The Sun.
London, England, 1869-06-23 00:00:00

ACTION FOR LIBEL

The Court of Queen's Bench, as constituted by Jr.
Justice Hannen and a special jury, has had before it au
important libel case, "Cadogan v. Piper." It was 311
action for libel by one of the sitting members for the
borough of Cricklade against the registered proprietor of
the North Wilts Herald. It appeared from the counsel
opening speech and the plaintiff's evidence that the lieu'
Frederick Cadogan (the plaintiff) is the younger brother
of the present Earl of Cadogan, a magistrate of Middle'
sex, and at one time in practice at the bar. lie was
one of the earliest promoters of the Submarine
Telegraph Company, and he became one of the direc'
tors and deputy-chairman of that company when it wag
first started, in 1852. He personally instructed the
clerks, and worked in all matters of the company
with
much zeal and regularity as if he were a paid official. 111
1857 a person calling himself Captain Thorne called uponthe plaintiff and demanded a sum of money as the price of
his silence in abstaining from publishing a letter which he had
received from one Evans, who from 1852 to 1854 bad been a
clerk in the employ of the telegraph company. Th°l.ll:
showed Mr. Cadogan a copy of this letter, in which Evan
alleged that Mr, Cadogan had been in the habit of obtaining
information in the instrument-room of the telegraph c4cre'
of which he made use on the Stock Exchange.
Cadogan declined to give any money for such a purpose ;
al
r.
the letter was published, and both Thorne and Pfau:
were indicted at the Central Criminal Court for atten)Pj.
ing to extort money ; they were both convicted a"
sentenced to twelve months' bard labour. Subsequently',
in 1861, the plaintiff was concerned with a wench
refugee named Veillard in starting and carryiel
out the refreshment department of the Internationa
Exhibition of 1862. Mr. Cadogan advanced the
uj
required, and became security for Veillard's effectively
completing the contract with the Commissioners ; be
however, in no way connected with the Comm
and although he actually received £2,400 from Veillard_foeo
his services and money out of pocket, he had to pay
as security for Veillard when the latter became bankr"
and this, with the other expenses, reduced his profit llP°e
the transaction to less than £lOO. Last autumn
th,
plaintiff was one of the three candidates for the borouga"
of Cricklade, and was returned at the election at the be
of the poll, Mr. Gooch being second ; Mr. Goddard, wila
t ivas
was a Conservative, and Mr. Cadogan's opPonen' rip
unsuccessful. The North Wilts Herald was
ported by, and mainly depended upon, a Mr. TOT°.
head, a local attorney, the agent of Mr. Goddard.
wards the end of October a placard, printed °Pt
hot.,
yellow paper, the Liberal colour, was posted, ‘vij'
the name of any printer, in various parts of the borongirl:
This placard set forth that Mr. Cade an had used inf°_
mation obtained from the telegraph offices for his ovir;
private speculation on the Stock Exchange, Precise.,t
the same as if the confidential clerk of a large mercil""ti
or corn-dealer had opened his master's private desk, re"t
Lis private correspondence in referenee to the stud
of tue market, and then gone into the market
forestalled his master in the purchase of the veil
goods mentioned in that correspondence ;" and that e,
filling an office of trust under the Commissioners of tbe
International Exhibition, had recommended Veillard
from whose appointment he would obtain personal P°,ch
—to the International Exhibition Commissioners, whtlio
recommendation "is precisely the same as if aytiff
head of a locomotive department in a r3ii,vin.iy
company had recommended a contractor to s
af
certain engines or carriages to the board 3
directors, and the contractor had obtained the contr;
from the board of directors accordingly, the head °f, of
locomotive department concealing from the Warn tif
directors that he had agreed with the contractor,
tlia
the contractor obtained the contract he should p'T, The
£2,000 for his services as secretary to the contractor.
ice
North Wilts Herald reprinted this bill, declared %ea,
absolutely true, and challenged Mr. Cadogan to Ineet tow
in a court of justice. The proprietor of the pap e,r tiff
pleaded that all the statements concerning the plain'"

were true.
theln examination the plaintiff said that imrnediatelY Aftert
ofconviction of Thorne and Evans he resigned the P°s
deputy chairman of the Submarine ConWallici
He admitted also that upon one occasion he he-
gothe;
precedence to a message of Baron
givenwere
child's. lt was also true that certain messageg
latiwoahrded to his private residence, but these had rife;
either to what was going on in the Crimea, his :0
being a near relative of Lord George Paget, who had a e.,sr.
mand at the scene of war, or to the affairs of the conlPA"'...
sliibitiotii;
Commissioners
did not believe he knew any one of the
mmissioners except Lord Granville. His arrange°l4eot
instanceofwith
tVhee 11 ltacorodnhcwee
sass
pi
concession
t aha he the to
ih e
secondly,
socf witness)onxdslyw, iv a sao n in
£1,500 by way of " capitation fees," that Wes if
r
attendance at the Exhibitioncame u to a certain 1111;:e i
He admitted that the Commissioners were not cogniz—t.°
this agreement, and that when the terms of it wereecrielse;
closed the transaction was commented upon in the bey
terms by the .
The counselpres, ins replying to the case for the defeild that
ett.'
said no man living could read his brief and believe ,
Mr. Cadogan had
message to whichnot
to be untrue. He commented on the fact that the,
;ET had
been given Ifs 011 W-by
had not been produced.
it spoken
wa
was
allegeda tt he trial
that
hat whatprio rh.
,e, I cneerd
to say that the impression made upon every railicinld
reading the whole of Mr. Cadogan's evidetTe at the
Bailey was that there was. no such message 111 `ghatexiste:;ce
that it could not be identified or found. : c
did the jury think would have been the verctice
at the preliminary trial if it had been known that ere
was such a message as Mr. Evans had described serltvs
t° gl
the telegraph office, that it contained news ari
priority to which was a gross breach of trust -,
reessti
the part of the company, and that
had been found by Mr. Cadogan? Mr. Cadogn° 11.0
told Mr. Sandilands that he knew too much to reOlt,
in the way, and induced him to go to the Isle of Wrigh 0
If the plaintiff had wished to be coLsidered a gentleelS
of honour, he would not have gone on seeing the rsee„ts,l4
sent through the office, and then speculating on the
"""ire
Exchange. No one could believe that be could hate
seen these messages, and yet have been uninfluenced dif
the information they contained in his operations. .All 4
0 Stot:3,
it were known that he did give precedence to
thatthethfa et
to:
be
Exchange message sent to Baron
would not the jury consider that th h
threw light upon other matters upon -- tie
As to 10
there was not such distinct proof ? borne ,n
comment of the newspapers, it must be
mind that they were dealing with a public man ill ei
tion to his public duties. Those who had reason to ing Tr:
into Mr. Cadogan's fitness to take up the P°eit'°,.,.
of a candidate had a perfect right to c°'"
ment upon matters which had previously been Publi„clill
known and discussed relating to his carer. .And it would
be proved that what plaintiff said in 1857 was untrue, and
that what he did in 1853 was dishonest.
The case is still proczeding.

IMPORTS OF GUANO.—From official returiisthe
appears en
that our imports of guano are greatly thgt
decrease. In the first four months of 1868 we find
69,764 tons were brought into this country, and that is
the corresponding period of the present year the rettirl
only shews a total importation 69,764 tons. Peru fliessti f
the principal place from whence we draw our supPl
this precious fertiliser, but to the return from Peru
1334 AL
he traced in a large measure the decrease in the imP°'
for in the first four months of 1868 we had 59,731 tc)iin
from that country, against 19,968 tons in the four coon
euOing April 30. 1869,