14 MAY 1831, Page 9

DUKE OF BEIVFOUT V. TIIE SPECTATOR..-011 Saturday last, Sir •

Jaunts Scarlett moved the Court of King's Bench for a criminal infor- mation against the printer and proprietors of this newspaper. As we had no previous notice or suspicion of the proceeding, we had no re- verter present, and are therefore obliged to have. recourse to the daily papers for all account of what took place. We quote front the Morning Post of Monday, both because its report. is the fullest, and because it cannot be suspected of any undue bias to the defendants. It will be borne in mind, that this is a statement only on one side; our defence is ,ta come.

Sir JAM Es SCAR LETT—" If your Lordships please, my Lords, I ma directed to apply to your Lordships for a rule to show cause why a criminal inforniation should not be filed against several persons, one of whom is the publisher, and the other two are proprietors of a newspaper called the Spectator." Lord TENTnitnEN—" A weekly paper, is it not, or a daily paper ? "

Sir JAM SS SCAttLETT--" A weekly paper." Lord TENTERDES—" I am so little in the habit of being a spectator of these pub- lications, that I hardly know." Sir .i.ssies S cA tt ETT—" A paper of considerable circulation, called the Specta- tor. The at tiele of which I complain is in a copy of that paper, published the 30th April 1831. My Lords, 1 make this application on the behalf of his Grace the Duke of Beaufort; who has found himself tinder the necessity of asking your Lordships' pro- tection against the dissemination of many false statements respecting his Grace and family, and which, on the affidavits I have before me, he swears he believes are cir- culated for the purpose of exciting odium against his Grace and family, ad to ex- asperate the feelings of his fellow.sulijects against him. My Lords, these are times in which that may easily be done; and before I state the particulars of the libel to the Court, I will just state shortly what is contained in his Grace's affidavit. My Lords, it appears the late Duke of-Beaufort, by his will, recommended the guar- dians who had been appointed for his children, his sons, seven in number, to bring two of Ms younger sons up to the Church; and his Grace being possessed of the ad- vowson of certain living's mentioned in the affidavit, in the counties of Gloucester, Monmouth, and Wales, he recommended that the trustees, or the person who for the time being might be the Marquis of Worcester, and should be in possession of his estates, should present to his younger sons, whom he wished to be brought up to the Church, some of these livings, such as might be vacant at the time they were lit to receive them. That was a very natural thing to do; but he added a provision, which has undoubtedly made it a question whether or not they could it ith propriety accept those livings, which is this—he had provided annuities of 61101, a year to each of his younger soils; and then, in respect of the two that were reconimentlecl to be brought up to the Church, he did not specify 'them Ile stated in his will, that if they receivedthese livings, and received this preferment in the Church, that then the annuities pro tont() should cease." Laid TENTERVEN—" They were charged on the estate ? on the estate of the eldest son?" • • Sir JAMES SCARLETT—" On the family estates. The affidavit goes on to state, that only one of the sons was brought up to the Church, Lord William Somerset. Two or three of the livings were given to him ; but with reference to that clause in the Duke of Beaufortsi will,before he was presented to these livings, an instrument was executed, a bond both by the present Duke of Beaufort and his son, the Mar- quis of Worcester, securing for him the permanency of that annuity; so that he should still receive the whole benefit of the annuity which, by his father's will on a strict interpretation, he would lose if he obtained possession of this Church prefer- ment. My affidavit states, that that preferment, which consisted of the family liv- ings, with a prebendal stall at Bristol, given by the Lord Chancellor to Lord Wil- liam Somerset, is the only preferment that he has. This affidavit also states, that neither the Duke of Beaufort nor his father, nor any of his father's sons, nor any of his Grace's brothers, nor any of his family, have to his knowledge and belief any pen- sions or sinecure whatever from the Government, and it further states, that the bro- thers, who have been in the public service, have never received any pay or emolument whatever except when in actual service, and during the time of actual service; with the exception of only one distinguished person, my Lord Fitzroy Somerset,who, having lot s an arm at thebattle of Waterloo, received, by virtue of a general provision of the law, that pension for the loss of a limb which any other officerunder the same circumstances would be entitled to receive. My Lords, baying stated these facts, I now proceed to state to your Lordships what is the libel of which his Grace complains. And when I shall presently add another publication (which I do not charge on these defend- ants—far from it—but which at present is in circulation, and is founded on repre- sentations of this nature, for the purpose of bringing the Duke of Beaufort into contempt, in times when it is very easy to escite the public mind against any man who possesses either rank or fortune), I leave your Lordships to judge whether his Grace ought to submit patiently to this sort of stigma and these fstsehoods. My Lords, the paper professes to give instructions Cu persons bow they should conduct themselves far the purpose or carrying on the war against what the writer is pleased to call ' AntIlteformers ;' and he begins= Let eTery Reformer commune with himself thus—what can I by myself du to promote the good cause ?"Phe question is answered= Let him rush to In what strikes hint as the best thing to be dune at the moment, and, that thing finished, let him begin another instantly.' Now I pre- sume this is the best thiog the writer could do for the pnrpose of advancing, the cause. He goes on to st:tte, making great objections to the subscriptions, on which sily nothing—. Why, the money subscribed is rightfully the nation's, at least if that still belongs to a man which has been wrongfully taken from him ; and if, as is clear, these Borough Loris would not have had the money to subscribe, unless they had quartered their brothers, arid sisters, and mothers, and aunts on the public. as well as not a few or them their mistresses and illegitimate children. Who forgets the history of the late Duke of Beaufort's will, which may be seen at Doctors' e./Inniong, on payment of a shilling, and which charges the estate of the presedt Doke with annuities to his brothers until they shall be better provided for by Government ? The amount of public money received by the Somersets since the late Duke of Beaurort came ("cage, far ex- ceeds the vaMe of the estates which he bequeathed to the present Duke."—My Lords, the Duke states that all the public money ever reeeived by all the members of the fa- mily, and all their pay in the public service, would not exceed, as he verily believes, a year's ice.itne of his paternal estates from the thne of the late Duke of Beaufort's comin,i of father. The Spsehdor is a paper stated to have great circula- tion. If this Wa, an individual ease—a Inerd falsehood and libel, intruded to pro - yoke a little diSpleaSara and CHU:Ma:4:1d ioil—it might pasA Or nothing ; but then there are times, as yoUr Lordships well know, when a statement may be injurious syliich at other times might pass without regiud. I rentember Lord Alvanley, the Chief Justice of the Coin Mon Plea 4, statiug that there were part:color times and occasions when the feeling of the public: mind was such that words otherwise per- fectly innocent wonld be highly injurious, if not seditious : your Lordships will per- haps remmber that such were the words ' 'So yam- tents, ch Israel r sueii words at the time might be 111051 while they it other times might pass for no- thing. Now, this paper which I hold in my hand, I clo nat ascribe to these persons; we cannot trace the alltilor of it, but it furnishes an example ; it is annexed to the affidavit, told contains the same sort of exaggerations ; and where a respectable newspaper, in great circulation, states facts of this sort, it is not surprising any thing of this nature should follow it :—' Stop and read—Freeholders of Gloucester- shire—The benefits which Lord Edward Somerset and the House of Beaufort re- ceive by sitting in and Upholding a corrupt Parliament, amount to nearly or quite 4S,00/. a year, payable out of the tax,s. Peace has 110W been established fifteen years ; and daring that short period, I hey have been receiving out of the public purse and the taxes seven hundred and twenty thousand pounds. This produces the present unparalleled distress. Till now, peace has ever produced happiness and plenty.' NLAV, my Lords, when these things are circa :dated by unknown persons for the purpose of exciting odimn and hatred against illn,leitalt1 and distinguished individuals, I hope your lordships win think itiao ii area:enable, when the authors of the calumny can be traced, and when it i o en eniat el gravely, though falsely, and with all the appearance of truth andl veracity, with arelerence to Doctors' Commons to prdwe it—I hope your Lordship: will think the Duke has done right to ask your Lordships' protection to prevent the circulation of these calumnies at this parti- cular period." Lord Te N anssr—" I take for granted you bring home the publication to the persons against whom you apply ?" Sir J. Semtt.Err —"I have affidavits verifying the ,publication." Lord TENTiinUEN—•‘ Take a rule to show cause.'

THE MonueiNG Pose. AND TUE LORI) Maton.—On Tuesday Sir James Scarlett filed an affidavit of the editor and proprietor of the Post, which stated that be had copied the placard, an which his remarks on the Lord Mayor were founded, from an evening paper (the Standard); that be had' made inquiry, and was fully satisfied that it was a forgery imposed on the paper whence he had copied it ; and that he was prepared then, and had already, in the Morning Post, made every apology for the error into which he had been led by the imposition practised on another journal ; he also offered to pay all costs incurred in the process. Sir

James said, he hoped, as the only object of the Lord Mayor was to vindicate his character, he would be satisfied with this apology and offer. Sir Thomas Denman, in his usual gentlemanly way, assented to this ; and the rule was accordingly discharged, on payment of costs as between attorney and client.

Celt tk.—The Court of King's Bench decided on Saturday against Carlile's writ of error to reverse the judgment against him at the late Old Bailey Sessions, and ordered the judgment of the Court below to be confirmed.

Lim:re—Mr. French obtained a verdict on Saturday, in the Court of

Exchequer, against the Times, far it Mad, in acensing• the plaintiff of sending threatening letters to Aiessrs. Sinclair and Trotter, proprietors of the Tivoli Gardens, 5Iargate. Damages forty shillings—they were

laid at 1003/.

Tuostts La:vim-me—About two years ago, .'t singular pamphlet

was published by Mr. John Landseer, the artist, in which were a

of letters, some anonymous, some with names, charging Mrs. Thomas Landseer with having had a child to a person named Robinson. The pamphlet was republish;a1 in the Morning Journal; from which paper we took some extracts, with no VieW of propagating the scandal, hut on account of the very singular picture which they exhibited of Mr. Robinson. It seems that some suspicion had early crossed Mr. T. Land- seer's mind, that the statements of Ilebinson were not true ; and after a long delay, he brought an action against him for defaming Mrs. Landseer. The case was heard in the King's Bench yesterday. The principal object of the evidence examined, was to prove ti nit Mr. Robin- son was the author of an anonymous letter to Mr. Landseer senior, in Which the alleged guilty conduct of his daughter-in-law was first set forth. There was some discrepancy in tile teetinaony- given on this point ; but the Jury found against Robinson—damages 300/. The defendant has written us a letter complaining of having been taken by surprise, and expresses his intention to move the Court for a new trial.