REMARKABLE BREACH OF PROMISE CASE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1839, 12 January 1889, Page 3

REMARKABLE BREACH OF PROMISE CASE.

On November 29 Baron Huddleston and the special jury in the Queen’s Bench Division brought to a sensational termination the hearing o£ the aristocratic breach of promise and libel action of Wiedmann v. Walpole, in which the damages were laid at £IO,OOO. As far as the romantic and painful story has been developed on the fiirst day the more prominent details of the case were as follows The plaintiff, Miss Yalerie Wiedmann, is a German by_ birth, and the daughter of a Silesian pastor. She is a tall, rather slim-built lady, aged about three or four and thirty, although the trouble and bitterness of the last six years have doubtless unduly aged her appearance. She is decidedly foreign in her looks, sharp featured, and dark haired. She could hardly be said to be a beautiful woman, but bore indisputable traces of having been distinguished looking and attractive in happier days. Her manner was engaging, but her conversational powers were marred by the very imperfect grasp she has of the English language. She was dressed in brown satin, with a tulle-draped toque hat to correspond, her style being distinctivelpsuggestively suggestive of the Eastern life which brought her the introduction to the defendant. She fidgetted nervously with her black kid gloves while she gave evidence, and pulled at a long brown ribbon which, in her agitation, she had probably torn from her costume. The defendant is the Hon. Robert Horace Walpole, heir-presumptive to the Earl of Oxford, a nobleman 75 years of age, whose surviving issue consists of an only daughter, married to a Spanish grandee. Robert Horace is a nephew of the present earl. He is 34 years of age, has been in the navy and a captain of militia, and is reputed to be extremely well off, notwithstanding the anxiety of his mother that he should marry a rich girl. He is, of course, a descendant of the famous Sir Robert Walpole, and the even more famous Horace, the statesman and the letter writer of the last century. It appears that in 1882 the Hon. Robert Horace Walpole was engaged in some service in Bulgaria, at the end of September he found himself at the Hotel de I’Angleterre, fOonstantinople,where Miss Wiedmann was staying. He fell violently in love ; with her, according to her story, and seduced her under circumstances which the judge said would constitute an assault if true as detailed by the weeping plaintiff. It was then that the alleged promise of marriage was iWe. Shortly after, however, the defendant gave the plaintiff the slip by putting her on a'vessel for Cannes and failing to turn up himself in time to catch the boat. Then it was alleged he sent after her a private inquiry agent under the assumed name of Captain Darlington, who led her a lively dance over the Continent to keep her out of the way of her lover, and it was insinuated in cross-examin-ation that The importuned the plaintiff , and attempted to do her wrong. This however, he emphatically denied, pointing out that it was impossible in such a big hotel as the Paris Hotel, . in the French capital. So the matter stood when Miss Wiedmann entered the box on November 29 to submit to further cross-examination by the Solicitorgeneral (Sir Edward Post cards were now produced which the . plaintiff admitted sending. The judge read one as a specimen:— «Ton know that I curse you from the bottom of my] heart, and I shall do so to all eternity for the endless suffering you have brought to me, and also you run away whenever I come. I shall meet you once, and you shall hear my curse. Every minute of my life I curse you with the most fwjjjgtie curses ever human being has pronounced, and I will leave you no rest, horrible man.” Sir E. Clarke wanted to know if she did not know that Mr Walpole was

recently married when she sent those postcards, and in her "broken words, with a laugh which was painfully like the opposite emotion, she answered, “ I do not consider him married at all; it is no question to ask me.” The plaintiff’s volubility and inability to understand the procedure of the counsel caused some irritation to manifest itself early in the demeanour of the judge, whom she interrupted over and over again, drowning by her excited declamation his more quiet and graver tones. Again and again the plaintiff refused to answer any questions regarding the child, though threatened with committal for contempt of court. “No human being (she said) had a right to put such questions after six years had elapsed, and no 'gentleman would put them,” she shouted to Sir Edward Clarke. “ You refuse to answer, then ? ” said the judge. “ Entirely.” said the plaintiff, with a stamp of her foot, at the same time giving additional emphasis to her resolution by bringing her hand down heavily on the rail of the witness box.. An interview took place between the plaintiff and her counsel when she announced her intention of adhering to her former decision. Mr Cook informed the judge that if he insisted on the questions the plaintiff would retire from the case.

“The questions have nothing to do with the case, and I complain of breach of promise of marriage,” here put in the plaintiff from her place in the Queen’s counsels’ seats. Without more ado the judge directed the jury to find a verdict for the defendant, and the jury immediately obeyed. Sir Edward Clarke had a word or two to say before the case was entirely dismissed from the judge’s mind, and that was that he was extremely anxious that the case should have ieen tried out completely. He bad 30th Mr and Mrs Walpole in court to give evidence. The judge ordered all the letters and photographs in the case to be impounded, presumably in view of some further. proceedings, and then left the court to cool down before going on with the next case on the lists. [We have since learned by cable that Miss Wiedemahn was successful, and obtained, heavy damages.]