The Hon. John Colborne, captain in the army, having apparently
some acquaintance with the inner life of the War Office, or other deeply indebted department, thinks usurers bloodsuckers. He published a pamphlet saying so, and unluckily put in it the name of an attorney, Mr. James Phineas Davis. Mr. Davis brought an action for libel utterly denying that he was engaged in any transactions of the kind mentioned in the pamphlet.- Captain Colborne could not prove his allegation; and his counsel was compelled to argue that he had brought in Mr. Davis's name without any personal malice. The jury thought so too, and recommended him to mercy, and the Recorder only inflicted a fine of twenty pounds. Captain Colborne had, we presume from the want of evidence, got hold of the wrong man, but it really is time that the system which goes on in our public offices should be exposed. People have as much right to sell money as to sell coals, and to fix their own price, but the men whom Captain Colborne meant to attack, take advantage of an office rule which prohibits Government clerks from passing through the Insolvent Court. They in fact get money by threats of consequences extra-legal, which is not fair money-dealing at all. Enthusiastic young officers, however, had much better send their information to men who know how to use it without libel, than rush themselves into print.
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