The Express.
London, England, 1866-08-16 00:00:00

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

MIDLAND CIRCUIT.—LEEDS, Auouer 14.
CuowN COORT.—(Before Mr. Justice Smith.)
BREACH OP PROMISE.
The cue of Jewell r. Lee came on for hearing. It was
an action for breach of promise of marriage.
Mr. Digby Seymour, Q.C., and Mr. Middleton for the
plaintiff, and Mr. Campbell Foster for the defendant.
Mr. Seymour thought that when the jury had heard the
evidence in this case they would be of opinion that
plaintiff had been treated by the defendant in a manner
entirely unworthy of a man. The plaintiff was a lady
about thirty-five years of age. She formerly held the
position of lady's-maid to Mrs. Myers, of Bradford, who
occasionally travelled with her husband on the continent.
She made the acquaintance of the defendant, who was a
traveller for a wine merchant, some years before 1861. He
at that time courted her, and engaged her affections, she
being then in the prime and bloom of womanhood. They
were looked upon by their friends as engaged, but from
one excuse or another the engagement was broken off. In
the year 1862, however, further interviews took place be-
tween the parties, and their marriage was spoken of as
likely to take place very soon. The defendant afterwards
wrote a letter to the plaintiff, in which, after speaking of
his necessary absence from home on his journeys, he con-
cluded by saying :—" The fact ia, ' Jewell,' my brother
does not want me to get married, but I see plainly
that I can do better without him than with him." The
acquaintance was, however, afterwards again broken off,
and the matter ended, but Miss Jewell at that time did
not wish to bring the affair into court, and was content
to hope that perhaps defendant would alter his mind.
Time passed over, and they did not meet again for some
years. In 1865, however, the plaintiff happened to be
visiting at the house of Mrs. Robinson, of Bradford, and
the defendant called upon her there. Mutual explanations
took place, the result of which was the renewal of the en-
gagement, and the defendant went to see the plaintiff re-
peatedly, and behaved towards her as a lover would. In
the course of a conversation respecting the past, he said,
" Well, whatever it has been in the past, it will be a wed-
ding this time ;" but the engagement was again broken
off, and he refused to fulfil his promise. Now, it was ad-
niitted that he was in a situation of 1001. a year, besides
which he told the plaintiff he had an interest in a sum of
6001., the whole of which he would receive at his mother's
death. He was, therefore, quite in a position to have
married the plaintiff. Some correspondence took place last
year, but it was of a plain, practical character, and it would
not much amuse the jury. His learned friend, Mr. Mid-
dleton, had, however, turned poet, and written two lines
while in court, which he would now read:
While in bounding pinnace you gaily sail
Over Ilfe's changing sea—
(Laughter.) He had taken the liberty to add:
Be sure, my "Jewell," you never fail
To keep your helm a-Lee.
(Renewed laughter.) The learned counsel then called
Mrs. Robinson, of Horton-lane, Bradford, who said
she had known the plaintiff and defendant for about
fifteen years. She had frequently seen them together
before 1861, and they looked very happy together.
(Laughter.) They were acquainted dunn; the Great Ex-
hibition of 1851. Recollected plaintiff going on a visit to
her house in August last year, when defendant called to
see her and had a pipe with her husband. The latter said
to him, "They say old broth is sooner warmed than new
broth made"—(laughter)—upon which he replied—" It
shall be a wedding this time." Plaintiff haul previously
said " It shall be no long courtship this time." They went
out of the house together after that. On the following
market day, defendant again spent the evening with Miss
Jewell. On the Sunday afterwards defendant said he
would make the plaintiff his wife before she went back to
London. Plaintiff went to London on the 2nd Oct. Before
she left the defendant saw her frequently. Witness had
heard Lee say to plaintiff that when he got a situation and
was settled he would go to London and marry her, and
she was to make herself contented until that time. He
said to witness he had 6001. left to him, and that if he
died single lie would leave the whole of the 6001. to
plaintiff. When the latter returned to London de•
fondant obtained a situation with Mr. Lupton, spirit
merchant, on the Ist Feb. following, and still remained in
that gentleman's service.
Cross-examined by Mr. C. Foster—l don't keep a
register-office fur marriages am well as for servants.
(Laughter.)
Michael Robinson, a cabinet maker, of Bradford, and
husband of the preceding witness, spoke to smoking a pipe
with the defendant. He noticed the defendant paying
those little attentions towards plaintiff which persons
usually do when they are courting. Witness stated to
defendant that he had heard a saying that old broth was
sooner warmed than new broth made, upon which plaintiff
said it should not be a long courtship this time, and de-
fendant stated it should be a wedding.
Mr. Foster —I should like to know what those little
attentions were that you spoke of. (Laughter.)
Witness—l should think you and the jury know as well
se anybody. (Laughter.) They were those peculiar
smiles which young people can give when they are court-
ing. (Laughter.)
Mr Foster—Well, perhaps you can give us a specimen.
(Loud laughter.)
Witness—l used to do it. but now lam too old. (Re-
newed laughter.) •
Mr. Newsome, of Bradford, had known the defendant
for twenty years. He also knew the plaintiff, and had
seen the defendant conduct himself towards her like a
lover. (Laughter.) Defendant had told him in his shop
that it should be a wedding this time, and he would want
witness to give Jewel away. Witness then wished to be
informed in good time, in order that he might get a new
hat for the occasion. (Laughter.)
Cross-examined by Mr. Foster—Witness was not a
draper, and the defendant did not go to his shop to buy
baby linen. (Laughter.) He was a druggist.
Mr. Foster—He was not asking for " Dalby's Carmina-
tive," was he' (Loud laughter.)
Several letters written by defendant to plaintiff were
then put in and read.
This was the case for the plaintiff.
Mr. Seymour referred to the humour which had been
thrown into the case by his learned friend, and then
urged that it was not a laughing matter to the plaintiff,
whose affections had been trilled with by the defendant for
fifteen years, although she had remained true to him even
while on the continent. It was bad enough for a woman
to be thrown aside by the defendant as a rotten branch,
without being made a laughing-stock of. She had by her
constancy to the defendant lost other opportunities for
settling herself in that position which was the honourable
ambition of every virtuous woman, and be asked the jury
to give her exemplary damages in consequence.
Mr. Foster said that if rounded periods and eloquence
amounting almost to pathos were to decide the action, then
the defendant was already a ruined man. The learned
counsel for the plaintiff had spoken of his client as though
she were a "pearl of great
, price," and had then asked
the jury to set that jewel" in gold taken from the
defendant's pockets. But instead of the " old broth"
having been boiling up and bubbling, there never was
colder stuff in this world. Throughout a very humorous
speech the learned counsel contended that the promise
spoken to by the witnesses had been given merely in joke,
and that the remark made by Newsome respecting the new
hat was mere badinage. He asked the jury to discard all
the blown-up nonsense which had been imported into the
case by the learned counsel for the plaintiff, and give their
attention to the facts. If they should come to the con-
clusion that defendant had broken his promise to the plain-
tiff, he urged that from her position, and also from the
position of the defendant, she would not be entitled to
heavy damages.
His Lordship having summed up,
The jury retired, and after a short absence returned a
verdict for the plaintiff ; damages, 1001.

'Axel:l-Law. —On Tneadayafternoon an attack of
a moat brutal and cowardly nature was perpetrated on the
person of Captain Davies, of the brig Isabel, by a body of
seamen, 30 in number, who were assembled outside the
Merchant Seamen's Shipping office, where seamen's wages
are paid and other matters between captains and their
crews adjusted. it appears that for some little time past
there has existed considerable ill-feeling on the part of
sailors towards their employers, on the score of their
wages—the rate of which, however, is not under the con-
trol of the captains themselves. Captain Davies had been
engaging fresh men, and was in the act of leaving the
shipping office when he was suddenly pounced upon by a
gang of sailors, who, dragging him to the ground, kicked
him and trampled on him in a moat ruffianly manner. No
policeman being either on the spot, or near at hand, the
ruffians made their escape. Captain Davies has sustained
severe injuries, which will incapacitate him from attending
to his duties far some time.