In the Court of King's Bench, on Wednesday, Mr. S.
Derbisbito was tried on a charge of assault upon Mr. Long Wellesley. An attempt was made, by the prosecutor's counsel, to procure a postponement di the trial, on account of Mr. Wellesley's absence from England ; hutilM Court refused the application; and no evidence being given against this defendant, he was acquitted.
An action was brought in the Court of Exchequer, on Wednesday, by George Furzey, (the man who was tried and acquitted on a charge of stabbing two Policemen at the famous Calthorpe Street meeting) against the proprietor of the Morning Chronicle, for a libel, contained is the following paragraph, which appeared in the Chronicle on the 21st of June last.
" (From a Correspondent.)—It is confidently statcd that Furzey. who has been elm- rained at the late Cold Bath Fields meeting, is clearly identified by a disinteresteti witness as the murderer of the unfortunate Culley. The person alluded to was taken few days since to the prison of Newgate, and selected Furzey from among several odor prisoners, as being the person whom he had seen give the fatal blow, and he is to appear at the trial of the prisoner at the ensuing Old Bailey Sessions to prove the fact."
The damages were laid at a thousand pounds. Mr. Charles Phillips spoke at length for the plaintiff, and Mr. Platt for the defendant. •
Lord Chief Baron Lyndhurst said—It was admitted that the publication was i a libel, and that the plaintiff was entitled to a verdict ; and, indeed, it would have been difficult to'have disputed that to charge a man with being identified as a murderer was not a libel, and a libel of a gross character. The plaintiff says that it was rendered peculiarly grievous to him, because he was under pro- secution; and to circulate it a short time before his trial, was calculated to do bins great injury in the judgment of that tribunal by whom his guilt or innocence was to be decided. This, stripped of all extraneous matter, was the case.
The Jury, after half an hours' consultation, returneda verdict for the plaintiff, damages forty pounds.
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