Court of Queen's Bench. THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF ERNE, Plaintiff : JOHN GREY VESEY PORTER, ESQ., REPORT OF THE TRIAL OF AN ACTION FOR LIBEL, HAD, IN THIS CAUSE, BEFORE THE LORD CHIEF JUSTICE AND A SPECIAL JURY. ON THE 12th AND 14th FEBRUARY, 1859. BY AN EMINENT SHORT-HAND WRITER. DUBLIN: PRINTED BY GOODWIN, SON, AND NETHERCOTT, 1859. INTRODUCTION. As few persons in the County of Fermanagh were disposed to invest even the small sum of Six-pence in purchase of the malignant production which gave rise to the action at law in this cause, the literary composition complained of was, with extreme generosity, transmitted (free of all expense) to private individuals, club-houses, news-rooms, and other public places, in Ireland and elsewhere, with a view to procure for same the publicity which the author conceived it required and deserved. Desirous to disabuse the public mind, and to remove and counteract any erroneous or unfavourable impressions, which (possibly) the insinuations and mis-statements contained in the work were calculated to create, an accurate and correct report of the trial has been obtained, and will be found in the annexed pages. DUBLIN, March, 1859. COPY OF THE RECORD. Court of Queen's Bench, Wednesday, the 19th day of January, in the year of Our Lord, 1859. Hon. John Crichton, Earl of Erne, the Plaintiff, on Monday the 13th day of December, 1858, sued John Grey Vesey Porter, the Defendant, and complained that the Plaintiff, being an Irish Representative Peer of Lord Lieutenant of the the United Kingdom and County of Fermanagh, and one of the Directors of the Dundalk and Enniskillen Railway Company, and the Chairman of the Board of Directors thereof, and esteemed and reputed in his said rank and station as an upright man of unblemished fame and reputation, and as a faithful and honest Director and Chairman of said Company; and, as such, enjoying the esteem and good opinion of his neighbours and of the public, the Defendant well knowing the premises, but wickedly and maliciously intending to injure the Plaintiff in his good name, fame, and credit, and to bring him into public scandal, infamy and disgrace, on or about the 9th day of August, 1858, falsely, wickedly, and maliciously printed and published a certain book or pamphlet, in one part of which were printed and published of the Plaintiff, and of the Plaintiff as such Director and Chairman of the said Company as aforesaid, the false, scandalous, malicious and defamatory words following, that is to |