EXTRAORDINARY SCENE AT A MARRIAGE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1051, 6 January 1883, Page 3

EXTRAORDINARY SCENE AT A MARRIAGE.

At Sheffield recently a most extraordinary marriage took place at the Parish Churcii. Mr E. Knowles Binns. a Slmffield solicitor, mid a member of the Town Council, has for six weeks paid his addresses to !i Mrs Miinos, a widow living" at Tunbridge Wells, who has a fortune of i‘lß,ooo. The parties became acquainted by means of the Mafrimoni.il News, in which paper Mrs Milnes advertised her wish to be married. Mr Binns sought an interview which was rudely interrupted by Mr Frederick Liehurht, bro'her of the lady, who was greatly opposed to the match—so much so that on one occasion he went the length, according to his own slaternenet of kicking Mr Binns out of his sister’s house, and informing him afterwards by letter that his sister was not in a fit state to be married, and had at one time been confined in an asylum. The couple, however, were determined to be married, and, unknown to her brother, Mrs Milnes left a convent at Folkestone, to where she had retired, and came to Sheffield. An attempt to be married at the Roman Catholic Church, Norfolk Row, Sheffield, failed, and then an apple ation was made to the Yicar of Sheffield, who, having no option in (he matter, granted a license and himself performed the ceremony. The affair got abroad, and a crowd collected, who. were kept, in order by about a dozen constables. Mrs Milnes, accompanied by Mr Spowart, who officiated as beat man. reached the church at half-past nine o’clock. Before she cou'd enter, her brother rushed forward and seized her by the waist to draw her back but the lady quietly motioned him away, and the police also interfered. The brother, accompanied by his solicitor proceeded to the church, and the ceremony was commenced in the presence of Inlf-a-dozen policemen, and other persons. When the time came for objections, Mr Lieburht, who was greatly agitated, stepped forward and said, ‘ 1 object,’ adding in a low tone, that the lady was suffering from disease which unfitted her for marriage. Canon Blackeney, after a brief consultation wi'h Mr Liehurht’s solicitor and Mrs Milnes’s, and after asking both parfies if they insisted on being married, and receiving a reply in the affirmative, said that it. placed him in a very awkward predicament. He was afraid he must go on with the service * I insist on your going on,’ said Mr Binns, and the brother, who was weeping bitterly, fell back, saying piteously, ‘ Well, sir, of course you must do your duty as a clergyman of the Church of England, and if you cannot help me to save my sister you cannot,’ Mr Lieburht remained in the chancel, turning his back on the couple. and sobbing violently against a pillar. The rest of the service was then proceeded with, and the bride and the bridegroom having signed the registor, left the building, followed by a crowd largely composed of females, some of whom were declaring the whole proceedings a disgrace and a shame. The honeymoon is to be spent in Paris and London.