The Statesman.
London, England, 1818-08-15 00:00:00

LfBEL-711E PRESS.

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[TROY THg CORE 1017111111111 REPORTSRI At/0. 8.)
WHITE e. o'nntscocc.
This Trial came on yesterday before Baron SMITH,
and a most respectable Jury.
ft was an action brought by the Plaintiff, Wm.
presto° White, against the Proprietor of the Cork'
Southern Reporter, for an alleged Libel, contained 1
in ID advertisement, set forth in the name of Wm. '
Thompson, and published in that Paper on the 3d of
of February last. The Damages were laid at One
Thousand Pounds, and the Defendant pleaded the
Geoeral Issue. The trial lasted a considerable time,
when the Jury found a Verdict for the Platattiff—
lizpence Damages and Sixpence Costs.
IVhile this case was pending, and before it had
yet come to trial, we were restrained- by a perhaps
overwrought feeling of delicacy, from putting the
Public in possession of the facts, though we knew
that much misrepresentation was afloat upon the
subject. But we had little apprehension of the
decision of that tribunal before which we were shoot
to go. But though we are secure in our own reso-
lution and consciousness, and in the spirit and
integrity of our Fellow-citizens, it is no little thing,
that in the discharge of a laborious public ditty—
in the midst of a multiplicity of fatiguing and ha-
rassing avocations, we are to be called away to
defend ourselves in a Court of Law, with great
trouble and at great entente, from the attack of
any peevish or vindictive individual, who might
imagine in injury, or whose wounded vanity could
'find no liniment in our open and offered Columns,
or any balsam except in the shape of money to be
extracted from our pockets. If we happen, at any
time, to fall into error—and where is the Establish.
Input. of equal magnitude, wholly free from such
occasional visitatioos ?—we confess we do rely
much upon the goodness of the Public, and of in-
dividuals, in extending towards us a generous for-
bearance, and a kind and considerate indulgence.
We rely much upon that noble feeling which dig.
Pikes the People of this Country—which makes the
' Press he considered as a thing sacred, something
holy, to be revered even in its errors, end from
which a man of high mind would patiently bear an
injury, leaving to mean and creeping spirits the ye.
num and the disgrace of vengeance. We have relied
much upon this noble feeling, and the Public will re.
• joice to learn, that in a career of some years, we have
never been disappointed, until we encountered Ww.
Preston While, Esq. _
In February last, a Gentleman of one of the
most respectable families of this city, called at this
office with an advertisement for insertion. It was
received and inserter!. It is true that the adver.
• tisemeut reflected strongly upon Mr. White, our
Prosecutor in the action just tried ;' but those
under whose inspection it came, were not lawyers
enough to tell if it were libel—(few even of the
profession could do so, and the Learned Judge who
tried the case, said it was " barely" so)—and the
point was not considered. Nothing was known of
the allegations contained in it, 'and it was not the
province of the office to judge of them. But as
in the first instance it was not (perhaps errone-
ously) consideted right to refuse insertion to Mr.
Thompson's paid fur advertisement ; so in the
second, it would be equally unjust if werefused to
Mr. White the manuscript, and the name of the
author. slow could we set ourselves op to judge
of Mr. Thompson's publication ? We did not.—
Ilow could we refuse to Mr. White every facility of
vindicating himself against the author? We offered
every facility. We believe that the line we took, in
this instance, was the same which is ondeviatingly
pursued by the upright sod honest Press of the Em-
pire. But • the course pursued by our Prosecutor is
Rs novel as the Icebergs which have recently visited
our latitudes, and if encouraged, will have the same
' freezing elect upon public discussion anal right
of enquiry. Wr. White, instead of bringing his
action against Mr. Thompson, and disproving the
facts, if untrue, attacked us, who •could not
know whether they were true or false, and who
were utterly unconcerned in the matter. This is a
course which, though in strictness legal, is happily
so rare as to be almost unknown. The Crown,
which is a great and a very close prosecutor, never
Jokes it. It looks only for the author ; and yet the
Crown has, in all cases, more to do with the pub-
lisher than any individual can have. Why then has
it happened that Mr. White's wrath has exceeded the
awful displeasure of the Crow n ?—and stretching be-
yond the real culprit (if culprit there be), has pour-
ed out the phial of his indignation on our devoted
heed? Mr. White has given the answer very dis-
tinctly to this obvious enquiry. It is that Mr.
Thompson is a pauper! and therefore he sought to
Leal the wound which his reputation and his feelings
had received, by a pecuniary balsam to be.extracted
from our pockets. Fortunately fur us, but still more
fortunately for the Public, his ,applicatiou to the
Jury to grant him this relief was not attended to, et
least in the decree which he solicited it, having ask-
. ed for One Thousand Pounds, and only received
Sixpence; and even that may not have been awarded
to him, if the upright, eloquent, and able Judge
who presided had not considered it to be hit duty to
pronounce that the publication in question was so far
libellous, that it merely came within legal limits.
In our next Number we will give a full Report of
the Trial, but we cannot defer inserting the Charge
of the Learned Judge, as it will at once show the
impression which this extraordinary action—extra-
ordinary from its being instituted against an innocent
person—has created. The Plaintiff having closed hie
case, and the Defendant having declined to call any
Witness—
Baron SMITH said, that the action was founded
on an Advertisement—not an anonymous adver-
tisement, but one that ascertained at once the author,
beginning with his name, and ending with his ad.
dress—inserted in the common course and routine
in a Public Paper, which had uniformly, for a num-
ber of years, been conducted by the Editor with
great rOrteCtiteSs, and which had frequently con-
tainted paragraphs complimentary to the Plaintiff;
a circumstance which negatived the idea of malice or
personal ill will. The presumption was too, that the
contents were unknown to the Defendant, who
Would he likely to read the paragraphs, but not the
adrertisements) to which bis Paper gate admission.