VOL. 50.-No. 8.] LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 22, 1824. [Price 6d.

· Published every Saturday Morning, at Seven o'clock.

PROCEEDINGS

AGAINST

SAMUEL E. SKETCHLEY.

Chairman and Treasurer of the
Kensington Road.

vestigation of the affairs of this road.

Those extortions might be deemed not very unnatural in the renters of the tolls; but, when I found that the Chairman of the Trustees, who was also the Trea surer of the road; when I found that he, whom I had summoned as a witness against the extortioners, voluntarily took upon him self to answer for the honest intentions of those extortioners; and when I could get from the toll-renters no promise to refund the money which had been extorted, I resolved on proceedings of some sort, against this head man of the Trustees. In short, I employed Counsel (Mr. BROUGHAM) to move, in the last term, for a rule to show cause why a criminal information should not be filed against this Chairman. The rule was granted, and the following are the Affidavits upon which the application was founded. These affidavits will speak for themselves. They contain a pretty

Kensington, 18th May, 1824. I SHOULD be afraid of wearying my readers with this subject, were 1 not satisfied that every man of sense will see that it is a subject of the greatest importance to us all. I am convinced that the matter will not rest, now, until it be well sifted; and I am convinced, that that sifting will prove to the public, amongst other things, that the gates at Pimlico and at Hyde Park Corner have, for several years past, been wholly unnecessary for any purposes use ful to the public. This discovery will be a very useful one; and, it might not have been made for years yet to come, had not the extortions of last summer and autumn led, by degrees, to an in-good history of the transaction.

P

Printed and Published by C. CLEMENT, No. 183, Fleet-street.

After the affidavits, I shall insert the Acts of that year, intituled, an account of what took place in" An Act for enlarging the term the Court of King's Bench on the" and powers of an Act of His 17th instant, when the question" present Majesty, for repairing was argued before the Judges of" the road from Hyde Park Corthat court. When the public havener to Counter's Bridge, and all this matter before them, they "certain other roads in the county will see the situation in which His" of Middlesex."-That, accordMajesty's subjects are placed with ing to the third section of the said regard to the trustees of roads. Local Act, three-pence was the sum They will see, also, what is ne- to be taken, as toll, at the gates cessary to be done, in order to of the said turnpike road, for a give the public protection against one-horse cart, that is, a cart powers such as trustees, possess. drawn by one horse :-That, by

I have numbered the paragraphs the New General Turnpike Act, of my affidavit, lest I should have chapter 126, of the third year of to refer the reader to particular the reign of King George the parts of it.

AFFIDAVITS.

Fourth, intituled, "An Act to "amend the General Laws now "in being for regulating turn

WILLIAM COBBETT, of" pike roads in that part of Great Kensington, in the County of “Britain called England," it was Middlesex, Esquire, maketh oath, enacted, That from and after the and saith:-. first day of January 1828, the 1. That Samuel Everingham said toll of three-pence should be Sketchley, Esquire, is, and for a raised, with regard to common considerable time has been, the stage one-horse carts, to fourChairman of the Trustees of a cer- pence halfpenny-That (on or tain turnpike road, lying between about the said first day of JaHyde Park Corner and Counter's nuary), the said toll was raised, Bridge, and parts adjacent, in the and was demanded and received parishes of Chelsea and Kensing- by the toll-collectors accordingly: ton, in the county of Middlesex,-That, in the month of July under a Local Act of Parliament, 1823, an Act (chap. 95, of the passed in the fifty-first year of fourth year of the reign of the the reign of King George the present King) was passed, intiThird, being chapter thirteen of tuled, "An Act to explain and

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believes, that, on the said turnpike road alone, a sum greater than thirty pounds sterling a-week was thus overcharged, demanded and received, by the toll-collectors. aforesaid, from the owners, or the drivers, of the said common onehorse carts, in open violation of the aforesaid Act of Parliament, passed in July 1828:-That this deponent believes, that upwards

England;" in which Act it was enacted, That the said toll for every one-horse cart should, for the future, be three-pence, as it had been before the aforesaid first of January 1823:-That, instead of of three hundred and sixty pounds reducing the said toll from four-sterling were, at the gates of the pence halfpenny to three-pence, in aforesaid turnpike road, unjustly obedience to the said Act of July extorted, in manner aforesaid, 1823, the toll-collectors at the from the owners, or drivers, of gates on the aforesaid turnpike one-horse carts. road, continued to demand and receive the toll of four-pence halfpenny, until the 16th day of the month of October 1823, when they desisted in consequence of complaint made against several of them, by this deponent, before the Magistrates at Bow-street.

3. And this deponent further saith:-That, in order to put a stop to such extortion, he, this deponent, went, on the 28th day of September 1823, to the toll-collectors at two of the toll-gates on the said turnpike road, and warned them, that, unless they desisted 2. And this deponent further from their extortions aforesaid, saith-That a large part of the he, this deponent, would complain hay, straw, bricks, stones, lime, against them to the magistrates: and wood, carried upon the said That, on the 13th day of October road, and that a still larger part 1823, he, this deponent, made of the garden-stuff carried into complaint to the Magistrates of Westminster and London along Bow-street against 'several of the the said road, are carried in one-toll-collectors on the said turnpike horse carts:-That this deponent road-That, on the 16th day of lives in the High-street of Ken- October aforesaid, he, this deposington, and that, from the obser-nent, in order to make good his vations which he has made, he aforesaid complaint, appeared bé

fore Sir Richard Birnie, Knight, (attendance as a witness (as deone of His Majesty's Justices of ponent, believes, he, deponent, the Peace, when the hearing of having paid that sum for the purthe complaint was postponed until pose), being summoned and seatthe 20th day of the said month of ed as aforesaid, did, without beOctober:- -That this deponent ing called upon, or asked, or now found, that the tolls of the said appealed to, in any way whatsoturnpike road were rented by one ever, speak from the bench, and Levi (whom this deponent believes say, "I am sure, that Mr. Levi to be a Jew), or by the said Levi" wants nothing but substantial and others :-That the said Levi" justice; but I recommend him appeared before the said Justice" to suspend the taking of the upon this occasion, and, upon the "four-pence halfpenny:"-That postponement of the hearing be- this uncalled-for observation, on ing ordered, the said Levi asked the part of the said Samuel Everthe said Sir Richard Birnie, ingham Sketchley, in behalf of Knight, if he advised him to sus- people who were in the open viopend the demand of four-pencelation of that law which it was his, halfpenny instead of three-pence, the said Samuel Everingham until the hearing and decision Sketchley's peculiar duty to cause should have taken place:-That to be preserved inviolate, did, as the said Sir Richard Birnie ex-it was calculated to do, fill the pressly told the said Levi, that he, mind of this deponent with great the said Sir Richard Birnie, would astonishment. give him, the said Levi, no advice at all: That, the before mention

4. And this deponent further saith:-That, on the 20th day of ed Samuel E. Sketchley, Esq., October 1823, the complaints Chairman of the Trustees afore-aforesaid of this deponent and

said, (who is also a Justice of the Peace), was, at the time last mentioned, sitting on the bench at Bow-street, and that the said Samuel Everingham Sketchley, who had been summoned by this deponent as a witness, and who had received from this deponent's

messenger five shillings for his

other persons against the toll-collectors aforesaid, were heard before Sir Richard Birnie, Knight, at the Police-office at Bow-street :That the said Levi now appeared, in his capacity of lessee, or renter, of the tolls, to answer to the whole of the complaints (being eighteen in number) made against the toll

collectors by this deponent and " before a justice of the peace," others:-That it was admitted, under this Act:-That this depoon the part of the collectors, that nent was greatly surprised when they had taken or demanded, four- he found this passage in the pence halfpenny, and not three- fiftieth section of the said Act:→→ › pence, in the cases complained of; That, at the hearing at Bowbut, they insisted, by their counsel, street, on the aforesaid 16th day that they had a right to take, or of October, the said Levi told the demand, four-pence halfpenny Magistrate, that he, the said Levi, from common stage one-horse was at the House of Commons, carts:-That, after a long and and held conversations there, with patient hearing, the said Sir R. Birnie, Knight, convicted all the parties complained of in the peInalty of forty shillings for each

offence.

Frankland Lewis, Esq., a Member of the House, and that he also held conversations with the Clerk of the House, who was preparing the Bill:-That this deponent

5. And this deponent, on his was astonished at hearing this oath, further saith :-That, though man assert, in so bold a manner, the wrong was thus put a stop that he had thus been consulted, to; though it was prevented from or, at least, talked with, by a being continued to be done; yet, Member of the Honourable the that there was no remedy for the House of Commons, and by the past; no means of getting back drawer of a Bill, on the subject the money which had been ex-of a law affecting so deeply a torted in manner aforesaid :-That large part of His Majesty's subthe said General Turnpike Act of jects:--That the said Levi did the 4th year of King George the Fourth, contains a provision, that "No person or persons, who shall “ask, or take; more than the toll, "shall be prosecuted by indictment "for extortion, or otherwise, nor “shall any other proceeding be "adopted against such person, or "persons, for the offence afore"said, other than by prosecuting the four-pence halfpenny" as the "for the forfeiture and penalty toll on a common one-horse cart.

not say, that it was he who suggested the above - cited provision, which now protects the extortioning toll-collectors against indictment for extortion; but, that he did say, that Mr. Frankland Lewis and the Clerk aforesaid, gave him the most positive assurance, that he might "safely continue to take