48 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1812. 



mind was impressed. What the 

 baron has been doing since we can- 

 not exactly say, but he has done 

 enough to get himself sent out of 

 the country. It is said that he al- 

 leges he had proposed to engage 

 24,000 Croat troops in the service 

 of England, a proposal which he 

 pretends to have considered as fa- 

 vourably received by our ministers 

 abroad, because they (Mr. Bath- 

 urst, general Oakes, and Mr. 

 Henry Wellesley, to whom he ap- 

 peals) did not hesitate granting 

 him passports, to enable him to 

 come to England, to submit his 

 plan ; and tor this service his 

 charges were — Journey from Lon- 

 don to Cadiz, 250/. ; establish- 

 ment in London, 22 months, at 

 200/. per month, ■i.lOO/. ; return 

 to Hungary, 700/. — total 5,350/. 

 The baron, it seems, while the of- 

 ficers were besieging his castle, 

 told them he had two hundred 

 pounds of gunpowder in his house, 

 and, if they persevered, he would 

 blow up himself and that toge- 

 ther; but finding them not inti- 

 midated, he surrendered. The ba- 

 ron, it is reported, has had uncom- 

 mon success in certain gaming- 

 houses. He is now at Harwich, on 

 his way to the continent. He is 

 said to be a German Jew, who 

 having married the widow of an 

 Hungarian baron, assumed the 

 title by which he has passed. 



7. A singular circumstance is 

 stated in the case of Wyatt, of 

 Fowey, convicted of the murder of 

 Valentine, the J. w. The prisoner 

 was brought up to receive sentence 

 on Thursday, and Mr. Justice 

 Chambre, supposing it to be Fri- 

 day, sentenced him to be executed 

 on the Monday. The act of par- 

 liament enacts, that persons con- 

 victed of murder shall be executed 



within 48 hours after their con- 

 viction ; they are therefore gene- 

 rally tried on the Friday, in order 

 that they may have the benefit of 

 Sunday, which is a dies non. The 

 sentence, however, not being con- 

 formable to law, as it allowed a 

 longer period than 48 hours be- 

 tween the conviction and execution, 

 the prisoner was brought up again 

 on Friday, and sentenced to be 

 executed on Saturday. The exe- 

 cution was respited till the 1st of 

 May, and the opinion of the judges 

 is to be taken respecting the lega- 

 lity of the sentence. 



8. Kins'' s Bencli Court. — An ac- 

 tion was brought by an upholsterer 

 in Sloane-square, against a gentle- 

 man of fortune, who married a sis- 

 ter of lord Pomfret, and resided in 

 Suffolk, to recover the sura of 

 554/. 12s. Id. disputed as a sur. 

 charge upon the bill for furnishing 

 the defendant's house. The amount 

 of the whole bill was 2,404/. which 

 had been reduced by payments on 

 account to 1,351/. 12*. 7f/. ; and 

 800/. more having been paid into 

 court. The principal debateable 

 article was the charge of 700/. for 

 a bed, which, according to the 

 statement of Mr. Garrow for the 

 plaintiff, was made in the most ex- 

 pensive manner, after a drawing 

 supported and ornamented with 

 griffins, eagles, cherubim. and doves, 

 a gold sun with beaming rays at 

 the head of it, and the silk manu- 

 factured according to the defend- 

 ant's own pattern. Mr. Garrow 

 stated the profits which accrued to 

 the plaintiff upon this bed to be 

 little more than 100/. and that the 

 plaintiff was anxious, for the sake 

 of his reputation, for a verdict, 

 upon the evidence of the uphol- 

 sterers whom he should call, and 

 who would speak to the fairness of 



the 



