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MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS FROM LONDON PRINTS.

KENT ASSIZES.

MAIDSTONE. July 29.

Before Lord Kenyon and a Special Jury.

The King v. Sealey and others.

EMBEZZLING NAVAL STORES.

Mr. Serjeant Shepherd stated, that this was a prosecution against three defendants, Isaac Sealy, Joseph Sealy and Henry Harwood, for the offence of having had naval stores in their possession; an offence of considerable magnitude, and therefore punishable by fine and imprisonment, at the discretion of the court. It was a prosecution not founded upon the last act of Parliament, which applied only to naval stores that were not deteriorated by use; the articles the defendants were charged with having secreted had been used, but it was hardly necessary to state that the parties perfectly well knew what it was, and that it was the property of the King. The defendants, he understood, were three fishermen, of Rochester, who had possessed themselves of a cable belonging to one of his Majesty's ships of war. They had cut it off close to the anchor, and when it was discovered in their possession, it was in a state which plainly indicated their intention of secreting it for their own use. He should prove that two officers of the customs observed the defendants getting out of their boat, and suspecting, from their manner, they had something on board which they ought not to have had, took the liberty of searching, and found the cable cut into several pieces. They accordingly seized, and took the defendants into custody. He was happy to assure the jury that it was in contemplation to introduce a bill, early in the next session of Parliament, to render more penal the commission of this sort of offence, and by that means endeavour to put a stop to it.

Richard Turner, an officer of the customs, deposed, that on the 31st of January last, he went, in consequence of an information, with William Webb, an officer, since dead, to Jewell's wharf, in the parish of Gillingham, where he saw the three defendants busy in getting a rope on shore from a boat. They had landed about sixteen or seventeen inches of it. He saw the clinch of a cable lying on the side of the boat; the clinch was that part of the rope which passed through the ring of the anchor. The defendants informed him they picked it up as it was swinging with the tide from the Nore.

The store-keeper of Chatham proved that the cable belonged to the King's stores. He said he understood it had been swinging.

Mr. Serjeant Best and Mr. Gurney addressed the jury on behalf of the defendants.

Lord Kenyon observed, that the offence imputed to the defendants was certainly a very enormous one, for, if he were rightly informed, the public lost annually above half a million by such depredations. The officers deserved the highest praise for detecting them; it was, however, his duty, and that of the jury, to take care that that zeal did not outstrip justice. He was extremely glad to hear that next session of Parliament there would be new laws enacted for the suppression of so dangerous a species of plunder. With regard to the present case, he was bound to say, that the evidence did not bring it within the Act of Parliament.

Mr. Garrow said, it was much to be lamented that persons should be suffered to amass great fortunes by selling naval stores picked up at sea and in the rivers, instead of restoring them, and being contented with a fair and reasonable salvage.

Lord Kenyon observed, that it was an abominable practice, and ought to be put a stop to.

The defendants were acquitted.