The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-18 00:00:00

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE,

WESTERN CIRCUIT.—BRISTOL, Aug. 15.
(Before Mr. Justice Willes and a Special Jury.)
LEAT V. STOGDEN,

This cause, which the learned judge admitted was one of
the most extraordinary that had ever come before him, ex-

cited an unusual degree of interest. The court was densely
crowded throughout the day, and up to the late hour of
night at which it terminated. Ladies were requested to

withdraw.

Mr. Coleridge, Q.C., and Mr. Stock were for the plain-
tiff; Mr. Kerslake, Q.C., and Mr. Montague Bere for the
defence.

The damages were laid at £2,000.

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and on those pleas issue was joined.
Mr. Coleridge said the action was brought by Miss Mary
Leat against a person named Stogden for imputing to her
that which to a modest woman was the most cruel imputa-
tion he could cast upon her—that on repeated occasions she
bad acted unchastely with him. If anything could add to
the unmanliness, the baseness, and the cowardice of the de-
fendant's conduct, it was the fact of his having been on
terms of long intimacy with the plaintiff, and having been
engaged to marry her. Miss Leat was a young lady about
25 or 26 years old; she was a fatherless girl, and lived with
her widowed mother, who had carried on a farm in Devon-
shire, but who had now retired and lived at Topsham. The
defendant Stogden was a person of some 30 years of age, who
lived in the same place, and carried on the business of a
farmer. An intimacy commenced between them, and in
1858 he became engaged to be married to Miss Leat. The
courtship was continued till a time in 1862, when it was
broken off. The defendant had taken to habits of intoxica-
tion, and he came on one occasion to the house of Mrs.
Leat whilst in that state, and behaved with such violence
that Miss Leat and her mother were compelled to order
him out of the house, and send for some member of his
family to remove him. Miss Leat refused to have anything
farther to do with him. Afterwards a young man in the
neighbourhood named Pidgley formed attachment for Miss
Leat, and became engaged to marry her, and things went
on without interruption until the 27th February last, on
which day Miss Leat was in Exeter with her mother, Mr.
Pidgley, and a young lady or two, when, as they were
walking down the High-street, Stogden came up to them
and wished to speak with the plaintiff. She declined to
have anything to do with him, and moved aside, upon
which he used the slanderous language complained of, and
subsequently repeated the same offensive expressions. An
opportunity had been given to the defendant to withdraw
the calumny and make an ample apology, but he refused,
and had had the audacity to put upon record a plea of jus•
tification, alleging that the words were true,
Miss Mary Leaf, a pretty and modest-looking young
lady, was then called and gave a narrative confirmatory
of her counsel's opening. She gave her evidence with a
propriety of demeanour which at once gained her general
sympathy, and once or twice she was affected to tears.
There was not, she said, the least foundation for what he
had said respecting her. Never on any occasion had there
been improper intimacy between them; that she solemnly
swore. The engagement with him was broken off in March,
1862, in consequent of his being tipsy and violent, and
calling her mother a liar. She had seen him in that state
frequently before, and she therefore resolved to break off
the match.

Mr. Karslake cross-examined the plaintiff, and put into
her hands some letters written to defendant from Topsham
in April, 186.2, in which sue signed herself "affectionately"
his, and proposed places at which she would see him, and
in one of which she asked him if they werb to part to let
them meet and part as friends. She stated that those
letters were in ans.ver to letters from him, and the meet-
ings proposed to prevent his coming to the house, to which
her mother objected, She did meet him at Topsham, but
he was not then an affianced lover, They were not to have
been married at Lady-day, and she did not engage a ser-
vant named Buck. Was not in the habit of walking with
him late at night. He never slept in the house but once
—on the night of his brother's death. She always slept
with her mother. There were always servants in the
house. Never sat on a sofa with him after her mother
had gone to bed. No doubt she had sat in the room alone
with him.

Mrs. Charlotte Leat, the mother, Miss Mary Hodge,
Mr. Maher, a fexmer of East Brent, and Mr. Charles
Pidgley, farmer, of Heavitree, were called in support of
the plaintiff's case.

Mrs. Leat said her daughter always slept with her. She
was her only child. Defendant had never been in the house
after half-past nine o'clock unless they had company.
Mr. Pidgley said he had declined to marry Miss Leat
unless the slander was cleared up. He had continued his
suit on that condition.

Dr. Brent, of Woodbury, stated that he had been in
practice twenty years, and had had great experience, and
that he attended the families of plaintiff and defendant.
Miss Leat had required him to examine her, which he did
in the presence of her mother. Was perfectly certain that
she never had improper intimacy with any man.
Mr.Karslake then addressed the jury for the defence. He
admitted that the charges against the plaintiff had been
grave and serious, and Mr. Stogden, who had used them
in a moment of jealous irritation, regretted having used
them at all ; but he adhered to their truth, and re-
fused to retract them, and, having put a plea of justifi-
cation on the record, he claimed his right to come there
and support it. The defendant would pledge his solemn
oath that he had over and over again had criminal inter-
course with the plaintiff, and he would call evidence in
confirmation of his statement. If the publicity which the
case has gained was painful to the plaintiff she had herself
to blame for it in bringing that action.
Robert Stogden was called, and swore, in the course of a
lengthened examination, that he formed an illicit connec-
tion with the plaintiff within a month of his engagement to
her. It was commenced in the yard outside her mother's
house, and repeated constantly afterwards down to March,
1862. The witness denied that the engagement was then
broken off, bat admitted that there was no improper con-
nection afterwards. He said he had meetings with Miss
Leat down to about the time of his exposure of her, but
was not aware she was to be married to Mr. Pidgley till the
day in question, when he met her mother, who told him so.
Upon cross-examination by Mr. Coleridge, he made very
contradictory statements. _

The learned Judge said he hoped there was a shorthand
writer putting down his evidence. He also directed, at the
close of the examination, that he might not be allowed to
leave the court.

Upon re-examination, the defendant admitted that a
judgment had been obtained against him in the county
court for money he had had of Miss Leat, but which he
said she had given him to purchase things for his farm at
her mother's sale.

James Lang, who had lived servant at Mrs. Leat's for
six weeks in 1861, deposed that he had repeatedly seen an
immoral intercourse between plaintiff and defendant: but
upon cross-examination he said it always occurred in the
front kitchen, the door being ajar, and he being in an ad-
joining kitchen with the door open. He never mentioned it
to anybody till lately.
The Judge ordered this witness also to remain in court.

Mina Berry, a girl of 17, also deposed to havingwtite-
nessed an impropriety in 1861, which she saw through h
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After a witness. whose evidence was immaterial, had
been called,
Mr. Karslake summed up bis evidence, contending that
It afforded ground upon which the jury might arrive at a
conclusion favourable to the defendant.
Mr. Coleridge replied in an able address, in which he
strongly denounced the conduct of the defendant, quoting,
in the course of bis remark, the well-known speech of
Emilia in " Othello," which ends with an invitation to
" Place in every honest hand a whip, To lash the rascal naked through the world I"
The speech was received with a loud burst of applause,
which the officers of the court found difficult to repress.
The learned judge summed up with great ability, stating
that if the jury believed the plaintiff, and the evidence of
Dr. Brent, and that the defendant had foully and vilely
slandered her, and had made against her a charge which,
if not disproved, must have embittered her life, the jury
would then have to say what sum, if any, could compensate
her for the anguish she had suffered.
The jury retired to consider their verdict, and after a
lapse of twenty-five minutes they returned into court, and
an found a verdictiv for the
ishe plaintiff,
defendant?
The £6O.
His Lordship
The defendant stood up just behind his attorney facing
the bench.

His Lordship—Robert Stogden, the verdict of the jury
has branded you as a man who has committed wilful and
corrupt perjury, and the Court has anxiously considered
whether it ought not to commit you for trial for that offence.
If there were a criminal assize in this city, where the trial
has taken place—if your trial for perjury could have taken
place where your crime has been committed, and if the
witnesses were not put to any trouble and delay by going
to a new place, to the city of Gloucester, where the case
could not have been heard before the next assize, and
where new counsel would have to be instructed, and you
might after all have slipped through the nets of criminal
justice, the Court would have committed you for trial
for that offence. Upon consideration, however, seeing
the disadvantages under which that trial would take

place, and feeling that some persons might think it
would be keeping the plaintiff's right to recover, in
abeyance, the Court calls upon you to enter into your
own recognisance in the sum of £2OO, to appear before the
next Gloucester Assiz?, to answer this charge if called upon
to do so; end the plaintiff will take advice as to whether
she will put this in force—whether she will renew her gre tt
grief by punishing you for the evil you have commit!ed,
His lordship next dismissed the grand jury. He thanked
them for their assistance, and he said that he trusted the
serious grievance which interfered with the administration
of justice would coon be removed, and they would have a
criminal as well as a civil assize at i3ristol.
Mr. Gurney (the associae) then formally bound over the
defendant to appear, if called, at the next Lenten Assize for
the county of Gloucester,

His lordship advised the plaintiff to forget the prosecu-
tion, and trust her vindication to the opinion of every right-
thinking man.
As the plaintiff left the court with her friends she was
loudly cheered by a crowd in and about the hall,

THE GREAT EASTERN.

(From the New York Herald, August 4.)

Seven hundred feet of flush deck, never wet with spray
in any ordinary gale; 1,200 people sprinkled about the
monster, making no more show than the ordinary comple-
ment of a common steamer for society.
The four 18-pounders peel out their parting salute to the
crowded docks at Liverpool, and noti' y us that we are under
way, a fact that is hardly indicated to a close observer by
any jar of the engines, or any motion of the ship,even when
she is going at speed in smooth water.

Below decks the ship looks most unostentatiously plain,
but substantial to the highest point, and with the hammer-
ing she had in the terrific gale when she lost her rudder,
and afterwards when she struck a new found rock in mid-
channel, off Montauk Point, not the slightest sign of strain
can be found upon her.

Her arrangements for passengers are the first step in
that reverse of old quarter-deck rules which steam must
sooner or later bring, in order to avoid coal smoke and
other nuisances. Her forecastle for the crew, to speak
Hibernice, comes next the to frail ; then the quarters of the
steerage passengers on the after part of the two decks,
with air ports which can be kept open all the time. Price
of passage being about what a labouring man can earn
during the 35 days that he will save as compared with the
crowded twist decks of a sailing ship. Forward of this
comes the intermediate steerage, where at a low rate a few
passengers get very fair quarters in rough state rooms,
which most people would prefer, for 11 days, to a cabin of
a sailing ship for 40. These arrangements for the crew and
steerage passengers take up less than a quarter of the ship's
length.

Next comes the second cabin, whose occupants share the
remaining three-quarters of the deck With the captain,
officers, and first class passengers.

Below decks they are only separated by an iron bulk-
head and a curtain door from the first cabin, and yet prac-
tically all the advantages of the first class. Good air, for
state-rooms, good, substantial food, and a fair half of the
delightful music which the band discourses at meals in the
first cabin.

We now come to the more aristocratic part of the ship,
which is generally plain as a pike staff, and owes its at-
tractions more to its ample light and perfect ventilation
than to any attempt at elegance or ornament, excepting the
grand saloon and ladies' cabin, which shines with gilt and
mirrors. Those who have smothered for a fortnight in the
little air •tight state-rooms of the little three thousand ton
steamers, flavoured with sea sick reminiscences, can but
appreciate the luxury of an open port 15 inches in diameter
in each state-room.

Here you can get quarters in rooms varying from 20 feet
square at corresponding prices, but all having the one thing
needful for health—namely, fresh air ael libitum, and some
suites of rooms with baths and water closets attached. We
have now surveyed the comforts of the ship. The luxuries
consist of a good table, attention, service, and a most ca-
pital band, of 15 pieces, which sounds the reveille in the
morning and the retreat at night, announces the meals by
bugle calls, accompanies the dinner below, and then amuses
the world above for an hour or two about sunset, giving
the steerage and other passengers a chance which they
often wait for to dance upon the broad and even deck.
But, asks a timid friend, how about safety with all this,
comfort, luxury, and grandeur, and how about sea sick-
ness ? Let us weigh our good ship's qualities in the light
of prudence and experience.

Once at sea all admit that she is the safest ship that
floats. She is built with wonderful strength and skill, and
has stood more tests than any ship now extant.
Any ordinary collision with other vessels could only re•
stilt in her favour. She is nearly fire-proof, and her fire
engines have lain nightly along her decks, reducing her
danger to almost nothing. A gale of wind at sea is merely
sport to her. In case of breaking down one set of engines,
she has, besides her sails, either her screw or her paddles
left. But how can she be safe in approaching the shore
with her unwieldy bulk and great draught of water ?
Let those who saw her go into Queenstown inner harbour
before a gale of wind, and turn in her own length amid the
shipping, under the guidance of Captain Paton, as a steed
obeys his rider, say whether she is docile.
In truth, the advantages of handling her in narrow water
by turning the screw one way and the paddle the other,
makes her, under skilful hands, more manageable than ordi-
nary sea steamers.
This brings us to her one admitted fault, counterbalanced
by so many virtues—that she draws sft more water than a
steamer of 3,000 tons, and may thus pick up a new ledge of
rocks or an old sand-bar when the other would go clear.
True, she may again, as she did off Montauk, and what was
the result then? With six holes in her bottofn, one of
them 100 ft long, and one 40ft long, she resumed her voyage
into port, and delivered her passengers unfrightened, her
cargo undamaged. She has, in fact, double bottoms 3ft
apart, besides a great number of compartments, some of
which could be filled by ruptures in both her bottoms with-
out the ship sinking.
It would be a long story to tell the patience and inven-
tion which enabled Captain Paton and his officers to repair
her bottom without the help of any dock ; but the same
qualities which then got her out of difficulty gives the
beet guarantee for her future safety while he walks "the
monarch of her peopled deck." How about sea sickness ?
There is absolutely no pitch to her in any ordinary gale,
an angle of six degrees being the greatest her decks ever
attain fore and aft. Here is one half the motive cause of
sea sickness taken out. She rolls with an easier motion
than most ships, but still she rolls at times about as much
as smaller ships. On the passage we have had racks on
the table to secure the plates part of two days. Very sen-
sitive people will still sometimes be sea sick on board; but
with freedom from pitching and from bad smells, and with
the abundance of fresh air, it is difficult to imagine any
better security against nausea than she furnishes. Out of
1,200 passengers a few have been sick, but a great majority
of those who are usually sea sick are entirely free from it.
Let us now leave these dry details and revert to the scene
which enlivened the good ship on the 4th cf July, 1863.
The sky was bright, the sea was blue and smooth, and most
of her passengers were on deck.

About noon certain mysterious bundles were seen rising
to her masthead, and at a signal from Captain Paton these
unrolled and displayed the glorious Stars and Stripes upon
one mast and St. George's red cross on the other, while
our cannon thundered forth a national salute, and the full
band gave us the inspiring " Hail Columbia." The salute
ended, two standards were handed one, the American, to
a flne•looking Englishman, and the other, English, to a
stalwart American, and the passengers, steerage and cabin,
marched three times round the ship (nearly a mile), led by
the band, playing national airs. A few speeches, good for
the shortness, if for nothing else, cheers for the flag, for
the Queen, for the ship and for Captain Paton, closed this
harmonious festivity.

At dinner the best feeling was manifested by all, and
much interchange of courtesy between the Americans and
English occurred ; but there was no formal celebration, our
energies being reserved for the evening.

At eight o'clock the band called us to the main dining
saloon, which was found cleared of its tables, decorated
with British and American flags, making a beautiful dancing
hall. And here the young and old kept up the dance until
the small hours, winding up with an old-fashioned country
dance and a light supper.
Thus ended one of the pleasantest celebrations of the
glorious Fourth which it has been our lot to witness. How
much may be done by the commander and his officers on
such occasions to make a crowd happy and to extend good
feeling between people of different nations. Since then we
have been rushing through endless fogs on the Banks, occa-
sionally hearing the fog born of some fishermen, and once
pulling up short in the midst of a fleet of fishing vessels,
one within 20 feet of our side.

A RUMOUR is circulating to the effect that Miss
Pyne and Mr. Harrison have absolutely the intention of
attempting 'Le Proptiete' in English! We can hardly,
exclaims the Athenceum, fancy so huge a mistake possible.
Full benefit of reduced duty obtained by pur-
chasing Horniman's pure Tea; very choice at 3s. 4d. and
4s. " High Standard "at 4s. 4d. (formerly 4s. Bd.), is the
strongest and most delicious imported. Agents in every
town supply it in rackets.

- -
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