The Sun.
London, England, 1871-02-09 00:00:00

that I regarded her with feelings of love or affection." Is

, THE IRISH SCANDAL CASE.
The action brought by Mr. Leonard Ball Poynter, late
captain in the 16th Regiment of Infantry, for recovery of
£lO,OOO damages, for an assault and battery committed
on him by Mr. John Vesey Porter, of Belle Isle, county
Fermanagh, came before Chief Justice Monaghan, in
Dublin, on Monday.
The Solicitor-General (R. Dowse, Esq., M.P.), Mr.
Serjeant Armstrong, and Mr. Holmes, instructed- by Mr.
John Graham, appeared for the plaintiff ; and Messrs.
Butt, Q.C„ and A. M. Porter, instructed by Mr. John
Alexander, were for the defendant.
The Solicitor-General stated the case, and the following
evidence was then given :
Captain Poynter : I am the plaintiff in this case, and
at the time of the assault was captain of the Ist battalion
of the 16th Regiment, stationed then at Enniskillen.
Amongst others I became acquainted with Mr. and Mrs.
Porter, and the latter's sister. Belle Isle is about six
miles from Enniskillen. I remember early in December
their butler, named Oldcroft, calling to me ; he came
into my bedroom, and said that Mrs. Porter was particu-
larly anxious to see me ; that she was on the road near
the Model School. I replied to Oldcroft that I was not
dressed, and could not go. He returned again in about
an hour, saying again that Mrs. Porter wished to see me.
I told him I could not go. He returned the third time
at about two o'clock ; that time he added to his message
that if I went she would not keep me five minutes. I said
I was engaged, but that if I could I would go ; some time
after (about half-an-hour) I went down to the school-
house, and saw Oldcroft on the road ; be said Mrs.
Porter was in a boat on the river of Killyhevlin ; he guided
me to where he said she was ; I had previously seen this
man acting as a servant at Belle Isle ; going towards the
bank of the river we passed some tress, from the direc-
tion of which five men rushed out ; one caught me by the
throat, and another put a strap across my mouth ; they
tied my hands, and carried me along to the boat ; when
I got to the boat I saw Mr. Porter in it. They threw me
at the bottom of the boat, and placed a rug over me ;
they then rowed away towards Belle Isle. I succeeded in
working the gag out of my mouth. As far as I could
notice, Mr. Porter held the strap which served as a gag.
I was not choking. When I got the gag out of my
mouth I asked him what it was for, saying I never did
him any harm. He replied, "Lie downs you black-
guard, or 111 strike you." He also said, "You
know what it is, for the unfortunate woman has con-
fessed." I said nothing to that. He struck me with his
fist repeatedly during the passage down the lake. The
first time he struck me I had asked him what it was for.
Both my eyes were blackened.. My hands and feet were
tied. We were two hours in the boat. There were five
others, I think, besides myself and Mr. Porter in the
boat. I heard Porter say toone of the men, " Look in the
case and you'll find a pair of scissors. Hand them to me."
The man handed the scissors, and Porter said, "Now I am
going to put the Belle Isle mark on you."
What was your position at the time ?—He had me drawn
up with my head between his legs.
What did he do to you ?—He cut my hair as closely as
he could, and clipped one end of my mustache. This took
about three minutes. He said to me, " Perhaps you
would like to send a lock of your hair to your lady friends
at Enniskillen." There is a lauding-place at Belle Isle.
While he cut my hair, he threw water all over me. When
they untied My legs he walked me up to a terrace in front
of the house.
What did you perceive there ?-1 saw two upright beams
with a transverse one. I was then tied to the beams, my
feet just touching the ground, and Porter told some one to
go and get two whips. He then commenced to lash me
with one, and broke it ; he then used the second on me.
He said to those around, " Now I'll show you what lam
going to do to a blackguard English officer." They were
about ten minutes flogging me. When he had finished I
was untied, and I then gave all th 4 money I had,
and they got me a glass of whiskey. I believe Mr.
Porter's car brought me back to Lisbellaw. When I
returned I was very unwell, and was examined by the
doctor of the regiment, and by two others, Drs. Baggot
and M`Kenna. It was about a month before I could
appear again in society.
Cross examined : I have been alone with Mrs. Porter
on several occasions. I was alone with her when she was
at dinner; she dined at six o'clock. I remained till half-
past seven. The servants were in and out.
Why did you spend all this time alone with Mrs. Por-
ter while she was dining ?—She invited me.
By letter ?—Yes, I think so.
Did you bolt any of the doors ?—No ; I do -not know
that they were bolted. The servants were in,and, out.
Did you receive this letter from her 1
" Dear Captain Poynter,—Perhaps people might make
remarks if we both appeared at Ennismore, and mother
and sister are so strict. So I think you had better come
here at three o'clock instead, and we can have as pleasant
a walk as our last. John went to Dublin this morning,
and does not return until Saturday ; so, of course, I am
rather lonely, and hope you will come and give me an
account of the ball, &c. If you get this document to-
night, you might write me a line by return of post, so
that I may know it is all right ; but if I don't hear to-
morrow, I shall still expect you."
—Yee. I think I saw her on the occasion referred to.
Did she ever tell you her husband was going to Belfast,
and request to see you during his absence ?—She told me
he was absent on one or two occasions. I went to Belle
Isle once while Mr. Porter was at Omagh.
Do you remember this letter?
" I have thought that you had better come later ; leave
Enniskillen at a quarter to three or so, that you may be
at the gate-house at four, and I will meet you. If you
ride, I know a place where you can put up your horse
without going up to the house. I hope the rain won't
stop you, as I don't know any other place, so don't disap-
point the poor little woman."
(Laughter).—Yes, but I cannot fix the date.
You remember receiving this intimation ?
" The Belfast Exhibition has come off at last, and I am
alone in my glory—(a laugh)—and will be 'until Tuesday
forenoon, so I hope you will come to-morrow, between
four and five, as I want to ask you something, and we are
really going away next week."
—Yes ; I think that was just before one of the visits when
I met her alone.
Another letter was also read, from which the followiug
are extracts :
"My dear Leonard,—l have had a most sensational
week, and really must give you an account of my adven-
tures. According to our compact, I went at an early
hour to the parental roof, and tried to make mother " listen
to my tale ;" but she said I was humbugging. My father
then appeared and told me to leave the house, and ac-
taally locked the hall door so that I 'should not enter
aglin I returned home at midnight. My
husband came into my apartment and said, " Has
Captain Poynter been here since I left ?" to which ques-
tion—l being nearly asleep—l did not respond, and was
left by myself for the remainder of the night. . . . I
only wish last Monday were coining again. What shall I
do now ? They won't let me into Enniskillen, and you
cannot come out here, though of course, 'you don't care;
but I shall like the prospect of some more pleasure, having
been in an agreeable state of anticipation for the last
seven weeks. J. says he will toke me to London the week
after next—cannot you turn up there, too? It would
be so nice, and it will give me something to look forward
to. Ah do promise. No one will know, as lam going
to be as good as gold for a long time, and should like to
see you again. J. does not blame you one bit ;of course
he knows it was all my fault. I even told him I wrote to
you to come. I did not, however, give him any further
Particulars, and there will be no more said on the subject.
I can't know what you mean to do if you won't send some
kind of answer. If you are afraid to write, can't you
send some kind of answer. If you are afraid to write,
can't you (who are so clever) think of some plan? I have
got an idea on the subject which will do. Can't you
get a piece of music or anything else—they will think
it is something I have ordered—and so will John—you
will be safe—at some shop in Enniskillen, and let them
direct it to me, and you write a few lines to me and
put them inside, telling me what you think of the London
plan. I mean if we do go how am Ito know where you
are? I think it would be very unkind of you if you don't
let me hear from you again in some way lt
seems such a long time since last Monday. Every one
has been angry with me, but I don't mind (and they don't
know all my affairs) if I shall see you again.

ELLIE,

"Don't tell of me.—Hallow Eve."

After the receipt of that letter,• did you ever go to
Ennismore Hall?—Yes.
Did you dine with her there ?—Yes.
And do you think it a gentlemanly thing to visit and
dine at a gentleman's house during his absence, knowing
well that if he were at home he would forbid your pre.
Bence ?—lt was not.

---- •
Tell me, when Mr. Porter called you a " blackguard
of an English officer," did he not add, You are a
disgrace to the British army ?"-11e did. I visited
Mrs. Porter and SAW her alone for three or four hours
after. I knew Mr. Porter had accused her of levity with
me.
Your affidavit says, " I never on the occasion of any of
my several visits, spoke to Mrs. Porter in an improper
manner, and never gave her the least occasion to suppose

that so, sir ?—Most assuredly.
You are in the habit of calling on married women,
and sitting with them for four hours in the evening?—

Yes.
Re-examined by Mr. Serjeant Armstrong; It was the
last time that I was at Belle Isle that I remained so long.
I never committed any act of impropriety with Mrs.
Porter ; I never kissed her ; I never said an indelicate
word to her, nor anything that could be so construed. I
never was in Mrs. Porter's bedroom with her. lam
about twenty-nine years of age. Mrs. Porter is about
three or four and twenty. I should say Mr. Porter is
about fifty. I have told her the clubs I belong to in

London.
Dr. M`Kenna, examined by Mr. Holmes : I was in
charge of the 16th Regiment, stationed at Fermanagh.
Saw Captain Poynter on the 3rd of December. His
cheeks were swollen, and his eyes black. The angles of
his mouth were marked with what he said was a " gag."
His hair was cut, and he was ill for about ten days.
Cross-examined by M. Falkiner, Q.C. : I saw him
stripped, but he had no marks of being whipped. Lotions
were applied to him. His lip was cut inside, and it wso
very much swollen. His cheeks were a regular jelly, I
treated him before for an epileptic fit brought on by
&ink.
Dr. Edward Begot, examined by Serjeant Armstrong,
said he was a medical man, practising in Enniskillen. He
attended Captain Poynter in December last. Saw the
injuries described by Dr. BPlCenna, and approved of the
treatment followed.
The plaintiff's case having closed,
Mr. Butt proceeded to address the Court and jury for
the defendant. It was certainly, he said, a very serious
case, and furnished an instance of the madness of human
passion, and of the consequences of human weakness.
This case was a record of woman's folly and man's ter-
rible passion—a record of man's heartless cruelty. His
client committed the assault. He admitted it; but it
was not an assault committed in barbarity. They had
heard the doctor state that he was not badly beaten.
There were circumstances of indignity the deepest that
one man could heap upon another. No doubt Mr.
Porter had acted wrongly in taking the administration of
the law into his own hands ; but there were two things
to be considered by them in assessing the damages in a
case of this kind, namely, what amount ought the
dant to pay, and what ought the plaintiff to receive ? It
was the lowest of these two things that should be the
measure of the damages they should give. The case, as
they had heard, would come before a criminal tribunal,
and he was quite sure it was not at the instigation of the
plaintiff that such proceedings had been instituted. His
client would be convicted of the assault in that criminal
court. No jury could return a verdict of " Not Guilty"
in the case ; but he had no doubt the judge who would
go clown to try it would temper justice with mercy. He
would not forget that passion betrayed Mr. Porter
into a breach of the law for which he was now sorry ; he
mourned for the ouurrence now himself. The duty,
however, which they had to discharge was to say what
damages Captain Poynter was entitled to under the cir-
cumstances. The learned counsel then reviewed the evi-
dence, and reverted to the correspondence, and concluded
by expressing the confidence he felt that, in the hands of
the jury he addressed, the case would receive a calm and a
air consideration.

A REMARKABLE DIVORCE CAE.
In the Court for Di.° and Matrimonial Causes
Lord Penzance had before him the cause of " De Gendre
v. Do Gendre," which was a wife's petition for a dissolution
of her marriage, on the ground of her husband's adul-
tery and cruelty. The petitioner is a lady posses-
sing some £40,000, and the respondent, the Count De
Gendre was formerly an officer in the Neapolitan army,
and the petitioner met him whilst at Rome, and an ac-
quaintance soon sprung up. The Countess de Gendre
said that she was after the marriage desirous of annulling
her marriage settlement, so as not to have the
money settled on her; but found she could
not. She was married at St. Mary's, Dover,
and the honeymoon was passed at Tunbridge Wells. The
respondent made some assertions tending to doubt the
witness's virtue, and she saw that she could at once leave
him. The Count, however, said that if she did he would
commit suicide. He soon afterwards began to illtreat
witness, and frequently pinched her. In August, 1866, they
had been at Brighton,and on their return they were going to
a party At Henley when he tore witness's dress from top
to bottom, and on another occasion when witness was
dressing her hair he came into her room and asked her to
kiss him. She replied that she would in a moment as soon
as she had finishedher. hair. He then without any for ewarn-
ing clinched his fist and struck her on the breast, and from
injuries then sustained witnessAuffered for severalmonths.
His conduct was so bad that witness ultimately deter-
mined to go and live at her trustees at Blackheath. Whilst
walking out at that place a carriage drove up, and the
respondent got out. He attempted to thrust
witness in ; but she resisted very much, and
the Count called in a servant, named Hull,
to assist him; but for some time she resisted successfully,
and made an appeal to Hull for mercy. He, however,
took no notice. A crowd had by this time collected, and
witness appealed to them for help, but before, that could
be rendered she was forced into the carriage with her legs
hanging out. Some one in the crowd said, " Put
the poor woman's legs in," and her legs were
then pushed inside. Her husband then drove her
to his house. She there stayed an hour and a-half, and
promised to see the Count the next day, and did so ; but
had not been with him since.—Ellen Whittker, the lady's
maid, gave corroborative evidence.—There was really no
defence, and the learned judge pronounced a decree nisi
'or a dissolution of the marriage.

"TUB MILK JOURNAL."—A. suitable motto for
this new periodical would no doubt be found in " LAc-
TANTIus." (We are requested to contradict the statement
that the office of this publication is in Pump-court.)—
Punch.

The accounts from the South African diamond
fields by the mail just arrived are still of a favourable
character, and several valuable gems are brought by the
steamer. Intelligence also eomes of the murder by
natives of Captain Faulkner, the chief of the small expe•
dition sent in search of Dr. Livingstone. No news of the
great traveller had been received at the Cape when the
mail left.

SOCIAL BRIGANDAGE.—In a room in a by-stree
near a fashionable square, sits a close-shaven man with
grisly hair, expressionless eyes, and bushy whiskers.
Books about the peerage and the landed gentry are his
Bible and his Testament. He has made it his careful
study to know the habits of the young men about town
with expectations, taking peculiar interest in those who
promise to outrun the constable; judiciously and oppor-
tunely he issues letters, containing the most philanthropic
offers. Temporpry embarrassments are to be cleared away,
ready money is to be supplied for a mere formality, a
nothing—a few scrawls on a bit of paper. Assistance is
supplied from time to time on the same easy terms, until
the benevolent gentleman thinks it right to stop. When
the young debtor is fairly caught, the strings of the net
are drawn tightly round him. If he do not pay what is
asked he is ruined for life ; and of course it was known
that he could not pay. But what does that matter? By
means unknown his paterfamilias is made acquainted
with the state of things ; also a wealthy maiden aunt,
supposed to have been fond of the curly-headed boy. A
family council is held, assisted, perhaps, by the family
legal adviser. It turns out that measures have been
cleverly taken ; resistance would only cause unavailing
scandal; purses are clubbed, funds are somewhow raised,
and the captive is ransomed from the brigand's--I beg the
smooth-shaied gentleman's pardon—from the money-
lender's clutches.—All the Yeas• Bound.
AN ALLEGED CORRUPT OFFICIAL LIQUIDATOR.—In the
Rolls Court Mr. George Scott, an accountant of the City
of London, was summoned to shew cause why he should
not. be discharged from the position of official liquidator
to the Rhos Hall Iron Company, and stand committed to
Holywell Prison fur contempt, in presenting
Mr. liftman, Secretary of the Birmingham Iron
Company, who were the principal creditors of
the company being wound-up, with .a cheque of £lO,
with the view of influencing him to report favourably
upon the liquidator's claim for compensation. The com-
plaint was made by a clerk named Roberts, who had been
discharged from Mr. Scott's service. The liquidator did
not refute the charge of presenting the cheque, but
strenuously denied having been influenced by corrupt or
imprDper motives. Lord Romilly said he could
not but bear in mind that that was not the
first complaint of the kind made against officers
of the court. The present transaction would not
have been known were it not for a quarrel between the
accused and his clerk, and it would now be highly culpable
in him if he (lid not endeavour to put an effectual stop to
a system which would have so injurious, an effect upon•the
reputation of the court. He would not commit Mr.
Scott to prison, but would discharge him from his present
position, and order all his chief clerks never to employ
him as official-liquidator again. A copy of the order
would be transmitted to the chambers of the three vice •
chancellors.