The Sun.
London, England, 1825-07-25 00:00:00

11:NGLISH and BRISTOL CHANNELS
SHIP CANAL—The Act of Parliament having
passed, constitutingtheSUßSCßlßEßSa CORPORATION,
Notice is hereby given, that application for Shares, in lieu of
those forfeited by the neglect of Holders thereof to execute
the Deed, may be made to-Messrs. King 'and Lukin, No. 5,
Gray's Inn-square; and to Mr. Clarke, Chard, Somerset, the
respective Solicitors to the Concern.

GAS LIGHT AND COKE COMPANY'S OFFICE.
Bridge-street, Blackfriars, London,
July 19, 1825.
INTOTICE is hereby- given, That the COURT
of- DIRECTORS of "The GAS LIGHT awl COKE
COMPANY" do hereby declare that a VACANCY has oc-
curred in the COURT of
,DIRECTORS. by the decease of
JOHN GEORGE LOCKETT, Esq.
Notice is, hereby also given, That a SPECIAL COURT of
:the PROPRIETORS of this COMPANY will be held at the
CROWN and ANCHOR TAVERN in the STRAND, in the
County of .Middlesex; on FRIDAY, the 12th day of August
next. at Twelve o'Clock- in the Forenoon precisely, for the
ELECTION of a DIRECTOR, to suppiy- the Vacancy in the
Direction oeci!sione4l by the Dtlith of John George Lockett,
fkiiqpi re., ,
By Order of the Court of Directors,
RICHARD GUDE; Secretary.
N. B.—The Chair will be taken at Twelve o'Clock pre-
cisely, and the Ballot will continua.. open for Four Hours
from its commencement.

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

YORKSHIRE ASSIZES, YORK, JULY 21.
LIBEL AND SLANDER.
BELL V. HILL.

Mr. Buoy Grum opened the pleadings. This was an action
brought by the plaintiff, a single lady residing at North Shields,
to recover compensation for an injury which she sustained from
the defendant, a preacher of the Methodist connection, at the
same town, and whereby she lost as a husband a man of the
name of William Sissison, of Hull, he being a single man,
and minded to join her in wedlock. The libels and slander
complained of were contained in several letters written by the
defendant to the said William Sissison, to Hull, and were va-
riously set out in different counts in the declaration.
The defendant pleaded not guilty, and upon that issue was
. _ -

ttLET T then stated the case to the Jury. The plain-
tiff in this action was a young woman, residing at Shields, in
the county of Northumberland, and was in partnership with
her brother in the china-trade; they were persons belonging to
the Methodist persuasion, of great reputation and universal
good character. Hill, the defendant, was a preacher in that dis-
trict, a men who exercised a great influence over the Methodists,
who formed a great proportion of his Majesty's subjects in that
part of the country. The country was parcelled out into, dis-
tricts, over which a preacher was appointed, and then there was
a Circuit Preacher over these, who desired a handsome emolu-
ment (equally the object of the clergy as of other professions)
from their labours.. Hill, the defendant, presided over the
North Shields' Circuit. He was in great authority, and made
use of it, for the double purpose of personal interest and a spe-
cies of official influence. The complaint now made by the.
plaintiff was, that Hill, from some unworthy motive, had in-
terfered to prevent the union of the plaintiff with a respectable
man residing at Hull. It would seem that Hill, and the brother
of the plaintiff, who was a local preacher,' had had some differ-
ence; and in order to avenge this difference, Hill endeavoured
to destroy the brother, the sister, and the entire family of the
Bells. He obliged them to quit their residence ; he destroyed
her brother ; and having sought the means he accomplished the
object of the plaintiff's injury, and the ruin of her family. He
invited the attention of the Jury to this case, for sure he was
that a case calling for more special consideration could not be
well brought before a Court of Justice. A more base, a more
scandalous, or a more wicked case, never perhaps occurred ;
and what gave it a dye of deeper malignity, was that the de-
fendant, a malicious and worldly-minded man, had committed
all this mischief under the cloak and as if under the sanction of
religion. While he libelled the plaintiff, he was praying to
God, and while praying to God, he was blasting the plaintiff's
prospects in life, and carrying on a system of unrelenting
persecution against her entire family. This Minister of God,
as he styled himself, was propagating the foulest slander,
and that to gratify one of the basest passions of the fiend—
revenge. In the year 1821 an intercourse had subsisted between
a Mr. Sissison of Hull, a respectable man in trade, and the
present plaintiff (Miss Jane Bell) ; he was attached to her;
he offered her marriage, and. the ceremony was to have taken
place in the month of June of that year. Mr. Sissison
had abundant means to make them comfortable, and his
intended partner happy for her life. She was a young lady of
amiable mailers, and could boast of very considerable personal
attractions. However, before the wedding day arrived, Mr.
Sissison received an anonymous letter, addressed to the care of
a preacher at Hull; and in a short time after another similar
letter, addressed to another preacher, calumniating this young
woman in the most scandalous and unfounded manner. These
letters professed to come from a sincere friend of Sissison, and
warned-him of the danger which he would run in forming any
connexion with the plaintiff or any of her family. Such letters,
upon strong minds, would perhaps have lied no influence—per-
haps they would have been shewn to Miss Bell or some of her
family,,who would instantly have refuted such scandalous insi-
nuations; but Mr. Sissison became alarmed; he dreaded the ex-
istence of some mystery, and seemed to think that slighted warn-
ings would turn into deadly curses. Such were the terms in
which he wrote to a friend at York, when asking his advice
upon the subject of these letters. At the time when those letters
were written to Mr. Sissison, he had no acquaintance with Hill
the defendant, who had artfully contrived to request a reference
to be made to him as to Miss Bell's character and connexion.
Mr. S. had known the wife of Mr. Hill since his childhood, and
thus the trap which was laid had eminently succeeded. The
anonymous letters he would this day prove to be in Hill's hand
writing, and upon these letters no commentary would be neces-
sary. They were conceived in malice, and they ended in fraud
of the most wicked description. Hill had a personal motive to
gratify, and he scrupled not to take the most extraordinary
means to attain it. He (Mr. Scarlett) looked with disgust and
shame and indignation at all his letters; they were vindictive,
treacherous, calumnious, hypocritical, in the extreme, and blas-
phemous to boot. For his own part, he had the highest respect
for that tie which bound all men to their God, the common
benefactor of all ; but when he saw men making religion a
cloak to cover vice—when he found, as in the present case, that
the Ministry of the Gospel was to be used as the pander to in-
famy, and superacided to that, when he found a-man declaring
that he was directed by Providence in the destroying of his
neighbour, he could not help trembling for, the state of society
in which such-a a:utter was tolerated. It was terrible to con-
template such a state of things, and lie sincerely hoped it was
not the opinion of any sect of religionists, that the ruin of
private character and the gratification of revenge were sanc-
tioned or justified by the word of God. . The whole of Mr.
Hilly religion seemed to be in kneeling, and all his practical
morality, but the hollow lip-service of hypocritical prayers.
Here the Learned Counsel read the two anonymous letters,
werning Mr. Sissison from forming any connexion with Miss
Bell, requesting him to make inquiry as to her character, and
conjuring him to pray to the Lord to give and assist him in the
choice of a wife; for (added the anonymous correspondent) he
was sure he never could be happy with that lady. Now the
Jury would at once see the object for which inquiry was sug-
gested. This cunning Methodist thought without inquiry the
match could not be properly broken off, or at least that the in-
formation which might be obtained upon hiquiry would cause
delay, perhaps suspicion, and justify the non-performance of
his promise of marriage. Calling for inquiry would negative
malice, it would weaken a- case of libel, Just in the same
manner as if a person came to inquire into the character of a
servant; why every man would say what he thought, al-
though the servant might suffer by the- character. - And such
is the object of the defendant in this case. Ile wished to
startle Mr. Sissisen—to rouse his apprehensions--to awaken
any lurking suspicions which he might have entertained ;
lie wished, in a word, to court inquiry, and of whom ?
why of himself, of him who was the deadly enemy of the
family of the Bells, and of him who, as the head of the cir-
cuit, had a powerful influence with his Methodist brethren.
Mr. Sissison was attached to Miss Jane Bell, and perhaps the
stronger his attachment the more easily could his suspicions be
awakened. However, he sent one of the anonymous letters to
Shields, and with this circumstance the defendant, in some way
or other, became acquainted. He had his eyes open in every
direction, and his hand ready to seize upon every weapon which
Might inflict the fatal blow. The defendant also wrote a lettee