The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1862-12-30 00:00:00

EXTRAORDINARY CONDUCT OF

BARRISTERS.

Sothe of the Benchers of the Middie Temple
have been charged in the tkeitt of Queen's
Bench with having, in their own Parliament
Chamber, knocked about a person named Hud-
son, "torn his clothes, and scratched his face."
It appears that Mr. Hudson ttridered himself
as a witness in Mr. Digby Seymour's case, and
while under eXarnination a book was banded to
him, which he discovered to be a private book
of his own, containing manuscript letters
which had been purloined from him, and
which was never intended for any etieli
eye but his own. In obtailthlg pbssession
of this book, on the Oth of July last year,
in the Parliamentary Chamber of the Middle
Temple, during the examination whioh went on
after the hellebore' dinner, he put it in his
breast pocket, and declined to give it up again.
On this ensued a very distracted scene, which
, bears clear evidence of the very injurlicial pota-
tions of the Honourable Society's heribliers. Mr.
Bovill, Q.C., pit his back ageing the door to
prevent the withees'ii egress; servants We're
called into the room; Sir Frederick 'Slade, Q. C.,
having just intimated that Mr. Hudson wee a
blackgnard and a fool, inconleqnentially added
the interrogatory, "who are you, Sir ?" Mr.
Hudson replied that he was next door neighbour
to Sir Fi Stade'a daughter, but that he claimed
we additional respectability on that account, to
Which Sir F. Slade rejoined by—" You be d—ti,
Sir." Bye, the porter, then &sleuthed Mr.
Hudson. To gain poeSession of the book his
right arm was pelled back, and he was lifted off
the ground by half-a-do'zen people. "Mr. Bag-
shaw's fists were clenched:, Mr. bovill was close
by, Mr. Rodwell wile net far off." Amid the
noise of benellers, Mr. Hudson was thrown
violently on the floor; but the book was not
yet obtained, and the police were procured, and
Mr. Hudson given in charge, when Sir F. Slede
rallied his forces to the enconnthr. He said,
" D—n it, we will have it," and a general rush
was made. Sir V. Slade seized Mr. Hudson's
neekcloth; bye, the porter, his legs, holding
his head (Iowa; the police his shoulders. The
distracted man then claimed the protection of
the police. This they accorded; and with
crushed hat, torn coat, torn waistcoat, hroken
watch, a black eye, and 'a sere blady, he
was taken to the eta4on'-house, and charged
with stealing the book, lie was, however,
dismissed by to Inspector of Police, when he
made a vomiter charge. Such is briefly the case
as stated for the plaintiff. The defence of the
heechers was, that the book belonged, not to
Mr. Hudson in his individual capacity, but only
to him as a member of the Waiter fold Mining
Company, which had beconfe defunct; that the
book was as legal)), la their custody for the time
being as private papers are in custody of the
- court during a trial ; that he had no right to
secrete the book,which in good faith he had been
permitted to examine; and that no Wort vio-
lence was used to make him entfender it than
would have been justifiable had he pocketed an
inkstand from the table. Moreover, it was
alleged that not one of the benchers laid a finger
on him; that nobody gave him in charge; that
he proceeded of his own free will to the station-
house; and that the accusation against him
never went beyond that of "taking" the book.
In wading through the mass of evidence how-
ever, this one fact is potent—that Mr. Hudson's
testimony against the benchers was corroborated
in all its material points by the police, who had
been called in by some one who would not bear
the responsibility of that act at the trial ;
whereas, among the Masters of the Bench, there
was the most extraordinary confesion ea to what
was done and what was not done. 'That a tre-
mendous row existed they could not, however,
deny; and the mildest construction the public
can put upon the affair is, that the benches's,
having been dining, had taken "one bottle
more." No set of riotous schoolboys could have
shown less knowledilf what they were about
benc on this occasion—the
than did the
magnates of the ner Temple, whom the
public are accustomed to look to as amongst the
most learned and dignified of our face. Amidst
the mass of conflicting evidence, the jury, after
a five days' investigation of the case, were unable
to arrive at unanimity in their opinions, and
they were ' gly discharged without giving
a verdict. principals in the affair, there- I
acir
fore, standin tty much the same rah:lion to
each other as they did before the action was
commenced. But what will the public nay about
the row of the learned Middle Temple
scandal 7 Will they not ask the old question,
if these be the cionservators of the honor and
repute of trofeasiont Who are tio keep the
I IVOR") ril
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