The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-06-19 00:00:00

EXTRAORDINARY AND ROMANTIC

CASE.

•
The cause of "Pronje v. Matthews" has bees heard before I
Vice Chancellor Sir J. Stuart Our readers will perhaps
remember this case which was argued on the 28111 of April,
1809, and several days. On the present occasion, the Vice- ,
Chancellor delivered judgment which lasted neatly two
hours the case was very complicated, but the facts were
briefly these—
In 1829 the plaintiff, a Frenchman, married Harriet
Shear, an English w maa, domiciled in Paris, and on
the occasion of the marriage a settlement was made
according to the French law. in 1830 Harriet Pronje
eloped with a person named Demailly, and went to
Loudon. In 1832 she gave birth to a child, who was
registered as Leon Pronje. The husband fi Mowed her
to Loudon, and induced her to return with him to Paris.
Shesulisequently lived with Dr. Chesrot with whom she
went to India, taking with her Leon Pronje, anti en-
gaged in the provision trade, where she amassed a con-
siderable amount of money. In 1811 Leon Primp,
went tt Paris, and in 1852 marritd a person named
Julie Chat it or Simon. In January, 18121, she gave
birth to a daughter. Leon Pronje and his wife or
mistress went to Calcutta, where he died in 1856. Mrs.
Pronje', his mother, then took charge of his child, and
maintained her till her death in 1865. She had acquired
considerable wealth, and remitted £3,000 to the &fens
dant Mathew, with directions to him to settle it upon
Leon Prouje's daughter. A settlement was accord-
ingly prepared and approved • but betore its execration
Madame Pronje died. The husband of Madame
Pronje, who had obtained procession of the other part
of his wife's personal estate, then filed this bill to set
aside this settlement, on the ground that it was at
variance with his own marriage settlement, and void
by the French law. An immense mass of evidence was
adduced as to the French law.
The Vice Chancellor, after going over the facts and
considering the evidence, dismissed the bill with costs

HINTS TO THOSE WHO ARE THINKING
OF EMIGRATING,
The Times, of Wednesday, published a letter from
"Our Own Correspondent " at Melbourne, giving a
great deal of information and prat:tic:a advice to in-
tending emigrants. The. 2'irouB thus summarises the
letter :
A letter which we publish this morning ought to find its
way tido eve, y wog king inan's Ciub-room, Institute, or House
of Call in the United Kingdom. It comes from one who
writes from the very spot and scenes which he deacrlbea,
surround, it by the evidence on which his statements are
based. Flint of all he puts the imestiiins which he
rightly supposes require [mowers. What are people to
~xpect who emigrate from this country to Ansi rails?
What kind of pl-ce is it? Is it very different from
England? Are there any roads, railways, idioms, churche,
or echools ? Is it really easy to get a 1101,00 there, am' can.
living be (mind at mice? Suppose an emigrant and family put
on shore at Melbuurne, without Mends or acquainginees,
and with no great supply of money, what is to become of
them for the first night or two or the first week hese in-
quiries, it in suit, are constantly addressed to returned Colo-
nists by people half willing yet half afraid to try their for-
tunes lo s strange land. We do not wonder at it. They ex-
press exactly the doubts which any intending emigrant would
'Ol and now we supply the answers in a most satisfactory

form:-
i., begin with, Australia is, in all the chief centres of settle- I
merit, as civilised a country in all essentials as England itself.
At Melbourne, for instance, the streets are as writ paved,
nit e 110, awl lighted es at Liverpool or Ilristol, the oidy dif-
ference being that they are about three Mines as broad.
rho shops are genuine English shops all over. The roadway
is full of dray., waggons, earl laces, awl hansoms, just as in
London, though there is less danger of our being knecked
down. It is a little surprising to thud the rarest pineapples
Picketed at fours shilling, mid an excellent hot meat din-