even if he recovers a merely nominal verdict, provided it carries the costs with it. In an extreme case, where the jury awarded a farthing damages, Mr. Justice Cave said the costs must follow the event. In 1889, several newspapers, at the request of the police, published what is known as a " hue and cry " circular, calling for the apprehension of a fugitive. A woman of the same name brought action for libel against seven of the newspapers, claiming .£3,500 from each. She recovered five shillings against four out of the seven defendants, the aggregate damages amounting to forty shillings. She was awarded the costs. Rather than pay these costs, which amount to hundreds of pounds in every case that comes to trial, the newspapers settle the action whenever they can, and often at sums which make the bargain a profitable one to the speculative solicitor. The most amusing illustration of out of what small material an ingenious solicitor can make a libel was cited by one of the speakers that waited upon the Lord Chancellor to urge his support of the proposed bill. He stated that a few days previously a case was reported by the police, of a lady being robbed in one of the city thoroughfares at 2 p. M., but the compositor, in the haste of setting it up, put it "2 A. M.," by mistake. An application was made for dam ages, with a threat of a suit in the event of refusal, and the newspaper settled rather than proceed and incur the costs. It is thought probable that the bill will pass, as the Lord Chancellor is opposed to that feature of it which allows the judge, at his discretion, to force the plaintiff to give security for costs. He believes in throwing the courts open to all of the subjects of the Queen, and as no security is exacted from any plaintiffs except those who reside without the jurisdiction, he indicated that he did not see his way clear to make an exception in favor of newspapers and their pub lishers. There is something — perhaps a great deal — to be said for the law as it stands at present. Certainly if one must choose between the cleanliness of the English press,
its decorum and dignity and absolute truthfulness, and its scrupulous avoidance of personality, and the license and irre sponsibility of the press of other countries where no home is free from the dreaded invasion of the interviewer, and no respect is paid to privacy, the choice would not be long in doubt. For several weeks past the gossip of polite society in drawing-rooms in the west end of London, and at the clubs, has been busy about the doings of a certain person of prominent social and political connections. Of the main facts of the case there can be no doubt. The controversy is simply over the details. Everybody knows one or more of the versions of these details. Names are known, and dates and amounts, and the circumstances which have been resorted to to keep the matter out of the courts. And yet not a word of this scandal, nor even a hint of it, has appeared in any kind of a newspaper. Had it occurred in New York, or in any city of the United States, at least a broadside of every newspaper would have been filled with it, and portraits of the people who figure in the story would have illustrated imaginary interviews with them. This is not to the taste of the English public. The Lord Chancellor considers it a wholesome taste, and he does not want to spoil it. The appeal for subscriptions for the Sir Frank Lockwood Memorial Fund will be issued very shortly, and will be signed by the Lord Chancellor, Lord Rosebery, Lord James of Hereford, Lord Russell of Killowen, the Attor ney General, and Mr. James Lowther. At a meeting of the committee having the matter in charge it was decided to devote the subscriptions to (1) a portrait of Sir Frank Lockwood, to be placed in the National Portrait Gallery; (2) a memorial " brass," to be placed in St. Margaret's Church, Westminster (close to the North gate of West minster Abbey); (3) a tablet, to be erected in York Min ster; and (4), if funds permit, the endowment of a bed in a London hospital, to be called " the Frank Lockwood bed." Stuff Gown.
