Star.
London, England, 1823-02-21 00:00:00

LORD PORTSMOUTH'S CASE.

EXAMINATION wings ins K I N O'S COMMISSION.
• • TIiNTH DAY, THUMMIAT, Frisuaiy 20.
The Court opened at ten o'clock this morning, and
immediately proceeded to business.
Se, jeant PEI.L in continuation.--Ile could not re-
sume his speech without thanking the Jury for the
exemplary attention they had paid to his observations
of yesterday, and the best acknowledgment that he
could make for such kindness would be to avoid any
unhecessary preliminary matter, and to detain them
only so long as should be absolutely neccsssary for
the due and honest discharge of his duty to his noble
but unfortunate client. Referring to the division of
yesterday, of the last tiventy-four years of his Lord •
ship's life iu;n three periods, he thought the opinion
of the Lo r.' Chancellor at about the time of the con-
clusion cir -the' first period, that his Lordship's conduct
up to that hour, however inconsistent it might be,
was not such as to warrant or call for the issuing of
a commission of lunacy—should have some tendency
to correct, to guide, or, perhaps, rather to assist the
Jury in enabling them to come to a correct conclusion
upon this particular division- of the qnestion submit-
ted to their consideration :here, tou,-teniusivorreet
the Common Serjeant in his ifserticmi'that'uchen his
Loiddiip came to that deeision he had not hid the
deed of 1799 before him ;the contrary viould bolo-Lind
to be the fact, and his Lordship's ()Onion should there-
fore justly weigh' with thent with increased authority.
In his observrans Spoil the avid*. he 'should- not
feel himself justified in. oecuoying the th'ne of the
Court dud Jury, by going through every minutiz of
thavevidence; as it bore-Opon the first period, he had
little to submit to them in additic to the deciCion of
the Lord Chancellor in 1814 ; he.wished not to con-
ceal the fact, that, up to that period, bis--Lordship
had been guilty of acts of weakness, of folly, of de-'
gradation (as in regard to his. Loidship's rank) ; but
when they had heard the Witnesseihesliould call before
them, they would notthey could not say that any
of his Lordships acts were those of an insane person.
He DOW came to the sectoad fieriod, Viz.' iliat from his
Lerchhip'iniarriaa°eto his arrival in Edinburgh ; and
here a scene of the greatest depravity struck him
with astonishment, at the base degradation to which
human nature was sometimes subjected : a'Silfe, who
should have been his protector—his guide—his so-
lace—subjecting him to correction—to stripes—to per-
sonal chastisement; in short, to a series of cruelty
end ill-treatment the most inhuMan, and the least
`justifiable; and yet, at these two places, which were
the principal scenes of the oppression and injury, not
one person had strfficient humanity to..acquaint Lord
Grantley, or any of the other numerous friends of
Lord Portsmouth, which at that time he. unquestion-
ably had, of the base and infamous conduct of the
many, or the horrid suffering of this unfortunate
Nobleman ; hut in all this time, he contended that
Ilene of the acts of his Lordship ware of an Unsound
nature; several weak, many silly, many foolish acts,

but not one that could fairly be construed into a proof
of the unsoundness of his mind, could be pointed
• out as in the least degree conclusive. He might say
with Dryden—
" Some truth there is, but itash'd and brew'd with lies; i
Succeeding times will equal folly call
Believing nothing, and believing all."
Proceeding to the third period, he could not hut advert
-to the testimony of 'Mills; and here be could not but
remark upon the obvious interest that witnesses ge•••
nerally felt for the success of that cause in the sup-
port of which they were called in evidence; thence
arose tiw bent which was, given to such testimony,
and the difficulty of avoiuingan access that boidered
iipon.untruth:. as stcrne says-.—" We take a planc,
'we put it in the: ground, we Water .it because we
;planted it." Thieman, • Mills, -after deposfits to. a.
Onvtrsation with his *Loidihip,• in Iblch 'he Ode
<ilitord,Portsmoutksay,. !..t.hjitt laivv.as..torcga,ti) mini
Miss Hanson, or. Mr. ,gewtois elimires..wpast -bairn
101
/aken him into Deep. ishireomd-coilhied-binillierkt;
'then acknov.ileketl', 4k,, 14 had-teride:artiirriraOlf.so
aupport 9.( ate. a;ttt, gto-kiittfirlinint,pctgo
inissioli 'in 181,47-_,_ that ki, .-h1td...11.1.141/j...4, "*sWft n
to every fact tCrtehichhe il ;id depose4l•tn the:gelaut.m-.
• Vance; that-affidavit no lay before: -him tSeilkirit
'Pell), and' in it 1)0; ~att..l!°Vl oflttilln ruin
'fellation wsi to be piuicicti iiii,".tiv!,. ii.ritir. Van Wao-,
4!;0041 not read—hut he cOblatie44llo-11.)4tsiiii. tii4t9
roe affidavit had been read• over talim y ry Shaw
,10,0.4 the ptoper officer; and it was a Most singular iiv
111osisteney, that the ,cortvetaatietb whieli trai .now
• *Vthpred tp. be Made of ,s.llMochtivi.iiia.ißise,...oi*
Plate but a very -lett periodberore thsa.' cif ss4iatiOtg,
to die affidav it in question-; and ;bit waa forced tot bis
gOnclusion, either t.litit the ilitriesi, Mills, had pirju4-d
-himself in the nichtlaiiiutletiti.tiauner, or that he had