The Express.
London, England, 1861-03-08 00:00:00

THE YELVERTON CASE.

In connexion with the above case Professor Jukes
has published • letter in a Dublin paper contradicting some
false rumours in reference to Mrs. Forbes. This lady's
letter, which is given by the professor, her late, husband's
particular friend, will be read with interest. Mr. Jukes
writes :—" My colleague, Edward Forbes, was married, on
the 31st of August, 1848, to Emily Marianne Ashworth,
daughter of. the late General Sir Charles Ashworth ; and
made her acquaintance a fortnight afterwards at Llangollen.
which was just then the head-quarters of the Geological
Survey in North Wales. Mims Ashworth was entitled,
under her father's will, to • property, half the income
of which she then enjoyed, and the other half will
come to her on the death of her mother, Lady Ashworth.
As Forbes's income was mainly derived from Lis scanty
pay on the Geological Survey, her friends wisely made it a
preliminary to their consent to the marriage that he should
Insure his life for 3,000/., which, very shortly after his
marring% was raised to 4,0001. In the beginning of the
year 1854 Forbes resigned his connexion with the Geologi-
cal Survey on his appointment to the chair of Natural His-
, tory in Edinburgh, and be died, alas I OD No-
, vember the 18th, 1854, leaving two children, a ern and •
daughter. The half Mrs. Forbes's share of the Ashworth
property, and the 4,0001. are secured to these two children
on their mother', death, the whole capital of both kinds
being strictly settled and in the hands of the trustees.
After Forbes's death our intercourse with her was chiefly
by letter, and in June, 1858, we received one announcing
her intended marriage with Major Yelverton. This letter
is written in all the playful, careless confidence of ladies'
correspondence, but I venture to quote from it one or two
passages :
" ' 1, Randolph-cliff, June 15.
Dearest Mn. Jukes,—Consider all apologies no made
for not writing sooner,-1 am so bury,—up to my area in
letters, and law, and botheration ; and I suppose I must
tell you; but—. lam going to make a fool of myself in
ply old age I* and I am going to marry Major
William Yelverten, Lord Avonniore's son.
" ' Now, I hope you and Mr. Jukes will not bate me for
it, but I cannot live alone, and it does not at all follow that
because the present is unbearable, the past is forgotten. I
have not had the courage to tell a soul except my own
family, but I must tell you. . . . . . It is to be very
soon,—this month,—there is no use in dawdling,—l an
afraid of mymilf, and there is nothing to wait for, so it is to
be soon and very quiet, no fuss and no finery, just his brother
and min and his father and my mother. How people will
attune me I I dread it . . . . The Allmanat of coarse,
know, bemuse she has been about me all the time, and has
seen a great deal of him.'
" She has since informed me that when ate first con-
noted to marry Major Yelverton (about May 12 or 14),
she fixed September for the wedding ; but on bearing,
from her only brother that he was going abroad with his
wife early in Jul), and weld only come to Scotland
during the last 'milt in June, and also bearing that the
end of June was the meet convenient time for Major
Yelverton's brother to come to Scotland she consented to
the marriage taking place then. She siaso was ' afraid of
herself,' and that if she had so long to deliberate she might
retract her consent, and thus again condemn herself to
the solitude of a home haunted with sad memories.
The banns of maniacs were 'wording' ly proclaimed in two
pariah churches in hdinburgh—St. Cuthliert's, the parish
in which she resided, and in that in which 'Edinburgh
Castle is situated, for Major Yelverton's parish; and
the marriage was celebrated in the church of Trinity by the
Very Rev. Dean Ramsay, in the presence of her own
brother and sister, her children, Maw Jefferies (the lady
who had been residing with her), and four or five intimate
friends ; Major Yelverton's brother (since deceased) being
present on his side. This was on the 26th of June, 1858,
about three years and seven months after the death of Ed-
ward Forbes. Major Yelverton had previously confessed to
her in general terms that his former life had not been a
steady one, and that he had had a mistress—not mentioning
her name ; but maid that the connexion was completely and
finally broken off. She bad no legal consultation pre-
vicam to the marriage, except with her own solici-
tor, respecting her marriage settlementa, which se-
cured to her life-interest in all tho property
to which her children are entitled ; this, of course, being
dope with Major Yelverton's full knowlefte aod concur-
rence. No intimation was ever given toter by any one
that any woman claimed to be the lawful wife of Major
Yelverton until June 30 (four days after the marriage),
when Major Yelverton was informed from lbws. Hammy
that a Roman catholic clergyman had wsitedupon him, and
shown him the Rev. Father Mooney's certificate. Major
Yelverton, accompanied by Mm. Yelverton's brother, went
the next day, the lit of July, to Ireland to investigate this
matter, leaving Mrs. Yelverton in her own house with her
elder sister, the wife of Colonel Cameron. Major Yelverton
returned from Ireland on the 7th of July, bringing the legal
opinion of Dr. Omiyor and others that the alleged marriage
was,under the circumstance. submitted to them, mill and void.
No allegation of a Scotch marriage was then made in any
quarter, nor till • long time afterwards. Major Yelverton,
therefore, returned to his wale, her mister still remaining
with them, until they shortly afterwards came over to
Ireland on • visit to the Hon. Mr. and Mrs. Yelverton and
to Lord and Lady Avonmore. I have written this letter
wider a serious—l might, perhaps, say solemn—feeling of
duty to the memory of Edward Forbes, and to the future
prospects of hie son and daughter, and with as deep a
feeling of my responsibility for its exact truth as if I stood
in the presence of a court of justice ; and I unhesitatingly
assert my conviction of the perfect ety of conduct
observed by the lady in whose have written it
throughout the whole transaction."

• A playful exaggeration of her real age, which was not
an& more thaa 30.
t Dr. Allman wu Forbeis successor.

THE YELVERTON CABL —A preliminary meeting
was held on Wednesday of some of the friends and admirers
of the Hon. Mrs. Yelverton, for the purpose of considering
the best means of giving expression to the public feeling of
sympathy for her during the late trial. It was unanimously
resolved that a committee should he appointed for the
Pof collecting and receiving subscriptions to assist
in defraying the vast expenses likely to be required for
future litigation. Subscriptions will be received at the
National Bank, where an account has been opened, under
the name of the " Yelverton Fund."—Freeman's Journal.
DEATH or THE STATE EXICUTIONLIL—JoIiu
Lund, late Grenadier Guards, died on Wednesday last. lie
held the appointment fur many years as headsman at the
Tower of London, whose duty it was to decapitate all state
criminals. This sinecure is to the gift of the constable, but
most likely the situation will be abolished, as in the case of
the gentleman yeoman porter on the death of Mr. Murray.
Thelma state execution took place in 1746, at the time of
the Scotch rebellion. The salary is 801. per annum, with
an excellent house. Mr. Lund was only seen at the Tower
when the half-yearly muster took place, and had his posi-
tion oat the right of the warden, with a large bright hatchet
on his shoulder.—liaired Service Gazale.

CHARGE OF PERJURY AGAINST AN ET-MEMBER
OF THIS BRADFORD Tows COUNCIL.--Yesterday morning
Joseph Hudson, wooloomber, of Bradford, and er-member
of the council of that borough, was again examined under
remand, on a charge of perjury, committed at the Leeds
Bankruptcy Court, on the 314 of .laututry last, in his
evidcooe relating to a transaction with Thomas Hood, of
Gainers!, a bankrupt. Evidence having been given to prove
the allegations of perjury, the prisoner was committed to
the York saises for trial, but admitted to bad.

ESCAPR AND RI:CAPTURE OP A CONVICT AT
Cearnam.—During the time the convicts were employed at
Chatham dockyard yesterday afternoon, one of them, a man
named Coombe', who is under sentence of four years' penal
servitude. made his escape front the gang with whom he
was working. The convict was employed, with the other
men, in the vicinity of the raw-Nita, near which is a large
drain leading to the mast-pond. The truck which Co' ombes
sod the other prisoners were engaged in filling, was wheeled
over the grating of the drain in order to divert suspicion.
Coombes then lifted up the iron grating and immediately
lowered himself into the drain, Immo of the other convicts
closing it down after him. Before be bad proceeded far,
however, through the drain, Cooinhes was mimed by Dar-
ling, the warder in charge of the gang, and search was made
for him, his whereabouts in the drain being ultimately dim
oovered by one of the sawyers. and the convict dragged to
the surface and seat to the prison, where he was placed in
irons. Coombes is a most notorious character, and this is
the third attempt be has made to effect his escape.
FOURTERN DAYS LATER FROM JAPAIL—The
Daniel Webster, arrived at San Francisco, brings advice,
from Kanagawa to 29th December. Her cargo consisted of
tea, coffee, arrowroot, wax, honey, lacquered and porcelain
ware. The ship Colrinimbo, from Bong Kong, Oct. 2t, for
fiaa Er.ncisco, had put into Kaualaws in a leaky condition.
Business at Kampen" was at a stand still. Tess and silks
were the only articles purchased for export at reasonable
priers. It was thought that the Russians, who had been
waiting many months, would get • treaty, though not
such a one as desired. There is no intelligence of the
decision in the case of Mr. Moss, under trial for shooting a
Japanese odlicia—lenadost and Mies Telegraph.