The Sun.
London, England, 1855-03-12 00:00:00

TIIE MILITIA.

The Royal Elthorne Regiment was paced on perma-
nent duty on Feb. G, at Uxbridge, and has been &b-
-t recruits every day since. Lieut. Benbow, of this
regiment, obtains an ensigncy in the 48th Regiment im-
mediately, having taken more than 75 men to the line.
The Lor3-Lieut. of Ireland has been pleased to signify
to Colonel the Right Hon. W. F. Tighe his pleasure that
the Kilkenny Regiment shall be for the future styled
Fusiliers. The number of men enrolled for the Kilkenny
Fusiliers up to Friday was 803, of whom a few have
already volunteered into the line.
The South Lincoln Infan try Militia having been ordered
from Chichester- to Portsmouth, the Government intend.
converting the barracks into an hospital for the sick and
wounded on their arrival in this country from the East.
The preliminary arrangements have already been carried
out by Captain Graham, and a party of officers and men
of the Royal Engineers are expected to arrive in the
course of this week to effect the necessary alterations,
which willbe completed with all possible speed.
The 18th Bedfordshire Regiment of Light Infantry,
embodied in August last, is now lying at head-quhrters,
under command of Lieut.-Colonel Higgins. This regi-
ment has given upwards of 200 volunteers to the line.
The Royal Westminster Militia, Col. Viscount Chel-
sea, M.P., new embodied at Turuham-green, are about
to be removed for permanent duty.
The Ist Royal Surrey Militia, Col. W. Holme Sum-
ner, embodied at Richmond, have just given upwards of
100 volunteers for service in the Crimea.

TilE EARL OF DUNDONALD'S PLAN OF

NAVAL WARFARE.

BREACH OP PROMISE OP MARRIAGE.,

LINCOLN, March 10.4

RUSSELL V. WHITEHEAD.

Mr. Macaulay, Q.C., and Mr. asyes were counsel fa►r
the plaintiff ; and Mr. Mellor, Q.C., and Mr. W. .15..
Adams for the defendant.
Mr. Macaulay. in his opening, said that the defend-
ant was a retired farmer, of about 63 years of age, and:
the plaintiff a person of years not unsuited to his. She
was, in fact, a widow of 48. So far as the defendant's
means of meeting the results of this action were con-
cerned, the jury might be content with his own state
inept, fortified as it would be by the plaintiff's evidence
that he was " worth thausens upon thousone." The de-
fendant had also stated that he "had nothing to do but
to amuse himself;" and amuse himself he appeared to,
have done by tampering with the affections of unsue-
peeling females,. The defendant was a man who con-
sidered himself rather fascinating than not, and most
certainly he land made a strong impression upon the
plaintiff's heart. At all events she was willing to have.
him, and in return for the factitious boon of opulence
and comfort, to bestow upon him the sweet consolations
of conjugal endearment. Mr. Macaulay observed that
he was net in a condition to cffer much more evidence of
the defendant's promise than was contained in letters
from him to the plaintiff. But, said the learned coun-
sel, I have it in his handwriting, and I shculd recom-
mend all ladies having dealings of this kind with the
defendant to take care to obtain his promise in a similar
form. There was a distinct promise contained in the
following letter :

" Wainfleet, Jan. 19,15 k,
"My dear Maria Russell,—l will never marrie no woman
uppon the berth but you self ; I can a sure you of that.
You shall joined with me at all I ham worth, and be my
lowfull, wife, becose you are a prudent woman, and I dot®
uppon you—and if I live, I will mak you my lowful wife,
and be for long. I will own I have been very rife with
you, but I will mak mends, and so dont think no more a
bout it, now I have promised you this, for I do love voa
a bone all women. ‘` JESS UP WEIITEHEAD.IP
The next letter, if somewhat less warm and ardent, was
equally explicit as to the material point. Its changed
tone might be accounted for by the statement, which was
true beyond all doubt, that the defendant's sou was ill
at the time. It was as follows :

" Wainileet, Feb. 21, 154.
"My dear Lady,—l received a letter from you last
night, but can't read half. I can insure you that I have
other things to think of, as my son is in very great danger,
and has been so more than a week. I have all his work to
see to, and I hare been to Firsby ten miles, and mustgo to
Thorpe this afternoon, and whin I shall retorn Ido not
Lkenewt I shall never dseve you. I love monney too welt
to cis.,,ve one that I do dot on. You know that wo must
e..t- 2 yeres. I never did nor will brack my promis. I
cant to your door 3or 4 times, bat there is no chance of
getin inn sines your new neighbour cam to live theire,
bet I will corn wen I can. You sad in your letter that I
was dull on Sunday, that is sine I though every our was
his last. I ham fall of trouble, I can asever you, my
deare love, Mrs. Russell. So no more at resent from
"Yours, " JESSUP WHITEHEAD."
The jury would now have to turn their eyes from the
spectacle of love and unchanged fidelity, which these
letters disclosed, to circumstances of a more painful
kind. Before Beading to the plaintiff the letter about
'to be read, the defendant bad yielded to seductions from
which even the beat and wisest of us enjoy no immunity,
and to which less refined natures, like that of the de-
fendant, are too prone t) listen. In the interval he bad
met with another widow, by name Mrs. Maria Soleby,
in years 54. Now, whether an ambiguity resulting
from the common character of " widow" had confused
an intellect not naturally strong, or whether a morbid
caprice had rendered that intellect unstable, it was im•
po:sible at the present time to ascertain. But the de-
fendant had, at 'all events, transferred his affections from
one widow to the other, and had given to Maria Soleby
the heart which ought to have belonged to Maria Rus-
sell alone. More than this, he had given to Mrs. Soleby
—an agreeable and opulent woman—a proof of affection
which incapacitated him from performing bis promise to
the plaintiff. He had married her on the 27th of April
last. The letter about to be read would make but too
manifest not only the change of the defendant's sent',
ments and his disregard of the plaintiff's feelings, but

also his utter want of reverence for the most cherished

institutions of the land. It ran thus :

" Wainfleet, Dec. 15, 1854.
" Well, Mrs. Russell, do you intend to proceed ageanst
me ? Why you will be lik a poor mouse amongest so many
cats for I have thousons, and you have nout at all. Did not
I tell you the night before I was married that I would
pay you well if you would be still about it ? I went to
Alford on the Bth of December, '5l, to salter my will, and
my boy is ded. I have no one to leve my monney to but
wat as plontey. I should have rembred you, but now you
shall not have a cleated farden. I now ham a guen to sell
all my land, and is a guen to love the town. I was a foal
for writen to you that not in your house; if I had not you
would of had no chime on me, but I did promis to marrey
you, and to muck you my lawfull wife, that is trowe, and
the 19 of Japery would of been theday, but 1 ham trustee
for Mrs. Bycraft, and this woman yust to meet me on a
tusday, night, and her tong and her monney drew my a
tenshen ; the last time I was in yonr house I wanted to
tell you, but I could not, for I new that you would feel it
very much, becose I had caned the mater too fare a great
deel. I own that I have don you damages in you sell=
your stack of at a reduce perinea, and in senders the child
home, 'and you geten all things in readness ; it was very
foolish on me to do se, but I did love you, and I do wish
that I had married you, after all ; know Mrs. Russels you
ad a deel better sattel it, for I have 30 or 40 thoussons and
you ant a penney. I dont care a dam for the Queen's laws
you poor you may trie your worst, you shall not have
a dam farden ; for if I cant throw you with fare mean.,
I will with foal. I ham determined not too be bet. I
never thought that you ad cap my letters. I bornt your
dam things ; you ad a deel beter sattel, it will bee a deel
beter for you in the end, and you need not tack this later
to that long devel, it is no eus, for Thar° throwen my
hand ; you have no chaneein -the world with me, and wen
you have read this you bornit it. I dont care a dam for
jug nor juery.

" JESSUP WHITEHEAD."
The jury must give exemplary damages for such miscon-
duct, and for losses of another kind whick the plaintiff
had sustained. She had given up a shop which she kept
in Wainfleet, on the faith of the defendant's promise.
Mr. Thomas Barney said—l ant the mamager of the
Spalding and Boston Bank. The signature of the letters
is, I think, the defendant's. I should have paid cheques
so signed. He is a retired farmer, and lives st Spalding
on his rents.

John Joshua Barkworth said— I ant a *low, and live
next door to the plaintiff in the market-plane of Wain-
fleet. A year ago I agreed to take the stock other-shop
after she was married. She reduced it, and sold it off.

Mr. A.. Dalton, a brewer, said—l have ;seen the de-
fendant coming out of plaintiff's house of an evening. I.
have said, " Is this the time of night to come- from court,.
ing ?" He has made no reply. This would be betweed
ten and eleven ; not the regular time—(laughter)—but,
at all events, the defendant's time. I saw him a Jew
days ago (on the 7th inst.) He asked me if I was sub-
pccnaed, and added, " I don't deny going to the hause.
I've frequently been there, and also up stairs. I've
rolled the old lady on the bed many times."
Cross-examined—He said he had never written her any
letters.
Eliza Clayton said—l am niece of the defendant's pre.
sent wife. I saw them come out of church after their
marriage. I have seen the defendant go to Mrs. Rus-
sell's house, and I have told my aunt so, and I hsve told
her that defendant was making game of her.
Mr. Baran Alderson—And notwithstanding this, rho
married him ?

Witness (curtEeying low and smiling)—Yes, my lord.
Other evidence having been adduced in proof of the
defendant's handwriting.
Mr. Mellor addressed the jury for him. They haft
heard something, ho said, and they would, hear more,
of the plaintiff's career. Left a widow by Russell, shee
bad subsequently married a man named Eno, and she►
had brought Eno's career to a speedy termination, for
he died in six months after his wedding. Set free from
this old pedlar of 70, she aimed at some higher object.
But she did not succeed in her views, so far as the defen•
dant was concerned. It was true that the defendant
had visited at her house. It might be true that the cere-
mony of a marriage would have added but little to the
intimacy which once subsisted between them ; but it was
cot true that he had ever written to her, or ever pro-
mised to marry her. He should show that her character
was such as to render the idea of such a promise simply
ridiculous, and that the letters were forgeries.
Mr. Baron Alderson said that as the only question for
the jury was whether or not a promise to marry had ever
been made, he should not allow evidence to be given of
the plaintiff's bad character. That should have been
pleaded. He then summed up the whole case to the
jury, who retired, and remained many hours in delibera-
tion. At about nine o'clock they made their appearance
at the judge's lodgings, and found a verdict for the
plaintiff—damages, 125/.

MIRACULOUS ESCAPE FROM FOUN-
DERING.

The Result, East Indianian, belonging to Mr. Green,
at Blackwell, now lying in the East India Dock, is at-
tracting much notice on account of her recent miraculous
escape. She is laden with one of tke richest cargoes that
has been shipped this season from China, consisting of
47,000 packages and boxes of tea, and a large assortment
of China produce, consigned to Messrs. Lowther and Co.,
the brokers. On the ship reaching to within 400 miles
of Cape Clear, she encountered a tremendous gale of wind
from the S.E., which lasted for :nearly forty-eight hours,
with a mountainous sea, in tholcourse of which the ship
strained considerably, aid being an American-built ship
her seams opened, letting in the water to the hold to an
alarming extent. The moment it was discovered all hands
were set to work at the pumps, and although they were
kept going day and night, the water increased instead of de-
creasing, until at length there were no less than 16 feet.
The after-hatches were then opened, and between 3,000
and 4,000 boxes of tea were thrown overboard, to enable
the crew to get below, in order to bale the water out
with a large cask which had been rigged.
minute, is
Although this baled out ninety gal:one
addition to that ejected by the pumps,
yet nothingpetrben:wmater in-
founder ;and,
csarevaesethd.e
butoffi thatcers shcoennsliudsetreindevtihtaabtly_
,they Luckily, favourable wind afforded
as the last resource, had arranged to throw over the
seen
fromshe
Portsmouth,gaiiie hatt ahne ch o
Govern-
mentrag
Long as could.d
cargo
from between
odesc_kist,hoszot
.aasitilokneeplolai:dr afloat as
them a speedy ruwvneasst
rhraredmfd`o'irasipet:littecihsrl:,`ll: two steamers and a number of hands
and pumps to her assistance, by which means she was
kept afloat and towed round to the Thames. As may
be supposed, a large portion of her cargo of tea, which
was under water nearly a month, was destroyed. Up-
wards of 10,000 hexes have been *landed in the decide
a saturated condition, rendered, by the salt water,
ilect rabbi h.