The National Register. — London, England, 1817-07-21 00:00:00

LAW INTELLIGENCE. COURT OF Cu %ti cElt V, Jci.y IT. cohicoaDANce.—stAwm %S D OTHERS t. OR ACIE AND Sir Arthur Piggist moved that the injunction granted by bis Honour the V.ce Chaneellor iu this care should be dassolv• ed. A oill hail been tiled by the emit( holy of Imol,sellers in London, against the defendant, a bookseller and printer, at Berwick-upon-Tweed, to restrain Min font pnolishing avai. called Criadeit's Concordanea." The question was, whether the defendant made a piracy of the former work In Isla a Mr„ Rye hail iitaPle some alterations in the wort:, which he sold to Mr. Nlawinan for 13 il. 9s. among V..ese Were 3.11 correelinna of punctuations, in nine?' the corrector seemed to have had Innen refinement, as lie had discharged tile colons 41111 SC all Caltaa. ; but AS he was paid only the tri• thing sniff Of 11. Is. per sheet, hit labours could hardly he sup posed to constitute a copy-right. tae Lord Clatot•e:lor—" Let me say, Sir Arthur, had been employed al such it rate, I would goon have come to is I , rdship 11..14 tltnt e piracy from a piracy, was the same as if the piracy complainea of, was from the original wink. This is an injunction granted tutu au es-pat le application trout the Vice-Chancellor, without much discus sion whetlwr the plaintiffs had a cupy-erright Or lout, they mist establish that point in a Court of Law before they come bere„—lnjonction dissolved. DISSENTERS.-MALNDER AND STEWART P. !PARSON AND OTHERS. The Lord Chatiet'llor observed, that this was an iuforma firm filed by' the Attorney General, at the snit of the against the defendants, who were the trustees of Disseetieg (Impel, at W OIVC Ohl MI toll. He sail, perhaps there never was a question of lame importance to the His. aentiug interest, as It involved some most material points as to the Toh•ration Art, the Scots Parliament, and the Art of the 9111 of King William. The defendants were cherged with creating n trust for themselves, which was contra!•y to the intention of the founder of the chapel. The question for kiln to decide was, whether a snm of money, left to a Dis nenting body, in 1771, was intended to enable them to perse "vete in I.llloAliAll principles. which wi•rc at that time con trary to law. The plaintedi say, that in 17h3 some of the congregation were Trinitarians and others not, and that the fund was appropriated for the preaching the word of God, as Dissenters from the Proteshot religion, and tel those of Unitarians. He would send it to the Master to report whe ther it was the intention of the donor that the tenets ationtd be Unitarian, and that in the mean time Mr. Stewart shotrid be allowed to act as the officiating Minister. The Master at these= time might point out who was the proper pr.rson to officiate as the trustee. —Referred to the Master. COURT 01? KING'S BENCH, GUILDHALL, JULY 17. CRIM CON.-IN A 1.11112 D 11. STAINES. This was an action broit4lit by Richard Milford, jun. Esq. against Capt. Sir Thos. Staines, to recover from the defnd ant a compensation in damages for criminal conversation with the plaintiff's . . Mr. Searlett stated the ease.—The plaintiff in this case, an.' the defendant, were near relations. They . were the suns of children of the same parents. They had been brought np fro n their infancy in !Wilts of the strictest friendship and conlidNlCe—they bad been amiched to each other as bro. thers—and he could answer, at least, for the gentleman whom he represented, that be worth] as soon have suspected his own brother of injuring him as the defendient. The pine's.. tiff was a hawker :it Canterbury. of great respectability, and of competent fm - tiow. Jo 189;, he married the lady whose couduct was now the subject of investi4ation. She was a beautiful and accomplished woman—his equal in birth and etatian--aml possessing fortune and 111.11111VES that rendered her an nl. ct of desire to any man that might possess her.— Tlu: dettudanf ' Sir Thos. Staines, Si/Jii an officer iii his Ma jesty's Nosy. He ccenpied a farm of considerable size, ne..r Margate, called Dandelion. During the defendant's em ptily merit in the service of the Nary, the plaintiff was trusted with the cure .of the farm, which be used to treat as his own home. The defendant,when disengaged, was in the habit of visithic him dining the winter, at Canterbury, and the plain tiff and Its family, in return, passed a ',maim' of the sum mer at Dandelion. lie would prove that the acted towards his lady like a man of honour and of feeling. He thought she was to be trusted. And if she walked with his friend and relative on the Pier at Margate, he conceived she was as sale as if she were walking wilt himtelf. Ile be lieved it would be said (and vet lie could scarcely credit it), that liberties were taken with Mrs. Milford, in the presence of her Inishaml, whirl ought to have alarmed biin--but be would rebut the accusation. It might be said. that the de fendant was a poor man. Perhaps he was so. If the amount of loss sustained by the plaintiff could be put down in ' , minds, shillings, and pchee, could it be said that the plaintiff night not to Lave a verdict for the WI sum, becanse the deft Intent could not pay it? His Lordship would doeet them ditfer ently. Hu would say, " the injury is proved, and it is for the defendant to make the necessary reparation."—There was one child, the ft nit of this marriage, of an age whirl', he Loped, prevented the possibility of doubt with respect to the purity of it, birth. The it. v. IV. Tourney was then called. He stated that he married the plaintiff and his lady about twelve years ago.— She was a neice of his. hi answer to questions on the subject of line attention not having been paid to Mrs. Ha!foril by the plaintiff, witness said--" I conceive the state of matintiony to be a serious thing. At table, I have •foriniy seen improper couditet On 11001 sidt a. I very seldom RAW the linsbami walking with the s wife,.luit slue was frequently walling with other people. I ;Wight it the husband's duty to walk with the wife. I have seen her walking with Captain Staines and other gen tleinen, but not with her luissban.l. I recollect Mr. Steven son driving her often ; un oae occasion they proceeded from my house to Dover, which is eight unites fartlicr. Mr. Ste venson was an old lover of the lady, 'befo:e she married [lei prcsr•nt husband. Lord Ellenborough—" You had better examine to some thing else. In the ordinary course of ‘life it is common fur friends and relations to mingle dins together. We 'mist be iu 'flukey, if suspicion and jealousy grow from such an in tercourse. Mr. John Baker, one of the members f.r Cinterbors•- " inn what I litiVe Seem of lhelti, I should suppese they were the tarot happy couple that eouid be. She is a pleasant woman, with sera personal attrac jOll3 and accomplish /mots." Other witnesses corrobnrstrA Mr. Baker's lectirnony. Kiss Ssrah Halfortl—" lam limit In the p!aintitt . . Ikhont ekg cute of June, Ibl6, i beard something to tier (lima- TITS NATION.% REGISTER. varitaze. I know Nlrs Steae,rt, the sister of the defendant The discovery was toady to Jr. Illa:f9,11 :about the month of. January in the present year. I W.V. prest tit at a nteenug held in consequenee of that (tierce( ry. Nlatgaret Stewart —`• I ion the sister of Sir T..Y.taines, and first cousin to the !plaintiff. I have been all my life living at Daudelion, nveept for 'lett years, when I was with my husband.. I recoil% tit Mr. Halloril and his wife coming in the spring of last year to visit Dandelion, Up to that pe riod I never suspected that there was any thing improper in the conduct of Macs Halford. Dalidelion k an old rambling farmhouse. Aly brother', bed room is situated at one end of it, nod there is a sta:rcase conu nonicating between it am! the lower floor, which leads to a landieg place. Into that landing place, three hell rooms open. I teineiulter, on the plaintiff's last visit, ening to bed one intoning a limit one o'clock. Soon after I heard snow one distinctly walk down the stairs, and open the door, at the bottom of the flight, which was bolted. Fearing that some improper persons were in the house, I went to my itrother's room to inferin him, but discovered that he was not in bed. Ali Isis dress, which lie had wuru in the day, a:11 there, but his cireesitig gown and SliimerA were gone. There was no person in the house, to tr.: knowledge or belief, that could has e gone down bin him. Al ent four o'clock in the mumble, I heard some person go lip Blahs in the diteetion of lily brothel's room. The next week I observed the same noise oil the stairs, and heard the door unbolted. ry Roth. was with me. On hi trine the no'se we went to the double door leading into Mrs. Halfold's room, and having previously left part of the door open, we could hear distinctly what mused in Mrs. Halford's bed-room. We heard somebody come into the room softly, and go to the bed. There is bat roe bed in the room. I heard the %Aid vering of voice.: sufficient to assure me that my brother and Mrs. lialtind acre ni bell ing1.1111.1% litSfilre I evened to bed I again went into his room, and foetid lie was not there. His ordinary dies* was in the room—but his dressing gown anti slippers were gniir. tfn subsequent nights I heard the same noise ut . o person going doe n stairs, nod wirer. I 441, I okras s went to my brother's town, from which he was regularly ab sent. 1 first made the discovery in April, and, :theta fortnight or three weeks afterwards, I mentioned it to Mr. and Mrs. Cramp, who resided near Dandelion. and were nty intimate friends. I went to them for advice to know how I should act. In January last, I was present when a meeting took place at Canter bnry, at which the friends of all parties were present. I then stated what I have done this day. After the disco very I took more notice of the coniloct of Mts. Milford and the defendant than I did before, and observed that a very strong partiality exineel between them. Oil one occnsion, having returned unexpectedly to the room where they were sitting, I found Mrs. Halford plaeo4 on my brother's knee. This witness miderat itt a long cross•examilmtion bt Mr. Si rjeant in the course et it, she denied that she frail, iu conselnence of a quarrel, given up the superintendence of her brother's house. Her brother wrote her a letter, before the month of January, stating that he did not wish her to continue in the situation —but, till the moment she received it, she had no ides of his intention. Lord Ellent:ram:4h expressed his gvniirise that a well row ducted 140111i111 should, when she had made such a discovery, in the month of April, have retrained Iron' giving notice of it to the person , ' interested. At all events, she should have withdrawn from the honse. Witness said, she wished to hase . spoken to her brother on the Athject— hot he was so hasty that she was arraid. Mary Rolfe had lived three years in the service of Sir T. Staines. She recollected, in the moan!: of April, accompa nying Mrs. Stewart to the double doors leading to Mrs. Ha ford's apartment. She heard some person go into it, and also noticed a whispering, too rte count not say who the pergons were. She made Mrs. lialford's bed the morning after she heard the whisptrin, and thought there was a larger mark in it than could be made by one person. The case fur the 4rroserution closed here. Mr. Scrjeant Best addressed the dory, for the defendant. He animadverted with peat severity on the conduct of Mrs. Steuart, and contended that she isvtedl from malicious mo tives, in consequence of her lo whir having dismissed her from his house. The Learned Gentleman called on the Jury, should they a verdict for the Plaintiff, not to grant vin tive damages, ; I wa.ca 111 ; .1:" ac his client was by no anemia a wealthy man, sista bins tip in prism] for the space of ten years, and thus prevent him trout ser sing hine.elf, and, what was of more importance, from serving his cumin y. Lord Elientsurough simuneil up the evidence—and the Jury, after a short consideration, returned a verdict fur the Plaintiff—Damages, I,o:ol.—Costs, 40s. COURT OF COMMON PLEAS, DUBLIN, Jtzx 9. HCFORE LORD NOIBUkY AND A SPECIAL JIIRY. CON.--frnowxr: V. BLAKE. Mr. Tro!well Walsh opened the pleadings. in which the damages were laid at 30,0001. Mr. Phillips stated the plaintiff's case with his useal ability, and addressed the .lury as follows MY LOUD AND GENTLEMEX—I new instructed by the plain tiff to hey this case before you, and little do I wonder at the great interest which it seems to have excited. It is one of those cases whico come home to the „ business and loosen's" of mankind; it is not confined to the individuals concerned ; it visits every circle from the highest to the lowest ; it alanns the very heart of the community, and commands the whole social family to the spot, where human nature, prostrated at the bar of justice, calls aloud for pity and protectien ! "Cln my first addressing a Jury spun a wilijeet of this nature, I took the high ground to which I deemed myself entitled ; I stood upon the purity of the national character ; I relied upon that care. thy which centuries had mule proverbial, and almost drowned the ety of individual sultioing in the violated reputation of the country. Ifuroblol and abashed I must resign the topie--intligaution at the novelty of the offence, has given way to horror at the frequency of its repetition—it is now becoming almost fashionable amongst are importing the follies, and neutralizing the ricer of the Continent. tiercely a Tenn passes in Mese Courts, during which sane unabaslicd athilterer or seducer, does not announce himself, improsing on the effousness of his offethie, by the profligacy of his justifie2tion, and, as it were, struggling to record, by eri.nes, tde desolating progress of Our barb3lTlllKCiliti4.ltiro. Gmtlernen, if this be suffered to continue , . what home shall be safe ? what hearth shall be tiered ? what parent can fora moment calculate on the pofrei..i.m of his child ? what child shall be secure agaiost the orphanage that springs from pro:titution ; what soli•ary right, whether of life, or liberty, or property in the land, shall survive sonom, , st us, if that hollowed cou c h whi c h mo d esty ha: vs told love endeared. and religion tonsecrated, is to be M- I valid by a vulgar and prmni-curnis libertinisro ? A time there was when that couch was inviolehle in Ireland; when :anjugal infidelity was deemed but an invention—when marriage was considered as a sacrament of the heart, and faith and affection sent a mingled flame together from the altar ! Are such nines to dwindle into a legend of t:atlition ? Are the dearest rights of man, and the holiest ordinances of Coil, no more to be respected ? Is the marriage vow to become the prelude to perjury and pmoitution ? Shall our enjoyments debate themselves Imo an adulterous participation, and our children propa gate an inccztuou.r comatunity ? Hear the cue whitt 1 am flact: to J tit V 21. unfold, and then tell MC whether that endearing confidence, by winch the bitterness of this life is sveetened, Li to b 'Arlie the instru of a paddy beyunil conception; and whether the protertion of then) )f, the frateruity of Lie board. the obligation ; a the alue, and the d-votion of the heart, are to be :u many pander. to the hellish abominations they should have purbiel ! II ear the case irrsich muse go forth to the world, but wim 1, I net tin (Jo I, your vs:Mil will ccompany, to tell that world, t it' there was Vl‘7o enough amongst us to commit the crime, there is virtu enough to br.uiti it with an indignaut punishment. •• Of the plaintiff, Mr. Browne, it is (pike impossible but you must have heard 'noel); his anefortune has given him a sad celebrity, and it docs seem a weithar incident to such misfortune that the loss of happiness is almost invariably succeeded by the deprivation of cha racter. As the less guilty murderer will hide the curse that may lead to his dctection, so does the adulterer, by obscuring the reputation of his tictim, seek to diminish the moral responsibility lie has incurred. Mr. 3rowne, undoubtedly, forms no exceptera to this system; be trayed by ins friend and abandoned by his wife, hi: too generous con fidence, his too tender love have been slanderoody perverted into the sources . i his calamity; because he could not tyrannise over her whom he adored, he WAS careless; because he could no suspect him in whom he trusted, lie was carries.; and crime, in the infatuation of its cun ning, founds its justification evert on the virtues of its victim ! I am not deterred by the prejudice thus cruelly excited ; I aped from the gossiping credulity tit scandal to the grave decisions of father:; and of husbands; and I implore of you, as you value the blessings of your home, nut to comitenatice the calumny which solicits a precetlent to excuse the spoliation. At the close of the year Mo 11. the death of my client's Esther gave him the inheritanee of an ample fortune. 01' all the joys his prosperity creat.d. there wet none but yielded to the ovary of sharing it with her lie loved, the daughter of his fu. then ancient friend, the respectable proprietor of Oran Casde. She was then in the very spring of life, and never did the Sun of !leaven unfold a lovelier blo.isom-s-her look vet.: beauty and her breath was fragrance—the eye that saw her canglit a teste front the vision —and ail the virtues seemed to linger round her, like WI many s; odess spirits enamoured of her loveliness. Yes, rho was good as she was fair, None, none on earth above her ; As pure in dueight a.. angels are, o see her was to love her. What 'years of ton g ueless transport might not her happy husband have anticipated %%lig erre addition could her beauties, gain to render them all perfect ! In the counubial rapture there was only one, and she was bles , eil with it.—A lovely family of infant children gave her the consecrated name of mother, end with it all that I leaven can give of interest to this worthlessnes,. Can the mind imagine a more delightful vision doom that of such a mother, thus young, thus lovely, thus beloved, blessing a husband's heart. basking in a world's smile ; awl while she breathed into her little ones the moral life, shesing them that, robed in all the light of beauty, it was still possible far their virtues to cast it into the shade. Year after year of happiness rolled on, and every year but added to their love a pledge to make it happier than the tanner. Without ambition but her husband's love, without one object but her children's happiness, this lovely woman circled in her orbit, all brig!it, 411 humorous in the prosporous hour, and it' that hour c'er daikeeed, only beaming the brighter and the lovelier. What human kind could mur so pure a picture! What punishment (60141 adequately visit its violation ! Oh, happy love, where lore like this ii found!' 04, heart-tilt minim! beyond compare ! it was indeed the sunnier of their lives, and with it came the swarm of saramer frisnds, that revel in the sumhins. of tile hour, and vanish with its splendour High and honoured in that crowd, most Kay, mod chenslied, most professing. stood the d. fentlant Mr. Blake. Ile was the plaintiff's dearest, fondsst fti. nel ; to every pleasure calleelsain every case con.atluu—his day's companion and ovening'sguestasehis constant, truded. sesom cositeatit--aial tinder vise of alt, Oh, hurnsn suture ! ha had iii, fellest, deaillisst, final enemy l Here, on the tuthensiy of t'sis Intel. do I arraign hint of having wound himself it. .thy slisnt's intimacy—of having en couraged that intimacy into file:As-4,-0f having edam rf tied a sympathy in his Joys and in his sorrows—and whien 40./11 d too pure even rm. scepticism to doubt hint. or basin s , midst t. e very sanctity of his roof, perpetrated an adultsry the most anarecedentsd and perfidious! If this be true, can the world's wealth defrey the penalty of such turpitude ? Mr. Browne, gentleinon. was a man of fortune, he had no profenion, was ignoruit of every agricultural pursuit, and unfortunstely adopting tile advice of his Either-in-law, lie eu!tivated the amusements of the Curragh. I say untOstunattly for his own attars, and by no means in reference to the pursuit itself. It is not for rte to libel an occupetiun which the highest and noblest. and most illustrious threughnut the empire, countenance by their adoption ; which fashion and virtue grave by their attendance, and in which Peers. and Legislators, and Princess are not ashhamsd to appear conspicuous, But if the mar:44y that countenances it be doubtful, by what epithet ,hall we designate tiiat which woold make it an apology foe the most profligate of ortinices ? Paten if Air. Browne s pursuits were ever sei erroneous, was it for his bosons f r i e nd to to take advantage of them to nun him ? On this subject, it is sufficient for me to rentaik that under no cir cumstance of prosperity or vicisitude was their connubial happiness ever even remotely clouded. In fact the plaintiff Mire gained even the aniteeitients ILA deprived hint of her society. lie took u hone: for her in the visinity of Kildare, furnised it with all that luxury could require, and arturiled her the greatest of all luxuries, that of enjoying and enhancing the most prodigial Ohl:- tiers From the hour of their tuarriase, up to the unfortunate dis covery, they lived on terms of the utmost tenderness ; not a mord, except one of love ; not an act, except of mutual endearment, nabbed between them. Now, gentlemen, if this be proved to you r here I take my stand, and I say tinder no earthly circumstances, lain a justi iication of the adulterer beathiced.—No matter ts it h what delinquent sesphigry he 'tiny blaspheme through its palliation ; Cod ordained', nature consented, happiness consecrated that celestial union ; and it is com plicated , treason against God and moan. and society, to intend its vioation. The social compact through every fibre trembles at its consequences ; not only policy but law s not only law but nature, net only nature but religion, deprecate and denounce it • parent and offs:l ins, youth and age ; the dead from th e i r t om b s , die child from its eradhe ; creatures scarce alive. and creatures still unborn ; the grandsire shivering on the verge of death. the infant quickening in the mother's wumn ; all with one assent, re-echo God, and execrate adultsty ! I say, then, where it is once proved that husband and wife live together in a state of lieppiress, tin contingency on which the sun can shine, can warrant any man in attempting their separation. Did they so? That i« imperatively . your first consideration. only hope that all the beasts religion pined together. may hats en joyeal the h a ppines s that th e y Md. Their married state was one continued honevnioon • and if every cloud rose to dim it, before love's sigh it fled and . left its orb the brighter. Prosperous and wealthy, fortune had no charms for Mr. Browne, but as it blessed the object of his afLetions. She made success delightlnl ; she gave his wealth its value. The most sVenclid equipa n ses; the most easily Nannies; the richest retinue l all ti nt vanity could invent toe:task—all that allbetion could devise to gratify, were her'sSand thought too vile for her enjoyment. Great as his fortune ins, his love outshone it. and it seems as if fortune was jealous of the preference. Pro verbially capricious, she withdrew her smile, and left him shorn almost of eve ry thing except his love, and the fidelity that crowned it. ~ T he hour of adversity is woman's hour; in the fall blaze tf fortune's rich meridian, her modest beams retire from vulgar notice; but when the clouds of woe collect around us, end shades and darkness dim the wanderer's path, that chaste and lovely light shines totth to cheer him, an eull.ni and an ennui:Mon of the heavens! It was then her love, her seine, and her power was visible. No, it is not for the chesi fulness whet which the bore the change I price her ; it is not that without a si'h sit surrendered ell the baubles of pros plity ; hut she pilloweehher noon husband's heart, welcomed adver sity to Make him happy, held up her little children as the wealth dint no adversity could take away; and w'sen she Intand his spirit