and when I come to address the Jury, I shall | justification whatever has been attempted,) certainly take occasion to remind them that he will have a further opportunity of shewthey must discharge it totally from their re- ing to the world, that Mr. Cobbett never collection. attempted to justify the truth of it, that he did not wait to consult counsel, but took his immediate determination to enter no justification upon the record. Gentlemen, I submit that, under these circumstances, you must quit the box before you pronounce a verdict of damages. Let those damages be ever so low, that verdict will be sufficient t♬ establish, that Mr. Plunkett has completely vindicated his character, and will shew to the world, that what was alleged against him was untrue. Gentlensen, I am persuaded that the Plaintiff does not come here to take out of the pocket of Mr. Cobbett a sum, which would not enrich him, but make Mr. Cobbett poor indeed. Gentlemen, I' shall not trouble you with any farther obser- ́ vations, but shail conclude with expressing my firm reliance, that you will not inflict a punishment beyond what the justice of the case requires. Mr ADAM. I feel a considerable degree of embarrassment at this interruption. I did not interrupt my learned friend when he was impressing your minds with the idea that Mr. Cobbett was the author of this li, bel.--Gentlemen, the point on which I was addressing you was this, that if such words have been attributed to Mr. Plunkett, 1 was submitting to you, that after five years of silent acquiescence on the part of Mr. Plunkett, after suffering the expressions here attributed to him to be sent to every corner of the kingdom in the form of newspapers and of pamphlets, it would be an extremely hard case to inflict severe damages upon Mr. Cobbett for the mere republication of them. Lord ELLENBOROUGH. I have no ob jection to your stating this as matter of supposition, but, in the shape of evidence, it cannot possibly be admitted. Mr. ADAM. My Lord, I was just about to state, that I did not mean to proceed further into the detail of this subject. Gentlemen, I wish you to consider in what state this cause stands, and what the circumstances are which entitle my learned friend to demand such excessive damages. I have stated to you the situation of Mr. Cobbett and that of his family, and I trust I have done it with decorum. With regard to the Plaintiff, Mr. Plunkett, you have it in evidence, that he was his Majesty's Solicitor General in Ireland at the time of the publication, and you also have it in evidence, that he is still in the confidence of the Irish government; but you have no evidence, that any step whatever has been taken to remove him from the situation which he enjoys. Has he received any injury by the publication ? Is he not still his Majesty's Solicitor-General? Is he not still in the high career to honours and emoluments? I ask then, as my learned friend has not produced one single circumstance to prove to you that Mr. Plunkett has been injured by the publication in question,-I ask, I say, whether, under all these circumstances, this is a case which calls for those excessive damages which my Jearned friend has entreated you to give? Gentlemen, you have already passed a verdict of guilty upon the information for public criminality. You are now considering an action for private damages. Mr. Plunkett has received redress as to the former, and if you should find, as I suppose you will find, the Defendant guilty, (as no LORD ELLENBOROUGH.- Gentlemen; this is an action for reparation in damages for a civil injury done to Mr. Plunkett, the Solicitor General of Irelan, by the publication of a libel, with the contents of which you have been made fully acquainted. The defendant's counsel has admitted, that the preliminary proof has been adduced, and no justification appears on the record. The only question, therefore, for your consideration is, the quality of the libel, and the measure of damages you will give in the exercise of your sound discretion. You will lay out of your consideration the antecedent matter of the criminal trial, on which the Defendant has been convicted. This is an action for the injury done to the fair fame of an individual, and to ascertain the damages to which he is entided. That which gave the public a title to reparation, ought not, however to operate to the abridgement of the right of a particular individual who complains of a private injury. It will be for you to consider carefully the circumstances of the case and the malignity of the libel, and to say, what reparation in damages the plaintiff ought to receive. These damages are not to be reduced by the poverty of the defendant, if he is poor, nor increased by his wealth. if he is rich; but are to be admeasured by the size and magnitude of the injury done to the Plaintiff. The only way of measuring the extent of the injury done to a man's fame is, by asking yourselves, what would make my mind and my feelings an adequate compensation if such a libel as this were true? That it is not true is ad. mitted. If it were true, it would have been open to the Defendant to have justified it on the record. If a man thinks proper to assert that which it is difficult to prove, or represent that which cannot be revealed, they are difficulties of his own creating, and the libel must go forth accredited or discredited, according to the circumstances. But, gentlemen, as to the first part of the libel, I take the principle gravamen of the injury to lie in that passage which commences with the words, that viper whont my father nourished!" To this passage I am desirous of drawing your particular attention; and, really, it seems hardly possible to depict a person in more odious colours than are here employed. I would a-k, what could give more pain to a virtuous mind, than to insinuate that he had acted like our common enemy, "the seducer 'ere the accuser of mankind;" that he had first seduced and af. terwards destroyed whom he had first corrupted; that he had instilled into the mind of Mr. Emmett, the son of his friend, principles of disloyalty and rebellion, and had afterwards, not in the ordinary exercise of his duty, but "with a speech to evidence" wantonly lashed the man to whom he was under family obligations, and who was the pupil of his own sedition? It appears to me hardly possible to depict any one under more odious colours. It matters not whether the defendant be the author or only the publisher and adopter of another man's malignity. If he choses to send it into the world, he is criminal and guilty, and is liable to all the consequences. Leaving the other parts of the libel out of the question, I shall shortly call your attention to that part which relates to the plaintiff. It says, "if any one man could be found, of whom a young "but unhappy victim of the justly offended "laws of his country had, in the moment of "his conviction and sentence, uttered the "following apostrophe That viper! "whom my father nourished!" Is it possi ble to state any thing more detestable, than that a person, who had been nourished by the father of a man who had rendered himself amenable to the infliction of the law, should insult and sting his son to death? "He it was from whose lips I first imbibed those principles and doctrines, which now by their effects drag me to my grave; and he it is who is now brought "forward as my prosecutor, and who, by "an unheard of exercise of the preroga“tive, has wantonly lashed with a speech "to evidence the dying son of his former "friend, when that dying son had produced no evidence, had made no defence; but; "on the contrary, had acknowledged the charge, and had submitted to his fate. 66 -Lord Kenyon would have turned "with horror from such a scene, in which, although guilt was in one part to be pu "nished, yet, in the whole drama, justice was confounded, humanity outraged, and loyalty insulted." Gentlemen, this is the part which particularly presses on my mind, As to the language which the plaintiff may be supposed to have held in the Irish House of Parliament, it might, if true, render him unfit for recommendation to his Majesty — it might be improper. This, however, the defendant has not attempted to justify, But it is the other part of the libel, containing the most bitter and acrimonious obser vations that can possibly be made use of, to which I wish to confine your attention. Consider what situation Mr. Plunkett is in. He holds an office at all times and in all countries of an invidious nature; that of a public prosecutor, whose denunciations may probably terminate in the death of the criminal. The libel states, "that such a scene was acted as Lord Ke yon would "have turned away from with horror; a scene, in which, although guilt was in 66 one part to be punished, yet, in the whole "drama, justice was confounded, humanity "outraged, and loyalty, insulted." To say of a public officer of the crown, that he has acted in such a scene, is to imply that he is forgetful of every principle of justice, and is placing him in the lowest possible state of degradation. These, gentlemen, are the circumstances of this case. It is for you to say, without considering the capacity of the defendant as to his wealth or poverty, what reparation the plaintiff is entitled to receive from the justice of his country. Whatever you may determine upon, I have no doubt they will be such as ought to satisfy the party aggrieved; and, with these few obser, vations, i leave the decision in the hands of those to whom, by the constitution, it is solely referred. The Jury retired for about twenty mi nutes, and returned with a verdict for the Plaintiff Damages £500. LOYALTY OF THE IRISH CATHOLICS, (Concluded from p. 863.) During the tragical scenes of Wexford, he extended his protection to persons of all denominations, however differing in religious belief, to Pretestants, Presbyte rians, and Quakers; he exhausted his strength in speaking, pleading, and en treating in behalf of the unfortunate per sons, who were seized by the rebels, ́All this was done at the hazard of his own life; when he was surrounded by four or five thousand ruffians armed with pikes, and was continually assailed with threats and denunciations of vengeance. It was by the most earnest and unremitted endeavours from nine o'clock in the morning till eight at night that he saved the life of Lord Kingsborough. It is true he appeared pubTicly in the streets, with the utmost confidence, but was frequently stopped, at every step, to receive the thanks and congratulations of Protestants, for having saved them. (See Plowden ibidem pp. 759, 751) Jackson a Protestant was rescued from the fury of the rebels, by the interposition of the clergy, and the account which he gives of their meritorious conduct, is too remarkable not to be inserted. "The conduct of the Roman Catholic " clergy of Wexford cannot be too much "commended. The titular Bishop "Caulfield, Father Corrin, Father Broe, "and indeed the whole of the priests and "friars of that town, on all occasions, used their interests, and exerted their * abilities in the cause of humanity. Every Sunday after mass, they addressed their audiences, and implored them in the "most earnest manner not to ill treat their prisoners, and not to have upon their "consciences the reflexion of having shed "innocent blood. When they heard of "executions going forward, they fled to "the spot, and by every entreaty endea voured to rescue the victims from de"struction. Sometimes they succeeded; "and when they failed, they shewed sufficiently, how sensibly they felt for "the unhappy persons they could not save. "The gallant Lord Kingsborough owed his life to the resolute interposition of the "Catholic bishop." (Ibidem p. 756.) This explicit declaration of Jackson is an ample refutation of the assertions of Sir Richard Musgrave, on the subject of Dr. Caulfield and the clergy of Wexford. If the smallest doubt respecting the innocence of this respectable and much injured prelate, still remains on the minds of any of my readers, I beg leave to refer to two official documents, which place the matter beyond the reach of controversy. After the rebellion had subsided, and the appearance of Sir Richard Musgrave's history had raised considerable prejudice against Dr. Caulfield, Colonel Littlehales was directed by the Lord Lieutenant to inform Dr. Troy that government would give Dr. Caulfield that protrection which from his conduct and character, as a loyal subject, be appears justly to merit. The le.ter of Lord Cornwallis secretary is dated May 11th, 1800. The same gentleman tells Dr. Troy in another letter dated June 30th, 1800, that he had laid his letter with the enclosure from Dr. Caulfield before the Lord Lieutenant who desired him to say that his Excellence kas no cause whatsoever to alter the opinions he has imbibed of the loyalty and proper deportment of Dr. Caulfield. To this honourable testimony in favour of the Catholic Bishop of Ferns, it would be an insult to the understanding of my readers to add any comment. (See the two letters, Plowden, ibidem, pp. 744 and 745.) The ridiculous charge against a bishop of distributing ready made absolutions for murders to be committed deserves not a serious refutation. The passage to which your correspondent alludes in Dr. Hussey's pastoral letter he appears not to understand; I recommend it to his perusal second time, and he will find that his apprehensions of the vast rock exist only in his own imagination. The language of the bi-hop is strongly figurative; and in plain English he means to say that all attempts to resist the total repeal of the popery laws are unavailing, and that the opposers of this measure will be crushed by the weight of an opposite party in a fair and legal contest-Having thus, Sir, closed my remarks on every part of your correspondent's letter, I now beg leave to refer the decision of the affair to his own judgment. Can he with any confidence suppose, that he has made good his charge. of disloyalty against the Catholics of Ireland? Can he for a moment imagine that his pretended proofs, from councils, de crees and rules carry with them the smallest weight? However partial he may be to his own cause, he must be con strained by the evidence of facts to acknowledge that he has miscarried in what he is pleased to term the defence of Lord Redesdale. The observations, with which he closes his letter demand some reply. He remarks that during the last 60 years many laws have been enacted in favour of Roman Catholics and none against them. Does not this statement prove that the government of the country entertains a more favourable idea of the principles of Catholics, than the author of the singular letter under consideration? And if the loyalty of rinted by Cox and Baylis, No. 75, Great Queen Street, and published by R. Bagshaw, Bow Street, Covent Garden, where former Numbers may be had; sold also by J. Budd, Crown and Mitre, Pall-Mall, the Catholics has thus attracted the attention of government, what prevents the completion of the work so well begun? What obstructs the execution of a great plan so necessary to consolidate the late union, and to promote the general harmony of the empire? His assertion that Catho lies are restrained from nothing but power is contrary to fact. To say nothing of their exclusion from every emolument and office in the state, every post of any consequence in the army and navy, at a time when the energy of the whole empire should be exerted, there are penal laws of an odious nature still in fo ce. Such are those which regard relapsing papists, and those which debar the bravest defenders of the country from a free and uncontrouled exercise of their religion.- -Here, Sir, I beg leave to close my letter, with my last advice to your correspondent to weigh well his own strength, bef re he commits any further observations to the censure of the world. --THE BRITISH OBSERVER. EMPEROR OF THE FRENCH. The On the 15th of May, the Senate, under the Presidency of Canbaceres, decreed the organic Senatus Consultum, which confers the title of Emperor on the First Consul, and establishes the Imperial Dignity hereditary in his family. It instantly decreed, that the members should immediately repair to St. Cloud, to present the organic Senatus Consultum to the Emperor. They set out after the close of the siung, accompanied by several bodies of troops. Senate, on its arrival, being immediately admitted to an audience of the Emperor, the Consul Cambaceres, the President, presented the organic Senatus Consultuni to the First Consul, and spoke as follows :-"Sire,-The decree which the Senate has passed, and which it takes the earliest opportunity of presenting to your Imperial Majesty, is only the authentic expression of a will already manifested by the nation. This decree, which confers on you a new title, and which after you secures the dig. nity hereditary to your race, adds nothing either to your glory or to your rights. The love and gratitude of the French people have, for four years, entrusted to your Majesty the reins of government, and the constitutions of the state reposed in you the choice of a successor. The most augest denomination, decreed to you, is then only a tribute which the nation pays to its own dignity, and to the necessity if experiences of giving you daily testimonies of respect and of attachment, which every day in crease.How could the French people find bounds to its gratitude, when you place none to your care and solicitude for it? Preserving the remembrance of the vis which it suffered when abandoned to itself, how could it reflect without enthusiasm on the happiness it has experienced, since Providence inspired it with the idea of throwing itself into your arms? Its armies were defeated; its finances were in disorder; public credit was annihilated; fac. tions were disputing for the remains of our ancient splendor; every idea of morality, and even of religion, was obscured; the habit of giving a d resuming power, left the magistrates without consideration, and even rendered odious every kind of autho. rity. Your Majesty appeared; you recall. ed victory to our standards; you established order and economy in the public expenses; the nation, encouraged by the use you made of your authority, re-umed confidence in its own resources; y ur wi dom allayed the rage of party; religion saw her altars raised up; ideas of justice and injustice were awakened in the minas of the citizens, when they saw crimes followed by punishment, and virtue signalized and rewarded with honourable distinctions. In the last place, and it is no doubt the greatest of the miracles operated by your genius, that people, who e civil effervescence had rendered them patient of every restraint, and hostile to every authority, were by your means made to cherish and respect a power which was exercised only for their glory and repose.--The French poele do not pretend to establish themselves judges of the constitutions of other states; they have no critical remarks to make; no examples to follow; experience in future will become their guide. They have tasted for ages the advantages attached to hereditary power; they have made a short but painful trial of the contrary system; they return by the effect of free and mature deliberation to a path suited to their genius. They make a free use of their rights, to delegate to your Imperial Majesty a power which your interest forbids you to exercise by yourself. They stipulate for future generations, and by a solemn compact entrust to the offspring of your race, the happiness of their posterity.,. The latter will imitate your virtues, the former will inherit our love and our, fidelity. Happy the nation which, after so much trouble and uncertainty, finds in its bosom, a man worthy of appeasing the tempest, of the passions, of conciliating all interests, and uniting all voices! Happy the Prince who holds his Supplement to No. 23, Vol. V.-Pric↳ Od. power by the will, the confidence, and the affection of the citizens!If it be in the principles of our constitution, and already several examples of this kind have been given, to submit to the sanction of the people that part of the decree which concerns the establishment of an hereditary government; the Senate have thought that it ought to entreat your Imperial Majesty to consent that the organic dispositions should be immediately carried into exccution; and that, for the glory as well as the happiness of the Republic, Napoleon may be immediately proclaimed Emperor of the French." The Emperor replied in the following terms: "Every thing that can contribute to the good of the country is essentially connected with my happiness. I accept the title which you think necessary to the glory of the nation. I submit to the sanction of the people the law of hereditary succession. I hope France will never repent of its having surrounded with honours my family. In all cases my spirit will cease to be present with my posterity, the day on which it shall cease to deserve the love and confidence of the great nation." The Senate being then admitted to an audience of her Majesty the Empress, the Consul Cambaceres, the President, said: "Madam,-We have just presented to your august spouse the decree which confers on him the title of Emperor, which establishes the government hereditary in his family, and associates future generations in the happiness of the present race. A very agreeable duty remains to be performed by the Senate-that of offering to your Imperial Majesty the homage of its respect, and an expression of the gratitude of the French.-Yes, Madam, fame proclaims the good which you are continually doing; it says, that being always accessible to the unfortunate, you employ your influence with the chief of the state only to relieve distress, and that to the pleasure of obliging, your Majesty adds that amiable delicacy which renders gratitude sweeter and the kindness more valuable.This disposition presages, that the name of the Empress Josephina will be the signal of consolation and of hope, and as the virtues of Napoleon will always serve as an example to his successors, to teach them the art of governing nations; the living remembrance of your goodness, will teach their august consorts that the care of drying up tears is the most effectual means of preserving an empire over all hearts.-The Senate thinks itself happy in the opportunity of being the first to salute you Empress, and he who has the honour of being its organ, takes the liberty to hope that you will deign to reckon him among the number of your most faithful servants." The Organic Senatus Consultum was then proclaimed by the Emperor.-His Imperial Majesty nominated to the dignity of Grand Elector, his Imperial Highness, Prince Joseph Buonaparté; to that of Constable, his Imperial Highness Prince Louis Buonaparté; to that of Arch-Chancellor of the Empire, the Consul Cambaceres; and to that of Arch-Treasurer, the Consul Lebrun. The Arch-Chancellor of the Empire, the Arch-Treasurer, and Constable, took the oaths in the presence of the Emperor. The Arch Chancellor of the Empire presented the Ministers and Secre tary of State, who took the oaths betore the Emperor.- -The Constable then presented Generals d'Avoust and Bessieres, as well as General Murat, Governor of Paris. -The Arch-Chancellor of the Empire presented also General Duroc, Governor of the Imperial Palace, who took the oath. -His Imperial Majesty then addressed to Consuls Cambaceres and Lebrun the following letter: "Citizen Consul Cambaceres,--Your title is about to be changed; but your functions and my confidence remain the same. In the high dignity of Arch-Chancellor, with which you are going to be invested, you will manifest, as you have done in that of Consul, the wisdom of your counsels, and those distinguished talents which have given you so important a share in all the good that I can have done.—I have nothing therefore to request of you but the continuation of the same sentiments for the state and for me. NAFOLEON." Done at the Palace of St. Cloud, 28 Floreal, Year 12, (May 18, 1804). On the 20th of May the following Decree was made by the Emperor: Napoleon, Emperor of the French, decrees the following Generals to be Marshals of the Empire:-Berthier, Murat, Moncey, Jourdan, Massena, Augereau, Bernadotte, Soult, Brune, Lannes, Mortier, Ney, Devoust, Bessieres.The title of Marshals of the Empire to be given to the following Senators: Kellerman, Lefebre, Perignon, Serrurier. (Signed) NAPOLEON. Done at St. Cloud, &c. &c. &c. The French Princes and Princesses are to be addressed by the title of their Imperial Highnesses; and the Sisters of the Emperor |