Note 57 — STATEMENT, &c.

The costs of this award are also objectionable, inasmuch as the time occupied was charged, and that exorbitantly too, in the business between Mr. Elsee and the Commissioners; and if they had thrown in the latter award, late and defective, and injurious to Mr. Elsee as it was, there would have been no great sacrifice on their part; the more especially as Mr. Elsee never agreed to the introduction of an umpire, nor agreed to be bound by the decision of any person, except the arbitrators, who were merely requested for an opinion to prevent any altercation between the buyer and seller. And the parties seem rather to have been aware that some objection might be made to paying them, so they prudently contrived to pay themselves, in the following ingenious manner. Mr. Elsee had employed Mr. Peake, at the Michaelmas of that year, to sell his farming stock, and from the produce of the sale Mr. Peake deducted the whole sum, and furnished Mr. Elsee with a receipt. This was another deviation from the award, for it required each pay to half, but then they had no money in hand of Mr. Ellis’s, and the safest way was to make sure of a pay-master. The amount is only large in comparison with the duty; but it deserves notice, as one amongst many proofs that Mr. Elsee’s purse was never to be spared.