CURIOUS LIBEL ACTION.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1813, 12 April 1888, Page 3

CURIOUS LIBEL ACTION.

♦ (Pub Pbibs Association.,) Dunedin, April 11. The Rev Alfred Brnnton, the wellknown evangelist preacher here, is defendant In an action for libel, begun (n the Suprene Court to-day by Mrs Dalbedyhll, wife of a Bank clerk. The libel li contained m the following passages In a letter written by Brnnton to a relation oi Mrs Dalbedyhll iv Tasmania : — " Dear Oslonel Lethbrldge, let me say one thing at the outset. Nothing has raised poor Dalbedyhll (meaning the plaintiff's husband) so muoh m my estimation as the way he has kept back his wife's (if she !■ hi* wife) disgraoe. Not even to me did he hint at it, nor should I have known anything about the affair but for a oausal word dropped, which made me put certain questions, eliotlng little by little the whole sad story. While Mrs Dalbedyhll has left no stone nnturned to blaoken hie oharaoter, both to myself and many otherß, Mr Dalbedyhll has never breathed a syllable of that which waß only too teady to his hand had he wished to blacken hers. Now to my sad story. Mri Dalbedyhll had a child — a daughter —before her marriage to Mr Dalbedyhll. Thongh engaged to her for between two and three years 6he never made known the fact to him that she was a mother till two or three days before the wedding." He (meaning a certain person named Dcmn)goes on to say, ''My eyes are beiog opened now ; I can sympathise with you (meaning the Bald John Dalbedyhll) and ail yon married into the Garner family. PS.- Tf Lizzie (meaning the plaintiff) doeß not look out she may go to gaol for bigamy. But, to go on with my story. Oa June 7th Mr Dalbedyhll wrote his wife (?) a letter. I think I h .ye now given yon all the facts for your coming to a fuller understanding of how matters stand between poor Mr Dalbedhyll and his wife, if ibe be bis wife. As I think I said already, I am very stroDgly of opinion that she Is not. The faot is be has got Into a morbid condition of thought and feeling, and needs, if it were possible, » good rOCslng out of it. He thinks everybody is against him, and no doubt this most wretched state of miud has been brought about by. the treachery (I oan use no milder term) of one whom I am sure he onc9 both loved and trusted, bat who has now so orueily betrayed him. I say now, ought I not to have said Baa has discovered herself as his betrayer from the very first of their acquaintance" The letter, of which the above is part, was read by defendant to a number of gentlemen inDonedin, Tbe sum of £200 damages is claimed. Tbe oaae will be continued to-morrow.