434 ACTION FOR A LIBEL, ETC. [1821. 



not what they were, for innocent they could not be. 

 I care not whether he was paying court to some 

 patron, or looking up with a general aspect of syco- 

 phancy to the bounty of power, or whether it was 

 mere mischief and wickedness, or whether the outrage 

 proceeds from sordid and malignant feelings combined, 

 and was the base offspring of an union not unnatural, 

 however illegitimate, between interest and spite. But 

 be his motives of a darker or lighter shade, innocent 

 they could not have been ; and unless the passage I 

 have read proceeded from innocency, it would be a 

 libel on you to doubt that you will find it a libel. 



" Of the illustrious and ill-fated individual who was 

 the object of this unprovoked attack I forbear to 

 speak. She is now removed from such low strife, 

 and there is an end, I cannot say of her checkered 

 life, for her existence was one continued scene of suf- 

 fering, of disquiet, of torment, from injustice, oppres- 

 sion, and animosity by all who either held or looked 

 up to emolument or aggrandisement all who either 

 possessed or coveted them ; but the grave has closed 

 over her unrelenting persecutions. Unrelenting I may 

 well call them, for they have not spared her ashes. 

 The evil passions which beset her steps in life have not 

 ceased to pursue her memory, with a resentment more 

 relentless, more implacable, than death. But it is yours 

 to vindicate the broken laws of your country. If your 

 verdict shall have no effect on the defendant if he still 

 go on unrepentiug and unabashed it will at least teach 

 others, or it will warn them and deter them from violat- 

 ing the decency of private life, betraying sacred public 

 duties, and insulting the majesty of the law."* 



* The jury found him guilty, without a moment's hesitation. 



