The Sun.
London, England, 1811-02-08 00:00:00

FRIDA Y, FEBRUARY 8, 1811.

LAW REPORT.,

COM r OF KING'S BENCH, TUURIO4Y, Fa*. 7

THE KING V. B. ROCHE.

The ATTORNEY:GENERAL prayed the jedgnient
of the Court against Mr. EugettiuS Roche, the Edi-
tor of The Day newspaper, who had seflered lodg-
ment to go, against him by default, for the same.
libel for which Messrs. FiSher,aiid Harvey, the prine
ter aid publisher of the paper, had already' received •
t:ze judgment of the Court. Our readers Will' re-
'collect -that tree libel was levelled against t heeeele
diery, whrreeere iissembled to keep the. peace'tlpon
the oecasion Of the
.riolotis assernAy in Piccadilly,
at the time of the-oecetion of the Speaker's war-
rant against Sir
.Francis 3endeit.
The defendant put in 'seeeeel affidavits made by
himself, and by i/gessrs. George, Vincent Doeihog,
Da, id Cur wen, Edward Seymetee, ane Peter ' Cour-
tier, gentlemen- likeeise on. the literary ei!eloheh-
mem of The. Day ; train which it appeared that 41. e
proprietorship uf that Paper wetstlivid4l2,iete- 300
shares; and that the Paper was conducted by a
-Committee of .13 ot these Proprietors, together_ with,
a Chairman and a Secretary.. Tee Paper is well
known to be the property of the Auctioneers. It was
tit first edited by a Gentletrean who hadthe'entire
management' of it,, and, gave to it what poluicel•
tone was consonant to' his fel:rigs; and whet' it
was,, conducted in 'this manner, the defendant filled
the situation of second writer in ii. The Cemeditee
afterwards saw i tetson,, however, to [three an alter-tie
tion in ibis plan ; and upon the secession of the firs(
editor of • the paper, that office, as apt as related to
the management of .the paper, and the' conduct of.
its politics, was assumed by the Committee them-
trebles,- who appointed toe defendant notnieal editur
ender their entire Controul. For the perpoae of give
ingin his name at -Le Stamp-re:lice, as the law re-
quired, five snares in the paper were transferred in-
to his name.. Pre.tously io the eublteetimof4 the
libel ue question, it had been settled by the .ContH
melee, that, for the eurptist of increasidg the sale
of The.Day,' the popular side of the questiori rela-
tive to the aperehetisien of Sir. Francis Bindett by
the Speueer h warrant should be taken by that paper;
it heel(); oeee foetid that the sale decteased by the
cacumstanCeor its ha, iog sided e ith- the,proprietors
ei 'Covent-Garden Theatre, in their diapute Atelier he
tree. The defendant gave. it as his opinion, that
tills .treasure would certainly have ;its ettect ot in-
creasing the sale of the paper ; but _added, that the
-pine:ea Sir Francis fiureettelid not cuiticitie with
1116 '1,71..,(.6 i' and. that, althougfi he cen-idered. it.hiS
duty to centortn to the
.iwtseys of the Ceininitteve he
cow( not be expected iii'fiViPport the pencipteeeel
Sir F. Burdett Welt any „degreeof warrotle Ota tee
evening oefore the eueticatioe of the lihel in ques-
tinu, Mr. Dowlet was.appoutted by the CoMeintee
to go to PiecaditAy, for the purpose of relenting
;tie conduct of the ovulate, and the, military there
assembled. Mr. DoWling arrived tit. The Day Office
at about one o'clock in the morning, and was met
there by Mr. H. Phillips, auctioneer, of New-. Bond.
street, the Chairman rit the Committee, - with whom
the held a conference, in ,which the defendant did
nut join. It eas otherwise swore, however, that
Mr. Dovelitig took Mr. Phillip S's instructions as to
the tone 'at the article, which tainted the libel,; and
that upon Mr. Dowling's asking hint what he was
to say of the military, Mr. Phillips' replied, " don't
spare them." .At this late hour, Ms. Dowling be 7
gan to write the libel upon very small slips of paper,
wnich, wete carried away to the .printers, as fast as
they were written, without giving even Mr. Dow-
ling an opportunity ter revise them. The • deiendaet
waited at the office till three o cluck, in hopes to be
able to revise what Mr. Dow hug had written ; but
upon his asking the printer for a proof at the ettielei
he was informed that there was nut time tor. lee,
even to have a sight of it ; and that siadt revise could
be of no use, since, if the defendant were to mark
any thing for cerreetione it Would, be quite impossi-
ble for such collection to be nittee. Tee printer rd
the newspaper had contratted whit the -.etopeetots
• that the paper sletald be reedy tot publication -every
u'cbleoyek a, a
nycisd ooaladnds receivedwiuc or
ders
from should
t 4
mtrourtrnt itnhge'mb,yt:i.ohtt.te o
maitre° against ' this punctual puhtication, under
penalty of losing hisedivalion I . and WI Ci..7italdijueft
affidavit stated itiStalltst in. which his particular or-
ders had been torced to yield to LittlSts general titles
of the Committee. Upon the publicatioti of the
libel in the m6l-fling, (till wheu the defendant never
saw it'', he saw es mentions nature with regret allot
horror ; and tor the purpose, of counteracting its
effect, he caused a letter to he written, signed " A_
Loyalist," and entitled " A Vmdicaiion of the Ar.
my," which was sawn afterwards inserted in the
same paper. This indirect apology.fin the libel was
the only one the detendete could insert,. as it had
been decrued by the Cemeneee, to- whom tee tie-
lendare represented the libellous nature of the arti-
cle in question, that' no direct apology should ever
be made for any article in The. Day. The defen-
dant contrived, however, to insert two paragraphs
in the paper, in direct contradiction of the statement
which had,beete before made, relatiVe to the con,
duty of the soldiery in Piccadilly ; and otherwise en-
- deavuured to countetact its effect in a paper, el
which tee detendant was the uricrietrouled editoi,
called :erre National Register. Since; the periP4 of
the libel, the detendare had- becotineless restricted tu
his conduct of the Paper; and it 'IOW bore the cutt-
reefer of a government print, to which wee the Le-
lendaet had brought it round by degrees.
The detendant put in other affidavits by Mt-.
Hoare, the banker ; Mre Darbyshire, the surgeon ;
and others, a* to his peaceable chara4ter and loyal
principles;, and the surgeon further swore. that the
defendant Wel been atiheeed with an asthmatic eon)-