The Express.
London, England, 1855-01-03 00:00:00

tHE LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY-
LIBEL.

101 P.V. EBENEZER. DiarES T, DANIEL
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BANNEE.
Mr. Whiteley* the arbitrator, to whom all Mite
uses referred, eat ynterday at Westminster by special ap-
pointment. It is one of the manse actions 'whin; out
• of the proceeding. taken by the London Misdoing Society
In reference to the conduct of the Rev. Ebenezer Davies,
against whom charges of immorality were prefemd—the
charges being that he bad been the father of • child by it
black woman at Babies, while he was a missionary there ;
that he had militia • most improper letter to the aunt of •
young lady at Greenwich, with whom he had become se.
get ' ted ; and that he had also addressed a most obscene
letter to his wife. A former action of " Tidman v. Aiaalie,"
In which the issue of Met:takes' innocence was raised having
been abandoned by the defendant, he brought this action
aga'net the publisher of the British Bonner for circulating
the alleged libels. The court was crowded with the leading
memben of the dissenting body, who take the deepest in-
tenet in the proceedings.
Mr. Ballantine and Mr. Banned appeared for the
plaintiff; Mr. Seek.. Wilkins and Mr. Evans represented
the defendant.
Mr. Banalities said he bad the honour to appear before
the leaned arbitrator on behalf of the plaintiff, in an action
fix libel against the publisher of a newspaper called the
Deities Banter. and be proposed to enter into the broad
weenies, as to whether the libel was true or not. For many
peas the gentleman for whom he had the honour to appear,
the Rev. Ebenezer Davin, had bad no opportunity of de
fending himself from the malicious charges whisk bed been
',Nought against him. After • tedious lapse allege. dee*
which common justice was denied to Mr. Davin. be ha
from feels ascertained from his adversary, sad ham whet
bad appeared ea the trial of " Tidman v. Ainslie," Wee
enabled to pat himself in • position to clear his ahantelni
The plaintiff, with but moderate means—with a hod el
esaiety prune, es his mind—weakened in fort Me gni In-
jured I. position, wow came forward to vindicate Me 'ha-
mster, set by a mangled portion of evidence as on the
former trial, baton his own testimony and that of his wire—
s woman who has had it cut steins ker, that she should re.
wive and absolutely revel in a eommuniestion, too
filthy to be received by the commonest prostitute,
from her husband, who must have been base in-
deed if he could have put his pen to such •
anarannication. He would not sate, particularly to
the Welhogborough letter; but there was one passage to
which he must draw attention. It was this:—" I received
• budget of lettere with a few lines from you this morning."
When the letter had been prodaced after a great struggle
Mr. Davies, who knew that he could not have written lions
this evidence that he had not on the face of it. for his wife
was in Londoa at the time, and there being no delivery et,
London letters at Wellieeborough on the Monday, there
was the greatest improbability, if not impossibility, of any
letters Irons her arriving at Wellingborough on the Mon-
day. He found that on the 28th of October his wife had
left Northampton, and was atayleg at Stoke Newington,
when the beadle of letters was said to have been received
from her. The Wellingborough letter was, as was
alleged, written on the 3rd of November, 1845. Mrs.
Davies was 'Whig at Stoke Newington on the Saturday
and Sunday previously, sad she would state she had sent
no bundle of letters " to her husband," therefore the words
" I received • budget of lettere with a few lines from yes
this morning," were in themselves biennia evidence of the
fabrication of the letter. Besides, Mrs. Devise residing at
Stoke Newington, was not likely to be at the Missies.
house, nor was it likely that her husband would address her
letters there ' • so that the assertion was contradicted as far
as it could be inferentially contradicted. He would prove
that the plaintiff never used the words, "My very deer
I'y," in addressing his wife. He then went on to say—" I
shall be here by the 8.15 train in the morning, and will
walk direct to the Missinn-house—where I hope to meet
my dear wife." He then went on in terms which he need
not dwell upon. If the court were filled only with men,
he might do so, and if when he "gain addressed the
learned arbitrator, he felt it to be his duty to dwell more
in detail on this letter, though it would be repugnant to the
feelings of the learned arbitrator and himself, he would not
hesitate to do so, for in courts of justice they had often to
discharge most painful duties, which justice itself forbade
them from shrinking from. The contents of the letter
were filthy without redemption ; they were uncovered in
their obscenity ; they were such that a woman—the lowest
of her sex—could not read, or which a man who had not
attained the level of a brute could nut write. It was
couched in terms which not only no modest woman, but no
woman with a spark of womanhood left in her, could sub-
mit to receive from any one, no matter what
his relation in life might be,—oeuched in terms
which could hardly be addressed by a man to his
wife even if he were of the most obscene disposition which
• man could be—couched in terms which bore traces that it
was the manufacture of a spy and an informer pursuing •
course of life in keeping with his avocations, and hiding
himself in the haunts of filth and degradation—couched in
terms in which such a man could concoct such a letter, but
which a minister of the gospel could never address to a
woman, still less to the woman whom he had sworn to
shekels and protect. Were they to suppose that Mr. Davies
had abandoned all sense of shame, that no scruples would
have visited him who was daily reminded of
God's word, of the responsibility under which he
laboured, and that he would have signed his
acme at full length to • document of so filthy
a description ? Let him ask how this letter had been found
open in the Mission-house ? Stacey had maid he had handed
it to Mrs. Davies, and that a smile of satisfaction had lighted
up her face as she read it. He, the spy and informer, stood
by, amused by the smile of satisfaction which bad diated
her face. She must indeed have been initiated in vice to
have smiled at such a production. Had she come from the
filthy purlieus of London—from the lowest haunts of vice.
If it were lying open she most have known its contents, and
yet, when with, as was alleged, a filthy mind, she gloated
over its contents, she must have known that this letter,
perilous, ruinous, and destructive, to herself and her hus-
band, had been in the hands of others. Would • smile of
satisfaction have radiated the countenance of a woman who
knew this ? He would state at once that Mr. Davin
adhered to his statement that he had during his
visit to Wellingborough in 1845 slept at Mr. Beale's.
As to the Greenwich letter, it would, if unex-
plained, be most injurious to Mr. Davies' character;
but it would be proved beyond all doubt that this letter,
which had been used against him in connexion with the
other—for it was laid that if the authenticity of the one
letter was admitted it was highly probable that Mr. Davies
was the author of the other—was written by him with the
view of obtaining • wife for his friend Mr. Foreman, who
was • missionary in Berbice. He could perhaps palliate
the conduct of • man—though he could not justify It—who
might write to his wife a letter repugnant to good taste ;
but he could net palliate the conduct of a man—a mar-
ried man and • clergygoan—who would endeavour to get
=son of a young girl through her aunt. Mr.
's sole object was to obtain the band of
this young lady for his friend, and his negotiation, known
bout to Me wife, was solely directed to that object.
VIVInt probable that any man with an improper motive
shield have addressed such • letter, not to the lady herself,
but le her aunt ? He had now concluded his observations
ea thisesee—the sabstaatiel dateedasts, the proprietors of
the essolieillesslied the kb& The question of its
leather ,ialteed would avow be determined. All human
tribunals were liable to fall into error—it was impossible
that error could be excluded from their courts of justice;
but his client must feel that he had done all which it was in
the power of a human being to do. He had offered him-
self as a wines*. He would rest assured that every are
and suggestion would be shown to his case; if it went he duty
of the judge of that case to decide it against
him,then indeed his punishment would be in this world; he
would be ruined, crushed, and destroyed. If that judgment
were correct ho would have nothing to thank but his own
vices, but it error crept into the mind of the judge, as it
would creep into the minds of judges, then Mr. Davie
would have no tribunal to appeal to, but he must look
hereafter to a reversion of that charge of which he felt him-
self innocent, and of which he had not been acquitted by
the tribunal before which hie ease had been tried.
Mr. Serjeant Wilkins said he would save his learned friend
trouble by admitting the publication of the alleged libels.
The libels were then put in evidence. They were pub-
lished in the British Banner of the 7th of December 1863,
and from these we make the following extraets:—" Defeats
of the Innocent—Collusion and Conspiracy Extraordinary.
—There is • wisdom higher than that of mortals conoerned
in regulating the affairs of men. The human mind is fre-
quently impelled by an unseen hand, of whose touch it is
not conscious, since it operates by means of or aloes with
facts, events, and circumstances. For many a day we NUM
not bring ourselves to interfere in the matter of lieneh
Ainslie and Doyle,. We were restrained by two clangs of
considerations—the one touching present prudence, Nadirs
other former friendship. Friendship alone however emit
not have kept us in check. We consider that even Mead.
ship, however old and prised, must not be slam*
where the truth is clear, to stand in the wey of . pet
where it is otherwise—where the thing has tee sad
is the balance about even, then the addition of
may suffice to cast the scale—to guide the ilk
determine the cause. Just so it wee Ida at lotO,
from addit plial circumstances, we salliedll mist
we could keep silence no longer. As Mints have tamed
out, it now appears that silence wee broken just in time to
fall la harmoniously with fads very soon to be brought to
light. The diesiusion in our list and in our former number
jest served to pave the way for the toy extraordinary dis-
closures we have now to make—diedessees which we think
cannot fail to meats general astonishment end strong indig-
nation. The (gels, we believe, have taw punnets in the
history of religious contemn.; The bast limitable man
among us, we presume, wse gig whet will
now meet hie eye." The Molesbe
sliferrod
to the allegation of Mr. that had,
when the Bawd letter ibetritsabzboreigh win
lentos, passed kis time,ass so Ur. sop% bet at
Mr. Beale% whom he hod ithsadato ilea a isetiikete to
this effect, west on to my—' lli• igutolleas latent we Mee