Litchfield enquirer., 1838-09-13
LOVE AND MARRIAGE.

"A case has recently been tried in Rutland
Vt. in which Miss Munson recovered $1425
Of Mr.. Hastings for breach of marriage
contract. The curiosity of the thing is that
the Vermont Judge charged the Jury :" that
no explicit promise was necessary to bind
the parties to q marriage contract. but that
long continued attentions or intimacy with a
female was rs good evidence of intended mat
rinony as q special contract" The princi-
pie of the case undoubtedly is, that if Hast
ings did not promise he ought to haue done It !!
And SO the law holds him responsible for the
performance of his duty. Almost excel.
lent decision a most righteous Judge: COM
pared with whom Daniel would appear but q
common squire. We have no idea of a
young fellow dangling about q woman for q
year or two without being able to screw his
courage to the sticking point. and then going
off leaving his sweetheart half courted we
hate this everlasting nibble, and never bite;
this beating the bush and never starting the
game: this standing to the rack without
touching the corn; it is the crying sin of the
age. There is not one girl in twenty can tell
whether she is courted or not.
No wonder that when Betty Shippers cous-
in asked her if Billy Doubtful was counting
her, answered: 81 don't know 'xackly he's
sorter courtin' and sorter not courtin'." We
have no doubt but that this Hastings is one oil
these sorter not" fellows, and most heartily
do we rejoice, that the Judge has bro't him up
standing with $1425 verdict. The Judge
says, "that long continued attentions" or
"intimacy," is just as good as regular prom
ise. Now we do not know what would pass
for "intimacy," according to the laws OF
Vermont; but surprising "altentions'' to
consist in visiting girl twice week; and
estimate the time wasted by Miss Munson at
each visit to be worth dollar, which is dog
cheap, Mr.. Hastings has been making fool
Of himself fourteen years and some odd
weeks. This decision makes new era in
the law oflove, and we doubt not will tend to
the promotion Of matrimony and sound mo-
rality.--Utico Dem.
U,sirersality of Natuse.-After Europe has
changed her languages ten times, the terms
of the material revelation are unaltered.-
Does Africa jabber in thousand ruleless
languages? Does Asia forsake her venera-
BILE tongues? Is America, the modern Ba.
bel, forming q new race of languages, from
the refuse of the old families Nature
changes not here she owns no authority,
she suffers no provincialism in her univer-
sal speech. The larks now carol the same
song and in the same key as when Adam first
tuned his enraptured ear to catch the moral.
The owl first hoOted in b flat, and it still
loves the key, and screams through no other
octaves. In the same key has ever licked
the death watch; while all the three noted
chirps Of the cricket have ever been in B,
since Tuhal Cain first heard them in his
smithy. or the Israelites in their ash ovens.
Never has the buzz of the gnat risen above
the second A, nor that of the house fly's wing
sunk below the fret r.
Sound had at first the same connection
with color as it has now and the right angle
of life's incidence might as much produce
sound on the first turrets of Gains CITY, as il
is now said to do on one Of the pyramids-