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116] ANNUAL REGISTER
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father lay under the same predicament."
9th. Came on in the Court of King's-Bench, before Lord Mansfield and a special jury, a cause on an action for false imprisonment, against a sheriff's officer. It appeared that the officer, after bail had been accepted, and a bond entered into, refused to release the plaintiff from his confinement, and in the end prevailed on one of the bail to tear his name off the bond, because the prisoner refused to pay for certain enumerated articles, which he never had. The jury, without going out of court, found a verdict for the plaintiff, with costs and 20l. damages. The chief justice was clearly of opinion, that an action would always lie in every instance where an officer offered to detain his prisoner, after bail had been accepted of and legally given; for however just the officer's demand may be, he must seek a remedy according to law, not by compulsion or extortion.
12th. The Venetian ambassador has made a formal demand of the goods imported under his auspices, and since seized by a special order of the treasury-board. But his excellency was peremptorily told, that, as his Britannic majesty would countenance no infringements of the Venetian laws in his minister at Venice, so would he not suffer the minister of that republic to violate with impunity the laws of Great-Britain. And also,that his majesty meant this resolution to extend to all his servants, in every foreign court, and to the ministers of every power now or hereafter resident here.
14th There was a very remarkable instance of the inefficacy and disproportion of our penal laws: two persons were whipped round Covent-Garden pursuant to sentence; the one for stealing a bunch of radishes, which nature might have impelled him to do; the other for debauching and polluting his own niece, a crime that nature revolts at.
A cause came on in the Court of King's-Bench, before Lord Mansfield and a special jury, on the statute of usury, wherein the king and Beaumont was plaintiff, and an eminent colour-man defendant; when it appearing the plaintiff had borrowed of the defendant 200l. damages.
On Sunday the 12th instant, sailed down the river, Mr. Banks, Dr. Solander, Dr. Lind, and Mr. Truil (a gentleman well acquainted with the northern languages and antiquities) on their voyage round the west of Ireland, Scotland, with its isles, and Iceland. They have carried every thing that can give them assistance in examining the natural history of these countries, with that of the seas surrounding them.
They write from Hanover, that the Hereditary Princess of Brunswick has been at Goerde, accompanied, contrary to expectation, by the hereditary prince her husband, which is looked upon as a convincing proof, that a perfect harmony subsists between these two illustrious personages. They staid four days with Queen Caroline Matilda of Denmark, who was overjoyed to see her sister. It is since reported, that the queen may possibly soon make a tour to Burnswick.
A cause was tried in the Court
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For the YEAR 1772. [117
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of King's-Bench, in which the landlord of the house, from which Lady Mayo's bank notes, &c. were stolen, was plaintiff, in an action for false imprisonment, having been taken up on suspicion of being privy to the robbery, and confined for near five weeks, when his innocence appeared by the detection of the thief, his conviction, and execution. The jury gave a verdict for the plaintiff, and 200l. damages.
16th. His majesty's ship Bonetta arrived express from Admiral Montague, with the following disagreeable intelligence: "That he had stationed the Gaspee schooner, Lieutenant Dudingston, at Providence, in Rhode-Island, to protect the trade, and prevent the excess of smuggling that constantly prevails at that place; and which, by the particular activity of the officer, was so effectually done, that the people were detetmined to remove the restraint. Accordingly, at midnight, about two hundred armed men in eight boats boarded the schooner, wounded the lieutenant, took all people out of the vessel, and then burnt her."
A motion was made before the barons of the Exchequer, in Serjeant's-Inn-Hall, on behalf of the Assignees of Messrs. Neal, James, Fordyce, and Down, for leave to pay into the bank 30,000l. the amount of the extents on Fordyce's estates, as a security for the crown till the legality of the extents are determined, which was accordingly granted, and the extents are to be withdrawn.
The coroner's inquest sat on the body of a young waterman, who having struck his sister in a violent passion under the eye, was suddenly seized with contrition, and in-
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stantly stabbed himself. The jury brought in their verdict lunacy.
The sessions ended at the 18th.
Old-Bailey. At this sessions ten were capitally convicted, thirty-three received sentence of transportation for seven years, and two for fourteen years.
Among those capitally convicted, was an officer in the train of artillery, charged with committing an unnatural crime.
Came on in the Court of King's-Bench, before Lord Mansfield and a special jury, a criminal prosecution at the suit of the crown, in behalf of a pretended lunatic, against the keeper of a private madhouse, and others. The trial lasted from nine o'clock in the morning, till past four in the afternoon, when the jury, without leaving the court, found the defendants guilty, and acquitted the servant. The court is to pronounce judgment early next term. The following advertisement appeared in the St. James's Chronicle.
"Wanted immediately, fifteen hundred, or two thousand pounds, by a person not worth a groat, who having neither house, land, annuities, or public funds, can offer no other security, than that of simple bond, bearing simple interest, and engaging the repayment of the sum borrowed, in five, six, or seven years, as may be agreed upon by the parties.
Whoever this may suit (for it is hoped it will suit somebody) by directing a line for A. Z. in Rochester, shall be immediately replied to, or waited on, as may appear necessary."
The following is an inscription on an elegant entablature of brass, with a marble border highly polished, just put up at the head of
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