The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1806-06-30 00:00:00

LAW INTELLIGENCE.

OURT OF KING'S-BENCII, WtsrmiNstes, Jowl 28.
Sittiast at Nisi Prim., 4/Lre lord Chief justice EL‘
L ENSOROUGN.
SEDUC F

NARRIS O. CLEMENT BRIGGS. !Sq.
This was an illaion brought by a father against
his Daughter's Seducer. to recover d compensation
in damages for the injury .he had sustained in the
loss of her services, s!-..e having become pregnant.
Sir VICAR Y Giens, on behalf of the Plaintiff,

addressed the Jury in an eloquent and impressive
speech. He said he appealed to them as fathers,
in behalf of a parent 'chose hopes in his only daugh-
ter had been destroyej, and the remainder of his
life rendered a burthen to him, by the arts and se-
duClive influence of one whose education and sphere
of life should have possessed him with better morals.
The Plaintiff was a butcher and little farmer, at the
town of Ragland, in Monmouthshire, and had butone
son, and one daughter, in whom were centered all the
comforts and happiness of his old age, and a more
virtuous, •well-conduEled girl, did not exist. The
Defendant was a gentleman of considerable pro-
petty, the son of the late Sir John Briggs, and te-
'idA with his mother, Lady Briggs, in the same
neighbourhood. The daughter of the Plaintiff, at
the time the Defendant became acquainted with her,
which was in consequence of his employing the fa.
ther in some agricultural concerns, was between
seventeen and eighteen years of age, of correCt mu-
rals, and of an unsuspeding disposition. The De-
fendant frequently came to her lath: r's hcuse, and
in the course of time an intimacy grew up between
them. One day, in the month of December, 18G.1,
she was sent by her father to a neighbouring market,
and the Defendant obtaining knowledge of the faS,
met her in her way home in the evening. It was
nearly dusk, and he offered to see her home, observ-
ing that it was improper she should walk by herself.
She consented to his accompanying her, and leading
her from the public high-road into a retired lane, he
prevailed over her vittue, and effeeted that ruin
which the Plaintiff complained of. I'he Defendant

SSW her frequently afterwards, and the bonds of
virtue once separated, he arade an ersy and a Ming
conquest of her person. The consequence was, that
the girl grew with child, and her maternal parent
finding it out, the father turned her from his home;
and, in the bitterness of grief and disappointment,
vented a curse upon the head of his child. But
as the affef‘ions of a parent for a beloved child will
prevail over every tither feeling, he retrafted his
curse, and again received her to his bosom, in the
hopes of rescuing her from future violation. Not
satisfied with the ruin of the daughter, the Defend-
' ant threw out aspersions against the unhappy parent's
charafter, and insulted him by letters, offering pecu-
niary atonement for the wrongs he had committed,
assuring him that it was not the least of her suffer-
ings that she had offended so good a parent, and
expressing a hope that they might be on as friendly
terms as ever. To the girl herself he wrote,
slandering her patents, endeavouring to persuade
her not to attend to their admonitions or advice,
and enticing her again to forsake the paths of virtue.
The Plaintiff was infk-xible, and the young wo-
man went to the house of her aunt, where she was
delivered of a kale/lit/4 the Defeuaant undertakiog
to pay half a guinea a week during her confinement,
to this their common friend. Bnt the girl, desirous
of retrieving her former good character, and anxi-
ous once more to gain the affection of her father,
refused all further conneflion with the Defendant,
and intreated that he would discontinue his disho-
nourable nip Itun t es. This so displeased the De-
fendant, that he eau illy put the poor girl to the
disgrace of making an oath f affiliation in the pre-
sence of a Magistrate, b fore he would pay the
small pittance he had agreed to give the aunt for
supporting, her dining her confinement. the Plaint-
iff, after a time, and at th-. soncitatiosis of her mo-
thee, took back Lis daughter, and brought this aftion
for the injury su•!ained in his domestic comforts.
The Learned Counsel again appealed to the Jury as
fathers, and regretted that the Legislature had nut
made it criminal for a man to destroy the peace and
happiness of a family in the way he had described ;
but, he said, it tle.'y were already shocked at the
Defendant's multi.% they would be more so, ellen
he told them that the Defendant had insulted the
ruin he had occasioned, since the eaten had been
brought. The girl was waiting with th- other wit-
nesses, in a neighbouring coffee-house (Oiiver's) on
Thursday last, when the Defendant went up to her,
and, in tire presence and heating of her father,
and of many strangers, demanded a sort
of cm-Jen:vino with her, observing " that he
had kept her, and surely had a right to speak to
a woman he had had a child by." He trusted
that fait would weigh with the Jury as an aggra.
vation of the Defendant's condufi, and increase
these damages the Plaintiff demanded at their hands,
and which wan the only remedy the law had pointed
out, to meet so serious and distressing an injury.
Os the part of the Plaintiff, Elizabeth Harris,
his only daughter, swore, that about 4 years ago,
the Defendant came to reside at Ragnor, and having
employed her father about some buildings he was
erefbng, he had frequent opportunities of seeing
her, but never paid her any particular attention be-
fore her parents. She was then about eighteen
years of age. In the month of December, 1803, as
she was returning from market, about air o'clock in
the evening, she met the Defendant, who asked her
what kept her out so I it..? adding, that her father
was gone home before her. He then persuaded
her to turn into a bye-road with him, where he took
indecent liberties with her; and, in short, effilted his
purpow. They had frequent opportunities of seeing
each other afterwards, particularly on Saturdays,
when her father and mother went to market ;
and, upon these occasion!, a familiar intercourse
took place. These interviews continued for up-
wards of sixteen months, when she became
pregnant, and near lying in, when her mother
discovered it, and she was removed to her aunt's,
about half a mile distant, where, after remaining
about three weeks, she was brought to bed of a
dead child. It had been previously agreed, that the
Defendant was to pay half a guinea per week to
her aunt for attending her. but this he afterwards
declined doing. till she should swear before a Ma-
gistrate that the child was hid. tier father after-
wards took her home, on condition that the never