CURIOUS BREACH OF PROMISE CASE.

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume II, Issue 120, 14 May 1880, Page 1 (Supplement)

CURIOUS BREACH OF PROMISE CASE.

At the Manchester Assizes, before Lord Justice Brett aud a common jury l the case of ‘Howarthv. Duckworth,’was heard. The plaintiff brought an action against the defendant to recover damages for breach of promise of marrage,—Air. Addison, in opening the case for the plaintiff, said that defendant had left her aud married some one else after an engagement of seven years, known to every one in the neighbourhood. She was a dressmaker and he a butcher, aud they had been acquainted from the time they were children. In 1572 he asked leave from her and her parents to keep company with her, and obtained it and from that time until the end of 187 S they continued engaged, aud he was constantly at her parents’ house, and took her out to Sunday-school parties and entertainments of that sort. In December, 1878, however lie married a Aliss Hoyle, and so the plaintiff now brought an action for damages.—The plaintiff gave evidence in support of this case, and in cross-examination by Air. Shoe (for the defendant) she admitted that she never had any engagement ring, and that the defendant never gave her any presents; hut denied that she had asked him to marry her, and that he had refused to promise to do so. —Air. Shoe, on behalf of the defendant, said that there never was any promice to marry, and the defendant, in his evidence, said he was only keeping company with her, and had not made up his mind to marry her; it was his intention in beginning to keep company with her to he engaged to her some day, but it took some people a long time to make up their minds, and he was one of them. He also said that the only time marriage was mentioned between them was, when the plaintiff said to him one night, ‘ It’s time like we were going to be married if we intend to lie ; we shall be old people if we go on like this,’ and that he said she would have to alter her ways very much before he married her.—His Lordship having summed up, the jury found for the plaintiff—damages £75.

. RUSSIAN INTRIGUES AT CABUL. i - THE EX-AMEER’S STATEMENT. A Blue Book containing correspondence and telegrams relative to the affairs of Afghanistan, dating from -July 2nd, 1879, to Dec. 31st was issued a- few days ago. A despatch from Simla, Sept, loth, supplies details of the catastrophe at Cabul on the 3rd of that month, when the British Embassy was attacked ; it also contains a statement of the considerations which guided the Government of India in the adoption of immediate measures for inflicting prompt retribution on the perpetrators of outrage. First in importance, howcvrr, is the copy of a letter received by the Viceroy from Sir Frederick Roberts, reporting the substance of a conversation between the latter and the ex-Ameer Yalcoob Khan regarding the political events and transactions which preceded the negotiations between the Russian authorities at Tashkend and the late Ameer Sliere Ali Khan, and led to the Ameer’s eventual rupture with the British Government. General Roberts mentions-that, after some conversation upon matters of no special importance, the Ameer introduced his father’s name (Shore AM). Yakoob Khan spoke readily and freely of. all that had passed,’ and needed no question or suggestion from Sir Robert ‘ to declare his conviction regarding the cause of his father’s unfriendly attitude towards us (England) during the past few years.’ The Ameer’s statement is as follows: — ‘ln 1869 my father was fully prepared to throw in his lot with you. He had suffered a great many reverses before making himself secure on the throne of Afghanistan; and he had come : to the conclusion that liis best chance of holding what he had won lay in an alliance with the British Government. He did not receive from Lord Mayo as large a supply of arms and ammunition as he had hoped, but, nevertheless, lie returned to Cabul fairly satisfied, and so he remained until the visit of Nur Mahomed Shah to India in 1873. This visit brought matters to a head. The diaries received from Nur Mahomed Shah during his stay in India, and the report which he brought back on his return,- convinced my father that lie could no longer hope to obtain from the British Government all the aid that he wanted ; and from that time he began to turn his attention to the thoughts of a Russian alliance, You know how this ended. When my father received from the Government of India the letter informing him that a British Mission was about to proceed to Cabul, he read it out in Durbar. The Russian Embassy were all present. After the reading was finished, Colonel Stolietoff rose, saluted the Ameer, and asked permission to leave Cabul. If permitted he would, lie said, travel without delay to Tashkend, and report the state of affairs to- General Kauffman, who would inform the Czar, and thus bring pressure to bear on England. He promised to return in six weeks or two month.! and urge I tie Ameer to do everything in his power meanwhile to prevent the British mission from reaching Cabul. Colonel Stolietoff never returnedbo Cabul. He lost no time in reaching Tashkend, where he remained for a few weeks, and then he started for Russia. The Afghan official, Mirza Mahomed Hassan Khan, generally known as the Dabir-iil-Mulk, who had travelled with Colonel Stolietoff from the Oxus to Cabul, accompanied him on hi 3 return journey to Tashkend. Here the Mirza was detained under the pretence that orders would shortly be re- ' ceived from the Emperor, until the news of my father’s flight from Cabul reached General Kauffman. He was then permitted to leave. Two aides-de-camp were sent with him—one an European, the other a native of Bokhara. My father was strongly urged by General Kauffman not to leave Cabul. At the same time the members of the Embassy were ordered to return to Tashkend, the doctor being permitted to remain with my father if his services were required. Throughout, the Russian Embassy was treated with great honour, and at all stations between Mazir-i-Shariff and Cabul orders were given to the troops to turn out, and for a salute to be lired on their arrival : and departure.

THE (IROYTTH OF RUSSIAN INFLUENCE IN CABUL. General Roberts adds to the above : —‘The prevalence of Russian coin and wares in Cabul, and the extensive military preparations made by Shere Ali of late years, appear to me to afford an instructive comment upon Yakoob Khan’s assertions. Our recent rupture with Shere Ali has, in fact, been the means of unmasking and checking a very serious conspiracy against the peace and security of our Indian Empire. The magnitude of Shere Ali’s military preparations is, in my opinion, a fact of peculiar significance. Before the outbreak of hostilities last year the Ameer had raised and equipped with arms of precision 6S regiments of infantry and 1G of cavalry. The Afghan artillery amounted to near 300 guns. Numbers of skilled artisans were constantly employed in the manufacture of rilled cannon and breechloading small arms. More than a million pounds of powder and I believe seven million rounds of home-made Snider ammunition were in the Bala Ilissar at the time of the late explosion. Swords, helmets, uniforms, and other articles of military equipment were stored in proportionate quantities. Finally, Shere Ali had expended upon the construction of the Shirpur cantonments an astonishing amount of labour and money. The extent and cost of this work may be judged of from the fact that the whole of the troops under my command will find cover during the winter within the cantonment and its outlying buildings, and the bulk of them in the main line of rampart itself, which extends to a length of nearly two miles under the southern and western slopes of the Bema u hills. Shere Ali’s original design was apparently to carry the avail entirely round the hills, a distance of five mile 3, and the foundations were already laid for a considerable portion of this length. All these military preparations were quite unnecesaary except as a provision for contemplated hostilities with ourselves, and it is difficult to understand how their entire cost could have been met from the Afghan Treasury, the gross revenue of the country amounting only to about GO lacs of rupees per annum. I have referred to the prevalence of Russian coin and wares in Cabul as evidence of the growing connection between Russia and Afghanistan. I am unable to find proof that the Czar’s coin was introduced in any other way than by the usual channels of trade. It is quite possible that the bulk of it if not the whole, came in gradually by this means, the accumulation o£ foreign gold iu particular being considerable in this country, where little gold is coined. Nevertheless, it seems to me a curious fact that the amount of Russian money in circulation should be so large. No less than 13,000 gold pieces were found among the Ameer’s treasure alone ; similar coins are exceedingly common in the city bazaar, and great numbers of them are known to be in possession of the Sirdars. Of course English

goods of all kinds are plentiful here—that is inevitable, particularly with a considerable body of Hindoo merchants settled in the city, but Russian goods also abound. Glass, crockery, silks, tea, and many other things which would seem to be far more easily procurable from India than from Russian territory, are to he found in great quannitiesA habit, too, seems to have been growing up among the Sidors and others of wearing uniforms of Russian cut, Russian buttons, Russian ways seem, in fact, to have become the fashion in Afghanistan. ’