The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1824-07-12 00:00:00

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asoca.mus, iin three uceeeione of Lai:occurrence, did not permit of
hi attending her. They never wire separated from each other for
.... y g,. at , t 1040 of tine! until this untuntunate occurroice, which
.I.•ii.,til the drinielitiC contort of the plaintiff. The catastrophe
wee bete rallied to es bitterest extent upon the liappieess of 11 r.
Ili my lii dig's fondly. The ollepring of this martiage were live
re ::r nil i r ; the eldest was a daughter, recently married ; another,
i'i ,•et t. ',ere Of age, a eon nearly twenty, another son fifteen, an.:
Cie 1,:.t C:10.1, an Whoa. nut yet Iwo yearn of age. To this very
eet berth In rOUM pence the tendert,* affectien. It would lie his
tee.t piertel dote to call before the Jury severtl members of the
Iteriee lovely, who would votive the affectionate intercourse which,
up to tle• het nimnetit of this seduction,. steisisted between Mr.
It eery Bering and hie wife ; peiteill indeed moist it be for three
w meet.. to rementher what had, for twenty years, been the fidelity
end ether:en of this lady, old to contrast it a nit her present un-
11,11'11 f .1. le the victim of a wretched Reduction. During the last
year, or eta. Captain Webeter bccame an acquaintance ul Mr. Henry
Beeee. and e vieitor in his family. Ile wan the rein of the late,
;IA Loolier tat the i.r.i.nt Sir bearer AVelieter, and bald a milt-
I iry .ire•ition 1111 the home tetatY of the elarquis IVelleeley, Out.
peeve! Viteroy Or Ireland. feeptnin Webeter wed to vier Mr.
11... y I. ring in town, and oleo in the sporting sell on at his hoe-
peable oreesuiti In Ibinitoliare. Indeed he was tee may %ranger.
except l•ie Royal Iliglinesa the Duke of tilourester, who met the
tem.ly at the chrietening of Mr. Itaring's last child. Capt. Web.
seer wits et manly I:ve or six y, :a. younger than dell. Baring; her
etteictiene wi re, however, great and apparent, notwithstanding her
udvance in lee, ;mil they had Nen evidently weeeed front her lin,.
band by I oo'. W. lottr. The ( eptain, as a man of lem.o.r. eltould
beee sled. ie.' the charms i d' the a de of his friend ; he should have re_
men. la-reel that thtee clean', evened no excuse for it, 111 la, tat at.
t-cleiteu•t. end the lel INA be ;deeded ateely pelliation td his crime. Ile
idieted ',eve. remeinlsered a hat he need to the ennetearyofu liiiebund'e
It itoic, re, it husband bi ing his host and friend ; but he had violated
these ...mid 0611g:it'd:us, and ter that violation the. Jury were now
cell": teeieu to te.met a pecuniary penalty. lie ought to hare fe-
-11,10.t .'e a that this Indy war the wife of iris blend, and the
smith, r it. it %seed's children. If her age could be, pleaded by
the ieeteiel.: .t in ally ettenipt a' palliation, it Amitd he recollected
hew that very age aeginetetal due eufferinge which the plaintiff
must now butt e. lie bad lust, not the etic'etv of a Rife it cently
aequireil, bin of a lady whom: intercourse with hint had been hal-
leweil by the endearing recollection, now turned into gall mid bit-
terns.. of more than twenty years of ardent attachment. See the
dreadful fittings with which this family were now visited; the
cliihlren re a time tat life when they were entering into society, and
tenthly of f cling keenly the act of their mother. There was be.
eel,s an iii' lent child, cow belch of a mother's care at the age which
vi peculiarly . railed for its fosteringi, helm:nee; and another child.
te deugliter, thirteem years of age, who must ale) be deprived of nil
those advents:es of introduction into life which a mother could
:thine aerie:lndy confer. If he were to be told by hie learned
treed, that Captain iti ebetcr was not in the same tiourielting
pecialiery 4-ermined:ince. which Mr. Baring enjoyed, and could not,
theretere, pay heavy damages on this occasion, he would say, is
reply, that before the Jury could leok at that side, they most
tirsttenesieler what had beta the plaintiff's lie.. and what wan the
accumulated nature of his injury. The law of the land was, that
th a mutt hound himself by his contract to perform a certain °taiga-
tem. he mild nut ut,t.'-ipit I/0111 his pledge, by pleading the excuse
u: his poverty. Ile must have known his means before be framed
ter contract. and must be beard by his own act. So here, they
ceula tint allow the elefendurt to thy he wax unable to pay :teary
damage ; that woitel be to allow hint to address them in such
hvlyiltp. tai . hen:. I did the mischief-1 inflicted the wrong mien
nun treed-hut I aiii ii:e.mable of redressing ie-I cannot afford
nil C,P.p..l,3!iutti 111 money, and therefore it is in vain to auk it
at my 1ie.•11.." 'l it.' Jury etmlil not lister to such languege. They
11,114 i benin r;iiel, ;hal it was the estithlished usage in society to
n.ard ample compensatien in such cues, and that if they failed in
a...inn:vile; that award upon such a scale, an inference would ari.e
tire the ionduet of the plaintiff had nut been what it ought, a hich
in this case would be in direct variance with the positive evidence
e hie!, he would place befiee them, from some of the highteit menu.
be', or the family. To Thile:tie, then, the plaintiff fro it Midi
r."l i,IIITraCC as he had just glanced et—to prevent its gong out
to tee troth!, what lie was not, he entreated them to weigh
*eel the extent of theniages with which they would visit the ad.
ntetiel guilt of the defoidant. They would hear, much better
than lie could describe it, front the witnesses, what were the
trees of :election in which Mr. and Mts. Henry Baring had lived.
Ilete7r, fir better, even than the most eloquent speech, was the
i eue and eimple evidence of the witnesses of truth describing the
domestic tarts winch fell under their constant observation. They
Is:, :!i! 1.11111 this evidence estimate what must hare been the acts
re the veluccr ; they would remember the home which be bad node
te ...e ite. the children he lied deprived of a mother, and the friend
t - ;ei :':one he bad tom a wife. ''hi y would chew by their verliet
tee seree they entertained of sitee conduct, and the protection
ii: i, '.n they were• preeared to shed around the sanctuary of domes-
t•c ;44`. The dee•iidaid was aI. ilitary titan, and they were mem-
bers of a civil community, and they must tell military Men, by
I ;ear verdict ,hie day, teet at the conclenion of a war they must
tee brim; iota the din...tic society of peaceable men the manners
t ea habits welch they may have acquired in countries where, unfor-
turatdy, lees nerd morale prevailed, and where they might have
leht•let .I, in the (entree eif service, in arta which are not to be en.
e 1.., il in die denote ic circle of unsuspecting private life. Ile con.
le:. ed by entreating the Jury to award such a compensation in da.
teat es, et hire., tieruith tilt pecaniary redrew could assuage the feel.
r y• er mitigate the seeee et toes to which the plaintiff was,
t'e e• rd, would re verthelees %hew the defeednnt that he could net
eveive with impunity, met set an example which might deter
et, ito Isom pureuing the saute arts and accomplishing the willie
The first witness was Moe Wall, an elderly lady of elegant ap-
; • :•rarce. She muted ilia; clue was the either sistet of Mr. Baring ;
receliecte his neerriage to his lady; her. Christian names were
(13.13 sf3fillin whose sister had previously untried My. A !exist-
err Itariug; 11:uy write .11nrrican lathes.. -Ms. Meaty paring'stee, heeler in 1•0:1111.:1 W:11, 11l 1 ork.place, a• ' ly at Fain_
e'er, 0, in Surrey, and afterwards at bosnerbf, aseigabire, which
rekT:k
we. still his residence. she lee. constant op ' of witness-
ire the conjugal tenderness of the family, a always observed
It,. greaten tentiernevi on both sides between Mr. and Mrs.
I" err) leering. is 'these Buie die had paved weeks together,
ene erste saw between them tine slightest altercation. There may
hese be en el iffereme. of mere minium, he they mint occur cycle-
r ecee. 'The eldest daughter ot Mr. 11. Raring was lately married,
tee dried son i, at Oxcart, the second no ill the nary, the younger
(Adel ten are at home.
1 dev-examitucel Icy the ('OM IaI,N.SEaI:EAVT—She visited at
Sot- cradle List Seetenther, but nut for u visit of any duration
within the lust three years They aiwnys 'mewed toiler to lire
ia:r1:::11.'alely together. She did not recoil' et (as well as she re-
teen.l...reei) that Mrs. Henry Baring had been married beferre she
ee. err. Baring; she heard something from others. Last August
the ride et daughtee was married.
Mrs. ]hemp, anode'e sister ot' Mr. Baring, gave precisely simi-
lar teviiiiutty of the iiffectiemate intercourse which she always saw
subsisting belittler ?Ir. and :Mrs. Benny Baring. She did not know
tee docielerve

'..01,-(A:ii.itned 1.3. Mr. P:.RK—Hie general residence WWI a
j• unu•i frei•l Mr. Henry Bitting's house. Last autumn
in. .t.he s volt dine weeks at his house in the country,
ti:• n. ri praq illy in Isintion afire. She never heard from
ll l',4rir!: 0: :my Inner nianivent his wir's.
14.:!3'a morel.' continued t!:e evidence of his

Mr.. Dent, another sister-in-law. had only to repeat, that she
112...1 uniformly eitne,seil the same arfeetionute conduct on the part
of Mr. and Mrs. Ilenry Raring towards each other. She was at
tit, christening of the last child in 111?.'2. She saw Captain Web-
, who was the broil:it of Sir Godfrey Webster, on that occa-
sii•r. The I hike of 441one...titer was there.
nfr. John Man‘held, son of the late Chief Justice, married an
A•• ,r,ean lade. and soon after his morn to Kngland, in the year
1:710, an arilitaintunre of Mr. and Mrs.ifenry Baring, who
al.iays appeared to him land he spoke of his knowltilge fair years
,r.o) very affectionately engaged to each tither. Ile had hem
re "ale iibroul wrhot a rent or two, and find not seen so suach of
tilt io ; but he always thought they were a must indulgent couple to
C3ell other.

!rie.e.-examined by the st mom SELITANT.—IIe always si.
sir J Air. Iltr.re Baring in town and country ; but nut SO much
within toe best &rev year., Kit ing been timidly abroad. Ile cnuld
in trni how 31 r. Catnip! 'lent Irie eveMngs__he knew noshing of
any former marriage 311,5. Baring. She was undtx 17 years oW
et .• C 11111!".: to igland.
Ur. Biro:den attended 31re. Baring on the 142 th August, lRr2, at
l;er w.. in I. o • lon, and 3lr. Henry Baring
et need :ht the-time the front tender ~..iteittole.
of the Lidice who we're already examined were recalled,
mere) to more that 31n. Henry Baring was at Brighton, with a
fre:,ch teitivle attendant. Net :November. _ _ .

t our I.••tcts•sere then pnt in in ridence, front Captain Webster
Mr.. !Uri /. erne was dated I Mblin Catitle. the others nrigh-
,,... locatlied ter scattily-A; love, and inthatted an intimacy
betwe•it tree pArtim of the elo.,est It-hurt.
Phis .•-as the case on behalf of the plaintiff.
Mr. Ilrx wax Own said, it hecaux Ins duty to adalrisis the Jury
0,, be!!ah' et hit client. Captain Al'elister, sho had suffered judg.
no- t •o -,, by defaiilt, and 01: thy prevented disclosures, which
t ha •• been painful to n:i parse, and disgraceful to mute..
1...! I. coald nut help reniarkino. that It never was supposed ,
th‘t • information soubl have been produced to the Jon,
es a t. •!inn for ?how heavy ilaniag.s which his Learned rriend
ha Ile owned. that it did appea to him, that there
never v•-. ease which preteens' so v,ry few feature. to warrant
tstir.• e,lrt!ation. It was true that some re•tpavaltit• ladies had
, a1..t1 who bad riven tome e‘illence. hut very in,-
ma• • -..1. to lead one to suppose. that they I.X:ll,en produced
for 1,0 o,t 'r retsOn ::tm to give ornament and dignity to
the .-,o•••• . for it was quite inapass.lile that they, front their
rat.k asset sro.ian, rut connexion with the parties, cmild haves
bee. in po •• •sion of the lee el .1 of Mrs. Itsrint, of qualified to'
areal. us t • her conduct and principles. They are ttib sisters of
the ~...sw.l—e•„..testionablv the sistor of the ..ife mold not have!
loremr!!! 'v.,. ; were there not many oaten that unieht?
Th e was a grown-up ilon,..tfiter. had-she no governess Why
was om ,he l're,•••11 vaiting.tisaid called, who hal consented to
art ~.1 *mix o^1:.-.sion% as the .• tio Ikaween." She might. Ina,
hap L.tr, *Ad the Jury something of the interrupted hap P-
ines , %a. cane,!, of the Imalratal, but statue the Jurz nest
has, • eel) artoit.d at its conclusion long before antain
Welty er had brawlc arquainted with this lady. The lady's
charms. whi:tt had won her husband's airections twenty years
bee ne. had vanished. and misery and distress and Sheraton had
been planted in their place. How fallacious was all the evidence
h.iw httle upon which the lury could trig. The respectable
14.1!.5, who had been called, all stated that etas in autumn last the
appearances of Mrs. Raring to her husbnyid were the sante as
II all was tratmidlilty and happanasa and love, and yet she
perimited a gross assiollneu with the defendant a wrath before.

What right then has any man to infer that his client was the se-
ducer ? The lady was maned in WWI; she was then at least 18
years of age; she Is now on the veree of 10, if, indeed, she has
not passed that matured period of lit The gentleman was con.
sialtrattly under. :to, the younger broilter of Sir viodfrey Webster,
a f'aptm in the ay,
circumstaances of therm case warrant that he shouldpleat, OT
be subjectedth to
and was his guilt so tilde!
heavy damages
, which would
lace his personal liberty foe life
at the mercy of a elan whom he was supposed to have injured?
p
Ile was sashimi to; find out what were the feelings of the husband,
mid with that view he asked tie. 31anslielti, nut whether they ob-
served the common intercourse of life, nor the accidental eircum-
seances of domestic life hot what, in fact, was the conduct of the
plaintiff towards his wife—how he spent his eveitime.; whether
his strong affection had lasted up to the period of the seduction
(for then, indeed, the lons would have been irreparable) ; whether
his attachment had not been abated by former sedur,ws; or whe-
ther, in fart, when he hail been released from the embraces of his
wife. he had lost any thing more than the name. No opportunity
had been aflitsfeal of any examination as to the situation of the
holy before marriage, or any of those circumstances to point out
the extent of the loss which the plaintiff had sustained. No such
evidence had been tendertd 3 and from its having been withheld,
he was sure the Jury would draw the proper inferences. The last
persons in the world likely to hear what WAR going forward
were the sisters of the injured husband ; and yet they were the
only person called to describe the domestic happiness of the
parties. which is now said to have been destroyed by Captain
ebster. It was painful to that Grittleman to be driven to this
I line of defence; it was distressing to hint to come here at all; but
it became the they of his advocate to su?gcst those topics in reply
to a case which had been left so singularly hare of circumstances of
I elucidation. No preett whatever had been adduced as to the period
when the alienation of affections has: taken place; the only time
I even suggested was when Mr. Bering had bonne Member fur
Coldwater; anti them it was stated by his Learned Friend that
his Parliamentszy duties had occasioned him to be absent from
home sometimes for a week, sometimes a fortnight ; ;tut who;
evidence was there to shew when it was that 11r. Webster had
become acquainted with the lady ? None whatever. Even the
French maid was not called to prove it : all was left to MIT-
I mise and conjectore. The letters unquestionably 66 denote t
foregone conclusion," that the panics munt have trespently met a
but under all the probabilities of the case he would ask who was
the seducer ? II is Learned Friend had made use of an expression
not unfrequently introduced into cases of this deseription ; name-
ly, that the lady had been " more sinned agates% than sinning ;"
but if he could borrow the quotation, he veould venture to apply it,
and wioh mush more reason, to his client, Captain Webster. All
evidence hid been most judiciously kept hat k, except those who
were merely able to speak to the superficial appearances of the
drawing-room ; not one word a, to the " secrets of the levee," or
the " mysteries of the lweveloir," or what was going forward on
I throe evenings when the husband had absented himself from home.
Wu this, then, a raw from •
which a Jury could nay that consider. I
able damages should arise ? His Learned Frietal (Mr. Brougham) I
had spoken of Captain Webster, as if lie had imported from foreign
countries some secret spill debauchl the morals of the country :
I it would seem as if he 'had wished tn denounce this gentleman, not
I merely as the first seducer of Mrs. Haring, but as the first trap- I
gressor of this sort in England ; and he called upon the Jury with
an energy as if l'oey were assemblnl to avenge the first inroad upon
the national morals. It wan quite true tint: Captain Webster had
nassed much of his life abroad : he went early in youth to the death
of the war in Spain ; he wan afterward% engaged in the Preach war,
and nobly canted those laurels which he now wore ; but was it not
a hole hard that when a soldier was sent into foreign climes in the
I ISTVICCSIr his country, that e'rcumstance 'Mould be cant against him
as a matter of reproach. But, let the jury ask dowse Ives this
question-11'm it probable that a voting man, introduced igto a
family of the very highest respectability, woutilhare dared to make
advances to the head of that respectable family, if he had nut ye-
nivel some encouragement, to which he was not now allowed to
allude, but which the joie could have ro difficulty to guess ? The
difference of age WAR nothing—the difference of the circumstances
of the parties was everything. llis Learned Friend had said that
Captain Welemer should have previously considered his ability to
pay damages, and, in fact, seemed to look at the case entirely as
If It were a commercial contract. Ilad he been content with stating
it was this young man's duty to have resisted any advances that
meld have affected the honour of the wife of his friend and the
mother of his friend's children, that would indeed have been the
strong ground to have rested the charge upon. These were consi-
derations 'which the criminal ambition of any man could not have
overcome. Who ever dares to commit such an outrage on so-
ciety ? such attempts are out of the teach of youth and passion
itself, unless the wife and the mother forgets the husband and the
children, and makes overtures, to which the impudence of ambition
would never have aspired. It was true she was the mother of live
children, but were not those subjects for her reflection ? ought she
not to have remembered that she had a grown-up daughter.
who has since been married, and who is now, perhaps, herself
the mother of children--that she had a son of an age himself to be
made the subject of a charge of this nature? These are things
which must all have been forgotten by the wife before any man
would dare to emit the sanctuary
.of domestic happiness. No
matter on what terms he might be in the family, or how high a
Sacs he might held in the catalogue of visitors, he would never
have aspired to such en intimacy unless the lady's embraces had
been prepared few his happiness. Ile would tell the Jury fairly,
and be told it with pain, Captain Webster was not in a situation to
pay heavy damage!' • and if it was merely the object of Mr. Dating
to 'tender his character clear and spotless, nothing shaet:d be left
to famine or conjecture. It has been stated that the Injury was
greater because it was the breaking up of an old friendship. He
was ready to admit, that if his client had seduced the lady from the
arms of a long confiding husband, the cane would have been much
worse. as regards the busband,not better as regards the wife; but the
circumstances of the cam clearly demonstrated that the whale loss
the husband has sustained was the being deprived of the appear-
ances of love, by which he had been deceived: Ills Learned Friend
had said, it was the duty of the Jury to give a lesson to others;
that they kept a school for the purpose of teaching patties how to
conduct themselves. But let it be remembered that it was not
merely the school for wives and lovers. but for husbands also;
and when they eo.te before a Jury they mould be pupated to give
a full statement of their own conduct, aild not rest their case upon
the eloquence of their Counsel, however powerhil it may be. Let
the Juicy consider the situation in which the defendant was placed.
Something was due to his character as well as to others : let hint
not be branded as a profligate seducer. He wtnild remind them of
a scene in the most popular of all our comedies, which was not
inapplicable to the present case: it was in The Schoolftr Scandal,
where a conversation takes plate between the two brothers, whilst
Lady Teazle is placed behind the screen. The delilier;te and
hypocritical profligate twits bin brother how he should act in a
case of such difficulty? to which Charles Surface replies, " IV by,
brother, i hope I shall never be such a villain as Aeliberately to'
attempt the honour of a virtuous woman • but, to be candid with
you, I confess if a pretty woman were to throw herself in my way—
why, then, I fear I should be obliged to borrow a little of your
morality." l'nder all the city-eminences, lie could not help think-
in... that the Jury would be of opinion that the conduct of the de-
fendant did not deserve that he should be tonsimted to the pains
and miseries of a protracted imprisonment; but that very mode-
rate dantages would amply satisfy the justice of the case.
The 17 eder Sheriff then told the Jury, that the frequency of
cases of this kind rendered it unnecessary for him to make any
observations on the nature of the question. They hail heard the
evidence, and it would be for them to say, under all the circum-
stance+, what amount ot damarei justice required.
The Jury deliberated the at oat half an hour, and returned a
verdict for the plaintiff—Damages One Thousand Pounds.