The Statesman.
London, England, 1823-08-11 00:00:00

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ILA the hither egad ,of May pos. the.efend en .-
110 to attend a lady named Cleaveland, aellthirks- taiiest
11110 this night at the house of her daughtet Abort-
dyk, of etinheath. Know(ng that the plaintlifliat,in
the- habit of attendink Mrs. Shoredyk's family, he called
upon hitt to secnmpany him to. ths boar, the' defeddiot
knocked at the plaintiff's door, but being unable_.;fr
arouse the servants, it. went away, with a detertidinh.
tion of going alone. As he went off be made some
Offensive remarks, width the plaintiff's 'wife. beard. as
She opened the window,. having gut up to see whit was
at the ilttot. The defendant arrived at -Coshes* and
prescriked for the sick lady some camphor draughts.
and an &primp draught. In his preseriptionbe directed
a camphor draught to be taken directly, and Who sepstatod
after four hours, if isecediary, and the sperlett tots* talstrt
early in the morning . The doctor had arrived at Cotheakit
between 2 and o' :loch; and 9n his return to Maidstone
seat the prescription by hie eery •nt to the plartnifri hairs
to be made up. The servant arrived et the plaintiff's hoer
about three o'clocki,aind left, word that a niesitenger • Iron
Coxbeatb would call for the medicines. A4,out half-pm:
four the Messenger hrrived.. ThttAraintifai arsistantj. we-
'lkea enspfuyed.le thedrae ra, but in -
s
tiltalloaneed boor of liteihnettnif iwolg e' •
comealtedit is 19 what should be ..yrittrtue the
belt Infetruliag afthe terms of the iletend4ot s prescrip-
tion. and that it would be impossible for the pioneerr so
go back to Coxheatir before six o'clock. 'f pialetiffel•
ereisiog the best discretion under the cireuroganeet, Cave
ofirectionii that the order disking; the mettichieS should he
reversed I namely,: the aperient Ilrkt, and the camptlye
draughts every four hours, if necessary. the assistant ac-
cordingly made op an aperient ant four camphor draughts.
On the libel of the first be wrote, " Tbi, draught to he
taken immediately ;" and on the enter., " Theto draarthlt
to be taken every four hours, if the first has operatek.
The messenger arrived •at Coxlieath shout d o'clock, and
the aperient was administered to the patient. Ne,
day the defendant visited his prient to know the e,f,c,.
of his prescription, and upon finding that the
id which int directed the medicines to be taken Lad be'ea
changed, he became extremely angry; and on his return to
Maidstone, called at the plaintiff's hunt.. aceotnpunied by
a aril surgeon to the plaintiff, and reproved the young in 13
for the liberty tie had taken with the peevriptiue. In c!:
sequence of "this proceeding, the plaintiff wrote a lover t
the defendant, in which he expressed his opinion of 106
conduct. The result was, that the defendant thought pre=
per to circulate the slander which was the subject of this
action. To several persona the fo!lowing statement cott•
timing the plaintiff was made Ile has a yottn2 man i
Isis service who has male an error in another • age, whit`.. 1
have iince pdinted out td him, and Air. Coleman h;l4, itr
consequenne, written me a severe letter, arcnsirig me cC
ungentlemanly behaviour. I shall, therefore, not inee;
him, ndr shall 1 allow any prescriptior; to be sent to
until he has made an Otology." I u one instance, this state:-
went haul the effect of completely depriving the plain:I::
of a patient, and it was In:dated that such sander was
calculated to do a man in the plaintiff's profetsioti
calatce asietitief. On cross eiraitilintion of the witnesses;
it appe tied that the plaintiff and the defendant hell bears
' previously on the most friendly terms, and on one acasion
the defendant had sail of We plaintiff that he wets one of
the most goOd natured fillow's in the world, plain.
MI 'a assistant was called, and interrogeetl as to his
knowledge of the Latin language. Pd.* to this transaction
Ise bad studied that lango4ce for it' mouths, and since the
commencement °tibia action lie had received private les-
sons. When Dr. Smith called at the p!aintirs
and he was desired to construe the prescription, he construct
it correctly. Dr. Hue, Lecturer of St. Baotholomew
Hospital, was examined to the propriety of the plaintiffs
,onnduct in altering the order in which the medicines wer-
to be taken by the defendant's patient. In the jedgmentr
of this gentleman, it was. a natter of perfect indifference
whether the aperient dr the camphor draught iVas taken
,first. For bis owe part, had it been his own case, be
should have been much obliged to the plaintiff to alter the
directions of the prescription, under the circumstances
stated. The prescription was written in such general
terms, as to leave a good deal• to the discretion of the apo-
thecary, add certainly the plaintiff had exercised a rev:
sound Judgment in directing the aperient to be taken firs',
the morning having been so far advanced after the pre.
scription reached tIM plaintiff's house. After the plabrill'i
can was closed, Mr. Baron Graham interposed, and stir..
rested the propriety of withdrawing a juror, ronsiderinz
the respectability of both parties, and the impolicy of keep-
ing up a feud of this description, which could not fail vL
doing berm.
Mr. MARRYATT said, it was impossible for Dr. Sallilt
to yield to acy terms of compromise, short of an ample
apology for the offensive letter he had written to him.

The ease then proceeded, and on the part of the defend.
ant, it was contended that the supposed slander complained
of by the plaintiff was perfectly justified under all the cir-.
cumstances of the case. On the morning, when Dr. Suiiilf.
called upon the plaintiff to accompany him to Foxlieath,tlid
plaintiff's bell was repeatedly rung without any body con:
ing to the door, and at length the Doctor's patience bein•
tired outvite said to his servant " Go on, my man, there I-.
nobody coining." This was all the Doctor said, and
this was the sopposed offence alluded to in the rase for th '
plaintiff. Next day after the defendant had asc tai fled that
his prescription had not been observed, he called at the
plaintiff's house to inquire the cense. Another gentknata
happened accidentally to be with him. lle saw the plaintiff's
assistant, and called upon him to construe his r.rescription,
bat Le was unable to do so correctly. For ins'tanc.:, lees
translated the words " Si opies sii" to mean, " Atter it has
operated," which was quite contrary to the DuLtor's mean-
ing. He gently remonstrated wits the young man for his
mistake, and advised him to be more careful for the future.. •
On the following day the plaintiff wrote a most off-nsice
letter to the defendant, in which he bestowed npon him the
terms illibetal, ungentlemanly, malicious, disgracefoil, scan-
dalous, hase,and otuer epithets of that description, in speaks
ing of his conduct. Under such circtimstances, it was im-
possible for the Doctor tosubmit tamt to ;lie insults heaped
upon him by the plaintiff; and it was put to the Jury whe-
ther the defendant's conduct, as a physician, was not per-
fectly justifiable. The facts sta,ed in defence were
proved an evidence, and the plaintiff's letter was read.
Mr. (image replied on behalf of the plaintiff.
Mr. Baron CladHAil spawned up the case.
The Juty enquired what damages would carry costs?—
The Learned Judge informed them 404., and they itirth•-
diately found their vertlicthfor the plaintiff—Damages, 40s.
The case excited conshierahle interest in H.iiilstone. The
plaintiff expressed his regret At the necessity he felt in bein4
obliged to bring the action, a d now expressed his Furrow
for the intemperate. I. tier lie had written to the de/env:ant.
The trial commenced on Friday, was adjourned till-to-day,
and ended about 12 o'clock.

That important and highly respec!able LiterseyJeurnal,
The Alorximg Chronicle, which was the sole property of
the late James Perry, hsy, was last week sol.l pri ;are
contract. by that gentleman'. executors, fur the 8.191 of
Forty Thousand Pounds, whir', we believe is the largest
Sunt ever yet nbtained for the Lopyright of a Newspaper.

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