CHRONICLE. 



321 



created plain of ground beneath, 

 we conceive it bids fair to be the 

 most favoured spot in England. 



3. A cause of some interest 

 came on at the Suffolk assizes. It 

 was brought by Mr. Smith, who is 

 a protestant dissenter, to recover 

 back the sum of 3d. which he had 

 been obh'ged to pay to Johnson, a 

 toll-keeper of the turnpike gate at 

 Halesworth, for a taxed cart, in 

 which he was going on Sunday to 

 divine worship at a meeting-house 

 at the above place. — The plaintiff 

 claimed an exemption from toll un- 

 der the clause of the statute which 

 gives exemptions to persons going 

 to their proper parochial church, 

 chapel, or other places of public 

 worship. It was intended by both 

 parties, that a case should have 

 been agreed on for the opinion of 

 the court of King's-bench ; but 

 the judge was so decidedly of opi- 

 nion that the plaintifi" was entitled 

 to the exemption that he would 

 allow only a verdict to be taken for 

 him, with liberty for the defendant, 

 if he thought proper, to move the 

 court next term lo have a nonsuit 

 entered. 



It was decided at the late Essex 

 assizes, that no person has a right 

 to glean in any field, unless by per- 

 mission of the occupier. 



Italy. — By an order of a decree 

 of Joachim Napoleon king of the 

 Two Sicilies, most of the religious 

 orders and convents throughout 

 the whole of his dominions are sup- 

 pressed. 



At Rome the consulta has or- 

 dered that from the 1st of October 

 of the present year, the division of 

 time at Rome and throughout the 

 whole Roman territory, shall be 

 the same as in France and other 

 European countries. It is well 



Vol, LI. 



known, that it has hitherto been 

 the custom there to begin to reckon 

 the hours from sunset, and count 

 forward through the whole twenty- 

 four. 



M. Degen, a watch-maker in 

 Vienna, has invented a machine 

 by which a person can rise into the 

 air. He has since made several 

 public experiments, and rose to the 

 height of 54 feet, flying in various 

 directions with the celerity of a 

 bird. A subscription has been 

 opened at Vienna to enable him to 

 prosecute his discoveries. The 

 machine is formed of two para- 

 chutes of taffeta, which may be 

 folded up or extended at pleasure, 

 and the person who moves them is 

 placed in the center. 



At Somerset Assizes, a cause of 

 considerable interest to the proprie- 

 tors of lands adjoining rivers, and 

 also to mid-owners, was tried before 

 Mr. Baron Graham. — Mr. King- 

 lake, the owner of a floor of mea- 

 dows, adjoining a stream of water, 

 brought thisaction against Mr. Nor- 

 man, the proprietor of Grist-mills 

 and silk machinery, worked by such 

 streams ; and the questions were, 

 whether the mill-owner had a right 

 to pond the water higher than its 

 accustomed level, and whether it 

 was not his duly to draw his fenders 

 after heavy rains, to prevent the ad- 

 jacent lands from being flooded ? 



The judge declared, that the oc- 

 cupiers of lands have a right by 

 common law to the natural flow of 

 water through the same, and that 

 any claim in opposition to such 

 rights, must be proved to have been 

 exercised without interruption for 

 at least 20 years. He stated the law 

 on the other question to be, that if 

 a mill-owner, had been in the prac- 

 tice of drawing his fenders to dis- 



Y charge 



