The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1819-08-07 00:00:00

1-A. • •

i• DEVONSHIRE ASSIZES,

TUZSDAT, AiIOI7ST 3.
STAZ o. ICAMNILL.

Mr. Serjeant PILL stated this to be an action
broight to recover damages for • most base awl
uniestitiable libel. The plaintiff, Sophia Stak.
usak a young woman Daly 22 or 29 years of age, of
ti• moot irreproachable character—and though re.
anted by neeesaity to the nitration of a dontrotir in
the family of the Defendant, " once had friendA,
a,oi fortune smiled dereitfol on her birth." She

was. indeed, descended from • most respectable fa-
mily, and her connexions were still of a grade in
rife much superior to that which she heal been come
veiled to till. The Defendant was a professional
main, residing at Plymouth. Up to the middle of
bast %say, her service apparently had been as grate-
ful to her master, as it had been-creditable to hef-
tier. It was painful to be obliged to detail family
but it was his duty in allude to such
r,•arnsiances where the case demanded his doing so.
About that time, then, suspicions which had exist-
eat of an improper intimacy between the Defendant
HMO ‘1 female of the name of Wright. who resided
P,is house, had ripened into such a certainty, ac
ssee!nerl to the virtuous mind of the Plan o& iiii-
r.striee on her immediately to quit her sem' ice.—
S'.l- left it accordingly ; and it we. on this occiciion
tam the Defendant published the libel fur which
he now addressed himself to the Jury for ma Jule-
qiiate reparatian. could that indeed ever be made
for the loss of character which the charge of theft
I. ...re to occasion—where, as in the present case,
issorr.'ester ia betrayed by poverty to the merciless
revenge of malice. Without the slightest reason,
Itie I)ef.-lid:int had dared to publish of the Plaintiff
she following false mid scandalous hand-bill, which
he circulated most extensively:—
" Plymouth, May 20-61. Reward.
tt Whereas Sophia Sisk, ray servant, aiosocuudrd from my
ho.s.e yesterday evening, and is aappused to have stolen
...sue of my elite, whoever shall apprehend the said Sophia
tit;sk shall, upon her conviction, receive the above aum of
Nhe is ahont fro years of agr, atuut, and fresh coloured ,
a hu. ter barbs-um her shall be prosecuted according to law:,

And what was the suspicion which had excited
this most gross outrage on her unsullied char:icier ?
The Defendant charged her with 'stealing two silver
sorsons, when, with the confidence of 1111110CCIIVIP.
.he offered lwrself before the Mayor of Plymouth,
arid demanded to know the grounds of such base
si•nt Crtse aper.iatis, the Defendant did nut dare to
atternet to prosecute his charges. The spoons, it
v•r,,sid he proved, were afterwards found its the De-
fendant's' own house. The blow, however, had
heed 'struck : no innocence could save her : she
wot to offer herself to service—she was rejected
wd is ilisdaiii—she was even driven from the house
v!:iere she had retired on leaving that of Scummy!,
wolf every mark of painful degrade. . Above
all, she rxtreriencerl that moat °pressure of miseries
—the being pointed at by every finger, as the pro-
chinned and proscribed thief—the object at once of
runral abhorrence and of legal vengeance. The
Learned Counsel concluded, slier a few more obser-
vations. a most animated address to the Jury, by
calling his witnesses.
The first was an officer in the Mayor's Court,
Plymouth. lie remembered the Plaintiff and
Defendant being both present before the Mayor on
1,.e Y9ah of May last. The former had been
charged by the bitter with stealing his spnoos. The
hand-Intl in question was shewis to the Defendant,
co that occasion, by his attorney ; Defesidant said
1! was printed at his request. It had been stuck
e:anit the town of Plymouth. Plaintiff gave her.
f cp : she was not iii the custody of a coirstisble.
S'.•sitirtsel said he had last two spoons. Plaintiff
dells d having taken them. Witness searched her
ladgings. but could not find them. He accused
her ahsconding from Isis 'service : she replied,
that he had bad inierconrse with another women iii
the absence of his wife, and that she left his service
miWy on that account.
On Isis cross-examination he said, that he must
have known if any one had taken her in custody ;
that lie did not recollect the Plaintiff's charging her
sib taking away her trunk through is WilidtiW, or
of his rettinidiog her that he had forbidden her to go
that. evewing.

A young lady, of a very respectable appearance,
remembered Plaintiff 's applying to be taken into
her service on the 9,2,1- of May last. She had de-
<Aisle(' her offer on account of her being accused of
theft.

Another *hues'. Sontberlatitis. slot that the
Pluouliff dent at hos Moose when she (PSI led Setirn
owl's armee. hut that he had ordered her to leave
it for several re.isoos. One was, that he isms liable
to si inosecv for keeping her ; moodier was. that
tie did out elsuulie to harbour it thief. and that lie
taut reason to fear he should offend St.ininiel.

Cart i ; !!! e Frvir resided 111 the Deleonlant's house
at the time Plaintiff was there. In ',Mot of fart,
ik.:tew the trwhe of her gaunt. hut does not think
that her intention was knowa to the Defendant.
The tatter ordered her mint to go ; he told her that
as she had eitcleivoured to rum I • and Mrs.
Wright. he would give her a charaet.r The wit-
ine44 said", she went away at the same time. and did
slot return. The Plaintiff' often c planted to her
of the Def-sidant'st cruelty to attempting to take
away her charnel. r. by saying she hail stolen plate ;
%mover lett her itlsce nit account al a circumstance
which had happeord oil the Solidity, the sante
which was the cause of the Planitifregoing away.
The hand-hill was here put isind read. and Mr.
ARtsis made a very isigeriouis defence. Admitting
the Defendant In be the author and publisher of
the Ithrif as it was galled, he Itepaaltht theJtrry to
consoler. whether lie aiNS not rally justified w can.:
is the public attention to the opisrelisittaint of o I
servant, rsaannalrly obnoxious to the suspicion of
having pilfered his properly. A second charge was
spittle against the Defendant. as a support to the
altanitl the lira fats—that without ally rem-
bossuble Or probable cause. lie maliciously accused
the Plaintiff, before the Mayor, of having stolen
bis property. The Jury *mild he tali. however,
itost this omit lie proved to have been throe without
any reasonable or probable cause: that it was done
rictliciously. would smut be suffiritiit fur the nodose.
filucg hail hero said of her situation in life ; lint it
must be considered. before complaint is so loudly
made of her character bring injured, whether she
has herself done any thwg to impost:li. to comprd-
loCH. that character. The spoons, it was Plated. hod
been found rubsepiently. The apprentice-girl was i
called : why was she nut estaatiaed to this ? The

I rlaiutiff bad quitted her service in • dander.
tine atannrr sale was forbidden to do so. The
imitent she was guise, he found that there were
two spoons missing ; what. then. could be more:
reasonable than the supposioion, that as stir lid bad
the custody of them, and had decamped in such a
clandestine manner, she hail taken them with her ?
It was by no means to be inferred from the charge
being dismissed when before the Magistrate, that
such probable otiose did not exist. In the
of irritation nt briny accused of aii impropre
nutty with Mrs. Wright. was it so tiloisforal for
him to use something of the sort of violent kn.!
IglinKe, when speaking of the Plaiotiff ? This,
without recourse to worse motives, would auentiatt
for and 'militate what had been said by Defendant.
The apprentice girl was called, who 'stowed that
the Plaintiff's box was given her out of a window;
that her master told witness he,missed taro small.
spoons and some salt-spoons immediately otter.
wards. She said, she had lost seen them for • long
time before; that he was not its the habit of using
them ; that she told her [mister three out of the five
spoons in use were iii the cupboard, and that she
had washed the other two in the morning for the
use of tile frmily. She.was present when Plaintiff'
packed no her box ; there *a* torn 110 lilliaduw of
suspicion that she had stolen any thing.
Mr. Serjeant PELL, in it must animated reply,
denominated this es one of the most striking to.
stances he remembered of plicated cruelty and
false! 1. Ile entreated the Jury, as far as da-•
magei eOlll4 effect the purpose, to vindicate the
Plosintiff's character, to mark their abhorrence of
the Defendant's conduct, mid to afford another in.
stance of the noble purposes a Jury serves, when
they apply their understandings in favour of justice
and of right. G‘ I have perhaps imprudently de-
scribed her as well conoected : how oinks all
honour to be derived from family into insignili-
CaliCe, 111 comparison of that exaltation of character
to which a young person entitles herself, by such
a strong moral feeling as was ahewn by the Plaintiff
here. It was objected to her, that she went nut of
the house clandestinely. It was the part of every
virtuous woman, tender such circumstances, if the
door were shut on her, to go out of the window."—
The Learned Gesitleman here commented on the
evidence very forcibly. She hid herself at Souther-
land's three nights; but she was obliged to quit
her asylum there. She was without a friend in the
world but Zile Judge and Jury, who were that day
to restore her to friends—character—to life itself;
taken from her bait bad been, when malice denied
her the means whereby to live. What probable
cause was there for the Defendant's conduct ? I
will tell you, Gentlemen; it is given you by him-
self. What does he say to her at her departnre ?
II As you have attempted to ruin me and Mr.
Wright, I will give you a character." This, and
this only, el:lorded it clue to unravel the infamous
tronsactarm. Guardians of the public morals, it
well became a Jury to visit with the extreinest
vengeance ill the law ac l like this. Whatever
were the damages, however, the injury exceeded re-
paration, in the same manlier as imputation out-
lives vindication ; and to spite of the acquittal of is
Jury, inventive scandal will still he found ready to
adopt the recollection of the unfounded charge, and
to point the shaft barbed with this mortal venom
against her purr and unsullied character.
Mr. CAM' GRAHAM ably summed up the evi-
dence to the Jury. He observed, that absconding
seemed to insinuate a flying from jurtice—an at-
tempt to eat from its reach. Was this the case •
here, where the Plaintiff was seen to have voltin•
tardy ourrendered herself ? The Learned Judge very
strongly alluded to the presence of the Defendant,
when the Plaintiff was present before the Mayor,
and his sull'r•ring her to be discharged without fol-
lowing up his accusation with a prosecution. ;
There Was not a tittle of evidence to 11111Vr ally
thing lost even. The whole appeared to larn an
inexcusable attempt to ruin a young person's cha-
recter,
and thereby to cover the infamy of one
crime by the commission of another. _

The Jun• returned their verdict immediutely—
D2ninges gOOl.

Matthew Martin, the matt committed to New-
gate for felony, belongs to the Ist regiment of Gre-
stuffier Gleards, and not the Ist Dragoon Guards,
as stated in The British Press of the 5111 inst.

An article dated into, July 24, in reference to
the recent t vents of Cadiz, states, that 4. the chiefs
of the conspiracy had been erunined, and divulged
every circunl.tal.ce they knew respecting it, with
the names of the agents of corruption who had ;teen
rtriplest,esl to make theta betiff their tillegmtsce and
rl•etr lisisg. A pretty consitleraltlr oninber of the
issli.dr:i.osts of Colts have bern ■erected. sold it hap
hero dento::•initrd, built by their avowals and the
eitaniination •,f their !wisest'. 111.41 the conspiracy had
foreigp ramifications, evs-ti if,e first project did not
emanate front n foreign ,mete."

Saiisfaciiiry minim" hate been received from
New South ICsle., of the manner lo which the con-
vien were conv-yed in the five .hips (viz. A./Mere:4
Lady Costiereug4. Guildford. Atm,me, owl B 1.•
saeia) which lately sailed from thiv corlotry to that
igitit 'pent. "l'hey hail on bond 1,030 pun/tiers,
a whom only tiro died oil their linvvit;:e.
We have received New Orleuna Vipers to the
18th of Julie. 111 fr regret to tins in them a Pro-
clomothm by the Goat,. or Loniviiina, in which
Ilia F.scelleticy pates. that from information he has
uhfuttutsately received. he Iles reason to believe that
the yellow fever actually exist% in the porta of the.
Hammett end Vera Cruz; and he therefore order?
that all vessels, whatever may be their fiatttre or
description, arriving. farm the said ports, shall be
subject, previous to their heitig admitted intriany
putt or harbour of Louisiana, to perform quarantine.
We learn fruits Blackburn, that a man stonier!'
Apasisoti (whir cut a eump:tuout tieore at time
RefOtaii Alerting lately held in that town: WAS ary
preliesided imasedistely after addressing seditious
and ;Ai tttt u3for/ latigoolge.,lo a number of
dusk. who Were collected together in the neighbour-
hood of Burolry, for the purpose of &idiot; the de,
signs of dime who.- under pretence of obtaining u
Reform Pi Par livmelit.are atiem:/lieg tot:obvert the
Constitution mid Law's of this ADAMSON
hail been Innaly employed collecting small contri-
bulimia from the fleinded people. Ile was imme-
diately conveyed before the Magistrates, mid com-
mitted to the Comity Gaol. Several important du-
cements, It is eau!, were found iu Ines possession.—
(arising Paper.)