The Sun.
London, England, 1809-06-30 00:00:00

BWAMY.

Sarah Cpurlncy, alias Child, waa indiEled for
having Married one Thunias Wailion, she well know-
ing tier, former husbaud, Jcihn Courtney,' Wai then
alive.

It appeared by the parish-registetof St. George's,
Hanover-square, that the tilst matrile was solem-
nized on the sth of November, shordy alter
which; the Prisoner With her husband catite to lodge
with Thomas Watson, the seCond husband. About
three years after that period; John COurtney parted
from the Prisoner, who remained as a servant in
the houSeot Thomas Watson, and continued in that
apparent capacity till Watson died, in iBOB, when
she laid claim to a considerable part of his property,
on the ground of her being married to hint ; and on
reference to the parish-books of St. Ixonard's,,Shore-
ditch,; it appeared that this second tuarriage,, was
solemnized in that church on the 23d o( November,
1806, John Courtney, her 'first husband; being still
in existence. In consequence of 'these ,ta&s, the
present prosecution was commenced by John'Tho-
mas Watson, thegrandson of Thomas Watson, who
was a feeble'old man, eighty years of age, when he
was married.

The charge laid in the indietnaent having been
distindly proved, the Jury returned a verdict ot—
Guilty. a

T 1 Prisoner, a woman at least sixty years of age,
bad evaded the search of the officers of Police since
January last, at which ape,* warrant. Was issued
for her apprehension.

Married, on Tuesday last, at Knighton, near
Leicester, by the Rev. J. S. CoratmAw, JAMES
KNOX, &q. in the Leicestershire Regiment of Mi-
litia, to CATHERINE, eldest, daughtgr of the late
JAMES DAVIE, ksq. of Stamford.

SMITHFIELD MARKET, Jura
This day's market was but thinly supplied with
different kinds of Cattle ; Mutton is cheaper than
our last report ; Beef and Veal fife dearer; Pork and
Lamb sold at last prices; and the trade for the most'
part was not over brisk.—The sales in the Hay
Market were trifling; Hay and Straw have got up
in price sin 4. Monday's market ; clover fetched
last prices.—We annex a tarred -statement of the
prices and numbers.
To sink the Offld per stone of 814..
beef 4s. 134. to is. SC—Murton 4s. 4d. to-p. 4d. —Veal
Ss. od. ,to 7s. od.—Pork 4s. Stl. to bs. ed....Lauth,6s. od. to
75. ext.
Beasts, 4ga.—Sherep and Lambs, 6 700 —Calves
Pigs, 29'0. •
•

SMITHFIRLre Y-MARKIit.
Hay St. ros. od. to 61. los. od.-- Stlillll tdsoost to al,
os• od.—Clover 61. los. ad,, to 71. rss. od.

daitri EientaTz, JUN'S .3P.—Thete are tnietable
remainingsupplies of Wheat .today, with some fur:
tiler arrivals, and the sales
.are again very dull,,near,
is.. •
at our last quotation ) Barleyrather cheaper,
'excepting prime sairiplcs ; Malt likewise) White
Pease keep their price; Beans of both sorts are
lowed; there are considerable supplies of Qats, with
some more foreign, and `sales thereof vary bUt little,
some selea samples exceed the quotation ). Flour at
last prices.
Wheat 4111 a 703 3 843
Fineditta . . 86s a S9s
425 'it 475
barley . w ps a 7Molt . 663 7is
White Pease . Ices a Liu
Grey ditto . . 46s a cis
535 fli*

Tick Beans - • 43a a 0
Oats • ess -2111 43 4
34
Poland ditto - jss a 38s
Potato ditto --, jps
Ra Seed - 481 aOl
finepe Flnur c,s a 7ss
SecondS Op A 7Q$

I

LAIP REPORT.

COURT 'OF COMMON, PLEAS., lulls sa.
ions) LEICESTER v, WALTL J ASA 0111ERS.
This was an .anion brought by •L ,rd •Leieester;
,agaitest theliroprietors of the Newspaper celled the
Morning Herald, to recever coeipensation it) damages
for certaim slandta ous paragraphs upon his character.
The damages were laid at eO,OOOl.Mr. •
Seraeant BE 1r stated the case on'the patt of
the !Plainaff: It was an aafati,agailist the publishers
of a newspaper, 'tor a libel of Such a niitute and
such Malignity, as perhaps was never before com-
plained of In a Court of Ju;tiee. When he stated
that the damage=s were laid at '20,0(.4. he would
add, that he did not think justice would be done to
hiS client, if: any thing less than that sum werg
awarded. No damsges Could be a reparation
the injury whit' the eharaeter of his clieni
suffer from such a publitaitOn t the libel was not
only false, but must have been known to have beef'
lalse.by those who published it. Front the enormity
of the offences imputed to his Lordship, the libell.e.re
must haVe known that it was untrue; Cr ifahey
Could' be' supposed evable of insetting such llsea
hoods. -without making the slightest inquiry respea-
Mg them, they ought not to •be permitted to con-
-dean newspaper for another day. .They laid add-
ed to the libel itself every thing which could sharpen
its sting, or add to its venom. It was tb be re-
membered, thatin the reign of. Charles the First,
there-was a monster of -a tie name& Lotd
who had been tried, convicted, and executed tor
untratural offences, and loran offence which (thank
God) thereahad-been no instance of singe that time,
namely, that of assisting his servant in committing
a rape upon his own wife:, The libel in the Morning
Herald was a paragraph in the ad nif December,
1808, to the 'following of ea :—" Article's have beets
exhibited against a Noble Loral by his Lady, similar
to the articles which were exhibited by Lady Audley
against her Lord, open which lie was convicted and
deservedly executed ; but in the present initatiCe
there were circumstances of far greater etrocity."—
Now, as to this libel, lie should first ask, is it true
or false ? It was unquestionably false; tor, it such '
articles had beet, exhibited, the Defendants could,
have proved them from the office, at Doctors' COM.
mons. where such articles, moat have been
'this charge, then, as false gas it ,*as Wicked,. the
Defetidapts must have I:nol.vn to he false, nr
they could 'have easily ascertained that it wad
'false, by taking did pains to inquire at Doctor's
Commons, before they inserted it. On the bth
Of DeceMbera the following paragraph. wits in-
serted The wretched son cif an English Mar-
quis has absconded, on charges which Lady C.
(Chimney being his title, when the old Marquis. of
•Townshend watealive) hes exhibited against him..-.
A special warrant has been issued fora} prehending
this Lord, whose infamies have lung rendered hire
a.diagrace to human nature." This special warrant,
for apprehending the , Plaintiff, was a pure inverse
tion of the writer of the paragraph. . As a proof of
the malicious motive in which theft, publications ori-
-ginated, he should state, that in the month of April
-preceding, a paragraph had been put inathe Morning
Herald, announcing the separtv ion eft Lord Chat ;ley
and his • Lady, at a time when they were living mkt-
-tiOnately together. For this libel, however, they ap67
logized ; and the beitig obliged to apologize for that
•libel, and having been forgiven•on account of such
apology, should 'have made them cirennispeO, auo
-prevented-theft) again frosts `libelling the saute Nobb
person, withotteinquiring into thsetruth of .the mat.;
'ter which they".in4erled. • It appeared to him, that
every thing they had done since the. ptiblication, as
welt as before it, ahewed.the malice by which they
-were actuated. ' For what purpose, except iocteas-
Ing the angtiish of his Mind, ititri .t he distress efhis
'family, could the Defendants have subpmnaed (as
they have done) the Noble Marquis, who wae the
fither of the Plaintiff; his uncle, and almost all hi
rHations, to be their witnesses 1 They pleb knew,
that his client, who was only a Lord sty courtesy,
had not the privilege of peerage ; and that his atfturs
were so much embarrassed, that he must be
mured in prison for debt, if his residence wad
known, and therefore they had 'even applied for a
'Judge's summensi in order to discover his yeaideace,
but their application was refused. .They.dotibtlesa -
wanted, by the threat of having him imprisoned for
debt, to ,induce him to abandon this action. In
considering; the malignity of this libel, and the in-
jury it was likely to do, it must he recollected what
a horror the British nation entertain against the vice
so iniputed (and God preserve that, horror). It was
so great, that let a man, charged with this vice,
prove his innocence of the charge ever so fully; still
a'certain degree of suspicion was attached to him,
and he never could again move in society with the
same comfort to.himself, or the same Nape& from
others, which lie was used to meet. He trusted,
therefore, that, the Jury, would consider both the
rank of the person injured, and the greatness of the
injury which had been indided, and relied upon
their finding a proper verdiat.
The first evidence was the register of parnphlets,
or papers at the Stamp Office. He proved the De-
fendants to have sworn themselves proprietors, pin,
ter, and publisher of the Morning Herald.
The papers were then produced, and the libellous
paragraphs read.
The next Witness v4B Mr. Ilarlbav, who produced
faint the records of the Court of King'i Bench, the'
inquisition upon Lord Audley, his indictment and
convidtion.
Mr. Atiecat pointed out a variation between this
record, when the inquisition-Was said to be before
Sir Edward Hyde, and the declaration, in the present
case, when it Wits Stated to hitie been 'before Sir Geo,
.NieholafEdavard'Hyde,: who was another person;
In teal .no parttime& that name had ever been Chief
Justice of the IWO:Bench:
This objection was fatal-to some of the:taunts in
thetteclaration, but there appearing to be others on
which it did not attach.'
Mr. Micas, Solicitor to the Plaintiff, said; that
he believedahe paragraphs which had beet) read, to
apply to the Plaintiff._ He had no doubt,at all Of it.
Cie.ta Examined b Mr. Sedeant Coe: K
He had been a aluaitated about four years ago with
Plaintiff, to whom he had been introduced proles.;
'sionally. He had dined with him three or four
times at his louse In Gliatkester-place, and in eater
patty with Lady Leicester; after the paragraph about
the separation. He had seen a Mr. Neri_

,A;ereorel te be hie Lordship's Secretary. The
-fleet i see her elw sir. Neri, _wee after having se'bt
his 'it.count to. the Plane Neri called upon
him aboet settlieg of it. He had
,met at Lord
Leicester's table, IV%r. and Mrs.. Gardiner (the father
and mother of Lady Leicester), the Marti. of Towns-
- heed, and the two Lady TowiWiends, in the-winter.
of 1807, the marriage having
.been in the month of
May at that. year. The reasorie'why he believed the
peragraphe to apply to his client were, that he knew yo
other son tifetri English Marquis wl.obad proceed-
ings depeediiig, io 1) .tors' Commons ; and. also,
because -he found every body whom he spoke to on
..this subject •also applied them -to the*Plaintiff. lie
sidts the,e reasons, he confessed `that there were fly-
. iee rumours against the chat-meter of the Plaintiff,
which bed,come to his knowledge. Lord Leicester
linddireeted him to take the opinion of Counsel, with
icseeal to the first of them upon which he could lay
les hand, He was also convinced that they applied
to the Plaintiff, because be himself bad been the per-
son who called at the Office of The Mot niug Herald
about the first paragraph, which they afterveinds
apologized for. .
The case of the Plaintiff was then closed.
• Mr. Serjeant COCKLE then rose on the part of the
Defeo =tants. He said he rose with considerable con-
cern upon a subject, 'odious in, its own 'panne, and
~which must give pain and disgust to every man.—
. His Learned Friend would have wished them to be-
lieve,- that the aspersions against the Charaoler of
Lerd T, .ieester orie elated in the Newspaper which
was conduced by the Defendants. The tad, how-
ever ,e, that the'. did not ; hut, as the .Plaintiff's
own attorney had admitted, there*had been flying
rumours against the character of that Noble Lord,
before such paragiaphs ever found their vv ay into the
newspaper. The paragraphs had found their way
into the public papers in the usual manner, and the
Proprietors had offered to take tbeir oaths that they
were not the authors, and did not 'know who were.
Certainly.. he was not an advocate for slander or-li-
centiousness in the press ; but it was evident that
public papers could not be printed if the Conduttors
Were put to a striet justification of the truth of every
.paragraph contained in them. It they maliciously
invereed • falsehoods, or lent themselves wilfully to
be the: instruments of malice in others,, they should
be rtsponsible as melees of those calumnies; but,,
without iiny malice, thee': paragraphs found-their
way. into. their papers in the e-egular course of their
wide, they certainly were still respoosibl‘, but not
in 'the same degree,' nor would .a jury visit them
with so serious damages. It was allowed, that
notwithstanding ail the evils which proceeded from
the licentiouseeas of the pretis, the publication of daily
newspapers, and the letting the puolic know what
was going on, was of infinite advantage to the liber-
ties and happiness of the country. His Learned
Frith(' had spoken of the earl. of Leicester and ,his
wife having lived' happily together, How did heat•
tempt to prove it ? Did he call a single relation, fier.
vow or friend ? No : 411 the evidence -on this point
was, testi his. Attorney had seen Lady Leiceater et
her Lord's table near a year after the marriage, The
fag was, that so far from having lived happily
.toge.
tiler, there was nothing perhaps in the whole_ his.
tory of married lire more wretched. Three sleep-
less nightaw,ere all they passed together, and after
that time they were never in bed, or seldom at
board togetter. The Lady, io the agony of an
almost broken hear:, and in spite -of female
, delicacy, was obliged to reveal the wrongs
she had Pilfered. She bad been obliged IQ it
down at. the table of her Lord with wretches that are
a disgrace to human nature,,and who ought not to
be permitted to live. There was Neri, the belies-)
Secretary, Hayling, Mayfair,. and other wretches ett
that deacript:on. She was soon banished from his
house by such conduct. When he was at Glouces-
ter-place, she used to be at Paddington, and when
was at .Paddington, she eatne to Gloucester-place.
7 he Noble Lord had brought forward but one wit-
tiese, who knew not hipg of the. matter. How came
• it that lie brought forward no relative, no friend of
rank and fashion equal to his own, none of fiis ju-
venile friends, none of the elders of the College in
.which he was educated, to support hischaraCter ?Uri
this subjea there was a gaping chasm, end it . was
thought proper to preserve a profound silence. Ile,
like other gentlemen of fortune, tratelled in his
youth, but was accompanied by this Italian, Neri,
who had been called his Secretary. This man he
had kept in a.mest expenae mariner. When Neri
marrieds although he had not a shilling of his' own,
and did not get a shilling with his wife, yet they took
11 house, ,at a rent of 1501. per annum, and Neri
lived mute with his Lordship than nuclei his own
roof.

Mr, BEST appealed to his Lordship whether this
linc of `deNuce vim to be endured. If it was, it
would be in the pow er,of any Defendant to destroy
the Charader of any Plaintiff, by. a story that he
could ,not be iveparcd to answer.
611 JAMES MANSFIELD thought the lx-.1-ned Set.,
3e'ant 'sbOeid be pertnitied to proceed in his Statt.,
Meat,

Mr. Serjeant Coertut said, it was absolutely ne-
cessary for .him w snake this statement, to prove
that what had been stated by his Learned Ymend
• (Mr. Serjeant Best) as an aggravation of the ma-
lice, was not true. It. was•also his duty to prove
that Abase flying tumours against the cbaraaer
of Lord Leicester were so generally heard of,
that. his Lordship's oharaaer had not, ,suffered
,'hy the paragraphs, to
,the extent that had been
sta‘ed, as he might perhaps drew that Lis Lordship's
eltaniCtor was previously as bad its this ,respeaas
any tnau's could bei who was not aetually convicted
-• Of the crime. if this were.the case, it must most
. materially alter the damages. As to the observation
which had been made of the ditlictaryiti morn% a
-mat :iv smutty who had been cliarge4l.4iiig,stich ail
he:believed.tbat hte .LortlOlip tnigliti, what-
ever were the damages,„continuc to the
snire respea, io that sort of company, s‘4,itli winch he
had long ussoe.!ateti I and that whatever, the damages
might be, that, they would, not restore Intik to any
sort of society winch birth and rank in lite ap.
,:,:peared: to entitle him to. -felt -no manner of
&alb,. bat that in the consideration of (14tuiles, the
Jury_ would, pay cou'iderable Atteptiuil to those cit.-
• .caiiistariCes wt) (.111 his duly to prove.
Chilli:l[lC Arnold '4 as the first witness called. An
• oi.j.ecti,:ai was made tov her enXatnination, on ,the