The Sun.
London, England, 1859-12-05 00:00:00

BOROUGH AND SPITALFIELDS.

Fair average supplies of potatoes have come to hand,
coastwise and by land carriage, since our last. The imports
have amounted to 227 tons from Dunkirk, 120 do. from
Antwerp, 21 baskets from Harlingen, 23 sacks from Havre,
and 94 tons from Louvaine. The demand is limited, and
prices are barely supported.

York Regents. ()Os to 1308
Do Flukes
Kent and Essex
Scotch
Shaws
Foreign

(Before the Lord. Chief Justice Brie and a Common Jury.)
BREACH OF PROMISE OF MARTLIAGE.—CRISP V. SMOOTHY.
' This was an action brought by the plaintiff, a young
woman aged 24, the daughter of a farmer residing near
Lynn, against the defendant, a farmer and poulterer, at a
place called Linton, in Cambridgeshire.
The learned counsel for the plaintiff stated the case to the
jury, and said an intimacy sprung up in May, 1859, and in
September of the same year the defendant broke off all inti-
macy with the plaintiff, and refused to perform the promise
of marriage he had given during the courtship. The learned
gentleman then called the following evidence :
Mr. Richard Houlton—l reside at Linton, in Cambridge-
shire, and I know the plaintiff, Miss Mary Crisp. I
am a linendraper, and the plaintiff was in my employ. I
know the defendant, Mr. Smoothy, he is a butcher, carry.
ing on business in Linton. In the early part of March it
began to be whispered about the town that the defendant
had a kindly feeling towards her. I received a letter from
Mr. Crisp. I afterwards saw Mr. Smoothy, and he
thanked me that T had given him a good character, as I
bad written to M. Crisp. He afterwards said he ought to
have written to Mr. Crisp before. After this circumstance
the defendant came to my house to tea. He came as a
suitor to Miss Crisp. I saw them out together. They
were going on quite right. (Laughter.) This state
of things lasted about four months, and after
this there appeared a little coolness. The plain-
tiff did not think so as it was the first time she had
ever been in a similar situation. The plaintiff had no idea
of the coolness, as she continued to make preparations for
the marriage. ,He did not appear different until the
morning before he withdrew his promise. The
marriage was expected to take place in October, 1859, and
the plaintiff left me on the Monday following the refasal.
The plaintiff has been at Linton since the defendant refused
to fulfil his promise. She is not at my house assisting in
my business during my absence. She had no objection to
return to Linton, as she said she had done nothing wrong .
She is there now, but will leave on my return.
Cross-examined—She was my assistant. She was a
beginner, and used to reside in my house. The plaintiff
was about 24, the defendant appeared 10 years older. lam
aware that he is one of nine Children, and. 41).* bussinome
he carried on was to an extent for their benefit. I don't
know that he has £2B a-year for carrying on the business.
There are 2,000 inhabitants in Linton, and besides the defen-
dant's there are two other butchers' shops. I think the de-
fendant farms about 100 acres of land. I can't be positive
that it is as much.

Re-szamined—The defendant's is the best butcher's shop
in Linton. He is considered to be a man well to do, but I
don't really know his position.
Mr. Crisp, the father of the plaintiff, said—l wrote a
letter to Mr. Smoothy in August, 1859, the substance of
which was, that I had written to Mr. Holton, telling him 'I
approved of the defendant's offer of marriage to my daughter.
I wrote to her as follows :

" Setcb, Aug. 23, 1859.
I( My dear Daughter,—l received your letter of the 15th
inst., and you wish aie to name the sum I can spare for
your wedding outfit. You say you de not intend to go to
Mr. Smoothy in debt, for which I much commend you ; and
as your fortune in money will be but small, you must try
and be as economical as you can, as you will always find
industry and economy command the most permanent
affection.

" And now about the outfit. I shall be very short of
money until Michaelmas. I will try to spare you £5 at
Michaelmas. You must try to let Clara have part of it for
the occasion. I cannot possibly send it bofore. . . . And
now allow me to say just a few words. You may take it for
granted that a man of sense will not look at outside
trappings or appearance, but must again repeat that it
is Internal culture, combined with industry, frugality,
perseverance, economy, and forbearing temper that can
command a lasting happiness to the marriage state. I
shall be glad to receive a letter from you. With love to you
and Clara,—l am, My dear daughter, your affectionate
father, " WILLIAM CRISP."
I received a letter from the defendant, in which he said he
did not care about a marriage portion, as money did not
make happiness. After my daughter returned to me she
was in a very desponding state.
r Cross-examined—My daughter is 24, and the defendant
is about 30 or 32 years of age. I don't know that the
defendant is one of nine children. I don't live at Linton.
My daughter and:Mr. Smoothy never visited me. My re-
sidence was 60 miles from Linton. I had not seen him
before the engagement was broken off. I have five other
children besides the plaintiff. I never heard my daughter
say she did not care whether the marriage came off or not.
I am positive on the point.
Miss Clara Crisp, sister of the plaintiff, said—l was at
Linton last summer. My sister was there also. I now
hold the situation my sister formerly held. I have seen
my sister and Mr. Smoothy together. They behaved to
each other as accepted lovers.
By Sergeant Parry—l never heard my sister say she
did not care whether the marriage came off or not.
This was the case for the plaintiff, the promise of marriage
not being disputed, the question was one simply of damages.
Mr. Sergeant Parry addressed the jury for the defendant,
and said it was much to be regretted that instead of the
present suit being instituted an attempt had not been made
to reconcile the two parties, as it appeared to him to be sim-
ply a lovers' quarrel. He however was not instructed to
make any such proposition, and indeed had such been the
case the pain the present proceedings had occasioned would,
he thought, prevent anything of the kind now taking place.
.The letter from the father which had beea received in court
showed that the plaintiff had been most carefully brought
up, and there could not be a person in court who did not
admire his upright and straightforward conduct. The de-
fendant it was not pretended had addressed himself to any
other female or offered marriage.

The Lord Chief Justice—Do you contend the defendant
offers to fulfil his promise ?
Mr. Sergeant Parry said he had not such contention;
but all he was instructed to urge in mitigation of damages
was, that the :jury should weigh well the position of the
defendant, being one of nine children, and give only such
moderate damages as he could pay. _ _

The Lord Chief Justice said the present was a very dif-
ferent case from those usually presented to a jury, for it
appeared that the defendant had lost a treasure, for accord-
ing to the careful manner in which her aunts had trained
her a more valuable wife than the plaintiff had never fallen
to the lot of man. It was truly unfortunate that no at-
tempt had boon made to reconcile the two;; but as the pre-
sent course had been adopted, the jury must award damages
against the defendant for the non-fulfilment of his promise.
After a few minutes deliberation the jury found a verdict
for the plaintiff, damages £5O.

COURT OF DIVORCE.
:Before Sir C. Cresswell, Mr. Baron Watson, Mr. Justice

Hill, and a Special Jury.)
ALLEN V. ALLEN AND D'ARCY.

In this ease a suit was instituted by Mr. Allen against
his wife for a divorce, by reason of her adultery with the
co=respondent. Mrs. Allen had put in an answer contain-
ing a denial of the charge, and a recriminating plea that
her husband had also committed adultery. She also charged
him with cruelty, and alleged that the adultery on her part,
if any, had been connived at and condoned by the petitioner.

The jury, after a short absence, returned into court with
the following verdict :—That Mrs. Allen had been guilty
of adultery with Robert D' Arcy, or some other person ;
that Thomas Allen had connived at the adultery, and
that he had not condoned the offence. We find that Mrs.
Allen had condoned the adultery of Thomas Allen with
Mrs. Claverton.

The Judge Ordinary dismissed the petition with costs.

The resolution of the problem of tunnelling by
machinery, so important to the future of mining, is
being worked out, with continued success, in the
boring of the Alps for the tunnel of the railwaf that
is to connect France and Sardinia. The tunnel is
between Modane in the Sardinian territories and
Bardoneche in France, and is upwards ofeight miles
long. From the enormous height of the mountain,
no air-shaft was possible for this length, and con-
sequently the tunnel had to be carried out by
drivings at each end only. Under the old system
the want of air would have rendered this impossible,
and even if it were possible it would have taken 40
years to complete. By the method adopted all diffi-
culties of ventilation are removed, and the work
will be finished in six years from its commence-
ment.

The holes in the end are bored by machinery,
and charged and blasted by manual labour. Upon
the latter part of the operation, therefore, there is no
economy ; but the machine bores the holes in 1-12th
the time that would be required by manual labour.
But even this does not represent the entire econom
of time, tor In an end Where only two men could
work, and consequently only one hole be perforated
at a time, by ordinary means, six effective holes
can be simultaneously bored by the machine; thus
72 holes are bored in the time taken before to com-
plete one.

Of course it is not to be expected that holes bored
by a machine should be quite equal in effect to
those pitched and bored by a skilful miner; but
this is in some degree compensated by the simul-
taneous firing of several holes, for which this ma-
chine affords such facilities, and which is known to
be so effective; besides, such minor considerations
sink into insignificance compared with the power of
boring 72 holes to 1.
The time and labour required to charge the holes
remain, as we have said, unaltered, as also those of
removing the stuff. But allowing for these, it is
estimated that altogether there is a saving of
5-6ths, or that the same amount of work can be
done in 1-6th of the time.

The power used for working the borers em-
ployed consists of condensed air, compressed to six
atmospheres by water-power. The use of this
motive-power is the great feature of the success of
the operation, for, after working the boring machine
the air escapes into the tunnel, and, expanding to
its natural volume, not merely supplies the ne-
cessary air for ventilation, but creates a strong
and continuous outward current, carrying away
all the impurities of combustion and respiration.
And this compressed air not merely affords a
perfect ventilation ; it also keeps the atmosphere at a
very low temperature, arising from the well-known
principle that a large amount of heat is absorbed
by any gas or fluid by expansion. So much is this
the case in this tunnel, that when the air is first
discharged from the machine its absolutely freezes
any water with which it may come iu contact. 6
The average progress of the tunnel is about loft.
per day on each side, through hard rock. The eco-
nomy is not great, if anything, as yet, for the entire
affair being new and experimental had entailed
many expenses. But when wo consider the enor-
mous economy of machinary over manual labour,
wherever the former is possible, we cannot suppose
that this will ultimately prove an exception to
the rule, when the practical details and difficulties
have been once worked out.

The importance of the possible application of such
a machine to mining purposes, even if. there be no
economy in it, we need not point out to our readers.
Time is often worth anything to the miner, for in
his pursuit, alone among all others, money cannot
expedite a piece of work beyond a point. Fancy
driving a cross-cut through stiff ground at the rate
of 50 fins. per month, or sinking a new perpendi-
cular engine-shaft at a proportionate rate. There
are times when such results would be worth any
money, and we really believe that, judging from the
experience of the Alpine tunnel, there is nothing
visionary in considering such a result possible in the
future. We certainly are not inclined to think that
driving levels or carrying on other works on the
course of the lode can ever be effected by machinery,
for the direction, &c., require to be so suddenly
varied that the continued changes would more than
destroy the saving of time. But in the case of cross-
cuts or perpendicular shafts, which have to be
driven or sunk straight from point 4o point, we are
confident that the present century will see the suc-
cessful application of mechanical contrivances.

We should be glad to see some of the teeming in-
genuity of our mechanics applied to work out this
point in a practical and sensible manner. It is one
that will probably involve many difficulties, which
can only be surmounted by continued perseverance,
and no one must be disheartened by first failures.
The primary problem of the motive-power seems to
be solved, for compressed air has the great mining
desideratum of affording a supply of pure and cool
air—an arircle decidedly in request in our deep
mines.—Mining Journal.

LADY FRANKLlN.—Everybody must admit that
Lady FlrsaynedkteleiNlpn,ley is
have
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to
ihnnlegya.
radnAaa
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shortai butanbedtoi
nite eoafs
ishnt r oec
re n, gwe
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when
ibnni
ldhi eteydr
wwricalin
ladyship was waiting most auxiously to learn the fate of the
brave men she had despatched in search of her husband,
she fell ill, and a consultation of physicians was held at her
residence. One of these gentlemen, whilst he felt her pulse,
begged her ladyship would open her hand. Her frequent
refusals occasioned him so much disappointment in ascer-
taining the precise state of her fever, that he took the
liberty gently to expand the fingers, and he then perceived
that they were grasping a small miniature of Sir John.
" Madam," exclaimed the gentleman, with deep sympathy,
"my prescription must be unavailing if you are determined
to keep before your eyes an object which, although de-
servedly dear to you, serves only to confirm the violence of
your distressing symptoms." " Sir," replied the noble
woman, "this picture has been my sole comforter over since
the departure of my husband, and I am determined it shall
be inseparable until, if he be dead, I am so heppy as to
drop after him intothe grave."—Court Circular.
ASSISTED EMIGRATION TO THE CAPE OF GOOD
HOPE.—The Tudor, of 1,062 tons Captain H. Armstrong,
sailed from Southampton on Saturday for Algoa Bay, hav-
ing on board 318 emigrants, under charge of Surgeon-Su-
perintendent William Campbell. The emigrants were
selected by the Hon. William Field, the commissioner spe-
cially appointed by the Cape Colony, and consisted of 36
married couples, 114 single men, 74 single women, and 58
children.