The Sun.
London, England, 1854-12-25 00:00:00

LAW INTELLIGENCE.—Dec. 23.

COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH.
HOPE Y. AGUADO—CRIII. CON.
This case, having been specially fixed for to-day, the
court was crowded to excess from an early hour.
Sir F. Thesiger, Mr. Bevil], and Mr. Phipson (in-
structed by Messrs. Few and Co.) appeared for the
plaintiff. The Attorney-General, Mr. Serjeant Wilkins,
and Mr. Wise (instructed by Messrs Grover and Coare)
represented the defendant.
Mr. Phipson having stated the pleadings,
Sir F. Thesiger addressed the jury. This he said was
one of those painful cases which, unhappily, sometimes
disturbed the ordinary business of courts of law, and be-
came subjects of public inquiry ; and he must confess
that he never appeared as an aselvocate in cases of this
description without feeling tho -nest invincible repug-
nance to the discharge of his duty. He was oppressed
with a sense of the degraded position in which a bus
band was placed who was compelled to appear in court
to complain of one of the greatest social injuries
public
eye could be infliCted, and to disclose to the
eye those circumstances which pride and delicacy would
alike make him anxious to conceal, instead of parading,
as it were, his wrongs before strangers, in
,o.rder to ask
from them a redress which wore infinitely more the
appearance of insult than of satisfaction.. But the
plaintiff had no choice in a case of this description,
where the wife had forgotten -her marriage vow, and
dishonoured her husband by her infidelity. Although
all laws, human and divine, justified him in putting
her away, the tribunal of the highest power in
this country rdquired, before severing the marriage
tie, that the husband should appear before a jury
and obtain a verdict in his favour. The plaintiff was
therefore compelled to come before a jury, to open up
the secret. recesses of his domestic life to the public gaze,
and to ask from the jury a description of redress which
none but a most sordid and grovelling mind could con-
ceive to be a satisfaction for the wrong which he had
sustained, and which disgraced the hand that received
it. The plaintiff had no alternative but to bow to the
law, and appear before the jury, and he (Sir F. Thesiger)
would, therefore, on his behalf, shortly and simply state
to them the circumstances of the case, abstaining as
much as possible in the outset from any comment upon
the facts, because he should be certain to have another
opportunity of addressing the jury. The plaintiff, Mr.
Adrian Hope, was the second son of the late Mr. Hope,
the eminent banker, and better known as the author of
" Anastasius." Mrs. Hope, the unhappy subject of this
inquiry, was ithe only child of General Count Rapp,
the, as the jury probably well remembered, was aide-
e-eamp to Napoleon 1., Emperor of the French. The
parties were married by special license on the 21st July,
1836, in the house of Mr. Hope's eldest brother, in
Duchess-street, Portland-place. Mr. Hope was at that
time 25 years of age, and Mrs. Hope 19. There had
been eight children born after the marriage, but only
ilve survived—three daughters and two sons. The
eldest daughter was born in 1837, and the youngest son
and child is the month of May, 1847—a date which the
jury would find to be significant in the course of this
inquiry. After the marriage the parties resided for some
time at Mr. Hope's house, in Carlton-gardens. They
then went abroad, and lived at various places in France,
and from the. year 1842 to the year 1846 occasionally
Tlsited England and Holland, where Mr. Hops had an
estate, called Boeweek. He had also a great farm in
Holland, which had descended to him from his father
and his ancestors, and which rendered it necessary for
rim to visit that country frequently.. In the year 1846,
they took up their residence in a mansion of Mr. trope's
on the Quay D'Oreay, in Paris. There they continued
to reside down to the latest period to which the attention
of the jury wouhl be directed. He (Sir F. Thesiger)
believed he should be able to satisfy the jury that during
the first years of their marriage they lived upon the most
affectionate terms. He knew that it was usual in cases
of this description to call before the jury the friends and
relatives of the family to speak to the terms on which
the parties were living together. No such evidence would
be produced before the jury upon the present occasion,
but he should resort to another source to satisfy them
on the subject ; and he must confess that it had always
appeared to him that evidence of the description
which he had mentioned was illusory and unsatisfac
tory, because it was perfectly well known that it was
usual in the country ,to lay a decent covering ever
domestic life, which prevented the secret springs from
being known, and by the conventional courtesies of
life, in the presence of third persons, a husband or wife
would always smooth a ruffled brow, or check the rising
passions of an • angry heart. And, therefore, persons
who were merely strangers or acquaintances, or friends,
or even relations, who were not in habits of daily and
bendy intercourse with the parties, had no correct notion
of the real state of their feelings. But there were other
persons, the importance of whose testimony could not
be overrated—from whom it was impossible to conceal
the fact, if there wag alienation of feeling. He alluded,
of course, to the servants of the family. Persons could
not always be upon their guard, even before their do-
mestice, who necessarily lsecame peculiarly acquainted
with the state of affection between their
m aster and
mistress. He should be able to show, by the •d
of the servants, that although there were circa:A=li
which, perhaps, rendered them not precisely adapted to
each other, yet that Mr. Hope was invariably kind and
attentive to Mrs. Hope, and, with the exception of what
be might call occasional outbreaks between them, Mrs.
Hope seemed to entertain an affection and respect for
her husband. Their tastes, however, were not precisely
similar—Mrs. Hope was fond of a round of gaiety ; she
moved in f shionable circles, whilst Mr. Hope was a
shy and retiring man, preferred his study and his books,
was of rather ialelent lie bite, and, partici.la upon mone-
tary affairs, was passively subject at times to the influ-
ences, with which he was surrounded, but that the par-
ties lived for a considerable time iii the most porfect
affection, he thoi4lit, the jury would entertain no doubt
whatever ; unless, indeed, the letters which he was about
to read were the result of hypocrisy on the part of Mrs.
Hope. Of course he had nu desire to produce
these letters ; it was painful to be compelled to pro-
duce letters between husband and wife, whiche of
course, were never intended to see the light beyond the
eyes of the husband. Their production, however,
became absolutely necessary in this case, and therefore
be (Sir F. Thesiger) must break those rules which he
should otterwise have prescribed to himself, and read
only two of the letters, which would be sufficient far his
purpose. The first letter which he would read was a
letter from Mrs. Hope to her husband, and was dated
seven years after their marriage. It was dated July 21,
1843, and was in these terms :
" Illy dearest Love,—To-day is seven years since we
belonged to each other, and I cannot let, it pass without
writingto you. Let us hope we may pass many more as
happily and united as we have passed these seven years.
The child is well again, but as cross as two sticks.—Yours
most affectionately. "M. H."
Another letter was dated November 29, 1841 :
"My dearest Adriau,—l turn roam} my head to look at
the clock. -I dare say you are at Carlton.: arde I hope
to Gcd yon are comfortable and near a nice fire,nas.nd much
tired. My dear hushamd, how I wish y
you.n were
e with me.
There is not a day I don't wish to joinonly fear
I have is, if I do get with you, that, havigmeyos,nt nteoarcyou
TOO will keepme long in England. I want
your utmost to conicoma
back to our poor chicks. You will do
back as soon as possible. The children love you, and I che-
rish you and press you to my heart with all the strength of
affection and peace. God bless and protect you, and may
he soon bring you back to me safo and well.--Ever yours
affectionately, " H. H."
He (Sir F. Thesiger) had already stated to the jury
that Mr. Hope took up his residence in the Quay d'Orsay,
in Paris, in the year 1846. It was in the beginning of
that year that the family first became acquainted with
the defendant, the Count Aguado, who was formerly a
banker in Spain. Count Aguado was then residing with
his family in the Place Vendome. He visited the first
circles in Paris. From the evidence which he (Sir h.
Thesiger) would lay before the jury, he thought that they
would entertain no doubt at all that from an early period
alter Count Aguado's acquaintance with Mr. and Mrs.
Hope, too close an intimacy grew up between the count
and Mrs. Hope—that so early as the year 1846 a cri-
minal intercourse had taken place between them. That
intercourse he (Sir F. Thesiger) would trace year by
year for several years by the production of a body of
evidence upon the subject which, unless the witnesses
were wholly to be discredited, would be perfectly over-
whelming. The discovery of that fatal state of things
was made almost accidentally. In the year 1853, in
consequence of differences which-bad arisen between Mr.
and Mrs.. Hope, be separated from her, and brought to
England three daughters, leaving the other children (two
boys) with Mrs. Hope. A question arose before the
tribunal of this country and of France with regard to the
custody of those children. Mr. Hope, of course, resorted
to professional advice, and was desirous of showing that
Mrs. Hope was not a fit person to be the guardian of
these boys. He was not at that time aware or suspicious
of any criminality on her part, but lie considered that
there were circumstances in her conduct which might
induce the court to believe that the boys ought not to
be, entrusted to her. Inquiries were set on foot, suspi-
cions were excited as those inquiries proceeded, and, a
closer investigation was made. Fact after fact was de-
veloped, till at last the whole of the secrets of many
*et years were discovered, and evidence which he (Sir
?-Thesiger) would lay before the jury was obtained.
r°"
tean Mr.
neared that Hope had for years been sure
ded by unfaithful servants—persons who had not
eencealed the intercourse between Count Aguade
an item
of that it,t.ope, but who had assisted in the carrying on
Hope aued—htiesTree. The difficulties with which Mr.
inap:gal advisers had had to contend, more
especi
not only to obtain evidence, hut to secure t allyhe witeV::::
was when it
sans , obtained, could hardly
be conceived.
hey
whom, no doubt,
duced before the however, would be prc•
Many of them were persons
upon aevera
.I;.ervations would be
made, as being of tha.t. es, 101 l he had already at-
theirYi who had concealed
c from
—servants of tenni
luded.
master the dishonour of his wile,
jury would carefully consider the charactf course the
nature of their evidence er of those wit-
nesses, and the ; but from the •
structious which he had received, he was not in the el* C
fin-
est degree appehensive that their testimony Would bleghit-
tbe least degree shaken. 11
e would no4' to detail.
to the jureesinaply and plainly the circumstanceswhich
lie proposed to lay before them for ti purpose of estab-
lishing the case against the defendant. Mr. Rope
ing taken possession of his house in the Quai d'osay in
the month of' June, 1846, persons were enaged to
make it fit for the residence of his family. In the month
of August, 1846, Mrs. Hope expressed a wish to take
to the Hague her son, who, she believed, was then suf-
fering from a scrofulous affection. Mr. Hope gave her
e permission to go, and she arrived at the Frascati Hotel,
at the Hague, in the same month. The. Aguado family
and the defendant, Count Aguado, were at the Frascati
Hotel at that time. Whether Mrs. Hope was aware of
that fact or not before she went to the Hague,
the jury would possibly be able to judge after