APPENDIX TO CHRONICLE. 



291 



liament why he had extended this 

 particular privilege to this indi- 

 vidual. It was certainly con- 

 trary to the general policy of the 

 law, and he could not in justice 

 to the King's subjects affix the 

 great seal to it merely because it 

 was a manufacture which other 

 countries had in common with 

 this. 



Court of King's Bench, Monday, 

 Dec. 9 — Special Juries. — Philip 

 Hill, V. Gray, Esq. — This was an 

 action for a breach of contract, 

 in the purchase of a picture which 

 the defendant had agreed to buy 

 from the plaintiff for the simi of 

 1,0501. 



The Attorney-General ob- 

 served, that his client, the plain- 

 tiff, was a person of the highest 

 respectabdity, as he was war- 

 ranted in saying, from the esti- 

 mation in which he was held by 

 persons of rank and character 

 with whom he had had transac- 

 tions similar to that now before 

 the Court. Tlie defendant was 

 one of those wealthy merchants 

 in which this kingdom abounded, 

 who, having acquired a large for- 

 tune, devoted a portion to the 

 encouragement of the arts. He 

 had been a considerable buyer of 

 paintings, and through the agency 

 of a Mr. Butt, a common friend 

 of the plaintiff and the defendant, 

 he had entered into a contract for 

 the piu'chase of a most beautiful 

 and valuable picture, l)y Claude 

 Loraine, which the eminent and 

 venerable President of the Royal 

 Academy had pronounced not only 

 genuine, but one of the finest of 

 the productions of that exquisite 

 master. \Vith such an authority 

 in ite favour, it was wholly un- 



necessary (as, indeed, he was in- 

 competent) to dilate upon the 

 merits of this picture : Mr. West 

 himself (whose time the learned 

 Counsel regretted he should oc- 

 cupy, while he was engaged upon 

 a great work as an altar-piece to 

 Marylebone-chiuch) would be 

 called as a witness, as well as Sir 

 Thomas Lawrence, at whose 

 house the Claude had been depo- 

 sited, and other artists of the first 

 rank in this or any other country, 

 who would all depose to the ge- 

 nuineness and incomparable ex- 

 cellence of the piece. It wa« 

 bought by the plaintiff at the sale 

 of Mr. Hope's pictures : the price 

 given by liim was no more them 

 ml., for the learned Counsel 

 had no secrets to keep. Mr. Hill 

 had diawn, as it were, a prize 

 in the lottery : when he bought 

 it, it might be a good or it might 

 be a bad pictme, and he took his 

 chance ; having employed his skill 

 upon it, removed the dirt, and 

 remedied the injuries of time, he 

 found that it was of greater 

 value, and on that account he 

 had sold it to the defendant for 

 1000 guineas. This was no unu- 

 sual circumstance ; nobody sup- 

 posed that the two Claudes be- 

 longing to Mr. Angerstein, now 

 prized at 8,000 guineas, had not 

 been frequently sold before they 

 came to that gentleman's hands 

 at an infinitely less sum. Mr. Butt, 

 the mutual friend of the parties, 

 had seen Mr. Hills Claude, and, 

 admiring it of course, he advised 

 Mr. Gray to buy it, and after a 

 sliort intercourse, in which it was 

 wananted to be a Claude, Mr. 

 Gray became the buyer at the 

 sum stated, and an early day was 

 fixed for the payment. In the 

 U 3 mean 



