EXTRAORDINARY LIBEL.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 775, 11 February 1871, Page 2

EXTRAORDINARY LIBEL.

At the Court of Queen's Bench, London, on November 17th, 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 August last, Lady Sandys, the mother of Lord Sandyß, 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 afterwards, 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 surprise you give me about Miss Sandys! If a poor girl gets in the family way everybody talks about it, but I expect as she is such a lady nobody will talk about her. Who is the new doctor they have got for the lady ? Just like the great folks' cunning." This being anonymous, and the writing not known, no notice was taken of it. On the 9th of September a letter was received by the Editor of the " Aris's G-azette " in these terms, enclosing stamps sufficient "to pay for the advertisement of a birth in that paper. The letter purported to be

signed " Marcus Sandys," the name of a brother of the lady—" Oblige me by ii s rting iu your next number the enclosed : —"At Omberslev Court, the Hon. Cecil Sandys, of a yon, etillborn." It need hardly be added that tbe 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 welllcnown 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 an affidavit from Lord and Lady Sandys and the jloii. Miss Sandys, showing that there was no pretence for the shocking imputation, the Court granted a rule nisi.