The Sun.
London, England, 1871-02-18 00:00:00

rim SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1871.

THE REPRESENTATION OF NORWICII.
Sir Charles Legard, in his address to the electors of
Norwich, says, if returned, he shall enter Parliament as a
free man, neither the tool, of any party nor the slave of,
any faction. He is a Conservative and a Church-
man, but he will not oppose any reform pro-
mising benefit to the people and consistent with
the honour and dignity of England. He will resist Mr.
Miall's motion for the disestablishment of the Church of
England, and will support in a liberal spirit such measures
as may be necessary for the security of our country from
the peril of hostile attack and the humiliation of foreign
invasion. Sir Charles addressed a meeting of the Con-
servative electors on Thursday evening in the Lecture
Hall. Sir R. Bignold presided, and a resolution was car-
ried approving the candidature of Sir Charles Legard, who
was favourably received. Sit Alfred Slade, who had gone
down with Sir Charles Lei,,ard, also addressed the meeting:
The nomination will be on Monday, and the poll on

LAW AND POLICE,

--- • •
BANKRUPTCY OF LORD DE MAULEY.—Friday was fixed
for the public examination of Charles Frederick Cooper
Ponsonby, Lord de Manley, in the petition described as of
39, Mount-street, Grosvenor-square, and of Longford
Lechlade, Gloucestershire. The adjudication has been
obtained at the instance of Mr. Frederick Yates, of
74, Harley-street, Cavendish-square. The Act of
bankruptcy being a declaration of insolvency, proofs had
already been tendered to the extent of £24,000 and up-
wards. Sir R. Baggalay said he appeared on the part of
the trustees. ILord de Manley, who was now in court,
had given every information that the trustees required,
and it was not therefore proposed to go into a public
examination of his lordship. The case was adjourned for
the final examination.

Lesda,y nee:`.

ACTION FOR
AUGLUSTU SY MR.
IBEL B
A.. GEORGE
SAL

In the COurt of Queen's Bench, before the Lord Chiel
Justice and a special jury, the above well-known author
and journalist brought- action against Messrs. Stoughton
and Hodder, the publishers, for having published an
alleged scandalous and defamatory libel on the cha-
racter and against the professional reputation of
Mr. Sala. Mr. Serjeant Parry, who appeared
for the plaintiff, paid a high compliment to
his client, who was known, he said,' wherever
the English language was read and spoken. He was the
author of a great many original works on education, art
criticisms, literary criticisms, biographical and humourous
sketches, but he especially prided himself upon the Let
that he had been, from an early period of his life, con-
nected with the public press of the country. As special
correspondent of the Daily Telegraph he had been in various
parts of the world, and described with his graphic. and facile
pen scenes and incidents that had laid their mark on the
pages of the world's history. He was a hardworking
literary man, never having had a penny in his possession
but what he had honestly and industriously earned ; and
it was, his counsel considered, painful that now in mid-life
Mr. Sala should be compelled to bring an action
of this kind to vindicate his character from
what the jury would find to be as gross and scandalous
an attack as ever was penned against the private character
of a htterateur, or, indeed, of any man, no matter what
his position in life. Mr. Sala was quite unaware what
offence he could have given to. any one connected with
the work in which the libel was printed, to justify the
author or publishers of them in giving forth to the world
such an audacious and unwarranted attack. Mr. Haines
Friswell was the author of the work in which the libel
appeared, and the title of the book was " Modern Men of
Letters Honestly criticised." Mr. Friswell was a literary
man also of some position, and the publishers of the book
had a very extensive connection, which would, of
course, give increased acrimony and force to that libel.
Mr. Friswell's work professed to criticise such men as
Lord Lytton, the late Charles Dickens,. John Ruskin,
Robert Browning, Alfred Tennyson, George Gr )te, Ben-
jamin Disraeli, add others famed in literature, art, and
science. That passage of the work complained of as
libellous was headed " Mr. George Augustus Sala," and
it proceeded to say that Mr. Sala was a
Bohemian writer of a bad school, but yet a
brave man, one that has done very little good, and'yet one
full of capabilities for good. The learned Sergeant said
the word "Bohemian" occurred three or four times in the
obnoxious passage, and he supposed it had reference to one
who led a vagabond, gipsy-like life similar to that led by
the wanderers of historic fame from Bohemia.] The
author went on to say that Mr. Sala was a writer of
sound English, a scholar, and yet a driveller of tipsy,
high-flown, high falutin' nonsense. A man of under-
standing when he liked, and yet an utterer of bosh and
nonsense as well, who had done much to debase himsslf.
A man of keen intellect, prodigious memory, great pictu-
resquenessin scenic description, and of photographic accu-
racy,and yet so utterlrcareless of his own reputation, of the
dignity of letters, and of what was due to him, that he
could sell his pen to describe a Jew clothier's, or advertis-
ing furniture dealer's establishment, a Liverpool draper's,
a Manchester warehouse, or a St. Paul's Church-yard
bonnet shop. A man who ought to have taken a lead on
any paper, but who in the various walks of the
pen profession had done but little. The libel then
went on to say that Mr. Sala was often drunk, always in
debt, sometimes in prison, and was otally disreputable.
He had, however, the happy tact of propitiating the good
will of newspaper proprietors, for George Augustus Sala
would bring his copy with a correct regard to
time and ptinctuality, which newspaper proprietors
required. The article adverted in acrimonious
terms to the fact that Mr. Sala left unfinished literary
works upon which he had been engaged, and for which he
had been paid, and somebody else had to finish these
incomplete lucubrations, and that somebody else Mr. Sala
was afterwards very unwilling to ,pay. His name was
then connected with that of the late Dr. William
Maguire, and an inuendo was thrown out that,
like this illustrioms Irish author, Mr: Sala had
not unfrequently been seen rolling drunk in Fleet-
street ; but all these foibles only excited the admira-
tion of Bohemia. In his early life his youthful
efforts in the republic of letters were devoted to the com-
position of sensational romances brought out by
his Miecenas, Mr. Edward Lloyd,• of Salisbury-court,
for whom he wrote "Sweeny Todd, or the string of
Pearls, " Ada, the Bereaved, or the Old Smithy."
(Laughter.)
Mr. Lewis, the plaintiff's solicitor, proved to having
purchased a copy of the work in which the libel was pub-
lished at the establishment of Messrs. Stoughton and
Hodder the defendants.—Mr. Charles Dickens, conductor
of All the Year Round magazine, said he had known Mr.
Sala ever since he was a boy at Eton, and had known
him as a great personal 'friend of his late
father, and as a writer of repute and genius.
Mr. Edward Levy, one of the proprietors of the Daily
Telegraph newspaper, deposed that Mr. Sla had for
upwards of fourteen years been connecteda with that
journal. Mr. Seymour, Q.C.: Do yo,u know what lurid
leaders are ? The Lord Chief Justice :Do you mean
leaders at the bar, Mr. Seymour ? (Laughter).—Mr.
Levy said he understood the term referred
to sensational leaders in newspapers. Mr. Sala,
in his examination, said he had been devoted
to literature since he was fifteen years -of age,
when he was engaged as a scene-painter at the. Princess's
Theatre. He had, he believed, written upwards of 3,000
leading articles for the Daily Telegraph, and had been
its Special Correspondent in almost every part of the
habitable globe. He denied ever having written for
Mr. Lloyd, whom he always regarded as a worthy and
respectable man, or the penny romances mentioned by
the writer. He gave no cause for this scandalous attack
on his character. Mr. D. Seymour, Q.C., in his address
for the defence, contended that it was the author of the
work (Mr. Friswell), and not the publishers, whom he
should have sued in this instance.—After the summing up
of the learned judge, the jury returned a verdict for £5OO
damages.

The British Medical Journal is authorised to state
hat no bill for the amendmend of the Medical Acts will
le introduced by the Government this session.'

A prebendal stall in ChicheAer Cathedral has been
conferred upon the Rev. 'Richard Snowden Smith, M.A.,
of Caius College, Cambridge, incumbent of All Souls'
'Church, Brighton.

- - _
THE NEW M.P. FOR YORK.— Vr. George Leeman,
of the Mount, York, who was elected on Tuesday without
opposition in the Liberal interest as M.P. for the city of
York, in the place of Mr. J. P. Brown-Westhead, who
has accepted the Chiltern Hundreds, is a son of the late
Mr. George Leeman, also of York, where he was born in
1809. He is a solicitor and an alderman of York, of which
city he is now Lord Mayor for the third, if not fourth,
time. He is also Clerk of the Peace for the East Riding
of Yorkshire, and Deputy Chairman of the North-Eastern
Railway Company. He sat as one of the members for the
city of York in the Parliament of 1865-8, but did not
come forward as a candidate at the last General Election.
Mr. Leeman married first in 1831, Jane, daughter of the
late Mr. Joseph Johnson, of Loud6n, and, secondly, in
1863, Eliza, widow of the Rev. Charles Payton, of York.
BIGAMY EXTRAOg,DINAIIX.—YesteIa ay, at the
Bradford West Riding Court, a man of 55 years, named
Dalby, a schoolmaster, residing at Cleckheaton, and
possessed of property, was charged with bigamy.
Two months ago, tho prisoner assaulted Mary
Ann Mortimer, who was living with him as his wife,
and was committed for two months. On Tuesday, on coin-
ing from prison, he was apprehended for bigamy, having,
when he knew his first wife was alive, on three occasions
married other women, viz., at Manchester, in April, 1859,
with Ann Roberts ; at Rochdale, in 1865, 'Margaret
Scholes ; and at Bristol, in August, 1870, Mary Ann
Mortimer. A fourth, whom he had married, was sup-
posed to be alive, but her whereabouts was unknown.
The three marriages 'subsequent to the first and legal
marriage were proved by the several women, and the
prisoner was committed for trial at the next assizes.