The libel action brought by Messrs. Cadbury, of Bournville, against
the Standard, tried at Birmingham before Mr. Justice Pickford and a special jury, ended, after lasting for seven days, on Monday evening in a verdict of a farthing damages for the plaintiffs. The libel complained of was, as the Judge put it, a charge of "deliberate dishonest hypocrisy,"—viz., that Messrs. Cadbury had for years been purporting to make efforts for the suppression of slavery which they never in- tended to have any real effect, in-order that they might continue to make a profit out of slave-grown cocoa. The proprietors of the Standard, who called no witnesses for the defence, sought to justify the charge, and in view of the nature of the summing- up—the Judge specially noted that every single person with whom they were brought into contact throughout the whole of the transactions was absolutely convinced of the good faith of the plaintiffs—the verdict was distinctly a surprise.
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