The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-07-05 00:00:00

LAW LVTRI,LIGENCII.

COURT OF RIND'S BENCH, BionDAY, JULY d.
COLE V. ENVIOGER.
This was an action to recover damages for a breach of promise of
marriage. •
Mr. BROUGHAM stated the ease to the Jury. The ptesent was
a case which was, characterised by the severest cruelty, and de•
mended from the hands of a Jury the amplest compensation. The
plaintiff in this actioli was the orphan child of a respectable fanner
in Warwickshire. Deprived of the protection of her natural guar-
dittos, she was placed by a friend, a Mr. Dinkins, to *hose care
she had been intrusted, at a boarding house at Coleshill, in War.
wickahire, in which town the defetidant, who was himself a clergy.
man, resided with his mother, Mrs. Pearse. Upon the defeedatit's
return home from College, he was attracted by the character and
personal charms of Miss Cole, and AOOl3 begiune her declared mi.
miter. His family being known to Mrs. Spring, the keeper of the
boarding-house. he found no difficulty in paying his addresses to the
plaintiff. Previous to this intimacy the plaintiff had borne the
most chaste and irreproachable character; not the slightest whisper
, had ever been breathed to taint her reputation ; the purity of ber
mind was unspotted, and her whole demeanour marked by the
I strictest observance of every moral virtue. Such was the character
of the plaintiff when first she admitted the addresses of the defend.
ant. Those addresses, recommended as they were by the per.,
sonal ch.racter and situation of the defendant, could not for a
moment excite in her mind the least suspicion. He should produce
to the Jury several letters written by 11r. Twigger to this lady,
from which nothing could be inferred by her but an intention on bit
I part to marry her. -In the lira letter, which *as dated Dec. 1823, he
I addressed fie as his " Dearest Eliza," and declared that her
absence was insupportable to him ; that he longed to clasp h.
I heart to his responsive bosom, and hoped soon to be able to call
her his own for ever. The nature of sorb effusions were eon:ltaly.
evidence that at fin; time the defendant wished this unfortunate
lady to believe his object to be to make her his wife. She never
dreamed that it was with the wicked design of first winning her
affections, and then triumphing over the chastity of her person. The
situation of the plaintiff was truly pitiable ; left at an early age an
orphan, thrown as it were on the mercy of the world at a time of
life when the passions of the heart were strong, and the reason and
judgment weak, she became by her personal attractions the peculiar
object of a man bearing the outward stamp of a gentleman. and
assuming the more assuring character of a clergyman. Receiving
from hint constant and ardent protestations of his honourable
passion for her, and being fully persuaded that he earnestly
Intended to make her his wife, she in a moment of weak,
nese, and influenced by these co-operating causee, surrendered
up hetself to his power, and gave biter that command over
. her person to which he bad no right, until die religious ceremony
, hal been solemnised width would have given her a claim on his
protection and support for life. After this event his letters to the
plaintiff' no longer breathed the language of intense psalm : she
I was no more his fond Eliza, nor did he live only on the hope that
! one day lie should clasp her to his responsive bow= until death.
This strain was changed to a familiar flippancy upon other and less
gracious and less gallant topics. Still however he continued to
visit the victim of his artifice and lust; and the plaintiff and de-
, fendant were looked upon by all as persons whose future fate!.
through life were to go together, bound by the sacred rites of
I marriage. The consequence of their ifftercourse was soon ofiserv-
able : the plaintiff became a mother ; and at that moment, when
female moor claimed the attention of the 'man who was the
father of her child, that father, and this defendant, not only re.
fused to fulfil his promise, but at that very period when the
plaintiff was labouring under all her complicated misfortunes
lie took to himself another, and was actually married to A
widow, at a distant part of the country. Such base and unmanly
conduct ns this could not be deft ndel. What excuse the defend.
ant could make to-day, he knew not. If he mrant to set ap the
sduectehneite opfleapo.vercoutyl.dtheavtadweomulwd
Inemotnasvairl
delivered of ted th:.t she
ea
child mother of
' question in his mother's house. It was for the Jury, under
child in
to consider rot what would compensate the
these eiretundascrs.
ury
inantt,ohtadhasot honourable
the character of the plaintiff,
her whose affections had beets
she had snatained, for nothing in the shape
awnodulameapctr"ovi
of i'antaties
the deferulanti.t
insi;.zti her, and so cruelly disappointed, were 'entirety des:royod
datcow:thi compensatekii7letjthloi'apceos n'dlittnevoefr tehnetdereitZind

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