Daily national Democrat., 1858-10-22
An Old Man DlsgraccIng himself.


The New York Daily Tribune, of Sept
sth has the following.
The dog star RACES just now in England.
IAere seems TO be Il general loss Of their
senses, at least total dereliction of the sense
OF propriety, on the part of distinguished
English authors. We publish elsewhere an
account of a most extraordinary lawsuit, in
which Walter Savage Landor, whose name,
if not his writings, is familiar to our readers.
was cast in damages to the amount of thou
sand pounds for n series of most extraordi-
nary libels against lady, Mrs. Yescombe,
lately his particular and intimate friend, with
whom and her husband, n clergyman of the
English Church, he had been for many years
on terms of familiar friendship, being in the
habit of late years of dining at their house
so often as three days in the week The
wrath of Mr.. Walter Savage Landor-who
seems to have on this occasion fully estab
lished his title to his middle name-appears
TO have originated in some difference between
him and his friends as to a young lady, a
daughter of Il neighbor whom the Yescombes
had taken into their family and allowed to
share in the advantages of education enjoyed
t y their children.
For some reason or other, it does not ap-
pear what, they judged it best that she
should leave Bath, where all the parties re-
sided, and go to Cheltenham. The breach
thus made, the author of the Imaginary
Conversations" issued pamphlet under the
title OF Walter Savage Landor and the
Honorable Mrs Yescombe," in which he
charged his late intimate friend with having
perured herself in a lawsuit in which her
husband was interested, of having purloined
money from letters, of availing herself of a
receipted tradesmans bill though she had not
paid the money, and several other similar
tra2ds. To the demand of the lady's solicit
or to retract these charges or stand suit, he
replied in another pamphlet, entitled Mr..
Landor Threatened" abusing the attorney
and proposing to have him cudgeled A suit
was accordingly brought, but, this time, was
settled by the interference of Mr. Land0r's
friend Forster, late editor of the London Ex-
aminer who persuaded Landor to sign a re-
traction of the charges and an agreement not
to repeat them.
No sooner was the case thus disposed of
than the libeler turned from prose to verse,
sending the lady number of epigrams i'm
plying the most injurious charges, and print
ing others in book entitled " Dry Sticks
Fagotted," in which she was hbeled under
the name of Pestcombe
As there was no justification set up, the
Judge suggested that the case ought to be ar
ranged without a trial, but the defendants
counsel compl ined that his client would not
agree to any settlement The only thing at
tempted in the way of palliation was an eff
fort, not very successful, to draw out from
some of the witnesses that rumors of charges
similar to those of the defendant had circu-
lated in Bath, and that they did not wholly
originate with the defendant The apology
chiefly relied upon was, however, the de-
fendants great age, he being between eighty
and ninety. and the fact that he belonged to
a generation not quite so scrupulous about
decency as the present Had such a case
been tried in New York, the counsel would
no doubt have set up the defense of insanity,
but that plea is less in favor in England than
here. The defendant may, we think, consid-
er himself very lucky if he escapes by merely
paying damages, since this, if any private Ii
bel can be, would seem to be fit case for a
criminal prosecution.