Star.
London, England, 1827-07-11 00:00:00

appropriated for the education of innocent youth, of
Unformed habits and characters, and of the most tender
-years—he had commented against society an (fence of
a character so colpahle and disgraceful, that if he were
reduced to the dreadful alternative of the workhouse,
or parish relief, to save him horn starving, he, if he
were a man of right feelings, would have preferred the
dreadful alternative, rather than have exposed to public
view the peculiarities of those charitable and worthy
iaJividuals whom he • praised and lampooned in the
same page, and who, according to his own account,
rescued him from a state of abject poverty. This was
the man who had the audacity, the incredible assurance,
to come into a Court of Justice to demand compensa-
tion in damages from a man who had bestowed upon
such conduct the most moderate, mitigated, and chas-
tened degree of blame, a degree of blame below what
the exigency of strict justice loudly callel for. If a Jury
could be found who would give such a man those da-
mages to which the wrongedeinjared, and calumniated
man wai fairly entitled, there would be a cruel close put
to all discussion—there would be an end to College dis-
cipline and government—there would be an end to that
respect paid by pupils to their teachers-there would be
an end to all that was wholesome, edifying, and useful, in
those places devoted for the education of men; and that
would be effected by a man, who, in addition to those
benefits which were largely showered down upon the rich
and the noble as well as upon the poor, who onte
admission within the precincts of those hallowerripots,
had admitted that he had received favours, to which be
could not; in the ordinary course, justly lay claim, and
who, if he had a heart to feel, or had within his bosom
any thing which deserved the name of that organ of
sensibility, would, as was very properly remarked by
the reviewer, have looked beet upon those sacred
scenes with feelings of the deepest gratitude, in addition
to those feelings with which men of all ranks and con-
ditions contemplated this life, and, down to the grave,
the scenes of their early education. If the plaintiff had
a heart to feel, he must feel that no man ever entered
those hallowed precincts in humbler circumstances, iit
poorer plight, as to worldly Matters; that he received
from one Member of the University an annual stipend
of thirty pounds; that the charitable man who afforded
him that stipend out of his own pocket had, from feel-
ings of delicaty, falsely asserted that it came from a
public fund for charitable purposes; and that another
member of that University had gratuitously appro.
printed to his (plaintiff's) instruction, the only hour which
he could spare from his collegiate avocatroni, and for
that hour he was obliged to trench upon the time appro.
.printed to needful' repose. Many arm educated in the
Universities must have known the foibles and pecu-
liarities which the plaintiff had the ingratitude to expose
to public view,but no man had hitherto had the audacity
to try the experiment.lt was well known that the most fera
tile laud produced tares as well as wheat, and in his
opinion the University had no greater crime to answer
for than the having, from time to time, produced among
the brightest ornaments of the Senate and the Bench,
such rank and noxious weeds as the plaintiff. His Learned
Friend, the Attorney-General, had said, that there was
no meaning in those College names; that it was per-
fectly harmless to direct the attention of the public
to the individual who bore a prat:omen not given to
him by his godfahers and godmothers.--(a laugh);
but he (Mr. Brougham) should not like to have the
experiment tried upon himself, and his Learned Friend,
the Attorney-General, would, no doubt, be of the
same mind, if he were the object pointed at by the
plaintiff. He thought it would be going too far to
say, that any man, down from the secluded head
(the most sensitive of public glare) of a college, to
the more callous courtier, or person engaged in active
life, either in the Senate, the Camp, or the Courts of Law,
could bear with patience a publication, proclaimiwg to
the whole world his failings, his foibles, and his pecu-
liarities. -11•-was willing to admit that the plaintiff
proclaimed the charities of that est'mable man, Mr,
Brass, whom be (Mr. Brougham) regretted he had not
the honour of being acquainted with; but he must, at
the same time say, that the plaintiff had, almost in the
same page in which he recorded those charities, re-
corded, to his own everlasting disgrace, Isis. own base-
ness and ingratitude. How did the plaintiff speak of
Mr. Brass ? In his book there was this passage:—" I
cannot let slip this opportunity to state, that when Mr.
Brass got disguised," he did so and so ; but, added the
plaintiff, " this was not more than once or twice a
Term, that I know of." Was it, he put it to the Jury,
a pleasant thing, whether true or not, for any man
to be told that he got drunk once or twice a Term,
" that I know of ?" By the concluding part of
the sentence, the plaintiff meant it to be understood
that other people knew more of that matter than he did.
He was as great a friend to the liberty of the press as
his Learned Friend (the Attorney• General); but when
he considered the nature of this publication, and that it
would be read eagerly by those young men, who ought
to look up with respect and veneration to their tutors,
whose duty it was to form their minds by precept and by
example, he confessed that, to publications of this descrip-
tion, which no one could doubt were a gross abuse of
the true freedom of the press, he should prefer, at once,
the admission of reporters into every private dining
room, into every convivial party, for the express pur-
pose of publishing to the world every expression which
might fall from persons enjoying the festive board. In
the book written by the plaintiff we had the foibles and
peculiarities' of our younger brothers at the Universities
minutely detailed, and if Juries could be found to
say that any language applied to the author of
such a disgraceful publication was libellous, and
that he ought to receive a compensation in •damages,
the next step would be a detail of all the foibles and
youthful pranks of our tender infants at Westminster,
Eton, Harrow, the Charter House, and other public
schools. The Jury would read the whole of the pub-
lication, of which a part was selected, as the foun-
dation of this action, and they would see that the rea
viewerbad selected some passages from the plaintiff's
work, and had given him credit for the talent which
those passages displayed. That fact would be a suffi-
cient answer to the imputation of malicious feelings
upon the part of the reviewer. Re fully agreed with
the reeimver in his concluding observation—" We con-
clude our notice with lamenting that Alma Mater '
produced so degenerate a man, as one who is
to sell the peculiarities and conversations of his bi
for filthy lucre." If the Jury thought there
violation of decency in publishing to the world
rate conversations of a man's friends and ear)

cistes, they would find a •erdict for the Odin
teach a lesson to the defendant, and to every m.
bed a heart within his breast, and whose feeling
in the right place, that be a book ever so reprehensible,
no man shall express his feelings—those feelings which
are common to all honourable minds—upon the conduct

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