The Sun.
London, England, 1854-11-21 00:00:00

further until he had paid his debts and till he obtained the
sanction of the Court and the guardian. That was put
forward so prominently that I think it necessary to alldde
to something that cannot deceive. I allude to letters
which the young lady has most properly, and with a great
deal of good feeling, handed over to the guardians and
to me, and which can be verified. It appears that Lady
Ferrers, although she has not written since June to

the young lady, or promoted any intercourse with the
young lady and herself, nevertheless thought it consis-
tent with her duty to write to her brother, Mr. Chi-
chester, encouraging him in what she must have
known to be his intentions and object. Among the
letters which the young lady gave up from Mr.
Chichester are two from Lady Ferrers to him (Mr. Chi-
chester), and one in which there is this expression. Now,
imagine, here is a lady in Lady Ferrers' position, a
peeress, a wife, and a mother of daughters, who writes
to her brother thus :—" I only wish she was my little
sister (speaking of the ward of the Court) ; and, no mat-
ter how you marry her, so long we it is properly per-
formed. I will only be too glad to reeeivo her with
open arms, as I feel I could love her so much." .
" If dear Clara would leave them, and go with
you to be married, I need not repeat that she will always
find me ready to receive her." Now, one cannot but
have a very strong suspicion, when one sees these letters
from Lady Ferrers to her brother, and finds that these
letters came from the brother to the bands of the young
lady—l say that one cannot, after all that has passed,
but have a strong suspicion that Lady Ferrers wrote it
in order that it might be shown to the young lady that
she would be well received by the relations of her suitor.
There is another letter much to the same effect, dated
later, in September. I cannot, therefore, but think that
Lady Ferrers must have been cognizant of what was
going on and what was intended, and that she meant to
encourage it. At the same time, Ido not think that it
is a necessary conclusion, and I do not feel myself
bound to act upon that. Lady Ferrets, I think, if she
has any feeling, will be sufficiently punished by the pub-
licity which this proceeding necessarily gives to her con-
duct, and Ido not, therefore, feel myself called upon to
visit her with the penalty of the disgrace of being com-
mitted to prison. Now, with regard to Mr. Chichester.
At the same time that ho put these letters into the
young lady's hand, he wrote or sent her other letters,
and in those letters I find these passages (one is a whole
letter, the other two are fragments of letters) —" Clara,
is it just towards me this treatment ? Am Ito go
about, afraid of seeing any one here, skulking about ?
There is a great deal of difference between"-I will tot
mention the name ; he mentions a gentleman who is well
known in society to have eloped two years ago with a
lady of rank—" There is a great difference between"
that gehtleman "and G. A. H. C."—that is, George
Augustus Hamilton Chichester. "He married my
cousin, and we were all very much annoyed." What
do I infer from that ? Why, that he had proposed to
the young lady to run away from the house of her guar-
dian, but that she had remonstrated, and had pointed
out how ill that lady stood in society, and that he en-
deavours to get over scruples by pointing out—there is
a great difference between that person—who was not
quite as equal in rank—and "G. A. H. C.," that is to
lay,• the ills that have attended that lady in her after
life, from having run away, will not attend you, because
lam of high and noble family, and he was not. That
is the inference which I cannot but deduce from it.
Then there is another fragment of a letter in which this
occurs, " To-morrow night what you ought to do, dear
est Clara, is to say or write ' ready' when you are—that
will be now or to-morrow night, whichever you like—so,
dearest Clara, be mine." Who can doubt, when he was
coming in the middle of the night with two or three men
attending him, that the object was (I should say by vio-
lence, if resisted, but certainly in some way or other),
to run off with the young lady ? .Then there is a letter
in which this passago occurs—" Do you think, Clara,
that I for one moment would wish you to leave your
guardians, if I was not certain, if I had not had the first
legal opinions on the matter, that everything could be
done legally and for ever binding ? Do you euppose
my family would"—then there is something torn. "The
law is, that if a ward in Court marries against the
Chancellor's consent, and that she is over 18 years of age,
her husband can be imprisoned till she comes of age for
°Attempt of Court, provided they catch him within the
jurisdiction of the Court, which extends to Great Bri-
tain." Now, this gentleman's property, or his connec-
tions, at least, are in Ireland. Whether he thought he
should escape by going to Ireland I, do not know, but
one cannot fail, seeing that he meant to say the jurisdie-
'ion of the Court extended only to Great Britain, if it
catch the parson. "4eTow, this is the law ; and never
mind what others have told you to frighten you—this is
the law. Beside; there are plenty of instances ; .and
they have never imprisoned the husband beyond six or
seven months, and that only in the case of an improper
marriage, such as is a ward running away with a tutor
or servant, &c. In our case it would be quite different ;
in fact, the world and the Lord Chancellor would wonder
what we ran away for. lam merely telling you now
what two of the first Chancery men have told me, they
laughed at me and said—' Why, a man in your position,
if you did do such a thing—l should do it,' "--then it is
I torn. Now, I have adverted to that in order to show—
it is almost holding, one might say, a taper up to the
light of day, for it is so clear that it hardly wants such
illustrations ; but the result is absolutely conclusive that
Mr. Chichester having described himself on one occasion
as being over head and ears in debt, and having stated

over and over again that he was in great pecuniary em-
batrassment, that he got involved by being surety for a
friend, but that he was in debt, and was living here in ten-
don on the proceeds, it seems, of a place connected with
theadministration of justice in Ireland—l am sorry that
such a thing should be possible, but so it seems to ho ; he
is living on the salary attached to a clerkship of the
peace in Ireland—and he seems to have supposed
that the result might be, that he might induce
this young lady so far to forget her duty as to run
off with him. lam very happy to say that that has not
been the case. Il s ex' rernely painful to drag the name
of a ward of the Court before the public ; but it is a hap-
piness for me to be able to say to-day that, having had
Several private interviews with her, quite away from her
guardians—for I have been with her for half an hour
at a time, "and on one occasion nearly an hour, so as to
put her quite at her ease--I am quite convinced that,
when Mr.-Chichester says she consented to his applica-
tion for leave to make proposals, he says that which
nothing which she ever said warranted. She did not
consent, and I believe she never had the least wish to
consent. She has sworn contrary to what Mr. Chiches-
ter states, and, from my conversations with her, I im-
plicitly believe what she says. She has now put every
scrap of paper into the hands of her guardians. That
she acted imprudently no one can deny ; but she was
led on to it by others who ought to have known better.
I allude particularly to Lady Ferrers and Mr. Chiches-
ter. I trust that, as far as she is concerned, that be-
tween her and her guardian the matter will be eventu-
ally overlooked. 'Now, although Ido not see my way
quite clear.to the conclusion that Lady Ferrers intended,
or was instrumental in encouraging the young lady to
elope, yet that Mr. Chichester was is beyond all possible
controversy or doubt ; and I feel it, therefore, to be my
duty, in pursuance of the notice of motion, now to make
ordert (prefacing the order with reading the affidavits,
and statement that lam satisfied on those affidavits
atirila a stMr. Chichester did endeavour to induce the plain-
tiff, Clara Thornhill, to contract a marriage with him,
without the sanction of the Court, and that he did endea-
vour clandestinely to remove her from the custody of
her guardian), that for that contempt of the Court he
be committed to the Queen's Prison. The tipstaff will
now immediately take Mr. Chichester into custody. I
shall also make an order that he pay the costs of this
motion, and that his own petition, that he be allowed to
make proposal 4, be dismissed with costs. The tipstaff
will now take him into custody, and the order will be
drawn up in the course of the morning.
Mr. Baily—This is a motion against Lady Forrers
and Mr. Chichester.
The Lord Chancellor—l make no order with respect
to Lady Ferrero, except that I give her no costs.
Mr. Baily—But then there will be no division of costs.
Mr. Chichester will pay the costs of the guardians.
The Lord Chancellor—Mr. Chichester will pay the
nests of the motion. I will make no special order. He
will pay the costs of the motion, and his own petition is
dismissed with costs, and he is committed to the Queen's
Prison.

COURT OF BANKRUPTCY.
IN RE V. BOXALL.
The bankrupt is a carpenter and builder, at Guild-
ford. His accounts not being ready, and there having
been already one adjourment, Mi. Chidley, for the
assignees, asked for an adjournment sine die, which was
ordered, with protection for six weeks.