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

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIO 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 uusucessful attempt
had been made to get the case argued before S►r
Cresswell Cresswell, who retused to hear it on the
ground that he had no jurisdiction. From Ireland the
question of Miss Long worth's status passed to Edin
burgh. Scotland, as we know, is never behindhand
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 adherents of
Miss Long worth, and received almost with execra-
lion 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 Chelmsford 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 ents ; 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 conclusion 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-
ened suit has been, as every one must see, of the
highest importsnce 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
Long worth. An ingenious man could frame two
equally plausible but totally distinct explanations of
the nature of theintercourse between them, according
as he started with a feeling of sympathy for oneor for
the other. Accordingly, every incident of the early
life of Miss Longworth, 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
Longworth 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 lite
should be left in a highly civilised country to depend
upon the loose recollection of witnesses, and " some-
times on the meaning of en 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 Longworth 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 ititareh,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 facie connubiecin ;
in tho first case a man and woman mutually declare
t'leir 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.
I' he contract per verba de prcesenti may be proved
by arty legal evidence ; but the promise tie futuro
must be proved either by writing or on the oath of
the party against whom proceedings take place. Miss
Long worth attempted to set up a valid marriage on
both grounds. She asserted that a contract per
verba de presents took place in April, 1857, w nen
she declared Major Yelverton and herself read over
together the marriage service of the English Cnurch
at her lodgings in Edinburgh, and thereby pledged
themselves to one another as man and wile ; but.
it the evidence failed to establish these minuet
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 certaiu 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 fact, 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 Yelvei ton
though he denies the pro:nise, 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-
clusion that cohabitation did not take place until
the appellant and respondent met in Ireland, and
so far 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 iollowed
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 propose.
tion. Whether she were successful or unsuccessful,
the character of ber 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 baud, 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 measures 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 in the affairs of Den-
mark, while, from the policy adopted, it has been
powerless to act upon its convictions. It has been
Unspeakably 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 pecaniary interests rather than yield to
and, though
impulses which, though generous, may be costly,
with equanimity
just, may bring trouble, and to watch
the ruthl2as progress of spoliation,
has been, indeed, a severe trial of the national tem.
per. And though we have been assured that it is
for our good ; that the painfulness of the duty does
Lot wake it lees a duty ; and that the dreg of a pra-