The Sun.
London, England, 1846-02-18 00:00:00

The recusants to :this _ propositidit considered that the

herents had violated the rules of the society, and pro-
ceeded to expel them, on the ground of the following rules :
Rule 19 says that the society shall not be dissolved, so long as three
members are willing to support it, and any member proposing to dis-
solve shall be expelled ; and Rule 27, that any alteration may be in-
troduced into these rules and be binding, if agreed to by four-fifths
of the members, always provided that such alteration shall not
dissolve, or tend to dissolve, the society. Under the authority of
these rules the defendants acted, and contended they had a right
to act. It was contended, on the part of the plaintiffs, that
they had done nothing to merit expulsion, and that, on
the ground of a verdict by Lord Eldon, they had a
right, if they so wished, to withdraw, rand take tketr propor-
tion of the funds. It was remarked on in court that the rules
in the present case were absurdly stringent, and even contradictory,
audit was deprecated on all hands— by his Honour as well as by
the counsel engaged—that the case had been pressed on till it be-
came a suit in Chancery. The counsel for the plaintiffs were Mr.
RomWy and Mr. Watford ; for the defendants, Mr. Parker and Mr.
Tremenheere.
Judgment was deferred.

COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH, Feb. 17.
(Before Mr. Justice WIG/MILAN and a Special Jury.)
BREACH OF PROMISE OF MARRIAGE.
SMITH V. LORD FERRERS.

The Court sat this morning at half-past nine o'clock, and, as oa
the previous day, the Court became crowded to excess. Several
ladies, relations of the noble defendant, were accommodated with
scats on the bench.,
Prudence Scott was the first witness called--I am the daughter of
the Postmaster of Shirlyweek. I did not assist in the post-office. I
knew that Lord Ferrers had a post-bag there. I kept the key. Whon
tte bag comes it is locked, at d I open it, and take the letters out. I
have done this for the last two or three years. I have seen " Ferrers"
on the corner of his Lordship's letters, and knew the handwriting.
Within the last 18 months I have observed a change in the writing. and
it appeared to be rather larger. I know a person named Leadbeater.
He is Lord Ferrers' house-steward. About half a year ago, since
Lord Ferrer? marriage, Leadbeater called at the office. I never saw
Lord Ferrers write, but the writing now shown me is a great deal
like the signatures I have seen. The letter No. 9 is like. No. Bis
not so much like. No. 7is much like it. No. 6is like it, but rather
smaller. ' No. 5 is rather smaller than he is in the habit of writing
now. The same answer applies to letters No. 4, No. 2, and No. 1.
The letter marked " A" is rather like ; that narked letter " B" is a
great deal like it.
Cross-examined by the ATTORNEY-GENERAL—My father and
mother are not here. The reason I began to notice the writing was
because Lord Ferret's used to write to my father, requesting him to
register letters. I have seen perhaps half a dozen of those, both
the inside and the outside of them ; this was during a period
spread over two or three years. I did not look at the letters for the
purpose of identifying the writing, I merely picked them up to
look at3them.
Re-examined—When Lord Ferrers lived at Chartley he sent
letters constantly to the post-office. I have seen a good many letters
during that time ; he has sent fewer sine° his marriage.

Th;;ITTORNEYIGENERAL then asked if the Solicitor-General was
prepared to accede to the proposition he wade yesterdar ?
Mr. CHAMBERS said he did not think he should be caned upon to
do this until he had heard the case for the defence. It appeared that
the offer to inspect all the letters was made to defendant's counsel
several months ago, but they denied that any such offer was made.
Ills LORDSHIP could not see what objection there could be to the
imspection ot the letters,

The ATTORNEY-GENERAL said he would not now accept the favour,
as it had b.wn refused.

Frederick Hilyard, clerk in the General Post-office—The practice
in the Post-office with regard to refused letters is to open them, and,
it possible, return them to the writers. They are not registered unless
they contain value. If they happen to be letters addressed to noble-
men, they are selected and sent out ; and if all efforts to find him
fail, they must be opened. I have examined the register for 1843
and 1844, and find no register of such letters to Lord Ferrers. When
a letter is opened and the writer cannot be found, then the letter is
leatroyai.

.
James Hatton, postmaster end parish clerk at.Appleby—l cannot
say that more letters pased through my office for Mr. Atkins. In
1841:AA 1.844 than, usual. They were generally letters ou family
affairs between Atkins and his wife. Not so many as two or three
a week, or four or fivo-41"11011th• • • The post-mark on the letters was
Hammersmith," suit ori sobers " Ashby ae la Zouch." Since the
Middle of 1844 I have received 'one letter from :Atkins, with the
postmark of " Ashby." I did not notice them particutoriy, not
having any suspicion.
Mrs. Perry was called, but the answer was that she was too 111
and could not attend.
A clerk in the Will-office produced a copy of the. will of the late
Lord Ferrers, by which it appeared that the estates, &c., had de-
scended to the defendant.
Mr. CHAMBERS called upon the defendant's counsel to produce the
letter of the 24th of June, 1844, from Mr. Smith to Lprd Ferrers.
The Register read a copy of the letter, which was one expressing
the pleasure the writer felt in the expected alliance, and his convic-
tion that the defendant's happiness would be secured by his choice,
though the writer had no hope of seeing the plaintiff married to a
peer of the realm. The Register then read the letters, which were
ten in number.
Mrs. Elizabeth Perry was then called.—l recollect being on a visit
with Miss Smith's father, in the month of April, 1844, at Siascote.
Mrs. and Miss Smith were there one or two days. They left, and
returned sooner than I expected. While I was there Miss Smith
gave me a letter to put in the post. It was directed to the Right
lion. Earl Ferrers, Chartley Castle, Staffordshire. I did not see the
contents of the letter. Ladies do not generally show the letters they
write to gentlemen.— (Laughter.) I put that letter in the post at
Lichfield. I was in constant commueication with Miss Smith upon
her contemplated marriage with Lord Ferrers. lam the wife of a
clergyman of the Church of England, and reside in Oxfordshire.
Here the case for the plaintiff closed.

The ATTOBNEY-GENEEAL theta proceeded to address the jury for
the defendant. He commenced by calling upon the jury to give
their calmest consideration to this most important case, for it was
one which, in his professional experience, he had never seta equalled.
At present all appeared to be unintelligible and mysterious, and he
confessed that he had never heard of a case that appeared so
inextricable. But he would pledge himself that, before he
sat down, he would have satisfied the jury, beyond the
possibility of all doubt, that this was a mast false and flagitious pro-
ceeding from beginning to end ; and though the result of the verdict
of the jury—if in favour of the defendant, as he had no doubt it would
be—would brand the plaintiff with disgrace and ignominy, yet his
duty would compel him to adopt a course which would have such a re-
sult, in order that his noble client m'ght not appear to be what he
had been attempted to be represented. The Learned Gentle-
man then cited two instances of cases of a description some-
what similar to the one he should make out. Ono was the case
of a young woman who had left her employment, and in order to
account for her absence told a falsehood, which led on to others, and
at last got herself so involved that she swore she had been taken
away by two gipsies, whose lives had well nigh been forfeited,
had not her perjury been detected, and she was trans-
ported. The other case was somewhat similar. He would show
distinctly and clearly that this was a like case, and that it was from
beginning to end a base and infamous conspiracy, got up by the
plaintiff herself by a series of letters, for the purpose of involving his
client in this action. The -Learned Gentleman then went over the
evidence with great care, and pointed out the absurdity of the notion
that Lord Ferrers ever could have written the letters attributed to hint.
He'called the particular attention of the jury to the evidence of the
plaintiff's mother, to whom ho had shown several letters folded up,
which the witness said were in the handwriting of her daughter.
These letters he would new produce. Whon he had explained their
nature to the jury, and read their contents, he believed he need go
no further with the case. The jury had heard a great deal about
letters that the plaintiff had written to the defendant, and they bad
been posted by different parties, who had been innocently involved
in this scheme; amongst others, a letter with a pocket-handkerehlef.
and the jury would very naturally ask, could it be possible
that those letters had not reached their destination. Bad
not Lord Ferrers received them ? Me now came to the
great and &importa bent feature of this case, the most dis-
tressing one. But fore he did so, lie would just call attention to
one-or two passages contained in the letters alleged to have been
written by him to the plaintiff. The jury had heard the plaintiff's
sister swear that Lord Ferrers was in her father's house on the 9th
of December, 1843 ; but he would prove beyond all doubt that it was
utterly impossible that could be true, for he left Chartley that morn-
ing after breakfast, and therefore, in order to have been at Austrey
and back to Chartley, he should have ridden 60 miles before he
started for Welchpool. He would prove beyond all doubt that the
whole of this transaction was a tissue of falsehood and forgery from
beginning to end. He then read extracts from the letters alleged to
have been addressed to the plaintiff by the defendant, in which the
writer was represented as being at Mivart's and various other places,
and of writing of persons whom the Attorney-General would prove
the defendant had never known or never met. Ha then commented
in strong and severe language on the conduct of the witness Holland,
and having referred to the alleged presents of silks, books, &c., he
said he would produce witnesses tol falsify all that. He then con-
cluded by reading the following letters, all of which bore anonymous
signatures, and which he said ho could identify as the letters which
the plaintiff had caused to be posted and directed to the defendant.
When the Learned Counsel concluded his address, after having been
speaking nearly three hours, there were syinptouis of applause, which
were suppressed.