A LABOUR LEADERS LIBEL CASE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2202, 14 May 1896, Page 55

A LABOUR LEADERS LIBEL CASE.

(Fbom Ova Own Correspondent.) London, Maich 21. Mr Havelock, Wilson, M P., has at last : trought into court his libel sction against the Free Labour Association. It may ba remembered that in a series of pamphlets the representatives of that association^ openly accused Mr Wilson of a number of disgraceful acts, and urged him, if he disputed the truth of their allegations, to bring a libel action to ckar him- ' They invited him to go iuto tbe witness •^oox, if he dared, to deny the truth of these charges. Practically their st&ttn:eut amounted to this : — That according to iufonnation furJ niched by himself, he deserted at least once ,' from a ship, and on one occasion took a ship's J boat, which it does co!; appear he returned, and ]j for neither of which offeuce* he seemed to have " been punished ; that at the end of one year j Wilson was found to re deficient In h's accounts to tho exlent of £'il6 Za 6d, which next , year grew by £337 17* 7d, nuking & fcjtal dt-fi- ; ciency on his part of £65G Is Id, of which it does Hot appear that he has givou any accouut. 1 It was further Baid that while the Executive • t Council of the union wero sitting in one room 'discussing their aff lira -Wilson and a clerk were "in another room preparing a false financial statement to rubmit to tbttn, shovtiDg a balanc9 of about £1000 to the good, though at that time he knew th*tthere wai no such balance to tbe uuion's credit ; and ib was added that this was sufficient alone to prove him a scoundrel, and justify his expulsion from public life. This pleasant pamphlet was headed "J. Havelock "Wilson, M. P. Daylight on his Career — Exfco^ure and Challenge — Altoundii!gßevels.tiooi."A l toundii!gßevels.tiooi." The defeodaDtß, in at.swer to tho claim ortbe plaintiff, pleaded jus'iaeatkn, and that what had been printed was fair comment upon a matter oi public importance. Mr Wilson's counsel opened the case with a loud flourhh of trumpets, and put forward various more or less vague exp'anations of hi 3 clit n'j's action in relation to tho causes wh'ch filmed the bi&fs of the varioua charges. Having "opened," it was of course expected that he would proceed to tender evidence in support of the case he had opened, a<*, indeed, be was required to do by the rule of all law courts, and it was assumed »'by everybody, including.the judge and the defendants, that tbe first witness called would be Mr H. Wilson himself, who had expressed such a burniug desire to have an opportunity of going into the witness box aud deny ing the truth of the grots charges made against Li to ; bub to everbedy's anspc»kab!e amnz3mtnt Mr Wilson's counsel, on concluding his epaeoh, said, " That is my case," whereupon the opposing counsel immediately s»id, "Then that is nay case." The counsel for tie plaintiff made a great show of indignation at the abstention of the dtft-u-iauts from any attempted jus'ificatiou of their article, ] but the defending counsel replied with wuslong cogency that as Mr Wilson did not venture to go iuto the witness box aud deny the tru'h of tie charges or offer any explanation of them, they had i>o case to auswer and were quite content to leave it as it stood. Ml* Justice Hawking, in summing up, rebuked the counsel for the plaintiff for "openiag" matters wh'ob. he was not prepared to prove in evidence, and warned tho jury that they innsb entirely dismiss from their raindfl all that the learned counsel bad • said in this respect. Ha pointed out to the jary that as the printed paper which bad been formally pub in contained what ; .T?as technically a libel, if unju«tifl?d they mutt find a nominal verdict for the plaintiff, but they need not' give him any more damages than they thought he had sustained from the libel. They must give him at least,t.he smallest coin of the ie»lm so that a judgment might be passed ; but, the Judge added siguiucantly, they might of course awnrd him one million sterling if they thought his character had sustained damages to that extei t. The Jury, before -giving their verdict, a^ked if they might add a few remarks to it. The Judge assented. The Foreman said they, were most reluctant to give the plaintiff even a nominal verdict, and would not have done so but for his Lordship's express instructions to th»t effect. Here plaintiff's counsel interposed and strongly pbjfcted to the jury nvking a speech in tbs.t court. The judge replied lh*t they were ' quite in order in sayicg what they had said. The counsel persisted in his objection, and was promptly overruled by Mr Justice Hawkins, who directed the foreman to continue his remarks. The foreman then went on to say that as they were obliged to give the plain' iff some damages they awarded the smallest coin in circulation — a farthing. The counsel for tbe defendant then applied that the plaintiff -hould be deprived of his cot>ts, and the judge unhesitatingly made an order to that eff-ot-. A further application was made that the plaintiff should b8 ordered to pay the costs on the other side. Mr Jus' ice Hawkins remarked that the whole case was in its procedure entirely without precedent in hie experience, and eaid he would r quire to take time to consider this application. Necessarily the result has been a tremendous blow to Mr Wilson and his friends. He was looked upon as one of the leading lights of the Trade Unionist party in England, and his ref vial to go into the witness box and deny the truth of the charges made against him after his oft expressed wish to have a ohanca of doing so lias produoed-a very unfavourable impression. Wh>t nobody can understand is why his legal advisees m&de themselves patties to so suicidal a course. One explanation I have heard givsn is that Mr Wilson is so emotional and excitable and nervous a man that he would have been almos-t certain to break down in the witness box, and that he could not possibly have stood the severe strain of the cross-examination he was certain to have been subjected to. But if this be so tbe wonder remains the greater that ho should have been iusemata enough to initiate proceedings whose result, in default of conclusively exculpatory testimony on his own parb could not fail to place him in a far worre po.ition than before. He evidently f etl*< this very deeply, for he has written to the leader of the House of Commons and to the < Speak tr praying that they willhaveafull inquiry ms.de into tha circumstances of his case, in which event he pledges himself to produce full disproof of the all' gations which were made » gains t him and remain to his discredit. He his also sent round letters to most of the daily papers asking them to publish his explanation, ' but most ef them very reasonably reply that if he did not think it worth while to make them bimself in court when he had the chance, and vrhen their accuracy would be teded by crorsexamination, there was no tiSsm why the newspapers should occupy their space oa his behalf. It will easily be believed that Mr Wilson has been the subject of some very unpleasant news* , psper articles since his refusal to enter the . witness box. One of a peculiarly stinging character in tbe St. James's Gazette apparently housed him at last to cay something on his own behalf. In that artiolo, which was beaded "A Damaged Legislator," it was ttwcgly orgod that if tone ulterior nco«

ccc dings were not taken against Mr Wilson the case would be a public scandal and a gross miscarriage of justice. The article pointed out that Mr Wilvon was aocused of theft and swindling, and that he had not tried to disprove these charges, although, if they were true, he would be a public offender who defrauded hundreds of poor men as foully as ever a secretary in a building society who decamped with its funds. It added that it was monstrous that such a man should continue to aid in mabirjg the laws of the realm, and that there should be an immediate jnquiry whether the House could " endure the presence of this man Wilton any longer." On Tuesday night Mr Wilson brought this article beforfe the House of Commons as a question of privilege. The article was formally read. The Speaker, however, delivered a ruling which must have been a veritable cruijher to Wilson. Mr Gully said there was no doubt the article read made a serious attack upon the private character of the hon. monaber, bub fch*t as it did nob afcKck him for his con-du-jb as a member of tho House there was no breach of privilege. The Speaker further went on to say that even the iuference drawn by the wriber that if these charges were true the member was not fib to sit in that House (s id nob mike that a breach of privilege which otherwise would nofc ba so ; therefore ha ruled that no breach of privilege had been committed. - ■ Mr WiU on then, by leave, proceeded to make a " personal explanation " as he called it, which merely consisted of a string of complaints that the defendants in the recent libel case had not .tendered any .evidence in support of- their charg€S. He did not say one syllable in explanation of hia own refusal to go into the witness boiand denyingfchemonoath. He wound •up by asking for a committee of the House to investigate the cane. His speech was r> ceivtd with a chilling air of disapproval. There were loud crias for the leader of the Houee, whereupon Mr Balfour briefly stated that he did not think that House a fib body to appoint a tribunal to re-hear a case which had already been dealt with in a court of justice. Tfcts closed the matter, leaving Mr Wi'fon, if possible, in wo r ao case bhan ever. Mr Wilson has since made another efltorb to set himself right through the medium of the public press, bub so far not with any conspicuous advantage. He tries to make out that he did not mean to refuse altogether to give evidence, but that he wanted to force the other side to give their evidence first", in which j case he was prepared to rebub it. This has elicited the obvious retort fr,ona his .opponents that it was clearly for him to deny the charges on oath before they would be expeoted 1 to give evidence in their proof, and offering to produce their evidence before any tribunal or parliamentary committre or any other properly conbti'uted body that Mr Wilson could gtt to tako up his CAao. And there the case rests for the present.