Star.
London, England, 1822-11-19 00:00:00

.

•

SONG.

When the ittatk-letter'd list to the gods was presented,
The list of what Este for each mortal intends,
At the long string of ills a kind goiltleto relented.
And slifp'd in three blessings—wife, children, and friends!
In vain surly Pluto maintain'd he was cheated,
For JUITICS DIVINa could not compass its ends;
The scheme of man's penance he swore was defeated,
For Earth becomes Heaven with wife, children, and friends!
If the stock of our bliss is in stranger hapds vest ad,
The fund, i!lserar'd, oft in bankruptcy ends;
Bat the he;:rt issues bills viiiich are never protested,
When drawn on the firm children, and friends!
'though valour. still glows in his U.'s dying embers,
The death-wounded Tar, who his colours defends,
Drops a tear of regret, as he dying remembers
How blest was his home with—wife; children, and friends !
The soldier, whose deeds live immortal in story,
Whom duty to far-distant latitude sends,
With transport would barter whole ages of glory,
For one happy day with—wife, children, and friends!
Though spice-breathing gales nn his caravan hover,
Though for him Itrahia's fragrance ascends,
The merchant still thinks of the wol3hine: that covet
The bower where he sate with—wife., children, and friends!
The day-spring of youth still unclouded by sorrow,
Alone on itself for enjoyment depends,
But drear is the twilight of age, if it horrwv
No warmth from the smile of—wile, children, and friends!
Let the breath of renown ever freshen and nourish
The laurel which o'er the dead favorite bends,
O'ernie wave the willow, and long may it flourish,
'Weaved with the tears of—wife, children, and friends!
Let us drink, for my snng, growing graver and graver,
To subjects too solemn insensibly tends;
'Let us drink, pledge me high, love and virtue shall flavour
The glass'which I fill to-r-wife, children, and friend. !

LAIV Ii*TELLIGENCE.

•--

COURT OF KING'S BENCH, NOVEMBER
THE KING V. CRUTCHER AND ANOTHER.
Mr. ANDREWS stated to the Court that these, de-
fendants, who wete convicted of a misdemeanour at
the last Assizes for Kent, and who were now attend-
in,,ihe Court to receive its judgment, had just been'
arrested. As they were in attendance on the Court,
he submitted that they were protected from arrest'
and entitled to their discharge.
Oa inquiry it appea'ed that the defendants, not
having entered into any recognizances, had been taken
into custody on a camas upon the judgment. The
prosecutor had, however, given them notice to ap-
pear, and they were in attendance pursuant to tbat
notice when they were arrested.
Mr. BRODERICK, for the prosecution, moved that
they should stand commuted, and
Mr. ANDREWS and Mr. ADOLPHUS contended that
they were irnprokerly taken, and entitled to their
discharge.
The LORD CHIEF JUSTICE agreed, that as they
were attending pursuant to notice. they were impro-
perly arre-ted, and ordeted their) to be discharged on
enter jog into their own recognizance,:. They were
directed to attend on Thursday, when the report
would be in Court, and the case would be heard.

TILE KING v CLARKE.
.Mr. GURNEY monied for the judgment on the de-
fendant, ssho was convicted at the last Si!tings for
Middlesex, on the prosecution of the Society for the
Suppression of Vice, for ptiblishing Shebey's poem of
Queen Mab."
The LORD CHIEF .JUSTIGE read his notes of the
trial, and of the obnoxious passage set out in the in-
dictment, for which the defendant was convicted. He
mentioned that the Jury recommended the defend-
ant to the merciful consideration of the Court in con-
sequence of his apparent distress.
The defendant handed in an affidavit, which was
read by the officer. It stated, that in March,lB2l,
he commenced business as a bookseller in the Strand,
understanding that the poem of " Queen Mab"
was very scarce, and observing an advertisement
offering twenty guineas for a copy, he resolved to
publish it from a copy which he happened to possess.
He published it merely as a literary and poetical
curiosity, not from any desire to promulgate the sen-
timents of the work, nor with. any idea that they
were likely to be diffused; as, whatever merit the
work might possess as a poem, its religious and me-
taphysical arguments were too feeble to pi oduce any
effect on the understanding. He was less apprehen-
sive of mischief from the sale, because he had fixed
the price at 12s. Gd. a copy, which was beyond the
reach of ordinary readers ; and he had heard from
high authority, that this very circumstance created
the distinction between works published in a cheap
and popular form and the writingsnf Hume, Gibbon,
and Lucretius, which no one ever attempted to pro-
secute. His sole-motive had been the support of his
family by the extension of his trade. In the Rules of
the Association by whom he was prosecuted, was a
statement that they only proceeded to this extremity
sc when friendly admonitions had failed of effect r—
hut he had received no admonition whatever. As
soon as he understood that an indictment was found
against him, and before his arrest, he offered to give
up all the remaining copies, to go in a coach and
bring them, and Dever to sell another ; but his offer
was rejected. He then wrote to Mt. Wilberforce, an
individual member of the Association ; but Mr. Wil-
berforce returned an answer that, atter inquiry into
this case, he found he could not interfere. He would
rather have submitted that the Association should di-
rect what books he should sell, and what he should
net sell, than have gone to a trial and been held
forth as a blasphemer to the world. He made these
cltements not from a wish unnecessarily to cast
odium on the Society, but in the hope that if one of
their Lordships should be one of its members, he
might find that mercy from the individual which the
body had denied him. He had a wife and two chil-
dren dependent on hini for support ; he had been en-
tirely ruined by the prosecution, and forced to take the
benefit of• the Insolvent Act : so that he now ap-
peared-before the Court utterly destitute, and in the
cet tainty that, if he should be imprisoned, his wife and
family would be without maintenance or protection.
Mr. GURNEY, in aggravation of punishment, put
in the affidavit of George. Pritchard, the solicitor, and
of Charles Jones, an officer of the Society for the
Suppression of Vice, stating, that after the first bill
of indictment was preferred, copies of the poem were
exposed to sale in the shop of the defendant, one of
which was purchased, and a second indictment found
for the publication.
The *defendant addressed the Court, urging those
topics of mitigation which his affidavit presented.