A PREACHER CHARGED WITH LIBEL. A SCANDALOUS LETTER. Dunedin, April 12.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 255, 14 April 1888, Page 6

A PREACHER CHARGED WITH LIBEL. A SCANDALOUS LETTER. Dunedin, April 12.

Thl Rev. Alfred Brunton, a well-known evangelist preacher here, is defendant in an action for libel begun in the Supreme Court to-day by Mrs Dalbeybill, wife of a bank clerk. The libel is contained in the following passages in letters written by the Rev. Mr Brunton to a relation of Mrs > Dalbey bill's in Tasmania :—": — " Dear Co z Lethbridge, — Let mo say one thing at tb c outset. Nothing- has raised poor Dalbeybi.ll (meaning the plaintiffs husband) so mu<ch in my estimation as the way he has kf ; pt back his wife's (if she be his wife) disgra ce. Not even to me did he hint at it, nor sho uld I have known anything about the a'/iair but for a casual word dropped, which ojade me put certain questions, eliciting litt) c b\ little the whole sad story. While Mrs Dalbeybill has left no stone unturned to blacken his character both to myse If and many others, Mr Dalbeybill has never breathed a syllable of that which was only too ready to hi 3 hand had he wished to blacken hers. Now to my sad story. Mrs Dalbeybill had a child, a daughter, before her marriage to Mr Dalbeybill. Though engaged to her for between 2 and 3 years, fihe never made known the fact to him that she was a mother till two or three days before the wedding. If Lizzie (meaning the plaintiff) does not look out, she may go to gaol for bigamy. I think I have now given you all the facts tor your coming to a fuller understanding of how matters stand between poor Mr Dalbeybill and his wife, if she be his wife, as I think I said already. 1 am very strongly of opinion that she is not. The fact is, he has got into a morbid condition ot thought and feeling, and needs, if it were possible, a good rousing out of it. He thinks everybody is against him, and no doubt this most wretched state of mind has been brought about by the treachery (I can use no milder term) of one whom I am sure we once both loved and trusted, but who has now so ciuelly betrayed him. I say now, ought I not to have said she has discovered herself as his betrayer from the very first ot their acquaintance ?" The letter, of which the above is a part, was read by the defendant to a number of gentlemen in Dunedin. £2,000 damages are claimed.