Speech of Mr. Phillips, Delivered in the Court of Common Pleas, Dublin, in the Case of Guthrie Versus Sterne: With a Short Preface, Page 558 |
Common terms and phrases
adorned adulterer afflicted affrighting ambition amongst barbarous beamed became behold blessed bliss blush BRISTOL calamity character Charity charm chastity circle Client cloudless confidence conjugal connubial Court coxcomb crime dæmon daughter dear deceived defendant Deities dined domestic earth eloquence endear envy Fallon feel female fidelity fire-sides follies fortune fugitive Gentlemen guilt Guthrie happily happiness hear heard heart heaven helpless honour hope horror hospitality human misery husband infliction innocence Ireland Irish JOSEPH ROUTH joyless joys Jury justice lament libel Lord Erskine manhood marriage matron mean to rest mercy Milford mind misfortunes morals mother mourn never nuptial object palliated parentless parents passion peace perhaps Plaintiff polluted profession pure remorseless ruin sacred sanctuary scene Scotland seduced serpent's smile soil sorrow soul spurned Sterne sun-shine surprize suspicion sympathies venerable Verdict vice victim villain's violated virtue wickedness wife worse wretched young youth
Popular passages
Page 12 - AH ! who can tell how hard it is to climb The steep where Fame's proud temple shines afar; Ah! who can tell how many a soul sublime Has felt the influence of malignant star, And waged with Fortune an eternal war; Check'd by the scoff of Pride, by Envy's frown, And Poverty's unconquerable bar, In life's low vale remote has pined alone, Then dropt into the grave, unpitied and unknown...
Page 16 - ... wandering beggars as well as orphans on the face of this earth. Oh, I know I need not ask this verdict from your mercy ; I need not extort it from your compassion ; I will receive it from your justice. I do conjure you, not as fathers, but as husbands ; not as husbands, but as...
Page 6 - I know so much. If I am instructed rightly, he is one of those vain and vapid coxcombs, whose vices 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 plumed, for the annoyance of our atmosphere ; dangerous alike in their torpidity and their animation ; infesting where they fly, and poisoning...
Page 11 - I rejoice it is so, in the present instance, first, because this premature infliction must insure repentance in the wretched sufferer : and next, because, as this adulterous fiend has rather acted on the suggestions of his nature than his shape, by rebelling against the finest impulse of man, he has made himself an outlaw from the sympathies of humanity. Why should he expect that charity from you, which he would not spare even to the misfortunes he had inflicted ? For the...
Page 9 - I must tell you there id every reason to believe that a female was the confidante of the conspiracy. What a pity that the object of that guilty confidence had not something of humanity ; that, as a female, she did not feel for the character of her sex ; that, as a mother, she did not mourn over the sorrows of a helpless family ! What pangs might she not have spared ? My client could hear no...
Page 6 - ... 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 Templestreet, 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 possibly attach. Occupied himself in his professional pursuits, my client had little leisure for the amusement of society: however, to the protection...
Page 16 - Oh, had she been but true, Though Heaven had made him such another world, Of one entire and perfect chrysolite, He'd not exchange her for it !" I put it to any of you, what would you take to stand in his situation ? What would you take to have your prospects blasted...
Page 3 - ... and confides the task of practised wisdom to the uncertain guidance of youth and inexperience. He has thought, perhaps, that truth needed no set phrase of speech — that misfortunes should not veil the furrows which its tears had burned, or hide, under the decorations of an artful drapery, the heart-rent heavings with which its bosom throbbed — he has surely thought, that by contrasting mine with the powerful talents selected by his antagonist, he was giving you a proof that the appeal he...
Page 13 - Erskine, may have found its origin in parental cruelty — it might, perhaps, have been that in tbeiif early years this guilty pair had cherished an innocent attachment — it might have been that in their spring of life, when fancy waved her fairy wand around them, till all above was sun-shine, and all beneath was flowers — when, to their clear and charmed vision, this ample world was but a weedless garden, where every tint spoke Nature's loveliness, and every sound breathed Heaven's melody, and...
Page 10 - ... sacrifice.) The next day they dined alone. Towards evening, the housemaid, passing near their chamber, heard Mr. Sterne scolding and, apparently, beating her. In a short time after, Mrs. Guthrie rushed out of her chamber into the drawingroom, and throwing herself in agony upon the sofa, she exclaimed ' Oh! what an unhappy wretch I am ; I left my home, where I was happy, too happy, seduced by a man who has deceived me. My poor husband ! my dear children ! Oh ! if they would even let my little...