The Sun.
London, England, 1865-02-14 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS. 1

-0--

TIMES.—The last week has been somewhat more
than usually prolific in actions for breach of promise
of marriage—a species of lawsuit eminently favour-
able to forensic eloquence, but very apt to result in
capricious verdicts. The contract of marriage is the
one contract on which almost all men have bestowed
some thought, and the relations between the sexes
are the one subject upon which reason is most likely
to be overmastered by sentiment. Moreover, the
exceptional character of this action is recognised in
one respect by the law itself, for it is an established
rule that the injury to the plaintiff's feelings, as well
as the prospective loss of an advantageous settle-
ment in life, may properly be considered by the jury
in their assessment of damages. This gives them a
very wide discretion, and, as jurymen, happily for
the injured ladies, always belong to the other sex, it
is generally exercised with a strong bias to the
weaker side. Where female affection and confidence
have been deliberately betrayed by a heartless sedu-
cer, as it always is in a novel, and much too often in
real life, no fine that can be laid on the defendant is
likely to be too heavy. He stands in the position of
a delinquent from whom no definite penalty is ex-
acted by law, but whose guilt far surpasses that of
ordinary criminals. It is far otherwise in those cases
where there have been haste and imprudence in both
parties, and still more in those where an ill-assorted
match has been broken off from a sincere conviction
that it must end in misery. In such cases the person
most to blame is often the young lady's mother, and
if vindictive damages are to be awarded at all, justice
would require that they should be exacted from her.
To sacrifice a child to Mammon, with a probability
of lifelong torture, is not much less cruel than sac-
rificing a child by a speedy death to Moloch. This,
however, is an instance of a wrong without a remedy,
and the only class who can practically be made to
suffer for rash matrimonial ,engagements are the
gentlemen who go too far and then draw back.
There is a kind of wild justice in the principle, but
it sometimes works very gross and grievous hardship.
No less than £2,000 damages have lately been
given in two separate cases where no base conduct
was charged against the defendant, and where the
marriage could not have conduced to the happiness
of the plaintiff. Both of these were tried in the
Court of Queen's Bench, before the Lord Chief
Justice, and in both Mr. Coleridge, Q.C., played a
prominent part,—as counsel for the plaintiff in the
one, and as counsel for the defendant in the other.
"„Woodward v. Clarke" was an action by the
daughter of a surgeon at Worcester against an In-
dian officer. The two families had been known to
each other for some time, and the gentleman im-
proved his acquaintance with the young lady on his
return from India in 1863. There was no disparity
of age or other serious bar to the marriage, and it
was virtually admitted that the defendant was really
in love, but, thinking better of it, wrote a letter
honestly avowing that he had been carried away by
his feelings into a step which his mature judgment
could not ratify. " The fact is, when I came home
I was so excited by my long absence, and so pleased
with the reception I met with, that I hardly knew
what I was doing." That was the whole story of the
cause of action ; and, but for two circumstances to
be mentioned presently, we can hardly doubt that
moderate damages would have been considered an
equivalent for the injury. One of these circum-
stances was that the withdrawal was wrapped up,
as serious announcements often are, in a number
of religious phrases, said to have been contributed
by the faithless suitor's mother. The other was
that a denial of the promise was pleaded by his
solicitor, who had not seen the letters, and that
Mr. Sergeant Ballantine indiscreetly alluded to the
Divorce Court as the natural termination of an ill-
considered union. The Lord Chief Justice com-
mented severely on these features of the case, and
the jury mulcted the luckless officer in £2,000. The
verdict in " Lewis v. Powell" is still more diffi-
cult to reconcile with our ideas of distributive
justice. It appears that Colonel Powell, M.P.
for Cardiganshire, being in his 50th year and a
widower, fell in, last March, with a lady named
Lewis' nearly 40 years old, and sister to a person
who had acted as his secretary. She was an inmate
of his house, with other relatives of her own, for
nearly a month, and the engagement was contracted
on the 27th of April, in the absence of Colonel
Powell's relatives. It was expressly understood
that, owing to the state of his health, she must be
" more of a nurse than a wife to him," and the
lady's own brother very naturally counselled more
deliberation. However, when the Colonel's relatives
returned they found the matter settled, and
straightway set to work to break off the match.
This was done in the course of the next month, but
unfortunately reasons other than the true one were
given for it to third parties, and unfounded asper-
sions were cast upon the lady's character. It is true
that they were retracted without reserve, and with
expressions of regret, but the mischief was done, and
the minds of the jury were diverted from the con-
sideration of the actual loss sustained to that of the
injury incidentally inflicted. This was inevitable
and not altogether unjust, but we cannot help re-
garding £2,000 as an excessive compensation for
either or both. Mr. Coleridge made the most of
his client's cause, and dwelt forcibly on the pre-
sumption that Miss Lewis's motives in desiring to
be the wedded nurse of Colonel Powell must have
been mercenary and selfish. The Lord Chief Jug-
tice himself adopted much of his argument, pointing
out the want of any evidence of tender affection, and
endorsing all that had been said against the desecra-
tion of the conjugal tie by a manage de conversance.
Still, there stood the fact that Miss Lewis had
drawn a prize in the matrimonial lottery, and that
it had been wrested from her grasp. She had
aspired to the social position of being Colonel
Powell's wife, and her expectations guaranteed by
his promise had been disappointed. Persons of
middle age, and still more advanced in life, have
been known to contract marriage with a view to
domestic comfort, and without experiencing, or
even simulating, the ardent emotions of youth.
Such persons have legal rights as well as more ro-
mantic and chivalrous lovers, and . their blighted
hopes are at least as capable of being assessed in
money. All this was true, and no doubt the jury
acted upon it conscientiously, but they ought surely
to have put into the other scale the disagremens of
the lot which Miss Lewis has selected for herself.
Many of her sex would have given more than the
£2,000 which she has recovered to be off such a
bargain, and few women would have been disposed
to indemnify her so largely for losing it. There is
a saying of Swift that "the reason why so few mar-
riages are happy is because young ladies spend their
time in making nets, not in making cages." When
this art is practised successfully by ladies of mature
years, we are not prepared to estimate their claim to
compensation very highly.
PosT.—The report that certain provinces of the
Mexican Empire had been ceded to France would
scarcely have required to be contradicted if it had
not purported to reveal a transaction which was to
become the base of future operations. There seems
to be a strong and increasing conviction that the two
great maritime Powers of Europe will eventually be
compelled to abandon the neutrality they have
hitherto observed in the American civil war, and the
Emperor of the French more particularly is supposed
to be ready to enter into diplomatic relations with
the Government of the Southern States. The pre-
valence of this idea, therefore, was favourable to
the circulation of the Mexican fiction, and as its
reception in the Northern States was calculated to
impede to some extent the organisation of the new
empire by encouraging the partisans of Juarez, the
French Government thought it proper to state that
the story was—what, when looked into, it appeared
to be—a weak, albeit malicious fabrication. It is
obviously the interest of the Confederates to ag-
gravate the suicidal hostility which their adversaries
entertain towards England and France, but what
they do they do openly, and the rumour in question
may not improbably be traced to quite another
source. The policy of the Emperor Maximilian
has given great offence to the Ultramontane
party. In Mexico, as in France and Italy, the
Church is said to be in danger. It is worthy of
remark, too, that a similar tale was published in
Mazzinian binding as a sequel to the Convention
of September ; and if the Holy See is supported by
so-called Liberals in France, and assisted by avowed
Republicans in Italy, its missionaries in the New
World may not object to play upon the suscepti-
bilities of an excited people for the purpose, as they
hope, of embarrassing the only Government that is
able and willing to preserve to them the power they
abuse, and to protect the religion they discredit.
The Second Empire is founded upon principles that
do not admit of its territorial aggrandisement, and
Napoleon 111. has more than once resisted this which
has been described as the peculiar temptation of
princes. Europe is now at peace because France
has not entered into justifiable wars. The halt on
the Mincio is a memorable instance of self-restraint.
We know how it disappointed the aspirations of
Italy, and that Cavour himself was not more sensible
of the sacrifice than the Emperor who commanded it.
The emancipation of Venetia would have torn up
the Treaty of 1815, revised the map of the Continent,
and most likely advanced the frontiers of the French
Empire. Later, and in regard to a question which
is not yet satisfactorily solved, France checked the
impatience Of England. We have abundant cause
to remember that there was a time when two or
three words flashed along the electric wires would
have sent our fleet to the Baltic and ordered a
French army to bivouac on the borders of the Rhine.
The Government of the Emperor paused again on
the brink of a European war, and the Power that
profited by the imperial forbearance has been shout-
ing its victories in our ears. These are events that
speak for themselves, and if those who habitually

represent France as coveting her neighbour's vine-
yard purposely ignore their meaning, history
win vine-
more just. There may be Continental Powers that
are dreaming of aggrandisement, but if France be,
one of them it is remarkable that her Government
has neglected opportunities and declined
which could hardly have failed to lead up to thaf
end. Political assassination, whether by means °
false rumours or in the form of viperous ePigratas'
is an odious and significant phenomena. na..tYo
be urged that France intervened in Mexico, as b"
did in Italy, to carry out an idea. There is one-7:
invitationti
and, as far as we are aware, but one--objection
to
putting the argument in that shape. We are bOallul
however, to admit that, so stated the question 111
be variously answered, and that it will not suffice
of
say the ideas of one country differ from the ideas ht
another country. All Governments are, or ougs.
to be, controlled by the common law of nati°lll.o
But if the condition of Italy was such as W imPe•
the peace of Europe, and if the anarchy subaistif,
in Mexico was not only prejudicial to the coneril:i„
cial interests of other countries, but liable to eu us
nate in the aggrandisement of a conterraia?_n
State, that, according to the highest interpretan..oo
of international law, forms a complete justificant
of the. action taken by the Emperor Napole°°' tot
is not therefore strictly accurate to describe
~rd
action as the fulfilment of an idea, and the w„uer,
may have caused some misconception. To intlion
fere in the American war, on the Federal sugges.do,
to abolish slavery, would be interfering on an idea,
to no,
and whether, morally speaking, right or wr
the
would clearly be an act not contemplated bYf
law of nations. Still, the popular definition ° „ear
imperial policy, though not exactly correct, is
enough for our present purpose, seeing that thhe has
cupation of Rome, the withdrawal from Wilic cps,
called forth this attack of pamphlets and o,cn soy
was not only in obedience to an idea, but Laa.,unpieves
altogether an abnormal proceeding. The Pirij of
which have guided the Emperor must be) ug that
in their entirety ; and even on the assumpti°,3l
they are rather ideas than commonly received Pcy is
ciples, it by no means follows that their teudentural
aggressive. When France claims her 13hiae,
boundaries," and marches to a Vuppel on the it 0
then there may be reason to cry out ; but alioa
the Imperial Government has given no c'er-npoa
whatever for the imputation it has been call
.„,e"prio3l
to repudiate. With regard to the war in I'r-fibrin
which has been interpolated to mask the real °.inry,
and intention of this reported cession of terrif
ono
France and England are, we apprehend, itself at
mind: The neutrality that recommended wise
the commencement of the conflict still aPPe';tioal
and expedient. There is no opening for raell,he re•
and there is no ground for intervention. ss,
the
cognition of the Southern States would folket as a
acquirement of their legal right to clair,s; ilnt
matter of course • and the subsisting needoll,
relations with the Northern States depend, 1 Nov
not say, upon the reciprocal fulfilment of
tional obligations.