BREACH OF PROMISE CASES

Temuka Leader, Issue 2372, 21 June 1892, Page 4

BREACH OF PROMISE CASES

In tbe Queen’s Bench Division on March before Mr Justice Mathew and .1, common jury, the case of Oliver v. Warren was ti'icd.. It was an action for breach of promise of marriage. The lefondant denied the promise.

Miss Oliver, si rather stout lady of fair complexion, said she lived in Wellington road, St. d ohn’s Wood, find had private moans and a house of her own. The lefendaut called upon her and said that, chough ho was very comfortable at home, it was not like having a partner. He said ho had a nice home, and asker her to share it with him. He invited her to his nousii, ami introduced Iter to his sou amt daughter. When she said she would like to go to America, h« said, “ You shall go, but you will be Mrs Warruii bcfbj'e then, and that will be our honeymoon time.” -ihe went to the Adelphi with him to The English liosso. When she spoke of hicoolness, he said •* _S«)>s«iisc ; it is only fancy.” Did ho ever kiss you ?—Ho settled the promise with a kiss. Examination continued : She went to :ee defendant’s present, wife, before they were married, to tell her how she hul been treated, thinking he might treat her in the same way, or worse. Dross-examined by Mr Dodd : I never drived any letters from defendant, hut [ wrote to h'nt once when I was in the country. He did not reply. When he made the promise he' did not go down on his knees I —No. Perhaps they drop that kind of thing nowadays '!—He was very affectionate. — He had been having some brandy and water !He is a teetotaller; he had milling but coffee. Then what happened after the coffee ? ie said he was going to America in the mring, and I said I should like to go. He sad ;—“ You will he Mrs Warren before then, and it will bo our honeymoon, dear.” What did you say ’! I said I was perfectly willing. To go to America !—Ho ; certainly not. —(Laughter.) You were willing to go for the sake of the gentlemen !■ No; fur the sake of being married.—(Laughter.) When marriage was talked of in the ■uvsenco of others it was all in chaff!— Some of it was.

The 1 Kidding IJie defendant gave to yon was a very .substantia) present —was there anything beyond that .Ho had my watch repaired.—(Laughter.) He never gave me any money or trinkets. Re-examined : When he said he was very comfortable at homo was that before or after his second marriage ?—Oh, before —(Laughter.) Mr Wright said the defendant observed to him u Miss Oliver is a jolly woman. ’’ He added : I am very comfortable with 11 y children at home, but I want a partner, i'e replied ; “ The best thing yon could lo is to take a partner, and I think Miss Oliver would make a very good wife.” Cross-examined : Did ho say “ Hem ”? —Oh, yes ;or something of that kind.— (Laughter.)

The jury, after a brief deliberation in the box, found a verdict for the plaintiff for £75.

Elizabeth Adams sued Enoch Ireland, a farmer at the County Hall, Oxford, for breach of promise of marriage. According to the plaintiff's story, she became acquainted with the defendant last August, and it was arranged that they should be married at Michaelmas. She proposed to be married in heliotrope, but the defendant said “ she always looked so nice in grey,” and she purchased a dress of that colour. On the 6th September the defendant wrote that ho was fairly put out, as his people said that he was not to get into a family that was consumptive, as it was said their wives died and left them with a family of children, and they were a world of expense and trouble. He subsequently wrote that “ the old man had made his will to his sorrow,” and the plaintiff could have back the things she had given him. The jury awarded £25 damages, on hearing which the defendant said she should not have the worth of his pipe.

FEMALE EDUCATION,

A good education is now pre-eminently necessary. 1 do not merely mean Ihe history, geography, &c., one learns while at school, but a good, sound, all-round, substantial training of the faculties. There never was surely a more erroneous fallacy than 1 hat of supposing that one’s education finishes on leaving school. Our education is never finished; there is (or ought to be) always something yet to bo learnt. One is often learning most when one finds out how little one really does know. Girls at school nowadays have inestimable privileges compared with what their fathers and mothers (not to speak of grandmothers) had before them. If they would only seriously realise these advantages and make the most of their school days, what a boon it would be to themselves and others. In these nineteenth century days of higher education and technical school teaching, not to mention cookery, our girls ought to make excellent mistresses and housewives. Will a girl cook a chop a bit the worse because she knows political economy, Euclid, or science ! Not at all, provided she has learnt how to cook first. Two of the most important tilings girls can learn are sewing and cooking. Ignorant people will tell ns composedly that anyone can sew or cook. Now we know to our cost that anyone cannot sew or cook ! Anyone can cobble and spoil, if you like, but I contend that good cooking and sewing are only learnt by practice and example. What sort of housewives would our girls have made if the famous Salisbury Government had not insisted on these branches being taken up in board schools ? Free education is a great, an inconceivably great, boon when it includes two such branches as sewing and cooking. In Cottonopolis (which everybody will grant is a nineteenth century town) I was agreeably surprised to see the interest and pleasure the pupils took in their cookery lessons, though this is not to be wondered at when one catches a glimpse of the fair cookery instructresses and hears the skilful and kindly manner in which they bade their pupils dissect and manipulate the good things set before them. In Manchester the old saying: “ Providence sent meat, but the Devil sent cooks,” falls short of the mark. I wonder if there can be anything nobler (pardon my use of the word) and more practical than instructing the young idea in the first principles of the culinary arts. There should bo no more broken and wasted food, no more badly cooked moats, no disappointed mankind (for “ where is the man that can d < without dining '! ”) forced to seek comfort (!) in the publichouse with the advantages we women have nowadays. Nineteenth century education takes the proper stand when it looks after the practical training of girls and women. I think no more disgraceful thing exists than a woman vho goes in for “ higher education ” and yet cannot darn her father s so/iks or cook her brother’s dinner (I do not say husband’!?, for she doesn’t deserve such a commodity). Higher education, is good ; nothing blitter, but it must be combined with practical education, too. A woman is nothing if she is not practical. A “ kiss will not compensate a man for a badlycooked dinner, even if his wife is a “ BA.” ana has b/mn studying higher mathematics during ins .huaiups-s hours. No, we nineteenth century people ate practical, hardworking folk, this is an age of work, and the quality must be good and of sterling value, else the icsuit is failure. What we want is not only higher education for women and girts—that is necessary also —but, first and foremost, vyc wish our girls to be experienced housewives, and jn gYPVY sense man s “ better half.” A happy day is dawning in the annals of England, for surely at pi clearly d'UD sjjo s.co that if wc would do anything to raise Clin standard of comfort, as Malthns says, of the masses ami classes, it is with the mothers of the nation (to uuote Mra Marshall's words) that we .mist begin. A g-d. mother makes a good daughter. It is round domestic circle that opr women and girls will best develope those qualities (( which are excellent things in woman.” 0, woman, in our hours of case, Uncertain, co' T , and hard to please ; Whep p flip, and suffering ring the brow, A ministering ajtxgei Jiliojj ! When those at home have learnt to .appreciate and experience the result of their daughters’ practical education in the shape of better-cooked food, appetising, dishes, neatly-mended garments, then—and not till then—will female education be up to date. —Exchange.