Star.
London, England, 1814-12-12 00:00:00

a double adultery. Here there was no plighted kith,
no blood-relationship, no attempt to palm upon
the husband a spurious bastard issue. He beg-
ged he might not be misunderstood. He did not
mean to deny, that because there were none of
those aggravations, that therefore there was no
guilt ; he did not mean to deny that a crime was
committed ; the Record proved the contrary ; and
if it did not, he should be ashamed if he attempt-
ed to delude their common sense by arguing that no
criminality existed. But lie would say, that when
his Learned Friend extended to the offence of the de-
fendant that extremity of censure which he had ap-
plied, and called for that severity of punishment, he
performed the very worst service he could to the ge-
neral cause of justice and morality. He appealed to
the Jury whether the Attorney General could have
depicted the defendant's conduct in more vivid co-
lours, whether he could have called down ampler
damages, if he (Sir H. Mifdmay) had itood before
thorn a hoary-headed adulterer, practising upon the
• senses of his victim, allied to the husband by tbeties of
blood, himself a married man, seeking to impose
upon the injured party a spurious progeny, and not
making the deluded woman even his mistress, but
only the minister of his own unnatural and impotent
lost ? Was that, however, the case of the defendant ?
Was it not, on the contrary, the very reverse, and
witl out one lineament of resemblance ? He wished,
however, that the Jury would consider what damages
such a case, if it came before them, would deserve, and
deducting the difference from the damages now asked,
assign it as an adequate compensation for the one then
before them. They heard theconnection which subsisted
between the parties : it was one, not of blood, but
merely of marriage. The Attorney-General, how-
ever, characterised the crime of the Defendant by the
epithet of multiplied incest," because Sir Harry
Dl ildm ey had been married to a sister of Lady Rose-
bee ry, while another sister was married to a brother
of the defendant. How his Learned Friend, with his
accuso med accuracy, came to make such an asser-
tion he knew not, but it did so happen there was no
multiplied incest at all. Had Sir Harry Midmay
married one sister, and his brother another, and the
Defendant had seduced the wife of his brother,
then iedeed there would have been some room for
such a phrase. But as to the question of incest
itself, his Learned Friend could not but know, that
if a man married his wife's sister after the death
of his wife, no incest was committed. Men's feelings
Isere not so repugnant to that species of relation-
ship as to justify his Learned Friend's expression,
whatever technical and precise distinctions prevailed
in the law with respect to it, by which marriages so
contracted became null and void, if challenged.—
The very connexion, however, that subsisted between
the Defendant and Lady Roseberry, became the snare
into which they both unhappily fell. When he lost his
wife, an amiable and lovely woman, he sought conso-
lation in the company of her sister, who bore a strong
resemblance to his departed Lady, and it was not very
unnatural, though much to be lamented, that love
should have arisen out of such a case. It happened
that Lady Roseberry loved her sister as ardently
as her husband had done, and to console him for
his loss became a melancholy satisfaction to her.
Thus those two young persons, in the height of
blood, had by degrees their feelings so excited, their
Linen s so exalted, 'het their judgment was laid
asleep, and they knew not the awful precipice upon
%video they stood. He had a right to say their judg-
ment was lulled asleep, for it was even so with Lord
Res yei sy himself, who was free from that greatest
of a l deluders, self-delusion, and confided in that
relaieinstiip wl ich had betrayed the defendant, and
tl.e unhappy Lady, his partner, in the offence. They
a wok at last from their trance, and if he were per-
mitted .he could produce nomberkess letters, and
mane roes witnesses which would prove the agony,
the snow, the wretchedness, which the convic-
tion of their transgreseion had excited in their
minds. He should be asked, perhaps, why, when
they dis:overed their error, they did not at once
come to the resolution of abandoning it ?, .-but
that very remedy presupposed the offence. Happy
had it been fir them if any strong necessity, any
power had stepped in to check their
mad, their infatuated career. He knew but one per-
son in the world who could effectually have done so;
but his hands were tied up, and he could not tell.the
Jury who that person was, because he was enjoined
not to breathe even a whisper which might affect the
cenduct of the plaintiff. He could not tell them what
effects might have followed from that interposition, it
it had been exerted in 1813;` what beneficial result
might have ensued, if, instead of a conditional veto, a
positive prohibition of intercourse between the defen-
dant and Lady Roseberry had been pronounced ; he
deplored, without blaming, that such was not done;
he wassorry some such precawionary measures aswere
so wisely resorted to between the Tuesday and the Sa-
turday, bad not been earlier employed ; and they
would have ensured success. He should not detain
them, lioviever, any longer ; but only entreat them
once more, as men of plain and ordinary understan-
dings, I,stit to separate without looking at the case
calmly, dispassionately, and impartially. They would
then be prepared to give such damages as would
amply vindicate the character of Lord Roseberry,
and that was all they had to consider, as men were
in the habit of saying, or pretending to say, that in
such cases it was not pecuniary damages they re-
quired, it was not their wife's dishonour which they
wished to coin into money, but their own honour
which they sought to justify. Let the Jury only ask
themselves what they would have done if such cases
as Often do occur had come before them, and what
they would do hereafter if such cases should come be-
fore them, and their answer would be a verdict of such
moderate damages as would satisfy the ends of justice,
and at the same time the honour of the noble plaintiff.
He would only add, that if one word had fallen from
him which could by possibility, be interpreted into
any thing like accusation or reproach to Lord Rose-
berry, he begged it might be attributed to the hurry
of the mometit, to his rudeness of speech, or to the
infirmity of his temper, or to any thing rather than a
desire, which he utterly disclaimed, of saying any
ding disrespectful of the Noble Plaintiff.
Mr. BIRCHALfy the Under Sheriff, then proceeded
to suns up the charge to the Jury, which he did very
summarily, when the Court was cleared of strangers,
and the Jery, after deliberating for nearly two hours,
delivered a verdict, dwoulik their Foreman, Sir Na-
thaniel Conant, for tbe Pliontiff—Utmages £15,000.

1 .• •". •••.• :11 7

FRENCH PAPERS.

FROM THE GAZETTE DE FRANCE OF DEC. 7.
We are authorised to publish the following 'Ater,
the contents of which are authentic :
" PARIS, DECEMBER 6, 1814.
" I write to inform you from the Chamber of Peers ,whom
.1 find revolt at the false assertion that The ✓ournal de Paris dared
to make yesterday, Jod which many Journals of this day copied,
relative to the noble discourse that the Marshal Duke of Toren-
tum delivered in the sitting of 'Wednesday, upon the law order-
ing the restitution of the estates of the emigrants.
" The intentions and language of the Marshal arc strangely
travestied. He did not propose, bwt he announced that he should
propose, to create funds to indemnify those emigants who should
not recover their property, and also to replace the detatlons of
from 500 to eOOO francs only granted to the wounded military,
who might, in consequence of the late Peace, be left destitute.
Instead of this, what said The Journal de Paris I It dared to an-
nounce, that in order to give the emigrants despoiled of their pro-
petty a mark of consideration and of interest. The army had
resolved to make a fund of 12,n("0,000 our of their pay, from the
Generals down to the private soldiers. The statement is fabe
and absurd. Alonsieur the Duke of Terente could not make any
offer in the name of the army, of which he is one ornament ;
but of which he is not the representative. A great act of gene-
rosity may he conformable to the character of the French mili-
tary; but there is not one emigrant who w0u1..1 be willing to ac-
cept an indemnity deducted from the pay or the recompencts
acquired by our brave troops. The opoinion of Monsieur the
Marshal had for its object to ameliorate their situation, and net
to diminish their enjoyments.
" NOTE.—Conformably to the demand expressed in this let-
ter, The Journal de Paris, with whom this false statement origi-
awed, has bet n suspended until further orders."

HAVRE, NOVEMBER 25.
It results from a dispatch from the Secretary of
State for the Marine Department, " that no change
having been introduced into the Colonial Admini-
stration of the Danish and Swedish possessions,
French vessels would be admitted at St. Thomas and
St Bartholomew, on the same conditions as before the
war. But, whereas, in consequence of the dissentions
which agitate South Amerka, the presence of our
flag in that quarter might give rise to unfavourable
interpretation, which it is prudent to avoid, there is
consequently no occasion for the merchants to engage
in speculations respecting those colonial productions."
His Excellency, however, adds," that there is nothing
to prevent the vessels preparing for China, as well as
for that part of the United States which is not inclu-
ded in the English blockade, from sailing for their
destinations."