The most eloquent speech, at length, of Mr. Phillips, in the Court of Common Pleas, Dublin, in the case of Guthrie v. Sterne, for adultery : with the author's last corrections : not a single word omitted.

  • Charles Phillips
Date:
1816
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The most eloquent speech, at length, of Mr. Phillips, in the Court of Common Pleas, Dublin, in the case of Guthrie v. Sterne, for adultery : with the author's last corrections : not a single word omitted. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    fir*wn, never totally abandons probity and virtue, had begun to smile on him. He was beginning to rise in the ranks of his com¬ petitors, and rising with such a character, that emulation itself rather rejoiced than envied. It was at this crisis, in thi£, the noon of his happiness, and day-spring of his fortune, that, to the ruin of both, the Defendant became acquainted with his family. With the serpent’s wile, and the serpent’s wickedness, he stole into the Eden of domestic life; poisoning all that was pure, polluting all that was lovely, defying God, destroying man ; a demon in the disguise of virtue, a herald of heli in the paradise of innocence. His name. Gentlemen, is William Peter Baker Dunstan- ville Sterne: one would think he had epithets enough, without adding to them the title o\ Adulterer. Of his character I know but little, and I am sorry that I know so much. If I am instructed rightly, he is one of those vain and vapid coxcombs, whose vice* tinge the frivolity of their follies with something of a more odious character than ridicule—with just head enough to contrive crime, but not heart enough to feel for its consequences; one of those fashionable insects, that folly has painted, and fortune pkimed, for the annoyance of our atmosphere; dangerous alike in their torpidity and their animation; infesting where they fly, and poisoning where they repose. It was through the introduction of Mr. Fallon, the son of a most respectable lady, then resident in Temple-street, and a near relative of Mr. Guthrie, that the Defendant and this unfortunate woman first became acquainted ; to such an introduction the shadow of a suspicion could not pos¬ sibly attach. Occupied himself in his professional pursuits, my Client had little leisure for the amusement of society: however, to the protection of Mrs. Fallon, her son, and daughters, moving irt the first circles, unstained by any possible imputation, he without hesitation entrusted all that was dear to him. No suspicion could be awakened as to any man to whom such a female as Mrs. Fallon permitted an intimacy with her daughters; while at her house then, and at the parties which it originated, the Defendant and M rs. Guthfie had frequent opportunities of meeting. Wh* could have suspected that, under the very roof of virtue, in the presence of a venerable and respected matron, and of that innocent family, whom she had reared up in the sunshine of her example, the most abandoned profligate could have plotted his iniquities! Who would not l ather suppose, that, in the rebuke of such a presence, guilt would have torn away the garland from its brow, and blushed itself into virtue. But the depravity of this man was of no com¬ mon dye: the asylum of innocence was selected only as the sanctuary of his crimes; atid the pure and the spotless chosen as his associates, because they would be more unsuspected subsi¬ diaries to his wickedness. Nor were his manner and his language less suited than his society to the concealment of his objects. If you believed himself, the sight of suffering affected his nerves; the bare mention of immorality smote upon his con¬ science ; an intercourse with the Continental Courts had refined X
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