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MISS TURNER'S CASE. (b)-SESSION 1827.

Abduction and fraudulent Marriage of a young Lady.-Conviction of Conspirators. Bill brought in by Father of the Lady, to dissolve the pretended Marriage.-Passed without previous Sentence of the Ecclesiastical Courts.

A GIRL fifteen years old, the only child of a family distinguished as well for its high respectability as its ample fortune, was inveigled from the boarding-school where she was residing, by a man above twice her age, and hacknied in the ways and arts of the world; aided by his brother and a foreign servant. She was first told that her mother was dying, and then that her father was bankrupt,—a tale to which she lent credence the more readily, because, by a singular and most unhappy coincidence, the failure of a companion's father immediately before, and the jocular remark of her own father who chanced then to want a few pounds in settling the school bills, that he believed he must fail too,-recurred to her mind when the story of the bankruptcy was told her, and gave an appearance of truth to all the monstrous fictions afterwards employed for her deception. It was then disclosed to her that no escape for her parent remained but by her marrying the conspirator, and thus obtaining a power over the estates. Her father was represented as flying from the house; his house as shut up, and his property as about to be sold. As the journey, proceeded, new particulars were added. Upon reaching Carlisle, where she was to meet him, both the accomplices pretended to have found the father in an inn, surrounded by bailiffs. A message was delivered from him to hasten her resolution, and urge her immediate marriage as his only chance of release. This decided her. She went without further hesitation across the border; and in Scotland a marriage was celebrated, according to the outward forms, such as they are, which alone the Scotch law requires, to make the contract valid;-that is, both parties declared in the presence of a witness, that they took each other for husband and wife respectively. Immediately thereafter, and without consumma

(b) An intelligible account of the case of Miss Turner cannot be extracted from the Journals; and a report of the Trial of the Conspirators, published at the time, appears to have been bought up by those who had an interest in its

suppression, as not a single copy can be procured, although all the London booksellers have been applied to. The above account, therefore, is taken from the Edinburgh Review, vol. xlvii. p. 100.

tion, they returned to England; and on various new pretexts, the young lady was induced to accompany the conspirator to Calais, where, before any consummation had taken place, the family overtook and restored her to their own care, with a joy on her part only surpassed by the indignation and disgust she felt at the frauds that had been practised upon her.

Upon the conviction of the conspirators, a severe but just sentence of imprisonment was pronounced; and a bill being brought into Parliament () to dissolve the marriage, and to declare the pretended marriage void, it passed through all its stages in both Houses without a single dissentient voice, and received the royal assent.

There were who thought that the extreme remedy of legislative interference in a private case was only to be justified by the ordinary tribunals of the country having been resorted to, and found to afford no redress. Divorce bills by English parties have become frequent in modern times; but they always proceed upon the assumption, generally upon the recital, that the marriage cannot be dissolved by any proceeding known to the law. A Scotch marriage, on the other hand, is never dissolved by such a bill, because the party complaining may have his divorce in the Consistorial Courts of Scotland. An English marriage, being by law indissoluble, is alone the ground of an English Divorce Bill; because the general law is defective, and the just and proper remedy can only be administered by making a special law for the occasion. But according to all principles, the divorce bill in the present case was contended to be premature. It might be rendered necessary in the event of the court affording no redress; but to begin by assuming that prospect to be hopeless, and to make a new law for the particular case, without trying whether or not the general law of the land reached it, was by some very high legal authorities regarded as a precipitate and ill considered act of legislation. The highly respectable opinion of Lord Eldon was, whether by his authority or not we are unable to say, cited in favour of this view of the matter. But when the bill was introduced, and the evidence heard by the Lords, no opposition was offered. Men seemed to act upon the strong and very natural feelings of indignation excited by the atrocious conduct of the conspirators, and to give the benefit to the much injured party of that despatch which could only be obtained from a legislative provision, and which in such a case was peculiarly desirable.

(1) The application to Parliament was in the name of Miss Turner's father, she being under age.

MR. GRAHAM'S CASE.-SESSION 1827.

Justifiable Separation.-Subsequent adultery.—Bill passed.

THE petitioner was a portrait-painter in London, and in 1817 proceeded with his wife to Bombay, where they remained till 1820, and then returned to England.

Soon after their arrival in this country, the petitioner received information from a friend in India that it was publicly reported at Bombay, that the conduct of his wife, when there, had been extremely licentious, and that she had committed adultery with a Lieutenant Forbes. The petitioner was induced, by this communication, immediately to separate from his wife; informing her that he should cease to cohabit with her until the truth or falsehood of the account from India should be ascertained; but before any certain intelligence was obtained, Lieutenant Forbes died. However, in the month of April, 1823, Mrs. Graham commenced a criminal intercourse with a person named Wrigley, a purser in the navy, against whom an action of damages was brought by Mr. Graham, who obtained judgment; the Jury, however, awarding only nominal damages. The evidence of adultery was complete, and as the circumstances appeared sufficient to justify the separation, the bill passed.

MR. TYRELL'S CASE.-SESSION 1829.

Inquiry and proof as to steps taken for recovering Damages and Costs from Adulterer.-Wife having brought a large Fortune, the House declared that she must not be left destitute.-Question as to Provision for her.-Postponed for private arrangement, which being effected and reported, Bill passed. A WITNESS was called in and examined by counsel :—

Q. Do you produce an examined copy of the judgment in the action between John Tyssen Tyrell, and John Humphrey St. Aubyn? -A. I do.

Q. Do you produce that from the Treasury of the Court of Common Pleas ?-A. Yes.

Q. Have you examined that with the Judgment Roll?-A. I have. The same was delivered in and read; being an office copy of the record of a judgment in the Court of Common Pleas, Michaelmas Term, in the 8th Geo. IV., in an action by Mr. Tyrell against the

Rev. John Humphrey St. Aubyn, for criminal conversation with Elizabeth Anne, wife of the said John Tyssen Tyrrell, for 15007. besides costs of suit.

Q. Do you produce an examined copy from the proper office of a testatum brevium, and a fieri facias into Middlesex ?-A. I do.

Q. Is there a return of nulla bona upon that ?-A. There is. Q. Do you produce a like copy of a writ of testatum fieri facias into Cornwall?-A. I do.

Q. What is the return?—A. The Sheriff returned that the within-named John Humphrey St. Aubyn had no goods or chattels, or any lay fee in his bailiwick, whereof he could cause to be made the damages within mentioned, or any part thereof, as within commanded; and he also certified that the said John Humphrey St. Aubyn is a beneficed clerk; to wit, vicar of the vicarage and parish of Crowan, otherwise Unicrowan, in that county, the vicarage and parish church being within the diocese of the Bishop of Exeter.

Q. Do you also produce an examined copy of a writ of levari de bonis ecclesiasticis addressed to the Bishop of Exeter?-A. I do.

Q. What was the return upon that?-A. That the within-named John Humphrey St. Aubyn had not any ecclesiastical goods in that diocese, whereof he could cause to be levied the damages withinnamed, or any part thereof.

Q. The defendant had in the mean time resigned his living?A. So we understood.

Q. Do you remember at what date the Judgment was signed?— A. It was signed on the 2nd May, 1828.

Q. After that did you make any inquiry after the defendant for the purpose of taking out execution against his person ?-A. I did. Q. At what date was that?-A. On the 27th May.

Q. Where did you inquire for him?-A. At No. 6, Arundelstreet, in the Strand.

Q. Had that lately been his place of residence?-A. I understood it had.

Q. What was the result of your inquiry there?-A. They informed me that he had left that place three weeks or a month previously for Calais.

The witness was directed to withdraw. Then another witness was called in and examined as follows:

(By Counsel.)-Q. You are solicitor for Colonel Tyrell?-A. I am. Q. Have you had an interview with Mr. St. Aubyn since these proceedings commenced?-A. I have.

Q. Where did that interview take place?—A. At Boulogne on the 2nd of October last.

Q. You found him residing at Boulogne?-A. I did.

Q. Had you a personal interview with him?—A. Yes.

Q. What passed?-A. I demanded the damages and costs. Q. What was the amount which you so demanded of him?— A. 17837. I think.

Q. Had you known the person of Mr. St. Aubyn previously?— A. I had seen him with Mrs. Tyrell at Chelmsford.

After the case presented by the bill had been fully proved, Mr. Adam, of counsel for the petitioner, stated that he did not feel it to be necessary to trouble their Lordships with further evidence, but that the petitioner was in attendance, in case their Lordships should wish to propose any questions to him.

Mr. Reynolds, of counsel for Mrs. Tyrrell, stated that having been instructed to watch the proof adduced in support of the bill, he felt that he could not call upon their Lordships, consistently with the rules by which they were guided in the consideration of bills of this nature, to require further proof; but that he trusted he might represent to the House that if this bill passed, Mrs. Tyrrell, after having brought a large fortune (45,000l.) to her husband, would be left destitute.

The counsel were informed that it appeared desirable that the consideration of that matter be postponed till it should be seen what could be done by arrangement with the petitioner ;-that considering the fortune of the lady, she ought not to be left destitute.

The counsel for the petitioner assured their Lordships that there was every disposition on the part of the petitioner to do that which, as a gentleman, he ought to do; but that he felt quite indisposed to support Mrs. Tyrell in a course of adultery.

The counsel were informed that the case might stand over for a few days, with a view to an arrangement, which was soon afterwards effected, and reported to the House; upon which the bill proceeded, and ultimately passed into law.

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