STATE OF MICHIGAN.

No. 7.

LEGISLATURE, 1853.

ANNUAL REPORT of the Attorney General.

Lansing, January 1, 1853.

To the Legislature of the State of Michigan:

The undersigned, in obedience to the requirements of law, respectfully submits to the Legislature the following report:

Since the date of my last annual report, the following cases and proceedings have been disposed of:

The case of the People on the relation of Jefferson G. Thurber, Esq., late Speaker of the House of Representatives, against the State Treasurer, was argued and decided against the relator, at the last January term of the Supreme Court. The motion for a mandamus was made with a view to enforce the payment of per diem allowance as member of the House at the late extra session. The decision in this case, settles the construction of that clause of the constitution prescribing the compensation to be paid to the Speaker of the House, and to the President of the Senate. It is perhaps due to Mr. Thurber to state, that upon the rendition of the judgment in this case, the money received by him at the preceding regular session, for services as member, was promptly refunded to the State Treasurer.

A new trial was granted in the case of the People against Richard

Smith, who had been convicted in the Washtenaw Circuit, on an indictment for having in his possession counterfeit bills, with intent to pass the same, and who had been sentenced to three years imprisonment, in the State prison. The case was brought before the Supreme Court, by writ of error, and was argued and decided at the January term.

An information in the nature of a writ of quo-warranto, was filed by leave of the Court, at the January term, against the Mayor, Recorder and Aldermen of the City of Detroit, to inquire by what authority the corporation granted licenses for the sale of ardent spirits. After argument by counsel, the case was decided against the respondents, and judgment of ouster ordered by the Court.

In the month of June last, I assisted at the trial of Gabriel Lappan, who stood indicted in the Wayne Circuit Court for the murder of his wife, by poisoning, at Detroit, in the month of July of the preceding year. The case was one of great atrocity, and awakened accordingly an unusual degree of interest in the result of the trial. The prisoner was convicted of murder in the first degree, and the sentence of the law was pronounced against him.

At the July term of the Supreme Court, I appeared by the request of the State Treasurer, to oppose two motions made on the relation of certain agents and attorneys of the Metropolitan Bank, of New York City, for writs of Mandamus, to compel the Treasurer to advertise, that the notes of the Government Stock Bank would be redeemed, in pursuance of the provisions of its charter, at the office of said Treasurer. The motions were opposed on the ground there had been no refusal on the part of that officer. The motions for writs of Mandamus, however, prevailed; but before the execution of the mandate of the Court, an order was obtained on behalf of the Government Stock Bank, upon a bill filed for that purpose, by its attorneys, staying all further proceedings.

The suit pending against the Macomb County Bank, referred to in my last report, has not yet been decided. The appeal was taken in that case, with the view, chiefly, to prevent as far as practicable the adjudication of the Court of Chancery from becoming a bar to further proceedings. The case had been argued and submitted by my predecessor, upon the pleadings alone. No proof had been taken in support of the allegations of the bill, nearly all of which had been