him, which being in breach of The Articles of War,' the court does in virtue thereof sentence him, the said Captain Richard Anthony Reynolds, of the 11th (Prince Albert's Own) Hussars, to be Cashiered.

"The court, having performed its duty, cannot separate without recording its opinion on the following points of evidence :

"In the course of the evidence to character, witnesses have stated, that they considered the accused was incapable of insubordination without some extraordinary causes of provocation; or unless under provocation which no man of honourable feelings could endure: thus apparently sanctioning the idea, that there might be circumstances of private irritation which would justify a soldier breaking from the established order of military discipline,-a doctrine so totally subversive of the fundamental principles by which all armies are governed, that the court feels called upon to stamp it with marked reprobation."

Her Majesty has been pleased to approve and confirm the finding and sentence of the court.

The general commanding-inchief directs, that the foregoing charge preferred against Captain Richard Anthony Reynolds, of the 11th (Prince Albert's Own) Hussars, together with the finding and sentence of the court, and her Majesty's confirmation thereof, be entered in the General Order Book, and read at the head of every regiment in her Majesty's service.

By command of the right hon. General,

LORD HILL,
Commander-in-Chief.
J. MACDONALD,
Adjutant General.

VOL. LXXXII.

DOCTOR LARDNER'S CASE.

This cause, which had created so much interest for several months past among the literary and fashionable circles, came on for trial before Mr. Baron Gurney and a special jury, composed of the resident gentry of the county of Sussex, at the town-hall, Lewes, on Saturday, August 1st.

The most intense interest was taken in the proceedings, and long before nine o'clock, the hour at which the trial was appointed to take place, the doors of the county hall were besieged with an anxious crowd, and, as soon as the public were admitted, every corner of the Nisi Prius Court was inconveniently filled. A number of ladies, and among them the distinguished persons who were called as witnesses for the plaintiff, sat upon the bench, in addition to several of the leading magistrates.

Mr. Thesiger, with Mr. Platt, and Mr. Petersdorff, appeared for the plaintiff; and Mr. Sergeant Channell and Mr. Clarkson for the defendant.

Mr. Petersdorff stated, that the action was brought by the plaintiff, Richard Heaviside, against the defendant, Dionysius Lardner, to recover compensation in damages for the loss and injury the plaintiff had sustained by the seduction of his wife by the defendant.

Mr. Thesiger then observed, that he rose to discharge the very painful duty of detailing to them the circumstances under which the

plaintiff was compelled to seek, in a public court of justice, that poor and miserable compensation which the laws of this country afforded in the shape of pecuniary damages. He could not enter into this case U

without being nearly overcome with strong feelings for the bitterness which his unfortunate client already had and would have to endure throughout the remainder of his life. The defendant was a person who had arrived at that advanced period of life when the passions ordinarily became subservient to the judgment, and when the experience of the world pleaded anything but in mitigation of the aggravated conduct of which he had been guilty. The defendant possessed scientific knowledge, and was endowed with superior literary attainments; and it would appear by the history of this painful cause that he had employed his combined talent to effect the seduction of this weak and confiding woman; he had rendered her an outcast from the society she was calculated to adorn, and he had induced her to quit a kind and generous husband, and a home which threw around her everything that conspired to her happiness. The plaintiff was compelled, through the misconduct of the defendant, to publish his dishonour to the world in a court of justice, and he was obliged to submit to the degradation of asking for pecuniary damages for an injury which he had sustained, and which no amount in money could repair. The plaintiff came from an honourable family; he was the son of a gentleman of considerable fortune who resided at Peterborough, and who sent him in early life to Eton college. In due time he was removed from thence to the University at Cambridge, and in the year 1814 his father purchased for him a cornetcy in the 1st Dragoon Guards. The unhappy lady, into whose conduct they were about to inquire, was the daughter of colo

nel Spicer, formerly of the 12th Lancers, and since residing at the Chateau de Capacure, in the parish of Outreau, Boulogne. In the year 1823 Mr. Heaviside, the plaintiff, whose mother was a sister of colonel Spicer's, went to Boulogne, and for the first time saw Miss Mary Spicer, his first cousin, and the only child of colonel Spicer. He was attracted by her person and manners; an intimacy sprang up between them, which was mutually cherished, and it ripened into affection; and at length it was determined, with the consent of the friends of both parties, that they should be married. The marriage took place on the 17th of July, 1824, at St. Michael's church, Bath. It was a marriage of pure affection, for captain Heavside had ample means to make him care but little about the fortune of his wife. Indeed, there could not be a stronger proof that the strongest attachment existed on his part towards his wife than his conduct upon his marriage. He made a settlement of 20,000l. upon Mrs. Heaviside, which was secured in the usual way; the dividends to be paid to him during his life, then to her after his death, and in case of there being no children, or in the event of their not being of age, then she was to be entitled absolutely to the whole of the reversionary interest. She was likewise entitled to the reversion of 13,000l. upon the death of her father. Shortly after their marriage they went on the continent, and upon their return they resided for some time at Saunders's lodge, Oakingham, Buckinghamshire, and about ten years ago came to reside in Brunswick-square, Brighton, where they had since kept an establishment, and moved in the first

circles of society. They appeared to be devoted to each other, and their union gave rise to that usually strong cement of affections, children. In short, there seemed nothing for them to require beyond that which they possessed. Mr. and Mrs. Heaviside had three children, two girls and a boy; the eldest girl was fourteen years of age, the second thirteen, and the boy six years old. The plaintiff was a fond father and a loving husband; he displayed no violence of temper, he exhibited no hasty or ungentlemanly conduct which could estrange the affections of his wife, but he lived in the bosom of his family, and his home appeared to be the whole world to him; and during the nine years he had resided at Brighton he had upon one occasion only allowed his wife to go into society without him. It would be also proved that Mrs. Heaviside never betrayed the slightest levity of conduct, but always appeared to be strongly attached to her children. If, in this life, they could expect to find happiness, the jury would imagine that it would be found in such a home as this; but in an evil hour the defendant made his appearance among them. He came to Brighton about some literary pursuit, and his reputation as a man of science was a passport into society. He obtained an introduction to the plaintiff, and, unhappily for him, was received as a visitor at his house. There was nothing in his conduet. his age, or his appearance, to induce the suspicion that he was a dangerous visitor-nothing that would lead the most sceptical to believe that when he entered the doors of peace, and the dwelling of happiness, he was the viper that would destroy everything that was

valuable within, and turn the plaintiff's home into an abode of wretchedness and of desolation. Captain Heaviside was in the habit of attending to his magisterial duties at the town hall, and he was also one of the directors of the Brighton railway. During his absence from home the defendant had the opportunity of visiting Mrs. Heaviside; but so much caution was observed that the attendants and those constantly about the misguided lady were unable to discover that any familiarity existed between them, and the witnesses would, therefore, be unable to point out the beginning of the fatal influence which the defendant possessed over her, and which he exercised in the consummation of his criminal object. Human nature and their own experience would, however, assist them in coming to a conclusion. It was hardly to be believed that the defendant could be carried away with any headstrong feeling, or any impulse of passion, and therefore so absurd a defence could not be set up. They knew there were many approaches to the female heart. A woman who possessed no inordinate share of talent might be misled and decoyed from the path of virtue by a person of superior acquirements, who, for sinister purposes, paid deference to her in order, that when her vanity overcame her reason, he might, serpent-like, draw his meshes around his victim, and make her irretrievably lost. These were the dark and insidious arts that were practised by the defendant, and the jury would be able to trace every web that was designedly thrown around the plaintiff's wife, until she was inextricably surrounded. Mr. Heaviside left Brighton the

11th of March, and came to London; and on the 13th of the same month Mrs. Heaviside quitted home at an early hour in the morning, stating that she was going on a visit to Mrs. Greville. She did not return at the usual hour to luncheon, nor had she given any directions about the dinner, which excited some alarm among her domestics; and, in the afternoon, the suspicions of one of the servants were aroused by observing that everything was removed from the toilet of her bed-room. The serThe servant communicated her suspicions to the butler, who went to Mrs. Greville's, and ascertained that Mrs. Heaviside had not been there. The butler, upon this, immediately proceeded towards London, to make his master acquainted with the circumstances, but he crossed the plaintiff on the road, the latter being on his return to Brighton. When the plaintiff heard of the debasement of his wife he became insensible, and only awoke from his stupor to endure greater agony and suffering. He was stunned with the intelligence, and for some time continued dangerously ill. The guilty parties, in the meantime, had proceeded to the Adelaide hotel at London-bridge, where they remained during that night, occupying but one sleeping apartment, and the next morning they proceeded by steam to Ostend, and from thence to Dunkirk, where all trace was lost of them. It was subsequently discovered that they were living at the Rue Tronchet, at Paris, as man and wife; and here he (Mr. Thesiger) might observe, that it would not have been difficult to have produced evidence of their criminality; but, for the purpose of saving expense, a course had been adopted to which he dis

tinctly asserted captain Heaviside was no party, as he knew nothing of their place of retreat-that the defendant and Mrs. Heaviside should be produced to the servant at the hotel where they first slept, for the purpose of being identified; and the most extraordinary part of the stipulation on the part of the defendant was, that under pretence of saving expense, captain Heaviside's own butler was to be the principal witness, for the purpose, no doubt, of attaining an object which he (Mr. Thesiger) could well understand, but which he was sure would be thwarted by the jury. In the month of April, when the plaintiff first received intelligence of his wife, he proceeded, with colonel Spicer, to Boulogne, and, upon entering the Rue Tronchet, he found her and the defendant at breakfast together. Stung with indignation and horror, the plaintiff, in the first impulse of his disgust, inflicted a well-merited chastisement upon the defendant. He (Mr. Thesiger) could not from his heart blame the plaintiff for the course he had taken, for they all knew there were times when, despite of everything, their own natural feelings would vindicate their own natural rights, and when they could not wait for the slow process of the law. He (Mr. Thesiger) did not, therefore, believe that this circumstance would have any effect upon their judgment, or that they would entertain it for one moment in the reduction to any material extent of the damages they would award to the plaintiff. If the defendant had brought an action for assault against this deeply-injured husband, what amount of damages would the defendant have recovered? and after having answered this question, they might

then deduct exactly so much from the damages which captain Heaviside this day sought to recover. At Paris a most extraordinary discovery was made. In the desk of Mrs. Heaviside the drafts of the two letters sent by her to her father and the plaintiff, were discovered, and they actually bore several corrections in the defendant's own handwriting. He (Mr. Thesiger) could well understand how this miserable and unhappy woman could shrink from addressing her ill-used and injured husband, and how, after attempt after attempt had been vainly made by her, she abandoned the task in despair. He could well understand, he repeated, this feeling on her part, and he could also understand what led the defendant to dictate and alter the letters for his wretched victim. He had no feeling of shame or remorse-no feeling of delicacyand in those letters which would be produced to the jury, they would be able to trace in every line the dictation of the defendant. They were not the outpourings of a person with a troubled mind, but they were evidently the calm, deliberate, and calculating reasonings of a mechanical philosopher. He begged to call their attention to a letter signed by Mrs. Heaviside, and bearing date the 15th of March. It was addressed to her husband, and was as follows:

and which I have allowed you to suppose proceeded from bodily illness. My sufferings, however, were of a different nature, and arose from a different cause. They originated in the mind and in the heart. Among the persons introduced to my acquaintance within the last few months was one who, unfortunately for me, produced such an impression upon my heart as I felt could never be effaced. In the first period of our acquaintance I flattered myself the sentiments he inspired were those of friendship merely, and I indulged in his society with unguarded, and, as the event proved, most imprudent freedom; as this, however, was no more than was done by other ladies, by whom his acquaintance and conversation was eagerly sought, and as I never before had reason to distrust myself, I proceeded unapprehensive of consequences. He departed from Brighton, and the effects of his absence convinced me, for the first time, of the real state of my heart, and I soon felt that my peace of mind was irretrievably lost. He had never presumed to tell me that I was to him an object of affection. His manner and language were, on the contrary, most deferential and respectful. I had seen, how ever, indications of his feelings towards me, more convincing and unequivocal than mere words could convey. In short, without any express communication on the subject, our feelings became mutually known; we felt that every dictate of duty suggested immediate separation and absence. Separation and absence were accordingly tried, and continued until I was driven well nigh to madness. I shall not attempt, because the attempt would be unavailing, to