Star.
London, England, 1814-02-08 00:00:00

that their crime was, even by their own consent, fully
established. It was unnecessary to repeat, the libel,
which it was true *as upon an individual, but as the
indictment set forth, holding a situation of high trust
and confidence.: it imputed to him crimes which
would disgrace a man in the most hutnble station,
but would render the prosecutor wholly unworthy of
the office he-now holds. It was impossible not to
consider it a libel of very serious magnitude. Con-
sidering the vast variety of publications of this kind
that every term came before the Court, it was not
easy to say which was the most infamous. It was
on the present sufficient to remark, that in every
view it was gross and scandalous, imputing crimes
of the greatest enormity ; of seducing the wife of-his
friend; of sending that friend to an unhealthy cli-
mate, and of administering to the wife poisonous
drugs to procure abortion. The affidavit of Mary
Anne Clarke alluded to certain provocations she had
received from disappointment of promises and in-
gratitude. Supposing the fact to be that promises
of provision for herself and her family had been
made, it could amount to nothing like a justification,
or even to an excuse, for defaming the individual,
.by attributing to him a capital crime; and when the
offender was called up to judgment, she expressed
no sincere contrition for having violated the law.--
The affidavit put in only noticed the connection of,
the parties ; and whether received with or without
the comment of the Counsel for the defendant, no.
difference was produced in its effect. Every private
libel tended to a breach of the public peace; but the
details given in that now before the Court more par-
ticularly rendered it necessary that the defendant
should be restrained, since she held out a threat that
she possessed materials for three or four further libel-
lous volumes, and it called in one part upon the
People of England not to allow such a monster to
hold any office whatever under the Crown. In
passing sentence, and awarding the punishment,
it was the duty of the Court not only to regard the
immediate effect upon the future conduct of the offen-
ders, but upon the people at large, who might be in-
fluenced by bad example or deterred by necessary
infliction. • The Learned Judge hoped, that the con-
finement and exclusion from society, that would be
the result of the sentence, would enable the Defen-
dant, M.A.Clatke, to reflect upon her past life, upon
the threats she had held out, and to amend the one
and to retract the other. With regard to William
Mitchell, it would afford a useful lesson to him and
others how they allowed themselves to be imposed
upon by the designing, for the purpose of defeating
the law with impunity. The Court had again and
again been entreated in cases of this nature to take
into i s families of prisoners, and the conse-
quen of the punishment of the parents.
Such however, ought not to divert
the Co ar duty, although it might be
lameute thus sometimes necessary to
visit the si tiers upon the children. In
some instances, covey& the children might be bene-
fited by being deprived of the instructions and ex-
ample of the parent :—how fa that was likely to be,
the case here, it wet not neiry for the Court to
determine. Takineall the é mstances into con-
sideration, the sentence-of the Court was, that Mary
Anne Clarke should be committed to the custody of
the Marshal of the Marshalsea, fur Nine Calendar
Months ; and at the expiration of that time, that she
find security for her good behaviour in two sureties
of 8200 each. The sentence upon William Mitchell
was, that he should be committed to the same cus-
tody for Tour Calendar Months.
Mrs. Clarke curtseyed to the Court on retiring,
and was conducted through Westminster Hall to a
coach amidst a vast crowd of spectators.

On Thursday last, in the Court of King's Bench,
Dublin, Mr. Joni; MAGEE was tried and found guilty
of a libel, in publishing in 7he idublin Evening Port,
certain Resolutions of the Roman Catholics of the
county and city of Kilkenny, of the 4th of August
last.

Muanza AT VAUXHALL.—Soon after the barbarous
murder of Moses Merry, the servant to the Misses
Gompertz, at Vauxhall, some months since, two men,
Higlas Parish and Charles Callaghan, were taken into
custody. Since their confinement the friends of Higlas
Parish, as the only chance of saving his life if he was
concerned in the murder, advised him to make a
confession, which he has complied with, and has con-
fessed that he and Charles Callaghan went to the
house of the Misses Gompertz, at Vauxhall, for the
purpose of robbing it. They broke the house open,
the particulars of which are before the public.; they*
were resisted in their progress by the deceased Moies
Merry, who was shot by his companion Charles Cal-
laghan with a pistol ;he also confessed that dis-
charged a pistol, but not at the deceased ; he dis-
charged it into the cieling of the room, with an inten-
tion merely of frightening the deceased, and not with
a view to shoot him. In cor•sequence of this confes-
sion, a number of witnesses have been procuied to
corroborate the confession of Parish, forming a corn-
plete chain of evidence, and yesterday they attended
at Horsemonger-lane prison, and were sworn to their
depositions before Mr. NARES, the Magistrate, ac-
companied by Mr. SraFFortn, the Chief Clerk, in the
presence of Callaghan and Palish, when it appeared
that the prisoners had purchased a pair of pistols
together. In consequence of this mass of evidence,
Callaghan will be tried for the murder of Moses
Merry.

Manday se'nnight Nathaniel Blair, alias Sacuerr,
was convicted before the High Court of Justiciary, at
Edinburgh, of uttering forged notes of various Banks
in Scotland, and ordered for execution on the 9th of
March next.

A woman confined in Bridewell, Glasgow, having
moved one of the iron bars in the window of her
apartments, in the fifth storey, leapt from the window
on the morning of Saturday se'nnight, and was killed
on the spot.
Thursday se'nnight, Mr. Brown, farmer in Drum,,
was attacked on his way home from Falkirk fair, by
five or six fellbws, who robbed him of his pocket-
book, containing se3G in notes, besides some bills and
papers, and his watch.
• Wednesday se'nnight, William M'Wait, journey.
man mason in Inverness, having gone to the chimney
top of a house, three stories high, for the purpose of
cleaning the vents, the coping stones on which he
w.as standing gave way, and he was precipitated
from this immense heisht, and killed instaatancously.