The Sun.
London, England, 1827-07-11 00:00:00

NATURE AND ART.

I have never yet been a voyage without seeing
something new and eminently grand in the works
either of nature or of art. Of the objects worthy of
attention in this voyage, three made a lasting im-
pression on my mind. The first was, the tremen-
dous sea rolling off the Cape of Good Hope, in one
of the most direful storms perhaps ever known. The
sea off the Cape is proverbial for the terrific height
to which it runs; even to mariners it proves appal-
ling, and to many voyagers fatal; in might, awful
grandeur, and in fury, it surpasses all the seas on the
face of the globe. The storm came on with a gentle
zephyr off the land, which increased to a horrid roar
of whirlwind, accompanied with continual flashes of
lightning, vivid balls of fire dartingaround the vessel,
and bursts of tremendous thunder. It continued
during a whole week; the nights were horrible; the
hoarse cry of the sailors' voices could scarcely be
heard amidst the deafening roar of
i the foaming bil-
lows and the howling of the wind n terrifically
lent intermitting gusts through the rigging. The
sea, as seen by the flashes of lightning, appeared
eager to swallow us up in destruction. At the dawn
of day, what a subject for a poet ! what a field for a
masterly painter ! But no artist, however masterly,
could do justice to a scene so awful ; nor pencil, norlanguage, convey to the mind any the remotest idea
of its mighty grandeur. Truly does the Psalmist
say—" They that go down to the sea in ships, and
occupy their business in great waters ; these men
see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the
when the threatening
slowly
onward, as if sure
o
deep." The terrific and dark as the clouds
which
covered it,rolled ;
and v
billow reached us, destruction seemed inevitable.
fdestroying
But no ! the bark sinks not---she is hurled up to
the heavens on its bosom, and the spectator sees be-
neath him a frightful and Yawning gulf, into which
he again sinks to be again borne upward !
This was the grandeur of nature. The second
was the grandeur of art, as exhibited in his Majesty's

frigate the Loire, Capt. Brown, under whose convoy
we were sailing. In the Atlantic Ocean, one morn-
ing early, the Loire sailed close alongside of us. The
breeze was scarcely strong enough to ripple the
waters, and emitted a refreshing fragrance; the
frigate, as if conscious of her superiority and impos-
ing beauty, as she glided through her native element,
sailed majestically side by side with us, a martial
band on board her striking up in the best style : not
one of us but felt a glow of exaltation on beholding
so fair a sample of England's pride : not one but felt
the love of his country strong within him. But not
a whisper could be heard--a death-like stillness, in-
terrupted only by the music and the sighing of the
breeze, reigned around, while the minds and eyes of
all were busily employed on the unrivalled scene be-
fore them. Suddenly a signal from another ship of
the fleet, for a strange sail, produced an instanta-
neous change of scene ; swift as thought the Loire
was crowded, " low and aloft," with sail; in an in-
stant she bore away from us, and in less than an
hour was a mere speck on the horizon, in hot pur-
suit of the stranger. By one she reappeared, over-
took us, fired a gun to leeward, and made signal—
War with America."

The third was the glorious spectacle of the setting
sun. For ten evenings together, during a period m
from twenty to thirty minutes after the fiery orl,
had withdrawn, the horizon presented such a rich va•
riety of fantastic forms, and matchless colours, of
azure gold and spangles, vying, as it were, to surpass
each other in delicacy and splendour—the whole tot',
reflected upon the rippling ocean in the west—as tc
produce an effect beyond description magnificent
and delightful, and which inspired all of us with ad-
miration. " How grand !" all exclaimed ; " and,"
thought I, " how worthy of the great Creator, win
has given to the objects of nature the most agreeable
forms and accessories, as well as the most im-
portant uses !"—Adventures of Araufragus, pp.4o, 42.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.

COURT OF KING'S BENCH, WESTMINSTER, JULY 16

LIBEL.
WRIGHT V. WHITING ♦NP SWIFT.

This was an action brought by the plaintiff, whc
is a member of Trinity College, Cambridge, and the
author of a work entitled Alma Mater; or Sever.
Years at the University of Cambridge—by a Trinity
Zfan, to recover from the defendants, who are the
proprietors of the .Atlas Sunday Newspaper, com-
pensation in damages for loss sustained by the plain-
tiff, in consequence of the defendants having, in the
said newspaper of the 11th of February last, pub-
lished a false, scandalous, and malicious libel upon
the character of the plaintiff.
The defendants pleaded the general issue.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL and Mr. HOLT con-
ducted the case for the plaintiff. Mr. BROUGHAM
appeared for the defendants.
Mr. HoLT having opened the pleadings,

The ATTORNEY-GENERAL stated the case for the
plaintiff. As there were but few who were capable
of appreciating the merits of works of literature,
mankind was indebted to the honest reviewer, who,
without any feelings of a personal nature, pointed out
the merits and the defects of such works, and though
the reviewer might spew himself to be comparatively,
ignorant of the work which he undertook to re-
view, he (the Attorney-General) was ready to admit
that he ought not to be called upon to answer in a
Court of Justice for any observations which he
might make, provided those observations were eon•
fined to the work, and were not to gratify feelings
of malice extended to the personal character of the
author, for the purpose of holding him up to public
ridicule and scorn. With respect to the work written
by the plaintiff, he (Mr. Attorney-General) would
not go the length of saying, that although the author
had been educated at an university, there were not
introduced into the work some passages susceptible
of ridicule, and which might very fairly be held up
to ridicule as very foolish and absurd; but he would
say, that the fact of a work containing passages of
that description, did not, in his (Mr. Attorney
General's) opinion, justify the writer of this article
in making an attack upon the personal appearance,
and personal character of the plaintiff. He should
inform the Jury, that the plaintiff, in the course
his work, had alluded in a good-natured way to some
of his old college companions, and had men•
tioned them by their college names. One of those
companions the plaintiff called " Beast," another
" Bear," and so on ; but he always spoke of,
them as his best friends, and there could not be a'
passage pointed out in the whole work, from which.
it could be inferred that the plaintiff, by men-'
tiening those college names which were given by
gay and volatile young men to their companions, had
the slightest intention of degrading his former com•
panions. The plaintiff also introduced the name
Mr. Brass, one of the Fellows of Trinity, and a ge
tleman whose name could not be mentioned in '
hearing of those who had, as he (the Attorne,
General) had, the honour and happiness of knowin.•
that meritorious individual, without calling forth te-
greatest reverence and respect. Of that gentlemen
the plaintiff spoke throughout the work with tie
greatest gratitude for obligations received at hi
hands; but as the work was one of a gay and light
description, some of Mr. Brass's peculiarities were
spoken of with, perhaps, too much levity; but no
man who knew Mr. Brass, could, for a moment,
think less highly of him from a perusal of this work;
nor was it, in the most remote degree, the intention
of Mr. Wright to give the slightest pain to that re-
spected gentleman, much less to do any thing which
could, by possibility, have a tendency to lower his cha-
racter in the eyes of his friends or of the public. The
Learned Gentleman here read the libel, and commented
upon it as he went along. What, he would ask, was there
to justify the reviewer in makinga comparison between
Mr. Wright's work and the Memoirs of llarriette
Wilson, the most flagrant and audacious work that
was ever published in this or any other country—a
work which was a disgrace to the press from which
it issued ? What grounds had the reviewer for
charging Mr. Wright with the loss of the friendEhip
and acquaintance of his College compankens ? If
Mr. Wright went by the name of " wretch Wright "
at the University, he was not aware of it; but of
the mention of his name in that way, he did not
complain, because Mr. Wright was well aware, that
to those College names there was no meaning at-
tached, and that they were not the consequences of
any malicious or bad feeling, But though the re-
viewer might be justified in mentioning Mr. W.'s
name with this College addition to it, what right
had he to introduce Mr. Wright's personal appear-
ance, and to.say that his face appeared to have been
carved out of the most disgusting and noisome com-
position—a heap of stable dung? Was there any thing
in Mr. Wright's work which fairly called forth such a
statement ? He did not complain of the reviewer for
having exposed the bad taste of the plaintiff, in in-
troducing into his work his College friends by their
College names ; and if Mr. Wright had done so
with the view of giving pain to his old College com-
panions, he (the Attorney-General) would agree
with the reviewer, that Mr. Wright had shewn very
bad taste ; but what he complained of was, that the
reviewer, tinder pretence of reviewing a
work,should, influenced, in all probability, by private
feelings, make an attack upon the personal charac-
ter and appearance of the plaintiff, and state that
i
which every body, who had ever been n College,
must know to be false—namely, that the plaintiff', a
I member of the University, was in such a degrading
state of poverty, as to be compelled to accept pre-

tents of furnitnrerfrorn the College servants, and of
old clothes from the Fellows and others. No man
who could condesc---1 receive those presents
could live in the University; and he (the Attorney-
General) had no doubt that the Jury would award
a sufficient compensation in damages for the injury
done to the plaintiff.
Mr. Hansard—l published Alma Mater for the
plaintiff, who is the author of it, and who gave me
the manuscript. I have read the criticism in the
Atlas of the 11th of last February, and I believe it
applies to the plaintiff's work, which I now produce.
The defendants' admission of the proprietorship
of the Atlas, and of the publication of the alleged
libel, having been put in and read,
Mf. Bellamy read the alleged libel, which was in
the following words :

" Alma Mater; or seven years at the University .
of Cambridge—by a Trinity Man."
" This is one of those publications, which, for
ulterior ends, one does not regret has been pub-
lished, but which no person will write who has not
already lost his place in the society he describes.
Had the notorious Harriette Wilson been still
qualified to carry on her infamous trade, she
would not have betrayed the names and con-
versations of her paramours. Had not this author
forfeited somehow or other the friendship and ac-
quaintance of the gentlemen whom he introduces
by name, and without ceremony, before the pub-
lic, he would not have ventured to exposé them.
A very slender examination of the work enables
us to detect the name of the author, which, indeed,
he scarcely attempts to conceal; for in one place he
mentions the initial letter as W. and on another
occasion he speaks of himself as included in an enu-
meration of six names, only one of which begins
with W. and that name is Wright. Of the standing
the author describes himself, we nre informed there
was a Sizer in Trinity College of this name, who,
from the meanness of his personal appearance, and,
perhaps, from the poverty of his means and the low-
ness of his connections, was further designated as
Wretch Wright. So that to the author's groups.
&c. must be added the person of Wretch Wright,'
of Long Bailey, Little Walker, Beast Macauley,
whose face we are told was universally described in
his college, as appearing to be cut out of that heap
which usually graces the door of a stable. It is but
right that the author's pictures should be filled up,
Can it be from modesty that, in the col;catures
Mr. Wright has drawn, he should have only left a
blank outline for his own appearance ? On the
contrary, modesty is:not a charge we are disposed
to bring against the Trinity Man,' for, Recording
to his own account, he is not only stored mentally
with all the knowledge that education can bestow,
but he has the invention and quickness of a Newton
—every accomplishment is his—there is not a musi-
cal instrument wind or stringed that he cannot ple4y,
and wherever he appears, the sight of him ineiuces
all the best part of the society he enters to Court his
acquaintance ; and in the comparatively unimpor-
tant point of dress, we learn, that he and another
dressed so well and were so solitary in their atten-
tions to the toilet, that they were denominated the
'Flash Bachelors.' They who remember the ex-
ceedingly contemptible figure of the insignificant
person who went by the name of Wretch Wright—
they who remember the unhappy and almost degra-
ding state of poverty in which he lived, and which
extorted presents of furniture even from the servants
of the College, and of articles of habiliment from the
Fellows and others—they who observe, too, in hi%
own book, that he was indebted to the geneeous
charity of one Fellow for tuition, who stole an Inane
from sleep between six and seven in the 'winter
mornings, that he might bestow it gratuitoueiy; and
to another, for a stipend of 30/. per annum, avow-
edly out of charitable funds, but, in ail probability,
out of his oven pocket—will scarcely know whether
'to laugh at the vanity which dictated such para-
graphs as the following, or. to be indignant at the
want of decency and honesty which they indicate."
Mr. Bnovottard addressed the Jury for the de-
fendants. The plaintiff, ill-advised as he was, be-
yond all the ill-advised persons whom he (Mr. B.)
had ever known—unrestrained as he was by those
bonds which regulated the actions of ordinery men--
had thought fit to force his way to the floor c.d a
Court of Justice, there to seek for reparation In da-
mages, for an attempt to hold him up to public ridi-
cule and contempt—a man who ought to be justly
held up to ridicule and contempt, for having at-
tempted to make a base and sordid profit, by reveal-
ing to the eyes of the public, of the profane, the
cold-hearted, and the disinterested—to the reading
part of his countrymen—all the little foibles of men
whilst students at the University—by laying bare'to
the public gaze those private slanders which the
most worthless men, who gained their livelihood by
the most degrading means, had hitherto lookea
upon as sacred, and had not ventured to detail,
and probably never would have been detailed, is.; the
plaintiff had not come forward to degrai:ie the
name of author, and to make the name of a man
of education, and a Member of a Unie,,e/,itv, dis-
gusting, disgraceful, and despicable /jeyond descrip-
tion. If a Jury could be found wlto would give such a
man those damages to which the wronged injured,
and calumniated man 'was fairly entitled, there
would be a cruel clost put to all discussion—there
would be an end tb college discipline and govern-
ment—there would be an end to that respect paid
by pupils to their teachers—there would be an end
to all that was wholesome, edifying, and useful, in
'nose places devoted for the education of men. It
was well known that the most fertile land produced
Itares as well as wheat, and in his (Mr. B.'s) opinion
the University had no greeter crime to answer for
than the having, from time to time, produced,
among the brightest ornaments of the Senate and
the Bench, such rank and noxious weeds as the
plaintiff. He was willing to admit that the plaintiff
proclaimed the charities of that estimable man, Mr.
Brass, whom he (Mr. Brougham) regretted he had
not the honour of being acquainted with ; but II:,
must, at the same time, say, that the plaintiff inad,
almost in the same page in which he recorde<l those
charities, recorded, to his own everlsistine• disgrace,
his own baseness and ingratitude. Flow did the
plaintiff speak of Mr. Brass? In nis book there
was this passage :—" I cannot let slip this oppor-
tunity to state, that, when Mr. Brass got disguised,"
he did so and so; 'out, added the plaintiff, " this
was not more than once or twice a Term, that I
know of," Was it, he put it to the Jury, a pleasant
thing, whether true or hot, for any man to be told
that he got drunk once or twice a Term, " that I
know of." By the latter part of the sentence plaintiff
meant it to be understood that other people knew more
of that matter than he did. He was as great a friend
to the liberty of the press as his Learned Friend (the
Attorney-General) ; but when he considered the
nature of this publication, and that it would be read
eagerly by those young men who ought to look up
with respect and veneration to their tutors, whose
duty it was to form their minds by precept and by
press, he Should
example, he confessed that, to publications of this
fall from persons enjoying
description, which no one could doubt were a gross
fbrireeiaidsts,anadr4ear:vvhoassee
abuse of the true freedom of the
prefer, at ant*, the admission of reporters into every
of a
withinm anh'iss
private dining room, into every convivial party, fs. r
publishing to the world the
evxiepiraetsiesin'onefwdeheicehneymiignht
tt
Thi
ee
festiveexp re s s
board.purpose
fotfht piue
Jury
ul
defendant,
thought
htt,htetahlVedOrret_lodweeae,:eenrryoy,
sociates, they would find a verdict for the plaintiff,
And teach a lesson to h
feelings were in the right place,that
be a book ever
so reprehensible, no man shall express Vs feelings—
those feelings which are common-
mn private
who
h o conversations
a h eart
to all honourable
minds--.upon the conduct of the author, except at
the high peril of damages for his
paying honour and
high-minded integrity.
Lord TENWRDEN, in summing up, said, that every
man who wrote a book was liable to fair and just
criticism, and the only question for the consideration
of the Jury was, did the criticism cast upon the
plaintiff, or not, reflections which were not called for
by the statements contained in the book itself? If