The Express.
London, England, 1850-04-26 00:00:00

Law intellteence.

COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH.-YESTERDAT.
Sirrixas It BA.nro.

THE QtIL7N C. WILMER AND SMITH.

In this Cu. the Attornerteeneral spilled to have the
hearir.g postponed until after the trial of en action now
pending. A criminal information had been applied for
against the defend►nts, foe as alleged libel upon the Elec-
tric Telegraph Company. The same libel as alleged had
appeared in the Morning Herald, and an action had been
brought against Mr. Chapman, the publisher. In that
action a plea of justification had been put upon the record;
and convenience, if not justice, required that the rule for •
criminal information ghoul(' not be made absolute until the
jury should have determined in the action in question
whether or not the matter complained of wee libellous.
The court refused the application, on the ground that it
could not, according to any of the known rains of practice,
make one case depend upon another, the parties not being
the same in both.

THE QUZIN O. LATIMEIL—TEE SISTERS OF MERCY.
[The following we wee very briefly alluded to in ycster-
day's Ezpre%.l.l
Sir F. Thesiger moved for a rule to show canoe why a
criminal information should not be filed against loam
Latimer, printer and publisher of the Plymouth Journal,
for a libel published in March last. It appeared that some
ladies had associated themselves together, living together in ,
one house at Devonport, and had assumed the name of the
Sisters of Mercy. They were supported by a common fund,
drawn from their own private resource.. Their superior
was Miss Sellon, who had the control and superintendence of
the establishment. In addition to the fund in question
eubscriptions had been made by charitable individuals, to
be administered by the ladies in question. In the autumn
of 11149 an opportunity was offered them of proving the
sincerity of their professions, by performing some of the
scat painful duties to which they had devoted themselves.
The cholera, whilst raging in various parts of England,
broke oat with great elisions in Plymouth and
Davenport. Whilst many stood aloof from ap-
prehension, or fled from the contagion, these ladies,
with dauntless courage, administered comfort to the
sick, supported the drooping spirits of the dying, and per-
forming even the last painful duties to the dead. They felt
that they were most mercifully preserved from the dangers
to which they were exposed. During the whole time they
were in the constant habit of attending Stoke church for the
purpose of receiving the sacrament. When the disease had
pared away, they thought they could not better show their
gratitude for their wonderful deli than by presenting
• communion service to the church. They little thought
that this would have attracted public attention, mach lese
that their motives would have been misrepresented, their
sincerity quest;oned, or that their integrity as regarded the
administration of the fund contributed, would be assailed.
They were certainly very much shocked at reading in the
paper in question an article to the effect that in presenting
the said service they had mai-administered part of the fund,
and that the public should demand an account from them
of the mode in which it had been administered. By the
advice of their friends • letter was written to
Latimer demanding a retractation, to which he re-
plied to the effect that he would make such re-
tractatioo cheerfully, if an answer could be given to
the charge. The question then was whether a newspaper
was to be at liberty to libel a person. and then to call upon
him for an answer, with a promise that, should the answer
be satisfactory, a retractation will be made. The ladies in
question were naturally reluctant to come into court, and
had no desire te punish the party who had libelled them.
But if their integrity is to be thus assailed with impunity,
they would be greatly obstructed in the performance of
their duties, and their usefulness would be greatly impaired.
It was a coneciousnees of this which alone induced them
to come now into court to claim the protection of the law.
Rule granted.

THE QVLEX v. LATINIR.
A rule nisi for a criminal information had been obtained
in this eaues last term.

Mr. Cockburn 71ow showed cause against the rule. In
doing so he stated that the Rev. G. R. Prynne was a cler-
gyman la Plymouth, a town notorious for the extent to
which religious feeling was carried in it. Articles had,
from time to time, appeared in the Plymouth Journal, of
which the defendant was proprietor and publisher, reflecting
upon the manner in which Prynne conducted the service.
In January lest a paragraph appeared, headed " Increase of
Population," which it appeared Mr. Prynne had applied to
himself, and which if applied to him would have been
highly libellous, as it would have charged him with being
the father of an illegitimate child, and with practices of
which he was clearly not guilty, but which he(Mr. Cock-
burn) coatended did not apply, and was never intended to
apply to him. The learned counsel read a number of
affidavits, one of which was sworn to by the defendant, who
utterly disclaimed all intention of reflecting upon the private
character of Mr. Prynne. The affidavit stated that the
defendant was not the author of the ureph at all ; that
he was seriously ill, and incapable of attending to the busi-
ness of the paper at the time at which it was binned ; that
,it was inserted without hie know e ; that the author of it
was the Rev. Mr. Micklewood, • in Plymouth,
who had been in the habit of ' unexceptionable
articles to the parer; and that the deponent believed that it
had no reference whatever to Mr. Prynne, that it was never
Intended to have any reference to him, and that it was not
generally supposed to have such reference. He then read
an affidavit, sworn to by liar. Mr. Micklewood, avowing the
authorship of the paragraph, deaying that it applied to Mr.
Prynne, cc that it was taken as doing so, and stating
that it bag applicatioa to • party who was minis-
knownteof a Audi in Plymouth, belonging to a sect
by the lame of the church of the Second Advent.
He then read several affidavits from respectable inhabi-
tants of Plymouth, all slating that the deponents respectively
did not regard the cheep =having reference to Mr. Pilaus.
There were upwards of dirty such affidavits, but he only
read a few of them. It also appeared that previously to
Mr. Prynne and others ankles the affidavits on which this
application was founded, sad almost immediately after the
appearance of the alleged libel, the defendant called upon
Mr. Pryaas.aad denied that the paragraph referred to him,
stating at the emme time who was the real author of It, and
the ciremealeame anise which it had found its way iato the
paper, and iambi M make every satisfaction in his Omer
if Mr. Pep= had teesived any injury from it, or thought
that it ws• se mg* ha applied to him. But all that he
could thee get hoes Mr. Pips= was, that the matter was
in the heads tilde mildews. Hs would, therefore, humbly
submit that the aninsation twirl exclusively upon a Ws-
!Wareham's' ea the part of Mt. prynes, and that, under all
the circuestaeme of the one, the rule should not be made
absolute.

But the
unit thought that the ease was one which should
p tfo a jam and Boyd thereto 'WNW