The Sun.
London, England, 1861-07-10 00:00:00

COUNTY SURVEYORS (IRELAND) BILL.
This bill, after a few words from Mr. CARDWELL, was
read a third time and passed.
COPYRIGHT OF DESIGNS BILL.
This bill was read a third time and passed.
LANDED ESTATES (IRELAND) ACT (1848)
AMENDMENT BILL.

The house went into committee on this bill, which, as
amended, passed through that stage.
LANDLORD AND TENANT LAW AMENDMENT
(IRELAND) BILL.
This bill also passed through committee.
DRUNKENNESS (IRELAND) BILL.
This bill passed through committee.
The other orders having been disposed of, the house ad-
journed at 20 minutes past one o'clock.

LAW IIV TELLIG ENCE.-July 9.

COURT OF COMMON PLEAS.

(Sittings at Nisi Prius, in London, before Lord
Chief-Justice Erie and a Special Jury.)
___

TURNBULL V. BIRD.-MR. TURNBULL AND THE
PROTESTANT ALLIANCE.

The hearing of this case was resumed this
morning.

Mr. Karslake, Mr. Prideaux, and Mr. Folkard,
appeared for the plaintiff, and Mr. Bovill, Mr.
Lush, Mr. C. Evans, and Mr. White for the de-
fendant.

Mr. Turnbull was examined in reference to the
letter from the Queen Dowager to M. d'Oyzell,
which had been calendered by Mr. Thorpe in 1858,
and which he stated he had not been able to find.
All he knew was that it was not to be found in the
volume in which it should be.

Mr. Bovill then addressed the jury for the de-
fence, stating that he had the honour to appear for
Mr. Bird, the secretary of the Protestant Alliance,
who stood charged upon the record with having
' circulated a libel imputing to Mr. Turnbull most
unworthy and improper conduct, and with having
done this from a system of bigotry, intolerance,
and persecution, which influenced Mr. Bird and
the Protestant Alliance. Until yesterday
Mr. Turnbull and Mr. Bird were unknown
to each other personally, therefore there was
no personal feeling ; and indeed, according to
his instructions, he now stated that he be-
lieved that Mr. Turnbull was a gentleman of the
highest honour and character, of great :literary
attainments, and possessing an amount of learning
that was an honour to himself and a credit to his
country ; but that learning might have taken a
direction which had warped his mind in reference
to certain subjects. He had not, in any shape or
way, attempted to insinuate anything against Mr.
Turnbull's character or attainments, and, indeed,
one was rejoiced to hear the progress which he had
made, and the distinction which he had attained;
and could only regret that no more substantial
reward was to be obtained by a gentleman in his
position than the pittance awarded by the Govern-
ment of £2lB for 18 months' work. Mr. Turnbull,
however, it must be borne in mind, had published
his opinions to the world. He had held a position
in the pay of the public, and every public servant,
from the highest to the lowest, was amenable to
the expression of opinion, and indeed it was only by
the practice of such expression that confidence was
maintained. It must be borne in mind that Mr.
Turnbull had commenced the correspondence in the
Daily News ; he had chosen the tribunal of public
opinion ; the public had read, and formed an opinion
upon hearing all that could be said on both sides;
and yet, after this, Mr. Turnbull selected two let-
ters from the series and brought them into court,
asserting that they were libels. He (Mr. Bovill)
submitted that the whole matter was a fair discus-
sion of a public question : and that so far from there
being any malice on the part of Mr. Bird, he had
only done what it was his duty to do, occupying
the position which he did. It was said that Mr.
Turnbull had resigned his situation in consequence
of these letters of Mr. Bird ; but it was clear that
he had offered to resign long before these letters
were published, and that because he found public
opinion was against him, and because he was
unwilling to imperil confidence in these pub-
lic records. Mr. Bovill then proceeded to read
extracts from the " Legendaa Catholicx, a lytle
boke of Seyntlie Gestes," which was published by
Mr. Turnbull, as he said, as a mere jeu d'esprit,
and which was said to be " Imprinted at Edin-
burgh, in the year of the Incarnation 1840." The
author said, " And these legends were fabricated
for the promotion of fanaticism.' Is fanaticism ex-
tinct now that monachism seems no more ? Look
at the vile and pestilently rampant heresies from
Calvinism downwards, and are any redeeming
qualities to be found in all their vagaries ? Are
not the fabrications issued by the evangelical can-
ters of the tract societies most fulsome and im-
pertinently profane ? Is not the stuff which they
put into the mouths of the subjects of these
memoirs.' making the creature cry, as it were,
Hail, good fellow, well met I' to its Creator, not
merely devoid of grace and merit, but brimfull of
hypocrisy and intolerant familiarity ?" " Although
I advocate the revival of monastic institutions and
apologise for the pious fictions of the early ages, I
am not pleading for the growth of Romanism. I
am a firm adherent of the Anglican section of the
Catholic Church—that beautiful structure whose
banner is so richly blazoned with the names of the
mighty dead, and which yet can boast of such or-
naments as a Philpotts, a Pusey, a Newman, a
Palmer, a Hook, and by that Church I shall stand
or fall." "I am no Romanist. I object to the
Pope; he has been the curse of the Church
Catholic." Within two years, however, from
this time Mr. Turnbull became a Catholic. In
1854, also, Mr. Turnbull published a transla-
tion of a " Life of Luther," in which
he alluded to the "so-called Reformation," which
he designated " that most mischievous event ;" and
in 1856 he edited the poetical works of Father
Southwell, a Jesuit priest. In the preface he ex-
pressed his regret that no complete edition of the
works of Southwell had been published, and said
"and these sentiments have been induced not by a
mere national bias or respect towards the illustrious
society of which he was a member, and which I hold
in the highest veneration, honour, and esteem," but
by an appreciation of the poems. In the memoir of
Southwell he said " the same dauntless devotion to
duty is expressed in another letter to his spiritual
superior," when Southwell was on the way to per-
form certain functions, " together with Father
Henry Garnett, the well-known subsequent martyr,"
Garnett having suffered martyrdom for his part in
the Gunpowder Plot. He talked of the "Advent
of these distinguished men" to England during a
" reign of terror" over the Catholics, 70 priests hav-
ing been banished and two executed, whilst " that
gallant conspiracy of Babington and his friends was
rapidly leading them to a similar fate," Babington.
and his friends being engaged in a plot to assassi-
nate Queen Elizabeth, to seat Mary of Scotland
upon the throne, and to establish the Roman Catho-
lic religion, and destroy the Protestants. These
being the antecedents of Mr. Turnbull, which were
well known, he was no sooner appointed to his posi-
tion at the Record Office than the Athenceunz drew
attention to the matter, saying that they could not
believe the statement of his appointment, and added
that the papers " describe the wars of the Armada
the War of Independence in Holland, the Thirty'
Years' War, in all which events Mr. Turnbull be-
lieves the action of this country to have been de-
plorable, undutiful, and false. They abound in par-
ticulars of those writings and treasons of the Jesuits,
which made them formidable to the peace of the
family and that of the State. They preserve for us
multifarious information relative to those priestly
plots which the Government of Elizabeth crushed
with a strong hand. Mr. Turnbull thinks the
Queen, Council, Parliament, and people of England
barbarous and malignant in the use they made of
this preservative power. They contain many allu-
sions to the miracle impostures by which the Roman
priests preserved their ascendancy over ignorant and
fanatical minds." Under these circumstances, no
matter how impartial Mr. Turnbull might have
been in preparing his calender, it would still have
been said that it was prepared by a violent Roman
Catholic, and the book would never have a reputa-
tion for impartiality. The learned gentleman pro-
ceeded to read extracts from some books referred to
in the alleged libels to show that the principles of
the Jesuits were to mutilate books and documents
in the interests of their Church, and that this prin-
ciple had been acted on, and he was about to refer
to other books not mentioned in the alleged libels,
and which had not been before referred to in the
course of the trial, but his lordship, upon objection
by the plaintiff's counsel, held that the books could
not be put in evidence. It was also proposed to
read copies of several newspapers to show that ar-
ticles had appeared in reference to Mr. Turnbull's
appointment before the date of Mr. Bird's letters,
but his lordship expressed his opinion against their
admissibility. The learned gentleman also com-
mented at great length upou the correspondence
which had been published, and concluded a speech,
which occupied four hours, by submitting to the
jury that the appointment of Mr. Turnbull to the
office of calender was a public event which Mr.
Bird had a right to comment upon, that he had not
exceeded the fair limits of discussion, and that
therefore he was entitled to a verdict.

Mr. Bird, the defendant, said—l am a member
of the Chancery bar. I have never seen Mr. Turn-
bull until yesterday. I know nothing of him ex-
cept from his writings. My attention was first
called to the appointment of Mr. Turnbull by a
paragraph in the Athenceum of the 24th September,
1859. I had nothing to do with that
paragraph,
or any of the articles which appeared in the public
journals. The Protestant Alliance first
notio.Fd
the matter by printing the paragraph frora„lne
iithen(auna in October, 1859, and tho mem011.44 to