The Sun.
London, England, 1850-02-15 00:00:00

LAW INTELLIGENCE.
COURT OF EXCHEQUER, Feb. 14.
&CONNOR BRADSHAW.
•
,This was an action brought by Mr. Feargus O'Connor,
M.P., for Nottingham, against the proprietor of the
Nottingham Journal, to recover compensation in da-
miges, for a libel reflecting upon his character, which
was published in the shape of a hand-bill, and circulated
about the town.
Mr. Sergeant Wilkins, and Messrs. Hatherton and
Prentice, appeared for the plaintiff, and Mr. Roebuck,
}LP., Mr. Keating, and Mr. Bagley, for the defendant.
Mr. Sergeant Wenetras, in opening the case, said the
announcement that he appeared for Mr. Feargtis O'Con-
nor. Member of Parliament for Nottingham, would be
quite sufficient to satisfy the jury that it behoved a
gentleman of his position to be jealous of his reputation,
and, to take care that he lost no influence in society
which he ought to possess by the misrepresentations of
malicious persons. Mr. O'Connor would fain have been
spared the necessity of coming before them; for it formed
no tart of his happiness to be engaged in litigation
or in strife, and much as he felt himself called upon to
combat many accepted notions in the political world, he
would have been spared the necessity of vindicating, on
the present occasion, his character, unsullied as it seemed
bo him, and as he was sure would appear to them when
they. had heard the facts of the case, from a libel which
attributed to him some of the worst mo-
tives which could influence the conduct of any
man—a libel which could be actuated by no desire to
benefit the public, but which appeared to him (Mr.
Wilkins) to be actuated by a wish to harass and annoy
Mr. O'Connor. The man who exposed abuses wherever
he found them, who encouraged good and condemned
oppression and tyranny, was a benefactor to the public;
but there was a vast difference between him and
the slanderer who wounds t 3 give pain, and is
the first, if he possibly can, to prevent the healing of the
wound he makes. Now the libel which he would real
would show that the writer of it was actuated by two of
the meanest motives which could possibly characterise
the conduct of any man; in, the first place, he appeared
to have a love of pelf, his object being by the publication
of the libel to increase the circulation of the newspaper cf
which he was the proprietor; and in the next he wished to
vent his spleen on Mr. O'Connor because he happened
to entertain political notions different to his own, which,
in the eyes of a small man, was a sufficient cause to
give expression to his hatred. He was not there as the
advocate of Mr. O'Cunnor'3 politics ; indeed he had never
taken the trouble to ascertain what they were ; but he
knew enough to be convinced that they were, generally
speaking, unpopular, and feund little favour among the
more educated portions of the community. But, how-
ever they (the jury) might differ f. om Mr. O'Connor in
his political views, he was satisfied they would not allow
any prejudice to enter their minds in respect of theca,
but would judge of the case with strict, impartial, and
unbounded justice. He should simply content himself
by proving the libel, and would leave the defendant
to prove the plea of justification which he had put upon
the record, and he trusted that the investigation would
sot Mr. O'Connor right with the world, and put an end
to the slande-, hatred, end abuse which parties had
directed against him. If the other side should have the
temerity to attempt to justify this slander, he should show
that fewmen were more maligned and misrepresented than
Mr. O'Connor, and he would then have no fear as to the
result of their verdict. He had an opponent formidable,
indeed, well skilled and versed in rhetoric, who had for
a long time been before the world, and whose talents
were env- great as his integrity and honour were un-
doubted. But to show that his client did not
entertain any doubt as to what the result would
be, he invited and preferred investigation. The
libel was in the!foilovving terms :
" The subscribers of the National Land Company and
the admirers of Fearous O'Connor, Esq., ALP. for
Nottingham, who has wheedled the people of England
our of 1,000,0001., with which he has 'bought estates
and conveyed them to his own use and benefit,
and all who are desirous to witness the final over-
throw of this great political impostor, should
order the Nottingham Journal, in which his
excessive honesty in connexion with the Land Plan-has
been. and, will continue to be, fearlessly exposed. The
Nottingham Journal is the largest newspaper allowed by
law, and is the best vehicle in this county or neighbour-
hood for advertisements, business information, and
general news. Delivered everywhere early every Fri-
day morning. Price only 44d; per annum, in advance,
les.; credit, 205."
Now if ever libel were rendered undignified by the
mode in which it was put forward—if ever patriotism
was wrapped up in dirty paper—here was a specimen.—
(A laugh.) It was nothing more than a libel to render Mr.
O'Connor obnoxious to a great many people in the
country, and to increase the sale cf "the largest paper
allowed by law, price fourpeneo-halfpenny," by accusing
him of rubbing a number of per peeple of 100,0001., and
applying it to his own use and benefit. The Learned
Counsel concluded by challenging the defendant's
Counsel to prove this charge if they dared.
The necessary proof of the publication of the libel was
then gone into.
Mr. ROEBUCK then addressed the jury on the part of
the defendant, and aster a fnv preliminary observations,
asked them to consider for what the present case had
been brought into a court of justice? His Learned
Friend had said that it was to defend the
character of a gentleman of high station, who
at the present moment was so jealous of his
honour. and possessed of such nice feeling, that
he had occasion to come forward to vindicate himself
and his character from an atrocious charge and a malig-
nant venting of spleen, hatred, and malice ; and yet
all he proved was the publication of the libel. This was
a strange proceeding for 'a gentleman of such high
honour, as he called himself ; but as to his high honour
they were - • entirely in the dark. They had
simply " Feargus O'Connor, E 9., M.P.," on the ono
hand, and the imputation of " imposter"
on the other, and he took credit to himself for a charac-
ter so free from blame and so unimpeachable, that he
simply laid the libel before them, and said, "consider
my harrassed feeling, and reinstate me in
that position which 1 have a right to hold. "
Now he (Mr. Roebuck) did not mean to leave
him in that position. The defendant in this case was
not the real defendant, but the injured persons who
had been deprived of their money by Mr. O'Connor.
They said, and he would justify the charge, that he had
wheedled a large number of poor mechanics out of their
hard earnings upon false representations, and had painted
pictures a happiness to their imaginations which he
must have known to bo false. The plaintiff must have
been aware at the time that the small pittance which he
obtained from their industry under feigned promises was
the worst species of imposture that could be devised.
He had not fulfilled one of his promises to those whose
money he had wheedled to the extent of 100,0001., but
had bought estates with the money, and converted them
to his own use. He had"been in the habit of addressing
inflammatory tirades to the people, and calling them his
children. This nauseous and repulsive mode of
proceeding hal been given publicity to through
the columns of the newspaper of which he
was the proprietor. In those addresses he
professed himself to be in possession of a grand scheme
for the amelioration of mankind, but it often happened
that these schemes turned out instead for the personal
benefit of the persons who established them. The de-
fendant in this action had charged the plaintiff merely
with buying estates for his own use and benefi

with the inoney of other people, end-----this--;;-
cusation he was prepared to prove. In one cf the
plaintiff 's:addressc s, when introducing this scheme, he said
that he was ashamed of the condition of the people, and
in order to remedy this state of things he proposed that
by a small subscription from each member of his asso-
ciation, the subscribers should all become proprietors
of land. A certain quantity of this land was to be al-
lotted to each subscriber, on such terms as to enable
him to become a small freeholder, and to live
in contentment and happiness. In order, further, to
induce the people to join his society he went to the ma-

nufacturing towns, where vasepopulations were employed
far many !Ours during the day in labour, and who by
reason of their ignorance of the country were most

likely to be worked upon, and he told them that
scenes of rural bliss and an actual paradise

awaited them if they would enrol themselves members of
the society. He described in glowing terms the beauties

of the country, the tranquil homesteads, the lowing cat-
tle, the slumbering pigs, the glorious harvest prospects,
and other scenes of contentment and plenty, which
were likely to make an impression on the
minds of a population long accustomed to a factory
atmosphere. The Learned Counsel then proceeded to
read extracts from several of the addresses of Mr.
O'Connor published in the Northern Star. In those
addresses the working people rwere described as his
" dear children," and in one he stated that he would
have a bell rung, in order that he might hear his
happy children, in their happy homesteads, " d—n the
factory bell. The plaintiff constantly urged upon his
noaders that the present regulations of society were
altogether unjust, and that by the malice, cruelty,
and injustice of a certain number of people a
great mass of mankind had been arbitrarily
deprived of their inheritance in the land. To that in-
heritance he declared that he was about to restore them.
He had been enabled during the progress of his
wheedling, from 1845 down to the present time, to enrol
70,000 subscribers, who were to pay 2/. 121. for every
two acres of land, and in return they were to have a cot-
tage, 151. in money, and capital to purchase the neces-
sary stock. This at the first blush was a marvellous
promise. The scheme was, in the first instance, called the
land scheme, and, after undergoing several changes of
description, was ultimately called the "National Land
Company." The 70,000 persons were to have their allot-
ments in the course of five or six years; but, according to
Mr. O'Connor's own showing, it would have taken 300
years to effect that object. Now, could it for a moment be
imagined that a Member of the Legislature, in a
crowded community like Nottingham, could impose upon
the ignorant and helpless in such a manner? and was
not he (the Learned Counsel) justified in terming such
a proceeding as wheedling? In fast, no one had been
made a freeholder of land which had been purchased by
the money of the subscribers but Mr. O'Connor himself,
who had caused every estate to be conveyed in his own
name. But of the whole number of persons who had
been induced to invest their money in the scheme, only
a very few had been put upon the land, and the 'only ad.
vantage they had gained was that they had to pay a
larger rent than if they had hired it elsewhere. Six
different estates had been purchased, the whole of them
by the proceeds of the subscribers' money. All the legal
rights and control. were vested in Mr. O'Connor. lelr.
Sergeant Wilkins had stated that the jury had nothing
to do with the politics of Mr. O'Connor ; that
this was a transaction between man and man, and that
_ _

Mr. O'Connor appeared before the Court as an honest
and upright man. He (Mr. Roebuck> however, c' arged
him with dishonesty in making promises which he knew
never could bt, fulfilled, and which by his
conduct be clearly showed never would be
fulfilled. Mr. O'Connor was in the habit of