The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1861-03-12 00:00:00

Legal.

THE YELVERTON MARRIAGE CASE.

We give the result of this OW. On Saturday week
Mr. Whiteside, counsel for the plaintiff, made a powerful
speech, in the course of which he said : —How stands
the question now that the whole of this great trial is
More you—now that you have all the facts. I ask you
to judge of that woman Ls she has apposred before you;
and then say do you believe her Trace her life up
from the first hour that she stood within the walls of
the convriit until the day that she sat in that box to tell
the story if her multitudinous sorrows. Ask yeurselves
what fact has been proved against her with any living
man save this defendant ? I ler crime is, she loved Min
too dearly and too well, lied she possessed millions
she would have flung them at his fret. II ti she a
throne to bestow, slm would have placed hint on that
throne. She gave Min the kingdom of her heart, and
made him sovereign of her affections. We may well
believe that when the mysterious union between soul
and body is dissolved, the high affections of our nature,
purified, spiritualised, inimortalised, may add to the
felicity unspeakable reserved for the spirits IA the just
made perfect, through the countless ages of eternity.
(Loral applause). She gave hint her affections—she gave
him her lovr —a woinan's love. Who can fattl its
depths? Who can measure its intensity? Who can
describe its devotion ? She toll you herself what that
love was when she wrote to him, "If you were to be
executed as a convict I would stand beneath the
gallows." If lie lied takeh that wunisn for his wile,
misery would have endeared him to her, poverty she
would have shared, from sickness and misfortune she
would never have fled ; she would inave been his con-
stant companion, his guide, his friend—his polluted
mistress never. Therefore I now call on you to do
justice to that injured woman. You cannot restore her
to the husband she adored, or to the happinevs she
enjoyed. You cannot give colour to that faded cheek,
or lustre to that eye that has been dinuiled by many
steer. You cannot relieve the sorrows of her bursting
heart, but you may restore her to her place in society
You may, by your verdict, enable her to say—" Rash I
lIAVC been, indiscreet I may have been through excess
of affection for you, but guilty never! " You may
replace her in the rank which she would never disgrace—
you may restore her to that society in which she is
qualified to shine, and has ever adorned. (Mr. White-
side resumed his seat amidst bald demonstrations of
applause, which were continued unchecked for sr veral
minutes. Clieers were also given for Mrs. Yelvertoni)
The court then adjourned to Monday. The hall was
densely crowded, and when Mr. Whiteside made his
appearance he was greeted with enthusiastic sheers.

limle

BUMMING UP.
On Monday, Chief Justice Monahan' summed up the
case in le speech of conaiderable length and power, in
the coulee of which, after stating the case for the jury,
he made the following observations :—Alluding to the
question as to the marriages—his Lordship .ail, your
inquiry, gentlemen, will be, in either of these marriages
eufficient For nothing is better establialied or more
consistent with common sense, than that if one marriage
be good the fact of afterwards celebrating smother will
not void one previously celebrated. in the other hand.
if • void and improper marriage has been celebrated,
and that doubt arises about it, the circumstances of the
subsequent marriage cannot in the slightest degree
detract from the validity of the second profesiiiiun of it.
Well, gentlemen, that being the inquiry you have to
make, it is at once apparent that in conaidering the
question of each marriage separately, you are to consider
two things. First, 1.11,8 there • marriage in fact in
Scotland. Next, was that marriage valid, according to
the law of Scotland. In the same way you will have
to ascertain whether there was or was not a valid mar-
riage in Ireland. Iss to there being a marriage in Ire-
land. there is noilismite, because all the evidence, both
for the plaintiff and the defendant, prove. that • mire-
ninny was gone through in the temple of the
living God in which ceremony that Almighty Being
wax called on to witnew the proceedings that took place.
There is no doubt that in the temple of the living God,
before His altar, in the presence of an ordailied minister
of that God, this man took this woman, in words, at
least, for his lawful wedded wife; and that alone with-
out one particle inure, makes them nem and wife,
provided only that there was no imuediment, or no
eircunistaneex extraneous or connected with the parties,
that would render them incapable of being married in
• Roman catholic church by a Itoilian catholic priest.
I have told you that you arc trying whether soy legal
binding marriage took place, luid that, I rather think, is
the only liuestion in the Case ; for, with respect to the
deinewl for £259, I believe that it is not disputed that
Mr. Thelwall maintained her to that amount, and that
if she is the defenilant'a wife he is leOn,l to nisintsin her.
If you find die 111116 wife accm-ding t 4, the law of Scotland,
you may or may not go further. Having commented
upon the letters which were eildreiweil by Alm
Yelverton to the defendant at different intervals, his
I. rdship next referred to their meeting. at Galata,
when Mrs. Yelverton was eugaged in the Imspital
there in the capacity of aster if charity ; and said
Now, gentlemen, we come more nearly to the pert,
upon which there is a great ilivergeece in their
evidence. Both agree that Major Yelverton called
upon his lady at the convent. Major Yelverton mays
that he talked to her for an hour or two, and that
she was &caeca in the habit of the order, and wax nut
in the convent but in the hospital. It was auperintended
by a nundier of French ai.tera of charity, and who wore
• peculiar habit or rube. He sievs lie spoke of
love, but not of marriage ; and he took off
her bonnet and embraced her. He says lie talked of
love and affection ; and that then, for the first time,
lie formed the idea ill liii own mind to dishonour her
and make her his mistress. lam nit surprised, much
as I deprecate exhibitions of feeling in a court of justice,
at the expression of indignation the avoa al of this man
must have excited in the breaxt of any man with a
particle of honour or virtue in his composition. This
girl, who underwent one of the most searching cross-
examinationt I ever witnawed, arid whose conduct up
to this moment there does not appear to have been auy•
thin that could be discreditable or improper in any
woman, excited the admiration, love, and affection of
this man, an he tells us ; but, any God, should not the
garb in which she appeared, and the work of charity in
which she was mimed, have hail conic influence on
this man, and driven from his mind the idea which he
says lie entertained at that time. My God, gentlemen !
all of us awe in this city numbers°, young and beautiful
women who are engaged in this holy work of charity,
and though WWI may entertain different opinions asi to
the prudence and propriety of a conventual life, there
is not a MILD among yru who would be capald•
of offering an insult to those young and de-
voted women, an they go to and fro in Their
mission of charity, visiting the haunt. of suffering
and !Misery. That, gentlemen, is the account thia iuioii
gives of himself end the idea lie entertained at that
time. He says that lie loved and admired her, but that
she was not of gentle blood, and that therefore lie
formed the idea or desire of obtaining possession of
her person, not in an honourable manner, but by
diabonouriug her. That is his declaration. However,
gentlemen, whatever ivay be the feelings of indignation
which such a declaration naturally excites in the mind,
we must endeavour to get rid of them here, and
consider the case, not as • matter of feeling,
bat as one on which we have a duty to discharge. Ac-
cording to the principles of law and justice we must, as
far we can, endeavour to ascertain what was really
the nature of this interview at Galata. You will imagine
whether his declarations and conduct towards her then
were such as to lead het to believe thee NO Wow

Cons were hononr.,l,le. Who!..v..r awe th:a laly war,
them emit,. no doubt but that ,lo• WWI ill 1.111.ty felo.act
altrartiv.• a ;:irl as rs,•r 1,3 to tile lot of atly
Wan ; and 6.0 010. C• 111 41.11t.t, ti.at if .4o• notl.4ll:e I to
whit, „Le thou a a+, VirtUotti an 3 h.oron,hh••
011 e WM 01110 who, in enamor,. l!elio..t.o•tir. SI

,
.lo I,ouo.ir to Hystation'
to whidi any man, hir.eoeer high or well his ini,itiuu,
could mi.., her. (Aiiiihn.e.)
The learned Juil,e's cluirge occupiv.l seven nud a half
hours iu delivery.