The Sun.
London, England, 1828-08-30 00:00:00

DUCKWORTH U. JOHNSON.

This was an action to recover compensation in
damages for the injury done to the plaintiff, in con-
sequence of the defendant making a promise to marry
her, which he afterwards refused to fulfil.
Mr. J. WILLIAMS stated the case. The present
action was brought to obtain at the hands of the
Jury something like reparation for the injury which
the defendant had inflicted on the plaintiff. The
plaintiff was the daughter of a small manufacturer,
and the defendant an overlooker of colliers. An
acquaintance having been formed between them,
proposals were made by the defendant in 1825 to
the plaintiff; which were accepted. They even pro-
ceeded so far as the purchase of the licence. How-
ever, subsequently, without assigning any cause, the
defendant thought proper to break off the connec-
tion, and marry a woman named Martha Holt.—
The plaintiff's right of action, of course, occurred at
the moment this marriage took place, but from some
cause which he could not explain she
on
her rights since the year 1825. The case woldld
call,be
marry spoke
nt
oo
and they would, he was sure, think her entitled to
laid before them by tkie witnesses he shosn'lelpit
ample compensation.
ayounger sister of
Margaret Duckworth—l am
the plaintiff ; there are four in family besides myself;
the defendant visited my sister as an accepted lover,
from 1822 to 1825 ; I heard that he was going to be
other than your sister; he repeated the same obser-
vationbe said, you know I canl
in the December following, but in two days
afterwards in
afterwards he married his present wife, Martha Holt.
imnamrraiebdontot
il%tl;artha Holt, in 1825, and had
Cross-examined by Mr. BROUGHAM--Nly father

Jr'7. • .xik 7'
does not keep a shop ; tfriik 3rDtiet.
worth; Mr. Thickness is Aes‘JoUstrii's (thi (le-
foadant's) master; the defelielint is, labonrefi he
is paid wages, I believe; he is iit&oVerloOker of
colliers; he goes down the pit 4 pia 'atiitsket I be-
lieve—(Laughter);—Mr. Thickn4ss brought lace to
my brother's; Alice Duckworth, the plaintiff, is a
Catholic, and so is defendant; she never did refuse
to be married by a Protestant Clergyman ; I never
said that I wished the defendant might be smashed
down the coal-pit as small as meal; I never said I
would have their case tried if it cost 1,000/., nor
any words to that effect.
Mt. . BROUGHAM
that
would,vasnotshorthaveobserved
he
never
saw a for the d efe
more
s cantyn dnt
case for
must s tconfess
damage
s
brought into Court in the course of his life.—The
Jury
manner.
Ber
which his Learned Friend had introduced case
to their notice. He told them that in his experieOce,
v
meant as Counsel—(Laughter,)—thath he had ob-
served, generally a great disposition to avoid—at least
with those who had any knowledge of conducting these
causes—any general observations on the nature of
the case, as having no kind of effect, and in fact lead-
ing to no kind of result, and consequently pprfectly
bootless. For every case (Upended merely on its
particular circumstances ; and certainly there was a
great peculiarity in this case, which had pressed out
his friend (Mr. J. Williams) from the beginninr, to
the end of the case. It hung about him like a mill-
stone.—(Laughter) " He could not explain," his
Learned Friend had said, " how it was, or what
was the cause of it; but somehow or other this
good woman had slept upon her remedy, and did
not bring her action as speedily as she might." Cer-
tainly she had not. For the cause of action, if, indeed,
there were any, had arisen in 1825--and yet he need
not tell the Jury that they were now trying it far on
in 1828. She had certainly had a very lotg nap. His
Learned Friend could give no account whatever
how it was, that, displeased as she was from not
gaining possession of her dusty swain; who they had
heard was in'the habit of going-down into the 'coal-
pits in a bucket, she had submitted to the wrong
she had suffered—had allowed her excited feelings
to remain in The unsatisfactory state described—th:w
it was brought to her knowledge, in fact, all of
sudden, and she was awakened to the sense of her
wrongs, and had thus become a plaintiff instead of a
wife, and found herself among lawyers instead of
being in the arms of her lover. But they would
lose all wonder at the present action being deferred
so long, when he told them why this marriage had
not taken place. This would, in fact, entitle him
to a verdict in favour of his client. His client had
always been perfectly ready to marry her, as he had
promised—it was broken on her account. They
were, perhaps, aware that it was a form which ON
members of the Catholic faith thought necessary,
that no Catholics ought to be married according to
the forms of the Protestant Church until they had
been married according to the forms of their own
Church. At this time the defendant was on bad
terms with his priest, Mr. Ewsham, and therefore
he was anwilling, and indeed absolutely refused, to
marry them. His Only alternative remaining, them-
fore, was the marriage by the Protestant clergyman,
which marriage was the only legal one. This she
refused from conscientious motives, with which lie
found no kind of fault, but she had surely no right
to blame him for the non-performance of a promise
which she had chiefly caused.

Evidence was then adduced in proof of the Learned
Counsel's assertions, after which the Jury returned
a verdict for the plaintiff—damages, Ten Pounds ;
costs Forty Shillings.

ICEBERGS NEAR THE CAPE OF GOOD

HOPE.

(From the Cadiz Diario Mercantil, of the 29 )
" CADIZ, JULY 28.—Mr. Auverney, Captain rd.
the French vessel L' Harmonic, has published, for
the information of navigators, an account of several
islands of ice, with which he fell in near the Cape of
Good Hope. The truth of this phenomenon has
since been proved by D. Pedro Medina of Correa,
Chief Pilot in the Spanish trade to India, and Se-
cond Pilot to the vessel Coizetancio, which arrived
in our Bay on the 18th instant, from Manilla:. The
following is his account :
"On the 7th of the present year, as the vessel
Constancia, sailed in the vicinity of the Cape, north
of the Needle Bank, with a fresh easterly breeze, and
but little sea, the Captain descried about three
quarters past ten, A.m., a small island E. 5 deg. N.,
which from the deck had the appearance of a white
cloud. Some shadowy lines were afterwards observed
in it. as is usual in land. On arriving at E.S.E. 5 deg.
S. to approach near enough to ascertain what it
was, it appeared at 11 A.M. to be a large island of
considerable height, and divided into two' summits.
Soon after, three other small islands were discovered
N., at a short distance from the first. At 113- A. m.,
on hauling east, in a line with them, we perceived
that they were white, and that the light of the pun
reflected by their surface as by a mirror, whilst
in those places where the sun did not shine, there
were sonic shadows as are seen in distant land. We
remained perplexed with this phenomenon till the
middle of the day, when we took our bearings and
found the latitude to be 35 deg. 56 min. 10 sec. S.,
and the longitude, according to the chronometer,
deg. 16 min. 20 sec., by the Cadiz meridian, which
agreed with the lunar observations made the day be-
fore. The islands then lay N. 78 deg. 30 min. \V.,
at a distance of seven or eight miles. We sounded
and at a depth of 135 fathoms found ne bottop.
besides which the water remained of a green co-
lour, circumstances which left no doubt on our
minds that those apparent islands were banks
of ice, which had come down to hit. 35 deg. 54
46 sec. S. and long. 24 deg. 7 min. 44 sec. E. of
Cadiz, and 21 deg. S.W. of the Cape of Good
Hope, at a distance of 30 leagues. We proceeded
W.S.W. till two P.M., when steering. in a line with
them, we spoke a French vessel which we had de-
scried since the dawn of day E.S.E. at a great dis-
tance. She told us that she was called L' Harmonic,
front Calcutta, and asked whence we came, where
bound to, and what degree of latitude we had ob-
served.—Having told her, she replied that our ob-
servations agreed with her's, arid gave us the longi-
tude 16 deg. 18 min. E. of Paris, which. we IL
leftnswer-
cee seeded
French' .N V
vesselw it h ab
eeNehnai
nEd andreA
ed also agreed with ours, notwithstanding the. smallt
f
difference of 38 min. E. We did not hear
th.eeinin)a.
e
fmtrhoessesi.nlce
islands
two o clock.
any inquiry respecting the icebeelerglyal-tsTioabsuptNevsiethniotLe:
etsfivrisctitonftyt.hes:
cyffsoo these,
P.M. we discovered on our starboard two other ice
at
size appeared.—
talsn.hdNa
aasdti windstt
distance
islands, and at half-past four pl.m. we stood
,N. of
oficreea.king Some
time
olTaTtiihfntihstei
getaemehupt
French
ameerrerihsei:itol:
miles,i
et okhi
hfrente ogvmr2sltoms
heNsas
oNeaett
ohrldosti
neospthchtoonhettertsrhhi.i
sohiaeesrlylohsol
lbe
,her
between
a.
emr
nri
.nt
floatingsaenedme lemc pieces t.tip as the surface of the
water in its. neighbourhood was covered with small
afotefrit'wearsidaN:7aitel:
short distance on our larboard, as we sailed in the
T
of the evening to the windward of it, another
iceberg, which was almost dissolved. During the
night the wind turned to the N.N.W. and N.W.,
and blew tempestuously all the following day,
without our discovering any more ice.
" It is certainly extraordinary that we should have
encountered fields of ice in so warm a latitude, and
so near the Cape of Good Hope, though Hosburgh
says, in his Chart, that the beginning of summer is the
time when they are most frequently fallen in with.
i He
also mentions the case of the ship Guardia, which, n
lat: 46 to 47 deg., struck against one, and almost filled
with water fro the damage which it experienced.

A King's Messenger arrived with despatches
from Berlin, between 10 and 11 o'clock on Thursday night.
The messenger came by route of Paris, and brought de-
spatches from our Ambassador.

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

FRENCH PAPERS.
(From the Gazette de France, Aug. '28.)

Pam, AuG. 27.—The Augsbuket Gazette bus
the following letter from Jassy, Aug. 4- :
" It seems that a false estimate was formed of
the amount of the force which the Belligerent
Powers were able to bring into the field, and that
the Sultan has really more troops than the letters
from Constantinople assigned him. Thus it is ex-
plained how the operations of the Russian Army,
which were calculated for a faint resistance, are now
paralysed. The Turkish infantry, Winch preceding
accounts rated at 60,000 men at the utmost, is now
said to exceed 200,000. The 'cavalry, estimated at
10,000, is nr.;* stated at 30,000. The artillery also
appears to he much more numerous than was sup-
poseik, and the partisans of the Turks affirm that
tl-,ere are above 500 pieces of cannon, perfectly
well served, in the camp at Shumla alone. We
cannot be now surprised if the Russian army, meet-
ing at length with real obstacles, must wait for re-
inforcements before it undertakes any thing more
seriouF. Besides, the national spirit of the Ottoman
is roused ; and it is affirmed, that in the second
fruitless attempt on Varna, it was principally the
inhabitants who repelled the attack, and, by a well-
directed fire from the batteries alone, hindered a
landing from the fleet. All the Russian troops in
the interior are now in motion, and it is thought
that those of Poland may very likely be summoned,
as they wish to take part in the campaign. Many
English half-pay officers, who intended to repair to
*he Russian army, have obtained passports only io
Odessa."

A letter from Marseilles, of August 23d, says,
" Yesterday, more ships were freighted on account
of the Government. Notwithstanding the scarcity
of ships at Marseilles, these vessels have been hired
at the same rate, and on the same conditions, as the
preceding. The owners of the transports have bound
themselves to have them ready to sail from Mar-
seilles on the 26th. It is therefore presumed, that
this third division may sail from Toulon, for the
Mores, 0:", the Ist Sept.
" We still expect the English ships, which must
soon arrive if no counter orders have been given."
(From the Messaper des Chambres, Aug. 27.)

PARIS, AUG. 26.—Letters from Odessa of the Bth
instant announce, that on that day the Emperor had
agreeably surprised his august consort, by announce•
ing suddenly, without any persons expecting it, his
Majesty had resolved to take advantage of the time
required for the works and important preparations
for the siege of Sebumla, to withdraw, for a few days,
front the din of arms, and enjoy some repose, of which
he Las much reed, in the bosom of his family.
The Grand Duchess, his Majesty's daughter, is
rather indisposed.
The Odessa steam-beat had left that town, to pro-
ceed to the Crimea. It had a great number of pas-
kengers, among whom was Lieut-General Count
\Vitt ; but it had scarcely left the port when the
machinery would not work; the vessel remained im-
moveable, and it was necessary to land the pas-
sengers.
he Gazelle de France and the illessafter give
some accounts from Constantinople, dated July 26,
which contain no new facts.