Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-07-27 00:00:00

neighbour proved that in April, 1855, she heard the plain=
tiff and defendant quarrelling, and that the plaintiff said,
" You may go out and never come in any more, for I don't
want thee; to which the defendant replied, " Well, well,
don't let everybody hear." Mr. Sergeant Hayes having
replied, The learned Judge, in summing up, com'nented
upon the singalar circumstance that there was no reference
to marr:sge in either of the letters, and that if the days
were d, as had been suggested, there was no evidence
of such necessary preparations as the publications of banns
or the procuring of a marrisge license. The jury retired
for a short time and than returned with a verdict for the
defendant.
ANOTHER BREACH OF PROMISE CASE V. DAVY.—
Mr. Serteaut Hayes and Mr. Flowers were c-unsel for the
plaintiff, and Mr. Macaulay, Q.C., and Mr. Boden for the
defendant. The plaintiff. Sarah Hird, is the daughter of a
farm bailiff, and the defendant is a farmer at Ulceby, about
40 years of age, and a man of some property. It appeared
that about June, 1855, some sort of intimacy sprang up
between the plaintiff and the defendant, who were in the
habit of frequently seeing each other at the house of a
Mrs Boothby, who lived next door to the plaintiff's
father and mother. Mary Hird, the plaintiff's sister,
deposed that she had often seen them together at
Mr. B )(ehby's, and the.t defendant had said
he would have her sister. On one oe asion in
October last her mother sent her there to fetch her sister,
and on that occasion defendant gave her a kiss. The
witness said, "Oh ! you shock me, Mr. Davy.;" to which
he answered, " Never mind, we shall soon be of the same
family." IA June, 187,6, the witness was at home alone,
and defendant came and asked her when she was going to
be married. " she said, " Oh, Mr. Davy, it is your turn
first." Ho asked her then when she was ready to be a
bridesmaid ; and she replied, Any time." He then
added, " Because me and your sister will not be long
before we are married." On one occasion she gave him
from her sister a pared containing her likeness, an orange,
and some sweeteake. She had seen him sit on her
sister's knee with his arm round her neck. The
intimacy was broken off at the latter end of last year.
Upon cross-examinseinn she said : I never heard my sister
say she would have one of the Davys. I have seen her
s't on his knee, and seen them kiss each other, and I
believe I had heard her say to him, " Poor lad, it's time
he had a wife ;" but I did not hear Mrs. Boothby say,
Ala but he won't have you ;" or my sister add, " You
don't know that, Mrs. Boothby." Other people were
present on th'se occasions. The learned Judge asked Mr.
Serjeant Hayes whether he thought the case ought to g
on ? Mr. Serjeant Hayes: This sort of things is not
unusual in that sta'ion of life. (Laughter.) Tne learned
Serjeant then asked the witness whether it was not a very
usual thing at Ulceby fer people who were engaged to be
married to sit upon each other's knees ? The wit-
ness made no answer. Mr. Justice Cresewell :
You know she was very much shocked. Mr.
Serjeant Hayes : Yes, my Lord, but she may know
the custom of the country. (Laughter). Mr. Justice
Cresswell : The custom is sometimes varied by special
agreement. (Laughter). Mrs. Boothby was then called,
and she stated that she was a very old friend of the defen-
dant; that he used constantly to come to her house, asd
sometimes send her next door to fetch gingerbeer, which
the plaintiffs mother sold, but he never sent her to fetch
the plaintiff. The plaintiff came with the gingerbeer,
perhaps three or four bottles, and then they used all to
drink it together. When asked what she heard the plain-
tiff and defendant talk about, she said, " I am hard of
hearing ;" but she had seen her kies him, and sit upon his
knee, though she had told her that he would no more
marry her than he would marry the witness. After this
evidence the plaintiff submitted to a nonsuit.

MYSTERIOUS DEATH ON BOARD THE JASON
STEAMER

An inquest vas held on Friday, at Southampton, en the
body of M. Amerlie Merrier, who was 'a passenger on board
the Jason, from New Vork. The deceased was a merchant
in an extensive way of business at Bordeaux. M. De St.
Cyr, French Consul at G ilvevon, slid he came home in
the same vessel, and he observed the deceased to ba an
agreeable and aff.,b!e person, and in goof health. On the
morning of the 22nd he was found by the 'waiter .dead in
his ethic. From what he hid ben informed, he (M. St.
Cyr) saw Miss Clara Lese, wh ) was a passenger in the.
same ship, and made some inquiries concerning the un-
fortunate gentleman. She repiied that she was under an
oath not to reveal anything. He insisted upon knowing
all she knew, when she stated that the deceased had been
in her state-room at half-past one, and told her under an
oath that ha was going to commit suicide, and that hp
wild be dead in the two ni; g. 11,3 added that he had
not done so before, because his boly would have been
thrown overboard. She stated that she was much
frightened, and wished to give an alarm, but the deceased
added that it was all a joke, and ho would see her in the
Morning. It appeared that his life was insured, and in his
luggage was found a letter from the ifisurance office,
giving him permission to cress the Ad intie. Dr. Purdey,
wh had seen the body, was ..unable to state the c4lie
of death, and the proceelings were adjourned. The de-
ceased has left a widew and family, and was a highly moral
man.

M. Kossurn.—lt is hoped that this eminent patriot will
be able to visit Plymouth towards the close of September,
to deliver lectures in Plymouth and Decoeport.
MARGATE AND RAMSGAPE Bairuar.—No persons have
talked more, or done so little, as the people of Ramsgate
and Margate on the scandal of sea bathing as prac'.ised at
both places, but as for any wholesome regulation coming
from their frothy babble, they might as well have held their
peace; the offence still exists, still cries unheeded for redress,
and becomes more intolerable every season. Are the magis-
trates of Sandwieh, who have the jurisdiction of these two
towns, so blind to the welfare of the communities entrusted
to them, so supinely indifferent to their duties, as not to see
that such neglect of public decency must eventually drive
away and deter all modest women from frequenting towns
where that modesty is openly insulted. What husband or
father would take his family to a place where, on the only
promenade for recreation, his wife or daughter woull have
their delicacy outraged by such sights as, during the
bathing hours, are daily witnessed in either town ? If the
corporation was awake to the interest of the inhabitants,
or had the slighter insight into the responsibilities of their
duty, they would at once assign a certain boundary far
the ladies, and another for the gentlemen, and by pl 'cing
one or two policemen, see that no vielati ot of the prescribed
limits took place by either sex during the tidal period 01
bathing ; if this were done, and every machine driver
punished who placed his bather in any but his allotted place,
such disgraceful scenes as now take place every day would
have an end. The authorities must, sooner or later, for
their own honour and the reputation of the town, make
such wholesome regulations as sh .11 give bathers the luxury
of salt water, without a violation of all that appertains t'
decency, and ladies the privilege of a promenade, without
a shock to womanly virtue. - Era.
laisu CRIME AND IRI,II PRBONS.—A t hick blue bock,
of full three hundred pages, contains the thirty-fifth rep n't
of the Inspectors-General on the general state of the pri-
sons of Ireland, in the year 1856,with copious appendices.
The decrease in crime was so great in 1855 that the
Inspectors-Generals scarcely expect d to be able to report
a continuance of such progress in improvement in 1856 ;
it is, therefore, with peculiar pleasure that they are able
again to report that the reduction in crime steadily pro-
gresses; and the, on the whole, the criminal statistics for
the last year may be taken as indicating great moral and
social improvement. Felony and vagrancy, the result of
pauperism, have wonderfully declined, although among
females, misdemeanours and drunkenness have increased-.
The committals of 1856 were less than those of 11355
by 4,733, or 9.768 per cent. The total number of
persons confined in 1856, in the various gags, was
48,060, against 54,531 in 1855, equivalent to a de-
crease of 6,471, or 11.87 per cent. Statietics prove that
the females are far more likely tiS relapse into crime,
or to recur to the gaols, than the men—a phenomenon
which, it is hinted, may, in a great measure, be attributed
to the want of deterrent and reformatory action in the
female portions of the gaols, which are generally sneaking
lamentably defective. Of 48.416 culprits committed last
year 534 were ten years old and under, 6,551 between
eleven and sixteen, 7,148 between seventeen and twenty
18.907 between twenty-one and thirty, 7,703 between,
thirty-one and forty, and 7,601 of forty-one years of age and
upwards. 11,156 could read and write. 9,5 could read
imperfectly, 3,173 knew spelling, 2,347 knew the alphabet,
and 22,115 were wholly illiterate. It is remarkable that
the great bulk of the criminals were of the Romish per-
suasion • out of the total of 48,416 as many as 42 814
were Papists, 4,589 only Protestants, and 944 Presby-
terians. In the state of education on committal there is a
slight improvement, and something is hoped from the pro-
gress of education in the gaol schools. The health of
the gaols last year was remarkably good. The expenses of
gaols decreased last year by £2,567; while those of brides
well increased by £697. The total net expenditure on
gaols was £77,152, and that on bridewell £6 812. The
report concludes with a commentary on the sections. of the
Amended Prisons Bill. The decrease in crime includes all.
classes of offences. Of 7.009 persons committed for trial
or held to bail in 1856, 4,024, or 56.68 per cent, were
convicted. Of these, eight wero sentenced to the scaffold,
and the rest to penal servitude, imprisonment, and
flagellation. Education is progressing to some extent
among that part of the population which supplies the
inmates of prisons, for the returns of 1856 give a higher
per tentage of prisoners able to read and write than those
for 1855. On the whole, nothing can be more satisfactory
than the evidence of these eZeial documents.