The Sun.
London, England, 1848-01-27 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON,

LAW INTELLIGENCE.
COURT 'OF COMMON PLEAS, Jan. 26.
(Sittings in Banco.)
The only matters before the Court to•day were
demurrers, and the points raised were of no public
interest.
(Sittings at Nisi Priust.at Guildhall, before Mr.
Justice UOLTMAN.)
HARRIS V. PORTER.—DREACII OF PROMISE OF
MARRIAGE.

Mr. Edwin James and Mr. Hawkins were for the
plaintiff; Mr. Sergeant Wilkins conducted the de-
fence.

111 r. EDWIN JAMES, on opening the plaintiff's case,
said the present was an action brought by a person,
though in a low sphere of lifedyet he trusted the jury
would hear the facts of the case, and which he was
instructed that he would prove in evidence. It was
one of the most cruel and heartless cases ever sub-
mitted to the consideration of any jury. The plaintiff
was the daughter of humble persons in Roydon, in
Essex. She and her sister, not wishing to be a
burden to their family, came to London, and went as
servants, the plaintiff to a lady in Holborn, and her
sister to a family in North Audley-street. The defen-
dant resides in Clerkenwell. On the 28th Nov., 1844,
the plaintiff's sister obtained from her master two
tickets for Astley's Amphitheatre, where they went
to the pit of the theatre. They met the defendant
with two other friends. He invited them to
have some refreshment. They at first declined, but
subsequently took some poker and brandy and water.
ito accompanied them over Westminster-bridge.
The plaintiff's sister proceeded on her way to South
Audley-street, and defendant accompanied the plain-
tiff home to Holborn, when he left her. He subse-
quently called on her, and they went to her sister's,
when he promised to marry her, and made the most
honourable proposals to her. The defendant not
finding it convenient to call on plaintiff, at Holborn,
made her leave her place and take a situation near
him, so as to give him more frequent opportunities of
seeing her. He then made her return to her parents,
where he went frequently to see her. He there re-
newed his vows of attachment, and declared his
intention of marrying her. He would call on his
Learned Friend to point out one act of indiscretion
on her part; though in an humble sphere of life she
might not have the sympathy which the conventional
order of the higher classes of society afforded, yet he
was sure the jury would by their verdict give that
compensation which her outraged feelings demanded.
He would not trespass on them at any further length
but to state one fact, though the defendant had violated
his solemn promises. Defendant got married on the
13th of September last, and what was the effect on
hts unfortunate client would be best described by the
witnesses he would call before them. He would not
trespass further on them. He felt confident that the
jury would give such damages as the justice of the
case demanded.

Sarah Harris, sister of the plaintiff, recollects ac-
companying her sister to Astley's Amphitheatre. In
the pit they met the defendant with two others. On
their leaving the house, defendant touched witness on
the shoulder, and invited them to have some refresh-
ment. They at first declined, but subsequently
agreed, and they bad some porter and brandy and
water. Witness went home to South Audley-street,
and defendant went home with her sister, where she
lived with Mrs. Barker, a milliner, in Holborn. Her

father kept a public-house at Roydon, in Essex. In
about a week after defendant and her sister called on
her, and he then acted towards her as if she was to be
his v‘ife. He subsequently took them- on a Sunday
to Woodford, in Essex, when he invited her to be
present at his and her sister's wedding, and said he
would not permit her to be in service any longer.
Plaintiff then left her place in Holborn, aryl went to
reside in the Minerva-road, Hackney, at her aunt's.
Subsequently he recommended her to go home to
Roydon, to .her father and mother. She did so,
and while there he frequently went to see her. After
an absence of two months she returned to town, and
went to lodge with a Mrs. Thompson, Goswell-ereet,
Goswell-road. About the beginning of September he
advised her to go down again to Roydon, which she
did, and to return on the 12th. When she returned,
hearing of his marriage, she became deranged, and
was reduced to a most pitiable state.
Mrs. Sarah Thompson resides in Goswell-street.

The plaintiff lodged with her for eighteen months.
The defendant used constantly to visit her, and drive
her out on a Sunday. She occupied a front parlour,
pith a sofa-bed. On one occasion, when defendant
was going to drive her out, plaintiff expressed her
apprehension about the horse not being quiet, and
some accident might happen to him. Defendant told
her nut to mind, as if anything happened to him she
was provided for. On another occasion she was ill,
and said that she thought she should die. The de•
fendant replied, " Oh, no, dear Eliza, you wont die
until we go to church together." When she heard
the account of his marriage she fell into hysterics,
and it took two men and herself to hold her, and her
mind became affected ; previous to which, from
the state of her health, she was obliged to consult

a surgeon.
Mrs. Jane Turner knows plaintiff's family fourteen
years. After defendant's marriage she called cn him,
and inquired what he meant to do for the poor girl ?
He said he would' alloAr )ler as he (1,21. before. On her
calling subsequently, to effect an arrangement, he said
he would do nothitig foi her, as some person had written
to his wife, and informed her of the whole transaction.
There was nothing elicited by the cross-examination
of this witness.

Airs. Jane Harris, mother of the plaintiff, stated
that her daughter had been eight years in service in
London. Her husband was a small farmer, kept a

beer-shop, and occasionally worked as a labourer, at
los. a week. The defendant, when he used to come
after her daughter, promised her marriage in her
presence.
Mr. Sergeant Witax.nis addressed the jury for the
defendant, and begged of them to look at really what
the case was. Here were two girls, who went by
themselves to Astley's without a protector; meet the
defendant and two friends, utter strangers to them ;
accompany them to a gin palace, take brandy and
water, and the plaintiff permits a strange man to
see her home; continues an intimacy with him, goes
to theatres, lives for 18 months in Mrs. Thompson's
house without business • visited constantly not only
by the defendant, but also by his friends; goes and
sleeps at his house, and also sleeps out several nights.
How she supported herself it was not for him to say,
but he appealed to the experience and common sense
of the jury, and he was sure that, being guided by
them, they would give the plaintiff compensation for
any injury she sustained, if any, by the conduct of
the defendant.
The Learned JUDGE told the jury that they must
be satisfied of a breach of promise, and the question
of damages was solely in their province. His Lord-
ship having read over the evidence, said he would
leave the case in their hands, and he had no doubt
but that they would come to a just conclusion.
The jury retired for two hours, when eleven entered
the Court, and said, that they had all agreed but one.
His LORDSHIP said that he regretted he could not

assis'. them ; they then retired again to see and prevail
on their fellow-juryman to agree with them, and after
five and a half hours' consultation, returned a verdict
for the plaintiff.—Damages, 401.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.
MANSION-HOUSE.

Several young females were brought before the
Lord Mayor, charged with having, some of them,
smashed windows, of considerable value, in the neigh-
bourhood of the Mansion-house; and others, with
having threatened and violently attacked officers of
the unions.

Three of the women, Catherine Sullivan, Mary
Sullivan, and Catherine Walshe, who appeared to be
very dangerous customers, were watched by a man
whom it has been found necessary to appoint to keep
an eye to the conduct of the refractory vagrants and
paupers who congregate about the Mansion-house.
lle judged that they had a mischievous intention,
and he apprehended the three with a basket of large
paving-stones, which must have been brought from
some distance, and which, they acknowledged, were
intended for the windows of some of the extensive
buildings in the vicinity, as the manner in which it
had been found necessary to wire the windows of the
Mansion-house, protected the glass of that structure
from their attacks.

' The women said they came from the county of
Cork, and that being out of work and out of pocket,
they were resolved to get locked up, during the cold
weather, in prison, where they would be much more
comfortable than they could be in Peckham Union.

The case of the other females charged before his
Lordship were of the ordinary kind. They had
thrown stones at and beaten and.threateßed to dispatch
the union officers, and they gave no small evidence of
their power over the English language in the com-
pliments which they thoUght it becoming to pay
to the chief magistrate of London. It has been
seldom that even at the Mansion-house the furious
abuse used in the course of yesterday has been
equalled. All the women charged vowed vengeance
against the plate-glass windows, the union officers, the
police officers, and the Lord Mayor and his brother
Aldermen.

111%,•••
The Lord MAYOR said it was with great pain he
observed that the conduct of numbers of the old de-
pendents upon parochial bounty was become quite
intolerable. Within the last twelve months the win-
dows of the Mansion-house had been broken over and
over again, and when at last some protection was
afforded, the offenders began to throw large paving
stones through the windows of the counting-houses and
banks close to the building. In one day 16/. worth
of plate-glass bad been broken in the windows of
Messrs. Smith, Payne, and Smith, immediately oppo
site! 1-; door at wllich priulitrs ,!
charity entered. On one occasion a gentleman in
that house was struck in the breast with a stone flung

in by one of the old retainers at the union. Indeed, '
he had reason to think that, within the last two
months, the loss sustained in glass by the banking-house
alluded to amounted to upwards of 701. No doubt the
window-breakers resorted to that favourite occupation
from the preference they gave to a felon's gaol over
an union workhouse, upon the ground of more gentle
treatment. That was a dreadful state of things, when
the poor deliberately committed offences in order to
be better treated than they could expect to be in their
simple character of paupers. It was quite impossible
that such a state of things could be suffered to exist,
and he hoped Ihe Legislature would at once interfere
to prevent the continuance of such desperate mischief
as was daily occurring. His Lordship then sentenced
each of the offenders brought before him to the full
extent of the Act, and ordered that the Irishwomen
should, when their imprisonment shall have termi-
nated, be instantly shipped for Ireland.
The LORD MAYOR begged to acknowledge the
receipt of 1/. is. from D. W. and D.; 51. ss. from
J. 8., and the second half of the Si. note from the
Hon. i►lis -, for the poor-box.