Jenks's Portland Gazette

From a London Paper.

SHAW D. Lawton,

His was an action brought by the plaintiff against the Defendant for criminal conversation with his wife. The plaintiff was a Cooper, and being drawn to serve in the Middlesex militia, he was obliged to leave his wife in town to attend the regiment. He was absent from her for more than a year, and upon his return he found her pregnant. Upon inquiry, he learned that the defendant was the father. Only one Witness was called on the part of the prosecution, from whose evidence it was clear that the woman lived in an open state of prostitution during the absence of her husband, and that there were very strong grounds of suspicion that the husband was privy and consented to his wife's infamy.

Lord Eldon said that this case might be decided in the words of Lord Mansfield, who on a case which was tried before him, observed, that if a woman lives in a state of prostitution with the privity of her husband, an action cannot be brought against any man who is thus drawn into connection with her. If the husband is not privy to the prostitution, an action may lie, and the prostitution is evident: If the Jury should think that the husband was not privy to it, it can however only go to lessen the damages. If they should think that he was privy to it, Action cannot lie—Verdict for the defendant.