Star.
London, England, 1819-12-27 00:00:00

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LAW INTELLIGENCE.

SHERIFFS' COURT, BEDFORD-ROW, DEC. 24.
BREACH OF PROMISE OF MARRIAGE.
CO4PTON V. WINKWOItTH.

This was ;1.1 actin to recove. co.npensation in da-
mages for a breach of promise of marriage. The ac-
tion was originally broup,ht in the Court of King's
Bench, but tha defendant had suffered judgment to
go by default.
Mr. Arompuus rose to address the Jury, on the
part of the plaintiff. He stated, that in 1817, the
defendant loespened to s:a the plaintiff at the house
of a mutual friend, and soon after declared to an
acquaintance of hers, the attachment he conceived
far her, expressing, at she same time, a wish to be
introduced. At that time he said he was in hopes
of succeeding his uncle, and that, when master
of the business, he was determined to make her His
wife. The defendant was then in his twentieth year,
and the plaintiff eighteen. That such was his de-
termination ; that such, at least, were the promises
he held out, would appear from his own letters,
written to her at various times. They would prove,
that he felt and expressed himself towards her in the
way naturally to be expected from a young man
paying his addresses to a young woman, of whose
virtue and worth he entertained no doubt. He had
a whole volume of the defendant's aaorrespondence
to produce in proof, if any doubt should remain on
th'e minds of the Jury, after hearing witnesses. Ge..
torally speaking, there was nothing more nauseous
than letters of an amorous description. Even when
ccming from persons of education and literary at-
tainment—from those in the very highest classes of
life, the nature of the subject itself gave birth to a
romantic extravagance of mind that naturally ex-
pressed itself in language, which, to sober judgment,
must appear somewhat ludicrous. Some of the de-
• feocianes letters were, no doubt, in many parts, per-
haps, ridiculous. They might excite a smile ; but
youthful minds, upon such occasions, communicated
their feelings in the best.manner they could, and the
very extravagance of the style was, perhaps, a proof
of its sincerity. He said this, because there .thight
be, among the collection he had to offer to the Jury,
some lettets calculated to make them laugh ; but
still they could not fail to consider them important
when they looked to the seriousness of the conse-
quences that followed. He always wrote, if not in
the most polished languaae, at least in terms of the
utmost endearment. Ile expressed his determination
to make her his wife ; said he had been informed
that hi, friends were against the match, cut that if
prevented from it, suicide should terminate his ex.
istence. In one letter he.mentioned the manner in
which he was desirous she should dress, how she
should demean herself, and what he thought would
be necessary in her conduct to fit her for that situa-
tion in which he was about to place her. In another,
Ix informed her that his affairs were settled, that he
had purchased his uncle's business for £2OOO, had
laid in stock to the amount of £lOOO, and that he
had other proi:erty besides. In a third letter, he
spoke of their approaching union, and described the
ring he had purchased for the purpose, which he fa-
cetiously called the padlock ! After all this, without
any cause assigned, without the slightest pretence of
unworthiness or misbehaviour on her part, without a
single word of excuse or apology, he suddenly an-
nounced his intention of dying a bachelor, and re•
nouncing all thoughts of matrimony. This, however,
it would appear, was nothing more than hypocritical
a• profession. His motives for breaking off were very
different, for he very soon after !harried another
person, to whom he had been introduced by the
plaintiff. He would appeal to the Jury, as fathers,
as brothers, whether this was a case that should be
allowed to pass unvisited, he would not say by vin-
dictive, but, at least,- by exemplary damages? It
might have happened that a youth, without expe-
tience, in the morning of life, and under the influence
of ardent passion, beguiled by the fascinations of
beauty, or the artifices of cunning, had made profes-
sions of an imprudent attachment, ruinous to his
prospects in life, and every way unworthy of his fa-
mily and himself. Under such circumstances, a Jury
would, perhaps, hesitate before they would award da-
mages. Such were not thecircumstances here; the de-
fendant could not plead the excuse of extreme youth
oa his part, or of cunning and seduction on the other.
Here was a young woman, whose heart was wrought
upon by professions, long continued, of devoted at-
tachment—whose confidence, and .:hose aflections
were gained by that appearance of sincerity which
must always accompany repeated promises of mar-
riage; to whom visions of future pleasure had been
opened ; who was taught to look up to the man by
whom she was rejected as her future guardian, her
partner through life—him with whom her pains and
pleasures were to be shared. Here was a young wo-
man, filled with these pleasing and. virtuous anticipa-
tions, all at once, and without cause, thrown into the
frozen region of bitter contempt, to bewail that most
painful of all slights, which females forget with most
difficulty,—which, in truth, they never cease to re-
member. Such wai the effect it had upon her mind,
that had it not been for the vigilance of her friends,
she would have succeeded in terminating by suicide
a hated existence. She was obliged to leave the
country, and was sent to some distance, to avoid the
shame of being pointed at as a person rejected and
scorned t,y the man whom all that knew them looked
upon as her future husband. But change of place
could not change her feelings—could not cure the
wound so wantonly and cruelly inflicted. She still
Lore about her the pain of rejection, of withered
hopes, of remembered love; the sense of unmerited
contempt, and the recollection of' perfidious promises.
Where could a person in her shoat* seek censolaa
tion? Not in the society of f: iced; whom she must
llc ashamed to meet—not in the anticipation of a new
attachment, for an indignity like this, without cause
or excuse, would naturally, in her mind, give every
izrofession, however sincere, the colour of a falsehood.
naturally suspect that every tram was like
im she was• so cruelly deceived. Under
lunsrances, he looked to the Jury for large
2l dam-ages. As Etrglishmen, as fathers,
ters, he called upon them to say what they
-,rd to a young woman upon whom so
tad been inflicted without cause or excust.
arming was then called. He knew the hand-

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tlhe would n
hini by whor
, these circam:
and liberal
and brothers,
• vrould away
• • nun!) pain h;
.' I Mr. 'Mann
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