The Sun.
London, England, 1829-06-20 00:00:00

COURT OF KING'S BENCH, JuNE 19.

This being the first day of Trinity Term, the Judges
came dawn in procession about one o'clock, and took their
seats shortly afterwards.

THE KING F. JOHN FIS}IER AND OTHERS.

Lord TENTERDEN—Mr. Attorney-General.

Mr. ATTORNEY-GENERAL-My Lords, in making the
first motion which I have the honour to address to your
Lordships in the office in which, for the second time,
his Majesty has been pleased to place me, I am apprehen-
sive your Lordships may think I do not possess sufficient
courage to discharge a very important part of my duty,
when I state to the Court that I am about to make an
application on behalf of the Lord High Chancellor, for
leave to file a criminal information. 1 am satisfied that
your Lordships, and probably every person who hears me,
must feel an impression that if there be a libel that is
worthy of the notice of a person so eminent in rank and
dignity in his Majesty's service, it would be my duty, as
Attorney-General, to save yOur Lordships the trouble of
hearing a motion like this, or of exercising any discretion
upon the subject; and a question would naturally be asked
whether or no I shrink from that duty, or upon what
ground it is I deviate from it in the particular case before
you. My Lords, I acknowledge the justice of the remark,
and I snake the fullest concession to the truth of it ; but
in answer to the question, I have to say this, that upon
the present occasion I am not at liberty to exercise avy
discretion of my own. 1 make the application at the ex-
press wish and desire of the Noble Lord. Your Lordships
are well aware that the important and laborious duties of
the Lord Chancellor's office make it quite impossible that
he should spare the time that is necessary to become ac-
quainted Witt) the numerous calumnies that of late have
been levelled against him. He could not bestow sufficient
time to make himself acquainted with the productions of the
daily press, more especially that part of it which, struggling
into a new existence, and becoming candidates for notice
and for p(yularity, adopt the tried expedient of libelling
individuals, and bringing forward personal slander as the
means of procuring circulation and wealth. fie has
selected the case I, am now to offer to your Lordships' con-
sideration, not as one containing general charges, which in
their nature can hardly be met by specific allegations, and
which are for the most part published only to awaken curio-
sity, and excite the attention of the public to the paper of
the following day, in the expectation that a solution may
there be found of the enigma which has been promulgated
the day before. He has thought it fit to select a charge in
which the publisher has condescended to state a specific
fact, which fact can be made the subject of an issue in a
Court of Justice, and it is his judgment, and upon that

PRICE 7D.

judgment I act to-day, considering the Noble Lord as my
cheat in this case, to apply to your Lordships for the pur-
pose of bringing the fact into discussion, and inviting the
parties who have thought fit to charge him with this fact,
to bring forward the evidence they have in support of it.
INly Lords, I have further to add, in answer to the ques-
tion, that in the course of the administration of my duty
in the office I hold, I sincerely wish I may be enabled to
conduct it, as to this department, with the same degree of
mildness and moderation that distinguished that Noble Lord
when he held the same office—mildness and moderation
which, when they do not degenerate into weakness, are
the most attractive ornaments of the administration of

justice. But at the same time I can assure your Lord-
ships I shall make it my endeavour to discharge my
duty with a firmness not to be daunted by any personal
fears of the consequences to myself; and I trust not to
be shaken, on the other hand, by any treacherous allure-
ments of popular applause. Upon the present occasion I
obey the directions of the Noble Lord, who prefers appear-
ing before your Lordships as a suitor, leaving it to your
Lordships to judge whether the case he lays before you, or
that which may be furnished in answer to it, may be a
ground for your Lordships' interference or rejection of his
suit. My Lords, the libel complained of is in a paper
called the Morning Journal. Lord Lyndhurst, in his
affidavit, states that it only came to his notice the 13th
day of June. The paper was published on the 30th of
May. It alludes to the recent appointment of my colleague
in office; and an imputation is made upon the Lord Chan-
cellor, according to the general understanding of every
man who reads this paper, that that appointment was
made from some corrupt and improper motive in the mind
of the Lord Chancellor. In proof of which a specific fact
is insinuated in terms so manifest as to leave no doubt, as
it appears to me, on the mind of any man who reads it.
I proceed to state, that the fact itself is denied in the
strongest terms by the Lord Chancellor. The allusion is
to my Learned Friend and Colleague, the Solicitor-Gene-
ral, and it is intended to be stated that he has been ap-
pointed to that high office by means of sortie personal cor-
ruption, or some private and improper motive. The Lord
Chancellor has sworn, and he is confirmed by that learned
person, that he never had, directly or indirectly, by himself,
or by any agent, in the remotest manner, the slightest com-
municatio❑ of a pecuniary nature with Mr. Sugden; that
he never in any degree, or in any manner, or at any time in
his life, expressed or entertained the slightest desire or wish
to obtain from that gentleman any thing like pecuniary
accommodation. I need not state to your Lordships,
therefore, that the charge itself is denied in the most ex-
plicit terms. My Lords, I now proceed to read it, and
your Lordships will judge whether that charge is not the
result that must be left upon any man's mind who reads
this publication. After making remarks upon some other
persons, with which I need not trouble your Lordships,
the paper proceeds—" Mr. Sugden is to be Solicitor-
General. The reasons which led to this promotion are
really so natural, that we beg leave to explain them, as
Sterne would have done, by the mouths of his inimitable
Uncle Toby and Corporal Trim. Uncle Toby—' If a
paymaster or a barrack-master lend money to his com-
manding officer, what should he expect ?' Trim—' To be
promoted of course, your Honour.' Uncle Toby-1f a
captain, a tall broad-shouldered fellow, for instance, who
has married a rich dowager, should lend 1,000/. to his
Colonel, what does he look for ?' Trim—' To be made
a Major the first opportunity, and as your honour knows,
God bless you, to be placed in the way of higher prefer-
ment.' Uncle Toby—' And if a Major should lend
his General all his fortune, say 30,000/., for ex-
ample (30,000/. is put in italics), what then ?'

. ,
Trim—' ro be placed in the General's shoes, your honour,
before the end of the campaign.' This is, we admit, quite
satisfactory,. There is reason in this merit, and there is '
point too in the argument which Mr. Sugden, and another
Learned Personage, will be at no loss to comprehend."
My Lords, the Lord Chancellor states. in his affidavit that
upon reading this passage, it appeared to him that the in-
tention was to impute to his Lordship some corrupt and
improper motive regarding the appointment of the Soli-
citor-General to his office. I stated before that the facts
are denied by both parties in the most explicit manner.—
Of course these facts need not be denied either before your
Lordships, or any member of the bar, or before any one
gentleman who lives in decent and respectable society. But
the circulation of the calumnies extends all over England,
and goes beyond the limits of the country which we in-
habit. Nobody can calculate the effect that may be pro-
duced in the minds of the vulgar and the ignorant, by
calumnies uttered, and propagated, and reiterated only to
extend the sale of a paper. On this account the Lord
Chancellor, feeling desirous that those who think fit to
libel his Lordship in the way in which he has been at-
tacked of late should be met by some sort of notice, was
anxious to select the only specific fact upon which they
think fit to rely that he might grapple with that fact, and

give all the satisfaction he caR to the public, that the
foundations of the charge are as false as they are calum-
nious and injurious. On this ground I apply to your
Lordships for a rule to show cause why a criminal informa-
tion should not be granted.
Lord TENTERDEN-Have you the proper affidavits of
the parties?
Mr. ATTORNEY-GENERAL—Yes, my Lord, I have the
proper affidavit, stating that Joint Fisher, Robert Alexander,
and John Gutch, are the persons who appear on the tiles
of the Stamp office to be so connected with this paper as to
make them the responsible persons.
Lord TENTERDEN—Take a rule to show cause.

BUSINESS OF THE COURT.

Lord TENTERDEN intimated to the bar, that the Court
would take country new trials on Monday and Tuesday,
and London new trials on Thursday.

EX-PARTE TAYLOR AND OTHERS.

Mr. BROUGHAM moved for a rule to show cause why a
criminal information should not be filed against a gentleman
of the name of Samuel Bamford Aymer, of Featherstone,
in the county of York. The Learned Counsel said he made
this application on the part of Mr. Taylor, a barrister and
recorder of Pontefract, a Mr. Perfect, and a Mr. Ramskill,
an attorney. The circumstances were these :—A suit had
been instituted in the Court of Chancery, in which Mr.
Aymer was one of the defendants, and a question arose as
to the appointment of a receiver. Mr. Taylor was pro-
posed as the receiver by the co-defendants of Mr. Aymer,
and he expressed his readiness to undertake the office, but
he in no way interfered or wished to interfere with the
rights and interests of the parties. On the evening of the
11th of the present month, Mr. Taylor and his friend Mr.
Perfect were riding together in a gig on the road near
Pontefract, when they met Mr. Aymer, who, addressing
Mr. Taylor, said he had long wished to meet with him,
and asked him by what right or authority he had interfered
in his (Mr. Aymer's) affairs. Mr. Taylor declined to hold
any conversation with him, and Mr. Aymer then called him
a scoundrel and a blackguard, and used other expressions
threatening personal violence, and endeavoured to provok e
Mr. Aymer to a breach of the peace by calling him a
coward, in addition to the other epithets of scoundrel and
blackguard.—Rule nisi granted.