280 THE ADVENTURES OF A GENTLEMAN 



out her ballast it was discovered that twenty-two of 

 her futtocks were broken. It was contended that 

 the rule of caveat emptor applied. 



Lord Kenyon : " There are certain moral duties 

 which philosophers have called duties of imperfect 

 obligation, such as benevolence to the poor, and 

 many others, which courts of law do not enforce. 

 But in contracts of all kinds it is of the highest im- 

 portance that courts of law should compel the obser- 

 vance of honesty and good faith." " The terms to 

 which the plaintiff acceded, of taking the ship with 

 all faults, and without warranty, must be understood 

 to relate only to those faults which the plaintiff could 

 have discovered, or which the defendants were not 

 acquainted with." 



But in Baglehole v. Walters, 3 Camp. 154, Lord 

 Ellenborough held that " if a ship be sold with all 

 faults, the seller is not liable to an action in respect 

 of latent defects which he knew of without disclosing 

 at the time of sale, unless he used some artifice to 

 conceal them from the purchaser;" and this case is 

 recognized in Pickering v, Dowson, 4 Taunt. 779 ; 

 also in Dawes v. King, 1 Starkie, 75, it is further 

 held, that the deceit of the defendant must be used 



