The Sun.
London, England, 1828-07-30 00:00:00

my mind that I would be friendly with Mr. Griffiths.
I told him so, and he 10,0 front seat and shook
hands with me, and !,aid how happy he should be.
" Well, Sir," I s,id, ". how long is our friendship
to last ?" He " For ever I hope ;" and I
said, " That entirdy dqends. on your conduct." I
said, " Now we are wn the stihject, should like to
know when the wedding is to take place; for I think
you have kept our house in a state of agitation quite
long enough." He said, he wished to marry her writ].
I said, " Pray, Sir, what do yod.:call soon ? After
harvest, I presume; and I suppose it will be a
long harvest this year, as you have taken another
farm." He took that for a joke, and treated it as such.
After that he called a few days after, and was in the
sitting-room with my sister. He said he could not
stay tea, as his horse was at the gate, but he would
call the next day. ;said, " Well then, I will ask
you tomorrow when it will be convenient to accom-
pany my sister and me. to Birmingham ;" and he
said, "On the 25th of the moath." He said, if we
went by ourselves, we should spend too much
money. I observed he was rather premature in his
notion, and that the money would not come out of
his pocket. He replied, "It would come out of
the family, and that was all the same." I added,
that if he meant to trifle with my sister, as I ex-
pected he intended, he should not trifle with me;
and if I did not go to Birmingham that week, I
never would go upon that errand. I told him, at
the same time, it was my wish that he should not
marry her, and I much feared, from his conduct, my
sister would have cause to repent not taking my ad-
vice. On the Thursday following, the 10th of
April, was fixed upon for the wedding, and a chaise
was ordered to he at Captain Simms's house on that
morning by eight o'clock. He never came, but he
sent this note about a quarter before eight :

Abandon we as the very worst of men.— Pray accept
my watch, and keep it ; but detest its once owner. lam
now truly miserable.

22d March. G.
The watch was of course returned. My sister be-
' came extremely agitated. She has been absent from
home ever since. My sister is 30,. and I should
suppose the defendant is about .50. He has a son,
• whom I should suppose to be about 18.
Cross-examined by Mr. CAMPBELL—I am not
mistaken about the age of my sister; she is only
a year younger than I am; one of my sisters is mar-
ried to a 'Mr. Homer. I 'Went with my sister on
the 22d of March to consult Mr. Homer, my bro-
,ther-in-law, to bring an action against Mr. Griffiths.
Mrs. Simms, mother of the plaintiff, corroborated
the greatest part of her daughter's evidence.
Mr. CAMPBELL, on behalf of the defendant, said
that there had been in this ease a.promise of marriage
no one could deny;. but the Jury were to take into
consideration and determine whether that promise
had - been broken off by the plaintiff and her
friends or by the defendant.- It was acknowledged
that .his (Mr. Campbell's) client, the poor old-gen-
tleman, was riot in a very fit condition to undertake
the management of the plaintiff, and that under a
hope of recruiting his health, to fit him for the holy
state of matrimony, he had gone on a voyage to Lea-
mington ; but alas ! with his health very little im-
proved, he returned, and it was then that this ama-
tory old farmer was alleged to have been guilty of the
shocking breach of contract now under their con-
sideration. He (Mr. Campbell) was prepared to
contend, that this breach was the fault- of Miss
Isabella. It,was true, that Martha seemed to
duct the courtship, rather than her sister; but if
they had not been interfered with, the match never
would have been broken off. The poet said the
course of true love never did run smooth, and if in
every lovers' quarrel they appealed to a judge sitting
at nisi prior, no marriages could ever take place, and
the world would be in danger of becoming un-
peopled. (A laugh.) The quarrels of loilers were
said to be but renewals of love, but he (Mr. Camp-
bell) was convinced that love would not be pro-
moted by the assistance of an attorney. (A laugh.)
The lovers had in due time after their quarrel met
again, and but for the interference of the attorney
in the person of Mr. Homer, the marriage might
still have taken place. If the lady was at all like
her sister, and he (Mr. Campbell) hoped the jury
had observed how sweetly Miss Martha had sidled,
they must be satisfied she had lost but little by the
failure of her union with this amorous old farmer.
Beautiful she certainly must be if she was at all like
her sister, and young too, for although Miss Martha
had said she was thirty, still he thought she must be
mistaken, and she admitted that Isabella was younger,
and indeed from all that appeared lie must conclude
she was not more than five-and-twenty. Now the
poor defendant, notwithstanding, all that they had
heard of his youthful vigour and appearance, was,
unhappily for him, on the wrong side of 65, -so that
there was a sad difference of 40 years.—(A laugh.)
A poet of his (Mr. Campbell's) coontry (Burns)
had in the most delicate manner, and with great feel-
ing, expressed his opinion on the unfortunate results
that ensue from unions of this description
What can a poor lassie de with an old man ?
" Oh, curse on the penny that tempted my minuie
" To sell her poor Jenny for Biller and lair :
" He's alway's complaining, from morning to e'enin
" He halts and he hirplea the weary day long ;
." He's dolt and he's &E'en : his blood it is frozen ;

" Oh, weary's the night with a crazy old man."
—(A laugh.) Such a union, he (Mr. Campbell)
contended, could have only terminated in the ruin of
the defendant and the misery of the plaintiff; and
under such circumstances, the damages, if the Jury
should think the plaintiff entitled to any, should be
only nominal.

Mr. Justice GASELEE summed up, after which
the Jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff—Da-
mages, 400/.

John Hig,Veld, aged 58, and Wm. Hieffield, aged
61, were indicted, charged with" having feloniously
forged and counterfeited a certain deed, purporting
to be a deed of gift from Joseph Ward to John
Highfield, of a certain estate, known by the name
of Bowers, with intent to defraud Joseph Peak, the
devisee of the said Joseph Ward.

Mr. Sergeant RUSSELL stated the ease. In July,
1819, Mr. Joseph Ward, who had been a man of
some property, residing at Mill Meece,. in this
county, died at the advanced age of 80. About
two years before his death he made his will, by
which he gave a small estate called Bowers (the
estate now in question), and at that time tenanted
by the prisoner John Highfield to his nephew Joseph
Peak, subject to a charge of .5004, for the payment
of diveri small legacies, which he had bequeathed to
his other nephews and nieces. The prisoner John •
Highfield, was some sort of a relation of the Wards ;
an uncle of his had married a sister of Ward's ; and
on the death of Mr. Ward, in July, 1819, the heir-
at-law, supposing at first that he was entitled to the
estate, instituted some inquiry, but finding that
Ward had left a good and valid will in favour of J.
Peak, withdrew his claim. It was at this time that
Peak learnt, for the first time, that his claim to the
estate in question was to be met by John Highfield
producing a deed of gift, whereby Ward, inconsi-
deration of his respect and affection, and of nn an-
nuity of 501. per annum
conveveCl the farm of
Bowers to John Highfield.' This being 'a matter of
considerable surprise to. the Peaks, they instituted
proceedings in Chancery, supposing the deed
to have been obtained by fraud. To this
John Highfield put in his answer, 'and William
Highfield,
From
Chancery, what
the
qtiriaesutsitiitiv oft
l
du
by his depositions, gave his ac-
count
theof .ptrio'eceeddiengeas.- in
ring
forgeryor not forgery was raised., In order to
establish the case against the prisoners, he (Mr.
Sergeant Russell) should have to lay before the Jury
the evidence of an accomplice; he believed that his
testimony would be most conclusive; but it was his
duty to caution them to receive his testimony with
credit, and if he was not corroborated by other
facts, to reject his evidence altogether. This
witness that he was about to introduce to
them, would state to them, that shortly ufter the
death of old Ward, just after the corn harvest of that
year, John Highfield came to him, and having in-
vited him to go to a public-house, deliberately pro-
posed to him to be the attesting witness to a deed