The Sun.
London, England, 1847-06-15 00:00:00

THE TRACEY PEERAGE.

The examination of witnesses on behalf of the claim-
ant to this peerage was resumed to-day, and occupied
their Lordships the whole morning.

QUEEN'S BENCH.—(THIS DAY.)
(Sittings at Nisi I'rius at Westminster, before Mr. Jus-
tice WIGHTMAN and Common Juries.)
LIBEL—HOUGHTON V. BILVERLOCIE.
• Mr. Humfrey, Queen's Counsel, and Mr. Charnock,
appeared for the plaintiff; and Mr. Sergeant Talfourd
for the defendant.
Mr. HUMFREY stated the case to the jury. He said
this was an action brought by Captain Houghton, a half-
pay navy officer, to recover compensation in damages
from Mr. Silverlock, proprietor of the Nautical Standard
and Steam Navigation Gazette, for the publication of an
anonymous letter signed " Camperdown," which made
serious and utterly unfounded charges against him. It
was right that he should state that the plaintiff would
rather have brought his action against the author of the
document, but as the defendant refused to give his name
up, he had no other alternative than to bring it against
the defendant,. whom he admitted to be a respectable
gentleman. Captain Houghton had been upwards of
forty years in the navy—he was a subscriber to a so-
ciety called the Royal Naval Charity, a society of
the most exemplary and excellent kind
society to which all naval officers, from the admiral
down, he believed, to the lowest officer, subscribed. It
had been established for the purpose of affording assist-
ance to the widows and orphans of naval officers, and
even to naval officers, in the hour of need ; it could not,
therefore, be called a charity, but a mutual assurance
society, as it was supported by mutual subscriptions,
the officers paying a certain sum, according to their
rank—some paying 55., and those in the higher ranks a
larger sum. He might also mention that some of the
highest officers of the navy had not felt themselves de-
meaned by seeking aid from its funds. A Miss Hoare,
the daughter of a distinguished naval officer, and a lady
of highly exemplary character, sought aid from the
funds of this society, and her case was supported by Sir
Sir Edward Codrington Earl Cadogan, and particularly
by the plaintiff. In the majority of cases of this kind
there were generally rivals, who sought, for the
purpose of promoting their own aggrandisement,
to depreciate the merits of their opponents ; and
much on. such occasions was written which the
authors subsequently regretted having penned. (The
Learned Counsel then read the alleged libel, which
extended to great length. It simply impugned the mo-
tives of Captain Houghton in advocating the cause of
Miss Hoare ; charged him with having subscribed to
the society bat " five annual shillings;" of having re-
ceived charity from it in the season of adversity, and
called it " no bad speculation," as he had received pounds
for every shilling he had subscribed, and expressed sur-
prise that the managers of the institution should allow a
person who had been a recipient of its funds to sit by
their sides and vote away its money ; and, further, that
a petition which he had presented with respect to Miss
Hoare had been refused. It was dated the 23d of
August last year, and was headed "The Royal Naval
Charity and Commander Houghton," and was signed
" Camperdown.") Now the plaintiff had sought the
name of the writer—he had said, " Give me the name
of the writer, justify the charges, or make an
apology ;" but when his application had been
refused, he considered it duo to his character,
due to Lis friends and to his messmates, to
institute these proceedings. It appeared that Miss
Hoare had during the last four or five years been an
applicant to the society, but that she had up to the time
the letter was published been unsuccessful. The sub-
scriptions were arranged on a graduated scale according
to the rank of the officers, in order to prevent any invi-
dious distinctions. It was true that the plaintiff had re-
ceived aid from the funds, but it was under the following
circumstances:—Upwards of 20 years ago he lent his
yacht to a friend, who steered to a foreign port, where
he took on board a quantity of smuggled cigars, but it
was captured by a revenue cutter and condemLed, and a
sum of 204 was voted by the society to the plaintiff for
the purpose of redeeming it, but no imputation could rest
upon him in this respect—in fact, his promotion, and
his long standing and unblemished character, were
a sufficient answer that no imputation rested upon him.
It was most discreditable for the editors of newspapers
to publish anonymous charges of this kind, and to re:-
fuse to give the names of the writers; it was equally dis-
creditable to publish charges which he was not in a po-
sition to justify. _

The Learned Counsel having proved the publication
of the paper, and that the defendant was its registered
proprietor, called
Captain Redford, R.N., who stated that he had been
fifty years in the navy, that ho was an old subscriber to
the institution, that he had met the plaintiff at its
meetings, and that he was an active member of it. lie
was not acquainted with him privately.
Mr. Eardley Hathray, clerk to Mr. Chard, the naval
agent, proved that his employer had paid the plaintiff's
subscription to the society for somo years; it was now
los. 6d.

This was the plaintiff's case.
Mr. Sergeant TALFOURD then addressed the jury
on behalf of the defendant. He said no evidence
had been adduced to show that any application had been
made to the defendant to deliver up the name of the
writer of the letter, or that he bad refused to justify
the charges it contained, or to apologise if they were
devoid of truth. It appeared that the lady, notwith-
standing she had the support of Lord Cadogun, Sir
Edward Codrington, and the plaintiff, had been unsuc-
cessful from year to year ; and as the plaintiff took part
in a disputed question, he must expect to be prepared to
bear criticism
; but the letter complained of was simply
a reply to a letter which had appeared in the paper
from Captain Houghton, referring to the case of Miss
Hoare : he had invited notice to himself as the supporter
of the claims of that lady, and ought not to (have been
too thin-skinned , when his motives were canvassed.
He had styled himself as one of the oldest and most
benevolent of the subscribers, and from what
had occurred it seemed that he was not so
much entitled to such a reputation as ho
himself seemed to believe. Surely there could be no-
thing very wrong in stating that he had! received aid
from a fund which he had himself assisted to create ;
and it was true that he had received far more from
thatt, fund than he had contributed to it. Then, no
doubt, the writer of the letter had seen a list in which
the name of the plaintiff appeared as a subscriber of 55.,
for at a former period he had subscribed that sum. Why,
if every publication of this kind were to justify an action,
an action might be brought for libel against the printer
of every placard or squib published at the ensuing
general election. He did not justify an editor with-
holding the name of the writer of a libellous article,
but if he refused to do so, or was unable to do so, he
was the person who should be held liable, and therefore
he did notcomplain that he had been proceeded againstas
the responsible manager of the paper. The letter, how-
ever, did not appear to have been written by a person
of education, as it contained grammatical mistakes—the
word " adverse" being used for " obverse," for instance
—showing that the editor had not given it that attention
which it demanded, and that it was inserted inadver-
tently. _ _

M. Justice WIGIITPIAN having summed up and ex-