138 
VETERINARY JURISPRUDENCE. 
who had that power. That this was not a malicious motive he 
need hardly tell them, because if they thought that his being 
removed from that office was for the wellbeing of the college, it was 
a matter of duty on their part to endeavour to prove that object. 
The pursuer had said he could not account for the disturbances, 
unless the principal was at the bottom of them, by urging certain of 
the students to create the disturbances for the purpose of making 
his seat too hot to hold him. That was a very strong suggestion. 
But, apart from that, was there no other cause for these disturb¬ 
ances? There was one witness whose evidence had made a great 
impression upon him—a witness for the pursuer : apparently a very 
intelligent and candid young man, of the name of Jerrard, and he 
wished to read to them his evidence. His Lordship then read the 
evidence of Jerrard, in which he stated that he considered the dis¬ 
turbances to have been caused by Mr. M‘Bride being too familiar 
with the students. His Lordship then said he thought that was a 
very good reason, but it would be for the jury to consider the cause 
of the disturbances as most consistent with the evidence. After 
dwelling at some length on the relations between the pursuer and 
the defenders, his Lordship said the next great point by the pursuer 
against the defenders was the matter of malice on their part, in 
having falsely represented this letter to be the unanimous opinion of 
the entire college, consisting of three, the two defenders and 
Dr. Strangeways: whereas the pursuer said that Dr. Strangeways 
was not of that mind at all, and gave no authority to any person to 
represent him as agreeing to this letter. His Lordship then referred 
to Dr. Strangeways’ evidence in regard to the letter, and said it was 
not surprising that the defenders should have drawn the inference 
that Dr. Strangeways agreed to it. The only other matter for con¬ 
sideration was the evidence which had been brought for the purpose 
of showing malice, and that Principal Williams was the grand author 
of the disturbance in Mr. McBride’s class. This was a most grave 
charge, and one which required their most serious consideration, 
because if it was established, nothing could be more ruinous to the 
character of Mr. Williams. On the other hand, if they held it to be 
false, they could hardly do so without imputing perjury to at least 
one witness. The improbability of such a charge was an element of 
some force. They would consider whether Mr. Williams’ interest 
as well as his feelings were not likely to be very much wound up 
and engaged in the prosperity of this institution, of which he was 
the head, and whether he was likely to have prompted such dis¬ 
graceful disturbances in the institution, which must bring the 
greatest disgrace upon it, and lead to its utter ruin and destruc¬ 
tion. But still it was a question of fact in the evidence. Now, he 
need hardly tell them that this charge depended entirely upon the 
evidence of the girl Catherine Smith. He did not mean to say that 
there was not enough in the circumstances of the case, taken in con¬ 
nection with her evidence, to entitle them to arrive at that conclusion 
if they implicitly believed in her evidence. It had been said by the 
pursuer’s counsel that this evidence had been corroborated, and for 
