Kidd V. Royal Agricultural Society of England. 485 
us have a sufficient portion of the cake, in order that some analyst and professor 
of skill and experience might have in his hand a portion of that which they 
have impuf;ned in this article, they have, upon various grounds, refused it. 
They first asked us, " What is your object in making this request ?" AVell, I 
should think our object would l3e pretty plain. Then they suggest this : " We 
have got a distinguished chemist " (who is no doubt responsible for this Che- 
, mical Report), " Dr. Voelcker: let him join with some other person and make 
a joint analysis." But, Gentlemen, it is obvious that such a course would 
have been fruitless. If our analyst had been certain to agree with Dr. Voelc- 
ker, well and good, but how could you have a joint analysis if the two analysts 
I dififered at the time they were making it ? What we wanted was that some 
; independent third person should make an analysis, but that opportunity was 
not afforded us. I make this remark because in these cases the counsel 
.opening the Plaintiffs case, where tliere is a plea of justification on the record, 
has two courses open to him : he may either grapple at once with the plea of 
justification and endeavour beforehand to demolish the structure which is 
threatened to be set up by the other side, or he may take another course ; and 
I must say, looking at the fact that the Defendants have deprived us of the 
opportunity of having an analysis made of this cake, and thus left us in the 
.dark as to the particular course which my friend is going to take, as to how 
■far he will prove the allegations which are alleged — I must say, as the burden 
is upon him of proving that which he asserts, I think the better way of 
deahng with this case will be to let the responsibility rest iipon him, and 
when he makes out a case which calls upon me for an answer, I will venture 
to accept his challenge, and then I have no doubt, before the case is over I 
; shall be in a position to p)i"ove that the charge which has been made by the 
! Agricultural Society against the Plaintiff in this action — however praise- 
I worthy the motives of the Society may have been — is without foundation, 
,and that Mr. Kidd supplied to the gentleman named in the libel, not that 
.which was deleterious to the health of the cattle, but a good nourishing 
cake equal in quality to that which has hitherto enabled him to gain the 
confidence of thousands of customers and farmers from one end of England 
to the other. 
The ' Mark Lane Express and Agricultural Journal' of 11th March, 1872, 
containmg the Quarterly Report of the Chemical Committee and the libel com- 
plained of, was then put in and read, and the correspondence betweeii the 
solicitors on each side, of which the following letters are the most im- 
iPortant : — 
IG, Bowlalley Lane, Hull, 15th March, 1872. 
Sm, — We have been consulted by Mr. S. Gr. Kidd, of Hull, seed-crusher, 
with reference to the statements made in the Quarterly Report of the 
Chemical Committee of your Society as to cake alleged to have been made 
iby him. We have to inform you that the statements in such Report, so 
far as refei-s to our client, not only generally but in all their details, are 
fsimply untrue. 
) The Report sanctioned by the high authority of your Society is doing and 
Imust do our client incalculable injury, and our client has no alternative but 
to seek the redress and public refutation of the statements which a judicial 
■investigation alone can afford. 
The publicity given to your Report in many of the leading papers of the 
kingdom renders it impossible that mere retraction of the statements can purge 
.the effect which, to the injury of our client, they have produced. We are, 
(however, desirous to avoid anything of a vexatious character in the matter, or 
personal annoyance to your Chemical Committee or other members of your 
iCouncil, and therefore write to yovi to be furnished with a copy of the Report, 
ind to know if your Society will take the responsibility of the publication of 
1 
