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London, England, 1825-01-18 00:00:00

mistress any mover. I never knew *Sic JamerSotewbode (kens-
iris) drive soy master and mistress into the country.
Re-examined by Mr. Cum wow Senoras:T.—Who kept the
key of the cabinet where the paper* were found ? It was never
locked. Ido not know when sty master became a bankrupt. I
had no reason to know that my master was aware that my mistress
bad erased visiting alrs. Kean. Dlr. Warman used to pay his ad.
drewes in Miss Wickstead ; he was received in the house as wait.
Ireton that lady as her suitor.
This was the plaintiff's case.
t.+CAILETT rose to address the Jury on behalf of the de-
fendant. He said he addressed them, with considerable embarrass.
meet, ea the part of his client. He was too well acquainted with
the natureof these causes, and he trusted he was too sensible to
wbat belonged to his own character, ever to attempt to justify or
palliate the conduct which had been imputed to Mr. Kean. Mhe •
thus his Learned Friend was correct when be said the morality of
the times was more relaxed than in former days, lie could not de-
e-ate ; but he was himself inclined to think., that the morality of :
that age was as good as any that has gone before, and that the sense
0' propriety on the part of the people, as regarded tloir conduct in
the several relations of domestic life. was as strong. notwithcano-
tog the frequency of the actions. and of the circumstances which
these actions exhibit to the world. lint he had another opinion.
and that opinion he should give without any reserve. and besged
the Gentlemen of the Jury would bear it along with thent in their
consideration of this case; it was this—that when a plaintiff came
into a court of justice to ask a compensation in damages for the iu-
jury he has sostatoed front an offence like this, anti which offence
all mankind must condemn, then the question avatmea a very dif-
ferent shape, and it is not at all mixed up with morality, but de-
pending altogether upon circumstances ; and the damages should
be measured by the amount of injury he had sustained. Ilia
Learned Friend had described Mr. keen as • man who had at-
tained to great eminence in his profession, a scholar, a man of ex.
termite knowledge, and in short a man of genius; but all this in-
volved his case in greater difficulty, as he was also • public man, ,
and felt deeply the calamity of this action, and which made it
important& for him to take that line of defence which would entitle
bin, in a verdict. He wished the plaintiff had thought it proper—
be wished he had been advised, when determining on the present
Kenai. not to have selected, if his object acre what he CUL Scar-
lett) understood it was, to obtain a legal separation from his %lief'
he could earnestly have wished. that lie had been induced not to
have selected one on whom a verdict of almost any kind would
have such an effect on his future fame, and his very prospects of
holding on in his profession (peculiar as it was in its dependence
on the Korai opinion of the world), as on the present defendant.
Surely one out of the many lovers of his wife might have been
found, on whom a verdict would not have been so serious a visite-
tonas on his client. It is on account of this peculiar circumstance
that he felt such considerable embrorwarnent in c inducting the
defendant's cane; for did not the Jury feel, that if he were to per-
mit it to be Paid that such a man as Mr. Kean had been accused of
a crime against the institutions of society—that of betraying his
friend and seducing his wife—and had then sought to defend him-
self in a court of justice, by violating a woman's confidence,
that the consequences would net terminate with their verdict, but
that it would follow lino through lire? At the same time they
could not hot perceive. that Mr. Cox had exercissal much skill,
care, and he would say cunning, in getting up this ease, by which
every means of affording information as to the real character of the
plaintiff's wife had been kept back, by which his Counsel might
have shown whit were the actual terms on which those parties
loved together, before the intimacy of the unfortunate defendant
with thin lady of mature age commenced. How was it. that not
one individual who knew the early history of these parties—not one
cammon acquaintance of hers, had been called, to show how
mach she deserved, and how much the plaintiff deserted from
the hands of a Jury this day? His Learned Friend telt,
that tf the defendant's Counsel was driven to mart to the
oily defence in his power, that of making known the contents
Of the letter* in his possession (and which he should at once say lie
t'.d not iatend to do!, his Learned Friend then gave himself this
torsi —that the defendant, after seducing the plaintiff's wife, and
haviag mailed himself of all the communications made by her in
the unreserved and unsuspicious confidence of a woman, whose
affections he hail gained over to himself, comes into Court, for the
purposes of betraying that confidence, and saying—l have proofs
within my reach that will show you are not deserving of any do.
wages at the hands of a Jury, fur that I can establish your infamy
by means furnished by yourself. This was a strong hold that Ilia
Learned Friend sought for, knowing very well that such a course
would inevitably do more iniury to the defendant's Cause than even
their verdict could inflict. For, hawa,ce great might be the emi-
nence of 3lr. Kean—however conspicuous his powers--transeer-
dant his genius, and however much might he his fame, yet all de-
pend soon the avour and estimation of the public; and we were
not living in an age when the principles of morality were relaxed, or
the virtues of dorutatic life discouraged. Wean knew what was that
public, how its feelings were in accordance with tee higher
principles of our nature; and that it would not countenance or
connive at a gross violation of those principles by any man,
Bowater splendid might be his talents or universal his fame.
The Jury would observe the caution of his Learned Friend in
conducting this cause ; so great was that caution, that lie Fe-
gassed to leave the case here, incomplete as it was, rather than
call a witness to speak to the fact, which he would have the Jury
so set upon. He would have them to inter what he ought to
have proved, and to give him the credit for all that he haul
railed to establish by evidence. But he (Mr. Scarlett) felt confi-
dent in saying that the Jury had not a right to infer that any one
ei the letters which had been put in by his Learned Friend, and
read, was addressed to Mrs. Cox. His Learned Friend might
hare called some potion to prove that some of these letters
were addressed to her. But no, this he had not done; and the
%/cry were left altogether to coojecture, to matter of inference,
aid to take it as a fiict,that letters addressed to Mrs. Allen, to "L. It."
arid to "Mr*. Little Breeches," and many of them unsigned, were
addressed by 31r. Kean to Mrs. Cox ; and this his Learned Friend
tad declined doing, in order to drive him to do so, that he may
ervel at will in a reply. But had it been proved that any one of
tl,e ripers now produced were found by Mr. Cux in the cabinet that
aAs never locked ? No, not one of them was found there, and yet
the Jury were to infer from•the pretty maid's testimony,—she who
sweet into her master's dressing-room early in the morning, when
he had his gown and cap on,—they were to infer that all these
letters were found in an unlocked cabinet, and delivered up to
Mr. Coles, tied with red tape—Mr. Coles, who sued out two writs
son the same day for a similar cause of action, at the suit of the pre.
senophantiff. But it was not only not in evidence that .31r. Cox
ever did find these papers in Mrs. Cox's cabinet, but there is the
strongest grounds for believing that lie never did ; for, if he had,
would he not have called this maid-servant of his, and said to her,
" Here, take notice, here are letters which I have discovered in
your mistress's drawer, and which fact you may be one day
called on to prove ; therefore take notice that such letters
were found by roe in such a.place on such a day 1 Such would
have been the plaintiff's conduct had the letters really been found
thy him as he would have the Juty to infer. But pray what right
had any one to call on a Jury who sit in a Court of Justice on their
oaths to give a verdict according to the evidence—what right had
any one to call on such a body to infer that certain letters were ad-
dressed to Mrs. Cox, when no evidence was adduced of that fact ;
but that everything he spoke to the contrary to be the case ? He
would admit there was one letter addressed to Mrs. Cox where these
occurrect a quotation which he should think a man of Mr. Bean's
taste would not have quoted twice to the same lady. But the Jury
were told that this woman, who was cunning enough to 'delude her
husband for years, and to impose on him an opinion of her fidelity
that would admit of no suspicion—this woman who had gained such
an ascendancy over his mind as to lull asleep every faculty of com-
mon watchfulness and prudence, that yet she was silly enough to
leave all these precious documents, whose value were now esti-
mated at some hundreds of pounds by the plaintiff, in a cabinet
that was never locked. Ibis Learned Friend had put in a letter
addressed to Mr. ('ox by Mr. Kean, making some allusion to what
had passed between them at Salisbury, and he had put in another
letter which he said was addressed to Mrs. Cox on the sante day,
apprising her that such a letter as the former had been written to
her husband, and that she was to art in acquiescence with its con.
tent*. But what was the effect of this ? His Learned Friend had
placed himself in this predicament,—that of exposing his client to
the suspicion that these letters had been long known to him, if ad-
dressed to his wife, or, if not addressed to his wife, that he had ob.
'mined them from some other source, in order to make up this case.
His Learned Friend had said this, that he was.to have the benefit
of the Jury's good-natured conjecture, that these letters were ad.
dressed to the wife of his client ; knowing that the only means the
defendant has of meeting the contents of those letters, is by an act
that would incur more injury to his name than any consequences
that may flow from this action. Upon this nccount he could not,
nor was he authorised to betray one single letter from that lady.
Whatever might be his fate, or however serious the effects of •his
forbearance, he could not forfeit his honour by betraying the confi-
dence ot's woman, and for this honourable conduct he must claim
pt their hands the benefit of that abstinence, and that they would,.
view with the strictest scrutiny the proof that the letters now read
were ever addressed as contended for. In this determination he
boarlett) thought Mr. Kean did right, and in hiesentimente
upon that subject tie so fully concurred, that he would add his
earnest prayer that they would not suffer these letters, under such
doubtful circumstances, to weigh upon their minds, without every
inquiry as to whom they were addressed; and, if addressed
to Mrs. Cox, at what period they ea into his posses-
Won. If these were the letters addressed e plaintiff's wife,
how came it that Mr. Common Sergeant did prove it ?—why,
he would tell them why. It was sometimes convenient for tounsel
to leave their cases so threadbare of proof, and to rest so much upon
tuference, because were they to resort to stronger evidence, they
wand, at the same time, famish to the defendant's Counsel ample
materials for a defence out of the very testimony that a cross.exa-
bastion would extract from their own witnesses ; and, therefore,
to guard against this, the plaintiff's Counsel had here left his ease
upon conjecture. But one fact, however, was not a conjectotte ; the i
worthy apothecary, up to the time he visited Mr. CAM as a friend, '
swore that he alwsyl observed the same kind and of letionste atter.
lion on the part of the husband to the wife as be ever had done, sad
this was very recently indeed. When was it that Mr. Cox knew of
this correspondence??—no precise time had been stated ; that also
was left to conjecture ; but if he intended to go to a higher tribunal,
and expected to obtain a divorce, he must show the precise time
when his suspicions were first excited, and that, on that awakening
suspicion in his mind, lie immediately pursued a course consistent
with the feelings of a man who was jealous of his honour and
anxious to stand right in the eyes of the world ; for it would not
do in the House of Lords to state the matter in so vague and loose
a manner as to require a wide and liberal stretch of presumption
and inference for the purpose of making out his case. He hoped
the Jury would not be led to infer, that all that was hid would, if
loom), lie favourable to the plaintiff and prejudicial to the dein-
dant. This was a strange COPTS C for Jhries to be rolled upon to

i.