The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1805-03-28 00:00:00

SUSSEX digiZES.

r •

NOttsiailt, 14111C1 25.
SEDUCTION.
HOOKER V. SPENCER.
The Junior Counsel opened the pleadings, and
stated, that this was an anion to obtain recovery of
damages for the sedihflion of the Plaintiff's daughter.
Mr. Serjeant SHEPPARD, in.alweiaiiiitent and im-
pressive speech, detailed the circumstances of the
case, and animadverted on the several points with
great force and feeling. He began with observing,
that this was the aflion of a distressed father,
brought on the account of the sedation of his
daughter, by the arts of the Defendant, from the
paths of virtue, and fisr the violation of the neatest
and dearest feelings of the human heart. He had to
present to the Jury a case of the most aggravated
wickedness that they could well conceive. It was
the case of a man who had been received into the fa-

mily of the Plaintiff as a
3d(fiend of the most intimate
kind. He had been .rnitted as the !amiable
suitor of the gill whom he had seduced. He had
ken the acquaintance of the Plaintiff from hi;
youth ; and having, by his attentions, fixed and ri-
vetted the affeetions of the Plaintiff's daughter, he
had availed himself of that affeCtion in a luckless
hour to seduce her from the ways of virtue, and she
became pregnant by him. While she was is this
state, he had the injustice to abandon her. and to
marry another woman. The Def:ndant. who had
thus conduCted himself, was a Quak.:r ; but the
Learned Serjeant said he meant no imputation upon
that class of men. Their tioacines must certainly

inculcate the praeice of morality and virtue, and
their ecterior affeded more than usual decorum. By
so much, therefore, was the conchs& of the De-
fendant the more aggravated, for it was an addi-
tional aggravation t r burr rw the garb of sandity tro
cover and conceal our vices. The Plaintiff and the

Defendant were both persons in the middling classes
of life, but also of rank sufficient for the Plaintiff
most poignantly to feel the wound which had been
infiided upon him. The Plaintiff was a clock-maker,
residing at Lewes. and the Defendant a basket-
maker, residing in the same town. The parties had
been acquainted many years, and he was instrufted
the Defendant had long shewn a partiality for the
daughter of the Ylaintiff. He had addressed her
when she was no more than the age of ld years ;
but lr.r parents thought that she was then too
young for the marriage st in., and delayed their
consent. however, followed which was na-
tural to be expelled ; they received into their house.
without suspicion, the mm who was considered as the
affianced husband of their slaughter. At the time at
which he perpetrated his infamous purpose, the g rl
was not living at home with her father, but at the
house of a Mr. Wheeler, in the same town, into
whose service she had gone on account of some loss
in his family. And here he would just call the at-
tention of the Jury to what he cousidered, under
,the convixtion of his Lor4ship, as the law of this
COW This action was given to afford a recompense
for the supposed loss of the se vices of use daugh-
ter. In measuring the damages of this supposed
loss of service, the .Jury were tint re,traine ! to con- I
sider the mere aduid Lasso/ servim but were at
Li-
berty to give damages for the injured feelings of the
parent. Tue smallest services which a child rendered
to its parent were sufficient to support the anion ;
even the services of duty and affedion—and the
late learned and revered Chief Justice of England
(Lord Kenyon) said he would presume those ser-
vices, without proof, from a child to a parent, in
order to support the adion. In fa& the AaiOn we;
founded upun a fiction of law, and, like all other
fictions, a law was meant to be the means of etfe&-
ing nem:anti:a justice ; for it was meant to secure
the safety of the best and dearest of all human inte-
rests, namely, the interest which the pa vent had in
the virile and moral condud of hiss:,ild. There
was, indeed, a case from the Northern Circuit, but
it differed materially from the present. There the
girl had left her father's house, aid declared it was
her determined purpose never ro return again to it.
This having taken place before the sedirdion there
complained of was effeded. the Court, upon that
distindion, held the adioo would not lie. That rea-
soning, however, did not apply to the case before
the Court. While the girl was absent from the guar-
dianship of her Lather, in the house of Mr. IViteeler,
as he had stated, the Defendant had free access to
her. And why should he not ? He was the friend
of her father's family ! He was her honourable
suitor He was more—he was her affianced her
! He was, of ail men, the man most interest-
ed to protect her. for he was the man shortly ex-
pected to become her protedor for life. He, howe-
ver, abused this confidence, and the unfortunate
girl fell a viaim to his persuasions—she merited pity,
though not guiltless, for who could tell what were
her feelings? It might happea, at a moment, for
such moments there were in ►ife, when human na-
ture could not always withstand temptation. The
parents knew nothing of this sad event, for some
time afterwards, and the first knowledge the mother
got of it, was from the Defendant himself. If he
had given this communication with sorrow and
contrition, and had wised to make the only atone-
ment then remaining, he would have done well. 11
he had professed a desire of receiving her to his
arms as his wife, before a busy and meddling world
could have become acquainted with her error, he '
would have acted a manly part, and would have
merited forgiveness from those he had injured. The
mother received the communication as might be ex-
peded, and heaped many injurious terms upon his
head—but what mother, in like situation, would
not have done the same? He did, however, pro-
fess his intention of marrying the girl he had thus
seduced, and though he made the communication
in gross terms, yet, said the Learned Serjeanr, had
he acted as he ought, we should not measure the
language of a man in subordinate life, with those
who have had the advantage of a better education.
Bet let the Jury judge, wnat must have been the
aurpnse of this family, when they heard that the
Defendant, notwithstanding this eromise, had mar-
ried another woman, and another woman too who
made the same accusa i sn again, e him, and whose
friends had compelled him to make honourable reps-
{ ration to, her. That, however, would Ise no excuse
I to aim in this aftion, nor would he, surely, have the
audacity to urge it on this occasion as a defence to the
present action. But this w.ts not all 'Eh •re were
other circumstances in this case .of a most ae4rartt-
Mg complexion ; 'ashen this girl found herself preg-

• ,t.. '1
pant, and communicated LIM-circumstance-to hiM,
he advised her to do that which must. sink a man to
the lowest abyss of infamy ; and Afttrve irds, by way
of degrading and wounding the feelings of the fa-
ther, he had the impudence himself, to go to the
parish officers, and tell them of the stare of this girl,
and advise them to look out for an indemnity to the
parish. How could language find means of ade-
quately describing the conduit of this profligate
Defendant? who to the cruellest of injoriescouhi th•ts
add the most wanton of insults ? He •was, how.
ever, told to-day, that this young libertine would
attempt to defend himself, by attacking, alai at-
tempting to dishonour the former cliara3er of the
girl he hid thus deliberately seduced. If he should
prove any atch of depraviiy on her put, subse-
quent to her ruin by him, it must influence the ac-
count against him, for whim it was owing that sl.e
had fallen into infamy; for, before the time that the
Defendant perverted her mind, be woul• show that
her condutt was unimpeachable. What must be the
feelings of the wretch, who could tans attempt to ,
blast the female he was the first to dishoooni ? If
her coniltief now were as bad as the worst prostitutes
that walked the streets of London, it was no de- 4
fence to the man who first allured her from the
ways of virtue, into the road of vice ; on the
contrary, it ♦ery much aggravated hi► crime, by
displaying all its most heuribie consequences. foe
Learned Setjcant added, that as we walked the
" wide world," and saw scenes which mug make •
the feeling heart ach, when conternplatiu.g the rnisee
ries of the ruined females who wandere 1 houseless •
through the streets of the town, even though they
had been lia:f way meeting their own ruin; yet
what ought to he the concs& of a loan who was ,'
trusted AS the bett guardian of a female's homor a
yet violating the sacred trust, had destroyed that
virtue which he was bound to defend ; who, instead
of cherishing and protetting. had driven forth hit
charge as an objed for " the hand of scorn to point.
its slow and moving finger at," who but for him
would have been as pure and unspotted as the babe '
which she bore him. Money could make bat rate_
reparation for these injuries; but it was the only oat
which the law could give. He should therefore call
for serious damages against this libertine croaker, •
which might restrain him from seducing the affee.-
lions of young women, and rtrinir.g the peace of
honest families. He would call witnesses to prove
the case, and should the defence which he had
hinted at he attempted to be set up, the Jury would '
look at it with eagle's eyes, an 4 telt their disap-
probation of it lay the amount of thei, l'oro
although this unfortunate girl might escape being
an objell of general scorn, yet she must be one of
general pity ; and, next to beinr a mark of general -
scorn, that of be'ng one of gene; sl p:ty w.ts the
next worse situation in the prevent state of the •
world.
The Learned Sesjeant having concluded, Mr.
Justice Itoorce ,aid, he thought this was a case
which had better be heard out •,f Court; thirlaht
a proper persoo would be a Gentlernaa t.f tie B r,
and if the• parties agteel to it, he -would name the ;
arbitrator

The Counsel con•enins? Mt.
_Boplaqujit was
naa.ed. •

Yesterday sennight, an ~quest tau held at RUT
bury. Gloncestersaire, bcfwe W. Teton. Gentl•- •
man, Coroner, on view of the !soli of a male
infant, about eight days old, who was accidea-
tally poisoned by a ueleterious drug being ad- 4,
ministered in mistake for magnesia. the eircu-n-
-stances of this melancholy case were as loan* t
woman was sent to a shop in the neighisi.;.iritooli. to,
purchase a pennyworth ot' magnesia. with winch .r.r.
was regularly served ; but a packet of rat 7
having been placed on the counter, diretteo .;
gentleman who had ordeted it, an several _
being in the shop at the time, it was not at ti.e
tent observed that the woman had taken the packet
by mistake ; and being a stranger, unfortunately ;'.e
could not be recognised. At night, the nioiher de-
sired a boy about seven years of :^e, who could r.ct
read, to open the parcel, when she tos,k a small
'quantity of the powder And blended it wit'il rhe 146'
!lanes pap, which occasioned its death iL a very
short time. No blame whatever could attach to the
person who sold the magnesia; and the accident
'.was solely to be attributed to the gross ignoranc:. of
the poor woman, the packet having contained Blain
printed direttions.—Verdier, Did by poison ianacently
Allwiaiaered.