The Sun.
London, England, 1850-11-18 00:00:00

iptrl.:( ISZittion,

QUEEN'S BENCH.—(THIS DAY.)
(Sittings in Banco.)
THE QUEEN V. THE PRINTER IND PUBLISHER OF THE

" MORNING HERALD."

CRIMINAL INFORMATION.-DON PACIFICO.

The SOLICITOR-GENERAL said he bad to apply to
the Court on the part of Don Pacifico, for a rule to
. show cause why a criminal information should not
issue against Charles Baldwin and John George Chap-
man, respectively, the registered proprietor and the
printer and publisher of the Morning Herald, for a
libel on Don Pacifico, which appeared in that paper
in the month of March last. He would explain to
the Court why the application had not been made
sooner. Don Pacifico stated in an affidavit that when
the article in question appeared in the Morning Herald
he was not resident in this country, and that
he was obliged, in consequence of certain occurrences
-which had taken place at Athens, to quit that city,
and to take refuge on board her dajesty's ship Cale-
donia, which vessel landed him at Malta, where he

was attacked by cholera. He was confined to his
house by illness for a period of three months,
and he was not aware of the libel of which
he now complained until his arrival in England
on the Bth of August last. Hence Don Pacifico bad
not been in a position to make this application for a
criminal information to this Court earlier. The libel
in question arose out of what had been a topic of so
much discussion during the present year, namely, the
interferenee of her Majesty's Government in the
claims of M. Pacifico, and it appeared in the
Morning Herald on the 13th of March of this year.
Their Lordships !would see that it was an at-
tack on M. Pacifico, in relation not only to his
public but also to his private and domestic affairs.
The passage alleged as libellous was as follows, and
appeared in a letter of a correspondent addressed to
the Morning Herald, from Athens, under the date of
Feb. 28 :—" Lord Palmerston's principle, that to re-
dress private wrongs justice may be taken into one's
awn hands, without others having a right to interfere,
may be applicable between nations of equal weight ;
as, if an injustice can be imposed by force it
can also be repulsed by force. But when so
powerful a nation as Great Britain decides upon
demanding from a nation as feeble as Greece the re-
dression of her wrongs, these wrongs should first be
weighed in the balance of the strictest justice, at the
risk of incurring the same dishonour as that of one
who insults, without - reason, a woman or a child.
And to prove to you that Lord Palmerston, before
giving to the world the spectacle of the English fleet
blockading Greece in time of peace—before having
thrown on the English nation the responsibility of an
unqualified abuse of power, had not sufficiently ex-
amined whether justice was on his side, I can furnish
you with several new and authentic details on his two
principal reclamations. The Jew Pacifico, before his
fraudulent bankruptcy at Constantinople, and before
his Consulship in Greece, held an inn in a village in
Portugal. On one occasion Don Pedro, on his
way to Lisbon, first sent to say that he
would stop there, and then having changed his
mind, and Taken another road, was much astonished
some time afterwards to see mine host arrive with a
hill for 1501. for the costs, he said, of his preparations
to receive his Majesty. Don Pedro took the thing
as a joke, but gave him 251. and sent him to the right-
about. Since then, Pacifico having changed for the
third time his nationality, and put himself under Sir
E. Lyons' protection, raked up his old account, which
he pretends to have been torn or lost in the pil-
lage of his house, and which suddenly took the
fearful proportion of 25,0001. This is the principal
item of the Pacifico affair, which also comprehends
the indemnities for the harm done in his house, such
as 2,0001. for bronzes and crystal broken, and the rest
in proportion. Now, it happens that before the riot
in his bou3e, Don Pacifico had had the misfortune
to have one of his daughters run away with
twice, first by a merchant's clerk, and se-
condly by an apothecary's boy; and on this
second sad catasbrophe he addressed himself to King
Otho, protesting that his daughter had stolen every-
thing he possessed, and that he had nothing left to
live upon, and, consequently, asked for alms. The
King, it is a well-known fact, lent him more than
once a hundred drachmas at a time. You may judge,
therefore, of the crystal and bronzes there mast have
been to break in his miserable dwelling. To
complete your information on this subject, I may add
that this man possessed a piece of ground contained
within the enclosure of the palace gardens. After
the damage committed in his house, the King, instead
of giving him the two or three thousand drachmas,
which his ground was worth, sent him 8,000
drachmas as an indemnification of his losses, and
further' Pacifico signed a receipt, in which he de-
clares himself satisfied, but unfortunately the act
is so worded as to say only ' for his territory and for
the circumstances which had occurred to him. It
is this ambiguity which has permitted him to raise
the fabric of falsehood about which so much noise
has been made." Now be (the Solicitor-General)
had to state on the part of Don Pacifico that he was
never at Constantinople in his life; that he had never
been a bankrupt or insolvent; that he never
owed a shilling which he had not paid ; that he
never kept an inn in Portugal ; that he had never seen
Don Pedro in the course of his life, and therefore had
had no such transaction with that Prince as was re-
lated in the libel, or made such a demand upon him ;
that,, in a word, the whole statement was a tis-
sue of falsehood from beginning to end. With
regard to the reference made to his daughters
in the passage which had been read to the
Court, Don Pacifico had stated in his affidavit that
he had three daughters, that the eldest was married
with his perfect consent, and was a lady on whom not
the slightest imputation could rest ; that his youngest
daughter was only a girl of thirteen, and was still
living in his family ; and that with respect to
the second daughter, who was spoken of as having
run away, first with a merchant's clerk, and secondly
with an apothecary's boy, the fact was that she was mar-
ried to a M. Zante, a captain of artillery, though not
with her father's consent, which was withheld on the
ground that M. Zante was of a different religion from
M. Pacifico's daughter, he being a Christian and she
a Jewess. Notwithstanding her father's disapproval
of the match, the daughter married M. Zante. She was
certainly married without her father's consent ; but
with reference to the story of her having run away
with either a merchant's clerk or an apothecary's boy,
or of her having taken away any of the property of
her father, there was not the :lightest truth in it.
Lord CAMPBELL said his only difficulty arose from
the length of time that had elapsed since the publica-
tion of the alleged libel and the application to this
Court.

The SOLICITOR. GENERAL (at the request of the
Court) read that portion of M. Pacifico's affidavit,
substantially given above, which explained the reasons
of his. not applying sooner fur a criminal information
to this Court.

Lord CAMPBELL—Take a ruhe to show cause, Mr.
Solicitor.Ganeral.—Rule granted accordingly.

POPULARITY OF BISHOP
PHILLPOTTS.

At Stokeinteignhead, on the 7th inst., the Rev.
Nutcombe Gould, rector of that parish, held his
tithe dinner, and about twenty-seven tithe-payers
and their representatives sat down to a substantial
repast: at the Rectory. The Rev. Mr. Gould
presided ; Mr. Langley, the attorney, was vice-presi-
dent. . The company was respectable, those paying
under 2/. having been cut off from the privilege of the
dinner. After the cloth was removed, grog was sup-
plied, and the chairman gave as the first toast " rine
Church." The Vice-Chairman, Mr. Langley, then
gave "The Queen." As the company had not drunk
the Chair's toast, that gentleman added " Church and
Qseen," and the toast was given in that form. The
nest toast was " Prince Albert and the Royal
Family." After these preliminaries had been ar-
ranged and completed, the Vice-Chairman gave the
health of Mrs. Gould. Mr. Gould, in reply, thanked
the company for drinking his wife's health, and with
that domestic blessing in his house, appeared to be re-
minded of the hard lot of the Roman Catholic clergy-
man, who is not allowed the solace of the domestic tie,
and naturally came at once upon the subject of the
Popish aggressions; whereupon Mr. Tuckett, a farmer,
said, " It's all the faun of the clergymen—look at
Mr. Haskell, he not only went astray, but led his
flock astray." Mr. Gould replied—" Although aft w
had gone astray, he trusted that the remaining por-
tion would stand true-to the Church, and that a friend
of his at Torquay was drawing up a petition, which
was well calculated to have a beneficial effect in the
press nt crisis ; that he should have a copy of that pe-
titior, afd would wait upon each of them personally
for thegnatu!e, when he trusted he should meet
with that reception which he expected from all lovers
of the Church.

Mr. TUCK TT—HOW about the Bishop, Mr. Gould 2
Mr. GOULD—In reply to that observation, said
whstever their private opinions jabout the Bishop
might be, he could not allow any peason to sit at his
table, and express anything derogatory to the Bishop's
character.
As soon as the Rev. Gentleman had sat down, the
whole of the company arose and immediately left the
table, in the most marked and emphatic manner.
Some of them had just mixed their second glass of
grog; others had got half way through that moderate
manifestation of the tithe dinner, and every one seemed
to be animated with the tame feeling. They were
determined not to be tongue-tied by the parson,
and at the same time not to make any rude return
for his hospitality. They retired to the "Church
Inn" and discussed the general question as to the po-
sition which the clergy held with regard to those
aoraiekaggressions, and the conclusion of the ma-