The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-08 00:00:00

(Flom tLe Times Correspowient )

of gold, which was to make them richer by a day's
fraud than they were likely to have been made by
20 years honest work such as they were competent
to perform, the despotic action of the Government
against the respectable journals that were deceived
has invested the case with an exceptionable and
wholly unmerited interest. Had Mr. Lincoln (For
it is now asserted that he alone and not Mr.€tanton,
is responsible for the suspension of the journals)
contented himself, as Commander-in-Chief, with
discovering and punishing the audacious forger
as military or civil law would have allowed and
justified, the affair by this time would have blown
over, and Howard might have been hung or
shct, or sent to the Dry Tortugas or the Peniten-
tiary, without creating much ripplein the stream
of public opinion. But when Mr. Lincoln took
advantage of the accident that two newspapers
opposed to his Administration published the forged
document and suppressed those journals by military
force, though they were wholly innocent of any com-
plicity with the forger or of any intention to dea
ceive, he made a mistake which may yet prove to
be the greatest he has committed during his tenure
of office. The suppressed journals were allowed to
reappear yesterday after a suspension of three days,
during which they suffered an amount of pecuniary
damage which they estimate at many thousands of
dollars, and the question remains whether they will
consent to suffer it without an effort to obtain
redress, The Federal Government has no right to
interfere in the internal affairs or the civil adminis-
tration of the law in any State of the Union. Mr
Lincoln as Commander-in-Chief may do many things
in New York or any other State on the plea of mili-
tary necessity. There was an imperative military
necessity to discover and to punish the forger, but
was there a military necessity to suppress two news-
papers and to ignore the laws of the State of New
York, which guarantee the freedom of the press,
and provide the penalties for the abuse of that free-
dom which are established in all civilised countries ?
That is the question which the Democratic party is
said to be determined to raise; and the first step
towards the settlement of which is alleged by several
journals to have been taken by the Governor of New
York. The District Attorney of this city has re-
ceived Mr Seymour's instructions to prosecute all
the parties who were concerned in the burglarious
entry and occupation of the offices of the Journal
of Commerce and the World. If this statement be
correct, General Dix will plead the order of the
President in justification, and there will either be
a cause celebre of the highest moment to all Ame-
ricans—or a quashing of the proceedings before
the Courts by the reception of General Dix's
plea as valid and sufficient. If the plea be
received the majesty of the la w will go the
way of the liberty of the press, and practical de-
spotism will have taken a greater stride than in
any previous occurrence of this humiliating war.
Governor Seymour has a great part to perform ; he
has the opportunity in his hands ; and if this story
be true—though some of the paper 3 doubt it—it
looks as if he had the courage to undertake it.
The interdict has been removed from the office
of the Independent Telegraph line, on proof that
Howard's forgery never passed over their wires, but
was concocted in this city. Mr. Stanton accom-
panies his notification of the fact with no expression
of regret for the wrong committed upon the un-
offending clerks and operators, or for the pecuniary
damage inflicted on the company during five days'
suspension of their business. The suspension of the
Baltimore Transcript has not been removed ; but as
Baltimore is under the operation of martial law, and
likely to remain so, until the remote day when peace
shall again dawn upon unlucky Maryland, there is
but little probability that Gen. 'Wallace, unless he
have a strong hint from 'Washington to do so, will
allow the delinquent to reappear. But as the
Transcript never publishes leading articles, or passes
an editorial opinion on any political event, domestic
or foreign, it seems a useless waste of tyrannical
power to break so harmless a moth with the blow of
a sledgehammer.
Although Howard's proclamation was but a
clumsy forgery, the annoyanceof the Government at
its publication was leas due to its audacity than to
the fact that it but too truly described the military
situation, and but too truly sketched the means
necessary to be adopted for retrieving it. But the
Government did not at that particular moment feel
inclined to divulge to all the world its want of men,
and hence the more than customary displeasure
which it vented upon all concerned in telling the
unpalatable truth in the guise of a fable. It is now
asserted, however, on the authority of no less a
person than Mr. Stanton, that a draught for 300,000
men will be ordered for the Ist of July ; and
the enrolling officers in this city and throughout the
North are actively engaged in revising the lists for
that purpose. '1 he Government will need all the
men. At the moment at which I write this the
sound of drum and fife in Broadway calls me to the
window, and I see a regiment about 500 strong
marching towards the Battery. I learn that it is
the let Mgiment of Massachusetts Volunteers,
whose term of service has expired, and who have
left the Army of the Potomac in its hour of sore
trial, if not of imminent peril, when every man is
of value, determined to return to their homes and
to study war no more. The people on the line of
route towards the steamer in which theyare to em-
bark for Boston salutes them with no cheers, and
not a woman waves a handkerchief to give them
welcome. Another regiment, the Brooklyn 14th,
the term of which has in like manner expired, is
expected this evening, and will doubtless pass along
the streets with as little notice. Mr. Stanton may
well believe that a new draught is imperative under
circumstances like these, and the Government may
welt be anxious, if not alarmed, in view of the
chance of the great unpopularity and possible
failure of the measure.

night's decision is likewise a plain notification tt
the House is determined to show its respect
public faith, by
insisting that Ministers shall lt€
ga
to their solemn engagements, whether as regat
the finances of the country, or in other matt,
which more nearly concern the national dismal
and honour.

LAW INTELLIGENCE—June 7.

COURT OF CHANCERY.
(Before Vice-Chancellor Kindersley,)

K HENAN V. HANDLEY.

This suit was instituted by a young
woman named
Keenan, to compel the defendant, Captain H. E. Handle,
to perform an agreement into which he had entered Wi
her to give her an annuity of £l5O for the support of be
self and her child, of which she said he was the fathe
The plaintiff deposed that whilst living in Michael's-PI"
Brompton—namely, in December, 18.59 —she became a(
quainted with the defendant, who visited her at her res
deuce, and that she shortly afterwards, at his earnest sells
tation, was induced to enter into cohabitation with him
his wife, for which perpose he took apartments for her, 1
the first instance, in Stanley-street, Pimlico. During the
period and now she was unmarried, and the defends!'
during the same period, and until some time after makini
to her the alleged promises of marriage and the relinquish
ment thereof, was an unmarried .nan. She also depose
that during such cohabitation, and until after the birth 0,
her child, she at his request used the name of " Coverdale,
being the same as that used by himself in all his sportinl
transactions, he being then and now largely engaged 11
racing, by which name ho was well known, and she °l'
also well known by the name of Mrs. Coverdale, end scar
by him introduced under such name to some of his ee'a:
tions and friends. The defendant, who has large estates la
Lincolnshire, and an estate in Berkshire, denied that j 1:
had entered into any such obligations towards her se she
set forth.
Mr. Glasse, Mr. Sergeant Ballantine, and Mr. Hal
were counsel for the plaintiff; and Mr. Bally, Mr. ceeera
and Mr. Touhnin for defendant.
The case was argued a month ago and judgment Ives re.
served till now.
The Vice-Chancellor, in giving judgment, said the Cif'
cumstances under which the bill was filed were these'-:
The plaintiff, Ellen Keenan, lived with the defends!'"
Captain Handley, as his mistress from 1859 till 1861. 138ci
fore she knew the defendant she had lost her virtue, and
had been the mistress of some other persons, and had born;
a child to one of them. The defendant was a gentleman°
fortune and much addicted to pursuits of the turf, and 138
kept race horses. In December, 1859, an acquintance cony
monced between the plaintiff and the defendant from °I
accidental meeting one evening in Piccadilly. The (1°;
fendant visited the plaintiff that night at her lodging, and
continued his nightly visits there about two months; el;
in 1860 he took lodgings for her in Stanley-street, Piralle7
where he continued to visit her. In March, 1860, hereare
a cottage at Surbiton, where she lived with him as his la's'
stress, and there they resided and cohabited 12 months:
During their residence at Surbiton they were known e"
Mr and Mrs Coverdale, and under the name of Coverdale
the defendant carried on his sporting transactions. The
defendant said it was usual for persons engaged in eporti4
transactions to carry them on and to enter their horsed f°r
races under assumed names. But the court was not aware
that it was the custom of these persons to assume such gc:
tious names as the names by which they desired to ,`"
known in the neighbourhood where they resided. Wh,,,"„,°
the plaintiff and the defendant were living at Surbiton, "'-
infant plaintiff, Lucy Coverdale, of which child the de'
fendant had always till after the institution of this suit'
acknowledged himself to be the father, was born. And
shortly after the birth the defendant registered that fae,"
describing the child as the daughter of Henry and Ellen
Coverdale. an October, 1860, the defendant caused the
child to be baptised, and on that occasion also be
scribed her as the child of Mr and Mrs. Coverdale.
Having
resided at Surbiton upwards of twelve months t":
plaintiff and the defendant went to reside at Marlene, 11/
Hertfordshire, and there the defendant resumed 11
real name 'of Handley, and by his direction the plaint
always afterwards whilst living there passed under the
name of Mrs Handley. He addressed letters to her under
that name. On the 25th Deptember, 1861 when about to
,
leave home for a short time, he left a letter for her on the
table, in which he expressed his regret that her affec-
tion for him appeared to have cooled, and he proposed
that if she determined to leave him ho would give her an
annuity of £l5O for the support of herself and their child.
Shortly after September, le6 I, the plaintiff, with the con-
currence of the defendant, quitted Marians, and went to St.
Leonards, and from that time the cohabitation ceased. In
accordance with the advice of the defendant she came to
London to have an interview with his solicitor, in order
that a deed securing to her an annuity of £l5O might b°
prepared. Both the plaintiff and defendant had interviews
with the solicitor on that subject, but the result was that
the defendant, without any reason, refused to carry out the
arrangement, and this bill was filed to compel him to earl
out the arrangement. It has been contended for the de-
fendant that there was no consideration for the annuity
claimed from him, But the court was of opinion upon the
evidence that there was a sufficient consideration. There
appeared to have been several discussions between them 00
the subject of marriage, and the defendant seemed to have
given her a promise of marriage. But the plaintiff had re•
leased the defendant from such promise on consideration of
his granting her an annuity. The conclusion at which the
court felt obliged to arrive on the whole case was that there
must be a decree for an annuity to the plaintiff to 001-
mence from March 25, 1862, the deed to secure such annuity
to be settled in chambers. The defendant must pay the
plaintiff's costs.

COUNTRY MARKETS.

.~~.__~_..h-- .._._.

LIVERPOOL--TUESDAY.
There was an average attendance both of the town al?
country dealers at markt to-day, but only a limited busi;
news
was done at prices slightly lower. Flour met
with
limited business, but nominally unaltered in price. In ,u,
dian corn there was a slow sale, but not lower. .Egyptian
beans firm at previous rates. Oatmeal less inquired
,°",
and quoted at last week's prices.