The Express.
London, England, 1863-06-29 00:00:00

LAW INTELLIGENCE.
(THIS DAY.)

COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH.
After Term Sittings at Nisi Prins at GnildhalL —(Belon
Lord Chief Justice Cockburn and • Special Jury.)
11011LLOON o. 1111.CUS (ILIGGHT).-1.771L.
This was the most singular ad extraordinary case that
has oome before the court for some time, and from the fact.
sod the persons interested, his canoed great seamtion in
higher circles. The action was one of libel. The defendant
pleaded Bno not guilty, and secondly that the words written
reed published were true in substibee and in feet
Mr. lisrjeant Shee, Mr. Griffita, and Mr. E. T. Bailey
were mural for the plaintiff ; Mf. Serjeant Ballantine and
Mr. Field were counsel for the defendant.
Mr. Serjeant Shea, in Meting the case to the jury, said
the plaintiff was J. lieutenant in the royal miry, sad he
brought this action to recover compensation in damages, or,
what he would prefer, • full and ample apology from the
defendant, an admiral in the navy. The plaintiff entered
the navy at the age of eleven in 1806, and he served on
board several of her Mejesty's ships during the French ware
till 1810. He distinguished himself in • severe action in the
Bay of Naples, for which he obtained a medal and his com-
mission in the Davy. He continued in the service Wail the
pesos and afterwards be entered into the Coast
Gwtd service, sod continued there till 1829,
when he retired from ill health, owing to
his having saved five lives from shipwreck.
He then devoted his time and attention to the study of the
abstruse sciences— natural philosophy in all its branches.
estromany and astrology, and he was the author of severe
works %WOG those subjects. He was the author of " Zed-
tiers Almanac," of which some 50,000 were sold an.
Dually. At the commencement of 1862 a very
marked expression was made by Mr. Alderman Humphrey
on the magisterial bench of the production or pea-
Prosy in the almanac of the death of the late Imamate&
Puna Consort. which had received • melancholy accom-
plishment in the fulfilment of that sad event. His °beer-
rations were published in most of the daily morning papers,
and, &menet others, in the Daily TekyrapA, and • day
or two otter the editor of that paper thought proper to
comment with the greatest seventy on the publi-
cation of " Zadkiefs Almanac," and upon the particular
matter that formed the subject of Mr. Alderman Hum-
phrey's observations, and probably if it bad been confined
to that criticism no notice would have been taken of it,
became the writer had not mentioned the plaintiff's name ;
bat • day or two after • letter appeared in the same paper,
dyed "Anti-Humbug," which he should show was written
by the defendant, Admiral Sir Edward Belcher. In that
letter the writer did not confine himself to Pained or his
almanac, but he had thought proper to name the plaiotiff, and
to attack him in a manner which no man with the least
regard for his character and the maintenance of his social
position could possibly submit to. The following was the
letter, which had been given up by the editor of the
Daily Telegraptt, of which the plaintiff complained
"Sir,—ln your Impression of this day you ask Who is
this Zadkiel, and are there no means of ferreting him out,
and banding him up to Bow-street, under the statute as •
rogue sod vagabond I will aid you in the ,cent, by first
informing you he stands as • lieutenant in the navy list,
seniority, 1815. Next, that he has his admirers about
Greenwich Hospital, who fancy him • prophet
A 1, and that his mischievous propensity is not
solely involved in that foolish publication • Zadkiel's
Almanac.' More, I think be gave his name not long since
as president of some peculiar soctety. connected with astro-
logy, R. J. Morrison. A friend reminds me that the author
of Zadkiel' is the celebrated Crystal Globe seer, who
piled many of our nobility about 1.852 ; making use of a
boy natter 11 years of age, or • girl under 12, he pretended
by their looking into the crystal globe to hold
converse with the spirits of the Apostles, and even our
Saviour, with all the angels of light as well as of &Acne e.
and tell what is going on in any part of the world, and
drawinp were made of the objects aeon in those visions.
One noble lady gave one of these bos/. to give her intel-
ligence of her boy, who was in the Mediter-
ranean. The boy peached, and let the cat
out of the bag. Of course the information was
false. He took money. if he really be the same, for these
profane ask, and made a good thing of it. If it is deemed
sufficiently important, there can be no doubt that he can be
r ititractorily trotted out. As to his position as a naval
, excepting the meat guard, he has not served afloat
• since 1815. " A not-Humesu."
KuThere was added to the letter the following :—" Private
end confidential.—Sir, I am unwilling to have my name
mixed up with one of this stamp, but I had reason to be
much disgusted with this personage, and the reason to
which I allude is that the boy's mother confessed to me the
trick he had played."
This was signed in the defendant's same. In that
letter the writer had thought proper for some mali-
cious purpose of his own to go much beyond anything in
the nature of fair criticism on " Zadiriel's Almanac," and to
impute conduct and motives to the plaintiff, which at-
tacked his character as a MD of honour. It imputed
to him that he was an unprincipled impostor
and obtained money from credulous persons. The leered
serjeant then referred to the nature and qua-
lity of the crystal ball. Pure crystalline bodies (he said)
when they approached the burner. body bed many of the
properties of the magnet. Pure crystal, such as rock crystal,
it drawn along the naked hand or arm without touching it
produced with very many persons the sensation of sudden