Following the trial, he wrote a pamphlet expounding the Law of Libel at the time and attempting to defend his actions.
Gurney, as a reward for helping to return Lord Yarmouth's candidates as representative for the Borough of Tregony in the 1812 elections.
When questioned by the Select Committee of Parliament looking into corrupt electoral practices in the Borough, he denied all knowledge of the bribes and was tried for perjury.
He spent months at the gaming tables of Paris in the company of Major John Richardson, a Canadian gambler and author.
Richardson's biographer writes of Gurney as a "poet, solicitor, and former Vice-Warden of the Stannaries of Devon, who owing to a predilection for the gaming table, neglected to attend court, took higher fees than allowed and, obliged to leave England, took refuge in Paris in 1818.
He lost his position after his corrupt behaviour was exposed by the publication of an anonymous letter in the West Briton newspaper in 1817.
When Gurney discovered that the writer of the letter was Mary Ann Tocker, his former secretary's sister, he had her tried for libel.
Gurney traveled through Germany, Austria, Italy and France meeting other English expatriates such Sir Sidney Smith.