The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-04-12 00:00:00

COUNTY

(BEFORE JOSEPH POLLOCK, ESQ., JUDGE.)

INTERESTING TO " MISSES."—RIGHT Or SERVANT'S TO EN-
TERTAIN SWEETHEARTS..—JON ES V. IIAWTHORNE.--.This
was an action brought by the plaintiff, to recover lOs 2d,
balance of wages, end 15s, in lieu of a month's notice
before dismissal. Mr. Gray, Who appeared f

r the plaintiff,
e excellent character, but before
, he should ask his Honour

proceeding

D the facts of the cas,

woman, so situved, was entitled to have
a sweetheart ? His Honour replied, that so far as that went,
his answer would he in Mr. Gray's favour. Mr. Gray then
continued to say that the plaintiff had been maid-of-all-work
in the defendant's house (Dr. Hawthorne, of St. Anne-
street), in Decemper last, and on one night, her sweetheart,
a young man named Richard Brown, visited her. She was
engaged in washing at the time, in the cellar kitchen, and
she accordingly took him in there, and treated him to some
bread and butter and tea. Their pleasure was soon dissi-
pated by the entrance of the defendant's son, who, on
seeing the plaintiff's beau, called a constable, and gave
them both into custody. They were detained in bride-
well ali night, but as no one appeared to prefer a
charge against them they were discharged. Happily
this circumstance has caused no interruption in
the " course of true love ;" the banns have been published,
and they will shortly be married. Mr. Hime appeared for
the defendant, and contended that the plaintiff had forfeited
her wages by sureptitiously introducing a man into her
master's house. The defendant's son deposed that he found
Brown hid beneath the kitchen table by a lot of cloths
thrown over him. His shoes were off, and witness, con-
ceiving that it was an attempt at robbery, gave them into
custody on that charge. His Honour said that it was
fortunate for the plaintiff that the young man whom she had
so improperly introduced into her master's house was disposed
to act honourably towards her by marrying her, a result
which did not always follow such in!ercourse. The public
should, however, understand that a servant, who surep-
titiously introduced a man into her master's house,
forfeited all claim to her wages, and that being the law,
the verdict should be for the defendant with costs. He
considered there was no fault to be found with the defendant,
excepting giving the girl into custody—a step which be,
himself, should have hesitated before taking.

T a you

THURSDAY.

LYNCH V THE DROGHEDA STEAM PACKET COMPANY.—
This was action brought by a butter dealer to recover
-'.2. 8s 6d for damage done to a box of butter, by careless-
ness upon the part of one of the company's servants. It
was alleged that a labourer, in the employment of the
defendants, had let the box fall from a pile of other boxes,
in consequence of which the butter was thrown out and
damaged. Mr. Grocott appeared for the company, and
contended that the damage occurred because the box was
not strong enough to bear the ordinary strain necessary
in transport and removal. It appeared, however, that
the box had been certainly thrown from the top of a
number of others. His Honour gave a verdict for the
plaintiff for £l, including all costs.
SLATER v POWER.—This was an action brought to
recover £5O, for money lent under very peculiar circum-
stances. The plaintiff was.a young woman named Jane
Victoria Slater, and the defendant was the captain of an
emigrant vessel. The facts of the case appeared in
another shape before the magistrates at the
police office lately, when the defendant was summoned
by plaintiff for an assault and fined £5. Mr. Campbell
appeared for the plaintiff, and Mr. Bremner for the
defence. Mr. Campbell opened the case at some length:
the effect of his statement being that in the year 1853,
the plaintiff took a passage for New York in a vessel of
which the defendant was captain. She lived in Ireland,
and the place from which she was to sail was New Ross.
The defendant represented to her that his vessel was
sailing for New York, although it subsequently appeared
that the vessel was sailing to Quebec. She paid the
money for her passage. The captain paid many marked
attentions to her on the voyage, and enquired from her what
her intention was when she arrived in America. She ex-
plained that she intended to set up a milliner's establish-
ment, on which he said it would be much better for her to
get married, and asked her if she would like to be a
captain's wife. He expressed very great affection for her,
and offered to marry her when the vessel arrived in
America. The result was that he became master of
her person. When the vessel arrived at Quebec she
found for the first time that she had been deceived
as to the place of her destination. During this time
the captain had borrowed several sums of money from
her. For some days he did not allow her to go
on shore, and when she got on shore he did not fulfil his
promise of marrying her. She became in the family'svay.
She got a situation in Quebec, and the defendant fre-
quently visited her, living with her when he did so as his
wife, but always putting off marrying her. She returned
to this country, and then she found the captain was a
married man. Mr. Campbell detailed at some length the
occasions on which the sums of money, amounting to £9O,
were lent by the plaintiff, at the urgent entreaties of the
defendant, and also a series of violent outrages made upon
her person and her property by the defendant, both in
this country and in Quebec. On several occasions she
had to bring him up before the magistrates in Quebec, and
had him committed to prison, but she was always induced
by his entreaties to endeavour to have him released. From
the statement of Mr. Campbell, it would appear that, up
to the last moment, the defendant had kept the plaintiff
under the impression that ho was going to marry her, and
had thus been enabled to borrow from her ail the
money she possessed, and of which she now sought
to recover, by this action, £5O, being the highest
amount for which the court had jurisdiction. Jane
Victoria Slater, the plaintiff, sworn and examined :
Was at Keogh's hotel in New Ross, in 1853; had then
from £4O to £55; saw the defendant there, and asked
--a the ship wal going to ; was told it was to Nett'
_.. passage in her; before sailing, a woman
ovo:children came to see the defendant, and he stated
thet they were his sister's children; after sailing paid
£3 103 additional to,.the defendant for a cabin pessage ;
he said he would take care of her and be a " father to
her," and leave her safely in New York ; efter being some
days at sea he proposed marriage to li -I. ; she did not
know that the vessel was bound for Quebec, until their
arrival in the St. Lawrence ; he saw what money she had
when she paid him the additional £3 103 for the cabin
passage; while lying in the r ver St. Lawrence, he bor-
rowed ass and £2O from her; on reaching Quebec, went
into a situation, but had to leave in three or four months
through illness ; on the return of the defendant to Que-
' bec in June, 1854, he found the plaintiff with an old lady
and gentleman named Coutts, who had adopted her as
their child. The plaintiff further deposed to the truth of
the various statements contained in Mr. Campbell's ad-
dress. She minutely described all the circumstances
under which the defendant borrowed her money, promised
marriage, ill-used and finally abandoned her in poverty
and sickness in Quebec. She proceeded to state that she
followed him to Liverpool, and ascertained that he was a
married man, and had a family. When she met him in
Park-lane, she taxed him with his baseness ; whereupon
he denied that he was married, and proposed that she
should go immediately to Dublin, and that he would fol-
low her, and that they would be married there. Finally,
he admitted that he was married; and when she proposed
that if he paid her what money she lent him she would
have no further claim on him, he promised to do so within
six months. He afterwards called at her lodgings in
Liverpool, and begged of her not to put him into the
County Court. On the 28th of last month he came to her
lodgings in the middle of the night, and slept in her bed
until morning, she herself sleeping in the chair. His
Honour : You are very remarkable persons, you and
Captain Power. On cross-examination by Mr.
Bremner, the plaintiff said that her father
and mother had lived at Carlow. She left her mother's
house on pretence of going to Dublin. She had received
nearly £5O from a genpeman, named Peter Sterne, who
had also gone to America. She admitted that she had
lived with that man, for two or three years before. Ills
Honour said it would be impossible to conclude the case
that day, as it would occupy, necessarily, several hours.
In order to do justice between the parties, it should be
fully gone into. It was a case which he much regretted
to have to investigate, as it was perfectly apparent that
the girl had gone wrong in the first instance, and from
the money and other property which she had in Quebec,
and:which she could not have obtained by being at service,
that she must have continued doing. He should have
thought that any man who had been involved with her
would have preferred arranging the matter out of court.
His Honour then adjourned the case until the first open
day, the 21st of May, on the understanding that if defen-
dant was about to leave the town, in the meantime, Mr.
Campbell might have the case heard at once upon giving
notice. Mr. Bremner said the defendant had no intention
of going to sea again, being at present engaged as teacher
of navigation in a school.
The court rose at half-past five o'clock.

him who:

York ; tool

THE EMPRESS EUGENIE.—At the close of the present
month the Empress Eugenie will leave the Tuileries for St.
Cloud. The Emperor walks in the little garden before the
palace almost every day, accompanied by the nurse who
carries the infant Prince in her arms.
PUBLIC PETITIONS.—The nineteenth report, yesterday
published, includes 4,480 petitions against Sunday recrea-
tions, &c., signed by 603,320 persons; 323 against abolish-
ing church rates without providing an equivalent, signed
by 13f840 persons ; 34 in favour of the Bleaching Works
Bill, signed by 2,222 persons ; 92 against the Factories
Bill, signed by 23,987 persons; and 831 in its favour,
signed by 14,118 persons ; 43 against the Medical Pro-
fessional bill, signed by 3,738
persons, and 596 in its
favour, signed by 2,610 persons.
MEMORIAL OF TILE CONGRESS.—M. Goupil, the printseller
at Paris, has commissioned M. Dubufe, the celebrated
painter, to produce a picture of the Peace Congress. The
picture is to be 18 feet long, by 12 feet high, and a large
sum is to be paid for it. All the plenipotentiaries have
kindly consented to sit for their portraits, and the room in
which they assembled at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is,
with its furniture, to be exactly represented. The painting
is to be engraved, and it will form a companion piece to
Isabey's celebrated painting of the Congress of Vienna.
THE FERMOY PEERAGE.—The Committee for Privileges
sat in the House of Lords on Tuesday to consider the
claim of Edward Burke Roche, Lord Fermoy, in the
peerage of Ireland, to vote in the election of representa-
tive peers for Ireland. Lord Redesdale presided. The
Lord Chancellor referred a question to the judges embrac-
ing the facts of the "case, and a‘lting whether, in their
opinion, the extinction of the Earldom of Menrath in 1812
was such an extinction as had been ~ontemplated by the
Act of Union to entitle the Crown to create a new
peerage of Ireland. The learned judge took time to con
eider the question.