A CURIOUS CASE.

Evening Star, Issue 2840, 26 March 1872, Page 2

A CURIOUS CASE.

CL'KSOX AND AVIFE A r . BI.AIR. This was an action brought in the Supreme Court, Melbourne, by Mr William Clarson, printer, and Caroline Clarson, his wife,to recover L2OOO damages for three indecent assaults upon Mrs Clarson, and for two libels upon her. The defendant is Mr John Blair, surgeon. Plea—“ Not guilty.” According to the evidence of the female plaintiff, the first assault complained of was committed on the 26th of December, 186?, Mr Blair being then Mrs Clarson’s professional attendant, as well as private friend. He Avas also unmarried at the time. Mrs Clarson did not inform her husband, neither did she leave off visiting the defendant at his own house. The misconduct was repeated on the 27th of March, 1864, and on the 24th of June, 1864. It was not until three years afterwards that Mrs Clarson, who has reached the mature age of fifty, informed her husband of what had taken place. The evidence as to the alleged assaults was explicit enough, but the details are calculated to do little more than gratify a prurient curiosity. The verdict of the jury after a five days trial was for the defendant, but a nr av trial is to be asked for, on the ground that it was against the weight of evidence. The Australian remarks thereon :—No que can refrain from coinciding with the verdict in the latest scandal ease. And yet no one particularly sympathises with the successful defendant, whose triumphal progress after the verdict was in execrably bad taste. The Relentless venom with which Clarson Uxor persecuted her late friend and his relations is utterly revolting, and the motive of this malignant and systematically sustained metUod of annoyance doubtless suggested

itself to the jury, and duly influenced their verdiet; The old lady would and wouldn L Her virtue was of the loftiest type. But as she was precluded —by the triflin ' accident of a husband—from securing the doctor for herself, she didn’t like anybody else to have him. The method of defence was far from chivalrous—the production of a lady’s letters outraging a well-recognised code of honor. However, the public will not be sorry to wash its hands of the case, which is tedious rather than amusing. . The principal sufferers from the quarrel are • (according to Mr Ireland), Hr. Gillbee, “ who ate all the nonce nies ” “ and Dr. Girdlestonc the jellies. But we see that Mr Blair is not to be allowed to escape, even it the judges refuse to grant a new trial. Should he escape from the clutches of Mrs Clarson, a Miss Annie Clampit has spread a net for Ins feet, m the snane of an action for indecent assault : damages, L-iOO. By the-bye, LSOO appears to be the sum fixed on as adequate to assuage the wounded honor and outraged feelings of these virtuous females who have been, or fancy they have been, indecently assaulted, and who prefer turning the indignities offered to them “to commodity instead of setting the criminal law in motion. Another paper says of the case : A very stioug counsel was engaged on both sides, and the members composing each bar have displayed great energy and tact. _ln the course of the defence, however, Mr Ireland in speaking of the female plaintiff, indulged in such cheerful amenities as these:— < < Scraggy old woman, ” ‘ ‘ malignant wretch, “old harridan,” and other similar pet enithets Dr Blair thus leaves the court with hia character unstained, though, -to say the least of it, he has a queer, way of ascertaining whether a lady’s stays are too tight or otherwise.