[list-cumbria] Carlisle Patriot, 13 Mar 1824 - Cumberland Spring Assizes (36)

[Petra Mitchinson]

Saturday 13 Mar 1824   (p. 1, col. 5 - p. 4, col. 5, and p. 1, col. 4)

 

CUMBERLAND SPRING ASSIZES. 

 

NISI PRIUS. 

  

[continued] 

 

LIBEL. 

BLOWE v. IRWIN. 

 

Mr. ALDERSON said that, in this case, Daniel BLOWE was the Plaintiff, and George IRWIN the Defendant. The declaration stated that
the defendant had written and published a wilful and malicious libel of and concerning the plaintiff, as follows:- "THE JOURNAL-We
stop the press to inform our readers that the above old dying thing has, after a fortnight's hammering, botched up a something
respecting us. We do not set it down to the account of either the Proprietors, for, clumsy as it is, their heads are infinitely too
thick even for its composition. Nor do we think a man entrusted with the education of youth would stoop to write so disgraceful an
article; therefore, we are bound to attribute it to the " 'Scape from the gallows (a FACT) genius' whom our readers may have seen
goggling about with a pair of huge spectacles upon his nose." 

 

Another count set forth that the defendant meant to insinuate that plaintiff had committed high treason or felony. 

 

Mr. ALDERSON then addressed the Jury with earnestness at considerable length.-It was his duty, he said, on behalf of the aggrieved
party, to seek reparation at the hands of the Jury for an injury of no trivial nature. The plaintiff was in the employment of the
Messrs. JOLLIE, printers of the Carlisle Journal, who had been engaged in some contest with the defendant, who was the publisher of
a fortnightly paper called "The Citizen." What might have been the particular transactions which led to the grievance complained of,
he (Mr. A.) knew not, nor was it material for the Jury to know. It was enough for them to learn that the plaintiff had sustained
considerable injury from the gross imputation which had been cast upon him; namely, the imputation that he had committed either
high-treason or felony; for that this was the meaning which the defendant himself intended, he (Mr. A.) should be able to prove most
satisfactorily out of his own mouth. It was not necessary, the learned gentleman apprehended, at this advanced period, for him to
enter into a dissertation on the Liberty of the Press. No one, he presumed, would now depreciate that; he should therefore content
himself with observing, that while on the one hand its advantages were many and great, so, on the other, its disadvantages were few
and very trifling. But whatever might be people's opinions as to the freedom of the press, he never yet had found one who thought it
necessary for discussion or statement to go beyond the bounds of truth-no one who said that it was either useful or expedient to
publish that of another which was not true.-Now we say, continued Mr. ALDERSON, that the defendant, in what he has published
respecting us, has gone beyond the bounds of truth;-and we say, also, that he has aggravated his offence by publishing that untruth
as a fact-that when we challenge him to prove his assertions, or call upon him to give them efficient contradiction, he declines
doing so. Suppose it were said of one of you, Gentlemen, that you had escaped from the gallows; you would naturally feel the
imputation a most grievous injury, and would think it a duty which you owed to yourselves, to your friends, to society, to seek
redress from the laws of your country. If this were said of you in a ludicrous way, in a copy of verses, or in a fanciful
composition, I am one who think [sic] that it should either be passed unnoticed, or treated jocosely; and if this had been the case
on the present occasion, I do not say that I should have advised the plaintiff to trouble his head about such an accusation; because
the world would at once see the fanciful nature of the charge; no one would take it in earnest; it would be deemed the exaggeration
of the poet, the license of the wit, and widely at variance from sober truth. But when such an imputation is found in a dull
composition, people say, this man is dull; he writes in earnest; he would not be so dull unless he meant it to be true; nay more,
when he says you are a " 'scape gallows" in distinctive letters; when he puts in A FACT in still larger character, so as to call
attention to those vexatious and malicious words;-I say, when this is done, that person, whoever he may be, imputes a crime not to
be sat down under. And against whom is it that this is done in the present instance? A stranger. One who is come to reside a short
time in the town, dependent upon his character for every thing. One not brought up among the inhabitants and well known to them: so
that they must be naturally disposed to take upon trust whatever they may hear, because their knowledge of the person's life and
character enables them not to detect its falsehood. A stranger, then, in Carlisle, what could the plaintiff do but what he has done?
He might have gone to law, if he had chosen, without asking the defendant to retract. He did not do that. He demanded retraction;
and I shall prove that the defendant justified his injury, and said that he understood Mr. BLOWE had been imprisoned for high
treason in Ireland. But my client might have indicted. If he had, he would not have given Mr. IRWIN an opportunity of making his
threatened justification, for, according to the law of England, a man in that case cannot justify, be the imputation true or false.
He preferred having recourse to a Jury-to you, Gentlemen-to give the defendant an opportunity of putting his justification on the
record. He has challenged the defendant to produce his proof, and establish his charge, if founded in truth. The defendant,
Gentlemen, has declined this challenge; he has run from his threatened justification, and pleaded the general issue. Mr. BLOWE,
therefore, has gained something already; he has put down a calumny, and re-asserted his character. But that is not enough; you
Gentlemen, must give him damages for the injury which has been wantonly inflicted on him. Mr. BLOWE does not ask vindictive damages;
he asks such only as will set him right with the world-such moderate, reasonable compensation as is the due of a man who has been
cruelly aspersed, as is now admitted upon the record itself. You will hear an ingenious speech from my learned friend Mr.
BLACKBURNE, who appears for the defendant. He will turn the whole thing into ridicule and be very merry. He will tell you that it is
only a common squabble between two newspaper editors, not worthy of a moment's serious consideration. Gentlemen, keep your eyes
fixed upon the libel-let them not wander from the "FACT." 

 

 

[to be continued] 

 

 

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