MAYHEW V. SPOONER. 
159 
vindication which, I say, every man who brings the character of 
another man into question, without having sufficient foundation for 
what he has said, is bound to do ; otherwise, he puts his opponent 
under the necessity of coming .to a court of justice to vindicate his 
character. That is the position which Mr. Mayhew is placed in ; 
he has no object in coming forwindictive damages ; but he has been 
told, in the presence of fifty or sixty of the most respectable mem- 
bers of his profession, that he is a “ convicted libeller and dese- 
crator of the Christian faith and he says, these are too serious 
aspersions affecting the honour or character of any man to be sub- 
mitted to. I ask you to put yourselves in his situation ; how 
would you like any man in a public assembly to rise up, and say 
your statements are not to be believed; or that you were a man 
capable of slandering another ; that you had been convicted of a 
libel, and were not worthy of credit or belief in another respect, 
because you were wanting in religious faith, and not a believer in 
Christianity 1 Those are too serious aspersions to make on any 
man. I say it is the bounden duty of a man who makes such 
aspersions either to withdraw the statement, which he finds and 
knows to be untrue, or, if he cannot do that, to make that open 
apology or that open public retractation which such an aspersion 
unwarrantably and unjustifiably casts on the character of another 
ought justly to bring with it. 
Gentlemen, this is the case. As I said before, Mr. Mayhew 
does not come for damages, but to vindicate his character : this is 
the only means open to him, and I trust you will think he has 
been well founded in the course he has adopted, and that he has a 
right to come into court to vindicate himself from those aspersions. 
Mr. Spooner is here, I know, but what course he means to take I 
cannot tell : I suppose the object will be to reduce these damages 
to the lowest amount. I ask for no large or vindictive damages ; 
but I do ask you to mark your sense of the conduct of a man who 
makes these aspersions on the character of another, when, after- 
wards, he admits he has no means of supporting the charges he has 
made, and who at the same time has not the courage to avow he 
has been wrong, and to express his regret. 
Gentlemen, I am afraid it was not merely in the heat of the 
moment that arose from the discussion ; I am afraid that the seeds 
of this animosity were sown long before, and that really there was 
an unpleasant and bitter feeling in the mind of Mr. Spooner : I 
should be glad to think it was not so. That there had been a 
growing jealousy of Mr. Mayhew for some time there is not much 
room to doubt. At all events this is quite clear, that Mr. Spooner, 
whether in the heat of the moment, or from some lurking feeling of 
animosity, I care not which, as he does not choose to put it on the 
