The Attorney-General did not do credit either to himself or
to the Government he advised, when he counselled the policy of -defeating Mr. Edmunds' libel suit against the Treasury—a libel for defaming his character by imputing to him embezzlement of fees of the Patent Office,—by the technical plea that he could not prove the publication of the libel by the defendants. It is perfectly notorious that the reflections on Mr. Edmunds' character were published by the authority of the Government, and this had in- deed been frankly admitted in a previous suit, though the admis- sion could not be used in this suit. Nor is it reputable for the .Government to seem to sneak off on such a plea as this, where the 'fairness of their conduct is inculpated, though that conduct is, as most people believe, perfectly defensible both in law and in morality -on the merits of the case. Mr. Edmunds has been non-suited, but the effect has been to produce a general impression that the Gov- ernment had no defence on the merits of the case, else they would not have resorted to such a defence. Sir J. D. Coleridge wants breadth and manliness of conception as the legal adviser of the Crown.
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