APPENDIX TO CHRONICLE. 



29i 



Mant V, Peyton. — This was an 

 action of slander, brought by a 

 gentleman, who had been for- 

 merly a surgeon in the Navy, when 

 he was confidentially employed by 

 persons interested in the Mediter- 

 ranean prizes, and had since been 

 in the militia service, against a 

 Captain in the Navy, the nephew 

 of Admiral Peyton. The plaintiff 

 being about to be married to a 

 Miss Winkworth, whom he has 

 since married, the defendant ar- 

 rived from abroad at Deal, where 

 her family resided, on the 7th of 

 August last, and hearing to whom 

 the lady, whom he had long known, 

 was about to be united, said, at 

 the house of Mr. Trownsell, in 

 the presence of her grandmother 

 and aunt, and Mr. arid Mrs. 

 Trownsell, that the plaintiff was a 

 lying swindling rascal ; and that 

 if Miss W. married him, she 

 would go to ruin ; that if the 

 family were not satisfied with his 

 assertion, a friend of his, Capt. 

 Campbell, of Portsmouth, would 

 corroborate the fact ; that the 

 plaintiff was a great brute and a 

 liar, of a most savage disposition, 

 and very unfit for a husband for 

 Miss W. ; that he was flourishing 

 away with property he had sold 

 abroad in the Mediterranean, 

 which consisted of prizes made by 

 the squadron, and that Capt. Camp- 

 bell was ready to corroborate this. 

 Miss W. was in town at this time, 

 preparing for the marriage, which 

 was to be celebrated the next day ; 

 and in consequence of these words, 

 the witness. Miss Iggnlden, the 

 lady's aunt, wrote to her mother 

 the same evening, and the mar- 

 riage consequently did not take 

 place till a week after the day for 

 which it was tixed. Upon their 



cross-examination the witnesses 

 admitted that they had heard si- 

 milar reports to the plaintiff's dis- 

 advantage two years before, but 

 these were satisfactorily explained 

 away before he was received as a 

 suitor. They also admitted that 

 the defendant's communication 

 was made to none but intimate 

 friends of the family, and was 

 considered as confidential ; but 



Lord Ellenborough thought, that 

 the plaintift' ought not to be non- 

 suited upon this evidence, which 

 was enough to go to the Jury, 

 whether the occasion warranted 

 the communication, and whether 

 it was made bona fide in the dis- 

 charge of a friendly duty, or offi- 

 ciously so as to bear the character 

 of malice. 



Mr. Topping then addressed the 

 Jury for the defendant, and called 

 Mr. Trownsell, who proving that 

 tfie communication, which was 

 originally made to him before he 

 sent for the lady's family, was en- 

 tirely confidential. 



Lord Ellenborough held, that 

 the law threw around it its pro- 

 tection, and the plaintiff was non- 

 suited. 



The witness, Miss Iggulden, re- 

 ferring to the letter which she 

 had written to the lady's mother, 

 after the speaking of the words, to 

 refresh l>er memory with them, 

 Mr. Topping objected to this pro- 

 ceeding, the letter not being writ- 

 ten immediately afterwards, as a 

 mere depository for those words, 

 but as a free report of them for a 

 purpose foreign to the present 

 action. 



Lord Ellenborough allowed her 

 to adopt this poceeding; and 

 »aid, that it had been held by Lord 

 Mansfield, that this was not only 



