SPEECH, &c.

My Lord and Gentlemen,

In this case I am of Counsel for the Plaintiff, who has deputed me,

with the kind concession of my much more efficient colleagues, to detail to you the story of his misfortunes. In the course of a long friendship which has existed between us, originating in mutual pursuits and cemented by mutual attachment, never until this instant did I feel any thing but pleasure in the claims which it created, or the duty which it imposed. In selecting me, however, from this bright array of learning and of eloquence, I cannot help being pained at the kindness of a partiality which forgets its interest in the exercise of its affections, and confides the task of practised wisdom to the uncertain guidance of youth and inexperience. He has thought, perhaps, that truth needed no set phrase of speech-that misfortunes should not veil the furrows which its tears had burned, or hide, under the decorations of an artful drapery, the heart-rent heavings with which its bosom throbbed-he has surely thought, that by contrasting mine with the powerful talents selected by his antagonist, he was giving you a proof that the appeal he made, was to your reason-not to your feeling-to the integrity of your hearts, not the exasperation of your passions. Happily, however, for him, happily for you, happily for the country, happily for the profession, on subjects such as this, the experience of the oldest amongst us is but slender-deeds such as this, are not indigenous to an Irish soil, or naturalized beneath an Irish climate. We hear of them indeed as we do of the earthquakes that convulse, or the pestilence that infects less favoured regions; but the record of the calamity is only read with the generous scepticism of innocence, or an involuntary thanksgiving to the Providence that has preserved us. No matter how we may have graduated in the scale of nations--no matter with what wreath we may have been adorned, or what blessings we may have been denied—no matter what may have been our feuds, or follies, or our misfortunes-it has at least been universally conceded, that our hearths were the home of the domestic virtues, and that love, honor, and conjugal fidelity, were the dear and indisputable Deities of our household-around the fire-sides of the Irish hovel hospitality circumscribed its sacred circle, and a provision to punish created a suspicion of the possibility of its violation. But of all the ties that bound- of all the bounties that blessed her, Ireland most obeyed, most loved, most reverenced the nuptial contract. She saw it the gift of heaven, the charm of earth, the joy of the present, the promise of the future, the innocence of enjoyment, the chastity of passion, the sacrament of love-the slender curtain that shades the sanctuary of

her marriage bed, has in its purity the splendour of the mountain snow, and for its protection the texture of the mountain adamant. Gentlemen, that national sanctuary has been invaded, that venerable divinity has been violated, and its tenderest pledges torn from their shrine, by the polluted rapine of a kindless, heartless, prayerless, remorseless adulterer. To you, religion defiled, morals insulted, law despised, public order foully violated, and individual happiness wantonly wounded, make their melancholy appeal. You will hear the facts with as much patience as indignation will allow-I will myself ask of you to adjudge then, with as much mercy as justice will admit. The plaintiff in this case is John Guthrie-by birth, by education, by profession, by better than all, by practice and by principles, a gentleman. Believe me, it is not from the common place of advocacy, or from the blind partiality of friendship, that I say of him, whether considering the virtues that adorn life, or the blaudishments that endear it, he has few superiors. Surely if a spirit that disdained dishonour; if a heart that knew not guilt; if a life above reproach, and a character beyond suspicion, could have been a security against misfortunes, his lot must have been happiness. I speak in the presence of that profession to which he was an ornament, and with whose members his manhood has been familiar, and I say of him, with a confidence which defies refutation, that, whether we consider him in his private or public station—as a man or as a lawyer, there never breathed that being less capable of exciting enmity towards himself or of offering, even by implication, an offence to others. If he had a fault, it was that above erime, he was above suspicion, and to that noblest error of a noble nature he has fallen a victim. Having spent his youth in the cultivation of a mind which must have one day led him to eminence, he became a member of the profession by which I am surrounded. Possessing, as he did, a moderate independence, and looking forward to the most flattering prospects, it was natural for him to select amongst the other sex some friend who should adorn his fortunes, and deceive his toils. He found such a friend or thought he found her, in the person of Miss Warren, the only daughter of an eminent solicitor, young, beautiful and accomplished, she was "adorned with all that earth or heaven could bestow to make her amiable." Virtue never found a fairer temple-beauty never veiled a purer sanctuary-the graces' of her mind retained the admiration which her beauty had attracted, and the eye her charms fired, became subdued and chastened in the modesty of their association.-She was in the dawn of life, with all its fragrance round her, and yet so pure, that even the blush which sought to hide her lustre, but disclosed the vestal deity that burned beneath it! No wonder an adoring husband anticipating all the joys this world could give him--no wonder the parental eye, which

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beamed upon their union, saw in the perspective an old age of happiness and a posterity of honour. Methinks I see them at the sacred altar, joining those hands which heaven commanded none should separate, repaying for many a pang of anxious nurture by the sweet smile of filial piety, and, in the holy rapture of the rite, blessing the power that blessed their children, and gave them hope their names should live hereafter. It was Virtue's vision-none but fiends could envy it. Year after year confirmed the anticipation-four lovely children blessed their union. Nor was their love the summer passion of prosperity-misfortune proved, afflictions chastened it-before the mandate of that mysterious power which will at times despoil the paths of innocence, to decorate the chariot of triumphant villainy, my Client had to bow in silent resignation. He owed his adversity to the benevolence of his spirit-he went security for friends-those friends deceived him, and he was obliged to seek in other lands that safe asylum which his own denied him. He was glad to accept an offer of professional business in Scotland, during his temporary embarrassment. With a conjugal devotion, Mrs. Guthrie accompanied him, and in her smile the soil of the stranger was an home-the sorrows of adversity were dear to him. During their residence in Scotland, a period of about a year, you will find they lived as they had done in Ireland, and as they continued to do until this calamitous occurrence, in a state of uninterrupted happiness-you shall hear most satisfactorily, that their domestic life was unsullied and undisturbed. Happy at home-happy in a husband's love-happy in her parents' fondness-happy in the children she had nursed. Mrs. Guthrie carried into every circle, and there was no circle in which her society was not courted, that cheerfulness which never was a companion of guilt, or a stranger to innocence. My Client saw her the pride of his family, the favorite of his friends-at once, the organ and ornament of his happiness. His ambition awoke, his industry redoubled, and that fortune which, though for a season it may frown, never totally abandons probity and virtue, had begun to smile on him. He was beginning to rise in the ranks of his competitors, and rising with such a character, that emulation itself rather rejoiced than envied. It was at this crisis-in this the noon of his happiness and day-spring of his fortune, that, to the ruin of both, the Defendant became acquainted with his family. With the serpent's wile and the serpent's wickedness, he stole into the Eden of domestic life; poisoning all that was pure, polluting all that was lovely, defying God, destroying man, a dæmon in the disguise of Virtue, a herald of hell in the Paradise of innocence. His name, Gentlemen, is William Peter Baker Dunstanville Sterne-one would think he had epithets enough, without adding to them the title of adulterer. Of his character I know but little, and I

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am sorry that I know so much; if I am instructed rightly, he is one of those vain and vapid coxcombs, whose vices tinge the frivolity of their follies with something of a more odious character than ridicule ; with just head enough to contrive crime, but not heart enough to feel for its consequences--one of those fashionable insects, that folly has painted and fortune plumed for the annoyance of our atmosphere-dangerous alike in their torpidity and their animation-infesting where they fly, and poisoning where they repose. It was through the introduction of Mr. Fallon, the son of a most respectable lady, then resident in Temple street, and a near relative of Mr. Guthrie, that the defendant and this unfortunate woman first became acquainted-to such an introduction the shadow of a suspicion could not possibly attach. Occupied himself in his professional pursuits, my Client had little leisure for the amusement of society; however, to the protection of Mrs. Fallon, her son, and daughters, moving in the first circles, unstained by any possible imputation, he without hesitation entrusted all that was dear to him. No suspicion could be awakened as to any man to whom such a female as Mrs. Fallon, permitted an intimacy with her daughters; while at her house, then, and at the parties which it originated, the defendant and Mrs. Guthrie had frequent opportunities of meeting. Who could have suspected that under the very roof of virtue--in the presence of a venerable and respected matron, and of that innocent family whom she had reared up in the sun-shine of her example, the most abandoned profligate could have plotted his iniquities! Who would not rather suppose, that in the rebuke of such a presence, guilt would have torn away the garland from its brow, and blushed itself into virtue? But the depravity of this man was of no common dye-the asylum of innocence was selected only as the sanctuary of his crimes, and the pure and the spotless chosen as bis associates, because they would be more unsuspected subsidiaries to his wickedness-nor were his manner and his language less suited than his society to the concealment of his object. If you believed himself, the sight of suffering affected his nerves-the bare mention of immorality smote upon his conscience-an intercourse with the Continental Courts had refined his mind into a painful sensibility to the barbarisms of Ireland, and yet an internal tenderness towards his native land so irresistably impelled him to improve it by his residence, that he was an hapless victim to the excess of his feelings, the exquisiteness of his polish, and the excellence of his patriotism. His English estates, he said, amounted to about £10,000. a-year, and he retained in Ireland only a trifling £3,000. more, as a kind of trust for the necessities of its inhabitants-in short, according to his own description, he was in religion a Saint, and in morals a Stoic-a sort of wandering philanthropist, making, like the Sterne, who, he confessed, had the honor of

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his name and connexion, a Sentimental Journey in search of his objects over whom his heart might weep, and his sensibility expand itself. How happy it is, that, of the philosophie profligate only retaining the vices and the name, his rashness has led to the arrest of crimes, which he had all his turpitude to commit, without any of his talents to embellish. It was by arts such as I have alluded to-by pretending the most strict morality—the most sensitive honour-the most high and undeviating principles of virtue, that the defendant banished every suspicion of his designs. As far as appearance went, he was exactly what he described himself. His pretensions to morals he supported by the most reserved and respectful behaviour-his hand was lavish in the distributions of his charities, and a splendid equipage-a numerous retinue-a system of the most profuse and prodigal expenditure left no doubt as to the reality of his fortune. Thus circumstanced, he found an easy admittance to the house of Mrs. Fallon, and there he had many opportunities of seeing Mrs. Guthrie, for between his family and that of so respectable a relative as Mrs. Fallon, my Client had much anxiety to increase the connection. They visited together some of the public amusements-they partook of some of the fetes in the neighbourhood of the metropolis-but, upon every occasion, Mrs. Guthrie was accompanied by her own mother, and by the respectable females of Mrs Fallon's family. I say upon every occasion, and I challenge them to produce one single instance of these innocent excursions upon which the slanders of an interested calumny have been let loose, in which this unfortunate lady was not matronized by her female relatives, and those some of the most spotless characters in society. Between Mr. Guthrie and the defendant the acquaintance was but slight. Upon one occasion alone they dined together; it was at the house of the plaintiff's father-in-law ; and, that you may have some illustration of the defendant's character, I shall briefly instance his conduct at this dinner. On being introduced to Mr. Warren, he apologised for any deficiency of etiquette in his visits, declaring that he had been seriously occupied in arranging the affairs of his lamented father, who, though tenant for life, had contracted debts to an enormous amount-he had already paid upwards of £10,000. which honour and not law compelled him to discharge, as, sweet soul, he could not bear that any one should suffer unjustly by his family. His subsequent conduct was quite consistent with this hypocritical preamble-at dinner, he sat at a distance from Mrs. Guthrie, expatiated to her husband upon matters of morality; entering into a highflown penegyric on the virtues of domestic life and the comforts of connubial happiness. In short, had there been any idea of jealousy, his manner would have banished it, and the mind must have been worse than sceptical, which would refuse its credence to his surface morality.