The Press. — 1857-06-27 (London, England)

CAIN. CoN., brought by a solicitor, Mr. Armitage, against the Hon. Colonel Macdonald, was tried at the Court of Common Pleas on Monday. The damages were laid at 5001., and the case was simply this. Mr. Armitage married his wife in October, 1847, and in March, 1848, the young lady left her husband, and declared " she would rather die first" than live with him or allow him the privileges of his position. For two years they corresponded in the most affectionate tone, but she steadfastly refused to live with him. In 1850 she suddenly disappeared, and could neither be found by friends or husband. One night Mr. Armitage saw her in a theatre in London : Mr. Armitage was in the theatre, and he went to the box she was in, and he called the gentleman out of the box, and the gentleman assured him that the meeting was purely accidental. Mr. Armitage said to the gentleman, " Are you aware that that lady is my wife ?" and the gentleman said he was not. Mr. Armitage demanded his address, and the gentleman gave a card with the name of Mr. Lloyd engraved on it. Mr. Armitage demanded the address, and the gentleman wrote in pencil, " Palacechambers, St. James's-street." During the conversation the lady escaped altogether, and Mr. Armitage could find no trace of her. He found she had left in a cab with an elderly gentleman. He gave the waterman some money to find the cabman and send him to me. We found the cabman who had taken her to Lord Aberdeen's house in Argyle-street, and she went in at one gate and out at the other. Lord Aberdeen's porter told me so. I insisted on seeing Colonel Gordon, and having the whole matter in qnired into. In my own mind I acquitted the earl. In July, '5l, it was discovered that she was living in Gloucester•place, Hyde park, and was on terms of great intimacy with Colonel Macdonald. Several witnesses were called to prove that she never went less than twice a week to the colonel's chambers in the Albany, f om four p.m. to six and eight p.m., and remained there three or four hours. In 1852 the lady changed her lodgings to Hill-street, Knightsbridge, and Colonel Macdonald was a frequent visitor. Two or three "cousins" also came to see her frequently. The identity of the persons beingiproved, Serg. Shee for the defence maintained that no injury was inflicted upon Mr. Armitage, as it was impossible to prove on the part of the defendant knowledge of the previous marr►age of Mrs. Armitage. The jury returned a verdict for Mr. Armitage, with 1001. damages. ESSEX has been the scene of two horrible murders this week. At Chingford Hatch, near Woodford, on Sunday last, the farmhouse of a gentleman, Mr. Small, while the family were at church, was entered, robbed, and the old housekeeper, seventy-two years of age, most brutally murdered. The murderer was tracked to the railway station, but there all trace of him was lost. The police are out in every direction, and it is to be hoped that before long the villain will be hunted down. In the other case, the police were more fortunate. Michael Crawley, an Irish labourer, living at Stratford, upon his wife refusing to give him Is. (id. to spend in drink, deliberately beat out her brains with a billhook. The poor woman, when found a few minutes afterwards, was still breathing, and lingered some hours. The villain has chopped at ber in seventeen different places, He was ar