Star.
London, England, 1827-11-02 00:00:00

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logzreseined to Government; be would My., 461 regret it,
they will have the wisdom and honesty to keep it
from the public eye until they have beard both sides,
sad then they aid, I hope, proceed as Government
ought ; and if they find their suspicious well founded,
inspect the Clown officers to proceed upon them:" but '
if told that it had unwarily been printcd.by any branch
of the legislature, he would say, " Worse and worse. I
am sorry it should have been printed-even for the use
ra n members, much more for the public at large:
Gon forbid I should print it to make k more public—
to circulate it among all who can afford sixpence to
buy it,, or who could go into a pot house to mad it I"
Other newsnapers felt in this manner. You will look
in vain among their files for that which bore upon its
from a caveat against its insertion; but the defendant
published it, and he is this day brought before you to
answer for the publication. I need hardly take up your
time by mentioni-g another libel in another newspaper.
in a letter from the discarded clerk, Lye. The plaintiff
was essamined before the Commissioners, but he was not
exan,i,ed in a way to do him any good. He was in•
formed that there was somethi:ig about him ; and he
des red to be heatd, but the Commissioners did not tell
him of what he was accused. But Mr. Beaumont's evi•
dence was omitted ; so was the evidence of Mr. Sedg wick,
Johnson, Schabner, and Steven/. Mr. Lye's letter begins'l
with large characters, not his own name, but " Mr. B.'
Beaumont, of whom you have heard so much, and of
whom you
_shall now learn something more." Mr.
Brougham read some extracts from this letter, end said,
Lye is not a clerk in the County-office now—Why does
not she defendant put him in the box ? Why did he not,'
justify ? ii Anticipating that 1 might one day be called'
upon to develop or explain certain ambiguities in your
management, I made minutes of your conduct for ten
years." 1 put it .(he continued) to any one of you, it
you found a clerk who had been with you for 10 years,
and who had been, during all that period, keeping a
record of all that he might hereafter produce against
you, whether you would believe that clerk worthy of
your confidence, and whether, if you had heard of any
of your !steads having such a clerk, you could expect
in that record, kept till the day of malice should pro-
duce it, to find the hand of truth traced in its let-
tees? The letter is not confined to Mr. Beaumont's,
public conduct—to his duties in the fine-office, or to
his transactions with the Stamp-office. But you may.
judge of the feeling which animated this wretched
man, when I tell you that he had the baseness, in
this letter, to go back to the parentage of Mr. Beau
Mont, and to twit him with having been boils of an
artist. My friend, the Attorney-General, naturally
sluirrks back or flies away from this as incredible; and
as you- may have the same doubts, I shall mead the pas.
sage: Mr. Beaumont's father was a painter. It is no
sitatreful accusation to be called the son of a painter,
end I have heard the highest legal officer in the king-
done in the presence of the highest birth in the land,
boast that he was descended from one. Mr: Brougham
read sonic further exit acts—" Were sou not attist ex-
pert enough to invent a suitable colouring to destroy
me without resorting to matemials 1 ke these; wretched
dauber, foul-mouthed bespatterer of the character
you envy." The law gives Mr. Beaumont only onel
method of recomeense ; but recollect. Gentlemen. ac•l
cording to the amount of that compensation will the
public estimate your opinion- of the purity of the
Motives with which he has acted. He has Wildly
confronted his accusers, confiding in the conscious tec-
titude which must have inspised his breast when he
could thus dare to defy to the proof all his accusers,
who, it not aided, were at least not thwarted by the
Comminioserr, He has boldly faced the 'combination
of. persons whose power, resources, and information
rested upon the evidence of no less than six individuals,
against whom be had only his undaunted innocence to
oppose,; and he has defied his accusers to call them into
the witness box before you. gl I ili the whole of the twenty
yems in ehieh he bas presided over that great establish-
ment.in which upwards of a million of money has passed
through his hands, and more than 90,000 policies have
been granted—it there had ben respecting any one of
those transactions on any one of the days of those twenty
years, one sore place 'or suspicious feature, one solitary
circumstance that would not bear the most severe
search and scrutinizing examination, he would have been
indeed not a bold man, but a mid man to have defied
to the investigation of his conduct such a host of adver-
saties with such a magacine of arms, and so.little
scruple to use thee); but he has defied all his accusers—
he has faced all these witnesses—he has dated their in-
vestigation,and it is theyond not bewho has shrisak ifor,,
in pleading the general issue, they have admitted the
falsehood of the slanders they have dared to publisles
I have spoken meekly, as became me, of that tribunal '
in whose name these slanders have been sent forth.l
.1 regret, that, by a course of erroneous inquiry,.l
and extra-judicial investigation, that by overstepping the
bound of their commission—by reporting hearsay sur-
anises
about what they had no right to examine, and by
'tinting what they had no right to report, they have
brought discredit upon that magnificent system on'
which 1 have taken leave to speak—on which public{
.economy and retrenchment so mainly depend; and I
am sorry I have ever seen the day when the wise insti
tutions of that great Captain and greater Statesman have'
been obscured by the conduct of his unworthy coidjutors. I
The lwo publications in the Morning Herald of the
.11th of Octst6itond 81st of -Ottole r, 1826, the latter
,being the letter of Francis Lye, were put in and read..—
Llse reading occupied upwards of in hour.
Thomas Saliihner, the cashier and chief clerk of the,
;County FirePece, proved that the plaintiff was the I
managing rector;p the office was of large emolument.
Francis 14a was bookkeeper, and Was dismissed.
Crosszizainined—There are 60 Directors altogether.
Several' of them often attend. Mr. Beaumont is the
mane 'tng Director. The clerks are 'entirely under his
ac
contr •1. Witness did not know from Mr. Beaumont
whe tr. he bad or had not determined to bring hi,
action before the appearance of Mr. Lye's letter.
The Arroawsy GENZRAL said, that he was under
great difficulty, as indeed every defendant was who had
to contend with his Learned Friend; because his inge-
unity, talents, and eloquence always enabled him to
dress his case so as to captive his auditors; but in this
ease he had been. so energetic that he (the Attorney
„ General) hardly knew whether his calmer manner would
make any impression; for after a lung experience he
could never so completely identify himielf with his
client as his friend had done; but be envied those wise
. could feel a reel passion, and from the ion:actions
s,of their clients possess that degree of pathos which
~enabled them to tan away with the feelings of ati who
*beard them. He had been considering what could have
„been Mr. Beaumont's object in bringing the ectiloie feel
vier, little had been said about damages? His friend
-amid confessed that the Morning Herald was i, Ostia
srHspectable paper, and admirably cenducted. .Fleitliti•
—.flit was not in the habit of bestowing up. Ors n 410146
;Amy:extraordinary praise, even where be was:eoncerOd
refer Atm, and ,he left, his clients in .this respect to the
testimony of his friend, for which he was *rueful, of
Which be bad a right to mad himself; Ind Which he