Star.
London, England, 1810-06-18 00:00:00

LAW INTELLIGENCE.

eotrwr OF KING'S BENCH, JUNE 16.
LEE V. ELAQVIERE.
Mr. Amory opened the cast. This was an action
of damages for Criminal Conversation with the wife
of the Plaintiff, &c. &c.
Mr. GARRAW addressed the Jury.—" Gentlemen,
this is one of those unhappy cases which unfortunate.
ly appenr too often in Courts of Justice, and justice
cannot be more laudably or usefully exerted than in
thastizing to the uttermost the crime of which I have
now to complain. I shall shortly state the circum-
stances : the Plaintiff is a clergyman of the most re-
spectable character ; a man of distinguished learn-
ing and morals, and one of the chaplains to the Prince
of Wales. In 1804 he married ; and, if it were not
presumptuous in any man to think that his happiness
was within his own power, he might have been said
to have secured, by that act, no common chance of
happiness. I have not seen his wife, but lam told
she is a woman of exquisite beauty. The marriage
was altogether a union of affection, and it promised
the most fortunate results to his future life. They con-
tinued to live for some rears in the most perfect harmo-
ny. In this I speak advisedly, for it is quite certain
that if any thing to the disadvantage of the plaintiff
can he alledged, you will hear it. The wife of the plaiu-
tiff is now living with the adulterer ; and it is not
to be expected that any surviving feeling of delicacy
will prevent her from publishing all that she can re-
member to defeat this action. I proceed to the nar-
rative. While they lived in this perfect union, the
Plaintiff and his wife went down to Ramsgate, and
Mrs. Lee, an interesting and elegant young woman,
joined with the natural spirit of youth in the amuse-
ments of that place, and it has many amusements.—
Clergymen, you know, Gentlemen, do not frequently
attend balls, or, when there, make it a practice to
dance with their wives. Mrs Lee soon found part-
ners and admiration ; but the Honourable Colonel
Blaquiere, a younger son of Lord De Blaquiere, was
the most assiduous, and the most favoured. He vi-
sited at the plaintiff's house, and was received with
frank and ,kind hospitality. The Colonel's attentions
were at length observed ; and Mr. Lee received some
anonymous letters on the subject. On receiving the
fast of those letters, the plaintiff was only indignant
it the insolence and meddling of the writer. He
shelved it to his wife ; she laughed contemptuously
at the charge, and told 'it to Colonel Blaquiere.—
Another, and another letter followed. Mr. Lee,
assured of the purity of his wife, and incensed at the
pertinacious malice of the informer, actually took
legal advice as to the mode in which he should punish
his spirit of meddling. It was, however, becoming
so painful to attract the observation which had been
evidently produced, that the plaintiff and his wife re-
turned to London. And here, (said Mr. GARRow)
began the first effect of that unfortunate intercourse
with .the Defeeciant. The amity and affection of
husband and wife gradually snbsided on her part int:,
coldness, and from coldness into alienation. Her
husband, pained by the sudden interruption of his
better prospects, naturally remonstrated, and endea-
voured to reclaim her; but this was now beyond his
reach—his fortune was injured, and his peace put in
danger. The danger was not long doubtful. Colo.l
nee Blaquiere went abroad with his regiment ; and
on his return, with the honours of war thick upon
him, was ambitions of other distinctions. He signa-
lized his return to his country by breaking in upon
the peace of an innocent and honourable man, a fond
father, and a most affectionate husband. Mrs. Lee
and Colonel Blaquicre now live together ; they go
by the same name, and the shameless and wicked
deserter of her legitimate child now become preg-
nant by the adulterer. Gentlemen, this is a case
which calls for no common punishment. The confi-
dence of the husband—the lenity, the long suffering,
the generous frankness which he exhibited in the com-
mencement of a transaction, which has ended in
maleng him miserable beyond all the power of your
verdict fully to compensate, call for exemplary da-
mages.
The Rev. B. LAwarticr was called to prove the
mairiag: of Francis Lee,. bachelor, with Catherine
Ball, in July, 1804.
Scullor, the plaintiff's footman, was then alit
He deposed that he had attended his master to Mary-
la-bonne Chapel in 1804 ; they met a young lady in
the street ; his master took her under his arm, and
they 'walked together to the Chapel, where they were
married,
On his cross-eramination, he admitted that he had
acted as father, and given Mrs. Lee away ; that he
wore plain clothes, and that his master had desired
him to take the livery lace off his hat. He could not
sae tr that his master wore black clothes, or the usual
dress of a clergyman on that day. The lady appeared
to be between sixteen and seventeen.
The Rev. D. Evans knew the plaintiff and his
wife since their marriage, and believed them to have
lived in perfect harmony until after their return from
Ramsgate in 1806 ; from that time he observed a
coolness ; and for nearly six months before the elope-
ment, he (the witness) almost ceased going to Mrs.
Lee's house. She was very young, very beautiful,
and very interesting. She was, as far as he could
judge, rather fond en admiration ; and, from the high
circle in which she moved, rather too apt to adopt
the fashionable style of dress, and expose her person
more than he (the witness) would wish to see his wife
do. Her manner was lieely and animated, with some-
what of flight and levity, but without the least ten-
dency to any improper or unfeminine allusion. He
saw Mrs. Lee in Hampshire, in 1805. There was no
want of affection in her conduct at that time. In Sep.
tember, 1808, Mr. Lee went to Spain, (" what," said
Mr. OAREQW, " Lee in Spain !") he remained there
till January, 1809; witness did not believe that he had
any official situation, or precise duty, but he brought
hack dispatches from Mr. Frere. Witness had heard,
that in 1807, during a temporary absence of the plain-
tiff, Mrs. Lee left her house, and went to her mother's,
Mrs. Johnson, in Portland-place, but returned. Wit-
ass could not be sure that Colonel Blaquiere was in
Spain while Mr. Lee was there, but rather thought
he was.
Mr. Saunderson, the friend and schoolfellow of the
plaintiff, admitted that, during the absence of Mr.
Lee, his' wife had appiied to witness for money, as a,
loan, till the return of her husband which, however,
traaaglrt proper not to give.

Mrs. Evans, the wife of the Rev. D. Evans, was
the intimate and early friend of Mrs. Lee. Thecold-
ness which grew between the plaintiff and his wife
commenced after the Ramsgate excursion, and was
frequently exhibited in little altercations about extra.
vagance in dress, and other common matters ; but no
charge of infidelity, or any thing tending to grossness
was ever brought. Mrs. Lees general manners were
those of the highly fashionable society in which she
lived. She was an extremely elegant and handsome
young creature. Her conversation never touched upon
indelicacy ; she was, on the whole, rather reserveu
and dignified.
Mrs. Evans was then questioned whether Mrs. Lee
had alledged any cause of complaint to her against
Mr. Lee ? She answered, that the perfect intimacy
in which she lived with Mrs. Lee of course allowed
her many confidences which she could not betray
with propriety ; but, on being further questioned,
whether the plaintiff and his wife had cohabited for
some time before 1809 ? she said that they had sepa-
rate apartments for at least two years before.
A clerk from Messrs. Cox and Greenwood's office
proved, that Colonel Blaquiere was a Major in the 60th
regiment, but could not say whether he was about to
sell his commission. _ _

Colonel Blaquiere's letters already alluded to, were
put in and read. They were unimportant, and con-
sisted merely of general expressions of resentment
against the writer of the anonymous letters at Rams-
gate ; and regretted that the name of a Mrs. Ramage
had been introduced in the correspondence.
The person who let the lodOugs in which Colonel
Blaquiere and Mrs. Lee lived after their elopement,
proved that they lived together with all the appearance
of man and wife. _ _

Sarah Salisbury, the housemaid at Mrs. toe's,
proved that they were then living together ; and a.l-
- in a question put to her by Mr. PARE, that
Mr. Lee and his wife had sometimes separate beds
for three years before the elopement. The case here
closed on the part of the prosecution.
Mr. PARK, for the defendant, would not offend the
Jury by going into any of the painful and improper
detail which-the case seemed to invite. But where it
was not an injury that was required to be punished,
but damages sought, the actual circumstances of the'
parties were to be taken primarily into consideration.
64 I will not," said Mr. Park, 66 press upon' the cir-
cumstances of the marriage itself. But there was a
most improper levity, a most ominous indelicacy in
the form. of that marriage. I speak as a father—as
the father of daughters, and, in that dear and tender
relation, I say, that nothing could be more injurious
to the steadiness and purity of a woman's, a young
and attractive woman's mind, than the lightness ana
look of intrigue with which that most solemn asbliga-
tion to obey her husband, was contracted. No parent
present—met as if by accident in the street—inveigled
to the altar—a servant brought in to act the mimic kry
of father; the lace plucked off his hat to disguise him
for the moment—the master throwing off the garb of
a clergyman, signing himself in the registry as a lay-
man, not clerk but bachelor. And all this the ma-
raruvre of a clergyman ; a man of forty-five, to impress
the sanctity of the marriage state, on the mind of a
child of 16 ! What had been pardonable in a boy of
one-and-twenty, who carried off the girl of his tax-
' tions, becomes absurd and childish, and utterly unbe-
coming in a grave and elderly man: It was remark-
able that on this trial none of Mrs Lee's relatives
were called forward to prove the cordiality of the par-
ties at any period of their marriage. We arc told
that the plaintiff absented himself from the bed of his
wife for three years before the elopement.. Gentle-
men, I wish to speak it with the most genuine respect
for morality and decency ; but a man who condemns
a most lovely, inn• cent, affectionate young creature,
a girl then of eighteen, to celibacy and solitude, de-
serves no damages. There is no colour in the evi-
dence for her having known Colon 1 Blaquiere at
Ramsgate. But if her husband valued her; it lie
had the common feeling of a man fOr that most pre-
cious and exquisite jewel, a wilers love, hdw did he
cherish her heart, how did he guard the jewel ? Ido
not mean, said Mr. Park, that he should have used
restraint ; that he should have become an Argus, or
attempted to oppress the soft and yielding spirit of
a woman. But did he bring her into the society of
her female relatives ? Did he try to win upon her
by gentleness, and leniency, and love ? No ! he left
her to neglect on his part, and admiration °a that of
the world. He left her to ask money of his friends.

He went to Spain to amuse his curiosity ; this fact
came like a surprize upon my Learned Friend (Mr.
Garrow,) and thus left his young and blooMing
to the first seducer that ventured to approach her.
—Colonel Blaquiere, a young, and as I understand,
a handsome and accomplished man, met her ; he
suffered himself to give way to the admiration which
I am. the last man in the world to praise him fin.
indulging. The ardour of an admirer was unfortu-
nately capable of too strong a contrast with the cold-
ness and contempt of a husband. After a lung lapse
of time the admirer became the seducer. I 'do not
defend, I do not lessen, the great crime which he
committed. But you cannot give vindictive damages."
No witnesses were called on the part of the Defen-
dant.

Lord Er.r.rnonoutm, in charging the Jury, stated
the principal shapes in which the' crime of adultery
micrlit be supposed to come before them, and con-
cluded a charge of great dignity and eloquence by
leaving the matter to the Jury.
Tile Jury, widiout leaving the Lox, returned a
verdict for the Plaintiff—Damages .4'500.

The morning of Thursday the Bth instant, the body
of lgtcnoLAs MAGIIEIi, of Templemore, Esq. was
discovered in a field near the high road, and not far
from his house, mangled in a most 'hideous manner.
As no trace of blood was found on the corpse, it was
evident that it had been washed off after the perpetra-
tion of the murder ; and after some inquiries the at-
tention of the Mat_,,,istrates was directed to a small
cabin, in which an abandoned female had lived, where
a straw bed was discovered, stained with blood in
several places. This female, who had fled the place
in the morning, was taken into custody, together
with her mother and a man, against whom a strong
suspicion appeared. Her brothers having been in gaol
some time, on a charge of having made several at-
tempts on the life of the deceased, it was supposed
that the sister was instigated to the horrid deed by a
hope of saving her brothers' lives,by thus removing the
evidence against them.—(l)aWirr ,aveuing Port.)

Iliftoft.