The Sun.
London, England, 1826-08-11 00:00:00

ea)ling for them happened to occur. The best secority
which the sound parrof the public could have against that,
licentiOns, PresS,. which sometinieS disgraeed the com•
munity that eneopraged it, was- the fair and liberafsupport
of intelligent and upright Men of property in that 'profess
,
Sion. ..o* that Security- lie giien, if men were
dragged every day in this manner into Courts of Justice,
where noraiparticle 'of maliee could he honestly or fairly
imputed. totheni ? Mr. Erskine, the greatest Advocate
that ever adorned the Bar, was much employed in cases of
this kind,
,and there was one quotation which he never
failed to use, from its apposite application to establish,
ments
13e -to their faiths a little. blind,
Be to their virtues very kind, '
Nor clap at padlock on the mind."
Meaning,'ln fact, that they ought to be judged with 'can-
dour, and their acts construed liberally. When, indeed.
the Press lent itself to the circulation of personal and scan-
dalous ealtiinny, then, indeed, it became a fit object for
prosecution, and the severest punishment. Jury should
always reserveits just vengeance for such cases. But
this was not a case of that desce;ption, as they would find,
as soon as they had heass ale evidence. The real ques-
tion in this case was, what treatment the poor unfortunate
idiot had received,at farmer periods of his life, and what
was the stkte in which this unhappy creature'had 'been
discovervid, on the 25th of January last, when Mr. Eld,
Mr. Broughton, and the constable, repaired to Muckle-
stone, and -found him with his family; for to that time,
and no other, did theSe paragraphs, which were called li-
bels, refer. The defendants, in providing news for their.
readers, had stated, that such and such a discovery had
been made` by such and such magistrates. Bnt; said Mi.
Campbell; in hie opening speech, see the time of this pubs
lieation ; it was when the writer knew that a prosecution
had been commenced against this family for the improper
treatment of this individual, and he therefore sought to poi-
son the fountain of justice by prejudicing the minds of those
who were likely to be called upon their oaths to try the
louse. Now what would the jury think when they were told,
that no such prosecution had been commenced at the time
Mr. Campbell bad stated, nor for many weeks after ? Ile
should produce proof to their entire satisfaction, that the
main parts of the plaintiff's case. were built upon a tissue
of the most wicked, most barefaced, most abominable,
and, at the same time, most clumsy fabrications that had
ever been attempted to be placed in the shape of evidence
upon a Court of Justice. They had heard from the other
side that this poor creature had, since his nativity, been
subject to fits, and had grown worse and Worse as he had
advanced in life, so that within the Very last fortnight be-
fore his removal, he had had ten of them ; that he was
,
entirely helpless, that he had been treated, not only with
humanity and attention, but with unparallelled and heroic
attachment,' so as to have arrangements Made for a supply
of unusual delicacies which it was thought would gratify
his palate. If that be true, as sworn on the part of the
plaintiff, then (still arguing upon probabilities with the
Jury) how had it happened, that with such manifest af-
fection and notorious exercises of it, two gentlemen of
rank one a magistrate, of high family and fortune in the
county, should have felt themselves called upon to make a
domiciliary visit to such a family, and fancy that a serious in-
quiry was imperatively calledforinto the condition ofthe most
helpless member alit. Wits it likely,that if the Whole life of this poor
creatinw had been marked by ease and comfort, so far as the
powers of his family went, that any magistrate should have felt it
necessary to have taken so summary and decisive it step towards a
family of which they knew nothing, and could not therefore have
been prompted to any harsh proceeding against it. Mr. Broughton
had paid this domiciliary visit, and found the wretched object of
his search in the manner be would himself describe. It was said
the disorder of the poor creature was epilepsy, and that light pre-
cipitated his fits. Now ell who were acquainted with the nature of
that melancholy disease knew that. light bad nothing to do with it,
Lain the immediate effect of epilepsy was to paralytic the vision;
sod the creature, while under the tit,. was ILS little susceptible to
the impreSsion of. light, as if he were in his grave. But their
evidence in esplatuation of the cause 44 this exclusion of light, en-
tirely differed in its nature, for while some ascribed it to the order
of old Air. find& for the reason already assigned, others deelated it
to have been caused by the idiot's having smashed all the glass,
and attempted to force his body through the sash. According.
to the evidence for the plaintiff, the idiot had been cleaned,
and his WOAD hared on Monday, the_ 234.1. of • January,
day on which he, had, Veen so very that hiS lister had
been *lied sit'llp With' him" all night. On Tuesday
he remained still indisposed, and on Wednesday 'morning the
same attention to his cleanliness wars beiteWed by his tensity, and
they were only interritpted irf the performanee'of it by the sudden
avowal of the Rev. Mi. Br'etighton and-Mr. Ekl. They said that
there had been a tire in the room as late- et the preceding Friday ;
but he should prove there was.no recent appearance of either fuel
or soot in the grate, and that the probability was there had been
no fire in it during the whole of the winter. It was singular too
that it was exactly when the Magistrate bad made this visit, the
whole operation of cleanliness • elthald have been going on; and
equallyanstrvellout was it, that nothing but filth and noxious
sights assailed'the senses of these gentlemen, on their examina-
tion of the house at the ;same moment. The Learned Counsel
pledged himself to show, that the bricks which were built up
within his-Window, instead of being loose, were regularly connect-
ed with mortar; that instead of being kept clean, lie was left in.
a state of disgusting neglect, so as to have superinduced and aggra-
vated 'all hisavretched infirMities. He then descanted in very elo.;
toes& terms upon the cruel nature of such treatment, compared
with which the language of poetry and fiction became the records
of real life. The cruelties at which they shuddered in history,
were far less horrid than the treatment. of this forlorn individual.
" The lifted axe, the agoniaitt4 wheel, •
_ CrOwn, and Dannen's bed of steel,"
were, mild applitattions of-punishment Compared' to the sufferings
of this poor idiot, crippled, naked, and shivering in a season so
inclement as filet at which he WM, discovered. The tortures
which despots.lufliet, though severe and. atrocious, are not of
protracted duration—they agonize, but they kill .the wretched
victim. He pledged himself to show that the idiot's thigh had
been fractured, and the hone left to re-unite by an effort of nature
—that the contention of this poor ereatnre's limbs hid arisen not
from disease, as 'had been stated, but front the extremes of cold
and negleet ; and that from' the hour he had been taken into the.
Stafford Lenetie Asylum, • alihongli, according 'to the account of
his family, lie bad for year's been the victim of constantly recur-
ring fits,' be heel not Ltd one single fit,- or anything like one.—
They had heard front the plaintiff" witnetisee; that George Smith
had such an aversion to the operation of shaving, that the at-
tempt to perferm it threw him into fits. This alleged apprehen-
sion of the idiot induced Mr. Flint, the shrewd and active attor-
ney '❑ this eauser to write the. following letter to the medical_
suppintentlent of the Stafford Aa) him.:
" Sir,[-....1 beg to apprise you, that it it the opinion of the Me-
dical Gentlemen whom my clients have consulted with reference
to this 'ease, that it will be highly improper to attempt to shave
the •Lunatic ; I ant antlitirised by the latter to snake known
their wish atul request, that he may, in this respect, he suffered to
remain in his. present state. it is also necessary that lie should
do so with reference to the _legal prOceedings now pending, or
hereafter to be instituted.
as I am, Sir, your obedient, servant, *"
" Utozeter, April 5, 1806. " ABRAHAM FLINT."
To Mr. Garrett, Asylum, Stafford."
The object of this letter was avowedly to deter the people in the
Asylum from shaving this patient ; however, they disregarded the
adnionition or threat, and so far from finding poor Smith wince
under the operation, he held out his face for it, and regularly
turned his cheeks for the razor, as reedy as any other man would
tuber's shop on a Saturday night.. ,In conclusion, the
in a penoY
.„ gild he would leave the case entirely in the
I.l,aeilrdriser(l4 the. Jury, upon sed p arienttirtfhtehriaapto.babiliftea and the
facts as discloaed in the h,stimony on a
examined proved that,
The first twelve witnesees
Geotge Smith assisted the
who were
about t vents or thirty y!lip4 ago,l
aitenti he- could speak
me • loony agrlcultnra ernp
in ,eased to understand what was said to him.
and make hay, anti rit
r!vstraight,
and could walk a* wall as any
In person he was eery
also
proved that a padlock was kept
other young Man.
Ut in whittle he was ponfined. The moth
on the door of the rot>
red as if boards had been put up against
looked dark, and it appea
tae windows.

'lliontes Eid, 1i541.-1 live at Aston-ha pea stairmA
/ and le-
companieti Mr. Broughton aml PolsOn, this constable, to the house
of i.tlr. Smit. The first person We met was Thomas Smith ; Mr.
Broughton asked hint.:,hovi4 litany brothers he had ? he replied..--
Therea my brother, %Out. ,ia.goue to Wake, myself, and my sis.
ter." I at,,..eil him Wbet4 his poor unfortunate brothel. was who was
out of his mind ? Redid not answer ', I said to Ilia], know where
he is--he is irt a dark room at the top Of the houie ;" Itir. B. said,
4, I must i.es him ;'' he replied, i, Gentlemen, youcanuot see him—

i-otutahnot see him," and appeared very much alarmed ; I told him
we had come for the sole purpose of seeing him; and see him we
wouldbeforOwe left the house; the sister came down stairs ; she
allied up= if we would sit clown by the fire and, take something?
We replied no, it was not our wish to, take any thing, but to see
her unfortunate brother, who was confined up stairs; she said we
could not see him, as her bliiither had taken the key to market ;
on her saying the keiconld'not be found, I Wept Pp stairs into
the garret, but found nothing ; on coming down I met Mr. Smith,
his sister, Mr. Broughton, and the constable. I said to Mr.
Smith, " You bad 'better ikt us 'see him without anyiurther
trouble." Thomas Wolth. went down the -passage to a door at
the end of it Ihe pushed the door open and went in. As soon
1 as I gOt there, I put mrhead in, and of that it was, light,
I said this is not the room. Mr. who was close behind me,

observed a door on his Kt hand ; it was not fastened, he pushed
the door open, and I went in first. I observed a window nn,
the, opposite side; there was a small hole in it, and a few
small holes besides, where the mortar" was not properly fas-
tened. - I broke the mortar with a small ash stick, and
loosened one of the bricki, and afterwards took down font, or
five of them. The rest of the party were then in the room.
I observed no furniture in the room except a small short bed-
stead ; the floor of the room was covered in placed with heaps
of filth ; if it had been shovelled up, it might have filled two
barrows ; it was excrement ; a little oat chaff, and a little
straw were also in the room, and part of the former had stuck
to the filth. There was a piece of rug on the floor near the
fire-place very•filthy. The bedstead was opposite the door, one
side of it was against the wall, a large door seas propping up the
bed,' I said to Miss Smith, " In the name of God, 'Where is this
poor creature?" She went to the head of the bed, and turned
off the ends of two sacks, and then she turned off a very small
filthy blanket, and said Here he it." He lay coiled up like a
greyhound, with one foot in one hand, and the other in the other
hand, and his knees nearly touched his throat. He lay on the
-heap of naten chaff on his leit side ; be turned himself round, and
seemed much alarmed, but made no noise. 1 stepped to the side
of the bed, and patting him on the shoulder, I smiled at him,
which appeared to shake some of his fear off; I asked him if he
was cold, and he replied " Aye," in a horrid tone of voice, more
like a wild beast than a human creature. I said to his sister, "how
can you be so cruel as to let this poor creature lie in
such a horrid state?" She made answer and said, that he bad a
good clean room to go to, but he would creep back to that filthy
place. I said that is a lie, for that he had not been out of that
room for a number of years. There was no fire in the room, nor
any appearance of any having been there for a length of time.—
There were no cinders, nor atraw, nor any thing like it. There
was nothing like soot at the 'hack of the grate. When I
saw the poor creatures he had not a thread on his back.
—There was a small filthy pillow, so small that it might
go. in a bat The oaten chaff appeared very filthy, such
as if a pig had lain upon it, and looked as if a heap of chuff had
now and then, been thrown down to refresh it. The smell was
very offensive. His beard was four or five inches long. His
person appeared very filthy. 1 remained about ten or twelve
Minutes in the room, and then went down stairs. Mr. Brough-
ton and T went away, having first stated that it would be proper
he should be removed to the Asylum at Stafford, where he would
he taken every care of. Miss S. said we might take him where
we pleased. Mr. B. wrote a letter to Mr. Garrett, the medical
gentleman at the Asylum, which I took, and, on the same even-
ing, I returned with Mr. Garrett. George was removed. On
any return, I observed that the room where he had been confined
had been cleaned, and the dirt taken away ; the room was then
wet from having been washed ; Poison, the constable, remained
there during the time I went to the Asylum, and 1 found him
there on my return. When I got hack 1 found that George had
been put into a comfortable clean bed. I heard the servant girl
say to Mr. Broughton, that she had never seen George Smith out
of that room. lam positive I heard her say this.
The Rev. Mr. Broughton and Tolson, the constable, corrobo-
rated Mr. Eld'e statement.
Mr. Garrett, house surgeon to the Stafford Lunatic, Asylum,
said, on the evening of the 25th of July he was called to see
George Smith, who was then with his family, lying on a bed
naked, in a very dirty state, and with a beard four or five inches
long. The room was very wet all over, as if recently washed ; it
AM issued a very offensive smell, And the poer idiot seemed to be
in a state of alarm and apprehension, and was removed from thence
upon a mantes, in a chaise, to the Asylum on. the same night.
Afterwards, as Aeon as be could examine the person of the poor
creature, be observed hie hotly scaly, and not like that of a person
frequently washed. Though severely cold, time were alalista4 to
keep the windows of the chaise open to Mitigate the noxunos
effluvia Imp the patient they were conveying. When, at the
Asylumo hoTtfga.plit into warm baths; when put, to bed, he.ap,-
peered alarmed, anal made 'lips to be wrapped up in the blanket;:
which was done, and he then huddled himself up so au to eacap6
tobservation. His holly; tv,Te entirely contracted. The repetition
of warm bathing cleansed his body, and he never attempted in the
asylum to tear -off any partof.his- clothing, nor had 'he.had.one
single fit since his admission. He was still incapable of standing,
or moving from one place to another, owing to the, contractions in
his limbs—he has,the power of movinilti3 joints and his toes;,
which was not the case with a paralytic patient, There wasuo
paralysis in any part of his body --1 e could_moVtfront side to side
of his bed. If directed ,An lift_ up: his leg, ,he would do so,
or his arm ; he would hold oat hia.hand to leave his arm put into
his shirt or coat. .
'The remainder of Mr. Garrett'sr terahnony, corroborated Mr.
Taunton's statement. Several Medieal Gentlemen also prOved that
George Smith, when brought into the AsyluM, was in the dread-
ful state described by Mr. Garrett.
At seven o'clock in the evening the defendant's case was closed.
Mr. CAMPAZIA, Atm replied.
At half-past nine o'clock, Mr. Justice BUR BOUGH said, that
at that late hour, and after the fatigue of such close attendance,
he would not proceed further this night, but reserve his charge to
the Jury until to-morrow morning, and the Court adjourned
accordingly.
In the Crown Court, before Mr. Baron fiAnnow,, sixteen of
the gang who were' said to have lived in a cave, frotn whence
they issued in concert for depredations, were found Guilty.
There was nothing in the evidence to support the melo-dramatic
account of the habits of life'of these vagabonds, given in the nar-
rative of their apprehension. The cave was a hut, which was a
depot for stolen property, and an occasional render:out,. They
were not sentenced.

TIIIIIISDAY—(Tutao Day)—Auu. 10.
• (arestven THIS MORNlrlitio) : i
Mr. Justice Boattooott, in charging. the Jury, said he had no,
felt himself equal to the task of summing up the evidence, at the
late hour at which the defendant's case had been closed on the
previous night. The. question for their. consideration, were the
publications given in evidence in the cause libel or not ; Were the
matters contained therein true? and if they were not of opinion that
the several matters pleaded in justification, or any of them, were
proved ? Many objections bad been made with respect to the
liberty exercised by the Editors of newspapers. He would be
the last person not to acknowledge the inestimable advantages
which the liberty of the press was in being a safeguard to the
constitution, but he regretted that the papers had got into a most
incautious habit of publishing matters which brought severe in-
jury on othe characters of others, and.this, as too often happened,
without the slightest foundation in truth. Wherever they acted
so, it was the province of Juries to award compensation, aid that
compensation they were also to measure in proportion to any eg-
gravation which was subsequently given to the original act; and
he considered placing on the record, a justification, that was, that
they would prove all the facts, to he the greatest aggravation of
which the editor of a paper could be guilty, supposing the jure.
tificatien not strictly proved. The Learned Judge read the
libel, which he commented upon, part by _part. . :Upon the
whole of the case he considered that there was not a tittle of
evidence to support the justification with the exception of the
' part in which the Magistrate, Mr, Broughton, and Mr. Bid,
went to visit the houle. With respect to that visit,
there
was sons colour for the charge ; but as to the hesitation.
which *as stated ._to be shown by the
family in not immediately
admitting them into the presence of their brother, it was the na-
tural feeling of persons whet' knew he was not then fit to be seen.
There was nothing unjustifiable -ht the 'conducting of the case ;
hut it was rather a duty.for the plaintiff to
have brought forward
all the servants of the family for the long period of thirty years, in
order to silo* if the ereatteent, the incarceration of the priboner,
as was insinuated, took place before or after the death of the pa-
rents of the lunatic? 'The second libel, published oft the 25th of
February, threw some light on the first, published on the 11th of,
February ; for, up to that period, they bad been eireulating stun"
tiers in the dark. In that paper, it was proved to a demonstration
t lat Mr:' Siivith is-the person otrwhom this. atrocious" conduct is
t
charged. , They emtimentxd‘by saying they received 0 communica-
ttie on:met they publithed.the etatement of the 11,th of February.
i
beg eel it to .t* generally understood by newspaper editors,
that no Matter what
L 'rAmtlwriiiiaeum they should receive and pub-
fish, drat could,o. Uti - iinSiVe, 4,6 0,, charge of a libel, .it wait their
duty first to bo convinced of the truth, before they published .altY
matter in eltaractes.of. :
jurioter to the Another, that: they might .be
prepared toituttify . themselves .: it eaurt; upon to 40 so.- If they
were not bound to exercitie due caution of this kind, there could
be little safety to the public. th was strongly. of opinion that the
part of the facts alleged in the libel, feedingthr
greater the °ugh