Star.
London, England, 1820-03-17 00:00:00

ASSIZES.

I'l I D3TONE, 91 A RCII 75.
'BREACH OF PROM IS O 1 MA IMIAGE.

RICUA !IDS e. PUGH.

This was an action by the plaintiff
.for the beeach
of a marriage promise entered into with her by the
defendant. The following is an outline of the cir-
cumstances:
The plaintiff' was a young lady of considerable
personal beauty and mental endosvments, anti one of
the ten elildren of a respeetabie surgeon and apothe-
cary, residing at Scale, near Sevea Oaks, in this
County ; and the defendant was a w:dcwer with two
children, carrying on business at Sheerness as a linen-
dmver. The pi:U:1611-i age was stated to he twenty-
seven, and that of the defendant ahirty•live years.—
In the :»();::h of July, 1818, during the Election
contest xvhicli took. place on Penenden-heath, the de-
f mdant happened to meet the plaintiff, for the first
time, and was on the instant rarticic with her 1 er-
sonal chatans. tihc era', in company with her brother
and a voting haly, Pylie; lie took occasion
ta fall into cooveteattioa with her, as it should seem
uninvited, the stihject of their discourse being the
roetits of the then Candidates for election. There
the acquaintance seemed to stop, but at the end of
eight or ten days afterwards, as was stated by thel
plahttiff's brother and her mother, he came over to
t;aala, called at her father's house, and, without any
prefatory introduction, pioffeted his hand in mar-
iige to I.l.iss Richards, and required to know v:hat
potion it was in her father's power to bestow upon
her? He was inf, med that the whole of her for-
tune was comprehended in her person; upon which
li disclaimed the idea of all pecuniary considerations,
.said be was esiamoured of her person, and repre-
seated that he seas in a very flourishing way of busi-
w.e,s, and possessed' brides A.. 700 per annum, hide-
psiisieat property, and was exteemely anxious that
.• connubial knot should be tied forthwith, and that
wishes should be ennmitiiiitcd to the young
lade. At tin:: time Miss Richards was on a viii
v. i.b sumac fiiends in Sasser, and her parciit, irnme-
&au:4 communicated to her ti.e riarer that had been
made. In the meantime the kivfetiOant adchesseda
lett:or to t: if: ia,iy in rather familiar terms, tendering
her his hand anti fortune, and requiiin„; her, if dis-
eagaeed, to bless him in a rut: alihince.—
Tne young I uly reeurlied to her father's house, and
wrote the defendant a letter, from the dictation of
1-!,:r father, giving hirr to understand that his ad.
dresses would rot be discouraged. Immediately af-
terwards the defendant again e:tme over to kale,
and spent two whole days in the young lady's com-
pany, during which he was extremely anxious for the
ieunediate consummation of his happiness; but not
being then cat of mourning for his late wife, she ob-
jected to so hasty a proceeding, but consented, at
his urgent request, that the day of solemnization
should not be postponed beyond the ensuing Christ-
mas. In the meantime, however, he made it a con-
d;tion, that he should have the happiness of writing.
to her, and that she should answer his correspondence.
lie then took his leave, after having bespoken one of
her sisters to act as bride's
-maid- at *the nuptials,
which was understood on all hands to take • place
about Christmas. Between the time of his departure,
which was about.the middle of August,' until the
month of December, when the match was broken off,
a most affectionate and ardent epistolary corre-
spondence was kept up between thelovers ; but to-
wards the end of the year, the defendant's letters
altogether ceased, when, in consequence of a desire
expressed by the father to know the cause, he re-
turned for answer, that his views towards Miss
Richards were completely mistaken; that he had
never contemplated anything more than the happi-
ness of corresponding with a woman of education
and sentiment ; and that nothing was farther from
his intention than marriage. In consequence of this
surprising intimation, a professional Gentleman was
consulted, who wrote to the defendant on the subject
of his proMise to the plaintiff, and in answer to that
letter, he assigned as a reason for his conduct, that
Miss Richards had, in one of her recent letters, inti-
mated to hint, that a younger and more worthy rival
than the defendant had been pay in:*; her considerable
attention, had praised her beauty, and that she
dlubted her power to resist his importunities to be-
stow her hand and heart upon him. These were the
most prominent circumstances of the case on the
part of the plaintiff. A volume of the defendant's
letters was given in evidence.
Mr. ADOLPH us addressed the Jury for the de-
fendint ; after which. the Jury retired for about half
an hour, and returned a verclict for the plahltiti—
Dameges, 1:700.
Moe Stepney. a youth aged ID, was indicted

[cur uttering a forged £1 Bank of England note, at
Plumsted, on the 10th October last. •
The prosecution was conducted by Mr. GRANBY,
Mr. Serjeant TARDY, the COMMON SERJEANT, and
Mr. Bowaiq. The prisoner was without. Counsel.
It appeared in evidence, that on the day men-
tioned in the indictment, -the prisoner and another
young man, named Curwen, tendered the note in
question to Mrs. Henderson, The ,landlady of the Red
Lion public-house, at Shooter's-hill, in.payment for
some bread and cheese, amounting to two shillings,,
and received the change. After they were &one,
circumstances of suspicion arose, and one of the
Bow-street patrole, who happened to be on duty in
the neighbourhood, was sent after them, and having
taken them into custody, they were searched. The
prisoner threw from him a piece of paper, which
being picked up, was found to be a forged one
pound note. Both prisoners were taken before a
Magistrate, and were afterwards lodged for safe
custody in the parish watch-house, from which, how-
ever, they contrived to break out and make their
escape. On the 16th of November the prisoner
was again apprehended in 'Middlesex, and on being
then searched, he threw from him another forged note.
The other man, Curwen, has not yet been retaken.

The prisoner, who represented himsttlf to be a
maker of mats, stated in defence, that lie had re.'
ceived the note in question from a gentleman, who
had purchased four mats of him on the day men-
tioned in the indictment.

Mr. Baron GA nnow summed up the evidence,
and the Jury found the prisoner—Guilty—Death.

EDR+T URGH, MAPCII 11.

The following are the appointments for the ensuing
Spring Circuits, or Assizes,, in Scotland:

NORTIL—The Toss Jusilcs CLERK and Lord Pnnitri.i.v.

Inverness, Tuesday, :lpril 25. I Perth, Saturday, May 6.
:Aberdeen, Turf:lay, ?lay 2. J. A. MAnottocusr, FAq. A.D.
SOUTH.--.1.(1111 ILANTAND and Lord hI/LADOWISANV.

Ayr, 111(mclay, April 10. I Jelburgh, Thursday, April ea.
Dumfries, SattirCay, April 15. 11. If. DRUMMOND, Esq. A. I).
and Lord :iceman.

Invernr33, 111onday, April t 7. I Glaigow,Weduelday,
Stirli: s,S.:Wrday, April 91.. .1 J. 'icor?, Esq. A.l). •

Friday, Lord PiTmit.r.irheard a debate at great
length on the action of declarator, pursued at the
instance of the Officers of State, against the Ear? ofl.
HALDINGTON, for having it found and declared, that
his Lordship, as Keeper of the Royal Parks sur-
rounding the Palace of Holyrood-house, has nu right
nor title to quarry or carry away the locks from Sa-.
lisbury Crags;s. The SOLICITOR-6 EN ERA L Contended
that he IFES no right to do so. Mr. CRANSTOUN, for
the d...sfens'er,Thaintai.ied, that he had a right to quarry
the rocks, aid tt,e the whole grounds as he saw fit.
As t'.-2 ca..e involved many points of law, as well as
tights of servitude, wherein the inhabitants of Edin-
burgh had a first interest, Lord PITMILLY ordered
memorials to be given in by the first box-day.in the
ensuing vacation.

Bow-writ arr.—Yesterday, Edward A/den-man, late
a-se:ter in the General Post-Office, unciZrwent a se-
.cond exatnination, charged with stealing Bank-notes
to the amount of £35, from a letter. The prisoner
was fully committed.

William Panin,gion and Rosina, his wife, were
committed, the former for attempting to shoot May-
hew, the conductor of a party of the Patrole, and the
latter on a- number of charges of uttering forged
Bank of England Notes, in the neighbourhood of
Hun&;erford Market.

Tows HALL,SOUTHWARx.—Yesterday WO young
girls, residing at Dock-head, came to the Justice-
room to ask by what means they could recover the
sum of £6O fiorn a woman named Paling? which
had come into her possession under circumstances
of a very extraordinary nature. —ln the course of
last week, a statement appeared in most of the Pa-
pers, representing that a boy named Paling had dis-
covered a parcel containing £5 notes, to the amount
cl 12,?0, in a !,lied lately belonging- to an eccentric
old Gentleman, named Proaper (since dead), but
ivhich sh:al is now in the possession of the applicants.
With this old Gentleman lived young Palings grand•
father, as an assistant ; they generally wot ked to-
etile.- in a shed at• the back of the house, and at
length became such old cronies, that the one partoilk
of the eccentricity of the other ; they were seldom,
if ever, asunder, till the latter was attacked by a
dangerous illness, and went into the Workluith,e ;
here lie lingered for a considerable time, and, in thei
interim, old Mr. Proaper died suddenly, and on an
examination of hii effects, was f0u.!..1 to the astonish.'
ment of his relatives, to be very poor, considering his
abstemious mode of living. It seemed_ that on his
death bed the other old man (whose name is IVitter-
son), threw out some hints respecting money, which
he said was secreted in this shed ; but his ravings
were atti ibuted to the disordered state of his brain,
by all except the boy, who, when an opportunity
presented itself, searched the place, and found the
sixty pounds in question, most part of which he laid
out on the girls in Dover-street, in one week, and
the rest, by the activity of Welfare, a Constable,l
was recovered, and given to the boy's mother.—
The report of the hidden treasure flew like light-
ning through the Borough, and came to the ears of ,
Mr. Proaper's relatives, who were filled-with sue-
prise, and determined to have a second and minute
search throughout the lucky shed. Accordingly a
period was fixed for the investigation, and the appli
cants, attended by a select few, went forth to explore
the place, not doubting but they should find plenty
of wealth. The fatt justified the eager anticipation
of the good neices, as scarcely a board was taken
from the flooring that did not exhibit to view bundles
of notes or bags of guineas I—making in the whole a
larga sum. After many deliberations, it was ad-
mitted on all hands, that the whole of the wealth was
hidden at different times by the deceased Mr. Proaper,
who probably entrusted his secret to his old com-
panion and fellow workman, Witterson, and that it
ought of course to fall to his surviving relatives.--.
Full of this idea, they proceeded in a body to Mrs.
Paling, demanding the £6O as a matter Of right, and
'making no secret of what they had found in the shed.
The object of the present application was to know if
there was any cripunal process by which Mrs. Paling
could be proceeded against. The Alderman.was de-
cidedly of opinion that there was not ; that they could
only proceed by civil actien).and even then with
Jittle chance of tucccs.