Illustrations of medical evidence and trial by jury in Scotland.

Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Illustrations of medical evidence and trial by jury in Scotland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    47/66 (page 45)
    of the patients. This boy has not suffered in the least, but he says it is for the sake of the patients that he thus attacks Mr Glover and his certificate. Gentlemen, that is exactly the state of mind in which a person is extremely likely, recklessly and heedlessly, and without due consideration of, or inquiry into, the real facts, to attack an individual, and to say of him what, but for the heat and ardour of this public controversy, upon another matter he would not have said at all under the same circumstances. No doubt it is not so bad a thing as if he had been actuated by any personal motive, but if, in the course of discussing this subject he brings Mr Glover and his certificate as an illustration of what he says is a bad system—if, I say, in the course of this he says that which is libellous, and that which is injurious to Mr Glover, he ought to have considered that before he chose so to express himself; and he is answerable just as much to you for the expressions which he has used in regard to Mr Glover, or his certificate, though he brings it in, as he says, in order to illustrate his subject, which he has taken up upon general grounds, as if he had taken it up directly and personally against Mr Glover. No doubt not to the extent to which you would give damages in such a case, that is most true. The damages would depend upon the object and purpose of the party makmg the complaint, but on the other hand he is answerable to you, and must be subject to the verdict against him, notwithstanding the way be brought in Mr Glover and his certificate—in the course of considering a general subject. Of course you must keep in view, as you naturally will, that the damages in such a case will be much less than if it had been proved that he had been actuated by a personal motive. But, on the other hand, the observation pressed on you by the pursuer is a perfectly just and fair one. Why, even when Mr Glover feels himself hurt by this, and has, in a very full letter, which it is to me perfectly marvellous that Mr Syme would not understand, in a letter of the22d of April, explained the only object and purpose for which that certificate was granted, it is an observation quite good on the part of the pursuer to say, even after Mr Syme knew that, not only did he not disclaim the imputation of falsehood against the certifi¬ cate, but he comes forward and undertakes to prove that imputa¬ tion which he had previously thrown out, and to show that the certificate was false—false in respect of its asserting two things which Mr Glover knew not to be the case ; and then that Mr Glover attempted to justify the certificate by falsely alleging that