The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-03-06 00:00:00

STOURBRIAGE 01,3SERVERe

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skeet. As I left England a few 'days after the event there
molt() opportuniry of improving the acquaintance. I couldn't
even find out her family name. Miss Hollis made half a
promise to send me the lady's photograph. I wonder if she
ever remembers that promise. Now, my dear Louise, you
must send me a long letter, with full account of all your hopes
and fears, joys, sorrows, &c. Let•there be no reserve ; tell
me everything. You can do so with perfect confidence, I
assure you Looking forward for your reply with the greatest
ntei est, believe me, yours ever, GEORGE."
She replied, and a correspondence passed between
them forming an engagement to marry. Many of the
letters were read. Enough to say that they showed
the highmindecl feeling, affection, and delicacy of
both writers. He spoke in straightforward and sen-
sible terms of his income and prospects; she. told
him of her family and her annual allowance. She
made all preparati'ons for the proposed marriage, con-
sulting him about the household arrangements. He
wrote requesting her to come out to him at the Cape,
as he was unable to obtain leave of absence. Her
family, however, objected to her travelling there alone,
and she had a difficulty in finding a companion for the
voyage, under whose charge she could go out. Some
misapprehension arose on his part from his under-
standing that her fortune of £lOO a year was in posses-
sion and not in reversion, and he wrote to her brother
on the subject. The letter was, however, answered
by the plaintiff, who gave an explanation, on the 21st
of December; and, directly afterwards receiving an
affectionate letter from him, she wrote in a like strain
again on the 24th of December, 1872. To these letters
no answer came, but on the 4th of April, 1873, her
brother received a note a follows :
" Sir,-51y letters to you per mail of November and the
19th of December of last year were clear and explicit, and
on a subject of sufficient importance to demand some ac-
knowledgment. You have failed to render to me any expla-
nation, and I now consider the matter ended —Yours
obediently, "G. D. PERRY."
Upon the 13th of August, 1873, the defendant married
another lady at the Cape.
The plaintiff was called as a witness, and substan
tinted the case opened by her counsel. She said she
had been twice engaged—once at the age of 16, and
again for some months to an elderly gentleman in her
native town —an engagement dissolved at her in-
stance.

Mr. Serjeant Parry asked few questions in dross-
examination, but, addressing the jury, sought to
mitigate damages, and, further, to show a rescission
of the contract arising from the difficulties created by
the lady's relations about her going abroad. He said
that it was rightly termed an extraordinary case, for
that the realms of fiction must be searched to find such
an instance of a contract of marriage between two
persons who had never spoken to each other and had
only met on one occasion. He commented on the fact
that no witnesses were called to prove that the plaintiff
had suffered from wounded feelings. Nor was it likely
that her heart could be broken, to judge from her
pleasantly composed demeanour. There was an inter-
course on paper merely, and transmission of sentiments
by post alone. The defendant was at an inflammable
period of life. Men of 42 or 43 were more susceptible
than younger ones, and when to such a man a lady
wrote as the plaintiff had done, that she thought from
the glimpses she had of him that he had "dark eyes
with a laughing light in them," it was 121,rd for an im-
pulsive ba.chelqr of his age to resist; still more when
she wrote, "I believe you to be honest, affectionate,
and intelligent, truthful and brave, stooping to none
on earth but to the weak and helpless, and knowing
no bonds save those of honour and faith." His letters,
too, were prompted by fancy and imagination, and
probably each had aroused in his and her mind a
tender feeling for the other. But was it of such a
kind as would result from personal knowledge? Surely
not.
The case lasted until a late hour, but resulted in a
verdict for the plaintiff. Damages, £5OO.
PUBLIC-HOUSES WITHOUT DRINK.
A meeting of those friendly to the establishment of
"British Workman Public-houses without Drink," has
been held at Glasgow, when the Lord Provost presided
over a large assemblage. The Chairmansaid any course
of action which would tend to reduce drunkenness would
meet with the earnest wishes for success of the magis-
trates. The ordinary public-houses were usually of a very
attractive kind, and if the British Workman Public-
houses were to be a success, they must be established
in open thoroughfares, well Thrnished with musical
entertainments and atl sorts of legitimate inducements
to
.entice the class for whose good they were intended.
The houses of the kind proposed, which he had seen
in the south, were of a rather dingy and dull char-
acter' and more of a nature to repel than to attract.
The Rev. Donald Macleod coincided with the Chair-
man in thinking that these houses must be made real
rivals to the ordinary gin palaces. He hoped they
would not misunderstand him if he said that the intro-
duCtion of what might be termed the " goody "
element would be a misfortune. A gentleman fol-
loNTed Mr. M•Leed, who stated that he had gone
though nearly all classes of the working men except
the bakers and the miners, eliciting their opinions on
th 4 subject of establishing public-houses without
drink, and gave it as his opinion that unless the fre-
quenters of these houses could have a glass of beer—
he i would have nothing stronger—they would never
succeed. His idea as to the advisability of having in-
tox,lcating liquors, however, did not meet with ap-
proval. It was agreed to .appoint a provisional com-
miitee, to co-operate with ladies in getting houses
°petted as soon as practicable in various parts of the

/HE EX-KING OF
The een, through the Governor of New South
Wales has presented the ex-King of Fiji with a yailt
of 30 'eons. This is not an unfair exchange for the war-
club which was forwarded to her Majesty by Thakoba
as a token that the sovereignty of the islands had
passed out of his hands. Thakobau appears to have
been as much made of by the people of Sydney during
his recent visit as King Kalakaua was by the Ameri-
cans. The Australian paper gives a very minute
account of the incidents of the voyage from Fiji. The
Vunivala, as the ex-King is called, is described as a
man, six feet high, with a good carriage, and an.impos-
ing appearance_ in native dress, which is only marred
a HMO frouvoite leg, being 4good deal shrunk, from the
effects of an.old wound. _ IT . was in good spirits all the
-tim
_ _ .

_
Le, save wheu-a stiff breeze, the first he ever experi-
enced, suddenly sprang up, and he is said to have de-
rived consolation from the reflection that if the vessel
were swamped by some of the green seas she took on
board, he would not be the only man that would go
to the bottom. On one occasion he was allowed to
start the engine-s, and when he saw the powerful ma-
chinery in full work, he turned to the interpreter say-
ing. The Almighty must have taught them (the
white men) how to make all this. They could never
have found it out themselves." His good temper was
unfailing, and those on board found it hard to realise
that for forty years this man was " one of the worst
cannibals of whom history has any record." It would
have been even harder to have had to realise it by ex-
perience.

EMIGRATION OF PAUPER CHILDREN.

Among the Parliamentary papers issued on Monday
was Mr. Doyle's report on the emigration of pauper
children to Canada, under the superintendence of
Miss Macpherson and Miss Rye.

Mr. Doyle points out many grave defects in the
system as discovered by personal observation and
inquiry, and concludes as follows :—With reference to
girls, I am decidedly of opinion that they ought not to
be sent out at a later age than from seven to eight;
all the better if still younger. Girls who are sent out
at ages from nine to fifteen are at once placed in service.
By whatever name that service may be called,
though disguised as " adoption," it is, in fact,
domestic service, quite as hard as, and in some respects
more uninviting to the children, than the service in
which at the same age they might be placed
out in England. Their habits have been to some ex-
tent already formed, and they have ties and attach-
ments, the recollection of which, when the novelty of
their new position is worn off, makes them discon-
tented with it, and leads to constant complaints and
changes of situation. I was often painfully struck in
speaking to children of that age with the sense of
loneliness manifested by them. It was a long time,
employers have frequently told me, before that class
of children could get over the feeling of home sick-
ness. I have already indicated the very serious risks
to which children are exposed who are left to pass out
of that sort of friendless and isolated service into early
independence. With children who are sent out very
young, and who are adopted into families, the case is
altogether different. They are completely adopted by the
families into which they are received, not only by
needy cottagers for the sake of a few shilling a week,
but into a class of homes that have no counterpart in
England, partly in view, as Miss Rye puts it, of
their future usefulness, and partly to fill a void in
the household. All the influences by which these
children are surrounded are healthy, and one may
reasonably look to their being ultimately absorbed
into the best part of the best population of the
American continent, the Canadian yeoman. So
long as homes can be found for those children, such
as those in which I saw so many of them, and so
long as they are watched over by women like
Miss Bilbrough and Mrs. Robson there can be no
question as to the advantage of sending them to
Canada, if they must be sent out of England. But
the utmost care should be taken not to send them out
merely upon speculation or in excess of the means,
ascertained beforehand, of disposing of them by adop-
tion. If, contrary to the opinion that I have ventured
to express, boards of guardians should still desire to send
out children of more mature age to be at once placed
out in service, I can only repeat what I have already
said as to the necessity of correcting the defects that I
have pointed out in everystage of the emigration, from
the selection of the children to their being finally
emancipated and left to act for themselves. I would
rer:eat, too, that if the emigration of pauper children
to ;_lanada is to continue, it should be wholly discon-
neoited with the emigration of Arab children. Apart
froin the pernicious influence of such association, there
are, I am sure, few boards of guardians in England
who would not feel indignant if fully aware of the
light in which the children sent out by them are too
of tbn presented to the people in Canada. In order. I
suppose, to enlist publio sympathy in favour of the
deltitute children who are sent out, they are repre-
__ . .

ted without distinction as the offspring of thieves
vagabonds just swept of the slums off our great
.?,s. Occasionally, indeed, the pauper children are
Tred to as a distinct class, but only as being "the
ise of our workhouses." Irrespective of the great
istice of so characterising these children, I am
n quite sure, as I have already stated, that it tends
;erially to prejudice their position in service.