The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-04-02 00:00:00

BREACH OF PROMISE.-750 DAMAGES.

On Monday, Mr. 'Wheelhouse, the sheriff's assessor, and a
jury, sat nt Leeds to assess the damages In an action brought
by Miss Emma Hey, of Bradford, the daughter of a cabinet
maker, against Mr Samuel Dixon, the son of the proprietor
of the Ashley Mills, Saltaire, Shipley. for breach of promise
of marriage. The defendant had suffered Judgment to go by
delault;, The damage, were laid_at £2 500. . .

Mr. Waddy was for the plaintiff; Mr. Mellor for the de-
fendant.

The plaintiff was first introduced to the defendant
on the 19th of April, 1867. There had been a party at
Saltaire, the plaintiff being present ; and in the evening
the defendant took the plaintiff to the railway station,
and then accompanied her home to Bradford. They
met occasionally for twelve months; hut in the summer
of 1868 the defendant went with the plaintiff and some
friends to Keighley. In the course of the journey he
asked her if she was engaged, and on her answering in
the negative, he asked her if she had any objection to
his paying his attentions to her. She said she had not
known him sufficiently. A short time after he put the
same question to her again, and told her that if she
would not have him he would put an end to the pair of
them. She urged him not to be too precipitate, but he
always behaved to her most kindly, and protested that
his intentions were of the most honourable kind. He
gave her an engaged ring and other presents, and a
warm correspondence took place. On the 30th Decem-
ber he went to the house of the plaintiff's father, and
proposed marriage to her parents. He was accepted,
and on the 31et of December he wrote
'My dear little pet, your father has given his consent like
a gentlemad, and now I can really call you my own Emmy.
No one must grumble at you now but myself, rs I am your
future master, .d if I have to grumble it will be with a
kiss. I ninst now conclude with half a damn for you.-1 re-
main your husband, 8. Dixon."

On New Year's Day he said he would be married in
two months. About that time he showed her a house
where he said he would live, and which he said was
his own property. On the 7th of January he wrote
saying he did not feel well, and he had had that morn-
ing to play the d—l with the spinners, for he had
caught them playing in lumps, but "he would shift
some of them if they were not wary." He added—
" Emma. no one can speak the love I bear to you,
and I hope you will cherish the same to make
us both happy, and I should feel heart-broken
if there should he a parting. Brandy and billiards
would be my wife then." The 10th of February was
fixed for the wedding, but the defendant failed to keep
his engagement. It turned out that be had seduced
the plaintiff, and the plaintiff's counsel said false
charges were made against her, but the defendant's
principal reason given for breaking off the alliance was
that he preferred a bachelor's life to the cares and re-
sponsibilities of wedlock. Evidence having been given
that the defendant's father was a man of property,
Mr. Waddy urged that the defendant would never have
written that he had been playing the with the
spinners if he had not been a partner in Ashley Mill.
He said it was as cruel as it was unfounded to say that
the plaintiff had been of loose character. He (Mr.
Wadiiy) denied such aspersions, but who could deny
that there was 1;30,000 in the family? He concluded
by asking the jury to award substantial damages.
becauseof a young life blighted, bright hopes betrayed,
and the wedding wreath dashed ruthlessly from an
innocent brow.

Mr. Mellor having addressed the jury in mitigation
of damages, the learned assessor summed up, and the
jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff —damages

LOCHIEL ON THE CONDITION OF THE
HIGHLANDS.
Mr. Cameron, of I,,chiel, M.P., presided at a social meet-
ing of the natives of Lochsher resident in Glasgow last week,
and spoke at some length on the present condition of the
Highland s,
The fire of patriotism and clauship, he said, glowed
as strongly as ever it did in the etrathe and glens of
their home country. There was still that passionate
desire on the part of the inhabitants to cling to the
plot of ground where they themselves were born, and
where their forefathers lived before them, unaccom-
panied, he was happy to say, by an equally passionate
desire to shoot their landlords. This feeling appeared
to grow stronger and stronger. He found on his own
property that whenever there was a croft vacant the
applicants might be reckoned almost by scores, and
the reasons they gave why they desired this croft would
astonish some landlords in the south. They did not
say they wanted it because they had got capital, or
because they could pay more rent for it than the
previous tenant ; but what they said was, " I was born
in this country; toy forefathers lived in this country;
my ancestors fougat with your ancestors at Cul-
loden : or, to come to a later period, my father served
in the same regiment an your grandfather." Who
would tell him, when this was the caw, that the spirit

of clanslup, the feeling of attachment between chief
and clansmen, was extinct? Mr. Cameron went on to
say that for a long time he had been considering how
they could manage to stem somewhat the tide of popu-
lation which flowed from those districts, and to im-
prove the condition of those who remained. But he
was afraid that the want of capital stood in the way of
this. On his own property there were thousands of
acres lying absolutely waste; they might, for all the
good that was derived from them be a hundred
fathoms below the sea. That land was as fine
as any in Scotland. It would grow corn, it would
grow turnips it would rear cattle; and were this done
It would enable a larger population to live in happi-
ness and comfort. But unfortunately Highland pro-
prietors had not got this capital, and those proprietors
who had lately purchased land in the Highlands
had not shown much consideration or kiridnesa.
With some notable exceptions those who bought
Highland properties did se in the same way as they
would buy villas on the banks of the Clyde—for their
own recreation, or as a speculation, with the view of
re-selling when property roes in value. He saw only
two ways of getting the capital necessary to develop
folly the Highlands. The old laws, that hung round
the necks of proprietors of entailed estates, should be
n-laxed. Then the Government should at least do for
the Highland proprietors what they were doing for the
Irish landlords. Were they not all of the same Celtic
race that had lately received so great a panegyrc in
the highest quarter? Was not their land as good—
was not their climate very touch the same—as the
south and west of Ireland? Why then, should they
be deprived of the advantages which the Irish land-
lords lied? Surely it was not because they had al-
ways been a peaceful and loyal, and not a turbulent
and disaffected race. In bath of these respects he
thouirht he saw the dawn of brighter days for the
Highlands.