodes is dead; and it was stated that Mr. Kay Shuttleworth was the trustee for the payment of the money; the principal coming to him on the death of Miss Rhodes. Mr. Rowlett, the Vicar of St. Peter's Pimlico, who had been called in by Quail, to see the woman stated that Mr. Shuttleworth had told him that he could have nothing to do with placing Miss Rhodes in an asylum, but he hoped Mr. Rowlett would do anything he thought necessary for her comfort. From the testimony yet adduced, (more is to be forthcoming next week,) though there has been some strangeness in the proceedings in this case, there does not appear sufficient cause for the foss that has been made about it.
Last Sunday morning, it was discovered that the Roman Catholic Chapel, Duncan Street, Islington, had been burglarious] y entered, and the silver, cebo- ruins, chalices, patens, &c., used in the service of the mass, the property of the Reverend H. Lee, carried off by the burglars.
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