BREACHES OF PROMISE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 410, 25 February 1870, Page 3 (Supplement)

BREACHES OF PROMISE.

There is one class of cases, says a contemporary, tried in our courts of law which excites alike tho ridioule of the bar and tha oontempt of the publio. These are cases of breach of promise of marriage. The counsel engaged make pathetio and flowery speeches and a sympathetic jury very often gives the plaintiff heavy damages. Popular feeling ontside the court is in the majority of oases with the plaintiff; but how utterly false it is oan easily be shown. In tha first place a woman brings an action for breach of promise ef marriage beoauße a man having promised to marry her finds after knowing hor better that he cannot perform his part of the contract faithfully. Whoa this is tho case we cannot conceive a woman having any other feelings than those of relief. No soman with any self-respect could wish a man to marry her against his will. The kindest thing a man can do to a woman when he haa oeased to love hor is to toll her so, and not to lead her to tho altar with a lio upon his lips. And yet if an action for breach of promise of marriage means anything, this is precisely what it means on the part of the female : that the man having once promisod to make her his wife, must fulfil that promise, no matter to what extent his feelings towards her may have changod. Some of our novelists have done much to foster the idea that there is something very terrible in being jilted, but most of the marriages which turn out unhappily, spring from this after-repentance on the part either of man or wife. In cases of breaoh of promise women generally ask for damages, and it may well be asked what are these damages for ? Are the jury supposed to be able to assess outraged feelings, to put a price npon a broken heart ? How is it possible to gauge a young woman's love. Indeed wo must avow our opinion that there is something infinitely degrading in a woman thus coming forward and demanding a price for her love. Thera are cases wherein damages may be sought by a girl's parents— ca3es in which they have been put to heavy expenses, or where tho woman has given up a lucrative situation or business. It is reasonable to expect damages in such cases, and they are capable of easy assessment, bnt damages for an injured heart aro a disgrace to the woman who obtains them. No woman who respected herself could drag before a public tribunal the man whom she onco professed to love and compel him to remunerate her by paying heavy damages for sparing her an existence of misery as hia wife.