The Sun.
London, England, 1848-12-13 00:00:00

VTI-lITZCHAPEL.

The supplies of Mpat on sale somewhat exceeded the
wants of the huteh,,rs; henc.e the demand was in a
sluggish state, at barely stationary prices.—Beef, from
9s 6 to 3s 6,1 ; Mutton, 3s 4,1 to 4s 6d; Veal. 3s 4d
to 4s 4‘l; and Pork, 3:; 8d to 4s 8d per Blbs by the
carcase.

lIER MAJESTY'S AND PRINCE
ALBERT'S ETCHINGS AND
DRAWINGS.-(THIS DAY.)

THE QUEEN AND PRINCE ALBERT v. STRANGE,
JUDGE, AND OTHERS.
(Before the Vice-Chancellor KNIGHT Bence.)
Our readers cannot fail to recollect that in the course
of the last long vacation an application was made on
behalf of her Majesty and Prince Albert to the Vice-
Chancellor Knight Bruce for an ex-parte injunction, to
restrain Mr. Strange, the publisher, of Paternoster-
row, from punshing a catalogue, or exhibiting, or dis-
posing of certain copies of etchings, executed by her
Majesty and Prince Albert. The application for the
injunction ex parte was supported by the affidavits of
his Royal Highness Prince Albert, Mr. George Edward
Anson, Mr. J. P. Lawrence, and others, and
his Honour having read the affidavits, •„ at once
granted the injunction. On the 6th of last month
an application was made to the same Learned Judge to
extend the injunction already granted to other parties
who had since been made defendants, among whom was
Mr. Jasper Toinsett Judge and Mr. J. A. F. Judge.
l'he amended bill, making other parties than Strange de-
fendants, stated, for the purpose of obtaining au extended •
injunction, that her Majesty and her Royal Consort had
for their amusement occasionally made drawings and
etchings, principally of subjects of private and domestic
interest to themselves, and of which etchings they had
made impressions for their own use, and not for publi-
cation. For greater privacy such impressions had, for
the most part, been made by means of a private press,
and that the plates themselves had been ordinarily kept
by her Majesty under lock, and the impressions placed
in some of the private apartments only at Windsor; that
the defeedent Strange, and Mr. Jasper Tomsett Judge,
and Mr. J. A. F. Judge, in some manner obtained some
impressions surreptitiously taken from the plates,
whereby they have been enabled to form a gallery or
collection of such etchings, of which they intended to
make an exhibition, without the permission either of her
Majesty or Prince Albert. With this view a cata-
logue had been published, entitled " A Descriptive
Catalogue of the Royal Victoria and Albert Gal-
lery of Etchings," and which had been compiled, pre-
pared, and published, without the consent of her Ma-
jesty and the Prince. ll* this work it was stated that
"every purchaser of the catalogue would be presented
(by permission) with a fac simile of the autograph of
either her Majesty or of the Prince Consort, engraved
from the original, the selection being left to the pur-
chaser." After an introduction written in praise of the
execution of the several works of art, the catalogue set
out a list, with descriptions of 63 several etchings, some
of them alleged to represent scenes in the royal nursery,
copies of ancient engravings:, original compositions of
animals, &c.; in fact, amongst the etchings there ap-
pear to be portraits of the Prince Consort, the Prince
of \Vales, the Princess Royal, of the other members
of the Royal Family, and the personal friends of
her Majesty. many of which were drawn by her Ma-
jesty from lite, and afterwards transferred to copper,
and etched by her Majesty and Prince Albert, and
amp dogs,
take. etchings portraits of their favourite does
taken by them from life, and etchings from old and rare
engravings in the possession of her Majesty, and several
from such original designs as stated in the catalougue.
The catalogue, it was sworn, could not have been made
nor coahl the description and other remarks have been
compiled, except by means of the possession of impressions
of the etchings surreptitiously obtained; that such im-
pressions were intended to be for the private use of her
Majesty and the Prince, and although some copies had
bean occasionally and rarely given to some of their
private friends, no such collection as advertised for exhi-
bition by the defendants was ever given away by them,
and it would appear that the impressions had been sure
rep•itiously obtained. The bill prayed that the de-
ieutlatits might be ordered to deliver up to her Majesty
all impressions and copies of the etchings, and be re-
strained from exhibiting the collection, and from
making or permitting to be made any engravings
or copies of the same, and from in any manner
publishing, the same, and also an injunction restrain-
brg the publication and sale of the catalogue.
These statements in the bill were supported by the affi-
davits of several persons, among whom was Mr. J. B.
Brown, of Windsor, who stated that he was entrusted
by her Majesty end the Prince Consort with the print-
ing of impressions from plates which had been engraved
by them, and was so employed from October, 1840, to
November, 1847, and that he faithfully sent all the per-
fect, impressions to Windsor Castle. In this work Mr.
Brown employed a journeyman, in whom he had milli-
! di nee, as pressman, who Mr. Brown swore he believed,
as he had been informed, had secretly made impressions
of the plates; which impressions he retained without the
consent or knowledge of Mr. Brown, and which was in
vioiation of his duty and of the confidence reposed in
him by his master. A man named Whittington, for-
merly in the employ of Mr. Brown, swore that he re-
collected the taking eff the impressions by command of
her Mjesty, and that although the journeyman em-
ployed always returned to Mr. Brown all the print
paper delivered out, yet he habitually took off copies
for himself on card or common paper. The deponent
also s.vore that he had about thirteen of such im-
pressions, which the journeyman gave him, and that
about a year and a half ago Jasper Tomsett
Judge met him in the street and told him that he (Judge)
could make it worth his while if he wished to dispose of
the prints. Mr. J. F. Laurence, of Windsor, deposed
that ho knew Mr. J. T. Judge, and recollected hearing
a rumour four or five months ago that Judge had a col-
lection of prints and etchings made by her Majesty and •
Prince Albert, and afterwards met Judge, and said to
him, " I underetand you have some drawings of the
Queen's end Prince Alberts;" to which Judge replied,
Ob I pet are quite welcome to see them;" that about a
month after such conversation, and not more than three
or four months ago, he called at Judge's house, who
then produced a portfolio with about eighty prints in it,
and said that ihay had been engraved by the Prince and
the Qneen; that he observed the names of the Queen
aid Prince Albert on them, and noticed that on some of
them the signatures or names aepeased reversed, as they
would be supposing the names had been engraved on the
plates Rs the signatures would be usually written; and
that Life se prints were on separate sheets of paper,
! some of which :appeared to him to be card-board
river, and ono or two gl zed foolscap paper.
Upon these affidavits and the statements in the
i bill, his Hononr extended the injunction to the other
parties who had been made defendants. The defendants
havine, pet in their answer tit the bill, a notice was given
to her Majesty and the Prince that it was the intention
of the defen,toit Strange to move to dissolve the injunc-
tion, and Saturday last east appointed as the day on
• which that motion was to be made. At the sitting of the
Court on that day, in consequence of the filing of addi-
tional affidavits, the motion, by the consent of all par-

ties, was directed to stand over till to-day, his Honour
having piistiTuied all other business for the purpose of
hearing it specially. In consequence of its being gene-
r.thy kiwwn tint the ease was to come on to-fly, long
before ion o'clock hundreds, iinxious to here the ease,
throngs d the avenues to the court; and upon the odeniiig
of the doors every place was secured, and the
solicitors in the case had the utmost difficulty to obtain
places,
His Honour took his scat shortly after ten o'clock.
After a low unimportant motions were disposed of,
Mr. J. RUSSELL said that the Court had kindly ap-
pointed to-day to hear a motion for the dissolution of
an injunction, which his Honour had granted in the
long vacation, and extended a short time since, in a suit
in which his Royal Highness Prince Albert was the
plaintiff, and Mr. Strange, the eminent publisher of
Paternoster-row, was the defendant. He had now to
move in the case in which his Royal Highness Prince
Albert was the plaintiff, and Mr. Strange was the de-
fendant, to dissolve the injunction that had been granted
so far as it sought to restrain Mr. Strange from publish-
ing the catalogue he had advertised be should publish
of the Royal drawings and etchings.
The VICE-CHANCELLOR—I see this is a limited ap-
plication to dissolve the injunction. If I recollect
rightly, this application is made upon that part of the
case upon which I expressed cons►derable doubt and
difficulty at the time the application was made to me for
the injunction.
Mr. J. RUSSELL said that the injunction restrained
his client, Mr. Strange, from doing that which he had
nothing whatever to do with, and the only question the
defendant raised was the right of his Royal Highness
Prince Albert to restrain him from printing, selling, or
publishing the catalogue; and the only objection he
could see to that publication was, that in the catalogue
the flattery was not sufficiently tempered. There was
nothing in it contrary to public morals or decency, and
the only fault the defendant seemed to have committed
was flattering too much. The Learned Gentleman
having read the principal allegations in the bill, and the
affidavits in its support, observed that the Court could
not fail to see that whatever the merits of the case, he
(Mr. Strange) was presented by the bill to the world in
a most questionable light. He was charged with obtain-
ing a copy of the etchings surreptitiously.
The VICE-CHANCELLOR—Does Mr. Strange print the
work for himself or for others?

Mr. RUSSELL—Mr. Strange has printed it at his own
expense. It was originally a joint speculation between
him and. others, but it has since been abandoned. Mr.
Strange, by his answer, denied it to be true that he had
in any manner either surreptitiously or otherwise ob-
tained the impressions; that he believed Judge had ob-
tained them from, a person of the name of Middleton by
purchase, and that one, and only one, of such impressions
was sent to him for the purpose of being mounted.
That about the end of August in the present year,
Judge called upon him, and having told him that he
had in his possession impressions from etchings done
by her Majesty and Prince Albert, and that in Septem•
ber Judge showed him those impressions, and proposed
to enter into an arrangement with him to exhibit them,
provided there was not the slightest objection on the
part of her Majesty the Queen and Prince Albert. That
it was then arranged between him and Judge that they
should join together to exhibit the impressions at the
Egyptian Hall, or some other institution of equal re-
spectability, and that the defendant should advance the
necessary funds for that purpose. That Judge should
participate equally in the profits. The defendant also
stated that he did not believe that the impressions had
come improperly into the hands of Judge, but that they
had been fairly, honestly, and regularly obtained by him.
The answer also stated that after the interview of the
defendant with Judge, Judge wrote a descriptive cata-
logue of the impressions which was printed by the de-
-1 relent, and fifty-one copies and no more were struck off,
an d the type was then broken up. That general in-
quiries were made by the defendant and Judge with
reference to the expense of a room in which the etchings
might be exhibited, but that no other steps were taken
on the subject except that Judge wrote to a Berkshire
piper an article relating to them. That on the 9th of
October, 1848, Judge, with a view of bringing the sub-
ject of the exhibitions to the notice of her Majesty and
Prince Albert, and for the purpose of ascertaining whe-
ther such an exhibition would be objected to by them,
sent copies to them of the catalogues through the Lord-
in-Waiting, and also to the lion. Colonel Phipp-, the
Duchess of Kent, Sir George Cowper, the Barones de
Speth, the King and Queen of the Belgians, Earl
Delawarr and the Duchess of Sutherland. The defend-
ant also by his answer, stated that the catalogue had
never been published or sold, or exposed for sale i and
that of the fifty-one copies, with the exception of one
given away by Judge, and those sent to her Majesty
and other persons, all the rest were at the present
time in his hands. That in October, 1848, the defend-
ant left London for Barnsley, in Yorkshire, for the
benefit of his health, and did not return till late in the
evening of the 27th of the same month. That on the
18th of October, when the defendant was in Barns-
ley, he received a letter from his son, in-
forming him that a gentleman, named White,
had called on the behalf of her Majesty and
Prince Albert, to express their disapprobation of the
contemplated exhibition, that this was the first intima-
tion that the defendant received—that such exhibition
was disapproved of by her Majesty and her Royal Con-
sort, and that until such intimation he had no reason to
believe that it would be objected to either by her Ma-
jesty or Prince Albert. That upon becoming aware
that such exhibition was disapproved of by her Majesty
and Prince Albert, the defendant acting in accordance
with the terms upon which alone he had entered into
the arrangement for the exhibition, at once,:and immedi-
ately determined not to take any further steps to exhibit
the drawings, and wholly abandoned it; and the defendant
further stated by his answer, that it had been his anxious
wish since he had received the communication from Mr.
White, as a dutiful and loyal subject, in every respect to
comply with the wishes of her Majesty, not only by
abandoning the exhibition, but by delivering up every
copy of the catalogue in his possession, and also giving
an assurance that he would neither sanction or be a party
to any exhibition of the etchings, or to the publication
or circulation of the catalogue. That the defendant,
being anxious and desirous to vindicate his character in
the eyes of her Majesty and her Royal Con-
sort, and also in those of his fellow sub-
jects from the aspersions cast upon it by the
statements on the bill, instructed his solicitor, Mr. W.
H. Smith, to communicate with Mr. White. In conse-
quence of that, Mr. Smith the defendant's solicitor,
wrote to Mr. White, stating his astonishment and con-
cern at the proceedings that had been taken against him
by her Majesty and Prince Albert, and asserting most
emphatically that he had done nothing but what he be-
lieved to be in the ordinary course of business, and
never imagined for a single moment that he was doing
anything infringing on the right, or offensive, or disa-
greeable to the feelings of her Majesty or her Royal
Consort, or, above all, calculated to lead to the belief
that ho was not a most, loyal, and; devoted subject,
and prepared to do anything, and make any sacrifice of
present interest to show that loyalty; that he felt
deeply aggrieved by the supposition that he could, under
anyfi
ci circumstances,
that
ns
Sovereignh ve aacnt edd
herot h e
august
ugwise,us t a
end un ws
oarst sma tuiss -t
have received inaccurate impressions on the subject of
hie proceedings. The Learned Couhsel, after adverting
to several other parts of the answer, stated, in
conclu-ion, that Mr. Strange was anxious and
sought
in for t
order
to relieve
i hirndo
siseslfTrtoimon
thoof the injunction,aspersonsthat
had
been made against him, and on behalf of that gentleman
he could assure his Honour that if he dissolved the in-
junction he might rest satisfied that Mr. Strange would
do nothing which her Majesty or her Royal Consort had
the least dislike to.

Mr. WARREN followed on the same side. He wished,
in the outset, to state that Mr. Strange was not insen-
sible to those feelings of loyalty(which actuated most men.
Let the Court bear in mind that the defendant had not
published an immoral or noxious work. It seemed to
him that much undue haste had been • used in
coinmenceing these proceedings; in fact, be might
characterise . them as approaching nearly to des
potism. Mr. Strange, therefore, had much reason
to complain of the injury which he had sustained at the
hands of this prosecution. His Honour might look
through the bill in vain for an assertion of title or pro-
perty in the engravings ; and he conceived that the
Court could not deal with an application of
this kind, since the bill did not, for some
reason or other, claim any property in the etchings.
It mereky spoke of the impressions. It said that Mr.
Strange had surreptitiously obtained copies of the etch-
ings. There was no evidence of that. For ought they
knew to the contrary, the defendant might have ob-
tained them by the fairest means. The bill said that
copies were kept in the'private apartments in Windsor
Castle, but that some copies had been given to
private friends. Might not Mr. Strange have ob-
tained copies from those private friends from
some foreign potentate for instance ? In that case he
would have obtained them fairly, and might use them as
he thought proper. He contended, if the Queen and the
Prince did not base their title to the engravings on the
right of property, that the injunction must be quashed;
at any rate the right sought to be exercised was of the
most arbitrary nature, and if laid down as a prece-
dent would tend to interfere with the rights of the
subject—the right of the press—the right of the expres-
sion of public opinion. Surely, if a person saw a picture
or a work of art, or heard a description of it, might he
not express his opinion of it either in words or in print.
Suppose a person went through the picture-gallery of
some foreign potentate, in which the etchings of the
Queen and Prince Albert were hung up, having been
presented to that potentate, might he not note down a
list of them, putting down " this is the drawing of an
animal," " this is a drawing of Windsor Castle," and
this is the " portrait of a favourite dog;" and feeling
delighted that we had so accomplished a Sovereign,
might he not transmit an account of his visit and a de-
scription of the drawings to a friend in this country ?
Would a person exhibiting or publishing such a letter
lay himself open to an injunction? Again, suppose a
beautiful picture were stolen by B from A, would
A, if he saw it many years after, be amen-
able to punishment if he enlarged upon its
beauty, and declared that it should be placed in one of
the national depositaries of art in this country ? Where
then was the line to be drawn? Mr. Strange was not
charged with any criminal offence. He had stated in
his affidavit that he had seen the etchings but onc:,, and
that when they wore submitted to him on that
occasion, by Mr. Judge, he had not the slightest
reason to believe that they were obtained otherwise
than honourably and fairly. This avowal of Mr. Strange
annihilated at once the first part of the prayer. As the
claim was not based upon property, the whole super-
structure of the bill, he contended, fell to the ground.
Then the catalogue, instead of being a work of an ob-
jectionable character, was one of the most commendable
nature, and published with the very best motives
towards the Queen and her illustrious Consort.
The Learned Counsel then read some of the