The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-29 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

TIMES.— As far as Courts of Justice are con-
cerned, the Yelverton case is finally closed, The
House of Lords, after an elaborate argument occu-
pying several days and even weeks, and after re-
viewing again everything that has been or could be
advanced with such care and minuteness that the
merejudgments of the Law Lords fill more than
eleven columns of this paper, have decided by a
majority of three to one, or, reckoning the opinion
of Lord Brougham, who was absent, of three to
two, that Miss Longworth has not proved her right
to be declared the wife of Major Yelverton. More
than three years have passed since the first trial
was instituted for the purpose of establishing the
alleged marriage, and Dublin went frantic with
sympathy for the supposed wrongs of Mrs. Long-
worth-Yelverton. Before that an unsueessful attempt
had been made to get the case argued before Sir
Cresswell Cresswell, who refused to hear it on the
ground that he had no jurisdiction. From Ireland the
question of Miss Longworth's status passed to Edin •
burgh. Scotland, as we know, is never bebindhand
on such occasions. The perfervidum ingenium blazes

when the marriage laws and marriage customs

of North Britain are discussed, and the decision of
the Court of Session was passionately canvassed ;
it was approved with rapture by the adherenta of
Miss Longworth, and received almost with execra-
►ion by those who favoured the claims of her rival.
We more stolid Saxons cannot, however, boast of

preserving our impassibility while discussing a mere
question of law; the serene air of the Upper House
was yesterday charged with unwonted heat, and the
sharpness with which the Lord Chancellor was
called to order by Lord Che►msford betrayed an
ardour unusual in the highest court of law in the
realm. The excitement which the case has caused
in the three kingdoms is not, indeed, unnatural, and
we venture to predict that it will long survive the
judgment which has finally disposed of it at law. The
case of the unsuccessful claimant begets a sympathy
which is increased by the consideration of her un-
doubted to eats; the discussion of her status turns

upon that for which every one thinks himself compe•
tent—the interpretation of character, and the mean

ing of phrases occurring in a passionate correspon-
dence ; and men will doubtless dispute for years over
the soundness of the cooc►usion of the House of

Lords, as men have debated for centuries over the
character of Mary of Scotland. The analysis of the
characters of the principal performers in this length
erred suit has been, as every one must see, of the
highest importance in determining the decisions at
which the different judges have arrived. The coun-
sel on both sides knew how much would turn upon
the view which would be entertained of the educa-
tion and antecedents of Major Yelverton and Miss
Longworth. An ingenious man could frame two
squelly plausible but totally distinct explanations of
the nature of theintercourse bet vveen them, according
as he started with a feeling of sympathy for oneor for
the other. Accordingly, every incident of the early
life of Miss Long worth, every item of intelligence
bearing on the first interviews between her and the
appellant, was adduced and commented on by her
counsel, although long antecedent to the promises
and acts which, according to their contention, esta-
blished the alleged marriage. They confessed that
the marriage depended upon certain engagements
which took place in Edinburgh in 1857, but to
throw light upon these transactions they went over
the whole history of the first meeting between Miss
Long worth and Major Yelverton on board the Bou-
logne steamboat, the communication sent to Malta,
and the intimacy in the Crimea. Truth, as the
Lord Chancellor declared in his judgment, is always
consistent with itself, and the determination of the
view taken of subsequent facts depended upon the
estimate antecedently formed of the character of the
parties. The law of Scotland permits the question
of marriage to turn upon the interpretation of am-
biguous facts ; and although we may join with Lord
Wensleydale in his regret that in the 19th century
the proof of the most important relation in life
should be left in a highly civilised country to depend
upon the loose recollection of witnesses, and " some-
times on the meaning of an amatory expression in
impassioned letters," we must, as his lordship added,
take the law as we find it. In the early part of
1857 Major Yelverton was stationed at Edinburgh,
and in February of that year Miss Long worth met
him there. What happened there is the main point
at issue. The Scotch law allows a marriage to be
constituted either per verba de prcesenti—that is, by
by an actual intercte:nge of marriage vows—or by a
promise de futuro, followed by a copula in reliance
upon the promise. The principle in either case is em-
bodied in the maxim Consensus facit connubiuna ;
in the first case a mail and woman mutually declare
teeir agreement to become man and wife ; in the
second, when actual cohabitation follows, and can
be referred to a promise de futuro, the law presumes
that agreement immediately preceded cohabitation.
The contract per verbs de prcesenti may be proved
by any legal evidence ; but the promise de futuro
must be proved either by writing or on the oath of
the party against whom proceedings take place. Miss
Longworth attempted to set up a valid marriage on
both grounds. she asserted that a contract per
verba de prcesenti took place in April, 1857, when
she declared Major Yelverton and herself read over
together the marriage service of the English Church
at her lodgings in Edinburgh, and thereby pledged
themselves to one another as man and wife ; but
if the evidence failed to establish these mutual
vows, then she asserted that there was evidence of
promises made de futuro, and that cohabitation had
followed in dependence of those promises. It is
tolerably certain that, whatever may be the truth
about the reading of the marriage service, there was
not sufficient evidence of it to found a declaration
of marriage upon it.
.It is much more doubtful
whether there was not written evidence of a pro-
mise de futuro, but here a difficulty arose as to law
and idea upon which the Lord Chancellor very
justly dwelt at some length. It is necessary that
the subsequent copula should refer to the promise,
but is it necessary that the copula should, like the
promise, take place in Scotland? Major Yelvetton
taough he denies the proxise, alleges against his
own interest, that the cohabitation first took place
in Scotland. Miss Longworth asserting the promise
alleges against her own interest that cohabitation
did not take place until after the performance of
the religious ceremony at Rostrevor. Almost every
one of the Judges and Law Lords came to the con,
elusion that cohabitation did not take place until
the appellant and respondent met in Ireland, and
so fur they disbelieved Major Yeiverton's story,
and the majority of the Law Lords held
that this fact was fatal to Miss Longworth s
case. Even assuming the promise de futuro in
Scotland to be proved, the copula which tollowed
first took place in Ireland and would not establish a
Scotch marriage, and the subsequent copula in Scot-
land would not be referable to the original promise,
but to a mere continuance of the Irish cohabitation,
and so, again, the proof of marriage would fail. It
is not the least singular part of the case, and it
should be remembered in considering the character
of the respondent, that in a material point her re•
spect for the religious aspect of marriage led her
to a course of action fatal to her own interests. It
may be doubted whether, on the whole, Miss Long-
worth ought not to congratulate herself on the issue
of this prolonged litigation. On the whole, the
majority of the Judges before whom her case has
passed have decided in her favour, and it is impossi-
ble to suppose that the estimate of her character
will much depend on the accident that of the judges
who heard the argument in the final court there was
a majority of three to two against her. And if
failure be no great hardship, success would have
been fatal. It can never be desirable to tie toge-
ther in indissoluble bonds a man and woman who
are wholly estranged from one another, and the
fact that this particular appellant was the man
would not lessen the truth of the general proposie
Lion. Whether she were successful or unsuccessful,
tne character of her intercourse with Major Yel-
verton would always have been a subject of debate.
Instead of being tied to a man who must by this
time be hateful to her, she is now free, and has won
the sympathy of thousands who, rightly or wrongly,
will always regard her as an injured woman.
POST.—The breaking up of Parliament, now so
near at hand, is universally confessed to be more
than usually welcome this year. No one is entirely
satisfied with the course of events, or the progress of
legislation ; and it is with a feeling of relief from a
monotonous and profitless routine that members of
both Houses prepare to quit town. Although some
really useful meesares will have become law this
session, the business of Parliament has been singu-
larly uninteresting. The country has been strung
up to a pitch of intense interest iu the affairs of Den-
mark, white, from the policy adopted, it has been
powerless to act upon its convictions. It has been
unspeeleably mortifying to have to stand aside in
inglorious neutrality while cruel political wrongs
and barbarous military outrages were perpetrated
by two powerful States upon a brave little kingdom
with which we have always had much in common,
and to which we have recently become bound by ties
of yet nearer interest. To smother our feelings, to
look to our pecuniary interests rather than yield to
impulses which, though generous, may be costly,
and, though just, may
bring trouble, and to watch
withe EcVlarlimitY the ruthless progress of spoliation,
has ueen,indeed, a severe trial if the national tem.
per. And though we have been assured that it is
for our good ; that the painfulness of the duty does
not make it less a duty; and that the drag of a pro-

dential policy was necessary to keep the wheels of
popular enthusiasm from running into mischief ;
Tyet the yoke has been as hard to bear, and
riddle of the policy was hard to read. A majo he
rity
of the House of Commons affirmed that polieY,
though it could not read the riddle. The 011)°-
sition which, with singular patience, had waited
for its opportunity, and then flung itself inapelom
ously into the attack upon Ministers, was hope"
lessly beaten, and the great influence of Lord Pei'
merston alone sufficed to make the country acquit3sce
in spite of its more generous impulses in the
expediency of the policy for which he is responsi
ble.
With the triumph of Ministers all interest iu
the session collapsed, and only business remained to
be done. Bills of considerable importance had to be
passed ; but they awoke no fervour in the publlc
mind, and were as distasteful to Parliticoent
and the readers of newspapers as they wer e ne-
cessary to the several interests to which theY
refer. As soon as it was settled that the last effort
had been made for Denmark ; that we should con..
tinue our neutrality in America; that our relatione
s
with France were in statu quo ; and that we ens
not going to be mulcted in enormous expenses by
the New Zealand war, the game of the session was
up, and every one grew anxious to escape from the
heat and duet of London to the soothing retreats of
country life. Town is half emptied already, and
few jaded Peers and Commoners, wearily windieF ,
up the business of Parliament, are all that remail
of one of the most brilliant London seasons whie
has been known for many years. The holding ot
two Jowls by the Queen, which was accepted oo
all hands as a commencement of the gradual rerarn
of her Majesty to public life, was a source of joy fer It
beyond the mere splendour of the occasion•
touched again the heart of her subjects, and e'Sbke
anew the thrill of popular affection whi ch for 0°
many years has never ceased to rejoice at the eight
of the Queen in public. The increasing p sp.alaritY
of the Prince and Princess of Wales b a s added
much to the brilliancy of the season. T, ir go°
health and spirits; the heartiness with WI i ich they
have encountered the heavy demands of Lend°
life upon their time and strength ; the genialitY
with which they have gone into sod ety ; the
splendour of their own hospitality ; and last, but
not least, the energy with which they
'nave done
all that they could do in behalf of the Nang
charities and public undertakings w hich tat"
sought their patronage, have won the m gold
opinions in every rank and class of life, while tbe
sorrows of Denmark have drawn out eno ugh eYgli
pathy to refine popular affection into a pert 'oriel°
chivalrous devotion. But to speak of obe are
episcde of this fast•ending season. Never v-as ther°
a worse time, for getting about. London is choke
with every abomination in the shape of ohstr uctiJoe
that the most malignant ingenuity of all the Ftlf'ie°
could bring together. Railways thrust their e"
mini into the very heart of the capital, and creote
more traffic than they relieve. In propt)rtion 313
these termini approach each other the cab and ear:
riage traffic is concentrated in parts of towu °';
certain hours, till it is almost impossible to trave't
except on foot, and not always then. ;No clon,,,bd
when London is finished it will be a very flee 8"
commcdious city; but in the meantime, and pod'
bably for a century at least, it must remait
with every annoyance that can arise frorc , the Pr°.
seem ion of public works on the moat gigar tic scle;
Hideous bridges disfigure the streets. Weggni3,..
loaded with girders and spandrils obstruct the we''
and create a dead lock at every important corner:
The pulling down of houses necessitate hos rdlog7
which encroach on the pavement And drive tk`le te°
passenger on to the roadway. Tne Thames ellidd
bankrnent takes thousands of carts of ballast en
dry rubbish through the busiest thoroughterli
while there is not a house, or a business, or a vas
interest, that is not threatened by some invatalogd
power, and bidden to prepare itself to ma keg
its claims to compensation. When to all t.liese
added unsupportable heat, irremovable dust, Ove„.°
powering smells, and ceaseless noise, is it an; been
f
der that, successful as the London season has be
scarcely a soul in town is sorry that it is over