LIBEL CASE.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 157, 9 February 1871, Page 6

LIBEL CASE.

At the Court ' of Queen's Bench on November 17, an application was made on the part of Lord and Lady Sandys and the Hon. Cecil Sandys for a criminal information against a Mrs. Waters, the wife of a physician at. Ombersley, in Worcestershire, near Lord Sandys' seat, for a libel upon Miss Sandys, imputing that she had had a child. The facts, as stated in the affidavits, were as follows :—ln: — In August last, Lady Sandys the mother of Lord Sandys, was staying at Ombersley, with her son and her daughter, the Hon.

Cecil Sandys. During her stay there Miss Sandys became unwell, and a physician was sent for from Droitwich. It was suggested that this had irritated the defendant, Mrs. Waters, whose husband practised in the place, and had occasionally attended at the house. Shortly after wards, Lady Sandys received through the post a letter enclosed in an envelope, on which was written, " Picked up in the road." The letter contained these words :— " What a curprise you gave me about Miss Sandys ! If a poor girl gets in the family way everybody talks about it, but I expect that as she is such a lady nobody will dare to talk ahout her. Who is the new doctor they have got for the lady 1 Just like the great folks' canning." This being anonymous, and the writing not known, no notice was taken of it. On the 9th September a letter was received by the Editor of "Aris's Gazette" in these terms, enclosing stamps sufficient to pay for the advertisement of a birth in that paper. The letter purported to be signed " Mai*cus Sandys," the name of a brother of the lady — " Oblige me by inserting in your next number the enclosed : — ' At Ombersley Court, the Hon. Cecil Sandys, of a son, still born.' " It need hardly be added that the Hon. Marcus Sandys knew nothing of this letter, and that it was a fabrication and an invention. Inquiries were instituted, and several persons professed to recognise the handwriting as that of Mrs. Waters. Moreover, Mr. Chabot, the well-known expert, made affidavit from a careful comparison of the letters to about a hundred points of comparison in the feigned handwriting of the libellous letters and some genuine letters of Mrs. Waters. Upon these materials, and of course on affidavit from Lord and Lady Sandys and the Hon. Miss Sandys, showing that theie was no pretence for the shocking imputation, the court granted a rule nisi.