290 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



lord, before Bucli paragraphs ever 

 found their way into the newspaper. 

 The paragraphs had found their 

 way into the public papers in the 

 usual manner, and the proprietors 

 had offered to take their oaths that 

 they were not the authors, and did 

 not know who were. Certainly he 

 was not an advocate for slander or 

 licentiousness in the press; but it 

 was evidentthatpublicpapers could 

 not be printed, if the conductors 

 were put to a strict justification of 

 the truth of every paragraph con- 

 tained in them. If they maliciously 

 invented falsehoods, or lent them- 

 selves wilfully to be the instruments 

 of malice in others, they should be 

 responsible as authors of those 

 calumnies; but if, without any ma- 

 lice, these paragraphs found their 

 way into their papers in the regular 

 course of their trade, they cer- 

 tainly were still responsible but 

 not in the same degree ; nor would 

 a jury visit them with so serious 

 damages. It was allowed, that 

 notwithstanding all the evils which 

 proceeded from the licentiousness 

 of the press, the publication of 

 daily newspapers, and the letting 

 the public know what was going 

 on, was of infinite advantage to the 

 liberties and happiness of the coun- 

 try. His learned friend had spoken 

 of the earl of Leicester and his wife 

 having lived happily together. How 

 did he attempt to prove it? Did he 

 call a single relation, servant, or 

 friend ? No ; all the evidence on 

 this point was, thjt his attorney 

 had seenlady Leicester at her lord's 

 table near a year after the marri- 

 age. The fact was, that so far from 

 having lived happily together, there 

 was nothing, perhaps, in the whole 

 history of married life more wretch- 

 ed. Three sleepless nights were 



all they passed together, and after 

 that time they were never in bed, 

 or seldom at board together. The 

 lady, in the agony of an almost 

 broken heart, and in spite of female 

 delicacy, was obliged to reveal the 

 wrongs she had suffered. She had 

 been obliged to sit down at the 

 table of her lord with wretches that 

 are a disgrace to human nature, 

 and who ought not to be permitted 

 to live. There was Neri, the Ita- 

 lian secretary, Hayling, Playfair, 

 and other wretches of that descrip- 

 tion. She was soon banished from 

 his house by such conduct. When 

 he was at Gloucester-place, she 

 used to be at Paddington, and when 

 he was at Paddington, she came to 

 Gloucester-place. The noble lord 

 had brought forward but one wit- 

 ness, who knew nothing of the mat- 

 ter. How came it that he brought 

 forward no relative, no friend of 

 rank and fashion equal to his own, 

 none of his juvenile friends, none of 

 the elders of the college in which 

 he was educated to support his cha- 

 racter ? On this subject there was 

 a gaping chasm, and it was thought 

 proper to preserve a profound si- 

 lence. He, like other gentlemen 

 of fortune, travelled in his youth, 

 but was accompanied by this Ita- 

 lian, Neri, who had been called his 

 secretary. This man he had kept 

 in a most expensive manner. When 

 Neri married, although he had not 

 a shilling of his own, and did not 

 get a shilling with his wife, yet tliey 

 took a house at a rent of 150/. 

 per annum, and Neri lived more 

 with his lordship than under his 

 own roof. 



Mr. Best appealed to his lord- 

 ship whether this line of defence 

 was to be endured. If it was, it 

 would be in the power of any de- 

 fendant 



