The Sun.
London, England, 1852-07-30 00:00:00

ment, as the horrors, related in the richest nigger style,
are as good as a pantevaime, and to be chary in giving
credence to the astounding and horrified details with
which Box Brown overwhelms his wide naouthed and
wonder-gaping audiences. A gentleman present asked
Mr. Box Brown what part of Virginia' The Disinal
Swamp' was in. Well, he daint sadly know—taint
somewhere in de middle of de State." But,' continued
the interrogator, is it not on the borders of North and
South Carolina?' Well, ho daint know; you might put
it in Carolina, but he taut it was iu Virginny: Much
laughter followed this confab, but, after that section of
the exhibition was over, the proprietor said, There wad
a swamp in Virginia, but not the Dismal Swamp,, a
fact, we
presume, which may be predicated of elery
State in the Union. Such is the character of the pano-
rama, and we deeply regret that the public should be
gulled by that which can only give them a very partial,
unfair, and decidedly false view of Awerican slavery.
The bondage of slavery is very bad, and the princii;le
wicket enough, without evoking from tho hottornle,s
pit shades dark and
glooraY, and auxiliary horrors to
dress up and horrify with this foul blot on the star-
spangled banner."

On the 24th of the same month the following ap-
peared, and this was the second libel complained of.—
" THE NIGGER PANGRAmi.,.—It, is gratifying to hear
that the good sense and discrimination of the inhabitants
of Wolverhampton have led them to bestow such an
amount of patronage on this vile caricature of American
scenery as its inherent worthlessness and disgusting
exaggeration so absolutely deserved. We learn from
our reporters, for we have not returned a second time to
witness so foul a calumny in colours on the slaveholders
of the Southern States, that the nightly attend esco has
been meagre in the extreme, and that a beggarly ac•
count of empty boxes,' has contrasted strangely with
that in which the celebrated Box Brown played, with
.ludicrous and semiebaboonish agility, his nocturnal an-
tics, to the delight and merriment of the juvenile raga
muffins, who for the most part make up the darkey'e'
audiences. As we may be thought to strain a point
against the bejewelled and oily negro, whose obese and 1
comfortable figure and easy nonchalance remind one of
various good things and sumptuous living at the ex-
pense of those whose marvel-loving developments have
been called into ' lively exercise' by the terrible won-
ders of this sea-serpent-surpassing and fire-and-brim-
stone-smacking exhibition, we will give an extract or
two from Mr. Brown's lecture, and leave our readers to
judge of its eloquence, poetry, and truth.' Speaking of
alaveholders, Mr. Brown says that a part of them give
their slaves money to buy rum to get drunk on the
Sunday, in order to prevent them from attend-
ing a place of worship; that others preach to them on a
Sunday, like his own master did every Sunday morning,
as follows:—' My dear brederen, the white man was made
by Gor Amity with sish white, dolekit hands that he saw at
once he was not fit nor able to work, and he therefore made
the blackman to work for dem, but the bleckman were
soidle he no work, and Gor Amity give him a whip to
make him work, cos he was such a nasty idle nigger ho
no work. But ho could no work with his hands, and in
answer to the prayer of the white man, Gor Amity sent
a shovel and a hoe, and I shall sing a song about it
gemmen and ladies, dat is ladies and gemnien, at de close
—a shovel and a hoe in a bag, so dat de damn'd isle
nigger should hab no scuze for not working." Now,
den, dere's a pretty master for you. Dere be odors at
dis moment who put de slaves on de tresdwheel, and keep
dem at work 14 hours a day, only allowing of them one
minute in every hour to rest, and if dey grow feint or
tired, and leab off or fall off de wheel, den dey break
deir ankles. Den dare is de burning of slaves to death
for stealing, and den beating dem with hard wood bored
troo wid holes, which city put into bilin hot water, and
slap do buttocks of do female slaves till dey are ono mass
of bery great big blisters as big as fingers and turns. Den
dere is de wippin with do lash till the blood bathes the
ground, and dey swim in it, and den the brine in which
they cure de bacon el dere back. Like an old-fashioned
beefsteak is de parson's face when he preaches to de
slaves, and like it will dey be roasted in the fire, and be
done infernally brown. Such is a verbatim specimen of
the lecture, whose unadorned eloquence' and poetry melt
all. eyes to rivulets, and whose truth and pathos make a
Niobe of every schooless daughter of the slums and
alleys. The fact is that, bad as slavery is, the condition
of the American slave generally is infinitely superior to
many of our agricultural and even our bettornied slaves,
and all reliable testimony corroborates it; but that the
principle of slavery is bad, vile, and abominable enough
in itself, there can be no question. Supernumerary hor-
rors are not wanted to add to its inhumanity and un-
christian character; and, as a reverend friend of ours
says in speaking of this subject, all exaggeration in de-
picting the evils of slavery should be avoided; they are
bad enough in themselves, without attempting to make
them worse than they really are. To caricature the
devil is the surest way to destroy all faith in his exist-
ence.' It would be difficult to make any setisible man
believe that slaveholders would destroy their valuable
property in the barbarous ar.d develishwan depicted by
the self. styled ' American Kossuth,' Box Brown, simply
for the indulgence of a vicious propension or a contemp-
tible and inhuman tyranny."
The effect of these publications was to drive the plaintiff
from Wolverhampton, where his receipts began to fall
away iinmediately after the publication of the first libel;
he had previously been in the habit of receiving from 501.
to 701. a week.
The plaintiff himself was examined as a witness; and,
though his dress was rather fine, and be displayed some
.
jewellery about his person, his manner of giving evi-
donee was quiet and creditable, and his pronunciation
altogether very correct. A schoolmaster at Wolver-
hampton, who had visited and admired the plaintiff's
panorama, was also examined, and stated that the plain
tiff, in delivering his lecture, did not speak in the ridi-
culous manner imputed to him by the libels.
Mr. Sergeant MILLER addressed the jury for the de -
fondant, and urged upon theta that the alleged libels did
not exceed the reasonable and fair limits of criticism
upon a very trashy and mischievous exhibition. It was
part of the duty of the press to guard the public, and
especially the young and ignorant, from such exagge-
rated, preposterous, and, to a certain extent, indecent ex.
hibitions, as this panorama evidently was.
The Learned JUDGE, in summing up, observed to the
jury that the question was whether these two publica-
tions came within the limits of reasonable and taut cri-
ticism; and he advised them, is considering that ques-
tion, not to scan too nicely the language used with re-
gard to the panorama itself, because it was important
that the right of public criticism upon books or other
works should not be fettered or restricted; but when
they found observations made upon personal character
they must weigh them with mono rigour, because no
man ought to attack the character of another without
taking the utmost care to ascertain that he was right.
The jury found a verdict for the plaintiff—damages.
1001.
Two causes only remain to be tried, and the criminal
business has been completely disposed of.
July 29.
Mr. Baron Alderson bed disposed of the two remain-
ing causes by the middle of the. dayainad of and
tthheusultderlamnid-
nated the business of these Assizes,Circuit.

WESTERN CIRCUIT.—Exeter, July 28.
(Sittings at the Guildhall, boor() Mr. Baron MARTIN.)
Andrew Heath was indicted for the wilful murder of
Elizabeth Heath, his wife, on the 11th of June lasr., at
the parish of St. Mary's? Major, Exeter.
Mr. Lopes and Mr. Kingdoa were counsel for the pro-
secution; Mr. Ring and Mr. Sparkes defended the pri-
soners - - - _ _ _

p e
aThere ft
Jae. oat:
tohfet
ph
ri si s co aeseer
wwaesr ea
fashwoeamnalkesran, PliveloglL wait%
his wife iti Preston-street, Exeter; they had three chil-
dren, and it appear° l had not lived happily tog ether for
som e time, frequent quarrels taking place between
there.
On the 7th of June a woman named Goss, who
lived near the prisoner, heard them quarrelling ioently
and heard the prisoner say to his wife that he would
murder her, and should be hung for it. The witne: a
spoke to him, and said he ought to be ashamed to use
his wife so, when ho abused her. Shortly afterwards
she saw the deceased at the window with her infant in
r aide, crying for
her arms and another child by he
mercy, and the prisoner near her,
with a poker in his
hand raised as if to strike. She afterwards saw the
poor woman in the street with her children, begging her
husband to let her in; he was abusing her and using
bad language. On the
er next day she again h
say to eard guar-
prison frequently his
re
wifell that
inanhde board
d tberder her. She went up into the pri-
soner's room, and remonstrated with him for ill-using his
wife, when he abused her, and ran after her with a
knife, and said be would rip her guts out if she inter-
fered. Another wdoipmnga airnb, namedoyf
hbeerlbellows
wiDtsho riank ,phoepoker
e hr a deposedin
ud ,
leis
seeingoiasn hdaher
ed
rt.
the deceased at the idow of her room on the 7th
neighbours aid she
was
June. She
aidfSewhpeausthahedtearbahead out of
witht
cutne window and pointed tO
the
ed
pbolekeedri,ya,
nsday
fur-
thering
oonwaeaasit because she had asked for
Betweenhea;
d
hddYou whore,bt Pll be your butcher,"
.hb,eeTrr
hloiesewfatinisd.t ewtmhHhapatelte:,seae
iwhdhah,adis,e,
a the
and tried to strike her again, defended herself
with
quint
going
inthethat dayprisoner's
s oa
en
edethe
room,lotl andf re-
in heard the woman cryieg tor
prisoner being remonstrated with
mercy. On the
wished she was dead,
twheentgatlolo gallows
the fhorouhseer,
ahekicking up such a hubbub he
a left temple,
Aand he did not mind going to
woman named Sprague also
and seeing a wound on the poor
woman'
let me put a
. , ~ _poultice on." The prisoner was there, and
saut, Serve her right; she shall have worse if she does
not hold her tongue." On being asked how he could
strike his wife with the poker? he said he did not do it
with the poker, but with the bellows. The witness said
" I think you have killed the woman—l think she is
dying." He replied, " Dying; yes she has been dying
since three o'clottk this morning, and is not daad yet.'
At another time he said that his wife had struck him
with the bellows, and that ho struck her with the poker
in a passion, not knowing what he did. A surgeon was
a fracture was found in
called in on the 10th to attend the poor woman. She
lingered until the next day, and then died. On a post
mt
the
t se
kmuexaminationt beingo
of ah de et, e 0 i p
le,and a small mind
hole made; and on the poker found in the prisoner's
room being compared with it, it fitted exactly. The
surgeons expressed their opinion that the frac:ure was
caused by• a blow with the poker, and was the cause of
death. On cross-estainitattion it was endeavoured to be
shown that the deceased was a violent woman, end had
on some occasions struck the prisoner, but this entirely
failed.
blr. Mato addressed the jury for the prisoner, con-
tending that the crime committed by the prisoner did
not amount to murder, but only manslaughter. It was
evident that quarrels had continually ta ken place be-
tween them, and in one of these the prisoner had given
the &ceased the blow wh cs• calla d her death, not at
all contemplating doing her Lily serious injury, and that
be bad no pxecconCeiTeCi Utatitinti of owing her death;