Extraordinary trial! Norton v. Viscount Melbourne, for crim[inal] con[versation] ... A full and accruate report ... / by an eminent reporter ... Embellished with a portrait and memoir of the Hon. Mrs. Norton. &c., &c.

  • Norton, George Chappele, 1800-1875
Date:
[1836?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Extraordinary trial! Norton v. Viscount Melbourne, for crim[inal] con[versation] ... A full and accruate report ... / by an eminent reporter ... Embellished with a portrait and memoir of the Hon. Mrs. Norton. &c., &c. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/38 (page 15)
    Ise letters certainly showed, at least to all appearances, affection he part of Mrs. Norton; and looking at the last letter, which fed to some quarrel, in which she admitted herself to be in the ug, was it not a letter wiitten by a person who professed to be iffectionate wife ? There was nothing in the letters or in her duct calculated to excite any thing like suspicion. Of course position of the parties in this case, the rank of one of the par- and the mode in which they lived being considered, it is for , Gentlemen, under all circumstances, to say what may appear you a proper account of damages. With respect to the fact of ilt, 1 am not going to trouble you again; you must look at the cumstances. You must look at them in order that you may do dice between the parties. You must look at them with your owledge as men of the world, and it is then for you to say, are 3y or are they not, consistent with innocence ? Gentlemen, look- l at the visits of Lord Melbourne to Mr. Norton’s house, in the ty that I have mentioned—looking at the events that have taken ace as ] have described them to you, and as they will be describ- to you by witnesses—can you resist being satisfied that, for a nsiderable space of time, Lord Melbourne has been carrying on i illicit intercourse with this unfortunate woman, the wife of the aintiif ? It is then for you to say what damages you will give, s for the plaintiff, his conduct does not fear the fullest investiga- an. What is the conduct of Lord Melbourne ? ] t is painful for te to speak of this, but ] ask you if there is anything of extenua- on in this case? ]s not everything in the case, from the begui¬ ling to the end, an aggravation of the conduct of the defendant ? ■is rank is an aggravation—his age is an aggravation—and the hol- pw pretence of his being a friend of the plaintiff is a still greater ggravation. Could they then compensate Mr. Norton ? i think K)t. I know it is a trite observation, that no money can compen- late such an injury he has sustained—that nothing can compensate, aim for the loss of his domestic happiness, for the tortures to which le has been exposed—and, above all, nothing which this world :an give, can compensate him for the agonies of a fond husband, md an affectionate father, for the loss of his wife, the mother of his children. I do not, then, ask you to give damages to compen¬ sate Mr. Norton, but I do ask you as husbands—I ask you as lathers—and I ask you as men—to consider what his sufferings must be. I call upon you to mark by your verdict, in the only way in which the law allows, your sense of the conduct of the defendant, md of the evil—the irremediable evil which he has inflicted upon the plaintiff The Learned Counsel then sat down.