The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-07-26 00:00:00

THE NORTHERN' TIMES.---LIVF,EPOOL, SATURDAY.

IBREACH OF PBroMISE OF

COOPER V. TRADER.

MARRIAGE.

This was r,n action for breach of promise of marriage,
tried on iednesday last, at the Exeter assizes, before
Mr. Baro- Martin and a special jury.
Mr; 'Jollier, Q.C., and Mr. Coleridge were counsel for
the ; and Mr. Serjeant Kinglake and Mr. Karslake
counsel for the defendant.

Mr. Collier, in his opening statement, said that the
plaintiff, Miss Mary Ann Cooper, was the daughter of a
silk mercer, at Plymouth, who had a family of five chil-
dren—two sons and three daughters. The plaintiff was
25 years of age, and of great personal beauty. The
defendant was a person of very respectable position in
life, and of respectable family, who had considerable
landed property, and who bad for a long period been
resident in Plymouth. Indeed, the two families appeared
to have been on intimate terms from the early youth of
both the parties to this action, and there was little doubt
that in early years a tender attachment rose up between
them. However, there was no distinct engagement
entered into until November, 1854, and that was the time
to which the learned counsel called attention. The
defendant was the captain of a merchant vessel, of some
1,100 or 1,200 tons burthen, called the Constitution,
belonging to Messrs. Walton, of London, and the defendant
was also part owner of that vessel. The defendant
also seemed to have engaged in certain mercantile
business with advantage to himself, and from the general
tenor of his letters appeared to move in a state of
society beyond the ordinary rank of captains in
the merchant service. In November, 1854, he was in
command of this vessel, part owner of it, receiving a
salary of £25 a month, also in receipt of some other
income, and being in Plymouth he paid his court to this
young lady, and was accepted by her. The match was
considered by the young lady and her friends as a very
eligible one, for the defendant was 29 or 30 years of age ;
the plaintiff was only 25 years of age, and therefore
there was just that difference of age that there should be
between a man and a woman for contracting marrie:ge.
Under these circumstances the match went on ; dekodant
treated plaintiff subsequently as his wife, and in Novem-
ber, 1854, the defendant was about to start for a long
voyage, and contemplated a return from nis voyage in
about twelve months, when the marriage was to take
place on his return. Previous t 5 his departure, the
defendant consulted the young la.ay's father, and wished
that she might discontinue se: vine; in her father's shop,
and, at the defendant's re'iuest, she was removed from the
father's shop counter, sent to reside with her uncle, to be
educated as a lad:, ; and at defendant's request she was
placed under a. music toaster, in order that she might be
accomplishQ'a in that branch of education, for which the
defendant had a natural taste. All this being arranged,
the 'defendant went to London with his vessel, the Con-
stitution, to make arrangements for his voyage, but
several circumstances occurred to prevent his going as
early as he expected. He was detained in the Thames
for some time, and during this period a correspondence
took place between them, and several of which letters
the learned counsel read in open court, as the documents
P.lways spoke more conclusively iu these cases than any
argements of counsel. The first was as follows :
" Tulse-bill, Wednesday.
"Dearest Mary,—l just manage to steal a moment,
before any one comes down, to say I am well, and that I
was all day in the court house."

This was the style of one of these letters. Another,
also directed from Tulse-hill, was addressed " My dearest
Mary," in which occurred the loving, but rather strange
passage:—

"I am busy getting ready to go on board. Miss Walton
will go most likely, but, dear Mary, your sweet smile is
always before me, and my heart is fixed for ever. I hope
you will go very much to our house, and keep dear Susan's
company as much as possible. By loving her, your love
for me will increase, as a natural consequence.—Yours,
ever affectionately, GEORGE F. TRADER."

In another strange epistle, the defendant wrote :

" Tell dear Susan that Emma Sniith and all the Smiths
had made up their minds that she had only to whistle, and
I would run to her ; they are dreadfully disappointed—l
hardly notice her."

In another he says :—" Everything goes well with me
in a mercantile view."

The next epistle was as follows :
" Dearest Mary,—l leave for Carlisle, and then I go, of
course, to Tulse-hill. My darling, how much my love
has increased for you since my last note, you cannot
imagine. At times there is such a thrill passes through
me when thinking of you, that I am sure can only be
caused by pure love, and I never felt it before, although
I have as you know, heard what the world calls courting,
but that, dear, is too cold a name wherewith to express
the growth of my love towards you. And now may God
above protect you and spiritually instruct you, is the
sincere prayer of, dearest Mary, with kindest love, your
ever affectionate, " GEORGE•"
The learned counsel, as a proof that the defendant moved
in a position above that of a mere captain of a merchant
vessel, read the following

"My darling Girl,—l am every evening in gay circles
midst beauty and accomplishments of various shapes and
forms; but your dear imago dwells with me, and to think
that you love me is my greatest treat. Write your thoughts ;
they are all I could wish. Your last note was one of the
most ladylike and pretty that I ever read."

The next letter was a lively specimen of amatory impul-

sivenes

"I wish we were married. Cheer girl, cheer. I have
managed to do away with kissing Ali,s Walton at night
now, and have told the younger brother of our engagement.
He is extremely pleased. I cannot write more, my darling
for want of time. It is quite possible we might be married
in 84- months from this date. Cheer girl, cheer. Write girl,
write, and maintain your womanly rights, and loving your
parents. We all have our weakness. (Roars of laughter.)
—Believe me, darling, your ever affectionate, " GEORGE."
As a proof that defendant was well to do in the world, and
was able to pay sufficient damages, the learned counsel read
the following :

" I shall be nothing out of pocket by the speculation.
My 125 a month is going on."

The defendant had professed to be religious, and he (the
learned counsel) could not help contrasting the following
with these pious professions :

" The fact is I did not go to church; it's not a part of
my creed, but rather a day of rejoicing. We had a large
dinner party at the Lodge and ball in the evening. I
foolishly danced, and made my now much better leg (he
had hurt his ancle) seriously bad. I took Mrs. Charles
and Emma out in a phaeton, and we all enjoyed ourselves.
I trust you had a jolly day, and will have a happy new
year. That we may be an united happy couple for the
remainder of our days is my sincere prayer, and may
we both pass through it with increasing love and fear to
God."

The latter then said, " Why don't you marry Emma Walton;
your friends wish it, and it would be an advantageous
match ?" Defendant replied, " I never can love her."
Witness then said, " If you won't have Miss Walton I have
no objection to your having Mary." Oa this understanding
witness said the engagement went on, and in conversation
dafendaat represented his circumstances to be equal to £5OO
a year; that beyond this he had a share in the vessel, and
other advantages from passengers, and speculations in goods
for the Australian market on his own account. The plaintiff
was removed from behind her father's counter at
Plymouth, and placed with her uncle, a retired captain in
the army ; and as the defendant wished her to learn music,
a music master was engaged for her. In the outset the
defendant's family received plaintiff in all respects as their
relative's intended wife. But in time, after the defendant
had gone to London, and made himself familiar with the
Walton's, they treated her with coldness and insult, and
ultimately ridiculed the idea of the defendant having any.
thing more than a friendly regard for the plaintiff.
Defendant did not support his parents, but allowed them
about £2O a year. The plaintiff's father was angry with
her for leaving home, as she was very useful to him in his
draper's shop. This witness was cross-examined by Serjeant
Kinglake, but the above facts were not shaken. This was
the only witness called for the plaintiff.
Mr. Sergeant Kinglake, for defendant, admitted that
there had been a promise made, but contended that the £6O
paid into court was ample damages to meet the jusice of
the breach. The fact was the plaintiff was so annoyingly
jealous that they would never have been happy in married
life, and it was fortunate for both parties that the marriage
had not taken place.
The learned sergeant then called two witnesses—Mrs.
Castle, the defendant's sister, and the cash clerk of Messrs.
Walton, the owners of the vessel of which the defendant is
captain, who said his income from all sources was not more
the.rt £l5O a-year. This being the case the learned ser-
geant submitted that his client had paid into court ample
damages.

Mr-. Collier replied upon the whole case in an able
speech, and

The learned judge having left the amount of damages to
the jury, the latter, after more than an hour's consultation
returned a verdict for the plaintiff, with £2OO damages, less
the £6O paid into court.

MANAGEMENT OF THE DOCKS

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NORTHERN TIMES.

Sir,—l am glad to see from your report of the proceed-
ings of the Dock Committee, that the working of the
Albert and Stanley docks is being forced on the attention
of the general committee. You may readily imagine that
something is radically wrong when the members of the
general committee, and even those of the sub-committee,
can speak as they are reported to have done yesterday.
The corn and the cotton trades are, I may say, unanimous
in condemning the whole system, and sooner or later ships
with these articles must be excluded from those docks.
The charges both against the ships and the cargoes are
heavier there than at any of the other docks, and the
delays are shameful. Complaints are of no use whatever,
as the committee refer to the sub-committee, they to the
secretary, he again to the superintendent at the dock,
who obtains a report from the very parties who have done
wrong, and so it goes round again to the committee, who
say they can do nothing. Public opinion may, by-and-bye.
—Yours, &c., A SUFFERER.
25th July, 1856.

THE ROYAL INFIRMARY.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NORTHERN TIMES.

Sir,—A.
writer in the Albion of last Monday has strung
together some few sentences, intended, I presume, to be
excruciatingly satirical, relative to the present contest
for the office of Surgeon to the Royal Infirmary. The
pertinence of his remarks, to the merits of the candidates,
do not, in the least degree, make themselves apparent to
my obtuse mind,—the relation of Mr. E. R. Bickersteth's
undoubted abilities as a surgeon with "white ties,"
"albums," and "circular dances," does not appear to me
at all made out; neither what connection "the saints,"
who, as he says, "can hang over an album," and after-
wards " play an excellent knife and fork at supper," will
have with the election or non-election of Mr. E. Bicker-
steth, I profess myself utterly unable to conceive,—
unless, indeed, the writer in the Albion has unwittingly
committed himself, by speaking from:experience, of the
clerical circle in which he, perchance, mingles. I think,
however, that the remarks in the 'Albion, evidently
indicted by an admirer of Mr. Minshull, will be regarded
by the governors of the Infirmary, as an unworthy
attempt to introduce an uncalled-for religious element,
into a purely professional and secular matter, and that
they will be looked upon as written in exceedingly bad
tsste, and but a poor attempt to damage Mr. Bicker-
steth's prospect of success. The same writer alludes to
the age of Dr. Minshull's opponent, in which to begin
with, he is wrong nearly four years, and states that Mr.
Minshull is " old enough to be his father." Well, if this
be intended as an argument in Mr. Minshull's favour, I
will improve it, by saying that Mr. 51. is old enough to be
his grandfather; but, surely, talent and efficiency will be
sought for by the governors without reference to age,
h has been pretty well proved lately in the public
affairs of the country, not to be the great desideratum ;
while the apology for the crime of youth, once de-
livered in the House of Commons by a tolerably
talented Prime Minister, ought to have prevented
that subject being broached. But, considering the
question of hospital appointments upon broader
grounds, upon the question of public utility—and be it
remembered that the Infirmary is the basis of a school of
medicine, where future surgeons are to obtain from
the lips and practice of its medical officers, and the
extended field of observation it presents, that knowledge,
which is to benefit the more limited circle of their future
private practice—and then see in what way one of the
arguments so prominently advanced in favour of Mr.
Minshull, tells upon the propriety of electing him. In his
own address he claims support upon the ground of pre-
vious services, and as his canvassers sneers at, and mis-
take Mr. Bickersteth's age, may it not fairly be asked,
has it been in advanced years that the greatest
discoveries in medicine have been made? no, on the
contrary ; it is patent to the world that, as a rule, the
more advanced a surgeon becomes in years, so much the
more does he become wedded to the routine and red
tapeism of his ideas, and less capable of entertaining the
doctrines of progress every where springing up. So that
I contend that Mr. Bickersteth's comparative youth is in
his favour, rather than otherwise. I would also remind
Mr. Minshull's supporters, that though age may
give the presumption of experience, it does not
prove its possession, and with due respect to Mr. Min-
shull's long and honourable life, I think I may venture to
assert that Mr. E. Bickersteth has performed more
important surgical operations, in the face of the medical
profession, and with the most remarkable success, in a
few years, than Mr. Minshull has had opportunities of
doing during his lifetime. I must conclude, for the present,
but would remind Mr. Minshull's supporters, that should
they hear unwelcome truths, they must blame their own
mis-statements, and remember that they first took up the
pen.—Yours obediently, CHIELURGUS.
July 25, 1856.

LONDON GAZETTE.

BANICRUPTS.—JoriN DURHAM, New Orford-street,
Bloomsbury, boot and shoe manufacturer. DAVID MAR-
SHALL, Bristol, tailor. JAMES BILOBARROW, Coventry,
haberdasher. THOMAS MATTHEWS SHEPPEARD, Cambridge,
corn and coal merchant. WILLIAM CLARK, Tipton,
Staffordshire, miller. ROPERT NEWENS, Richmond, Surrey,
baker. ISAAC BLANCKRNSEE, Birmingham, merchant and
dealer in watches. Louts hoonEFORT, Broad street
buildings, City, importer of foreign goods, RICHARD ADAMS,
Dudley, Worcestershire, grocer and provision merchant.
JoHN Lowe, :Manchester,' merchant and commission agent.
PETER HALL, Manchester, smallwaro manufacturer.
EDWARD WILLIAMS, Birmingham, commission agent.
DAVID STEVENS, /siontague-plaeo, IViillwall, Poplar, cattle
dealer and hay compres3or. CHAntrs DOUGLAS Hors,
Great Marlborough-street, and Regent-street, nod of L'ms-
downe-road North, Notting-hill, publisher and botikeelier.
sErn PORTER, Salford, Lancashire, screw bolt manufacturer
and engineer, FREDERICK JAMES ITT TING, IV isbeach,
Cambridgeshire, sawyer and agricultural implement maker.
JAMES JOHN LONG, Holbeach, Lincolnshire, printer,
stationer, and bookseller.

GMAT WESTERN RAILWAY.—We are officially informed
that the directors of this company have resolved to recom-
mend to the proprietors, at the general meeting on the 7th
August next, that the dividend for the half year ending
30th June, 1856, be at the rate of £5 lOs per cent per
annum on the capital.
THE CONVICT WILLIAM DovE.—Thb prisoner has ex-
pressed a desire to see the Rev. W. M. Punshon, 'Wesleyan
minister, of Leeds. In compliance with this wish, the Rev.
gentleman proceeded to York yesterday, and—in company
with a minister of that city, who has visited the prisoner
every week since he was placed in York Castle—spent an
hour with Min.—Leeds Mercury.
THE BRUSSELS FREE TRADT, INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS.
—A circular has been published by the President and
Secretary of the International Congress which is to assemble
at Brussels, towards the end of September, to discuss the
subject of Universal Customs' Reform and Free Trade in
general. In this circular they prescribe the order of their
proceedings. The object of the Congress is comprehensively
stated as " to collect from every country, and every branch
of human industry, all facts, laws, regulations, or other
information which may, for good or evil, affect the labour
of each country, either by hindering or facilitating the
exchange of the results of that labour for foreign pro-
ductions."

FRAUDS ON EMIGRANTS,

At the Thames Police Court, yesterday, Captain Lean,
R.N., the government emigration officer of the port of Lon-
don, came before Mr. Yardley, with several emigrants, for
the purpose of obtaining a warrant to apprehend a German,
named Zitchsky, an emigration agent, lately- residing and
carrying on business on Tower lain, in the the county of
Middlesex, and within the district of this court, for a breach
of the Passengers' Act,
Captain Lean said it was not an ordinary thing for a pas.
senger agent to abscond, but in this case the party of whom
he complained had not only obtained money cf many poor
individuals, under pretence of shipping them at Liverpool
for New York, but had absconded. It was, however, neces-
sary that the culprit should be held up to public indignation,
and the law set in motion.

The passenger agent of whom he complained, bad engaged
to convey several persons to Liverpool, and ship them to
New York, and had received various sums, amounting in
the aggregate to a large amount. One man had paid
Zitchsky £l3 as a deposit for a passage for himself and
family, another £lO, and many others £6 and £5 each.
The fellow appointed to meet the emigrants at Euston-square
station on Monday morning, and send them by an early
train to Liverpool. They waited several hours, and the
fellow never came. On Tuesday the defrauded passengers
went to the agent's place of business, and discovered that
the bird had flown.

Captain Lean then put in the contracts, and said the
Christian names of the parties were not annexed to them,
and the agent was liable to a penalty on each contract for
the omission.

Mr. Yardley said that was clearly a breach of the law, and
asked if the agent's security had been applied to on the

subject.
Captain Lean said Mr. Douglas, a shipowner, the surety
of the fraudulent agent, and who would be a great sufferer
by the defalcations and flight of Zitchsky, was now present.
Mr. Yardley had no doubt Mr. Douglas would do all in
his power to see justice done to the poor people who had been
defrauded.

Mr. John Beckwith Towse, an attorney, said he was
watching the case for Mr. Douglas, and would do what was
right.

A man named Farrow was then sworn, and said he paid
Zitchsky £5 15s. He was to meet the agent at seven
o'clock on Monday morning, at the Euston-square station.
Ile was there at the appointed time, and the agent never
came.

Several other emigrants made similar complaints.
Mr. Yardley said he was afraid the law did not authorise
him to issue a warrant, and ultimately granted a summons.

THE APPELLATE JURISDICTION BILL

We subjoin a copy of the petition of the Liverpool Finan-
cial Reform Association, against this bill, presented to the
House of Commons, by Mr. J. C. Ewart, on Thursday, the
3rd inst. We understand that, subsequent to its presenta-
tion, objections to the petition were started, both by the
Speaker and the petition committee, on account of the strong
terms of reprehension applied to the hereditary legislators
and judges. It seems, however, to have been thought more
judicious, on the whole, to allow the petition to pass without
comment, than to provoke discussion by insisting on its
withdrawal, or by any formal protest against it, however
contrary to parliamentary etiquette it may be to allow one
House to be spoken of otherwise than most respectfully, by
petitioners in the other. The allusion to the Macedonian
monarch has been objected to, as if it conveyed an insinua-
tion that the keeper of the Queen Victoria's conscience
occasionally exceeds in his potations; but the only meaning
clearly is that, whereas an appeal from Piilip drunk to
Philip sober, was a real and substantial appeal—an appeal
from the Lord Chancellor sitting in Chancery to the same
individual sitting in the House of Lords is none at all. As
to the rest, these are times for plain speaking, and it is not
unlikely that this very petition may have had its share in
shelving an abortive and most objectionable measure :
._.

To the Honourable the Commons of Great Britain and
Ireland, in Parliament assembled, the petition of the under-
signed members of the Liverpool Financial Reform Associa-
tion humbly she wetb,—
That a Supreme Court of Appeal, properly constituted,
for the revision of proceedings in the various courts of law
in the United Kingdom, is essential to the due administration
of justice.
That the House of Lords is, on the confession of its own
select committee, quite inadequate to discharge the important
functions of such a court of appeal ; and that the manner in
which that body exercises an appellate jurisdiction alleged,
by high constitutional authorities, to have been originally
usurped, is discreditable to the Legislature and prejudicial
to the country.
That this jurisdiction is vested, theoretically, in the whole
body of the peers, lay, clerical, and legal, but is practically
exercised only by the Lord tibance,llor, and one, two, or
more law lords, who may choose to sit for or with him,
excepting in the revision of proceedings involving political
considerations or personal interests, when the lay lords may,
if they please, attend, and outvote the judges of the land.

That an appeal from a decision of the Lord Chancellor,
in the Court of Chancery, to the same Lord Chancellor
sitting on the woolsack lacks even the merit of the classical
appeal from Philip drunk to Philip sober; whilst, to submit
matters involving the nicest points of law and equity to the
adjudication of lay lords, many of whom have none but the
hereditary qualification for either making or interpreting
laws, is a manifest absurdity.

That the attempt of her Majesty's Ministers to improve
the existing Court of Appeal, by conferring life peerages on
eminent lawyers, rind so increasing the number of qualified
judges, though falling far short of the reform required, was,
nevertheless, a move in the right direction ; and that the
Lords, in ref using to allow so distinguished a judge as Lord
Wensleydale to take his seat amongst them, arrogantly pre-
sumed to set limits to that very authority from which all
their honours are derived.

That since the Clown may, undoubtedly, with the assent
of its responsible advisers, create as many hereditary peers
as it pleases, to allege that the Crown cannot create peers for
life is only to deny the logical axiom that the greater includes
the less; and also to maintain the privilege of the creature
to decide how the right of creation shall be exercised.
That the Lords, in the bill which they have passed, per-
mitting the Crown to confer life peerages on four lawyers,
two of whom are to receive salaries of £6,000 per annum
each, with pensions in reversion (fir performing functions
which they themselves are either incompetent or unwilling
to discharge, though determined to retain), and all of whom
are to have the right of sitting and voting as peers of Par-
liament, after they have ceased to act as judges of appeal,
have assumed the anomalous authority aforesaid, and have
taken upon themselves to allow the Crown to do that which
they have declared to be illegal and unconstitutional.
That, admitting the right of the Peers thus to limit the
royal prerogative in the first instance, and to extend it in
the second, a bill establishing new salaried officers, with
pensions attached to them, the expenses of which are to be
defrayed out of the taxes, is essentially a money bill, and, as
such, ought to have originated in your honourable House,
not in the House of Peers.

That the expedients provided by this Bill, even if they
were otherwise unobjectionable, are quite inadequate to
remedy defects so numerous, and so vital as those which exist
in the Appellate Jurisdiction of the House of Lords, accord-
ing to the Report of its own Select Committee. •
Your Petitioners therefore humbly pray,
That your honourable House will be pleased to reject the
bill which has been sent down to it by the House of Lords,
as an invasion both of the Prerogative of the Crown, and
the privileges of the Commons, and, further, that your
honourable house will, in its wisdom, adopt such measures
as may be necessary for the establishment, as economically
as possible, of a Supreme Court of Appeal competent to the
discharge of its importint,duties, and free from the objec-
tions now attaching to the inocke. y of such a court, exhibited
in the Appellate Jurisdiction of Pcers of Parliament.
And your Petitioners will ever pray.

There is a rumour that Sir Benjamin Hall will be
raised to the peerage.

Lord John Russell has taken his departure for the
CGiithient by Way (4' Ostend.

The Aciveitis.er supposes that the Duke of Cambridge
will 'be shortly elevated to the rank of Field-marshal,
an elevation which will carry with it a large addition
of pay.

The steamer Edinburgh arrived at Greenock, yesterday
morning, from New York, after a passage of twelve days
and fifteen hours, bringing dates to the 9th instant, which
are four days later than those received by the last arrival
at this port.

DEATH OF A ROMAN CATHOLIC BIE4IIOF.—The Cork
Examiner announces the death of the titular Bishop of
Kerry, the Right Rev. Dr. Egan, an unobtrusive and tole-
rant prelate. He had presided over the diocese for nearly
3.5 years, but for the last few years he had, owing to his
great age and infi,mitie3, the assistance of a coadjutor.
ROBBING THE PATRIOTIC FTND.-011 removing the
box placed in the booking office of the Great Northern
railway station at Doncaster, for the reception of penny
subscriptions on behalf of the Patriettc Fund, it was
found -that some mean thief had riled the receptacle
of its contents, by slitting a hole in the back of the
box, which ig made of tin, and forcing his hand
into the aperture. It is believed that a considerable
surri of money has been thus stolen, for it was dis—
covered that two pieces of paper (tile Great Northern
Companyho's way-bills) had been successively I pasted
over the le just mentioned, indicating at least two visits
to the box by the depredator, and it was known that a
good deal of silver had been put into it. The box had
been sent to Mr. Williams, the superintending constable of
the Great Northern line ; and, as the officials at Doncaster
are not without some clue to the identification of the thief,
it is hoped he may yet be discovered and punished for this
flagitious offence,

COLLEGIATE SCHOOL OF ART

Examinations were lately held of all the branches of this
School of Art, by Henry Cole, Esq., C. 8,, Inspector General,
and Richard Redgrave, Esq., R.A., Art Superintendant, when
the following honours and pezes were adjudged :