APPENDIX TO CHRONICLE. 341 



that she stood there with re- 

 verence, but without fear. Fear, 

 indeed, was the inseparable con- 

 comitant of guilt, and of any 

 offence iu a moral view her con- 

 science entirely acquitted her. 

 She did not appear there per- 

 sonally from any feeling of pre- 

 sumption, but from her inability 

 to procure counsel. That inabi- 

 lity was caused by a debt due to 

 her brother, which the plaintiff 

 refused to pay, and her own dis- 

 inclination to encroach on the 

 comforts of a widowed parent. 

 She might be indiscreet, but she 

 M'as not conscious of criminality. 

 It was the first time that she had 

 ever entered a Court of Justice, 

 and no person could entertain a 

 deeper sense than herself of the 

 excellence of that enlightened 

 system of jurisprudence which 

 was established in this country. 

 The prosecutor would, however, 

 derive his chief advantage from 

 her ignorance of the law, for she 

 could only take the plain and 

 simple ground of denying the 

 falsehood and malice charged in 

 the indictment. With the per- 

 mission of the Court she would 

 now read a passage from Lord 

 Ellenborough's address to the 

 jury on the trial of William 

 Cobbett. [Here the lady read 

 an extract from the reported 

 speech of the Chief Justice, 

 touching the license of discussing 

 the character and conduct of men 

 in public offices.] The main 

 point on which she rested her 

 defence was, that Mr. Gurney 

 was a public officer, and that she, 

 and every other subject, were en- 

 titled to examine his conduct in 

 that capacity. She was fully 

 prepared to prove the truth of 



every statement contained in the 

 published letter. 



Mr. Justice Burrough. — That 

 the law of the land does not allow 

 you to do. 



The defendant proceeded, ex- 

 pressing a hope that she might at 

 least be allowed to prove that the 

 publication in question was no 

 libel. The jury, she trusted, 

 would not be induced by any 

 legal sophistry, to sanction a 

 principle equally adverse to reli- 

 gion and to morals — that truth 

 could be a libel. It was the 

 doctrine not of the law, but of 

 the abettors of tyranny, ever 

 vigilant to enslave mankind. 

 Vengeance, not the vindication 

 ot character, was the unworthy 

 and unmanly motive of the pro- 

 secutor. Had he been actuated 

 by a better feeling, he would 

 have brought his action, in which 

 as a lawyer he must have known, 

 that evidence might be produced 

 with regard to every fact stated in 

 the publication. He had, how- 

 ever, adopted the cowardly re- 

 source of indicting a female for 

 an act tending to a breach of the 

 peace ; he hinself having, not 

 long since, been sentenced to six 

 month's imprisonment by the 

 Court of King's Bench, for a 

 positive breach of the peace in 

 horse-whipping the present Soli- 

 citor-General. The statement 

 which she had sent to the editor 

 of the West Briton referred 

 wholly to the official and public 

 conduct of the prosecutor ; and 

 with great submission to the 

 Court, she apprehended that the 

 conduct of every person in a 

 public station was open to public 

 examination. This position, as 

 she had before stated, she had 



the 



