Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

rot , ir. PVILI&AKD WEEKLY, * * , .fr JOHN HODGE. r"i ‘.’ CONDITIONS. Anna*! r Hn will be thkib $ oollars, half in advance. # ? • >ir - r V - » *‘ 4 a t- r 2d Subscribers living out of the State will pay wit whole subscription upon the delivery of the Gr*t number?* “ J , ‘ 2d. *No Subscriptions will be received far less 1 than one year •, and no paper ,hall be dis continued until arrearages are paid. ;:\j dtb. « Advertisements will be inserted at the cu&tomary rates. ■r.WZf* Lettert addressed to the Editor be pottftfti l. ‘ MR PHHXTPS’ SPP.PCH. COURT ... OF COMMoNf PLEAS, PUBLW., V Tharsiav'i December - j !BJd* y * ±Cre ghten v. ‘ >T \ TTifa wa<* a special action on the case, brought by the Plaintiff to recover com pensation in damages for the seduction es hit .daughter bv the Defendant* ber ’ qu'd sertilfuni amisit. The Defendant pleaded the trcne *1 issu*. The daiiia* ges werolaid 60001 h was tried be* fore LorANorhn y and a special Jury. Mr Phillips addressed th“ Court and JurV| on bejialf of t ie Plaintiff, in the following eh. tent speech* / .. My Lord at \o Gentlemen,—l am, wifh'irsy learned brethren Counsel for the plaintiff My. friend Mr. Curran, has told you tjie nature of the action. It has fa’ien to my lot,to state mpre at larg* to you aggression by which it liis tieen occasioned Relieve rpe, it is with ho paltry affectation of undervalu ing my very huuvbic powers, that. I r T wish’ hc hAd selected some rienced, or atleast less crcdtilous advo cate,,. I feel l my duty t I am pot fit to address yotfr ; ijiavr incapa citated myself s I know not whether a wy of the calumnies which have so in iustriously anticipated this trial, have reached your cars ; but l do confess t they did so wound and poison mipe that to sitisfr my doubts “ I .Visited ihe house of misery and mourning and the scene ; which set scepticism at yest hns set de 1 itription at defiance. —Had %not yield «d to* those interested uaurepresenta tions, I flight from my brief have ftkei ehed the fact, and from my drawn w tlie consequences ; but as it Vs reality belore my frighred memory, and the tongv l ©* ami tnoc'ks,the i«n # agination Believeyhc Gentlemen, you aie impannelled there upon no ordinary occasion * nominally indeed, you are to repair a private wrong, and It is a wrong as deadly as human wickedness can in flict, as lii « nan weaknesi can endure ; m wrong, which annihilates, the hope of the parent and happiness of thb child ; which in One moment bligths the fond , est anticipations of the heart, and dark ons the social heanh, and wqrse than depopulates the of the hap py 1 But, Gentlemen,, high as it is* this is far from your exclusive duty You are to do much more* You are to say, whether an example of iuch transcend ent turpitude is to stalk forth for pub . lie imhatiou —whether national morals are to have the law for their protection, or imported crime is to feed upon impu jnity ; whether chastity and religion arc, »«u l to be permitted to huger in this pnwince ; or it is to be&o/ne onufloa’h some den . of legaliaed prostitution— whether the sacred volume of the Gov pel, and the venerable statues of the Law, are still to bet respected, or flung into the furnace of a devouring lust, or perhaps convened into a pedestal, on » which the mob and the military are to erect the idol of a drunken adoration ? Gentlemen, thesi: are the questions you are to try ,* hear the fac.s on winch your decision must fee founded- 5 It is now about five and-twenty years since the plaintiff, Mr. Creighton com menced business as a slate merchant, ‘in the city of Dublin* His vocation was humble, it is true, but it was nevtrthe less hdnest, and though .unlike his op ponent the heights ot ambition lay not ► fit fore him, the path of respectability chd—rhe has proved himself a good nun and a respectable cutset Arrived at A1 HENS, 2 HURST)A t fid PglE A. 1817 the age nr manhood. h*v sought not*h~ , gratification of its naturaLdesires by a dulterf op seduction. For bjm * - ho me of honesty Was «acted ;/ for him yMgv P ‘or man's .civld was unassailed tsp domestic desolation mourned his en joyment no anniv rsary ,of woe Com memorated hts achievements. From hi* own sphere of life naturally & hdn oiirably he selected a loropatfrotv, wos beauty blessed his bed* and whose v<r tties consecrated hi* and wefling. FleVen lovely children blessed their umon. the darlings of their heart, Oje defiant ’ of their even'hgs. and* as they blind* y anticipated thtf p~ *p and solace of t e r\ approaching age* Oh f sacred wedd.d •Jcvjre, |how; dear, how, delightful h:*iv 4iVine are thy enjoyments ? Cottlen - meiuctowiis thy aboard affection glad* thy fireside , co chas>e but s jardc modest; but intense, sigoa. thy couch the atmosphere of Paradise i ; Sib’eiy, surely, jf this cbtmerated rite can acquire from circumstances a iac cious interest; tis when we see \x cheer ing the poor mans home .or over the delling of misfortune the light <>f its warm apd lovery consolation.— Unhappily gentlemen, it has thus inter e • here*—That capricious power » torch often dignifies the- worthless hypnpritej. as olton wounds the industrious ad Uv honest* Th tJate ruinous conKtsyi# nav ing m its career confounded all the pro portions of arid wi h its last gasp.sighed famine and misfortune on the woyld, has cast my industrious cli ent vftth toonmiy of his companions from tompetettce to penury* Alas, ak as 1 to him it left worse of its sataiite> behind it ; it leffthe even of his misery, the seducer of his sacred and unspotted innocent* Mysttriou Providence ? was it not enough tbay sorrow robed t he happy home iiy mou. n.nig* V not <e»©ugft that disappoint ment preyed upon its lovely.'Dro&p^ th was it not that its little inmates cried in vain for |brtd, and heard no answer but the poor is-the A sigtrr and drank no sustenance but the wretched mothers tears 1 Was this a time, toi passion, lawless conscienceless,shcen feom passion* with its eye, of fust iti in art of stonc, its hand of rapine, to rush into the • mom niul sanctuary o 1 misfortune casting crimemto the cun /Qtf Woe» and rob the pdpetiti#, <i# -th.-. ir Jast wealth, their child.;, and £rob the chid of her o »iy dharm her inn >cenc * That this has been done, 1 am -■instruc ted we snail prove* W hat rcqu.tal it deserves,XTentlemen you must prove to mankind The Defendant** name, I understand js Tow? send. He is of art age’ when every generous blossom of spring should brewthe an infant, freshness rqund his heart ; of a tardily which Should inspire not only high hut here ditary principles oifi»nor ; of a pro ressjon whose very essence is a .stain less chivalry, and whose boqght un« bcunden duty is the protection of the Such aie the advantages with which, he appears before you—fearful advantages, because they repel all pos sible suspicion ; but, you will agree with me, most damning adversaries jt it shall appear that ihefgene£ous ardour of bis youth was ©hilled, that the no ble inspiration of h?s birth w*a spurned that the lofty impulse olof his, proses sibrt was despised* and all that could * grace, or animate, or ennoble, was used to his own ‘ discredit, and bis fellow creature’s misery ... . It was upon the Ist of June last, that on the bunks canal, near Porto beljo, Lieutenant T ownsend first met ihe daughter of Mr* Creighton, a pretty interesting gill, scarcei/Tfi years ofage- She was accompanied,by her little sis ter, of only four years with whqm she was permitted to take |a daily walk in that retired spot, the vicinity >of her esidencer ‘ljbe*'Defendant Was attrac 7 ted by her appearance ; he left his par ty and attemped to converse with her! she repelled his advances j he immedi ately seized bar fintant sister by the hand, whom he held as a kind }of hos tage for an introduction fto victim* A prepossessing appearance, a modesty of dbporement apparently quite imeorapa tibie with any wvif design, gradually ; silenced her alarm, hnd she answered the common-place questions with which on his way home he a idresied her. Gentlemen I adrnit it wasfun innocent imprudence $ the rigid rules of matured 1 morality should have replied- such communication; yet, judging veven by that strict you will rather condemn the familiarity of the intrusion in a designing adult, than tlfb facility o f access in a creature of her age jnd her They thus sepera- tea as she naturally supposed, to meet n > more. Not such however, was the determination of her destroyer* From that hour until her ruin he scarcely ev er lip sight of her ? he followed her as a shadow, he waylaid htr m *;her walks ne interrupted her m her avocations, 4 he hminted the street of her v residence 1 if she refused to meet hi in. he p vra ied »efore .her wiadow, at the hunit'd o ‘ex? ,< for Srsjt comparatively innocent J md rudeuce to her unconscunivparents, low hapny would it have been had she < conquered timidity so./natural to ‘ fey age, and appealed at once to pardon and, their protection 1 Gmtle n:n th**. dady persecution qomfnue i f?r three months—for three successive •tionths, by every art, by everv pursuit, toil, by every appeal to,her vanity aid ii< passions, did he toil for the des-, t. uciion of this unfortunate young crea ure* I leave you to guess how many during that jnterval might have yielded ■ to the blandishment of manner, fas cinations of youih, the rarely rejUsted temptations of- opportunity. ‘For three long monts she did .resist them* She would have resisted them forever, but for an expedient which is witlfbut a mod nl—but for an exploit which I trust .n God will be without an imtSatm i. j i) yes l he might have returned to. Uis> conn ru—and ! a;J ‘ w “ u *’* would rather have rejoiced at tn(s vir* •uous triumph of hi* victim, ib m m j *n ed his own sv>ul-redeeming d-teat—,je might have Srcturaed to his cou itry* tnd ft>ld the cold-blooded liociicts jl thj» land, thvat their speculations up m lush chastity were prejudiced and probdess ,* that in*the yvrecs. at all else .ve had retained our h ! '-)riof f —-U'U thou gii. v|ne uationailum nary h4l<!f&dendea W* t season,’ the stress of us iuviiness still lingered oj&our ho.nzo*i— that t ie of that geiMUs whjcb abroad has i%d cm cd the name, and dignified the nature of man, >vas to be found at home in me spirit without a, stain* and me purity’ without a suspicion—he might have ; toldihem iruly, that this,did not result as they would mtim<» .e ran the absence of passion, Or the wa it of civilisation —that ii was the eomoined cousequenpc of education of and of im pulse, and i hati though in ail the revel- 1 ry of enjoyment, the floweret of the Irish soil exhaled Its fragrance, and expanded its charms* in the chaste and blessed beau s oija virtuous afftc ion, still »t shrunk with a n instinctive sensi tiveness from the gross pollution of an uuconsecrated contract* . , v Gentlemen, the common artifices of of the seducer failed ; the v syren tones with which sensuality awakens appe tite, and lulls purity, had wasted them selves in air, and yhe intended victim, deaf to he facmatVon, moved along safe and untram formed* He soon saw that young as she was, the vulgar expedient of vice wtre ineffectual ; and that before she could be tempted to her sensual damnation, his tongue must learn, if not the words of wisdom at least the spe ciousness of affected purity. He per suaded an affection as virtuous as it was viqlent, he J called God to witness ; the sincerity of bis declarations ; by all the Vows which should forever rivit the honorable, and could not fail to convince even the incicduleus, he promised her marraige ; over and over again hie in voked the ettrnal denunciation if he f was profidious—to her acknowledged want of fortune his constant re ply was, that he had an independence ,* that ail he wanted was beauty and vir tue ; tnat he saw /she had the one— * mat he had proved sjie had the otiiefv When she pleaded the obvious dis parity of her birth, he answered |hat he was himself only the an Eng ,fifth farmer-—tuiftt fc b»ppintss was not• the monopoly of Tin ft qr rc h e s—.‘t Km [his parents would receive her as ths cbijgj <4 their’adoption, that he would cherish her a- the charm of h s exi ‘tcnce Specious as it was, even this did not succeed ; she determine > to *waii its avowel t# those who had, her life and ho hopped to have made it iVn- ’ Jiypcuiafe by the education they had bestowed, and the example tlu v hac| afforded^,e days after this he met J-erin her. walks ; for she |pulrf not pass her parentul threshold without be ing intercepted. He a iked |er Where >he was going? She sa:d, a friend knowing her for bopks ad isett her the loan of some and sh e wav going tp. receive them- He told her he had abundance ; that they yrere just at his house that he hoped, after what had passed she Would feel no im propriety in Hccepong tWein.) Ohe Was persuaded to accompany hiirv, * Arrived JpSwevera* the door of his lodgings, ’ sJ,e positively refused to go any further; sll his former artifices were redoubled ; he called God to witness he cons*;. i her as bis wife, and , her efearactef as dear to him as that of one of hissL.ers he affected mortification at .spy suspi cion of his puiiiy, he told h. r, if she refused her confidence to his ho dur able affection, the little infanjfc who ac companied her was an .inviolable guar antee for her protection. - Gentlemen, this wretched child, dul suffer her credualitv to repbseijpn his professions. Her theory taughtUier tor respect Ithe theory of a soldier; ,er love repelled the imputation that debu sed its object; aficl ner youthful tnnoy ce:>ce rendered fas incredulous as she was tmconcious of criminality /ic his behayiour corresponded with his professions ; he welcomed her to »h* at which he hOjVed she would soon become the ln .w ra , jl( . he painted the of their do mestic iecility, and dwelt witu peculiar tfomplacancy, on some heraldic orna ment which hung over his chimney piece, and whicji,. tie said was tne ar *nori*i ensign of his family ? On, my i Lord how wed it Would have been had he but rltiaced the so ft maim of that do cument had he'irecalled> to mind the Virtues it rtwarded pure train of nonor* it associated; tne i'ms of spotless aijCesA.y it distinguished the high iathbitpu it* bequest .inspired, the moral imitation it imperatively cbnimatide'd ! Bur When guiit once kindled within the human hearth all that is noble in our nature be come parched and hr id ; the/blUaii of ihodesly fades before ltd glare ; the signs of virtue fan its lucid flame* and every divine essence of our being but 4\\eiis and exasperates its infernal conflagra tion. Gentlemen. I .will not disgust this au dience; 1 will pot debase my sell by a ny description of the scene thatfollowed ; I wdf not detsiil the,arts, the excitements the promises, t)he pledges, with Wmch deliberate lust inflamed the pass,oils, and finally’ overpowered the struggles of in nocence and of youth, ft if too much to know, that tears could not appease, that misery could not effect~*that the presence and the, of an infant could not-awe him ; and that the Wret ched victim, between the arctour of pas sion and the repose of l6ve, stink at length inflamed, exhausted* and confi ding* beneath the’ heartless grasp ot an unsimpatniciug sensuality, I’he appe tite pt the hour satiated, at a temporal perhaps at an eternal hazard he disnpis-; ed the sisters to their unConciqus pat ents, not, however wuno'tfcexhorting a promise, that on the iensqing night Miss Creiglitou wpuld dfe ert ner home foreverfor the arm* of a fond, affec tionate, and faithful husband. Taitnlul alas, but only to his appetites, he did seduce her Irom that sacred home/* to deeper guilt, to more deliberate cm «ity. . 2- 4 “After a susjfcnse comparatively hip py, tfbr parents became acquainted with, her irrevocable ruin. .The miserable mother supported oy the mere sire ugh of desperation ruvneo half ‘frenzied to, the casiie%here fltr- i'ownseud wasou duty—* 4 G|ve me back my child V\ vvae ail aruc iia'c. l'he parental rula struck the sj* jiier almost speech- ><) 4: