The Sun.
London, England, 1804-08-01 00:00:00

DE MANNEVILLE V. DE MANNEVILLE.

Tit is wa,: a Petition presented to the Lord Chart.
rellor by Mrs. De Manneville, ,Who•• has left her
husband to go and reside with her mother, Mrs.
Crompton ; the ,prayer., of which will, " That
1::!r infant daughter, caroline De Manneviile,
be taken our of the poSsosi2n:of its father,
Jelivered to-. the Petitioner, its nilther ;" and
iN case, his Lor4hip..shnuld be of opinin. that the
ioe.int ought nor to be .taken fu* the. father, then
th;ir he might be restrained by the order and, in.

‘.
j.ae,6lon. of .that Copt! from carrying or removing
the mother or child out of jurisdiction. •
An application to the same eff.a had. been.very
.
recently made to the Court of King's: Bench, but
without efren ; for the Court having heard every
allegation that could be assigned by the mother,
the father was not a proper person to have
custody nf his child,. derided, even without
11e•-tling Mr, De Manneville; that there was nor the
greffrel .for such applicati.m, and therefore
dismissed it. This Petition to the Lord Chancel_
hfr was presented upOn quire new terelin,l,l and
supported. by additional Affidavits, whieh were an.
swered by Mr. Dc Mannesille's own Affidavit, and,
also supported by many Others, few of which were
read, This very interesting, novel, and impar.
taut case engaged the attention of the Gour.t nearly
three:whole days. It wasefrgued by Mr. ReetILLY,
izt:iNtiLANQUE, aie. for the Petitioner, and by
Mr. IttcnAttn: and Mr. BELL for the. Defendant.
The Loa o- Cue:No re Lett this day prefaced his
judgment with an exCelient speech of near two
hours, in which he • ((bier veil; that this was the
case of a Petition presented in a cause' in which' an
Want of very tender years had been made a Ward
Or that Court. The Petition was stated by his Lord.
whii, in the course of the statement; said,
that it ought not to be understood that when he
stated the circumstances of that Petition he did
mean to represent them as pr•iverl to have existed,
as they :were stated to have eXiAlea. From the
marriage settlement stated by his L ,riship, it ap-
peared, that the.,Lady's foul): which was consi-
derable, in real and personal property, besides the
exptelancy on the :death of her mother, Mrs..
Crompton, ,Was,. every shilling of it, vested in
the Lady herself, for her separate use ; and his Lord.
14 thought that such settlement was well calculat.
cml indeed to rrodnce those :melancholy cireurn.
at:INC:CS which h;il actually taken place. The infant
in rite onto, it tips c, nide should have no more
children, would be milled to a, very considerable.
fortune. The Defendant, Mr. De Manneville,. is
a• French Gentleman, and in the year ISoo mar.
tied this L fay, then Miss Crompton ; and the fruit
of that ma.miage is' Caroline, the • chid now in
(FP htien• nitro was
.one covenant 'introduced in
the in:"ii3V. SciCerne6t,'" that. Mr, Dc M. would
, 001, at ;ley tame after the said m irriage should have
takeneitherby,yersonal compulsion or legal
weans, or by any other waya or means whatever,
(:;:invel ear foree•her, contrary 'to hei-own free will
air if.clinati,in, to reside in France, or 'any other
country 'than Great Britain ;" that is, in other
that she should not fulfil that obligation
which, prifirfr !reit, the contraB would have•im.
posea no her, to follow the fate and fortunes of the
Gentlernan Mint» she chose to make her hudaand.
As to the Lady, the enjoyment of her whole fortune-
ail ledependence seems to have been, oartfully
tended to, 1)01 they seem to have, forgotten what
has to be the case of.the children. Strange, that
it should he forgottro 1 bee fuse it is hardly 'possible
to represent a more interesting Nettie than that
which must have arisen if the parties had children,
and 'Mr. Dc Mannev die bad preferred to go to
"'ranee, and the Lady, in consequence of dint co.,
%tenant, had chosen to remain iu her own country ;
the question 'would then arise, which has arisen in
this case; which parent was to have the benefit of
discharging the duties of a parent, with the torn:.
forr and satisfaction that arc attendant on the dis.
charge of those duties, and which parent was to be.
placcil lin that state of inexpressible misery by
having children torn tuna -his or her care and pro.
Ilk Lotddlip'observed, that. this Petition
bad been followed by a, vast variety of Affidavits,
Stating circumstances in' s' of the with, or
in tier-fiat of time truth of the allegations. in tl:c
and'stating AO a great number of citeum_
stences,•perhapa not very relevant to the prayer of
the Petition. Be did not wonder it should' be so
on the part of the Dekndant, who was a Fo.
me igner, and had, to defend himself against this
Na tpion; but the Affidavits on the part of the Pe..
titiimer had represented circumstances in Tart.
gtvige which occasionally was less -grave, less sober,
than what the language of- `Aflidavita 'ought to be;
atql which Courts of Justice looked at with satis.
• faction when they saw' dryi‘mets stated in very sober
:IA temperate language. The jutisdietion.of the
Court of King's Bench was mach less extensive
.over this subjed than the Court of Ctiancery,
Which possessed a 'delegated authority which might
he represented to exist in the King as paler
p'at'io, anti which appeared in' Lordshity•to
ree,tde in that Court representing Ilis Majeaty.--•
That very unhappy circumstance's had taken place
duri, g this Marriage there was no.ecuti, but how
occasioned ? Mr. De Manneeille had represented
hitmetrAs suffering .under the consequences of them,
without its being
,possible for any body truly
to re.present' that 'he had been-the 40014 of them.
r,ir, Dc Mannevill'e, on the other hand, if he waS
to pay attention to her Affidavit; and wheilicr he
O'ils dr not, he did not mean -to decide : she and
others who had, made Aflidavite, represented theme
r rtitnate citcuowances that had taken place in
family were to be attributed to him, but it
aas too evident that third persone had 'too :much
ioterfered. His Lordship said, he would out go
into the particulars of the account they had -given