The Central Glamorgan Gazette, and General, Commercial, and Agricultural Advertiser. — 1870-02-04 (Bridgend, Mid Glamorgan, Wales)

ACTION FOR LIBEL AGAINST THE DUKE AND DUCHESS OF SOMERSET. An action has been brought by Dr. Williams against the Duke and Duchess of Somerset for libel. In the Court of Exchequer on Tuesday, Mr. Hawkins, Q.C., applied for a postponement of the trial until the sittings after Easter term, on affidavits stating that the Duchess of Somerset, who might be a necessary witness, was suffering from neuralgia and an affection of the leg, and might not be able to attend the Court for three weeks or a month. The Solicitor-General, who appeared for the plaintiff, objected to a postponement on the ground of the serious nature of the libel. The Duchess of Somerset had called Dr. Williams an "hypocritical murderer," and one of the charges against him was he had deliberately allowed the only eon of the Duke and Duchess to die, because he would not meet another medical man, and that he mismanaged the affair from professional spite. Mr. Hawkins: No, no.—The Solicitor-General: The Duchess of Somerset has chosen to circulate the libel for months. Mr. Hawkins: You must not state that—it is not set out in your affidavits. The Solicitor-General: The libel has been in general circulation for some months, and the professional character of Dr. Williams has very seriously suffered by it. The defendants have not pleaded any justification, and they have also almost admitted the authorship. Dr. Williams is most anxious to have the case tried, but now your Lordship is asked to postpone it until July, on the ground that there is something the matter with the veins of the Duchess's leg.—Mr. Hawkins, in reply totbe learned judge, said he believed it would be necessary to call the Duchess at the trial.—The Solicitor-General : Well, let the Duchess be examined by commission, and her evidence read to the jury. Do not let Dr. Williams continue to 'tater from a libel of which in the course of myprofessionalexperience I never saw the like, and which hasbeen in unbroken circulation for months. I trust your lordship will not postpone the trial. Mr. Hawkins: The evidence of the Duchess is required in answer to statements made by Dr. Williams himself, and that makes it impossible to have her examined by commission. The learned counsel added that there being no plea of justification, the truth of the libel, as regarded the serious charges referred to, was not intended to be set up. The Solicitor-General: But a great deal of mischief may be done without standing up for the exacttrathof the libel. Mr. Baron Bramwell decided that the case should not be tried before the eighth day of the next sittings in London, with liberty to the defendants to examine the Duchess by commission if necessary.  The report of Mr. Roebuck's candidature at Nottingham is contradicted. The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher has refused the proffered increase of salary from 12,500 dole. to 20.000 dols. a year.  An old soldier of the first empire, named Palau, has just died at Reynes, in the department of the Pyrenees-Orientales, France, at the age of 107. In Vermont they sentence murderers to he hanged, "a year hence," the intervening period to be passed in solitary confinement in the Penitentiary. -- • •  The Freeman's Journal understands that a petition against the return of the Hon. it. Greville Nugent, as member for Longford, has been prepared.  Her Majesty's ship Serapie, on her homeward voyage, saw the Channel squadron off Lisbon. She also mot the Teazer on her passage to the Suez Canal.  The Judge of the Probate Conrt prononne against a will made three weeks after the testator had been placed in charge of the keeper of a private asylum.