The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-16 00:00:00

isf; Longworth and the " Saturday
Review."

(From the Scotsman.)

action of damages, concluding for £3,000, has
beet t raised by Miss Longworth against the Satur-
day 1-?eview, for the article published in it on Satur.
day tl a 30th of July. The grounds of it can be
learnt from the " condescendence," which is as
follow

" CONDESCENDENCE.

" Ca 1. I.—The defenders in this action are the
proprie tors of the Saturday Review, a weekly jour.
nal, Fa blished in London. The articles in said
journal. consist entirely of comments on current
events and reviews of books. For the most part
they az e written with great ability, and in a style
indicating that their authors are educated gentle-
men. ' Che said journal is much read by the more
intelligent classes, and has an extensive circulation
in Britl tin and the British colonies, and is read in
foreign countries also as a leading exponent o
British public opinion.

" Con. 2. The pursuer has for several years been
involved. in a litigation in which she asserts her
right to be the declared wife of -William Charles
Yelverton, major in her Majesty's Royal Artillery.
In 1861 a jury in Dublin affirmed that she is the
'wife of Major Yelverton ; and by interlocutor of
title 19th December, 1862, the First Division of the
Court of Session in Scotland found the same fact to
be proved.
" Con. 3.—The said interlocutor of the Court of
Session was appealed to the House of Lords, and on
the ::Bth of July, 1864, the said House, in accord-
ance with the result of the opinions of Lords Wens-
leydale, Chelmsford, and Kingsdown, and in oppo-
sition. to the opinions of the Lord Chancellor and
Lord Brougham, recalled the said interlocutor. In
the Saturday .Review, published by the defenders
on Saturday, the 30th July, 1864, the judgment of
t he House of Lords is commented on and approved
ire an firtiele headed The Yelverton Case.' The
cooduct and letters of the pursuer are also com-
mented on unfavourably in said article. The num-
ber of the Review containing such article was,
sold extensively in Britain, and has been circulated
in various parts of the world. Moreover, the article
itself .was quoted, in whole or in part, by many
newspapers in England, Scotland, and Ireland.
" Cone 4.—The article throughout abounds in di-
rect or covert attacks upon the pursuer's character.
It suggests that, had she appeared personally, she
would have enlisted the feelings of the Judges in
the House of Lords in the same practical way, or by
some similar way to that adopted in the case of an
Athenian lady of doubtful fame,' referring, it is be-
lieved, to Phryne, the Athenian courtesan, and in.
ainuating, and intending to insinuate, that the
pursuer is of profligate character or of doubtful
faille, or of both. It proceeds to state, falsely and
calumniously, that the pursuer's ' version of what
occurred in Ireland was absolutely untrue,' and in-
sinuates that because of her falsehood in this version
her word is not to be believed. And in dis-
cussing, end i❑ part condemning, the character
of Major Yelverton, it states that he was much
more the pursued than the pursuer. At any rate,
he gave the lady fair warning. He pointed out that
her ruin would be the result of a renewal of their
acquaintance, and he gave her the choice of renew-
ing it or not. That renewal was her act, not his.'
All this is false in every particular, and it is espe-
.cially false, and is besides calumnious, in respect
that it represents that her ruin was her own act, and
was chosen by her after warning, which is the
meaning and effect of the passage quoted,
" Con. s,—The concluding passage of the article
is as follows As to Mies Longworth, we would
now say as little as we can. When all the world
was on her side —when she was the triumphant ob-
ject of what are called Irish ovations, wrien all Scot.
1 nd made her virtues as much an article of faith as
Queen Mary's innocence, and when nearly the whole
of England ezhoed their salutations—we expressed
ourselves intelligibly on this lady's life and charac-
ter. The highest English tribunal has now fully
accepted that view which four years ago was both
uncommon and unpopular. It were ungenerous to
press heavily on anyone who is down ; doubly un-
generous in the case of a woman of very remarkable
powers, great intellectual accomplishments, and now
labouring under the heavy burden of failure and hu-
miliation. To say that in our judgment she fully
deserves her fate may sound harsh ; but to say much
less were to compromise the interests of truth and
morality. She has a thorny bed to lie on, but she
has made it for herself. And if we express ourselves
strongly, it is chiefly because the Lord High Chan-
cellor of England has thought proper, in his judi-
cial capacity, not only to pronounce a high eulogium
on the intellectual capacity displayed in Miss Long-
worth's letters, but to declare that their tone is con-
sistent with " honourable courtship." The inte-
rests of morality would, we think, be seriously com-
promised were this judgment to rest on any higher
grounds than Lord Westbury's opinion of what
may be the proper style of correspondence between
unmarried—or, for the matter of that, between
married—persons. To right-thinking persons there
is much in these terrible letters which is simply
loathsome. We have no notion of making a heroine
of such a person as Miss Longwortb. She is out of
keeping with society, both as it is and as it ought
to be. She is an adventuress, launched into the

world nobody knows how, with a previous history

which has never been told. She is a Eceur de Cha-
. rite but she meets and courts adventures little in
keeping with semi-conventual dress and office. She
sinners it and saints it by turns or at once. She is
made up of passion and prudence, of hard intellec-
tual vigour and sensuous thoughts and feelings
She writes as no modest woman writes, and she
schemes as no modest woman would scheme. She
has religious scruples, but they do not restrain her
from provoking at least to sin. The best that can
be hoped for her is that she will abandon that world
which will act most kindly by forgetting her, and
forgiving her offence against society.'
" Con, 6.—The said article, as a whole, and par-
ticularly in the passages aforesaid, is false and ca-
lumnious, and is calculated and intended to repre-
sent the pursuer as an immoral, disreputable, immo-
dest person, who was out of keeping with or unfit

for society, both as it is and as it ought to be; whose

conduct was inconsistent with har religious profes-
sion, and was such that she fully deserves 'failure
and humiliation' and ruin ; whose letters were in

their tone inconsistent with honourable courtship,
and were such as no modest woman would write,
and were of a style improper either for married or
unmarried parties, and were 'simply loathsome' to

right-thinking persons, from their immodesty
and immorality—or it makes one or more of

these false and calumnious representations or insin-
uations. Although the history of her whole life from
childhood was fully investigated, in order that her
character might be assailed, and was made the sub.
ject of lengthy evidence in the proof in the con-
joined actions upon which the House of Lords gave
judgment, the said article falsely asserts that she
is an adventuress, launched into the world nobody
knows how, with a previous history that has never
been told,' insinuating, and intending to insinuate,
by this false and calumnious assertion that her pre.
TlOll.B history had been of so disreputable a charac-
ter that it could not be told without shocking pub-
lic decency, or making some similar insinuation
prejudicial to the pursuer's moral character.
" Con, 7.—The said article, in whole or in part, is
of and concerning the pursuer, and is false and
calumnious, and contains statements for the making
of which there was and is no probable cause ; •and
the said statements are malicious, and are not jus-
tifiable as fair newspaper comments upon proceeds
ings taking place in a court of justice. By the said
slanderous statements the pursuer has been greatly
injured in her feelings and reputation, and this
action is necessary to the vindication of her charac.
ter, and to restore her against patrimonial injury.
" Con. 8. The defenders do not reside in Scot.
land, but sums of money due to them have been

arrested, jurisdictionis funclancla3 causa, in the hand;

of 3lea.E rd. Adam and Charles Black, 'oooksellers and

publishers in Edinburgh ; Messrs. Win. B!arikwood
and Sons, book-sellers and publishers there ; Messrs,
Edmonston and Douglas, booksellers and publishers
there; and :!%Ir William P. Nialrao, bookseller and
publisher there."