Star.
London, England, 1803-03-24 00:00:00

but T am not confeions' that I have laid down any
principle which it will not do you honcar to adopt.
You w ill have the vcrelia to pronounce—my pro-
vince is over. I have made fuck ..bfervations, in
the bracing of the Judge, the Jury, and the Coon-
ltV, as I have thought neceffary. If you fhould
give fmall damages, I (hall lament deeply, that
Sir Jacob Affley ever brought this aEtion ; I (hall
lament, that in endeavouring to vindicate his repu-
tation, he has loft it ; I (hail lament that you (hould
fay to him, Go any where elfe for redrefs, for we
will not give it you ; I (hall be lorry, for the fake
of the country. It is an awful troll, which, as
Jurymen, you have repofed in you. I fincerely
hope you will preferve it, by difcharging from
your minds all pal:lions and prejudices—all politi-
cal and private confiderations, and by difmiffing
from your remembrance every thing you may have
heard upon the fable&
The death of Sir Edward /inky was proved by
the regifter of his burial.
Lieut.-General Murray Rated, that he was at
the ball at Norwich, on Tuefday the tfith of July.
In the evening, when the company were begin-
ning to withdraw, the defendant mounted the
tea-table, in the corner of the room, and addreffed
the company. The witnefs proved the defen-
dant's having ufed the words mentioned in Mr.
Erikine's fpeech.
Mr. GURNEY.-.-" Gentlemen, I have the honour
to attend yen on the part of Colonel Harwood,
who it called on by Sir Jacob ARley, to render to
him a compenfation in damages for having, as he
aoerts, malicionfly defamed his character; and,
Gentlemen, I am not at all furprifed that my
Learned Friend, Mr. Erfkine, (hould have treated
this cafe, not in words exprefsly, perhaps, but in 1
the manner he addreffed you, as if it had been one
of great importance. I confers, that to me it
feems to be a cafe of as little importance as any
one can well be. To me it appears to have no
other importance whatever than what it derives
from the talents of my Learned Friend ; talents
which can confer importance on the molt trivial
fubjest, and can make great things fmall, and
fmall thins great. Not that I think the charac-
ter of Sir Jacob Miley, or any other Gentleman,
a matter of fmaU importance. There is no perfon
who thinks more of the value of character than I
do, but it behoves every man to confider well be.
fore he comes into a Court of Plaice, whether his
character has fultained any injury, and whether
circumftances may not have occurred fubfequent
to the fuppofed injury, which make his appearing
in a Court of Jußice as a plaintiff the moll impro-
per, as well as the moll diflinnourable Rep he
could take. It would have well become Sir Jacob
Ailey to have confidered thefe matters ; and I am
perfuaded, if he had done fo, without his Attorney
at his elbow, be would not have come forward
with this action ; a circumftance he mutt, in my
opinion, regret as long as he lives. My Learned
Friend, Mr. Erikine, has Paid, that the law gives
an anion to every man againft whom a crime is
unjuilly imputed : I with be had referred his mind
to a cafe in which one of the ableß lawyers, Chief
Juftice de Grey, laid it down, that the words mull
impute a charge, not merely affecting the moral
character of the party, but which, if true, would
fubjeft him to punifitment, otherwife they are not
actionable : therefore it is, thakthe declaration on
the face of it, Rates, that there words were ut-
tered with intent to have it believed the plaintiff,
Sir Jacob Miley, had been guilty of the crime of
murder—the horrible crime of murdering his own
father. It appears to me to be worthy of your
confideration in what fenfc thefe words were meant
to be underflood. I might call witneffes, and
afk them in what fade they underftood the
words ? My Learned Friend had many wit-
Ateffes to prove the words; but when he found,
from the courfe of my croft-examination, that it
might become a quellion in what fenfe the words
were uttered, he Bopped fltort in examining them.
The reafon he did not examine any more was be-
mule he was fenfible there was not an individual
prefent who underftood them in the fenfe imputed
to them by the declaration. How often do we in
popular language ufe words, which, taken abftrac-
tedly, impute crime, but are of perfectly innocent
interpretation when properly explained. An in.
Rance of the kind very lately occurred with regard
to a Learned Friend of mine. I happened to afk
him what he thought of a certain Clergyman, who
was a man no left remarkable for his piety than
his learning? My friend, after defcribing his emi
ncnt qualities, added, " but, after all, he is a great
pickpocket." Could any words be more &lama.
tory than there were ? Yet when they were ex-
plained, they rather conveyed a compliment. He
laid, " I went to hear him preach a charity fermon,
and his fermon was fo perfuafive, that I did not
bring away a Tingle fhilling." Had my friend (top.
ped, and nut been allowed to have entered into the
explanation, he might have been called upon te have I
made compenfation for imputing to a refpediable I
clergyman that he was a pickpoiket. Other cafes I
might be imagined. Suppofe a man were to de-
bauch an innocent female, and by defertion and
cruelty break her heart. If it was to be Paid he had
_ •

robbed her, or that he had murdered her, would
any one conceive that fuch a robber, or murderer
was meant, as could be the foundation ofa erimi.

nal profeetation? It confequendy would not be that
fpeeies of defamation which would be the fulled of
an allion. Ia& whether there is one man to be

found who underßood the charge of murder made
by the defendant in the legal acceptation of the
word e I admit the words were uttered, but, at the
very moment when the defendant was on the point
of explaning them, he was pulled down. Had thefe
words been uttered refpeeing the death of any man
whole death was filfpicious, there might have been
tome room to have attributed flander to them,
but it appears, and it is a fall well known, that he
died at the advanced age of feventy-two, and that
his death was the confequence of a flow and gra-
dual decay of nature ; but why has Aot my learn-
ed friend %hewn the manner in which he died?—

It is extraordinary, that having the power of
calling as many of the domeftics of the family of
the late Sir Edward Miley as he pleafed, he fhould
have relied the evidence of his death on the mere

produaion of the certificate of his burial ithe