The Sun.
London, England, 1839-07-24 00:00:00

KENSINGTON PETTY SESSIONS

CONNUBIAL Buss.--Monday a person named William
Leeson, residing at No. 8, Newland- street, Kensington,
was brought up on a warrant before Messrs. Codd and
Sutton, the sitting Magistrates, to answer a charge of
having assaulted and threatened the life of his wife.
Mrs. Maria Leeson, a lady of the description termed
" fat, fair, and forty," in answer to questions by the Bench,
proceeded to detail a whole catalogue of matrimonial mise-
ries. She said the defendant was her second hus-
band. She had been married to him six years, during the
whole period of which he had most grossly ill-treated her.
Their courtship had been of short duration, having only
known him two months before they were united.
Mr. Conn—And ever since you have been disunited ?
Mrs. Leeson—Exactly so your worship. I married him
because I thought from what his mother said of him, that he
was a good, well-conducted man • but when I had married
him she spoke as ill as she had before spoken well of him.
He, of course, before marriage made plenty of fair pro-
mises ; but after the knot was tied, instead of fulfilling
them, he has taken all he could from me, and is continually
drunk, drunk, drunk. I have some houses and cottages of
my own in town and in the country, and I want nothing
of him.

Mr. CODD—Have you a marriage settlement, and any
family ?
Mrs. Leeson—Oh yes, I took care of that. I have a
marriage settlement, and receive the rents myself, I have
only one child by him, which is four years old ; he, how-
ever, often accuses me of infidelity—a hundred tlmusand
times in an hour.
What do you in particular complain of?—Of his ill-
treating and brutally beating me.
When did he do so last ?—Last night; he came home
in a blessed ill-humour, and slapped my face with a mutton
chop—the fellow—he did.

What did he do on Tuesday when you applied for the
warrant ?—On that day he struck me twice in the face in
the morning, and again in the afterncon. He dues not
get up until ten o'clock.
Was it with his fist ?-oh, yes, the brute • he has not
humanity enough to strike with his open hand.
Does he attend to his buviness?—When he pleases. I
should have done this before the honeymoon was over—

then I should have done justice to him and to myself too.
The defendant denied the statement of his better half,
but called no witnegses to disprove it.
Mr. CODD, having conferred with his Colleague, said to
the complainant, " Well, if we fine him, I suppose you
will pay it for him ?"
Nlrs. Leeson—Oh, no, indeed, he can pay it himself.

But you will,_l dare say, pay it in a day or two if he is
sent to prison. I always find that, in cases between hus-
bands and wives, as soon as the Magistrates decide on
fining the husbands, the wives pay the fine for them.—Oh,
no, I shan't do that. I don't think he is of sane mind—t,o
man that is would take a suit of new clothes and wipe the
wall with them, and his shoes on them afterwards.
Mr. CODD said Mrs. Leeson had acted very foolishly,
and been too hasty. Had she, on becoming acquainted
with the defendant, consulted her senses instead of her
passions, she would never have married him.
Mrs. Leeson—Ah ! I was very foolish. He had such a
soft tongue.
The defendant was then fined 603. and costs, and in
default one month's imprisonment. The parties had, how-
ever, scarcely got into the outer office before Mrs. Leeson
drew her purse-strings and wanted to pay the fine ; but, on
the policeman vclia had her husband in custody reminding
her of Mr. Codd's words, she left the office, and in a few
minutes afterwards the defendant's brother came in and
paid the fine, on which ho was liberated.