The Sun.
London, England, 1849-02-13 00:00:00

SHERIFFS' COURT.-(THIS DAY

ANDREW V. ZINC.
This was a writ of inquiry to assess damages in an
action for libel, the defendant having allowed judgment
to go by default.
Mr. WARREN appeared for the plaintiff, who he stated
to be a gentleman of station and who had retired from
the East India Company, as an army surgeon. The de-
fendant was a literary gentleman and a physician, and
also secretary to the Statistical and Ethaological
Societies. The two libels were contained in two letters
written on the 20th October last, by the defendant, to
General Briggs and General White, in terms distinctly
charging the plaintiff with being " a swindler," and
stating that "he had swindled the defendant to a
large amount." On receiving these letters the plaintiff
commissioned a friend, Mr. Langbourne, of the
firm of Rankin, Vickermann, Langbourne, and Co., the '
solicitors to apply to the defendant for an explanation
of his extraordinary conduct. Four letters were written
by Mr. Langbourne in very temperate terms asking for
proof of the charge which the defendant had made
against the plaintiff, but the defendant took no notice of
the letters, and this action was commenced. The de-
fendant did not appear in Court on the inquisition.
The Learned Counsel for the plaintiff, who was attended
into Court by various distinguished military and
other friends of the plaintiff, read the cor-
respondence above adverted to, and highly com-
mended the plaintiff for the moral courage he had
shown in not violating the laws of God and man by
calling his traducer to " the stern and bloody ordeal"
to which gentleman are too apt to appeal on such occa-
sions. He had preferred trusting his character and
honour to an impartial jury of his fellow countrymen,
and concluded by calling on the jury to give, not such
small damages as would servo only to barb the arrow
of calumny, and afford matter of exultation to the
plaintiff's traducer, but such damages as would show
that trial by jury was a real protection to gentlemen.
Tue UNDER SDERIFIr briefly summed up, stating that
he concurred in the observations of the Learned Counsel,
that this was a very serious case, from the deliberate
nature of the offence by the defendant, and the station
in society occupied by both parties. Such outrages
certainly ought not to be committed with impunity.
The jury retired, and after some absence, returned
with a verdict—Damages, 5001.
The Learned Counsel had offered in his address to
accept :an apology and withdraw; but it: appeared as
above-stated; that the defendant had instructed no
one to represent him in court.

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THE ROBBERY AT THE ST. PANCRAS VESTRY.—
This morning several skekton keys were found in the
garden. in front of the gutty per cha depot, two doors
from the vestry room. It wi:l be recollected a number
of skeleton keys were found in this locality immediately
after the discovery of the robbery.
OBSTRUCTING nemstats IN THEIR PROGRESS TO
THE ilousa.—Yesterday, in consequence of several of
the Peers having been stopped in their passage to the
House by brewers' drays and hackney carriages congre-
gated in, the streets leading thereto, the Usher of the
Black Rod, by order of th., Hous,?,.rnade a communica-
tion to the Commissioners of Police, requesting them to
such pbstruc:ions.