The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-03-29 00:00:00

RINNAIRD AND ANOTHER V. FITZMAURICE.

This was an action brought by the plaintiffs, who are
engineers at Manchester. to recover from the defendant,
Captain Fitzmaurice, of London, the sum of £56 its. 10d.
for putting together an engine for the defendant.
Mr. Hill, Q.C., and Mr. Mills, appeared for the plain-
tiffs ; and Mr. Sergeant Wilkins and Mr. Cowling for the
defendant.

Mr. Hill, in stating the case, said that the amount now
sought to be recovered from the defendant was incurred
at a time when Mr. Kinnaird (since dead) was a leading
partner in the firm of Ellis and Co., at present "engineers
in Manchester, and the action:was therefore obliged to be
brought in his name, although it was in reality brought
for the benefit of Ellis and Co. In October, 1830, a letter
was received from the defendant [letter read], to the
effect that the plaintiffs were to put together an engine
for him. Defendant found the materials, and the plain-
tiffs were only to charge for the workmanship.
Evidence having been tendered on the part of plaintiffs,
Mr. Sergeant Wilkins addressed the jury for the defen-
dant, alleging that the plaintiffs had broken the contract
in several ways. The engine was to be of 10-horse power,
but turned out not to be so. The plaintiffs had also
broken their contract by not completing the engine in the
stipulated time.
The learned counsel called, amongst other witnesses,
Captain Fitzmaurice, who stated, amongst other things,
that the engine, instead of being ten-horse power, had
scarcely a donkey power. (Laughter.)
The jury returned a verdict for the defendant.
CURIOUS BREACH OF PROMISE CASE.—ALEXANDER V.

SYDDALL.

AN USUCCESSFUL TRIP TO GRETNA GREEN.

This was an action brought by the plaintiff against the
defendant for a breach of promise of marriage. The
damages were laid at £3OO.
Mr. Monk appeared for the plaintiff, and Mr. Sergeant
Wilkins for the defendant.

The opening statement of the learned counsel for the
plaintiff caused considerable amusement in court. It
appeared that the plaintiff was a domestic servant in the
family of the defendant, a young man who resided with
his parents at Manchester. An attachment was formed
between the parties, but in consequence of an objection to
the marriage, on the part of the defendant's family, being
suspected, the plaintiff and defendant eloped, and set out
for Gretna Green for the purpose of having the marriage
ceremony performed by the well-known functionary
in that locality. The ceremony, however, was not per-
formed. for reasons which would appear, and the par-
ties returned, and ultimately came to Liverpool, where
they took lodgings in Commutation-row, at the commer-
cial boarding-house of Mr. O'Connell. They resided
there for six weeks, during which time t'ie defendant
wrote to the plaintiff's mother, telling her that they were
lawfully married, and that she was his lawful wife.
Shortly after this time the plaintiff gave birth to a child,
and since that time the defendant had refused to fulfil his
promise of marriage.
Witnesses were then called in support of the plaintiff's
case, and several of the defendant's letters to plaintiff were
put in and read.

Amongst the witnesses examined was the plaintiff her-
self. She detailed the circumstances connecta with the
elopement to Gretna in company with the defendant.
When they set out to Gretna-green it was for the
purpose of getting married there. On their arrival
there they found out the old parson, but they could not find
the chapel, and consequently she (plaintiff) refused to
be married there. The " parson " was pointed out to
them, and they had some talk with him. He kept the
toll-bar close to. (Laughter.) On telling him their
errand, he told them that he was the party they wanted,
and then they asked about the chapel; he told them that
there being no chapel was of no consequence, as it did
not matter where he married them. He had married
hundreds at the houses in the neighbourhood. (Laughter.)
On leaving Gretna, witness and the defendant stopped,
on their return, at Carlisle, where they slept together
that night. They afterwards returned to Liverpool, where
they lived together as husband and wife.
Mr. Sergeant Wilkins addressed the jury for the
defendant, which frequently elicited roars of laughter;
after which, his lordship summed up the evidence.
Ultimately a verdict was returned for the plaintiff,
damages, £5O.
The court rose a few minutes after six o'clock.
THE CAUSE LIST.

The common jury cases in the Salford list were finished
last night, and the West Derby list will commence this
morning. It is not expected that any of the special jury
cases in either list will be taken before Friday or Saturday.
There are six in the Salford fist and nine in the West
Derby list.

A MAN SUFFOCATED IN FLOtill.—On Saturday, a man
named Bead. employed at the steam flour-mills, Messrs.
White and Ponsford's, in Upper Thames-street, London,
while :shovelling flour through an aperture to a lower
room, was precipitated through the aperture into a heap
of flour, amounting to about 100 sacks, and before he
could he could be got out he was suffocated.
LALTNCH OF HER MAJESTY'S SHIP " ST. JEAN
D'ACRE."— On Wednesday afternoon this magnificent
ship was launched from the dockyard at Davenport, in
presence of Admiral Sir John A. Ommanney, Comman-
der-in-Chief ; General Sir Harry Smith, the Gommander-
in-Chief of the western district, and a vast concourse of
other spectators. Shortly before four o'clock, all being
ready, the shipwrights knocked away the shores, and left
the noble vessel resting securely on her keel. At the
stem of the ship there hung suspended a bottle of wine,
adorned with flowers, and it was with this wine the cere-
mony of christening was performed by Miss Ommanney.
As soon as the dog-shores were knocked away, she
glided out of the slip amid the shouts of the spectators.
The length of the vessel from forepart of figure-head to
afterpart of taffrail is 273 feet. The burden, according'_
to old measurement, is 3,200 tons ; and, according to
new measurement, 2,048. The engine is a GOO, horse,-
power.

Tuesday, March 22, 1853.

Charles Lane, Hastings,gussex, plumber.
James Rogerson Hunt, Great Marlow, Bucks, tailor.
Robert Bond, Mitre-court, Hatton-garden, wine merchant.
James Horder, late of Wimborne, Dorset. market gardener.
Thomas Ballard, Southwick-place, Paddington, apothecary.
Thomas Thorne, jun., Hastings, Sussex. plasterer.
Henry Butt, Mortimer-street, Cavendish -square, linendraper.
George Augustus Fades, Portsca, grocer.
John Hogben Rolfe, Faversham, Kent, hosier.
Richard Henry Davie, Wellington,Somerset,money scrivener.
PARTNERSHIPS DISSOLVED.-J. Brereton and J. T. Hardie;
Manchester, carvers and gilders—Wilson and Harrop, man!
chester, woolltn merchants—Derrington, Museley, and Chad-
wick, Manchester, patentees of imp:ovements in cocks; as