The Sun.
London, England, 1805-11-22 00:00:00

Lzir REPORT.

.. .. y,p~

conur 0 F KING': BENCH, Nov. 6.
CRIMINAL INVORMATIONS.
2:73. SKINS moved for liberty to (ilea Criminal
n against Ralph Sheldon, Esq. of.Wes-
,':l we, in the county of Warwick, at the instance
'1 humus Dickins, for sending him a letter to
him to tight a duel. The 'learned Conn-
• observed, that the Gentleman on whose behalf
made this motion was a Barrister, and well
to many Gentlemen behind the bar, to be:
3 man Lithe most amiable'and inotrensiVe manners.
glaring gone down to visit Ilia uncle, in the neigh-
-I.)itirhood of Mr. Sheldon, he was one day riding
.lieargit the inclosure, when he came to a (Pate' on
zhe high-road, leading to Chedwick, and believing''l
it to belong to the grounds, and having ;,long round
to go if he returned, be forced it opor; however,
afterwardi finding his mistake, he wrote a letter to
Sheldon on the subjea butt before, he could
send it he received one from that G'entleman,couched
in the most unpleasant tcrms,charging him with hay-
committed a most violent and outrageous aet
:11ainst his park gate ; stating that the point of right
ho'uld be decided in a Court of Law ; but that he
theaa 'as a personal insult, and desired
t kfaai on. Mr. Dickies, feeling sonic.ditticulty on
tteetpt of this epiSde,thought it better to send the
nt-first intended, without'appearing to Vive
received the other. Ile therefore,Sent it, apologis,
ing for what had occurred; declaring that he always
thought it was the carriage-way, and assuring him
that nothing was farther froM his thenglitS than. to.
give any man a personal insult. In answer to -this
la received another letter fritm Mr. Sheldon, ex-
pressive of his resentment, declaring it was a most
..inagent*natily aa on the part of. Mr.. D. in:fisting
on a; aatisfatSlory- public apolog,, by be,ffing'his
pardon, otherueSe:he would have recourse 'to the
only alternative ;kit. To this Mr. Deities ebongl,4
proper not to reply, and came before the Court tOr
their Lordships' interference. •
The Court granted a Conditional Itule. •
Mr Gmtitow regretted that he had a. similar ap-
plication to make against tworuilirary Gentlemen ;
be considered that'the Gentlemen of that ho-
nourable profession should feel most thankful 'for
such a business bein4 brought before a Court of Alb.,
tiee. Ha applied on behalf of a Mr. Foxcroft, of
Nottingham, against Lieut. Keating,of the 43t1 Foot,
nod a Mr. Wilde,' Assistant Surgeon hi the same
ilegiment. In the year 1797 the former Gentle-.
who was then in a Venciblellegiment, coa-
raaed a debt With the sisters of Mr. Foxeroft,'and
ton after left that town. On the part of hia sisters,
• Mr. Fcixeroft wrote several letters to him, request,.
iti,g payment.; but 'never reivok.l any answer,-,
Lieut. Keating clime back to the town some time,
since, and Mr. F. spolie to him on the subjea of.the
d'•:.l:4 due .to. biS.sisters ; buethe other had no recol-
eAion of it ; a 'week elapsed, 'when be' again met
and again retriiedt:d him Of it'; but the Gen-.
.I.,ittart answered; that he had taken:advice uron
=the (Mr. F.) might seek his remedy ; in reply
ro Nvilich Mr. .Foxcroft observed, that his only reme-
sly 'was:to state the faet, irmat no Others' might suf-
fer ; and he accordingly told seve.rel. persons of the
iransaaion. The next time they met, I‘.lr. Foxeroft's
being with.him, the ,Lientenant putout his
tono-nat him. After this he was visited by Wilde,
ethe part of Keating. who insisted,on his retraa-
iug his words,' or meeting him in an hour to give
him satistien. lie answered, he would do ne
such thing ; awl Wilde went away.; but s0(111 after
returned, and said, he would post 11r. roXeraft in
thelffee-house ; and in an hour after papers were
stuck up at the Exchange eoffee-house, and vthu'r
public.plaCes, to the following purport:
" Lieutenant Keating begs leave to iufnmi the Gentlemen
of this t,,wn, that in a transaction with Mr. fouraft, he
found him to be both a liar arida coward."
This was taken down by some persons, but put
up imtnediately again by these Gentlemen, who
threatened to chastise any one who should touch it.
'lie Court also granted a Rule to chew cause in
this ease,

NOVEMUER

THE ICING V. 43EORGE I.OWTITEN WO.

This person, who was now brought uv to receive
the judgment of the Court, had, been tried before
Mr. Baron GR4IIII,M, at the last Assizes for Wilt-
shire, for. sending a defamatory letter to J. Batt,
Eaq, a Magistrate of this same County. It appeared
from the Notes taken by 'the Learned Judge at the
:trial (this.day read by, Mr. Juiitice J.. BLA KO, that
Lowther had employed a person of the name of
Si!p to dig a well, and in: consequence of varions
fraudtt I:vhich \yen! pritaised upon him by that per
son, he refuted to satisfy him :hy paying him his
whole demand. The h+Ourer applied to the Ma-
gistrates, among whom Mr. Batt presided, to corn,
pel the Defendant to fulfil his engagement. 'Three
several summonses were issued by the Bench, and
three times was Sc.p' complaint dimnis.iid, and the
vhwhole.atlair wented tos hm arrived at its conclusion.
31r. LoWther was, however, a:Oniilied oil receiving
a fourth notice for his attenclanee ; being irritakd
this opposition, he sent the folloxving letter to Mr:
'Ant; the 'Magistrate, who had gr.inted the Warrat,
, fk,
purposely misnirecreo to
A $ 11106 tor •

I flattered myself that the tr,:planation I be-
fore gave, regarding Sop, ~,o
faMory. Whether you think it 11, ht or not tip grant
a summons to a felon, I will not tt-, Ile, but 11113
1 know, that from you, as Justit.,..-; and Gettilemen,
I should not have been tronbled with another war-
rant. I am doubtful whether to attribute the mea-
sure tO your want of ability aS a, Justice, or to your
wish, under the cloak of magisterill dignity, to ofi.r
me a personal insult, and 1 :311111 be glad to know
which of them I am to consider it : a,5 tothe iIIMMUUS, it
Is unnecessary for me to say that I shall pay no at-
ration to it.
(Signed) " GEOUGE LOWTHER."
Upon this letter the Defendant was fohnd
The affidavit of the Defendant stated, that the
i#tter was di&ated under the influence of the mo-
ment, without any intention of derogating. from the
charaEter of Mr. Batt ; and that with- respect to the
inisdire,ation, it was merely from the ignorance of

name and profession of the Gentleman to whom it
was sent. ,
An Affidavit from the:Right Rev.,Lord Bishop of
Gloucester stated, that he bad knpwn Mr..Lowther
.a Commouer at Winchester School, and haying
finished his. studies dim, he left it with an unex-
ceptionable charatter. In after-life he shewedmore
than ordinary zeal to. prote& the Constitution of the
Country in the moment of the most imminent den-
. ger, as Captain and Commander of a _Volunteer
:Corps in 'Hampshire, during the long space of nine
years. He was particularly aalive ,in quelling the
Rebellion in Ireland ; was a.roan of family, .educa-
tion, and morals, and the last pq6oo who wouida&
in contradiction to those laws for which he had
undergone dangers, privations, and difficulties.
By the Affidavits of Lord Radnor and Mr. Ayr,
''Magistrates of the County of Wilts, it appeared that
a suit, had been commenced, and was then proceed-
' ing, under the dire Lion of theDelendant, to try their
jurrsdialon to decide the question between him and
Sop which 'had been disputed by Mr. Lowther.
Mr. JEKYL, Mr. ERSKINV:, and Mr; Serjeant
LENS, addressed the Court on the part of the De,
fendant. They said, they laboured, in the present
case, under no such embarrassment as was usually
felt by Counsel -in submitting to their Lordships the
common topics in--Mitigation of punishment ; but
here they trusted they should not be considered to
waste the time of the Court. They,,did not stand
here fur a malignant libeller ; for even in that cas,
they should think it their duty 'to address the Court
however they Might rejoice at the sentence which
was TlronOttheed ; but they stood up for a man " in •
jived and hurt, and perplexed in the extreme."—
Twice had this Gentleman received the thanks of the
county of Hants, and twice did he deserve them ;
but he scorned, .as a Man, to be the sounder
of his own .praise- in his affidavit. The ablest
rhetorician .or logician that ,;the world ever pro,
duced could not have couched a libel in less
offensive terms. It was said, that the sun had its
spots, and they might compare this. Gentleman to
the 'bright -orb of day-,--but where were his ble-
mishes 1 The most that could be alledgekagainst
tihn was; that he was irritated (and justly irritated)
against Mr. Batt for the , vexatious proceedings
which were had against him. Ft'orn the "high -en-
coniiiims Which had been bestowed upon hie' elta•
rafter by the Right Rev. Prelate, could their Lord-
ships believe. him geilty' of 'intentionally writing
this libel ?•--They esteemed it "to be an -tumour to
be his. Counsel ; and for the dignity; ofthat Gentle.-
man, they trusted the Court would.dot consider the
letter,_upon which the prosecution was Instituted, a
libel against that Constitution' Which he had shown
so' Much 'zeal to support.
The SOLICITOR-GENERAL and Mr; G.kattow, for
the Prosecution, said, that the Prosecutor and the ,
~Defendant seemed,. to have changed places,. and.,
that the Counsel for ;Mr. Lowther considered it ,a:
mere matter of form that lie was' brought up to re-
ceive tire sentence of the Court;` ' that the De-
fendant wits to be compared to a .constellation of
virtues, or the sun at noon-day, .whose'blots'eonld
scarcely* be perceived, and that the -crime On-which-
he was brought on the" floor before, their Lordships •
hardly deserved the, name, of :an Ocoee. Ile,: had
received a crown of glory Mr his =military* achieve-
MOUS, and an unblemished charafler from , the'
Bishop of Gloucester, but. that was no reason,
.why he should libel the Justices of the Peace, to
Whose jurisdiction, the :Loarnedl3onnsel wonldven•-
tam to say, be was subject. They were far from
pressing a case, 'hut they hoped their Lordships
would view it ina'very ditferent ligtufroth the Cowl-
set for the Defendant; 'acrd would visit the offence by
a very serious_ punishment.
Lord EL LENBOROUGIL...." the Court should
take Further 'time to consider, is there any wish, on
the part of the Crown, that Mr. Lowther should-be
committed.?"

The SOLICITOR GENEk.u....-“, Certainly not, ray
Lord."

Lord Ett.Et.mottoodu.—( Then . Ur. Lowther
tnuscatwnd tIIE Court on Tuesday next.- „ .

In our Report, yesterday, of the proceedings in
the Common Pleas' in the. Cause " the IC.ING
REAnE," it was stated that the Court had declined
any interference in the application made by the De.:
ictidant. 'this woes incorre& : the Court adopted a
dcchion in Consequence of which the
again conic before it in a few days.