252 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1818. 



not worth what Mr. Davenport 

 had offered. 



Mr. Justice Bayley observed, 

 upon the improbability of the 

 case, that a man possessed of 

 such a valuable property, and so 

 insured, should have wilfully con- 

 sumed it by fire, and risked the 

 discovery of a capital offence. 



Mr. Scarlett replied, that that 

 was not a matter of fact, but of 

 reasoning : it was for the jury to 

 draw their own conclusions, and 

 to judge of what presumption of 

 guilt existed. 



Mr. Justice Bayley thought 

 defences of this kind by insurance- 

 offices impolitic, unless stronger 

 grounds of suspicion existed than 

 were yet evident. 



Mr. John Duddel, an oilman, 

 saw the plaintiff at about 11 

 o'clock on the morning of the 

 fire ; they agreed to dine together, 

 and afterwards to go to Wycombe 

 to look at a house the witness 

 had proposed that the plaintiff 

 should take from a Captain Rush. 

 On their way back to town they 

 saw a fire, which they were told 

 was in Wapping ; their informer 

 adding, that it was not so bad as 

 one that had happened at the 

 Bazaar in Fleet-street. The plain- 

 tiflt' was extremely anxious to go 

 to Fleet-street, but the witness 

 prevented him, as it might not be 

 his premises, but another Bazaar 

 in Fleet-street, and if he were 

 wanted he could be sent for. 

 When they afterwards went to 

 Fleet-street, the fire was nearly 

 extinguished. 



The plaintiff's case being closed, 

 Mr. Scarlett addressed the Jury 

 for the defendant, observing upon 

 the painful but imperious duty 

 cast upon fire -assurance offices, 



to resist a claim when there was 

 reason to think that that claim 

 was founded in fraud. The policy 

 of some foreign states prevented 

 the establishment of institutions 

 of the kind, on the supposition 

 that the temptation was often too 

 great to be resisted, and that 

 crimes of the most atrocious 

 nature would be encouraged by 

 those contracts here deemed per- 

 fectly harmless, or perhaps even 

 a useful assistance between man 

 and man. Be it as it might, it 

 was an ascertained fact that in 

 Great Britain, where fo many 

 assurance companies existed, 

 fires were more numerous than 

 in any other part of Europe. He 

 contended that, though at the 

 time the policy was effected, Mr. 

 Mist might have been worth the 

 property insured, yet he had sub- 

 sequently engaged in concerns 

 that had been un prosperous, and 

 his speculations had considerably 

 reduced the amount of the goods 

 on his premises. He was in 

 want of money ; and it was much 

 more to his advantage to obtain 

 3,000/. from the insurance-office, 

 than a comparatively small sum 

 from a purchaser of his concerns. 

 Of course the jury were the fit 

 judges upon the balance of testi- 

 mony ; but he should call wit- 

 nesses, who would show, as he 

 was instructed, that more than 

 suspicion belonged to the case ; 

 and that the probability was, that 

 Mr. Mist himself was the cause 

 of the conflagration ; at least, 

 that he was mainly instrumental ; 

 and that, without his instrumen- 

 tality, it would not have happened. 

 He then put into the box 



Mr. James Lynd, who resides 

 in Fleet-street, opposite the 



plaintiff's 



