The Sun.
London, England, 1848-06-22 00:00:00

No. 17,391.] LONDON, TIIURSDAY

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QPENCER'S CHINESE LIQUID HAIR DYE.
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BRITISH COLLEGE OF HEALTH, New-
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The following is a LIST of the AGENTS for the SALE of MO-
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368, Strand.... .. •• • .
65, Quadrant, Regent-street ••.. • ..... Mr. Field.
53, Cambridge-street, Edgware-road •• • • Mrs. Good.
1, Park-place, Mile End-road.. ••• . •• Mr. Lofts.
perfumers.alsPePit el
D and Ha-
n-84, Lombard-street, Cornhill .......... Mire.atr3,
Ci)i,
c!
63, Oxford-street • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • n
20, New-road, St. George's-in-the-East Mr. J. Kaines.
55, Watling-street •• .. . • •
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128, Strand.... • ..... • • ••
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128, Tottenham-court-road. Mrs. Baucher.
Walham Green.. • • .. • • • • • ..• .•
Brentford (Post-office) •••••• • • • • • • Mr. Nofaury.
Clapham ..... • • •• • • •
sLne, per-
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53, Great Chart-street, East-road,Hoxton t 331irfru..,InIlte..rLjaothignie
68, C0rnhi11........ •• • • • • • &c.
83, High Holborn ...... • • •• • • Mr. William Hallet.
Randolph-street, Camden-town (Post-1 Mr. J. Foster.
Deptford • • • • • • • • • • • • Mr. Porritt, bookseller.
• • • • • •
Mrs. Norris's Library.
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ON NERVOUS DEBILITY AND GENERATIVE DISEASES.
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RAILWAY SHARE MARKET:.
_ LIVERPOOL, JUNE 21.

againl to-day.
STOCK EXCHANGE.—The market is worse
Prices have receded on all articles. The
are—
Birkenhead, Lancashire, and Cheshire Junctionee (late C.
and B.), 271. 10s. Shares, 13%—Lancashire and e
Yorkshire
(late Manchester and Birmingham), 14IA dis.—London and
North-Western, 120 c.—Ditto, Quarters, 13s. 9d. c.— Ditto,
Quarters (A and B), It/ p.—Manchester, Sheffield, and
Lincolnshire, Eighths, Si. lls. 3d. c. dis.—Midland Stock,
100 c —Ditto, New Halves, 6% c. dis.—South-Eastern and
Dover, No. 2, 1014 dis.—Ditto, No. 4, Thirds, 3 dis.—York,
Newcastle, and G. N. E.
MANCHESTER,Purch JUNE 21..e), Ic. p.
STOCK EXCHANGE.—The sales are—Birkenhead, Lan-
cashire, and Cheshire Junction, 311. Shares, 71,/2
dis.—Edin-
burgh and Glasgow, Halves' 3 dis.—Fleetwood, Preston, and
West Riding Junction, 5% dis.—Lancashire and Yorkshire,
321. Shares (late Extension), n. dis.—Ditto (West Riding
Union), :3 13-16 c. dis.—London and North-Western (Leeds
and Dewsbury), 12 dis.—Manchester, Sheffield, and Lin-
colnshire (Grimsby), 201. Shares, 81,4 dis.—Ditto, 121. 10s.
Shares, 5 dis.—North Staffordshire, 2% dis.—Oxford,
Worcester, and Wolverhampton, 171,4 dis.—South-Eastern
and Dover, No. 4, Thirds, 2% dis.
BIRMINGHAM, JUNE 21.
STOCK EXCIItNGE.—The sales are—Lancashire and York-
shire, New guaranteed 6 per cent., 33. 9d p.— Midland, 100
—North British, Thirds, 23A4 dis.—Ambergate, Nottingham,
and Boston, 58s. dis.—North Staffordshire, 234 dis.—
Shrewsbury and Birmingham (A), 98s. 9d. dis.—Ditto (B),
3 dis.—Shropshire Union, 565. 3d. dis.—South Stafford-
shire, 31,4 dis.
HULL, JUNE 21.
STOCK EXCHANGE.—The sales are—Eastern Counties,
141. 35. 91—Great Northern, Si. 17s.—North British, Quar-
ters, 4%.

DEATH OF A
CHARTIST LEADER FROM MAD-
NESS.-Mr. Councillor Briggs, of Sheffield, a well-known
Chartist leader, and one of the delegates of the late Na.-
tional Convention, died on Tuesday morning raving mad
in the Sheffield Lunatic
Asylum. The immediate cause
of his malady is supposed by Mr. Overend, one of the
surgeons who attended him; to have been the deread of a
Gove.rnment_prosecution for a seditious speech delivered
by himatChartist meeting on Whit-biondtty.

LAW T CE.
COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH, June 21.
(Nisi Prius Sittings nt Westminster, before Lord Chief
Justice DEN3tAN and a Common Jury.)
COCHRANE v. YOUNG.
The plaintiff in this case is the late candidate for
the representation in Parliament of the city of West-
minster; the defendant is the proprietor of The Sun
newspaper. The action was brought to recover com-
punsation for libels upon the plaintiff, which were pub-
lisheci in The Sun newspaper by the defendant. The
damages were laid at 5,0001.

Theldg,r, and Mr. Petersdorff appeared
for the p!aintiff ; and Mr. Cockburn, Q.C., and Mr.
Wel6by, for the defend..int.

r,
Sir F. HEaGen opened the case to the jury by
stating that the plaintiff would not have complained of
any fair criticism upon his conduct when he off,red
himself as a candidate for a seat in Parliament, but he
felt himself bound to come forward and vindicate
himself when anonymous attacks were made upon
his private character. The plaintiff was well
aware there was one passage in his carry history
that might expose him to ridicule, and possibly to
reprobation, for in very early life he had conceived the
boyish fancy of dressing himself up as a Spanish min-
strel, and travelling about the country under the as-
sumed name of Don Juan de Vega. When in mature
ace we looked back at our boyish pranks, we were apt
to hug ourselves with the idea that we were much
wiser and better than we were formerly, and if the
youthful actions of others were the subject of considera-
tion we were but too apt to assume a graver and
sterner air, and make ourselves harsh censors of their
conduct. Mr. Cochrane, in looking back to his youth-
ful pranks, was, unquestionably, ready to join with
those who were disposed to smile at or condemn his
conduct; and if his political adversaries thought proper
to take advantage of thig-passage in his history, for the
purpose only of exposing him to ridicule and of endea-
vouring to lower him in the eyes of those whose
suffrages he was soliciting, he would not have been there
to-day to complain of it, and admitted that he would
have had no right to do so. If they had chosen to draw
pictures of him in his disguise, or to laugh at him for hav-
ing worn it, it would have been quite a legitimate course
for them to adopt, and Mr. Cochrane would have been
peculiarly, not to say absurdly, sensitive if he had come
forward in a court of justice to complain of it. But it
was because these libels were of a graver character—
because they seriously and deeply wounded the moral
character of Mr. Cochrane ; because it was quite im-
possible, if they were believed, that he could enjoy the
estimation of any respectable perpon, that he felt it due
to his own character and to those gentlemen who were
pleased at the last general election to honour him with
their suffrages to come before a jury for the purpose of
calling to account the person who had chosen in this
manner to assail his character, and of desiring him, if
there were any truth in the imputations cast upon him,
to offer that truth to the jury as a justification. The
libels set out in the declaration consisted of four different
letters which appeared in The Sun newspaper in the
month of February in the last year, and a short time
previous to the general election, and he might say at
once that if the defendant had only published
the libels contained in the first three counts
of the declaration Mr. Cochrane would never
have complained of them. These, however, had
been introduced into the declaration for the pur-
pose of showing the series of attacks that had
been made upon Mr. Cochrane, and as being introduc-
tory to the fourth libel, but for which these proceedings
would eever have been instituted. He would, therefore,
pass lightly over the letters published on the 13th, 14th,
and 15th of February, though they adverted in very
strong, perhaps he might say in unmeasured, terms to
that part of Mr. Cochrane's history he had referred to,
and he would come at once to what appeared to him to
contain the sting of all, and to reflect most seriously on
Mr. Cochrane's character, and he would ask the jury
whether such language could be justified, except on the
ground of its being true, and whether, if a party were
called to account for publishing such slander, he ought
not to be prepared with a vindication ? The libel he
now referred to appeared in The Sun newspaper, in the
form of a letter, with the initials "D. B.,"and was dated
" Brighton, Feb. 17, 1847." There were various inge-
nious modes by which slander was conveyed to the
public. Sometimes it was in the form of an editorial
article, sometimes in that of an advertisement, and at
another time as a letter from an obliging correspondent.
On the present occasion the last mode was adopted, and
" D. B." was the person from whom the following letter
was said to have been received, and thereupon commu-
nicated to the public :

' MR. COCHRANE AND THE ELECTORS OF WESTMINSTER.

" To the Editor of Vie Sun.

" Sir,—My attention has been directed to the inqui•
ries contained in your paper relative to the identity of
Mr. Coehrane, the present candidate for Westminster,
with one Juan de Vege, who some years back travelled
through some parts of England professing to be a Spar
rush ref ugec, and then published adventures of a most
immoral kind, as the account of his travels. I remem-
ber a person calling himself Don Juan de Vega, solicit-
ing charity in this town, not for himself only, but for
his fellow Spanish retugees. He came as a Spanish pea-
cant, a large slouched straw hat, an open vest, a man-
tilla cloak, breeches, and stockings, formed his dress ;
he krofiesscd to spt ale no English, French and Spanish
being the only languages he knew. He was of slight
figure, and dark mulatto complexion. He excited much
compassion in the town, where he professed to be a Qua-
ker, and attended the Friends Meeting House; was fed,
clothed, and had money given to him in no small quantity;
and yet was afterwards, by his own published adventures,
found to be an impostor, a hypocrite, and a scoundrel.
He endeavoured to seduce every girl he could come near,
and those whom he could not ruin in person he sought
to lower in character, by imputing in print the actions
of charitable feeling to the promptings of the most un-
chaste passion. I know, and could identify the man. I
do not know whether the Juan de Vega of Brighton be
the candidate for Westminster. I can hardly believe
that the swarthy Juan de Vega can be the Mr. Cochrane
who appears at the meetings of charity, dances with the
daughters of the governor of the Licensed Victuallers at
their annual balls, and is alternately heard of at the
Crown and Anchor and at Exeter Hall, in company
with Dr. Leifchild and Mr. 13. B. Cabbell. I say I can
hardly believe it, and yet why does he not deny it? If
they be the same person, I pity the deceived, I despise
the deceiver. But I will come up to London on his first
public appearance, and my own eyes shall, if I be
spared to see him, convince myself. If Juan de Vega
be Mr. Cochrahe, I will denounce him, and the • tallow
chandler and grocer' whom he so described, and whose
hospitality he abused, shall shame hitt; from the West-
minster hustings.
" I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
" Brighton, Feb. 17, 1847." " D. B.
Agreeing as they should probably do in all the observa-
tions he had addressed to them with reference to the
license that might be permitted to individuals or public
journalists as to the character of the person who soli-
cited the honour of representing any constituency in
Parliament, he would appeal to their just and impartial
views of propriety whether it we; to be endured that a
person should be exposed to imputations of this descrip-
tion, and that without the slightest provocation he should
have his reputation entirely blasted by charges of such
grossly immoral conduct as was here imputed to Mr.
Cochrane? With regard to the act itself he had ad-
mitted that it was an act of youthful folly and indis-
cretion. The money thus collected he had, however,
handed over to the fund for the relief of the Spanish
exiles; and so far, therefore, as any conduct could
redeem the absurdity of the act itself, there was tihe most
perfect redemption of it on the part of Mr. Cochrane.
11e admitted, too, that he was open to attacks in re-
spect of what he had done, though this had been done
not by the Mr. Cochrane of the present day, but by
the Mr. Cochrane of more than twenty years ago ;
but he did think that if he were accused not merely of
ridiculous but of immoral conduct, that he had attempted
to seduce the different young females to whose society
he was admitted, the imputation would not merely affect
his character as a young man, but unless it were refuted
would stamp him with infamy for the remainder of his
days. He, therefore, felt it due to his character, to his
station in society, and to those who had honoured him
with their support at the last general election, to call
upon his accuser in this public manner to prove the truth
of the slander he had inserted in his newspaper. The
jury were probably aware that it was competent for a
person who had slandered another by word or publication,
if called to account for it in a court of justice, to plead
the truth of what he had stated in justification. It was
open, therefore, to the defendant to pursue that course,
and Mr. Young had thought proper to put on the record
three or four pleas of justification, which were, how-
ever, of that vague, general, and indefinite kind that
they presented no tangible ground whatever by which
Mr. Cochrane could understand the precise issue raised
between himself and his calumniator. Mr. Cochrane,
therefore, demurred to those pleas as not being sufficient
in law, and the Court being of opinion that such was the
case set them aside, but gave the defendant a week's
time to amend them. He had not, however, taken ad-
vantage of the opportunity so afforded, and therefore the
record contained no plea of justification, but Mr. Young
met Mr. Cochrane merely with a denial of the publica-
tion of the libels complained of, and therefore the only
question they had to decide was, whether those libels
were published by Mr. Young, and if they should be of
that opinion, what would be the fair and reasonable
amount of damages Mr. Cochrane would be entitled to
for the injury his reputation must have sustained by
those libels ? His Learned Friend would probably
endeavour to make them believe that the let-
ters complained of were really addressed to the
editor of this newspaper ; but this was merely
an assumption, just as a disguise was assumed by Mr.
Cochrane; and, moreover, the defendant was not now
entitled to say so, 'and it must be treated, as no doubt
it was, as a fiction. Nobody was more aware than
he was that trfling actions for slander ought to meet with
no encouragement in courts of justice; but the fre-
quency of them was an indication of the deeply-seated
desire every person had to obtain the good opinion of
his fellow men. The person who assailed the reputation
of another not only committed a positive injury by ruin,
ing him in the estimation of the world, but also in tak-
ing from him that inward comfort a man possessed when
satisfied that be enjoyed the good opinion of those
around him. It was one of the strongest motives to

action that could possibly be imagined. It might be a
lower principle of action than many given to us by
Providence; but the estimation of the world was that
which, amongst other motives, clung to us from the ear-
liest to the latest period of our existence, and formed
one of the strongest incentives, as well as one of the
best rewards for virtuous conduct in this life. A person
therefore who assailed the character of another inflicted
on him the deepest injury, and, therefore, al•houeli he
would desire to drive from courts of
.justice all
trifling complaints for words or strong expressions
used without any intention of wounding character,
he trusted the time would never arrive when such would
be the lack of moral feeling in the country, that juries
would treat lightly and with indifference complaints of
so serious a description as slanders which did affect re-
putation and character. He trusted he had not ex-
ceeded the fair limits of his duty in these remarks. All
he had now to do was, to prove the publication of the
libels—which, however, he understood his Learned
Friend was ready to admit—and that they applied to
Mr. Cochrane, and then, when they had listeued to
what his Learned Friend had to say, he would request
them to ask themselves whether the imputations con-
veyed in these libels were not of the most serious cha-
racter—whether they were not calculated to destroy the
reputation of Mr. Cochrane for the remainder of his ex-
istence—and
,t
)inoomben t whether,upon
ntheul
under these circumstances, it was
n
gentle-
man so outraged had a right to expect, and he trusted
would ever receive, at the hands of a jury of his fellow-
n him thes such
h discharged amazos of
as a their
portant functions, to give
fellow-
countrymen?
Mr. Joseph Randall produced copies of The Sun, con-
taining the libels set out iu the declaration, and proved
that Mr. Young was the registered proprietor of that
newspaper.
Mr. Mather, a builder, trftitidlling-Street, Golden-
square, proved that he had been canvassed to vote for
Mr. Cochrane at the last Westminster election ; that he
read the letters published in The Sun, and which were
now complained of, and he understood and believed
them to apply to Mr. Cochrane.
Lord DEN MAN—Can there be a doubt of that ?
Mr. COCKBURN—Certainly not, my Lord ; we offered
to admit it. The Learned Gentleman then proceeded to
address the jury for the defendant, and said that in a
great deal that had fallen from his Learned Friend be
entirely agreed, for his friend avowed—and no one could
deny—that a party who came forward as a candidate
for the city of Westminster was liable to have all the
antecedent circumstances of his past conduct and character
discussed and canvassed, in order that it might
be ascertained whether he was a person to whom
that most important of all trusts should be con-
fided. It was admitted, therefore, on the part of the
plaintiff, that when he proposed himself to the conside-
ration of the electors of Westminster, he had no right to
object to an investigation taking place as to his past con-
duct. He did not mean to say that because a man came
forward as a candidate for a seat in Parliament any one
would on that account have a right to state of him that
which was untrue; but that he had a right to canvass
and discuss such a man's past character and conduct if
he thought proper to do so. No doubt, if a man at an
early period of his career had fallen into errors and com-
mitted follies, it might be harsh to bring up these against
him after the lapse of a considerable number of years;
but still a man who came voluntarily before the public
was liable to have this done; and the answer, the only
answer, would be that he had made atonement by his
subsequent conduct for the follies he had been guilty of
at an earlier period of his life. It seemed to him that
that answer, if any could be given to these charges, Mr.
Cochrane ought to have offered; and he had hoped
that before this case was disposed of Mr. Cochrane
would have attempted to show that he had atoned for
his past indiscretions before he sought to obtain da-
mages against those who had charged him 'with being
guilty of them. His Learned Friend bad indeed said
about Mr. Cochrane much that was not proved, and in
this respect he would follow his example for a single
moment. He was representing before them the pro-
prietor of The Sun newspaper, and he believed he was
perfectly justified in saying that no portion of the public
press was more fairly or honourably conducted. The
jury might have heard much of it out of court, but he
believed in court they had heard less of it than any other
newspaper. He believed ho was justified in saying that
in the leading columns of that newspaper there were no
imputations upon Mr. Cochrane; but simply such obser-
vations as a person who was himself interested in the re-
turn-that constituency would make might justly offer
to the electors of Westminster on a question
which appeared to him one of considerable im-
portance—namely, whether the man who soli-
cited their suffrages was the man who at a former
period had assumed the character that had been men-
tioned, and who was accused by those who had penned
the letters referred to as having committed gross out-
rages upon decency and propriety. The letters had been
published with this purpose; and Mr. Cochrane had
thought proper to bring the put-di,b,er into a court of.
justice. .Note, as phis Learned Friend" had stated, any''
person whose conduct or character was attacked was
entitled to bring his case into a court of justice, and call
upon his assailer to prove the truth of his accusations,
if they were capable of proof; but he did not think his
Learned Friend was justified in complaining, as he had
done, of the conduct of the defendant in this respect,
because, to the best of his ability, the defendant had
attempted t. put a justification on the record ; but
the plaintiff had demurred to those pleas as being
too vague and general, and had, therefore, got rid
of them on the ground that they were insufficient
in law. He thought this was rather a curious course
for the plaintiff to pursue on such an occasion. He
came forward and avowed by the mouth of his counsel
that be had been guilty of gross folly and indiscretion.
lie was in addition charged with having availed himself
of the opportunities his fraud afforded him, of violating
the sanctity of domestic life ; and, as as additional re-
ward for the hospitalities he had received, of exposing
the follies and errors which others had been led into by
himself: The action being brought, the defendant
offered to place certain pleas on the record, in which,
following the language of the libels, he declares the
matters contained in them to be true. Now, if the
Plaintiff was really anxious to have the matter ex-
amined into and thoroughly sifted, and to show the
falsehood of the charges, and, as he called them, of the
calumnies against him, one would have thought that,
however technically imperfect the form of the pleas,
Mr. Cochrane would have been but too happy
to meet his opponent in a court of justice,
and to vindicate his character from such imputations.
Instead of this, however, Mr. Cochrane had got rid of
those pleas by technical objections, and he was sorry to
say it was not foreign to his experience for plaintiffs in
cases of libel to do so under similar circumstances.
It was said the pleas were so vague that Mr. Cochrane
could not tell what was to be answered; but no man
who looked at them for a moment could doubt the mean-
ing of them. The defendant said, in effect, " You are
the party who travelled about as a Spanish minstrel, and
committed many follies under that assumed character.
You a.so, by such means, got into private families, and
you abused the opportunities which you by that means
wished to obtain. You afterwards published a book
containing an account of these adventures, and your ac-
count of them is scandalously immoral, and an outrage
on all propriety and decency." And on what did the
defendant rest his case? On the production of a book,
and on proof of the authorship. Of course the defendant
could hardly be expected to know more of these matters
than was contained in that book. He could not otherwise
follow this wandering minstrel through all the private
scenes of disgusting profligaeywhich the book had exposed
to the eye of the public. And what was this publication?
An account given in so mysterious a manner with respect
to the identity of individcals, that they immediately re-
cognised themselves, and their own intimate friends
knew them ; and by that means the greatest possible
misery and anguish was inflicted on their own minds and
the minds of their friends and families. Of course the
defendant was not in a situation to state the names and
particulars of the parties involved in these transactions.
The writer, who gave an account of the amorous widow
E—; of the fair daughter of B--; or of the blooming
wife of L--, knew well whom he alluded to, and their
friends and relations might know it ; but the defendant
could not know it, and therefore he could not plead it on
the record. His pleas, therefore, were objected to by
bt
andi s
itne technical creels
pgercotu, nadn,datnhda
tt ht
he
eCdoeufer
defendant
what the Court said was, that if the
confinet
his justification to that ttwhh was pni theyoatt. ni
tnwi 1 rae onr
were
situation
saying to m a
ti
hn
at at ian
wteheekm,
3. t i o
aHei sw La
was
agri nv
ee
nd
defendantFtor iaemn de
nwd athes
lik wrongep id. e
ato s ; in
por-
tion of the pleas which related to the publication of a
book under the assumed name of " Don Juan de Vega,"
he might do so.
Lord DENMAN--What the Court said was, that if the
defendant wished to confine his pleas of justification to
that matter he might do so ; but, on the other hand,
that if he thought proper he might amend his pleas.
Mr. COCKBURN—Even supposing the most general
power of amendment had been ',yen by the Court, it
was impossible the defendant could be in a situation to
state with sufficient peculiarity that which the Court
would have required of him. He had no other materials
than the book afforded him, and consequently he had
not the information that was absolutely essential for his
purpose. There was,therefore, no plea of justification
on the record ; from the nature of the case it was im-
possible there should be, and therefore he admitted that
in the present instance there must be a verdict for the
plaintiff.of
fdamhe might call their attention to the state-
ments He apprehended, however, that in satisfaction
f the plaintiff himself, not with a view to making
eonuttalcomplenv g buttetjhliinstification. but to show that he was dis-
ited to al damages at their hands.
The Learned Gentleman was then proceeding to refer to
the book containing the adventures of Don Juan de
Vega, when he was interupted by
Sir F. THESICER, who objected that the book could
not be referreci to.
Lord Dtaemeet—ls it proposed to read those parts of
the book which are referred to in the libels?
Mr. COCKBURN—Yes, my Lord.
Lord DENMAN—I do not see how that can be done.
You have not pleaded that the book would make out
your case. The book would be evidence of any facts
stated in it; but you have not pleaded that the plaintiff
published the book.
Mr. WELSBY argued that as they proposed to read the
book, not in justification, but in mitigation of damages,