HANDCOCK v. DELACOUR.

Lyttelton Times, Volume V, Issue 288, 4 August 1855, Page 6

HANDCOCK v. DELACOUR.

The-Marquis of Clanriearde lias published in the newspapers a set of papers intended as a vindication from the imputations arising out of the Hundcock and Deiuoour case. It consists of :t correspondence with the Lord Chancellor ami the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and a lensrthy affidavit dealing with the allegations affecting him made at the trial. Lord Clanriearde, on ■ arriving, in Ireland, and finding- the suit of Handcock versus Delacour terminated, addressed a letter to Lord Chancellor Brady, staling that if the Lord Chancellor believed the charges brought "against him of fraud, perjury, and conspiracy, the Lord Chancellor must take steps for removing him from the Lieutenancy and Superintendence of the Magistracy of the county of Galway ; and asking his Lordship whether he desired "any explanation upon any matter " from him, or to enter into any investigation of his conduct "in any respect, or at any time." The Lord Chancellor replied, in a letter which by some mistake he did not sign,—declining to enter at all upon the case, which " for aught he knew might yet be matter for judicial inquiry," and in.regard to which it was open to Lord Glanricarde "to have made the fullest statements he might have thought proper in his affidavit sworn in the cause." The Lord Chancellor adds, that it is not within his province to take any steps for the purpose of removing of Lord Cianricarde from the office of Lieutenant of the county of Galway ; and refers him to the Lord-Lieutenaut. In the mean time, Lord Cianricarde thought he had found an article in the Times -..which seemed liable to a criminal prosecution, in the course of which his conduct could be explained ; hut he was advised by an eminent counsel that in-a legal point of view the article was not a criminal libel. He next filed an affidavit in Chancery, dealing with the charges against him, and enclosed it to the Lord-Lieutenant. Lord St. Germans, about to quit office, handed the papers to his successor; and Lord Carlisle replied to them through •Major Thomas Larcom, declining to interfere, as the charges in the affidavit do not contain any accusations against Lord Cianricarde of irregularity in the discharge of the duties of Lieutenant or Magistrate of the county of Galway, and no judicial decision has been pronounced by the Chancellor condemnatory of him in the matter adverted to. — Spectator. •According to Mr. Robert Powers, solicitor to Lord Cianricarde, a lawyer on the other side in the now notorious case of "Handjoek v. Delacour''confesses, that when Lord Cianricarde was said to have " entered Mrs. Handcock's house by a latch key, 5 ' the "latchkey" was " used in a figurative sense." This throws an entirety new light, upon the whole case. If the most significant and dramatic acts alleged were only metaphor, one wants to know where the figurative stops. Lord Cianricarde denies all the story of his having assisted Mrs. Hancock's marriage, or that peculiar disposal of her husband's property which collected it from hei daughters and handed part of it over to her non-marital son. But perhaps all this statement also was metaphorical. Ii that was so, then is the reply of Lord Cianricarde likf .vise an abstract and metaphorical controversy ? The peculiar avowal raises doubts as to the existence of John Delacour himself; possibly he may exist in a " super-substantial" or " non-natural sense" ; and if so, evidently he cannot be a natural son. Tf we were to take* the figurative key for the whole composition, we might suppose that all the personages engaged are allegorical; but then, what is the moral of the story ? Is it one of the lost books of Spencer, telling us in its quaint romance the moral of one of the cardinal virtues ? Some moral, indeed, the story evidently has, and one is that they do business in a strange way in Ireland. Of all persons who were-im-plicated in the case, none would seem to have so great an inrere^t in perfectly understanding the matter in order to make his own defence clear as Lord Cianricarde. He made an" affidavit upon the application of an agent to one of the pariies, and in the new series of explanatorypapers he says that he made that affidavit "upon the application of petitioners agent.'" " This was au error," says Mr. Robert Power, in

a foot-note: "Lord Clanricarde did not understand which was the petitioner and which the respondent in the case." And it is with this intelligent and discriminating apprehension of facts that Lord Clanricarde comes before the public, his own lawyer correcting his own ' error ' in a foot note ! Well the strange letter confounding the agencies is addressed to the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, demanding an inquiry: the Lord Chancellor replies, very properly observing that the inquiry is not within his province, but very peculiarly omitting all signature to his letter. And when Lord Clanricarde notices the fact, " Maziere Brady " considerately tells him that if the letter be sent back he will sign it!— Notes and Quesies (Spectator). The American Ambassador to Spain.—Mr. Pierre Soule exemplifies one of the new fashions of the United States. He met Mr. Buchannan and Mr. Mason at'Aix la Chapelle, and sent to the Secretary of State at Washington certain views as to the expediency of purchasing Cuba from Spain. Mr. Marcy replied, partly adopting and partly dissenting from the views of those gentlemen ; .'somewhat softening the specific manner of Mr. Soule's pressure upon the Government of Madrid ; suggesting to him that if Spain did not make satisfaction in one way she might in another; and rather proposing that coercive measures should be k^ptin the background, and not brought forward too abruptly. To answer him thus, said Mr. Soule, was " to leave him no alternative but to linger in Madrid in languid impotence " ; and his " sense of dignity compelled" him to " beg on the extreme kindness of the President, to be retired from duty by the end of January." Is it that the American mind knows nothing between peremptory coercive suddenness and languid impotence, or is it that Mr. Soule expected to instruct his Government, instead of being instructed? We have beard of Viceroys over a King, but evidently Mr. Soule considered the Secretary of State a species of Secretary of Legislation who was to ask the Ambassadors what he should instruct them to say. — Notes and Queries. Sir Charles Napier having failed in the House of Commons to make out a case, has restated in a Letter to the Times the case made out for him by Mr Malms, with some considerations not found in the speech of his advocate. To vindicate his conduct in not attacking Sweaborg, he uses these examples:— "I served with Sir Sydney Smith on his attempt at Boulogne in November 1805: he did not weigh difficulties and forestall contingencies, and he lost ail his boats, and very nearly lost his ships- Nelson had not those difficulties to contend with either at the Nile or Copenhagen. At the former his enemy was at anchor in an open roadstead in August. At Copenhagen in the month of April, he had a safe harhour to lie in to make bis arrangements ; no gales of wind could affect either his ships or boats; he could choose his day,—as the wise men at the Admiralty told me to do in the month of October, but I will engage not one of them would have found the day had they been in my place. Lord Exinouth attacked Algiers in the middle of summer: there were neither rocks nor shoals there: he did not capture it, and I doubt whether he would have tried it again. At Acre tiie weather was fine, and no difficulties ; and, had the Egyptians held out, notwithstanding the explosion, its capture was doubtful, and with a Russian garrison impossible. Sir James Saumarez, with a very superior force, was beat off at Algesiras, and lost a ship; and Admiral Dundas had no reason to be satisfied with his attack at Sebastopol. Will you tell me why Lord Nelson and Lord Collingwood did not attack Toulon or Cadiz ? Neither of them was so strong as "Sweaborg or Conslradt. Why did not Lord Howe, Lord Bridpot, and Lord St. Vincent, attack Brest, l'Orient, Rochefort, &c. ? Because they knew they would have been defeated. "Why did the French Admiral and myself refuse to attack Sweaborg ? "Because we bad not means arid because the narrow entrance was blocked up. Had it beet 1, opened (even without gun boats) i.he Allied flags would have been flying- on the inner road of Sweaborg. You say, Sir," Supposing the enterprise to be otherwise favourable, the mere lateness of the season does not appear a sullicient objection. A ship attack on' a strong fortress is at all times difficult; add to that the intricacy of the navigation and bad weather, and it becomes impossible."

General Lord Seaton, accompanied by ] x \ & staff, visited the Curragh on Monday and Tuesday, for the purpose of inspecting the grouud selected for the encampment of the Militia force Death of the Millionaire Hope.—Home prossip has been rife concerning the death of " tlie <>reat" Mr. Hope, who is reported to have literally fallen a victim to the curse of riches For many years past he had been tormented by an idee fixe which had t,akeu the shape of a horror, a terror, a dread of assassination—-nio-Jit . and day this vision haunted him. If he-remain-ed at home, thieves and murderers were lurk-"*' ing-; if he went abroad, thieves and murderers were dogging his footsteps ; in short, his life had become a burthen, and his whole energies were spent in devising means to dodge the unseea enemy. Among these were spring daggers,minute pistols, and every ingenious device which wealth could procure for its own defence. Abottle of the strongest prussic acid was amouvs't the weapons most relied on, and always carried | in the waistcoat pocket ready to dash in the face of the bold assassin who was supposed to he ever at hand. On returning home from the Opera the Other night, Mr. Hope, complaining of" head-ache, retired to rest, and was found in the morning dead and motionless, the bottle of prussic acid broken beueath his pillow; but whether his death was caused by apoplexy arising from natural causes, or from the fumes of the poison, the doctors have not yet been able to determine. Long Earud Musicians.—ln the musical world of Germany there is a sect, of which Herr Wagner is said to be leader, that has originated a. new species of mus>ic, called " the music of the Future." Second sight has ceased in Scotland, but in Germany there are evidently pretenders to second hearing.— -Punch. Novkx. Aid Movement.— A well-known fashionable lady, resident at Netv York, issued some 500 cards for a.calico-dress ball, in behalf of the poor. Each lady to appear in a calico dress, which she was desired to send the n«xt day to Mrs. . The ball brought 400 dresses for the poor. Discovery op Ancient Greek Sculpture. Letters from Athens mentions the discovery of 300 antique staines, or fragments "of sculpture, recently brought to light by excavations at Argos, on the site of the temple of Juno. Rums fob, Self-Government. —-Always sit sjext to the carver if you can, at dinner.— A.sk no woman her a«je.—Be civil to all rich uncles and aunts. —Nerer joke with a policeman.—Take no notes, or gold, with you to a fancy bazaar—nothing but silver.—Your oldest hat, of course, for an evening party. — Don't play at ones? with.a widow.—Never contradict a man who stutters.—Pull down the blind before you put on your wig.—Make friends with the steward on board a steamer—there's no knowing how soon you may be placed in his power.—ln every strange house it is well to inquire where the brandy is kept—only think if you were taken ill in the middle of the nierht.— j-N ever answer a crossing sweeper—Pay him, or else pass quickly and silently on —one word and you are lost.—Keep your own secrets —Tell no human being you dye your whiskers.—Never offend a butler—the wretch has too many chances of retaliation !—Write not one more l«tter than you can help. The man who keeps »>p a large correspondence is a martyr tied, not to the stake, but to the post.—-Wind up your conduct, like, your tvateh, once every day, exarning minutely whether you are "fast" or " slow/—P unch. Aged Lovees. —At Lincoln, Maria Russell, a widow of advanced age., who had recently kept a china shop at Wainfleet, brought an action against Jessup Whitehead, a retired farmer of sixty-three, for breach of promise of marriage. The promise was proved by defendant's letters, in ope of which, \ritten after the action was beS"un, Lesaid :—" You add A Dccl better settle it, for I have 30 or thousons, and you ant A penny. 1 don t care not a dam for the Queens laws. You poor —you may trie your Wust,and you shall notice <*- dam farden. If I can't throw you with' fa/c means I Will with fowl. I hum determined not to be bet. I never thought that you had eep my letters. I Bornt all your dam things. I dont care a dam for Jug or juery." An unsuccessful attempt was made to prove these letters forgeries. One witness deposed to defendant's saying," I don't, deny going to the house ; I've frequently been there, and also upstairs. I've rolled the old lady on the bed many times.'' Damages £l2i>.