The Sun.
London, England, 1833-12-18 00:00:00

COURT OF EXCHEQUER.-(THIS DAY.)

(Before Lord LYNDHURST and a London Special Jury.)
LIBEL..-..FURZ Er V. CLEMENTS•

This was an action for damages brought for a libel
upon the plaintiff, who was tried at the Old Bailey for the
stabbing of Redwood, the policeman, at the Calthorpe-
street affair, which appeared in the Morning Chronicle.
The pleadings were opened by Mr. Chennell.
Mr. C. PHILLIPS (with whom also was Mr. BODKIN)
stated the case. He said it became his duty to state the
circumstances under which that libel was brought before
the Jury a little more at length than it had been opened fly
his Learned Friend. He had never entered a Court of Justice
with greater apprehension than he had done that day—
not because he bad any doubts as to the righteousness of
his case, but because he feared much from the web of
prejudice in which it was wrapped ; he feared that it
might not be in his power to unweave that web, and
dilal from the minds of the Jury that prejudice against
the cause of his client, which he doubted not, must
there exist. The defendant, Mr. Clements, was the
proprietor of the Morning Chronicle, a paper conducted
with the greatest spirit, enterprise, and liberality, bat
tinctured with great political party spirit. The plaintiff
was a man in very humble circumstances of life, who
would have been content to have had hia case tried by
the ordinary tribunal of his country. The defendant,
however, had thought proper to strike a special jury--
what might have been his motives for so doing, he
(Mr. P.) cared not, neither did he fear—in fact he was
the rather more pleased, for he might hope that the minds
of enlightened men like those before him would throw
aside in any case all they had heard of it out of doors.
He would, indeed, be grievously disappointed if a jury of
gentlemen, merchants of the city of London, would not
fearlessly and candidly act upon the oaths they took when
they entered the box. The libel he now complained of
was not a political one—it had nothing whatever to do
with the useal motives that were shown in Courts of Jus-
tice. The plaintiff was certainly placed in public circann-
meee,a,„a the time it appeared, but lie bad been most
way in which it woe setoriled, ajatate.s.nyitiel„. looking, at the
which he hrd no difficulty in pronouncing to be one Or
the most etre _:ious that bad ever emanated from a licentious
press. It was a libel which, if suffered to pass, if suffered
to form a precedent, if not moat severely punished by the
Jury that day, he would depart from the Court with the
firm conviction that not one man in the country was safe.
He would state the circumstances of the case, very
briefly, because they were too painful to dwell upon. It would
be in the recollection of all, that a meeting—a foolish meet-
ing—was called for the purpose, he supposed, of allowing
the excited feeling of some political visionaries to evapo-
rate. In his opinion it would have become a wise
Government to have let such a meeting take place, and
have let the foolish people who attended and took part in
it depart, after having passed their wise resolutions,
amidst the hootings of the one part of the community, and
the contempt of the greater part. However, such feelings
did not actuate the Government of the day—the meeting,
though declared illegal, was not even prevented from
meeting; but after the deluded people bad met to the
number of thousands of men, women, and children, up-
wards of 1,800 policemen, armed with staves, were
let loose upon them, who charged the meeting in the
manlier of soldiers. It was not in human nature,
certainly not in the nature of Englishmen, to be beat with
staves without resenting it, and in the scuffle unfortunately
two of the police were stabbed, and one was killed. The
plaintiff was present upon that occasion, but twelve
men on their oaths had now declared that he
was there without any weapon of offence. However
he was one of those who were apprehende I, and eventually
he was committed for the stabbing of the two men.
Now take the time into consideration. At the time
the blood of all men was warmed by party spirit, and
when he had such a charge as that of stabbing banging
over him, and stabbing two men in the discharge of
their duty, it was a most affecting and a most perilous
situation. A Jury was summoned, and after numberless
witnesses had been examined—after the fullest investigation
—it was declared that the murderer could not be
found. At that time Furzey was in prison. The Jury
had access to hint ; the policemen and all other wit-
nesse+ had access to him, but at that time it was not even
breathed that he was the murderer. The time for
his trial was approaching. It Was within one
week of it, when this paper, which for a series of
years had supported the principles of the present
Government, came out with the paragraph which
he would presently read. That paper was the most
zealous of all, at this time, in the defence of the Go-
vernment ; and, of course, all the policemen em-
ployed on the occasion were, in its eyes, as angels,
and had been most dreadfully ill used. Futzey was
within one week of his trial—be was a poor man—the
Government were the prosecutors. At this time one
of the gentlemen sitting before him (one of the firm
of Harmer and Co.) interested himself in the affair,
and seeing that the plaintiff was likely to fall by
persecution, he said if he must die for the offence, it should
not be without having a fair trial. He saw the man
through his trial, but he felt that big duty was not yet
done ; he must set the man once more clear in the
world, and as that unfortunate day had found him, and
lie now, to complete that, only wanted the verdict
of that jury. There was no better established principle of
law than this, that if a man was charged with a criminal
offence, he should go to trial without prejudice. He was
there to contend that the editor, or writer of the
libel sat down in a cool calculating manner, either for
pecuniary profit cr through political zeal, in order to
convict the plaintiff, and he would also contend that
it was upon no rumour, but mere invention from
beginning to end. It was headed " From a Correspondent,"
that was one of the ways in which newspaper proprietors
give vent to their malice, or anything that was dangerous,
and to skulk from the responsibility of their own work, but
it was too barefaced to impose upon intelligent minds.
The libel was as follows
FROM a CORRESPONDENT.—MURDER OF CULLY, TIIE Po-
LICEMAN.—It is confidently stated that Furzey, who has been
committed to Newgate on the capital charge of having stabbed
the two policemen, Redwood and , is clearly identified
by a disinterested witness as the murderer of the unfortunate
Cully. The person alluded to was taken to Newgate, and ac.

,
lected Furzey from amongst several other prisoners as him he
had seen give the fatal blow, and he is to appear at the trial to
prove the fact."

Now this was only one week beforethe trial of this man
for his life, and was published by a violent political parti-
zan. It was worded so coolly and cautiously as to make a
great impression upon the public mind, and seemed to
say that the plaintiff was already almost a convicted mur-
derer. No disinterested person dared to appear at the
thereby proving that it was altogether a mere fabrication.
He supposed inadvertence would be pleaded, as he had
often heard done; but if they could show him an instance
where an advertisement bad got in by inadvertence,
without being charged, he would certainly then
allow such an explanation. After a most earnest and
impassioned appeal to the Jury, the Learned Gentleman
sat down, by calling upon them to give exemplary da-
mages in order to clear his character, for no sum of money
could compensate him for his sufferings in his dungeon,
and the fifteen hours he was on his trial.

Thomas Brown, principal turnkey in Newgate, bad
Furs ,y given into his charge on the 16th of May, and re•
mained till the 6th of July.
Cross-examined—Knew nothing more of the plaintiff
than that be was there charged with the Calthorpe-street
affair.

The libel was then read and an admission put in, stating
that the defendant was the proprietor of the paper. That
was the case for the plaintiff.
Mr. PLATT (Who Was assisted by Mr. FOLLETT)
then addressed the jury for the defence. He was sure
that the jury would, as well as himself, be surprised to
hear that the plaintiff's case was closed, because if they
would throw back their recollection for half an hour, they
would find a variety of statements, not one word of which
was proved. There was the awful anxiety upo❑ the
trial when his Learned Friendiwas paral)zed—he expected
some one would have been put in the box for the pur-
pose of telling the Jury something of that, but it
seemed as if those who got up the case had gone
into the prison, and found out that man who

was not present, in order that he (Mr. Platt) might
not have an opportunity of getting one word upon the sub-
ject. He would ask whether it wan fair to make such over-

charged statementsi i❑ order to inflame the minds of a jury
and then close the case without one iota of proof as to one
of them. ? The fact was, that the case had been most
studiously got up, for had they called a single witne s

who was present, they would have told them—that that
libel had nothing on earthly to do with the trial.
The writer was charged with cool;writing it, either fur
pecuniary gain or party purposes ; yet it was not even

attempted to be shown that the editor or printer ever had

the least knowledge who or what Mr. Fu►zey was—in
fact, was as perfectly ignorant of him as his Learned
Friend chose the Jury should be. If the editor
and plaintiff had been political enemies, or ever had been
personally acquainted, then some motive for malice might
have been inferred ; but as the case stood, they could inf r
no more than what was contained in the libel itselL
His Learned Friend had not been idle in searching

for topics—..he had first of all carried thetu to Algiers—:.