The Sun.
London, England, 1841-11-23 00:00:00

HEARNE V. STOWELL.

In this case, which was an action for libel, brought by
the plaintiff; a Roman Catholic clergyman, against the
defendant, and in which a verdict was had for the plain-
tiff; a rule in arrest of judgment had been obtained, on
the ground that the allegations in the matter charged as
libellous could not be considered as such, and were not
calculated to lower him in his profession of a clergyman.
The SOLICITOR-GENERAL now appeared to show cause
against the rule. He submitted that it was the duty of
the Jury to decide what was libel and what was not, and
they having decided that the matter charged was a libel,
unless it could be shown that their verdict had been
against the evidence, although that might have consti-
tu:;ed a ground for a new trial, there was nothing upon
which a motion in arrest of judgment could be made.
The Judges were not to decide what was- libel, because
that was a question solely for the Jury, and had in the
present case been found by them in the affirmative. lie
submitted that it was not necessary to refer to the trade
or profession of a party in order to publish what might
be considered libellous. It was enough if the matter was
calculated to degrade or injure him in his character; and
that certainly was the object of the libel in question.
The question had been fairly left by the Judge to the
Jury, and the Jury had found these facts: first, that the
article was .libellous; and, secondly, that it was intended
to apply to the plaintiff, and there could be now no pre-
tence for arresting the judgment.
Mr. IIoGGINs and Mr. MURPHY followed on the
same side.
Mr. CRESSWELL, for the defendant, understood that
the question to be argued before the Court was, whether
there should not be a new trial, as it was arranged when
the rule was moved for that, if it should be found that
there was ground for an arrest of judgment, then there
might be an application for a new trial on the ground of
misdirection. He wished his Learned Friend would
direct his attention to that point.
The SOLICITOR-GENERAL then proceeded to address
the Court upon the manner in which the question had
been left by the Learned Judge, Mr. Baron Rolfe, to the
Jury, and submitted that there had been no misdirection
whatever.

Mr. CRESSWELL contended that the verdict ought not
to stand, because there was nothing to show that Mr.
Hearne had ordered the penance which had been made
the subject of the libel, nor anything to show that it was
contrary to his duty. Mr. Stowell's remarks were more
directed as to the propriety of any further grant to the
College of Maynooth, than to any imputation on the
character of Mr. Hearne. He apprehended that it was
the duty of a Judge at nisi prius to call the attention of
the Jury to the questions upon the record. The ques-
tions which had been submitted to the Jury in the pre-
sent case were not i n issue at all—they formed no part
of the record, and there could be no ground, therefore,
for disturbing the verdict. The observations of Mr.
Stowell were directed to the injurious tendency of the
Roman Catholic religion generally, and not to the pri-
vate character or conduct of the plaintiff. There was
no allegation that the penance had been ordered by Mr.
Hearne, and he submitted, therefore, that the plaintiff
had no good cause of action against the defendant; that
the verdict ought to be set aside, or that at least the
judgment ought to be arrested.
Mr. WATSON followed on the same side.

The COURT took him to consider its judgment.

BAIL COURT, N0v.22.
WILLIAMS AND WIFE U. PANTON.
Mr. KELLY moved for a rule to show cause why the
proceedings in this case should not be stayed, or why
the plaintiff should not give security for costs; why the
Judges' order permitting the plaintiff to sue in forma
pauperis,
for the plaintiff should not pay the costs of the present
application. This was an action for a malicious prose-
cution, arising out of an indictment, which was tried at
the Old Bailey, against a gentleman charged with forging
a will. The gentleman was acquitted. At the same time
two similar indictments had been preferred against
the subscribing witnesses to the will. These two
persons had subsequently brought actions against
Mr. Manton, the gentleman who had preferred the indict-
ment, one of the plaintiffs in the present instance, who
Lad subsequently married a person named Williams, and
had got a verdict with 3001. damages. A bill of excep-
tions had been tendered, and the case had been moved by
writ of error into the Exchequer Chamber. The plain-
tiff and her husband, who was joint plaintiff with her
in the present cause, had in the meantime brought a
scire facias on the judgment, the defendant had pleaded,
and the proceedings had gone no further. On the case
being argued in the Exchequer Chamber, judgment was
• Exceptions, in favour of the bill of Except' settinggarsoiudnedthoef
judgment, and allowing a venire de noovs,
on the o
misdirection. Notwithstanding this theplaintiff had man-
aged to procure the certificate of Counsel and a Judge's
order, , allowing them to sue in forma pauperis,_
in this very
judgment, which had been set aside by the Exchequer
Chamber. Now, if the case proceeded to trial, the de-
fendant would be obliged to set forth all the facts in the
pleas ; great expense would be incurred, and he could
not recover his costs, because the plaintiff sued in forma
pauperis. The attorney for the plaintiff in this suit had
also been attorney for the plaintiff in the former pro-
ceedings, and therefore must have been aware of what
had taken place, and yet he was found encouraging the
plaintiffs, who were ignorant people, to proceed in an
action in which he must be aware it was impossible to
succeed, as he was proceeding on a judgment which had
been set aside.—Rule granted.

The
OF COMMON PLEAS, Nov. 22.
The Court was occupied the greater part of the day
with a case of some interest, but in which the names
of the parties have not transpired, although it has been
several times before the Court. The circumstances
were these :—The mother of an illegitimate female
child, caused the latter to be brought up by writ of
habeas corpus some time ago, when the case was heard
by consent in Chambers, bethre Mr. Baron Vaughan; vvVen
an arrangement was come to, according to which the
child was placed in a boarding-school, at the expense of
the father, a man, we understand, of high rank in the
army ; the mother to have free access to her. She was,
however, since removed from the school and placed as an
apprentice with a milliner, in Manchester.
Mr. Sergeant LUDLOW on the part of the mother again
obtained a writ of . habeas, under which the infant was
this day brought into Court by the milliner, and the
Learned Sergeant moved for a rule to order her restora-
tion to the mother. He referred to several cases,
the principal of which were the King v. Hop-
kins and White (2d East), and the King in the case
of the .ITottentot Venus, to show that the Court
haeloweption but to order the child to be rendered up to
thy mother, .wbo.was in law her- only parent. This view
was:. strengthened by that enactment in the New Poor-

This was an action for damages, brought by the plain-
tiff for injuries alleged to have been sustained by him in
consequence of the negligence of the defendant.
Mr. PLATT (with whom was Mr. Humphrey) appeared
for the plaintiff, and stated his case as follows :—The
plaintiff was clerk in the employment of Mr. Baylis, the
solicitor in the present action, and, on the 11th of Oc-
tober, went in a gig, accompanied by a friend, named
Edward Storer, who carried on business as a shoemaker,
to Maldon, in Surrey, for the purpose of enjoying a day's
shooting. After they returned from their sport, they
dined at an hotel, and drank one glass of brandy and water,
when they proceeded towards town, and had come as far
at Clapham Rise—an omnibus at the time preceding them,
when the defendant, who was master of the Toot-
ing workhouse, and also the infant school there,
came suddenly from beside the omnibus in a gig at a
rapid pace, and struck the plaintiff's vehicle, the shafts
of which, with the body of the gig, were smashed to
pieces, and the horse thrown violently to the ground.
Some persons present at the moment of the collision
tried to hold the horse, but were unable, and he started
off at a furious pace, dragging the broken carriage
after him, and was heard no more of for two days,
when he was discovered near Maldon, dreadfully in-
jured, and the gig so much damaged as not to be worth
4/. At the time o the accident the plaintiff was on the
left-hand side of the road, which custom has established
as the proper one, and within three feet of the footway.
Upon the horse falling the plaintiff was thrown to the
ground, and rather severely bruised about the legs, while
his companion, although also thrown out, sustained no
injury. The damages were laid at 401.
Witnesses were called in proof of these statements,
when the Jury returned a verdict for the plaintift—
damages, 35/.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.
MAIVSION-HOUSE.

Jose Joaquim Gonsalro Basto, whose first examination
was published in the papers at the beginning of last week,
was brought up for re-examination. The prisoner, it
will be recollected, was charged with having obtained
wine warrants from the house of Messrs. Pinto,
and Co., wine merchants, of No. 36, Crutched-friars,
under false pretences ; and the Lord Mayor, after
having heard part of the evidence, refused to allow the
prisoner to be at large without the security of two sub-
stantial bail to the amount of 5001. each, together with
the prisoner's own recognizances to the amount of 1,000/.
Several conunercialgentlemen were present during the
investigation, which took place before the Lord Mayor
and Alderman Gibbs.

Mr. Clarkson was engaged for the defence, and Mr.
Humphrey for the prosecution. After some further
evidence had been taken, the prisoner was remanded
till Friday, with an intimation that ho would be admitted.
to bail on finding security himself in 1,0001. and two
sureties in 5001. each.
CROYDON POLICE.

A man named Joseph Hudson was summoned by the
police for being asleep in his cart, and not taking proper
care of his horse and vehicle upon the public highway.
The defendant did not appear, but sent his son with. a
written defence of a very singular. character. After ad-
mitting the offence, the defendant attempted to palliate
it by describing the extraordinary qualities of his horse
as follows :—" The horse is blind, and one of the most
singularest animals that ever was known go on the road.
He is used to go behind waggons for miles, and it is
seldom or ever he hits his head, except the waggon before
him stops sudden. When the van is light loaded and the
roads good, the horse is used to be drove by the driver
sitting on the scat, and the reins buckled up to the front
of the van, and by the horse being blind there is no
call to take hold of the reins for a mile at a time. He
has been admired and taken notice of by several people
to pass waggons, carts, and carriages, as if he
could see, and turn into the road again as if he was so
sensible as to know that the wheels was past each other,
and that they could not get contacked. On the sth of
October the horse went from Streatham-gate to the
coffee-house at Croydon by himself, and stopped there
of his own accord, and passed upwards of twenty wag-
gons and carts in the distance. Another thing curious
is, that the horse always stops at a turnpike-gate, as
though he knew the toll must paid before he went
through. I will bet any gentleman 10/. to 5/., if this
horse draws the van he is used to, or a light cart, on a
road he was never on before, that he shall stop within
three yards of the toll-gates, let there be as many as
there will, for any thirty miles on any road any gentle-
man shall point out. Thursday last a person riding with
me a few rods before getting to Godstone-gate said
I wonder if the old horse will stop at the gate.'
I sail I did not know as the gate was shut, but
when he got up to it, he stopped within two feet •of
the gate, without a word being said to stop him, and I
made the remark to the toll-keeper that such a horse
was never known before. When Igo to Lewes, the van
is most times empty ; and after I get through Welch
Cross-gate, I lay down and take my rest, till the horse
gets to the Sheffield Arms-gate, where the old horse
stops suddenly, and wakes me ; and it has been re-
marked by many that Hudson's old horse will go better
without driving than some horses will do with it ; and
when I heard that the police had taken the name on the
cart, on account of the boy being asleep, I said I did not,
expect they would do much in it ; for, if the boy had
not got hold of the reins, I knew the horse was not far
out of his place." After some farther statements rewect-
ing the wonderful sagacity of " his old blind horse, the
solicitor concluded by requesting the Magistrates to deal
leniently with him.
The Magistrates, who were highly amused by the do-
cument, said they could not place implicit reliance upon
the statements that had been made in it ; but, if Hudson
chose to risk his own life, by allowing a blind horse tddraw him so many miles, the safety of the public must
not be endangered ; and, as he had not attended to an-
swer the charge personally, they directed a fresh sum-
mons to be issued.

BELGIUM.
BRUSSELS, Nov. 20.—The Moniteur of this morning
publishes the general Budget of the Ways and Means for
1842. It amounts 105,850,6121.
According to custom the Minister of Finance has
caused the general situation of the Treasury to be pub-
lished. From this it appears, that on the Ist of January
next, the total amount of the excess of the expenditure
above the receipts since 1830, will be 9,777,000 francs,
and adding 8,810,000 f. for the interest and redemption
of the several loans, and the four millions lent to the
Bank of Belgium, there will be a real deficiency of
22,500,000 f , which will be provided for by an equal
amount of Treasury bonds.
We regret to learn there an explosion of fire-damp
has taken place in the coal mine of St. Felix. It is said.
that a great number of workmen were in the mine
four killed and five wounded, had been got out.
The fate of twenty-nine other workmen is not known ;
they were at work in a gallery, the access to which is
impeded by a falling in of the earth to the extent, it is
thought, of three or four hundred yards. Workmen are
employed day and night to get at them.
Our Government has received information thatthir:
Spanish Government has delayed for forty days, from
the first of November, the execution of the new tariff
respect to Belgian produce and manufactures,

BRITISH INDIA.—No moment was ever more
of India than that which has been chosen by
favourable for the publication of a new work on the pre-
sent state.
The war in China, the an,rintment, of
Captain Fane.
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officials, both civil and military, in t iat quarter
and above above all the appointment of a new Governor-Ge-
neral, all these circumstances have directed an extraor-
dinary degree of interest and curiosity towards our In-
dian possessions ; and, as we understand, no work re-
cently published is calculated so fully to gratify these as
the forthcoming " Five Years in India," of Captain Fane,
whose position as nephew and Aid-de-Camp to Sir
Henry Fane, the Commander-in-Chief in India, afforded
him unequalled facilities for the task he has undertaken.
His journey, we are told, includes full and most interest-
ing details of the famous attack on Ghuznee, and the
military operations which preceded and followed it, and
a visit to the Court of Runjeet Signh; a residence in the
Himalayah Mountains ; a voyage down the Indus ; and
finally, an journey overland to England.
AuGs accountßußuH of th
, Nov.e 15
r— 1v
esterday afternoon,
at five o'clock, his Majesty the Ring of Wurtemburgh,
travelling under the name of Count Von Teck, arrived
here, intending, as we hear, to pay a short visit to the
Bavariae sof the a
and
ting Ring of Prussia, at Munich,
loss of the.Boyal family
by the death of the Queen Dowager of Bavaria, induced
IbCtia ngthe of
n
his Majesty to stop here for the night, and we hear that
WI King of Prussia is expected this morning to visit him

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