The Jury, however, found a vereict for the plaintiff, making proper allowances to the Company for different expenses which they had incurred.

MISCELLANEOUS CAUSES.

Court of King's Bench, Monday, Feb. 7-Rex v. Mary Ann Clarke, -The Attorney-General prayed the judgment of the Court upon this defendant, who had suffered it to pass against her by default, upon an indictment for publishing a libel upon the Right Hon. William Fitzgerald, Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer, in a pamphlet, entitled, a Letter to that Gentleman. The libel was read by Mr. Deal. try, Deputy-Clerk of the Crownoffice. It accused the prosecutor of seducing his friend's wife, procuring the husband to be sent to an unhealthy climate, and of other matters (not fit to be mentioned in a public paper.)

The defendant then put in the following affidavit, which was read:

Mary Ann Clarke maketh oath, that she feels great concern at having been betrayed into a violation of the law: that she hath been intimately acquainted with the prosecutor and his father for many years that his father introduced the prosecutor to her previous to his going to college, as from the situation in which this deponent then lived she might do him much service in his progress through life.

That deponent did render him many and essential services, and a great degree of intimacy subsisted between her and the prosecutor's said father, to whom she also rendered many services, and with

whom she was in the habit of corresponding for a great length of time; and that she by this means became possessed of a great number of his letters, and which letters were afterwards, on occasion of a certain investigation, submitted to a Select Committee of the House of Commons; that the contents of some of these letters transpired; and as defendant was informed by the prosecutor, it was suggested to him by a member of his Majesty's Government, that if those letters were exposed to the public they would be highly detrimental to the prospects of the prosecutor and his father, and the former would be no longer able to represent the borough of Ennis, which had cost him a large sum of money; that the prosecutor became alarmed as to these letters; and immediately after they were ordered to be restored to this deponent, the prosecutor came to her in the greatest distress and agony of mind, to request the destruction of those letters, and the greater part of which he obtained possession of; and under promises of reward and favour, this deponent permitted them to be destroyed in his presence, after he had made himself acquainted with the contents. That deponent having great confidence in the prosecutor's said father, intrusted him with the keeping of many letters and papers of great importance; and amongst others, she entrusted him with a letter from a person in high authority, conveying his assurance of providing for deponent's only son. That soon after the prosecutor had gained his point, by procuring the destruction of the said letters, he totally withdrew himself from her

as

as a friend and visitor, where he had been previously a constant and almost a daily one, and estranged himself from all friendship towards her; and instead of the reward she had been promised, he, and his father, refused to return her papers which had been deposited in trust, and the prosecutor's father assured her he had destroyed them, and had burnt the said letter contain ing the promise of provision. And this deponent further saith, that the letters which she now hath in her possession, in the hand-writing of the said prosecutor and his father, clearly prove the truth of the above matters, respecting their correspondence with, and obligations to, this deponent, both before and since the proceedings in 1809, during a period of about fourteen years. That deponent repeatedly remonstrated with him on these matters, but finding those remonstrances unattended to, and being vexed and disappointed in her expectations, and treated with contempt, ingratitude, and indifference, she, under that influence, wrote and published the letter which is the subject of this prosecution, and which has been very little circulated.

That this deponent at first pleaded not guilty to the indictment, but being advised she could not defend herself under that plea, withdrew it, and suffered judgment to go by default, and thereby wholly submits herself to the consideration of this honourable Court. That this deponent hath two daughters, one of them approaching the age of womanhood. That she hath hitherto, under many adverse circumstances and misfortunes, given them an education, and brought them up in honour and virtue.

And that should this honourable Court, in its wisdom, deprive her said daughters' of her protection, they will be left totally destitute; and she humbly hopes, that these circumstances, and the state of her health, and that in the present case, she has been actuated by no views of a political nature, but solely by the treatment received from the prosecutor in his private capacity, will be taken into the consideration of this honourable Court.

Mr. Attorney-General, Mr. Parke, and Mr. Scarlett, then addreesed the Court in support of the prosecution. The Attorney-General characterised the libel as the most flagrant that had ever appeared in a Court of Justice, as it accused the prosecutor of nothing less than felony. There was no doubt that it was as directly meant for an engine for the purpose of extorting money, as if she had commanded a sum to be put under a stone, under threat of the like revenge. Revenge, indeed, was stated to be the motive of the pamphlet; and the public is always the bar to which these libellers drag their victims. "As yet," said Mrs. Clarke, "I have shewn up no one who did not richly deserve to be exposed to the public; this is the only revenge I am desirous of taking on those by whom I am ill-treated; and having brought them before that tribunal, I rest perfectly satisfied that impartial justice will be administered." "This hint," she proceeds, "I have just thrown out by the way, as a caution to those who either do not know, or require to be reminded, that it is not my disposi tion to sit down quietly under the studied injury of ingratitude, and the neglect of promises given to

dupe

dupe or cajole me, by men who never meant to perform them, or who think they may at any time be broken with impunity. For the benefit, therefore, of all whom it may concern, I here announce my intention of submitting to the public, in a very short time, two or three volumes, which may be followed by others as opportunity shall suit, or circumstances require." So that the whole world were at the mercy of Mrs. Clarke's opportunities and circumstances. The Attorney-General hoped the sentence of the Court would, at least, teach her to hold her hand, and to refrain from the publication of future libels.

Mr. Brougham then addressed the Court in mitigation of the de fendant's punishment.

Before the Court pronounced judgment upon the defendant, Mary Anne Clarke, the Attorney General thought it his duty to intimate that he had to pray judgment against Wm. Mitchell, who had suffered it by default, under an indictment for printing the forementioned libel. At the same time the Attorney-General believed him to be the ignorant agent of other persons whose names he refused to give up, and he had no. thing to urge against him beyond the mere fact of his being the printer of this atrocious libel. The defendant said that he was seventy years of age, and had never received any profit from the sale of the libel.

Mr. Justice Le Blanc pronounced the judgment of the Court upon both defendants, who, he said, had acknowledged themselves guilty, the one of being the author and publisher, and the other the printer and circulator of a libel against a

private individual, of so foul a na. ture that the Court would not re peat it: the charges, if true, would render the prosecutor unfit for the situation he holds, or, indeed, for any other. There was no doubt of the libellous tendency of this publication; and there could be as little that the motive in which it originated, and which induced the threat of those other volumes which the defendant, Mary Ann Clarke, stated herself to have in medita tion, was the desire to raise money by the purchase of their suppression. His Lordship hoped this would be a warning to the world, how they formed hasty and impru→ dent connections; and for the defendant herself, he trusted the solitude and confinement to which it would be the duty of the Court to sentence her, would induce her to review her past life, and repent of those errors which had brought her to her present situation. It was always painful to be obliged to visit the sins of the fathers upon the children; but in some cases the separation of the latter from the former might be attended with beneficial results: whether that might be the case in this instance, it was not for the Court to inquire. Taking all the circumstances into its consideration, the Court did order and adjudge that the defendant, Mary Ann Clarke, should be committed to the custody of the Marshal of the Marshalsea (the King's Bench Prison) for the space of nine calender months, and at the end of that period enter into security to keep the peace for three years, in a recognizance, herself in 200l. and two sureties in 100l. each, and be further imprisoned till that security be given; and that the defendant, William Mitchell,

Mitchell, should be imprisoned in the same gaol for four calendar months.

Old Bailey, Saturday, Feb. 19. William Sturman was indicted for setting fire to a house he tenanted in Half-moon-street, Piccadilly, with intent to defraud the Globe Insurance Company, with whom his furniture was insured, to the amount of 1500l.

Mary Wright, the first witness, deposed, that she lived servant with the prisoner at No. 9, Half-moonstreet, Piccadilly. He had a wife and child, and they were the only residents in the house. She had lived with him eight days. On the 11th of January, at nine o'clock in the morning, her mistress said to her, that they were going out to dinner, and she might go out for a few hours after she had shut up the house. Mrs. Sturman went away about half-past twelve. The prisoner told her to bring some seed for a canary bird. He then shewed her how to unlock a patent lock on the front door. He told her to be home at half-past eight o'clock, to leave all safe, to have a fire ready, and leave a lamp in the passage, which she did. When she went out at four o'clock, she barred the shutters, but did not draw the curtains. All the fastenings were secure when she went out. She returned at 20 minutes before eight o'clock, and found the house in flames. The door-posts of the back dining-room were in flames. There were some boards on fire lying against the door-posts, which had formerly been kept in the wine cellar, of which her master kept the key. On the other side of the

posts were papers and bundles of wood, with the strings cut. In the front parlour was a band-box, brought from Mrs. Sturman's room, full of wood and papers, close to the partition. There were also some wooden steps, and three clothes-horses, which had been usually kept down stairs, in the wash-house. There were stockings of her master's scattered about the stairs, and rags, which she had used in dusting the tables. These smelt very strong of turpentine, and she believed some of the stockings did also. A bundle of matches was lying on the wooden steps, and there was a great fire in the front parlour with two red-hot pokers in it. The lamp was removed to the back pantry. The curtains of the front parlour she found drawn.

Her master's bedroom windows, and her own were opened, and his shutters closed.The snow was deep on the ground at the time. She called for assistance, and a boy came first; Captain Kempster and his servant, who lived next door, came also, and soon extinguished the flames. The bookcase and drawers, in the front parlour, were all apparently fastened when she went out, but on her return she found them all thrown open, and stripped of their contents; the bird-cage was also gone. At half-past nine o'clock her master and mistress came back, on his being told the house was robbed, he immediately cried out, "My writing-desk is gone, and 1 am a ruined man." Mr. Denham came a day or two afterwards, and her master told her to fetch two turpentine bottles from a cup-board in the back pantry, in which she

and

had

had never seen any bottles of turpentine before, and if they had been there, she thought she must have seen them. There was no fire in any part of the house except in the front parlour. People very often came for money, but got

none.

On being cross-examined, she said the jars of oil and turpentine might have been there, as she had been only eight days with them, and had no great opportunity of looking about the house.

John Levoy deposed, that he was passing along Half-Moonstreet, heard a cry of "fire," and went to No. 9, where he observed the same appearance as the last witness stated. When the prisoner returned, and was told that his writing-desk was broke open, he appeared much agitated. The fire appeared to have been recently lighted.

The firemen and the police officers who entered the house, produced the half-burnt rags and two bottles, one containing turpentine and the other oil.

Mr. Denham, Secretary to the Globe Insurance, said, that when he questoned the prisoner, he could not fix his suspicions on any particular person. He told his servant to bring him two stone bottles, one containing turpentine and the other oil; and in describing the place to her where she would find them, he had some difficulty in making her understand him. On the whole, the answers which the prisoner gave to the witness's interrogatories, were made with apparent hesitation.

Mrs. Martin, sister in law of the prisoner, proved, that on the day

in question his wife dined with her, and that he came for her about ten minutes past 8 in the evening.

Several witnesses were also called to shew that the prisoner was apparently short of money, and not likely to have 500l. in Bank of England notes, by him, as he said he had, and which he alleged were stolen out of his desk.

An auctioneer also proved that he had made an inventory of his furniture, which he valued at 7181. but which he was convinced might be bought for 600l.

His interest in the lease of his house had been insured for 5ool. his furniture for 1500l and the lease itself for1500l. which, by covenant, he was bound to insure for 1400/.

For the prisoner, a servant of his brother-in-law, at Hackney, proved, that he called there about four o'clock on the afternoon of the same day in question, but the family was from home. He waited about half an hour, and then went away.

A waiter at the Telegraph Chop House thought he had seen the prisoner before, but could not recollect his having dined at his master's house on the day in question.

A woman, who had lived servant with the prisoner about twelve months ago, swore that she had seen two stone bottles, one with turpentine, and one with oil, which supplied the lamp.

Several witnesses gave him a good character. Verdict-Guilty, Death.

He confessed the fact before execution.

COURT