336 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



objectwasjto release an unfortunate 

 woman from hands which could 

 now only ill-treat her, and restore 

 her to the protection and fondness 

 of a father, who had consented to 

 this disadvantageous match merely 

 as a forlorn hope, to recover the 

 lost mind of his daughter, and 

 now was only anxious to have the 

 power of protectingand cherishing 

 her. 



Afterthecasehad closed onboth 

 sides, lord Ellenborough recapitu- 

 lated the evidence. The issue 

 which the Lord Chancellor had di- 

 rected to be tried was, whether 

 Sarah Ann Daniels was of com- 

 petent mind on the 8th of April. 

 It was recognized by the wisest 

 principles of law, that the acts of 

 a lunatic, done in the lucid inter- 

 vals of his disorder, were valid. 

 Particularity of conduct could not 

 defeat those rights, so sacred in 

 the eye of the law. There was 

 the late case of a noble lord, who 

 distinguished himself by the most 

 eccentric oddities, sitting during 

 the day in a woman's old red cloak 

 in a window, having a particular 

 dish every night for supper, and 

 other deviations from the usual 

 manner of society. But those 

 would not invalidate the precious 

 rights secured by the laws. Miss 

 Daniels, doubtless must have re- 

 tained the vestiges of her disorder. 

 Madness left its deep impression 

 on the countenance: there was the 

 wandering of the eyes, the paleness, 

 the wild and melancholy look, 

 even when the mind had shaken oft" 

 .the weight of its last and direst 

 calamity. There could be no 

 feeling for the defendant ; his case 

 was as weight}' and as dark as ever 

 came before the court. He had 

 but an election of crimes. He had 

 entered into a foul and infamous 



conspiracy with the aunt, to do an 

 act which drew down the heaviest 

 vengeance of the insulted laws, 

 to violate the order which com- 

 mands that marriage should not 

 be contracted where this dread- 

 ful disease of the mind stood to 

 prohibit its celebration; or he was 

 guilty of the still more foul and in- 

 famous crime of conspiring with 

 that woman to break down a law- 

 ful marriage; to tear a wife from 

 her husband, to make her marriage 

 an illegitimate rite, and her chil- 

 dren bastards before the world. He 

 defied the genius of man to find 

 out any other than the miserable 

 option of one of those great of- 

 fences against feeling, against so- 

 ciety, against law, and against re- 

 ligion. 



The jury, after a short consul- 

 tation, found a verdict for the 

 plaintifl". 



Court of King's Bench. — Millis 

 v. Fluiver. — Mr. Parlce, who ad- 

 dressed the court, stated this to be 

 an action for a breach of promise 

 of marriage. 



He said, the plaintiff"inthiscase, 

 a woman about forty years of age, 

 is the daughter of a respectable 

 ribbon manufacturer residing at 

 Coventry ; the defendant is also 

 a ribbon manufacturer at Co- 

 ventry, and a wholesale dealer 

 in Gutter-lane, Cheapside. The 

 present action was brought to 

 recover a compensation in da- 

 mages. The circumstances which 

 appeared in evidence were short- 

 ly these : — In the summer of 

 ISOi, the defendant, who is a 

 methodist, being in bad health, 

 went for change of air to the 

 house of a friend at Coventry ; 

 whilst there he had the misfor- 

 tune to fall from his horse, by 

 which acciden4 his shoulder was 



